I’ve been quiet on here for the past few months. So far 2025 has been a surprising year, to say the least. After carefully planning out my goals for the year, my husband and I learned in February that our jobs were in jeopardy. We worked for a federal agency in Washington, D.C., and our beloved workplace and dear colleagues were thrown into chaos when the administration changed. All of us were put on administrative leave, and then, slowly, everything we’d worked on for the past decade was erased. We started frantically looking for new jobs while also mourning what we’d lost.

This time was especially hard for me because my husband and I worked at the same place, and it was terrifying to think of both of us being out of work at the same time in this tough job market. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it — this was a season of anxiety, sadness, and loss.

We considered lots of options, including a move to Santa Fe, New Mexico, but eventually we decided to stay put in our home and ride out this storm. We both found other jobs, and we finally felt some measure of peace. While we were (and still are) so sad to be moving on from high-energy jobs in a fantastic agency that filled us with hope and inspired us, we’re slowly falling into a new rhythm and discovering the positive things along the way.

One huge positive has been time to travel. Without all the work that kept us at home many evenings and weekends, we’ve had more time to socialize. We swam in the neighborhood pool and had drinks with friends. We took lots of short, weekend trips, visiting loved ones in Florida, Dallas, and San Antonio. Both girls took separate trips to Florida to visit my parents and to sleep away camp. My older daughter went on a service trip with our church. To cap it off, in August my daughters and I took a long-planned trip to Italy, and then my husband surprised me with a trip to Cuba for my 50th birthday! I think we’ve used every credit card point and every frequent flier mile in our accounts, and it’s been fabulous!

With the kids back to school and my husband starting his new job, I’m feeling more settled, and my mind has turned back to this blog. I have lots of great content planned for the next few months, and I can’t wait to share notes from our travels, updates to our home, and the amazing books I’ve read on our many plane flights.

Whether you have school-age kids or not, it seems like September always feels like a fresh start. Cheers to crisp apples, sharpened pencils, falling leaves, and new beginnings!