January 2026 Recap

Bringing back the monthly recap, which I did so diligently every single month in 2025…. until October. 😩 Can I make it all 12 months in 2026??

Ah… January. It’s always such a LONG month here in WI. It was VERY COLD. 🥶 I was quite sick for part of it. It was a good month, within the parameters of our happy home, anyway. As for the rest of the world… sigh. I made so much progress on my goals! I went to a lot of swim meets. We left our Christmas decorations up far too long. We celebrated two belated Christmases. We watched a lot of play-off football!

I crave months like January, when we have fewer outside obligations and expectations. I NEED months like January.

You’ve seen how I, like I know many of you!, go all out on the holidays. They are not a minor blip on my radar. This year was extra nuts with three international trips mixed in between October- December. !!!!!!! This is not normal!! Typically, we don’t even travel once in the fall (or for Christmas).

It was all so wonderful and I made so many incredible memories. And also, I got very tired. And then sick. Ha. It all came to a big head and came crashing down in January….where I then recovered and rebounded with newfound energy when I saw WHITE SPACE in front of me in January. Ahhh beautiful white space.

January was not exactly a month of quiet rest and recovery. I am sure people reading the below recap will think, What?! This is literally the farthest thing from a relaxing month. But in many ways, it actually was, at least to me. Yes, I did a lot, but the key is that I had more space and time to choose what I wanted to do. I owned the time, instead of it owning me.

Can I also point out a very important fact: the MAGIC of both kids being able to drive???? We recently got Ethan a new car (in January)- a Honda Civic Sport hybrid!, and Asher inherited his old car. This means they both have cars, and I no longer need to drive anyone anywhere. Let me just repeat that, for effect: I no longer need to drive anyone anywhere. Yes. After years… and years… and years…. of my life being ruled by drop offs and pickups to millions of activities, schools, friends, practices, games, you name it, my time as a Mom Chauffeur has come to an end. Is it mildly sad? Yes, in a way, but it is MOSTLY FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Accomplish List

• Re-entry from Ireland trip (after first recovering from bad virus)
• Finally mailed my New Years cards
• Got my van washed!
• Wrapped Christmas presents (for boys and my parents)
• Took Charlie to a dental cleaning consult
• Started- and completed!- a full laundry room/ office declutter! Props to the 26 minute timer method (though at least 2 sessions were longer).
• Booked flights to St. Thomas and our rental SUV for spring break.
• Went to the doctor about my rib pain, got a chest x-ray
• Went to several fairly far away swim meets- Fridays, Saturdays, weeknights… we had a variety
• We got Ethan a new car! This was mostly Ivan/Ethan, but I went out a couple times with them to look at options.
• Did my December 2025 photo clean out/ back up (*an annual goal, to stay on top of this!)
• Made chili/ prepped house for belated Christmas with my parents
• Scheduled a bone mineral density test
• Volunteered at Culver’s on a Wednesday night from 6:30-8:30 for a swim team fundraiser
• Babysat my niece and nephew on a Thursday afternoon for 4 hours when my SIL had an urgent need
• Volunteered as a timer at Asher’s swim meet. Trained the new scholarship committee volunteers on the job.
• Did a HUGE clean of our (often neglected) basement rec room one weekend
• Did Ethan’s school enrollment paperwork for next year
• Did a big Monarch finance catch up (phew, glad to be caught up! Got way behind over the holidays/ Ireland).
• We shopped for and bought a new recliner for the sunroom (✅ an annual goal)
• Ordered and (Ivan) put together new kitchen bar stools (✅another annual goal)
• Went to 2 Core classes at the gym (✅ another annual goal!)
• Took Charlie to the groomer
• Took down all our Christmas decorations!! At the end of January.
• Lots of work stuff that isn’t too interesting to list out here. 🙂
• STUCK to my workout routine with almost 100% compliance (minus I think 2 misses early on when I was sick)
• Also, stuck to going in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Ivan. Bonus, Ivan has had perfect attendance going to the gym every Tue/Th in all of January!! AND we’ve recently added Sunday morning together, too. I’m loving my 3x/ week full body lifting schedule with home workouts the opposite days.
• Took Asher to buy a new swim tech suit
• Dealt with almost a dozen returns from the holidays, shipments, printing labels, drop offs, etc. (joint effort between me and Ivan- he actually did more of this one)
• Renewed my nursing license
• Booked a hotel in Seattle, just in case… (wishful thinking, lol, I read there’s less than a 1% chance of getting tickets. Apparently there were over 500 million ticket requests for the World Cup games. 😲 I think we’ll find out on Thursday.)
• Wrote 2 of 3 Ireland recap blog posts.
• Oh, and I almost forgot- I stuck to my decreased soda plan!!

Happy/ Gratitude List:

