Welcome to The Girl Next Door. I'm Kelsey.

And I'm Erica. In every episode, we bring our different perspectives to candid conversations that feel like chatting with good friends.

We started this show years ago when we were next door neighbors and still haven't run out of things to talk and laugh about yet.

Today's episode is an annual favorite sharing our

intentions and goals for the upcoming year. We'll share what 2026 looks like for us, what word

we each picked for the year, and how we're thinking about the different parts of our lives in

26. And of course, we'll record messages to our future selves to listen to at the

end of the year. Our friends of the show will be able to listen to an extended version of this

episode, which is new for this year, in which we'll each be sharing what secret goals we have for the

year. So join us on Patreon if you must know.

And we have more details on Patreon about how to listen to those extended episodes.

Okay.

Let's look at the big picture of 2026.

First, I'd like to get just like a temperature check.

How are we heading into the year? right and then as we always do share any big flags that you know of for this year like any

travel changes milestones and we always like to share how old and what grades our kids will be

yes that that tells a lot about the phase of life we're in. Okay, I feel mostly coming in refreshed to

26. We had a really nice holiday season. And then the first two weeks of January came in strong.

Nothing major happened, just lots of work travel for Jeremiah. Out of town gymnastics meet in the

middle of that work travel and getting

homeschool back up and going was just like, okay, I feel a little overwhelmed, a little

ragged, but at least I did come in feeling not already that way, which was nice.

...