2026 Blog Resurrection

I am resurrecting my blog. I will not address how many times I have said this, tried this, and then failed to do anything with the blog. But that is also the beauty of a hobby, you aren't really failing if you drop something for a while. 

The idea to resurrect the blog came to me this morning in the place where all great ideas are born: the shower. But my need to write, to create, to talk about some things and get them out of me, has been sitting there for a while. My mom retired at the end of July 2025, but the university she worked at didn't have an official retirement for her until December. I attended that celebration and one of her colleagues, who is also a writer, asked me if I still wrote. I laughed it off. Writing, who has time for that? I write policies and programs and emails where I work really hard to explain things in a non-snarky way. But actual writing, for me? Nah. Again, who has time for that?

Then in November, we had my son tested for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and he was formally diagnosed. There are so. many. feelings. that go with that as a parent. And this is not the place for those feelings because those belong to me and, eventually, my son. But I have also spent a lot of time trying to learn about ADHD, what it is and isn't, and how I can better equip my son so that he can be successful. That I want to talk about! There is so much information and so many people want to help, but it can also be very overwhelming. I'd also like to help others by sharing what I've learned, but I don't want to talk about it in person. I want to write about it. For me, talking is exhausting, which I'm sure you find hilarious if you know me, but talking about big things exerts a lot of energy. Nothing gets replaced. Writing about big things is like hugging my mom while I dump everything on her, but without having to dump everything on my mom. I get the catharsis of writing, which replaces the energy spent to share. 

Finally, there is nerdy Sarah. She's real nerdy. I got back into reading in 2023. I was an English major in college and I loved Russian literature and big sweeping novels. Then I got a big girl job in Raleigh with a lot of traveling around the state and I was in graduate school at night. Then I got married. Then I had a baby. None of those things are conducive to reading. Then that baby grew up into a kid, who went to kindergarten and I got a new job. I could breathe again! So I started reading. And I read brainless romances. The end of the year wrap-up for my Goodreads was literally a bunch of half naked men. I have no shame in that. I still love me a good romance. But I decided in 2024 that my one and only New Year's Resolution was to read one non-romance book a month. And I kept it! And I found out that I love some nerdy nonfiction history books. I love them, read them and have no one to talk to about them! Aaron tries to listen, but at some point his eyes glaze over and he's done. I also randomly posted about them on my Instagram, but that didn't give me nearly the real estate that I wanted to dump all my nerdy thoughts. 

All of this lead to the resurrection of the blog. It's not going to be pretty. I'm probably not going to try and put a bunch of pictures in like I did before. I genuinely do not care if anyone reads this but me. But I do miss writing and I want a place to dump all the nerdy Sarah thoughts, what I learned about ADHD today and whatever else my little heart desires. Cause this is my internet real estate. 

Also born in the shower this morning were my goals for 2026. I rarely make resolutions and, if I do, they are usually tied to something like a hobby. I came up with 3 for this year and I actually want to try and keep up with them:

1. Read 25 non-fiction books.  I saw a reel where someone said they don't need to set a reading goal because they like to read, they need to set a goal to go outside and touch grass. This is the brain equivalent of touching grass. I want to read 25 non-fiction books in 2026. That's about 2 a month. I do a lot of these books via audiobook, which works great when you travel for work like I do. I hope to continue my journey into naval history (I have no idea why this is a thing, but here we are) and how to work with my neuro-spicy kid. 
2. 4K Minutes on my Peloton app. This sounds a lot more insane to non-Peloton people than it really is. By the numbers, this breaks down to 333 minutes a month, 83 minutes a week or approximately four 20 minute workouts a week, which is where ideally I would like to live. I'm really just looking for a way to be more consistent. And the app covers just going on walks, doing actual classes and using the bike. For me, this is doable and will help me be consistently active, which I want and need. 
3. Write a blog once a month. I hope that I do this more than once a month, but consistently taking time to write creatively will be a huge change for me. 

There are other things I want to do. I'm starting a bible study with the women at church and I want to actually use my nerdy The Bible Maps Handbook as part of that. I want to eat better. I want to drink more water. All of those things. But these three are just for me. I'm really good at making lists of things I need to do. And I'm really good at doing the things I want to do that are really quick and easy, but I'm really bad at being intentional about the things I want to do to grow that take time and effort. And this seemed like a really good place to start.