Who, oh who is pooping blue upon my flagstone walk? Oh, I see, it’s all of you— a cedar waxwing flock.
Descending on my yard in droves, your high-pitched song is merry, for you have found a treasure trove of ripe ligustrum berries.
Your feathers fade from brown to gray with a tail that’s tipped in gold. Though you visit, you never stay— in your bandit mask, so bold.
Maybe you think your little disguise will shield you when you swoop into my yard, filling my skies, splattering my home with poop.
I see through your clever trick but still fall for your charms. When I go outside to snap a pic— Splat! Blue poop on my arm.
*
I love these beautiful birds, despite their inconsiderate pooping habits. If you’re unfamiliar with cedar waxwings, I highly suggest visiting the Cornell Lab’s website to learn more about them and see photos much better than mine of their gorgeous markings.
First, let us tune in to a conversation inside my brain, already in progress…
Irrational Side of My Brain: “January is slipping away and we haven’t even blogged about our 2026 reading goals yet!”
Rational Side of My Brain: “It’s January 7th. Chill. Also, no one is currently sitting at their computer anxiously waiting for us to post our reading goals.” *
Irrational Side: (wide-eyed, whispering) “Okay but let’s hurry up and do it anyway.”
Rational Side: (sighing) “Fine.”
Just a few of the books on my to-read list.
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to my brain. Does anyone else get overwhelmed with the desire to reflect on everything that happened during the past year AND set goals for the coming year all at the same time? I know I said I would embrace the liminal in2026, but I feel like I need a non-week between December 31st and January 1st that doesn’t actually exist in the real world just so I can FINISH the old year before STARTING the new one. I need time to CATCH UP and PREPARE, TIDY and CREATE, REFLECT and RESOLUTE. (<– Is that a word?**) I imagine this week looking something like Janet’s void from The Good Place.
Welcome to my void. Don’t mess it up.
But since that non-week doesn’t exist, I used the first real week of the new year to get myself organized, and now I feel like for the rest of 2026, I’ll be a week behind. ***
So let’s get to it. The clock is ticking.
* Note: If you actually have been anxiously waiting for me to post my reading goals, please don’t tell me. The irrational side of my brain doesn’t need the encouragement.
** RESOLVE. That’s the word I was looking for. Lol.
*** No spoilers, please.
The Past
Last year, I set a goal to read a total of 65 books and complete one bingo card.
I actually finished my book bingo blackout in August (go me!) but it took me until December 28th to complete my 65th book. (Several were children’s or middle grade, so they were quick reads, just FYI.)
My cousin sent me a cool chart for determining your favorite book of the year. Here’s mine:
Filling this out was difficult because some months I read lots of books I loved, while other months didn’t have any real winners. However, it was fun to make, and I stand by my favorite book of the year: Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver.
Devotions was my favorite book of 2025 for many reasons. For one thing, it had been on my reading list for years, and it’s always nice to move a long-time “to-read” title over to the finished pile. Also, since the book is a large collection of poems, I read it slowly from the beginning of February to the beginning of October, so the pages kept me company for eight long months and traveled with me many times to Staycation, my favorite (and now gone) coffee shop. If anyone had been watching me read at Staycation (creepy), they may have noticed me turning the pages backwards. That’s because the author’s most recent poems were at the beginning of the collection, with her older work at the end, and I wanted to read her words in the order that she wrote them.
But the best part of Devotions was not when or where or how I read it, but the content itself. Mary Oliver’s poems look closely at nature, wildlife, humanity, faith, and death. Her subjects resonate with me, her style appeals to me, and there were multiple moments when one of her lines or stanzas took my breath away with its poignancy. Devotions inspired me to write many new poems of my own, and I’m quite pleased with a few of them. I’m so glad I read it.
The Future (Yes, I know I’m going out of order. Irrational brain has taken over again.)
This year, I have three reading-related resolutions.
I set the same goal to read 65 books this year, since it seemed like an achievable but challenging number last year.
I made a new book bingo card. No book may count for more than one square here, and I hope to get another blackout.
