One of the things I love about being part of HearthKeepers is our GroupMe chat. I love having a place to go to ask questions, delight in wins, laugh at fails, and see each other’s beauty. One of the other parts I’ve enjoyed is the more intimate conversations that springboard from the public threads. These are the more one-on-one Marco Polos or texts with different ladies. Some of them are a one-time only chat, some of them are running conversations with other homemakers about life that would take way too long to type up. Some are just the natural growth of friendships around a shared community endeavor.

Side Note: I loathe cliques. I’ve seen firsthand the destruction they can spread. I’ve slipped into a clique mentality without even realizing it and then found myself left on the outside when my “friend group” decided to go in a direction I couldn’t and wouldn’t go. Cliques aren’t healthy in our communities or our churches. It is natural to find that you click with certain people, pun intended. But that’s not the same thing. As long as you don’t allow those closer friendships to develop into an unhealthy idolization, filled with pointing at others and thinking you’re the cool ones, closer friendships within a community are good and normal.

As 2025 rolled to its festive end and 2026 picked up speed, I had a conversation with two other homemakers about goal setting and resolutions. I want to share some of that with all of us because I found it very helpful.

I’m not a resolutions person. I used to be in my twenties but found them to be largely unhelpful. Unrealistic resolutions spiked my anxiety as soon as the “New Year” euphoria wore off or were immediately left by the wayside when the first unanticipated problem sprang up on January 2. I switched from making resolutions to making goals. What would I like to see happen in this new year? Personally, in my home, and in my writing. Goals worked better for me as long as I avoided the worn out lie that somehow finding the right calendar, highlighters, paperclips, and pens will complete all my goals quickly and with little trouble.

This year, I found myself not overly concerned about goals. The only goals I really made were for my reading, and that was a reverse-goal. 2025 was a reading glut of a year, and I loved it! I read roughly 105 books. It was grand! My goal for 2026 is to slow down my reading. I want to read more non-fiction more studiously. I want to have a conversation with the book I’m reading, and then have a conversation between this book and that book. I want to be able to read more of my military books like I would read fiction. I want to work out my mind more. This is the only goal I really made for 2026. The rest is simply carrying on. Carry on with church projects, family, friends, home projects, home maintenance, chickens, HearthKeepers, and my current WIP Wizard Prison.[1] I just want to keep going and get better at what I’m doing. January 2026 isn’t going to see big changes from November 2025. (December doesn’t count because it’s a thing all on its own.)

As I was pondering on my goals and reverse-goals, I had this conversation with Melissa Ward and Deanna Brown where Melissa told us about a video series on becoming a Renaissance Man her Marine-son had shared with her.[2] The man in the video suggested that a well-rounded human being needed to spend 1 hour a day Consuming[3], 1 hour a day Creating, and 1 hour a day Exercising. Our conversation flowed around this idea, how to implement it, the value of it, the defining of it for ourselves in our unique situations and with our unique loves and hates. What I walked away with from all of this was a renewed love of the word Nourish.[4]

Nourish: (OneLook) To feed and cause to grow; to supply with food or other matter, which increases weight and promotes health, to support; to maintain; to be responsible for; to encourage; to foster; to stimulate; to cherish; to comfort, to educate or bring up; to nurture; to promote emotional, spiritual or other non-physical growth.

Season 6 of our podcast was all about self-care, and ultimately self-care is nourishing ourselves. Not in a vacuum, but with the goal of being sturdier, steadier, and softer in our care for our people and our homes. Nourishing is another way to do this. When we nourish ourselves, we can better nourish others. As we grow, we can grow others. But sometimes that can feel a bit nebulous. It’s a nice idea, but nice ideas need a structure and a plan. They need to be intentional and purposed if they’re going to turn into habits that serve us and our people. The 1 hour each of Consuming, Creating, and Exercise gives us some meat on the bones of nourishment. It gives us a benchmark and some goals.

Yes, I said goals. If you don’t already have these as part of your life, one hour of each will feel instantly overwhelming, especially if you’re a busy mom, but also if you have to work full time. I suggest starting small. Start with 10 minutes. For 10 minutes a day do something to feed and grow your mind: read, watch a video, listen to a podcast. For 10 minutes a day, do something creative: draw, write, paint, design a floral arrangement, quilt, embroider, knit, crochet, sew. For 10 minutes a day, move your body: walk, jog, play basketball, lift weights, do yoga or Pilates. Figure out when you can do this. You may want to exercise first thing, or you may want to educate first thing with that cup of coffee or educate last with that glass of wine. For me, I am creative early in the morning, which is when I do my writing. I have different pockets throughout the day for feeding my mind. I typically take a walk and do some weights before I get into the meat of my day. I’m hoping to add in some documentary-watching in the evening before I completely shut down my brain. Find what works for you. If you have a lot of energy, you may end up moving your body more. If, like me, you have chronic fatigue, then you might end up feeding your mind more. Take the concept of 1 hour of each and mold it to your life. Take the concept of 1 hour and break it into smaller chunks of time that are gentler.

If you need help or motivation, get a buddy. Find another woman, and build a support network that helps you stay accountable. Share in our GroupMe and with your family what you’re learning and how you’re growing. I have yet to find anything I can learn that lacks a homemaking application, yes, even my military history. I’ve yet to do things that build my sturdiness, steadiness, and softness that can’t be used to bless those around me. This is not a waste, this is “who we are, and what we do.”[5]

Cheering Strength, Merry Durability, and Guarding and Gardening our hearts don’t happen accidentally or by wishing really hard. They happen by being purposed, intentional, and working together. They happen when we nourish ourselves and others, when we do the hard things, when we pull up specific weeds and replace them with specific flowers. Yes, for some of us this will be planners and schedules, and for others of us this will be more whimsical and intuitive, but all of us need to be deliberate or we won’t grow, we won’t get better at our work year in and year out, we won’t be able to bless the coming generation and reforge the links between mothers and daughters and granddaughters.

Maids, Matrons, and Crones, this is the point of being together. We are here to come along side, to lift each other up, to inspire and encourage each other. The Crones needs the enthusiasm of the Maids, and the Maids need the wisdom and experience of the Crones. Both need the consistent, in-the-trenches work of the Matrons, and the Matrons need the motivation and reassurance of Maids and Crones. When we all come together, our people will be tended and nourished and so will we.

Let’s make our goals and resolutions be to have a nourishing 2026, to take whatever the Lord brings into this year with grace and fortitude, all while coming alongside each other with merriness and cheering each other on!

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[1] My other goal is also an un-goal. I read an article that postulated thate part of slowing life down is not trying to grow your online communities. Basically, it’s deciding to be the opposite of an influencer. You decide to be content with what you have instead of trying to make it big. That really resonated with me. So, my goal is to not actively try to grow HearthKeepers. I don’t need or want it to be huge. I just want to serve all of you and the other womean who slowly join us. I have no desire to be an influencer.

[2] https://youtu.be/dJo0PyD0V2w

[3] By consume, the video means to educate or learn. This can be reading a book, watching YouTube, or anything like that. It is the idea of using this hour to grow your understanding.

[4] None of us liked the word consume. Deanna suggested Nourish and that spiraled into this article.

[5] Rambo 4

Nourishing in 2026

Life, Death, and the Woman