DeLappenings: Some Breathing Room

Okay, peeps.

If you made it through the last doom-and-gloom, our-holiday-break-was-crap post...congratulations!

Here, on the other side, it's 2026!

We shed 2025's Year of the Snake and barreled into 2026's Year of the Horse with, yeah, sure, perhaps a little less horsepower than I would have preferred, but...there's nowhere to go but up, amiright?!

Everything is going to come up roses--even if I have to metaphorically plant, care for, and prune them, myself!

I am keenly aware that our crew has been through a tough cycle of Overwhelm and Exhaustion and Busyness and I have plans and high hopes for actively modeling what it's like to find the Quiet, find the Replenish and find the little sparks of JOY, anywhere and everywhere I/we can!

At my Barre class last week, I was asked to write a resolution or even a word to hang on the wall for 2026, and there was literally only one thing that came to mind. My personal one-word vibe and mantra-of-sorts, pretty much all the time, but most importantly, right now:

J-O-Y

Joy!

Once I wrote down my word and the manager of the studio saw it, she asked if she could take my picture. I'm not on social media, so I didn't know she'd posted it online until later, when my Besties from class texted on the group chain. This is a glammed up version of that post, because I wanted to give myself a jolly background, tehe:

God utilized my Barre ladies to lift me up, because they sent such lovely words of affirmation along with the sweet message and my picture--having NO idea that I'd literally spent a long, long time putting the kiddos down the night before, talking about all the ways I planned to spark JOY to help counteract all the demands of the day, and how I was going to help them find it, too.

Talk about a direct and immediate loop of the JOY coming back to me!

In addition to just mentally trying to focus on the bright and positive and joyful tidbits of the past week, I've spent some time getting our home back in order after the holiday chaos and adding some pops of flower color, for some--you guessed it--JOY.

I may or may not have brought home a new, Valentine Stanley that I didn't technically pay for...

And, also in the name of sparking some major joy, I put away the exterior holiday decor and purchased some really gorgeous planters. (Don't worry about the cost; these were expensed on the JOY account).

I'm not going to lie: I've still had some rollercoaster moments as I work to re-set myself mentally.

I'm still dealing with some physical ailments of my own, and lots of doctor's appointments to help me get back to my healthiest. BUT, I will report that I've been listening to my body when it's telling me I'm too overstimulated or exhausted, and I've been finding pockets of rest and re-set over the past few days.

As a direct result of taking better care of my own state of mind, I've felt my cup filling back up a bit. And twice in just one week, that cup-filling process has yielded some beautiful time and support for the kiddos.

It so rarely happens that you Put Good In & Get Good Out.

But I've experience such a direct, give/take relationship between my own input/output this week that I know God is telling me to continue to follow my instincts to build myself up a bit so I can be there in better ways for others.

Joy is contagious! And I plan on infecting as many people as I can, as often as I can. ;)