3. I’m going to attempt to read a book that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Articles (a, an, the) at the start of a title will not count, and I will allow any book with “x” in the first word to count for the letter X.
Additionally, I’m going keep track of the colors of the books I read on the page below, with no real goal in mind except to make a pretty, colorful bookshelf.
That’s what’s in store for my 2026 reading year. I’d love to hear what’s on your to-read pile!
The Present
We are now a week into 2026. The past has passed and the future has been carefully organized into to-do lists. It’s time to focus on the present.
I usually only carry over one, maybe two, liminal books from one year to the next, but this year… I have five. These are the books that crossed the threshold of the year with me.
I began reading each of these titles in November or December, and when the calendar flipped on January 1st, they were all still unfinished.
It’s funny—I didn’t realize the common themes among them until I started putting this blog post together. Desks, writing, witches, plants, and definitely the color green. Maybe there’s a message here in this specific collection of books I’m carrying across the divide into 2026. (And maybe not.) Either way, now that the goal setting is over and I’ve stepped out of my void, it’s time to live in the present moment.
I hope you have a lovely evening. I’m going to curl up in a cozy corner and read.
I’m grateful that 2025 gave me so many reasons to celebrate. I’m even more grateful that I’ve learned to look for celebrations everywhere—in the small, the everyday, the unexpected. Here are 12 moments that I celebrated this year. There are many more, some larger, some less noticeable. It is not a competition. These are the ones I want to share with you.
January
In January 2025, it snowed. As a person who has lived in Texas all my life, I can’t imagine snow ever not feeling magical. My favorite part this time was finding animal tracks in the dusting of white.
February
In February 2025, my husband and I rescued a young mama opossum who was stuck in a tree. She spent a couple of weeks recuperating at North Texas Wildlife Center before being released back into the wild.
March
In March 2025, we fostered the sweetest little black cat (who found a loving forever family in May). It was so fun watching her explore the house and play with our two boys.
April
In April 2025, we got to watch seven adorable, funny, rambunctious fox kits play on our property. This was so special to get to see. I spent a solid week just staring at the footage from my trail cam.
This is my favorite video of the fox babies:
May
In May 2025, we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a lovely nature hike.
June
In June 2025, I took my hubby and my parents to meet my friend’s one-week-old baby donkey.
July
In July 2025, I went on a thoroughly enjoyable trip to Northampton, Massachusetts, to visit two good friends. There, I got my fill of good food, beautiful art, coffee shops, bookstores, gardens, nature walks, and great conversations.
August
Hubby and I went on a wonderful trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, and Acadia National Park. I especially loved hiking the trails around Beech Mountain.
September
I watched the garden I planted earlier in the year start to thrive.
October
I found a new hiking trail with beautiful, unique trees that I really love.
November
I sat on the floor to do crafts and stayed up late making creative, artsy messes (with a little help from my cats).
December
You all know how much I love found poetry. I enjoy making found poems out of magazine collages, book titles, and Wordles, just to name a few. Well, in December, 2025 a lovely little found poem found ME with absolutely no effort on my part, and I’m still tickled about it.
On December 27th, my family got together to celebrate Christmas. I had stepped outside for a few minutes (probably to pet a cat or look for a fox) just as everyone else was gathering to take a group photo. My dad called to ask where I was just as I stepped back into the house. I declined his call (since I was ten feet from him), but he didn’t hang up, so his phone stayed on, leaving me a garbled two-minute voicemail of my fourteen family members debating how to organize ourselves for the picture. When my phone helpfully translated that voicemail into text, this is what I received:
I love it. I genuinely love it. I couldn’t have described the scene better myself. What a fabulous little unexpected delight!
***
There they are… 12 of my joys from 2025. When I sat down to write this post, I didn’t know yet what I was going to include. For each month, I looked back through my planner and goals and accomplishments and photos and chose something that stood out to me. Now that I’m done, I’m not surprised by what I see: wildlife, cats, nature, travel, creativity, and a little poetry. These are the things that make me happy, after all. Here’s to more of them in 2026.
Care to share? I’d love to hear what moments you celebrated in 2025!
Carie Juettner 