My 2026 focus areas and what I’m quitting in January

I’ve been thinking a lot about goals for the last couple of months, and this year instead of setting goals, I’m choosing areas of focus instead. These are broad and leave room for ideas as the year goes on, but I am starting out with a few specific ideas for each category.

Overcome the stronghold of food

Might as well get this vulnerable one out of the way right up front. For the last few years I’ve been on and off with Barb Raveling’s excellent books on overcoming emotional eating and the idol of food, but this year this is going to be my battlefield focus. I keep laying down my weapons of war (renewing my mind, staying within my food boundaries) and walking off the battlefield. I hope this year will be different. I’m already well into Freedom from Emotional Eating, have written out my boundaries, and have an accountability partner.

Run the Farmstand and Bakery well

Since this seems to be something the Lord has blessed us with doing, I want to do this well, which means being intentional and faithful with it. I want to watch sales close enough to know how much to bake each week so we sell out or have very little left over. (When we do have leftovers, we have given them away, so it’s definitely not wasted!) But being careful to make just enough will be a wise use of my time and resources. Of course, there’s not an exact science to it; some weekends are busier than others, but I still want to be careful of my resources and energy.

I also want to give 10% from the proceeds and especially want to continue to build relationships with my neighbors. I’ve been so encouraged to hear some of their stories, and pray right then and there with them. I also have note cards out for prayer requests and have had quite a few of them dropped in the cash box over last season. And, I will be sure to put out gospel tracts too. We are closed until April right now, but I am thinking through our opening weekend and what we’ll do to make it a big, fun event. I’ll keep you posted!

Blog about ordinary life

I want to get back to the basics of this blog, and blog about the ordinary things of life. Things like our garden, the Farmstand, what I’m learning in the Bible, reading and books, habits and traditions, all that sort of stuff from back when blogging was just recording life, not making workshops, classes, and all that sort of stuff. I want to take the pressure off, stop the Side Hustle Life, and just enjoy the ordinary things in ordinary life.

Serve others in love

I want to work on this in my home, with my family and extended family, friends, church and neighbors. Right now I hope to finish a photo book for my kids for Christmas, make freezer meals to be able to bless others with, have more people over for games or meals, give generously, and pray thoughtfully.

Be creative/create beauty

I am realizing that I often get stuck in a circle of productivity then laziness and guilt and then productivity again. The cycle continues over and over and I’m wondering if it is because I haven’t made it a habit to “clock off” with the things I’m needing to be productive with so I can enjoy the things that refresh my soul (sketching, doodling, water coloring, nature study) and create beauty (garden flowers for the house, sewing, crochet, etc.) I’d also like to revive some old crafts that I used to do and enjoy like embroidery. I suspect I don’t do these more because all the things I like to do have slowly been shoved aside by scrolling, or watching videos of other people do what I love and wish I could do that too. (More on this later.)

Continue my education

Right now, this will be finishing the Hillsdale Introduction to the Constitution class (I’m working on Lesson 5 this week). I’m also creating my 5×5 reading plan for this year (more on that in another post), and hope to take at least one other class before the year is up. I have set up a pretty neat journal that I’ll share more about in another post where I’ll be adding all the notes, ideas, etc for these focus areas.

and finally:

One thing I’m quitting this month

This month, I have vowed to quit watching YouTube*. Like I said above, I can watch ANYTHING I want to watch and if it’s anything I want to do, I can watch hours and hours of videos of other people doing that same thing and never do it myself. I can collect all this knowledge of different ways to do any of the things I’ve listed above, but never do them. So I’ve decided to quit watching YouTube this month and see what my mind comes up with instead.
*I will, however, watch our family favorite YouTubers or sermons–but only together with others, not by myself, not on my phone or computer. I will also use it for pomodoros in the morning, but that is more of a tool, not a distraction.

So that’s it! My focus areas and one thing I’m quitting for January. I’d love to hear what you are doing this year too!