Reflecting [2024]

There's nothing like the feeling of a fresh start. As I emerge from the post-holiday fog of not knowing quite what day it is or what I'm supposed to be doing, I've been looking back at the past year [2024] and trying to put into words what I'm hoping to accomplish in the next one.

2024 was hard.

Not just because of American politics (which, tbh made me cry more than once), but also because just about every facet of our lives ended up being more challenging than expected. 2024 was in many ways, a slog, with so much energy going towards moving forward in the face of difficulty.

That said, there was a lot of good times too:

• Taking a friends trip to Clearwater, Florida and soaking in tons of sunshine, good conversation, and amazing food.
• Daily walks to a coffee shop that opened a few blocks from our house, and enjoying hours on its patio overlooking the lake all summer long.
• Watching my 10 year old niece leave the hospital healthy and happy after a fraught, 3-month stay in the PICU.
• Spending time with my teens, enjoying the delightful humans they've become.
• Lots of fun dinners out with our friend group, eating delicious food and laughing until I cried.

This was the first year in a long time that we didn't take a family vacation, but we did enjoy a lot of mini-adventures and made some pretty sweet memories.

2024 Accomplishments

As I mentioned before, last year was tough, and most of what I accomplished boils down to just continuing to move forward, bit by bit.

I did finally tackle something in 2024 that I had wanted to do for awhile - a 100 day dress challenge with Wool&. It was a surprisingly transformative experience, and a lot of fun. I'll share more on that in a future note.

The biggest thing I'm proud of, looking back on 2024, is how much more comfortable I am in my own skin. That is partially due to the challenge mentioned above, and mostly the result of a lot of internal work on my thought patterns and core beliefs.

What I Would Have Done Differently

I'm not sure there's much I would have done differently in 2024, even knowing what I know now. So much of our year was navigating the unexpected, and we simply made the best choices we could in the face of the unknown.

Hindsight being 20/20, I may have tried to list/sell our last house while we were still living there, instead of moving into our current (unfinished) housing situation so that we could avoid having to prep/clean for showings. I think the place may have shown better staged, and we might have actually sold it – plus, we would have enjoyed living in a finished house that much longer.

In the moment though, the decision to move out before listing definitely felt like the right choice, and I think in the future we'll be grateful that we ended up renting out that property instead of selling after all... even if the overall situation has been challenging.

Looking Forward to 2025

While I'm not one for making resolutions these days, I do appreciate the chance to reflect and regroup before moving into the next year. Over the past several years, I've had a word for each year that named the direction/focus I felt drawn to. Ironically, my word for 2024 was HOME – something that has felt very out of reach for much of the last year.

This year, however, I just haven't felt any words or phrases stand out. While I'm normally pretty confident about what I'm looking forward to, in this particular season of our lives I'm honestly just not sure.

There are some things I'm hoping to accomplish this year:

1. Getting back to a flexible schedule and remote work. My current job is great, and the people I work with are wonderful, but one of the key features of the role is that I'm in office 9-5, five days a week. Coming from the previous 4+ years working with a more flexible schedule, I knew this would be a challenge – I just didn't realize how much. I'm really hopeful that in 2025 I'll find something that will be a much better fit for the way I actually want to live my life.
2. Improving the freshness and quality of our meals and making mealtime a more enjoyable experience. Recently, I fell down a rabbit hole of learning about cultural differences when it comes to food, especially when it comes to dieting and the availability of healthy choices. One common denominator I found is that the cultures who seemed to love food the most, often had much lower incidences of obesity and weight-related issues than we do in the US, and a much lower focus on diet culture. Here are a few of the videos that really got me thinking:
   
   Why is it so easy to be thin in France?
   What Italians eat in a day
   Why is it easy to stay thin in Japan?
   
   Obviously, there are a million different factors behind how each culture/people group approaches food and eating, but these videos have given me a lot of food for thought on how I source, prepare, and enjoy food.
3. Spending more time relaxing and connecting with family and friends. In general, I tend to be a very task-focused person – which is great for getting things done, but not always great for community. This year, I'm consciously choosing to make time for connection and conversation, even if that means letting go of some of my desires for productivity. If 2024 has taught me anything, it's that time is all we have. It's our job to make the most of it with the people we love.

Time is All We Have

My 10 year old niece Sawyer, who spent so much time in the PICU this summer has a terminal genetic disorder called Sanfilippo Syndrome. Watching her grow and thrive in so many ways has been bittersweet – each moment feels like another piece of sand passing through the hourglass of her life. It takes my breath away.

Earlier this week, her mom, Brittany shared that one of the things this journey has made her realize, is that time is all we have. It's true for Sawyer, and it's also true for you and I. It brings this question into sharper focus: how do we want to live our lives?

That is the question I've been asking myself, and I'm asking you as well. What really matters today, in 2025, and beyond? What makes life worth living? What would life look like, if we lived with no regrets?

Do you have specific intentions or goals for 2025? I'd love to hear them!

Love and peace,

~ Jamie

Jamie Siebens is a writer, editor, and administrative genius with a knack for getting things done. She lives in Northwest Wisconsin with her husband, teen daughters, and a quirky rescue pup named Bentley. She writes about perspective, personal growth, and intentional living at www.jamiesiebens.com