• a cozy, snowy New Year’s Day
• going to see Anaconda in the theater with the boys
• talking to SHU on the phone!
• my morning routine which I so enjoy
• reading my Bible a few times! Liking the Bible Recap guided plan.
• Heather Robertson YouTube workouts. LOVING these.
• the hot tub. Oh I am so grateful for our hot tub. It feels so amazing.
• that I found St. Thomas flights out of MADISON, score!!
• going to the gym in the morning has been game-changer for freeing up time later in the day! duh. ha.
• that new car smell in Ethan’s car… why is that so great?
• mom and dad here for a weekend- dinner out, Christmas celebration, football games, quality time, good conversation. 💕
• Parents Night at swim and a pretty white rose + thank you note from Asher. 🙂
• my new fuzzy fleeces (x2!) that I got for Christmas. Obsessed.
• having a treadmill for an indoor walking option when it’s below zero for 2 full weeks… (though I didn’t utilize it as much as I should have)
• a “coffee shop covers” streaming station I’ve been listening to while working
• unsweetened iced tea with a splash of lemonade
• my new grid notebook for daily planning! (more on this later)
• chatting with a fun mom while voluteering
• snuggling with Charlie by the fire
• out for pizza with the swim parents!
• a nice date night out with Ivan at a new-to-us nice Italian restaurant + chatting w/ our neighbor
• playoff football was super fun
• the new wireless light for the bathroom- this has upped my shower game like you can’t imagine! I absolutely love this.
• Chipotle, multiple times bc… yes.
• having a CLEAN HOUSE
• a Friday night knowing it’s a long weekend…. (MLK Jr Day weekend). That’s the best.
• a specific hot tub soak with Ivan where we started reminiscing on our past family trips and calling out favorite places/ memories/ moments. 🙂
• a breakfast at Perkins with Ivan + Monarch update session over tea + hashbrowns!
• my new electric toothbrush
• a no meeting day!
• a new long sleeve mustard colored Patagonia shirt I got for Christmas that I am also loving.
• our furnace! With the bitter cold, so grateful for HEAT. And our fireplaces.
• that both boys have a variety of great friends
• a long phone call with my mom while I cleaned.
• Charlie’s dog groomer- and a cute plaid bandanna that they gave us that Charlie wore for an entire week before we took it off. Ha.
• an outing with Asher on a Monday to buy his tech suit, stop to see Ivan at work nearby, and a treat stop.
• I made minestrone and soup is just the best when it’s freezing out
• a great and much-needed conversation with my sister on the phone
• I played the piano several times- one night for a full 45 minutes
• getting back to volleyball! My rib tolerated it, mostly
• several movie nights at home with popcorn + sour gummy worms mixed in. Haha. That’s our thing.

Bummers

*Scanning my list, quite a few are “unbloggable” and/or relate to other people, etc. So as usual, take this with a grain of salt. 🙂 There are more. 🙂

• sickness! lingering cough! horrible rib pain
• difficulty finding time to blog
• work stress
• flight prices are soooo expensive! 😦
• a couple meets where Asher didn’t swim great and was disappointed
• feeling sluggish/ loppy/ lacking energy in the evenings with so much darkness…
• feels like many days we barely see the kids! In their rooms, or with friends, or away, or at work, or playing video games…. definitely feeling like we’re dipping our toes pretty steadily into “empty nest territory” all of a sudden and it’s both great and sad at the same time.
• horribly cold weather for WAY too long, impossible to walk outside when it’s dangerously cold, feeling cooped up!
• depressing news cycles
• too many “chores” on the list all the time. argh.
• some days where I “could have” slept in, but naturally woke up super early… boo
• Charlie has taken to suddenly BARKING a lot when we let him outside (I think once he barked and a dog a street over started barking in response and they were having a whole “conversation” 😅, so now it’s like every time we let him out, he starts barking to see if anyone answers?! It’s obnoxious!!)
• way too much SITTING

Habits/Intentions

Days I read a book = 15

Books I completed = 0. Ha. (I am almost done with Remarkably Bright Creatures -loving!- and my non-fiction is The Case Against Sugar (a bit dense, not a quick read, chose bc I thought might help maintain motivation for my soda reduction plan! But I didn’t complete any books….that’s okay. Slow and steady wins the race. 🙂

Times I read my Bible = 6

Times I went to church = 1

Day I walked outside= 15 (CRAZY LOW for me, but it was absolutely frigid and literally not safe to be out)

Days I flossed = 31!! -> non-negotiable

Nights I washed my face= 31!! –> non-negotiable

Strength trained = 10 (Missed 3 planned: I took off Jan 1-5 due to illness and missed 1 due to rib pain (modified others)

Cardio done= 10 times

Core Class or Yoga = 4 (on Fridays- 2 Core classes, 2 yoga sessions at home)

Days I had sufficient protein at all 3 meals/ day= 23

Times I addressed my email inbox!= 8

Times I checked in on/ did Monarch financial update = 4

Upcoming in February!

🔷swim meets galore: Conference 2/7, Sectionals 2/14, State (?) 2/21, club Regionals 2/22….. Involves volunteering at pre-meet breakfasts the next two Saturdays. (I need to scramble 30 eggs this week…)

🔷an on-site work meeting AND picking up a whole new work-from-home computer set up! This will check off another seasonal goal- to finally get my 2nd monitor situation fixed.

🔷the Olympics! The Superbowl!

🔷 Ivan is going to Mexico next week for 5 nights to see his parents. This is always like a mini-vacation for me, too- rare + extra alone time to do whatevvvvver I want! 🥳 (haha) He’ll be gone for Valentine’s Day, which I really couldn’t care less about- just not a holiday I get into!-, so that’s fine.

🔷a physical at a new PCP

🔷2 big work meetings I am in charge of. Meh. 🫤

🔷end of season swim banquet

🔷volleyball games every Wednesday night

🔷Ethan’s taking the ACT

🔷Ethan and I are going on 2 college visits!! Scheduled, 2/16

🔷 Lent kicks off- I’d like to try and go to some Lenten church services, if possible

🔷spring sports sign up- Asher’s going out for golf this year, Ethan tennis as usual

🔷 spring break planning! Big rocks done, but need to research the small stuff. Like which beaches! Activities, restaurants?, etc.

🔷 February declutter focus = THE KITCHEN

Oh boy, that’s a rather long list… for a short month…. stay tuned! 🙃

Happy February, all. What’s on the list for your month?

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for an awesome night out with Ethan last night, just the 2 of us. We went to church at 6:30 (there’s a convenient Monday night option), then out for dinner where we brought his laptop and talked through his course selection options for next year (OMG SENIOR YEAR 😭) AND researched/got 2 college visits scheduled. See my bummers section- I feel like many days I barely see him anymore, so last night was balm to my soul! 💕