There’s a quote from Andy Bernard on the final episode of The Office where he says “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you left them.” that has always lingers in the back of my mind. Andy spends most seasons reminiscing on his time at Cornell while he’s working, and in the end, he gets to go back to working at Cornell and realizes the best years of his life were when he was in “the office.” He realized too late that he wished away a season of his life longing for the past.

I know everyone’s motherhood experiences are different, but for me, the first kid was a slingshot into a completely new phase of life. I think marriage and motherhood can expose the most selfish parts of our hearts. Suddenly my life was not my own and a tiny human was completely dependent of me for 24 hours a day/7 days a week. I don’t think you realize how much free time you have until you have children- ha!

I think we can often wish away hard seasons to get to “easier” times. While yes, we might get more sleep or have more “freedom” in other seasons, there will always be something. A friend gave me some advice when I first became a mom: every time something good or bad goes away, another good or bad thing will take its place. While the younger years are filled with mostly meeting physical demands of children, the older years morph into shaping their character. Character shaping can be just as draining as sleep training or feeding around the clock.

I’m eight years into motherhood now and knowing this is the last baby, everything feels bitter sweet. I keep telling myself "I get to” instead of “I have to.” Yes, there are days where I’m tired to the bone and falling asleep early on the couch, but I know in my heart of hearts I wish I could freeze time right now. I KNOW I’m in the good ole days right now. I know when I’m 80 that I’ll long for a 2am snuggle rocking a baby back to sleep, that I’ll long to hear the lispy voices filled with orthodontics, and wish I could be picking up books from every nook and crannie of our home. I won’t care what my postpartum body looks like and would say to my current self “she looks so young and strong.”

I know I’m in the “good ole days” and want to savor even the hard because there’s always something hard in life, but right now, the hard has squishy hands and sweet voices and lots and lots of books and socks to pick up. But whatever season of life I’m in, I hope I find contentment in that season of life.

At the start of last year, one of my friends started the easiest, most low key book club that I’ve heard of and it is by far my most favorite activity I did last year. I know women are always looking for a community of people and sometimes it is really hard to find it, especially when you are a mom in your 30’s. If you are looking to make more friends, let this be your sign to start one.

Ours is born out of church friends, but anyone is welcome. We have a GroupMe for messaging about upcoming dates and sign ups for food as well as book banter through out the month. We meet once a month and here are the “rules”: read whatever you want and come and talk about a book you read. Give it a rating. Talk about why you liked it or why you didn’t. You don’t even have to share anything if you don’t want to, you can just listen, or talk about a good book you read awhile ago.

I have been influenced to enjoy books I would have never picked up before. Would you believe that Moby Dick is on my to be read list for my next book? The other thing I’ve loved about book club is it is multi-generational. I’ve loved hearing about great books like Moby Dick from the generation below me and ones above me.

One thing I’ve also learned is that I am not in the season of life for sitting down and reading a physical book, plus I’m getting 40 eyes. Audio books are my best friend as a kinesthetic learner. I love cooking or cleaning while listening to a good book and my absolute favorite thing to do is needlepoint while listening. If my hands are moving, my ears are listening. Don’t be afraid to lean into your learning style. I personally like using libro.fm for audio books because you actually own the file, they are much cheaper and you support a local bookstore of your choice. You can get a free audiobook when you sign up with my referral link here.

Before I list my favorite books, let me give you some ideas of treats you could share with a book club. All three have been big hits at gatherings. I have a few more muffin recipes that I’ve brought to book club that I’ll be posting in my new paid subscription on here in the future.

My TSITP Dirt Bombs: these are perfect because they are literary themed to begin with! I brought these after the finale and they were a hit.

On to my favorite reads for 2025:

Little Women.

If you have not read Little Women as an adult, I beg you to please read it. It is so much richer as an adult, especially part 2: Good Wives. If you didn’t realize it, Little Women was published in two parts: Little Women, and Good Wives. Most modern copies publish both volumes under one title now. I had not read the book since I was a kid and honestly, I only think volume one “Little Women” is really for children. Good Wives speaks much more to adults and I laughed and cried at this book. There is so much timeless advice given. In a day where “romance” novels are taking over the literary world, I urge you to read a beautiful story about sisterly love. It’s also so funny to see how you might have changed your view on which March sister you see yourself as if you read it as a child. I thought it used to be Jo, but now I will say Amy. I love her character arc.

