Choose Joy

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The blur that was December passing was mostly due to the poor visibility caused by the never-ending Great Northern Snowpocalypse of 2025™. And as much as I’m relieved for what the moisture means for our farmers and its probability of staving off another devastating fire season, being socked in for days on end—not to mention the amount of shovelling my hubby and sons have had to do (roofs included!)—has been a little hard on the ol’ spirits.

A screenshot shared on Facebook (original source unknown) from December 21, 2025. We’re having record-setting levels of snow in the Peace River area, the likes of which has only been seen a few times in recorded meteorological history.

This photo was taken on December 27—a rare sunny day. The lump? That’s a mini-van.

Same day, other side of the house. Since there was a seven-foot drift blocking the direct route across the yard, my hubby had to slog through the snow around it. That arrow is pointing to a much smaller drift in the “low” part of the snow—that came up to his hip!

I haven’t taken more recent photos. But it snowed almost every day after that until Monday, so there’s more now. Needless to say, my third-born is getting plenty of experience dealing with snowy driving conditions (and getting himself out of scrapes) on his first winter driving himself around.

December was also marked with the inconvenience of the death of our washing machine only a handful of days before Christmas. Given our remote small-town status, we have exactly one store at which to buy new appliances, and their delivery schedule was non-existent over the holidays. That means, as I type this, we’ve been without an electric washer for almost three weeks. And that’s a little too long to go without clean undies, so I actually pulled out my washboard (normally “decorative only”) and did some hand washing in our bathtub.

You’re never so aware of and grateful for the blessings of modern technology until you have to go without!

Our new machine was delivered yesterday, and my back is cheering that I only have to stoop to move loads between machines instead of scrubbing clothes by hand. (Lest you think me some kind of martyr, I literally only did a few small loads of socks and undies to get us by. I know there are women—and men—around the world who regularly have to do their entire wardrobe by hand, on rocks in the river—I’ve been there and done the same—and I’m very, very thankful that this was only a small reminder of the blessings of my life, not a dystopian regression to a time without washing machines.)

But despite the time-consuming taste of pioneer life this afforded me, I was still able to take plenty of time to rest, relax, review, and renew over the holidays. Food was eaten, visiting was accomplished, and I even finished reading a book.

Healthy Reminders

The break gave me time to ponder where I’m at in my spiritual and personal journey, too. My physical health has greatly improved over the past year since my iron infusion last January, but I’m once again feeling the impact of low iron and will likely require another infusion soon. This, combined with my typical full schedule, meant I went into the holidays with burnout knocking yet again.

That lack of energy—and the reasons for it—also made for a somewhat quiet and introspective holiday season. I’ve been through burnout more than once, and I really can’t afford to do it again. But even though I’ve set up some practices and boundaries to help stave off the dreaded pit, I didn’t follow them as closely as I should have this year. By December, I was paying the price.

The book I finished reading was Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are by Lysa Terkeurst. Lysa’s wisdom reminded me of not only the importance of boundaries in my relationships, but also with myself. It also helped me take another step forward in my personal healing journey.

Word of the Year

I like to choose a Word of the Year as a guiding concept, and this year I landed on “Choose joy.” (Yes, it’s a phrase. It counts.)

I originally had “Create joy,” but the implied work, burden, and expectation in the verb felt too heavy, so I changed it. Because too often, I deny myself joy because I feel I haven’t done enough to “earn” it, so the last thing I needed to do was give myself a job of “creating” joy!

While I want to create space for joy, this phrase is meant to remind me that the joyful option—the one that feeds my soul instead of drains it—is usually already available to me. I just have to opt for that instead of always pushing through or driving myself beyond my actual capacity because of expectations that I’ve only put on myself or a fear of disappointing others.

And often, the simplest joy I can choose is rest.

I took this photo of the shelves above my desk before changing my marquis sign to the final version of “Choose joy”—but it’s overcast and dark now, and I don’t have good lighting for another photo, lol. Trust me, I changed it. :-)

Ready for a New Thing

This time of year is full of posts about new directions and “new year, new you.” Honestly, for the first time in a long while, my business plan for the year is more of an expansion and growth of last year’s, not trying a bunch of new things. And even my personal aspirations are very much “the same, but more”—more physical activity, more time reading, more time with God.

However, one thing I would love to be able to leave behind is the pain and unnecessary guilt associated with some of the difficult things in my past. So a few days ago, when the following verse came up as the Bible app’s Verse of the Day, it hit me right in the heart:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19 NIVUK

I don’t know about you, but in the midst of all the uncertainties and grief that we’re all facing going into 2026, I’m ready for a new thing. So I’m holding this promise close to my heart this year.

And I pray that you, too, find new, hopeful things in your future this year, my friend.

I’ll give an update on my current projects in my next post.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to in the upcoming year. Do you have a “Word of the Year” or something similar? Let me know in the comments!