I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. There’s something about them that rubs me the wrong way. Like my life isn’t okay, I need to make changes, and this day is a pivotal, once-a-year opportunity to declare those changes. It’s like the marketing slogan “new year, new me.” I hate it. It’s like saying the old me wasn’t great and now you need to do all these things and use all these products to kick the old you to the curb so you can be a BRAND NEW, fabulous you. What if I liked my old self?
And what if it’s not about doing more? I feel like that’s the crux of a New Year’s resolution for me. I honestly don’t think I could add one more thing to my life. No new habits, no new big goals, zip, zilch, nada. How about something that invites in less? Now that sounds good.
But you know what I can get behind? A word of the year. I love using it as a theme for the year, an attitude, or a mindset I want to invite into my life. It’s often something I’m craving in life, and every year it seems to shift. I use my word of the year as a guidepost until a new year has turned.
I’ve been setting a word of the year since 2014, and some of my past words include focus, soak it in (I know…it’s three words…cheater cheater), patience, and intentional. I don’t always write about it, but sometimes I do. And while this year, I set my word of the year back in January, I’m just now getting ready to share it. Are you ready? Drumroll please (much preferred if it’s like the drumroll in the Christmas Vacation movie…Joy To The World……).
My Word Of The Year For 2026: Peace
My word of the year is peace.
How Did I Choose This Word?
It’s just what I’m craving, and I can feel it in my gut. Do you ever have one of those moments? You just feel it deep within you, seeped into your bones, what needs to shift in your life? Sometimes we lean into that sensation in our bodies, while other times we ignore it. That was me, and I leaned in full-body into my word of the year.
Maybe it’s the season of life that I’m in that’s making me crave peace. I’m still in a season of small children, so part of me craves literal peace. Schedules feel chaotic, our home is perpetually cluttered despite my best intentions of tackling it, the messes never end, and I work gig work while serving as a primary parent. It’s messy, and life has felt the opposite of peaceful, but I can feel a shift happening. It’s small and growing as the children grow. For 2026, I intend to lean into peace.
Literal Peace And Quiet
As the primary parent, sometimes I want some literal peace and quiet. Kids are loud, man! And my youngest is in the stage of life where she still wants to eat dinner sitting in my lap, snuggle close when I’m writing, and even help me pee. True story. Last week, she came into the bathroom right after me, sat on the stool, gave me a high five mid-pee, and said: “Good job peeing, mommy.” But I know these days are numbered, so I’m soaking up those moments. However, we are, in fact, working on privacy.
I do realize I need more alone time than I’m getting, and I’ve been working on fitting in some quiet time weekly in our family schedule. Sometimes it looks like a tag-teaming dance class, me dropping off the kids while Colby picks them up so I can run errands by myself. Other times, it looks like asking someone to watch our kids for an hour just so I can read without someone asking, “watcha doing?” one thousand times.
I also have this big dream, like a five-years down the road dream, of turning the workshop (our biggest outbuilding that the old homeowners used as a library), into an adult clubhouse. No kids allowed. There will be a sign. We could move the shop into the smaller building with power and turn the larger building mainly into a gym. The brook runs by there, so we could also build a screen porch off the back with a big ol’ swing for the most peaceful reading environment. I can just picture that cup of chamomile tea sitting next to me as I swing and read away. I like that the building is far enough from our home that maybe Colby and I could escape there whenever we need a little peace apart from the family.
Make Our Home Exude Peace
I don’t feel peace at home. And sometimes I wonder (more like worry) if my children feel the same way.
One thing I really regret in the early years of owning our home, before the children came along, was not setting up solid organizational systems. Our home was built in the 1700s and does not have closets or storage space. While we did tackle some areas, most rooms of our home are an absolute cluster. That feeling of disorganization only multiplied after the kids came along with all their stuff.
Case in point, their playroom on an average day:
The sheds are the worst offenders. If I want a shovel or some loppers, there are six shed options for where they might be located. Or if I want to find the camp chairs for softball practice, they’re under the pile of camping gear because there are no shelves in the shed, and everything is just in a pile on each end.
I want to live in a home where I can find things, everything has a spot, and it all feels calm and peaceful. Part of me wants to declare a moratorium on renovations until all spaces (outdoor spaces included) are decluttered and organized. But that feels like a heavy lift. Especially when every time I organize the toys, one week later, it’s a mess again. It is why I write about decluttering so much. The more I write about it, the more I do it.
When our home feels lighter, that’s when I feel more creative. I can relax more, tackle creative decorating projects, and enjoy our family at home. There’s more reading and less arguing and tears. More art projects and less stress. More fresh cut flowers on the table instead of a mountain of paperwork to tackle. More simple pleasures. More peace.
While I can’t fix it all, this year, I want to keep peace in mind and focus on tasks and projects to improve the peace in our home by just a few percentage points each week. If I’m consistent, those baby steps add up.
Peaceful Routines
I’ve been experimenting with slow starts, adding some journaling and self-care into the morning mix, and have noticed a marked shift in my peace. Just making the bed every morning right after I brush my teeth is such a simple routine that makes me feel like my home is 1,000% neater and cleaner, and gives me this sense of calm. Give me more simple routines like that!
I’ve also been trying to incorporate decluttering, tidying, and cleaning into our entire family’s routine. For the longest time, I felt responsible for all of it, which isn’t true or okay. So slowly, I’ve been adding routines and chores for the kids and Colby, like the whole family tidies up their own messes after dinner and before bathtime. No more mom cleaning it all up after everyone is asleep. Or who am I kidding I’m an early bird. It’s more likely I’m cleaning it all up in the morning.
