Welcome to year three of participating in Gretchen Rubin's yearly challenge. To learn more about the 26 for 2026 challenge, please see the Happier podcast here.
To see how I did on my 25 for 2025 list, please click here.
Yes, I know it's May and the list was supposed to be published in January. Hear me out.
This year, finding items was hard. I didn't want too many repeats from previous years (especially the items I've failed to complete year after year) and I didn't want to include things that might be outside my budget. Chris Hogan said, “[A big goal] is one of those that you know you’re going to have to work hard to get to, but you don’t have to find a unicorn to achieve it.” I wanted fun stretch goals, not "unicorn" goals.
Quite frankly, until now my heart just wasn't in it. As you can see, I have been working on a few of the items, but for some reason, this year has started on slow drag and I haven't had the mental or emotional bandwidth to nail down much of anything. This is supposed to be fun, but in Auntie fashion, I've turned it into work.
Let's get 'er done!
I have compiled the following list. As I complete each item, I will mark it as complete. If it is blog worthy, I'll post it as a link, or where applicable, include a photo, Pinterest pin, or Instagram post. NOTE: List is subject to change without notice and some items may overlap.
- Redesign this blog.
- Get down to the goal weight set by me and my physician. (9 pounds to go).
- Move 26 in 2026: Work out at least three times a week for at least 15 minutes for 26 weeks. (8 weeks so far).
- Walk an average of 8,000 steps per day.
- Read 100 children's books. (55 books read so far)
- Read something by Tolkien.
- Read the first book of C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy.
- Read through John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
- Release eight episodes of my podcast.
- Finish and self publish a book.
- Try five new foods/drinks. (1 so far).
- Nutella: I give it a strong "meh." It just tasted like very cheap chocolate with no hint of hazelnut. I would have gotten more flavor from eating a Ferrero Rocher. NOTE: I just looked it up: The Ferrero company owns Nutella and changed the recipe. Not smart, folks. Change it back.
- Try five new recipes. (2 so far).
- Blueberry Baked Oatmeal from the cookbook Satisfied by Amy Hannon. I made this recipe again using canned peaches and it was great.
- Hash Brown and Egg Breakfast Casserole from Allrecipes.
- Attend or create a spiritual retreat.
- Have a themed summer reading focus. Theme "My Inklings Summer."
- Write 5 new book reviews on my blog (or elsewhere as the opportunity arises).
- Write 10 First line Friday posts. (2 so far)
- Blog about my one word theme: "Care."
- Start a blog series called "Are You Happy Now?"
- Finish the next unit in the Rhema correspondence course I started ages ago.
- Finish one course unit from the Dallas Theological Seminary's free courses.
- Redecorate my bathroom.
- Redecorate my bedroom.
- Meet (and hopefully exceed) my savings goal to fully fund my emergency/maintenance fund.
- Get my dream sewing machine. (Completed 05/05/2026)
- Finish the photo project I started from my 50th birthday party.
- Free play! These are the fun things I want to enjoy throughout the year that didn't make into the top 26.
- Items from my 26 for 2026 list on my other blog.
- Go to some sort of conference--preferable in person.
- Buy a new personal laptop.
- Make a fairy garden.
- TBA