Wheel of Time: Eye of the World.

Before I had kids, I loved reading in the fantasy genre. Not going to lie, but this book stretched me to read. It was long and complicated for my tired brain. However, I did really enjoy it. It’s in the high fantasy genre and I wanted to tackle a book in that genre because I know I enjoy that type of book. What I discovered is that, this is not the season for me to read high fantasy novels. I get constant interruptions or chattering in carline while I’m listening, and it is really difficult for me to focus on the world building, old nomenclature and complexity of characters right now.

I’m putting this series on the back burner, for right now, and will revisit it when I have a little less interruptions and can focus a little deeper. I am so glad that I challenged myself to read it though and grateful to my young friend who piqued my interest in it.

The Count of Monte Cristo.

If you don’t know, The Count of Monte Cristo was originally serialized and published in 18 parts over several years. Personally, I think this makes the book feel like multiple books in one with constant cliff hangers motivating you to keep reading despite its length. (It’s also ranked on PBS’s Top 100 Books of All Time.)

Do not be discouraged by the size of the unabridged book. It is by far one of the best books that I have ever read. The unabridged audio book is around 43 hours, so think of it as a lot of bang for your buck with an audio book credit. It feels like several books in one.

The reason I loved it so much was the plot and character development. The book takes you through so many twists and turns. I don’t think there would be anyway to bring this book to film and do it justice. I also love a book with morals and character development that makes you think. The ending is not neat and tidy, but it’s just in some ways. I truly hope you’ll give this book a chance.

Persuasion.

Jane Austen loves naming her books after the core conflict in her writings and Persuasion is a really interesting read in contrast to her magnum opus Pride and Prejudice. (Pride and Prejudice is my all time favorite Austen novel, but I realized I had not read some of her shorter books.) If you’ve never read a Jane Austen novel, this is a great one to start with. It’s a very short, quick read with a strong female lead. (Although no one will ever top Elizabeth Bennett for me.)

One thing I loved about this novel that is different is that the main character already knows her mistake. It was someone else who allowed prejudice to persuade her at a young age. I think this book shows us how important the company we keep is. Who we invite speaking into our lives matters. Additionally you see pride also get in the way of overcoming a mistake.

The reason I love Jane Austen novels is because they are filled with wit, strong female leads, and displaying how character matters in a time when marriage was often a means of survival for women. Her romances are a far cry from today’s “romance” categories but I think they are far superior because of the dialogue and character development of her characters.

I also want to add that C.S. Lewis, one of my other favorite authors, was a fan of Jane Austen. I really enjoyed reading his essays on her works here. Also check out this Substack post his thoughts.

The Hiding Place.

I have actually read this book before but I was in the fifth grade. I remember reading this story and it having a profound impact on my faith as a 10 year old. A friend mentioned reading it in book club, and I’ve loved revisiting books I’ve read as a child now as an adult. It was a short quick read after consuming the Count of Monte Cristo.

I truly believe that if you are a Christian, this is a book that you absolutely must read. It will deeply encourage you in your faith. Without spoilers, there are several stories that will bring you to tears in the book on God’s sovereignty and answering prayers. I also love how each sister’s unique traits are highlighted. I often could not relate to Betsy in the book, but her optimism and reliance on scripture really impacted me.

I also just loved reading how their family operated even before WW2. I loved how each sister uniquely operated in the family business. I read this book in a weekend, so I hope you’ll give this one a chance.

What were your favorite reads of last year? I would love to hear them to add to my list for this year. Comment on the post.

If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know some of my story of how I started meal prepping and planning. My husband and I were tired, didn’t feel well, and I had an 8 month old baby. We felt like we needed a change to feel our best selves. What started with a 30 day elimination diet, turned into a process, a lifestyle and Efficient Kitchen. We are coming up on four years of consistently following the same weekly process that has fueled our family better, saved money, and ultimately brought us closer as a family.

