2023:

I know I say this every year, but 2023 was a year full of a lot of change for my little family. I started the year off barely working one job and being a full time mom. Ben was working two jobs, and we were living in a pretty awful place. We had a still pretty new baby, and we were still mostly struggling through our days, trying to figure out how to be parents.

I’m thankful to report that almost all of that front has gotten better. We live in a pretty great place, and it fits our family well. I’m officially going back to work full time, plus the 1.5ish other jobs I work. Ben is finally able to cut back on his work hours. We’re still learning how to be parents every day, but even that is getting easier (minus sleep, I don’t think that will ever get easier).

And I feel like Ben and I have both grown a lot, mentally mostly, over the last year. We’ve been lucky enough to have met and worked with some people I’m growing to think of as friends in a new business venture we’ve decided to branch out to. We’ve learned so much, and we’ve been actively trying to add some of the lessons we’ve learned into our daily lives.

I think the biggest lesson we’ve learned is to give more than we take. Ben and I have always tried to help people when the opportunity presented itself, but we never necessarily went out of our way. Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about how I can help other people, even if it’s something as small as giving someone a couple extra snacks, or reaching out to a friend who I think might need a shoulder to lean on. It doesn’t take any extra time or energy from me, just a little extra kindness; and even without expecting it, I normally get a little extra kindness back.

Which brings me to the next lesson I learned: we do deserve good things. I’m sure we’ve all been there at some point; “well, I guess I deserve thing,” when bad thing after bad thing keeps happening in life. But you don’t. Just like Ben and I don’t. We would go through rough times, and it became harder to get through them because we had convinced ourselves there was no getting out of it. We found ourselves in a vicious cycle, and instead of actively trying to do something about it, we accepted it. And once we stopped accepting it and told ourselves we COULD get out of it, things started to change. Now we have a plan, and as long as we continue to keep our priorities straight, we have a great opportunity to set ourselves and Sloane up for future success.

We’ve also started to surround ourselves with the people and the atmosphere we want to be/have. 9/10, you are what you surround yourselves with. We’ve befriended people who have similar goals to us, and they’ve really helped us grow into the mindset of building our long term future instead of just planning for the immediate future. They’re helping us with budgeting, financial planning, and just overall being an encouraging voice for us.

I listened to something recently that said “kids don’t spell love L-O-V-E, they spell it T-I-M-E.” And that has stuck with Ben and I. We want to be able to provide for Sloane, but not at the expense of not being present in her life. So 2024 is dedicated to setting up our future for success; financially, mentally, and physically. Breaking the cycle has to start somewhere, and there’s no better time than right now to prioritize health - in every aspect of your life. And I’m looking forward to the mom, wife, daughter, friend, and person I’m going to be a year from now. Sloane, Ben, and I deserve it.