Meanwhile, This Weekend

This is one of those posts that does not set out to prove anything. No lessons learned. No big reveal. Just a snapshot of a few days as they actually happened, because life does not pause between the bigger moments, and neither does the thinking.

My office was closed January 1 and 2 for New Year’s, and for the first time in my career, I was actually able to be out of office. Truly OOO. No compulsive email checks. No Slack lurking just in case. That was not always the case, and it feels like a milestone worth acknowledging.

New Year’s Eve itself was uneventful in the best way. I tied up a few loose ends, got my final contract of 2025 across the finish line, and officially closed the books on a year that challenged and stretched me in ways I never could have predicted. I’m genuinely proud of what I accomplished. The numbers back it up, but more importantly, I grew in ways spreadsheets do not capture.

We picked up a piece of Marketplace furniture I mentioned in a recent post, watched an early ball drop with Haisley, shot off some aggressively Polk County fireworks, and went to bed. Very on brand. No notes.

New Year’s Day was a full pajama situation. My sister-in-law Katy and her husband Steve came over. We call him Onion, even though his legal name is actually George, and Haisley will only know him as Onion until at least her 18th birthday. I play the long game. We ate, talked, and played “grab the pickle,” which is exactly as chaotic as it sounds and somehow still felt like the right energy to kick off the year.

We made it to First Friday in downtown Lakeland on Friday night. Low expectations, no real plan, just wandering with a toddler and seeing where the night took us. It ended up being one of those simple, unexpectedly good nights that required zero optimization and absolutely no documentation, which might be the highest compliment I can give.

Saturday was where things got more eventful. We took Haisley to the grand opening open house at The Little Gym. She loved it. Like, truly loved it. Like Simone Biles energy. Like if they had let her stay, she would have moved in, changed her name, and started training for a future I am absolutely not emotionally or financially prepared to support.

I, meanwhile, experienced immediate sticker shock at the monthly cost for one class per week and had to recalibrate my expectations of extracurricular parenting, especially with school tuition payments starting in July, which rival the mortgage payment on the first house I bought before meeting my husband. That took a minute to register. Long gone are the days of disposable income and carefree decisions.

From there, we headed to Bonnet Springs Park. Haisley thrived. I did not. I had not prepped properly, did not know which parking lot to use, could not find a map, and spiraled into a low-grade meltdown while my husband calmly said, “What’s the big deal? We’ll figure it out.” More on his brain versus mine tomorrow when I publish the blog I wrote about our very different operating systems.

Despite my internal chaos, Haisley was a tiny explorer. She climbed trees, got impressively dirty, made an arts and crafts project in the nature center, and came home absolutely wiped out. She napped like a champ, which felt like a personal win for everyone involved.

Sunday was church. As usual, we barely made it on time because mornings are hard in our house. My parents had already beaten us there. My mom has been coming for about two years now, and my dad for maybe the past six weeks; both are a longer story for another post.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I got a text from my mom that reaffirmed a life-altering realization I have recently come to terms with. She is also a systems thinker, just a very different flavor than me. More on that someday. Hi Mom, by the way. Subscriber ground zero. 😉

The real surprise of the day came at the end of service when my father answered the altar call and received prayer. Jimmy and I both just sat there, stunned. There is a lot to unpack there, and it is tender territory, especially since this blog is public and my parents read it. So for now, I will simply say this felt significant, and I am holding it...carefully.

If there is a takeaway from this weekend, it is this. Growth does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like rest without guilt, kids covered in dirt, unexpected moments that stop you in your tracks, and realizing that the people who shaped you are still capable of surprising you.

That feels like a pretty solid way to start a year.