I think in motherhood, we can put ourselves on the back burner. I’ve had a few years now of learning to take care of myself in ways where I can show up for my family better. I have had to learn that I am not limitless like God. I have boundaries and limits and can only do so much. I thought I would share some of the ways I’ve started caring for myself better to be a better wife and mother.

Joining a book club.

I think it’s important for our kids to see that we have interests outside of “just being a mom.” They also need to know that the world doesn’t *completely* revolve around them and that good friendships are important.

I found this book club through our church but it’s such an easy laid back concept. Read whatever book you want and come and talk about it what you liked and didn’t over some brunch that everyone brings. Simple as that. No pressure.

What I’ve enjoyed the most about this group is getting to know women that I wouldn’t ordinarily know across different generations. I’ve learned from women in their 20’s and women a *tad* older than me. I have been challenged by some of the younger women to tackle bigger books than I would normally read and brush off as “I don’t have time to do that.” Turns out I do. Most of the books that I read were 30+ hours or 800 pages or more. The challenge helped grow my mind, slow down and savor a really well written book in our very fast paced world.

Weight Lifting.

I’m so grateful to my college roommate who introduced me to the Ladder app. I had joined a gym again because I was struggling to pick up my 90th percentile 3 year old at the time and knew I needed to be stronger. After trying to do it on my own, I realized I needed some structure. I started training in a progressive overload style and fell in love. I’ve never been so strong in my life. Between switching to barefoot style shoes and weight lifting, I no longer have any back pain. I used to go the chiropractor weekly for adjustments with no permanent relief. Weight lifting gave me structure and confidence that I didn’t know I needed. (They have a great black Friday deal with BOGO on yearly memberships, so both my husband and I do this together but on different teams.)

I will also note that joining a gym with childcare is extremely life giving. It’s a win win for everyone and I’ve made a lot of friends and so have my children. We genuinely enjoy going and it’s nice for all of us to interact with friends!

Simplifying my closet.

At the beginning of the year, I was really honest with myself about my clothes. I had been working through a Pinterest board about what I liked and what fit my current lifestyle. I consigned or donated a large portion of my closet and it really lifted a weight off my shoulders. If it doesn’t fit, I got rid of it or put it in a special bin (if it was close to fitting). If I haven’t worn it in years, it doesn’t fit my lifestyle, not my color, etc etc, it was gone.

I took the money I made from consigning clothes and invested in pieces that I knew I would wear and love until they fell apart. For me that looked like some high quality barefoot style shoes (I could write a whole substack on this!), versatile items, and natural fiber clothing. I stopped any fast fashion. Other than workout clothes, no synthetic fibers. (I also could write an entire substack on this) I keep a list in my phone of items that I would like to purchase so I can wait for them to be on sale BUT they have to fit all my criteria.

Now when I look in my closet, I know everything fit and its something that I love.

Simplifying my toiletries.

I will SHOUT it from the rooftops about RMS Beauty’s free makeup consults. I did one last year with Lisa and it has taken all the guess work out of makeup. I get compliments on my makeup now at almost 40. I’ve never been super great at figuring out what to use but Lisa walked me through step by step what to use and how to apply it. Essentially, she turned makeup into a paint by numbers situation. I have “fall colors” and “spring colors” and it’s so easy to use. It takes me 5 minutes to apply, and I really don’t own a ton of products. If you’re not feeling yourself, please get a free consult on their website. Their makeup is non toxic and high performing. It’s very lightweight and has really been a part of helping my skin.

I also want to give a shout out to Wild Ice Skincare. I met Mila at the farmers market in Rosemary Beach several years ago and grilled her on her products. I have been blown away by how much better my skin is from using her products. I have had four simple products on autoship for almost 3 years now. They perfectly last 90 days, are non toxic and preservative free. She’s a chemist and really knows her stuff, plus she has so many tutorials on her website for face taping and face massage that have helped me get rid of some deep 11 lines.

Get $30 off your first order with Wild Ice Botanicals here.

An honorable mention is I stopped bleaching my hair. Mostly my natural color plus some color, not bleach highlights in the front to blend the greys. Cheaper, looks better and my hair is finally growing and healthy again.

