Happy New Year to you! It’s time to think about some intentions for the year, and, as always, I’m posting about it so I can hold myself accountable!

Last year my blogging hit new heights: I aimed two write 73 posts (one every 5 days) but I actually managed 100! I also aimed for 13k views and Revpoppy got 16k hits. This is no coincidence; I had 8 whole months off last year, and most of the blogging happened in that time! So, for 2026, I’m aiming for 90, about one every four days.

Sleeping. I have a new habit tracker – oh yes I do! – and I’m going to try my absolute best to have my light off by 11pm. Fitbit says I averaged 6hrs5 in 2025, and I really need to improve upon that!

This is my sixth year committing to doing a reading challenge. Last year, I aimed for 52, and I read 63. Most of these were kids books, albeit ones that are new to me. I am reading to the kids every day, it’s just that a lot of them are on repeat! So I’m going to try and read one book a week again.

Sermons. At the moment, our team is pretty big (with a curate starting and another person on long-term placement). It looks like I’ll be preaching less this year, so I’m going to take the time to get ahead before the team shrinks back down again and people move on. So, I’m aiming to write one sermon a week for every week I’m working.

Exercise. I’m going to carry on with the weekly Sweaty Mama classes, and when the weather picks up again, I’m going to start Couch to 5k.

I’m delighted to say that one of the things Nathan and I are really hot on is family time. We both block out 5-7 in our diaries every day, and we make sure we spend it doing tea, play time, bath, stories, and bed. Occasionally, as happened recently, an emergency crops up, and one of us has to leave. But overall, we’re good at this and intend to be for as long as we can.

Christmas. Now, last year, I’d just had a ministry free Christmas and I was promising never to be stressed out in December again. It didn’t happen. When I got back to work, I tried so hard to be organised with my prep, but when Aidan’s childcare fell through over 50% of the time last term, it left me very stretched. So, the intention for this year is for both Nathan and I to have all prep finished by the time the kids finish at both Easter and Christmas. Wish us luck!

Bible. I did not finish reading the Bible and blogging about each book. However, I’m currently halfway through, and I’m aiming to finish this year!

Date nights. One of the very best times of 2025 for me was going out into town with Nathan. It was really wonderful, even if we found parenting the next day really difficult because we’d switched off so much! But it was so special, and sadly, a very rare thing. I’m going to suggest we have a minimum of 6 proper date nights next year.

Prayer walking. I’m intending to prayer walk the parish. I used to do this at my last church, and it was so fruitful.

So, as ever, please do ask me how it’s all going and hold me accountable!

Heavenly Father, thank you for 2025. As I enter 2026, help me to keep my eyes on you and to keep the main thing the main thing. Amen.

Oh, and a few things I’m hoping for: I’m hoping to get to 1000 followers on both Instagram and Tiktok, I’m hoping to become a Tropic Ambassador and I’m hoping to raise £3500 for Bebe’s Hive when I have my head shaved in March!

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