Happy New Year

Looking ahead to 2025, and something new coming this year

I woke up first this morning. Habit rolled me onto my side to close my eyes again, but then a vision of watching the first sunrise of 2025 curled up in a blanket on my porch with a cup of coffee and my journal sprang to mind. It was enough to plant my feet on the floor and draw me across the dark house.

Coffee set, I grabbed a blanket and my journal, opened my front door and heard the rain. This typically would only add to the coziness of snuggling on our enclosed porch, safe and dry behind plexiglass panes - only the roof on it is failing, so the flagstone floor was damp and COLD. I quickly retreated.

Plan B - the keeping room. Off the back of our kitchen, it offers no view of the sunrise, but boasts plenty of windows and some string lights for Hygge. I could also plug in my heated blanket, which I did.

I began to write. Four sentences in cat number one came to share my lap. I adjusted. Four more sentences and cat number two arrived to find a spot. Then my husband wandered out from the bedroom, wrapped up in a blanket, and lay down on the couch beside my chair. The coffee still burbled away in the pot, and the weight of the cats and the warmth of the blanket spread to my eyelids. They grew heavy and drooped.

My coffee was poured two hours later when children roused me from my chair with a crick that ran from my neck down my entire back.

Not exactly the picturesque morning that had drawn me from my covers, but I still count it a step in the right direction for my year.

Because I got up. I got up and I made coffee. I got up and made coffee and started journaling.

I took action instead of letting my habits rule my behavior. And that is our family’s intention for this year: focused action.

We’re simplifying - our environment, our schedules, our commitments - in order to focus on our homestead and projects that we keep talking about but haven’t made progress on. I look forward to sharing with you as these projects unfold, because God willing, a big dream of mine will be realized this year.

My Focus in January

As winter here in New Hampshire has us gathering before the fire, I’m focusing on our interior home life.

Simplifying the Home

I’ll be working through our house, decluttering and creating better systems for our family - specifically for our kids. I’ve been interested in minimalism from a homemaker’s standpoint for a while, and have heard about the benefits for kids. Now that I have four, I decided to do some more research. Some recent reads of mine have been Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne (HIGHLY recommend) and the Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies. And let me just say, the argument for simplification is strong.

Last year I swapped out a massive toy bin for a 3 tier shelf with a few favorites on display and stashed some of the more dumpable toys in clear bins in our closet. I had thought the toy bin would ease the pain of clean up time, but instead it merely encouraged the kids to ransack it throughout the day, strewing its contents across the floor, and rarely play with the items they’d dislodged. They’d be overwhelmed at clean up time and a battle would ensue. Now, they can easily access their most played with toys and tidy up with very little prompting. The bins in the closet come out one at a time, and are actually intentionally used rather than just dumped and abandoned.

This has encouraged me to continue simplifying, but also to intentionally prepare spaces for them to practice independence.

Knitting

This year I have two goals for my knitting.

First, to create a consistent crafting practice - being diligent to pick up my knitting each day, even for a few stitches. This month I will be working on a sample sock for a workshop I’ll be teaching, and then I’ll be focusing on finishing the sweater that I began for my son.

Second, to significantly reduce my stash either by working through a good chunk of it or letting it go. I intend to work entirely from stash for at least the first 3/4 of the year. I’ll detail my plans in an upcoming letter.

Photography

After a soft relaunch of my photography business last fall, I’ll be pressing ahead in earnest this year. To balance the client sessions and avoid the proverbial cobbler syndrome, I’ve set myself a personal photography project - fun themed photo shoots once a month of my own kids.

January’s theme? A Squeaky Clean New Year.

Stay tuned.

A Huge Thank You and Special Announcement

I want to thank you all for being with me in this first year of writing and figuring out Substack - particularly those who have shown your support by becoming paid subscribers. Your financial support this year will be going directly towards that big dream I mentioned earlier.

As a thank you, beginning in February, I’ll be sending special updates on this project to paid subscribers and you’ll be the first to know what it is!

If you aren’t a paid subscriber, but want to get in on this dream, I welcome you to join us! You can get on the list by subscribing below or updating your subscription settings.

Much love and a Happy New Year,

Briana