Organizing and decluttering my house.

I’ve joked for a long time that I would love to work for the home edit. However, this did not come naturally to me at first. If you saw my childhood packrat bedroom, you would understand. I started taking space by space, room by room, drawer by drawer and decluttering.

The great part about this is you can sell a lot of items to fund getting containers. Another great tip is to use the ThredUp bags from the Container Store. They will sell your old clothes and give you Container Store credit. Do NOT do it directly because they will give you a FRACTION of what you get in Container store gift cards. (Make it make sense.)

We still have some areas that always need touch up since our home doesn’t have a huge amount of storage space and we have small children with constantly changing needs. I have learned to let go of items and that has really given me a lot of peace with less items in our home. I have also realized that we don’t need as many things as we think we do. Simplifying how many products we use in our bathrooms, cleaning supplies, and kitchen have made a huge difference too.

Find my favorite laundry products here.*

Last one… an easy hobby that I can take with me.

I should probably pair this with my book club because often my audio books and needlepointing go hand in hand. I have found it gives my brain a much needed analog break. Needlepoint is NOT cheap but I’ve found making some of my own canvases is a nice way to save money on it.

I have found that having a creative outlet is kind of a must have for me but most of my hobbies are not conducive to small children being around and need larger chunks of time.

With needlepointing, I’ve found I can do 10-15 minutes in carline, while I’m waiting at appointments, or small pockets of time that I find here or there. No big production to set up and I can keep the zippered bag in my purse.

Circadian Rhythm.

Not to sound woo woo, but some small changes in taking care of my circadian rhythm greatly improved my sleep. I try to see the sunrise first thing in the morning and if it’s still dark, I’ll do a couple of minutes of red light therapy on my face while I’m getting ready. I try to eat dinner before it’s dark and wear blue blockers* once it’s dark too. Not a ton to it but even just a few light breaks make a big difference. I also switched out our lightbulbs for more amber* or red* bulbs. I do amber in lamps around the house and red light bulbs in bedrooms.

You can read up on the science with queen of circadian rhythm- Sarah Kleiner. She has tons of free resources.

What are some ways you’ve helped taking care of yourself? Comment below.

Keeping the end goal in mind.

Since our house is a little bit older, we do not have a ton of extra storage space in it. I started thinking about the end in mind. What do I want my kids to leave our house with? That includes skills, memories, tangible items. I don’t like clutter and operate a lot better when everything is semiorganized. (I have always joked that I would love to work for The Home Edit.)

I cleaned out my childhood room, and it was honestly overwhelming. I was a bit of a pack rat and squirreled away way too many papers in a bankers box with papers from high school. (As an adult, I do not care about my report cards or math tests or printed out AOL instant messenger conversations as a teen- ha!) It’s not an original concept, but I do think about how it’s organized and what goes in it in a thoughtful manner. I think about what I actually wanted saved and what is meaningful to me as an adult.

I had started out with getting my kids BISGO boxes from the Container Store when they were born, but the hanging file folder boxes were very small. I had a small “memory” box for bulkier items. Neither of these were working once one of my kids started elementary school. I needed a better solution.

I finally started using this system and it really is working. I keep these boxes in an easy to reach place in their closets so I can pull them down and file items as we go. I know where everything is if I need to access it and it is SO much more manageable instead of having items in multiple boxes.

A quick note: I’m trying to write this post with protecting the privacy of my kids so taking pictures of how I do some things is somewhat tricky. Feel free to shoot me an email or message if you have any questions!

Building the Box

Items that I found helpful when putting this project together.

• Weathertight tote*

• Hanging file folders* (I did pink for girl and navy for boy)

• Micron pens*

• Archival photo sleeves*

• These school interview sheets (comes with a name label for front of box and all the file folder labels printed)

• Trusty label maker*

You don’t necessarily need the label maker, but I use mine so much for labeling other items. I think every household should have one!