As the kids have been tidying their own things, often, they don’t have a spot for items. When this happens, we work together to come up with a spot, or it becomes a teachable moment for decluttering. We only have so much room to store toys, art, craft supplies, etc. If something doesn’t fit, what can we donate or toss to make room for the things we love? It’s a sloooowwww process, especially with the kids, but it’s starting to pay off.
Peace At Work
Okay, this is a big one and kind of personal. But here we go. I have three BIG changes I’m making, some of them scary, to find more peace with the work I do.
Agency Over My Writing
For the longest time, I fought with myself about what my work should look like, from what I should write about, to how often and when I should create content, to how I should promote it. I let the Google search algorithm and social media dictate what I write about, how often I do it, and how I promote it. Algorithms change, and perpetually chasing them felt like a hamster wheel.
For instance, Google wants you to niche down and create content in one specific area. They put me in the renovation/DIY box. But I love to write about all things home and garden, from decluttering to kitchen gardening, making meaningful family memories using bucket lists, or making holidays more magical. I’m like a Jack Martha of all trades. If it involves making my house a home, I want to write about it. Except maybe not the cooking part. Best to leave that one to the pros.
I tried writing just about DIY and renovations, and you know what happened? I rushed renovations and made mistakes, overspent on materials so I would have content to create, and worked long hours on projects. It wasn’t a great feeling, and while DIY tutorials do well in search results, they’re some of my least favorites to write. I mean, there’s only so many puns I can come up with about what grit sandpaper to use.
This last month-ish of writing has felt like a brand new me. I claimed agency over my writing, and my “brand” is all things home improvement. DIY, renovations, decorating, gardening, and homemaking. They’re my favorite things, and the balance has been great. I’ve never written as much as I have these last few weeks, and I don’t foresee it waning. Which brings me to…
No More Self-Imposed Deadlines
Coming from corporate marketing, I was used to demands on my time, balancing them all, burning the midnight oil, and meeting all the requirements bestowed upon me. So when I started working for myself, I self-imposed deadlines for content. You know what happened? I was miserable.
Sticking to a content plan or schedule is fine when you’re in an office and can focus on work. But I’m tackling the work while doing laundry, watching children, and also working other jobs to help our family’s finances. Creative work time ebbs and flows.
You know what’s funny? During my self-imposed deadlines era, I rarely stuck to publishing and promoting 2 posts a week. Now that I’ve let it go, suddenly I’m producing 3-4 posts per week. It’s a combination of freedom to write more widely, having slightly older children, and putting less pressure on myself. This one mindset shift has improved peace with my work SO MUCH.
Doing Social Media Differently
I got to do it. I have to talk about social media. Here we go. One, I loathe social media in general. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time and a place where Instagram was beloved to me. But that started going away when it shifted to video content and reels. When ridiculous viral videos with a shameless hook were the name of the game.
I also feel that social media in general has spiralled out of control these days, and I no longer find Instagram inspiring or enjoyable. The socials love video content these days. I detest video content, both consuming it and creating it, and I much prefer the written word and still images. My feed is overrun with ads or videos I have no interest in, still images (which I love) are few and far between, and the whole thing feels overstimulating and overwhelming.
That’s why I’ve mostly abandoned social content these days, and you know, I’m okay with it and doing fine without it. It was more of a distraction if anything. And it rarely made me feel good or connected with others. Shameless plug: if you want to keep up with content and behind-the-scenes content, subscribe to my free newsletter.
The peace points I’ve racked up by staying away from social media, both consuming and creating on it, have been unbelievable. It was spurred by a book, How To Break Up With Your Phone, by Catherine Price. The book was inspiring, and I recommend it ten out of ten. Now instead of spending so much time on my phone, I’ve been playing more with the kids and feeling so much more present and productive on the things that really matter.
My Peace Project
I keep thinking about doing a “peace project.” You know how Gretchen Rubin did her Happiness Project and then wrote all about it in her breakthrough novel, The Happiness Project? Something like that, but replace “happiness” with “peace.” I tend to be better about implementing things if I have structure. While normally, I wouldn’t create structure around my word of the year, maybe setting something up around creating a peaceful home and life wouldn’t be a bad thing. Still ruminating. At the very least, maybe I’ll share 10 things each month that’s made a peaceful difference at home.
Word Of The Year Resources
Before I leave you, if you want to try creating your word of the year, here are a few articles I found helpful around the topic. Enjoy!
- Word of the year printable to help choose a word (Day Designer)
- How To Choose A Word Of The Year (Elizabeth Rider)
- How To Choose A One-Word Theme (Gretchen Rubin)
- 100 Word Of The Year Ideas (Morgan Harper Nichols)
Pssst…Now you tell me. Did you set a word of the year this year? Or set a goal for 2026?
OMG, yes. As you said: “I detest video content, both consuming it and creating it, and I much prefer the written word and still images.”
In my humble opinions as a blog follower, Instagram user etc… video and reels have ruined my online reading life. I haaaaaaaaate videos and reels. But I love stills and text.
Also, thanks for the idea of “Peace” as a WOTY. I had a 2026 WOTY; it’s not working. But I can feel “Peace” resonating as a concept. I will try it out today as a helpful redirect on my daily life.
Yes, you are my people! I feel like there are so many of us that feel videos and reels has ruined the gem that was Instagram. And yes to peace, I feel like we all need a little more of it at home and in our lives these days. Let me know how it goes!!