Some items I’ve saved for my kids:

• Ultrasound photos

• Notes from friends and baby shower invitations

• Artwork (I go through it all at the end of the year and save the best)

• Stickers from places we have traveled

• Baby book

Photo Management:

One of the greatest Christmas gifts that I have been given is from my grandfather. One year he gave us all thumb drives where he scanned all his old photos and put them into LABELED folders so we would be able to know what the photos were. Then he did a slide show presentation to go with them with context. I have both saved and reference them all the time. It was SUCH a gift. I had tried to go through all our family photos for several generations and it was QUITE overwhelming. I didn’t know who people were and the sheer volume of boxes was too much for one person to store or take care of. My perspective is that if you are giving people photos, make sure they are manageable and labeled.

Having this perspective has shaped how I want to give my kids photos. We live in a digital world, but I want them to have tangible photos of important events. I make a family yearbook each year that sits out for them to look at, but that is for me. I do this by adding any photos I truly love to my “favorites” on my camera roll and upload them to shutterfly.com. It’s very easy to do and I just make spreads every couple of months. If that seems overwhelming to you, you can choose for them to make a book for you. One thing I like to do is include a note from myself reflecting on the year at the end of the book. It’s so interesting to look back on and see how life has changed.

For printing photos, you can print them free from the shutterfly.com app but I actually prefer mpix.com. They have archival worthy standards that you can choose which are better for long term storage. You always want ACID FREE when storing photos. I like these envelopes here and write on them with these scrapbooking archival pens. I will include some notes on the back of photos like the 90’s. (sometimes things in the 90’s were just done better)

**Also note on using mpix.com. They have a feature where you can put a custom message on the back of your photos. If you print by year, it’s easy to just have the year printed on the back! I just discovered that, so keep this in mind when ordering photos! Can save you some time.

• First and last day school photos. (I also order wallets from mpix.com to go on the memory sheet)

• Birth photos

• Birthdays

• Holiday photos

• School photos

• Vacation photos

• Random photos of their personality

• Sports photos

One other bulky item that goes in their box is their baby book. I make them one for the first year of their life in a 10x10 size and it fits perfectly in the box. Shutterfly.com is an easy place for this. If you are super behind, you can always choose the “make my book for me” option.

One way I manage photos is by having a folder for each of them on my phone with their “milestone” photos. I take photos with my good camera for each month of their first year and a first and last day of school along with a sibling photo. I try to keep these together so they are easier to find. I print off all these photos for the memory box too.

Other important items:

I love that the box has an option for health records, financial information, and keepsakes. You can customize what items you want to put in the folder but I had not thought of these items until I saw they had labels for them.

• Health records: I keep their health records in chronological order in case they ever need them as an adult. This includes their well visits, any urgent care/ER visits, or other important informations.

• Financial records: Do you have any accounts for your children? There’s an option to put a copy of the information in there.

• Keepsakes: I like to put stickers from our vacations in there. It’s a simple small memory from places that we have visited.

At the end of the school year, I get a portfolio of art from school. It’s generally the best 10 pieces. For now I’m saving them all but will probably pare them down in the future. For preschool art, anything with a handprint gets saved. With the kit that I bought, there is a school memory sheet so that I can interview each kid. My older child writes their own but I just interview the younger one starting in pre-k. I feel so much less overwhelmed with this system. It’s just one box for everything.

Other Types of Items Saved:

As far as clothes go, I save one box of clothing for each of them. This also includes personalized blankets and items. I learned from my own childhood clothing saved that knits and anything with elastic will not keep. The elastic may rot and it can be replaced if need but at a cost. Just keep that in mind when selecting clothing to save.

The last item I have for them is a prayer journal for their life. I am SO sad that they don’t sell these anymore because they were such a good baby gift. Really any journal will do but I pray over concepts for their life. Mine has a section where you can write answered prayers below your prayers for your children. I also write notes to them about what I love about their personality and character at the time as well as anything I want them to read in the future.

Wrapping up.

You may read this article and think: this is a lot of work. Please don’t think you have to do everything. I hope it does inspire you to do some of what is meaningful to you. If you are starting completely from scratch, I would start with going through your camera roll for the most important pictures you want to print from my photo list. Get the photos printed. Get a box and hanging files. You can always DIY label the folders.