Connecting the Dots: 2024
We’ve finally made it to the best week of the year! Does anyone know what day it is? No. Have we eaten a real meal since Christmas Eve? Of course not. When was the last time we changed clothes? Who’s to say? But we are blissfully cocooned in our post-Christmas pre-New Years haze where matters like the calendar, meals, and real pants don’t exist, so leave us be.
Of course, silly things like jobs and kids make this week less of an idyllic lounge fest than the days of yore, but nevertheless, this stretch of time always feels delightfully blurry to me. It also makes me delightfully reflective. I love nothing more than fishing my yellow plaid notebook out from my nightstand, the one I only ever use for New Years’ reflections and resolutions, and flipping through years past to read the highlights and lowlights of how my life has unfolded on paper.1 I’ve used this same notebook since 2017 and it’s become a bit of an ebenezer to me—the filled pages a reminder of where I’ve been, the blank pages an invitation to where I’ve yet to go.
When I pull out my notebook to reflect on this year, some stand out moments will include:
Throwing my mom a surprise 60th birthday party in January
My friends and I dressing up for the RHOSLC reunion and having Heather Gay respond to our reel
Going into drug induced menopause for two months leading up to our last embryo transfer
Finding out said transfer resulted in a chemical pregnancy and we were out of embryos
Learning how to live a post-IVF minded life and grappling with the reality of our situation
Luke dressing up as Jesus at church on Palm Sunday, an image that brings me endless joy
Hosting family for a solar eclipse viewing party
Potty training 😵💫
Throwing my sister’s “Last Toast on the Coast” bachelorette party on the beach
My daughter’s dance recital
Swim lessons
Hosting a bridal brunch for my sister the day before her wedding
Taking a trip with Luke’s family to the Guadalupe River
Getting a new dining room table
Taking a trip with my family to Breckenridge, CO for a week and half
Reuniting with my college girlfriends at my friend Brooke’s Nancy Meyers inspired wedding in the mountains
Celebrating our 9 year anniversary and mine and Luke’s birthdays all within 2 weeks
Starting therapy for the first time
Finding a new therapist after the first wasn’t the best fit
Getting my ears double pierced (for the fourth time, this time WILL stick)
My daughter starting a mother’s day out program
Transitioning to a “big girl bed” (and 6 weeks later transitioning back to a crib)
Having endometriosis excision surgery and the subsequent recovery
Frozen on Ice and The Nutcracker all in one weekend
A girls’ trip to Dallas
Hunting trips for Luke
Packing in as many Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas activities as we can without losing our minds
There’s a lot to unpack, which is why I like to take the entire week to do so. And don’t worry, I’ll leave said unpacking for the pages of my journal, not for this post. What I do want to reflect on in this post, however, is my “Best of 2024 List.” Like any millennial woman, I am a sucker for a “best of” list, so I read on as I process through a few of my favorite books, shows, music, products, and practices because there aren’t enough of these lists in the world. I kid.
In all honesty, sharing my monthly favorites lists here is one of my favorite things to do, so sharing an end of year favorites list is extra fun. Curating these lists is a way for me to slow down and reflect on the month, or in this case, year, past and be mindful of the ways I found joy, or even sadness. They are a way for me to stay connected to my life, if you will. So without further ado, here are the top spot holders of 2024!
Reading Roundup
For starters, I want to mention two books I read in December but forgot to talk about in my December post.
The first was The Housemaid. I read this one weekend when I was craving getting lost in a book as an escape from the frenetic pace of the holiday season. I didn’t expect it to suck me in so quickly—I couldn’t put it down. Not necessarily because it was so good, but because I wanted to know what happened. I’m a couple years late to the game with this one, but it was an enjoyable weekend read.
I have much more complicated feelings about The Wedding People. I first saw this as a BOTM pick over the summer, but the infertility trigger warning caused me to skip it. When infertility is a big plot point, it’s usually the villains’ origin story or what drove a woman mad and those themes aren’t super fun for me. But I kept seeing it everywhere and it was on so many “best of” lists, plus I was emotionally in a better place, so I decided to read it. It’s not what I was expecting at all. Without giving spoilers, I expected the book to be more plot driven and to unfold similarly to A Man Called Ove, but it was so much more character driven than I thought. Infertility also wasn’t as big of a plot point as I expected, which I appreciated, but I also went in thinking I would relate more to the main character than I did. My expectations heavily influenced my opinion of this book, which is why I’m still working out how I feel about it.
Okay, on to an overview of 2024 reading.
This year I switched from using Good Reads to track my reading to Story Graph and I haven’t looked back. Not only does Story Graph allow you to track your books, make reading goals and lists, and rate and review books (with half, quarter, and three-quarter star ratings), it also, as its name implies, gives you a graphic representation of your reading data.
These are just a couple of examples of the data Story Graph provides, but it’s been really interesting to see the breakdown in the types of books I’m drawn to because I would not describe my typical reading taste as “emotional” or my top genre as “contemporary” but alas, the data doesn’t lie.
Another reading practice I adopted this year was abandoning books I didn’t love. Ground breaking, I know.
For the past few years, all of my reading has been in service to my reading goal2 and abandoning books meant all that time devoted to reading them “didn’t count”. Not to mention if I purchased the book, it felt like I wasn’t being a good steward of my resources. But this year, I have allowed myself to DNF books I can tell I am not into. Part of this it due to me slowly changing my mindset around reading goals and part of it is due to borrowing more books from the library/other people, where the stakes feel lower if I’m not feeling the story.
This is still hard for me to do, if you read my last post, you know I forced myself to finish a book I hated just a few weeks ago, but I can think of 3 books off the top of my head I’ve let myself stop and it’s starting to feel more like freedom and less like quitting.
Now onto my favorite books of the year, in chronological order…
I won’t belabor each of these books because I’ve talked about most, if not all of them, throughout the year. But 2024 has been a good reading year—as you can see from my Story Graph and from these titles, I read a variety of genres, a mix of old and new titles, and fiction along with nonfiction. I’ve had reading goals for the past several years, but I’m debating whether I want to make a goal this year because as 2024 winds down, I’m finding myself racing through books sheerly to mark them off my list rather than savoring their words. Having a goal has been great for encouraging me to read more, but I’m wondering if the goal is becoming more important than the actual reading itself?
Entertainment Honorable Mentions
Television/Movies
For the Bravo fans amongst us, it’s no secret that 2024 has delivered on (almost) every level. This article from The Cut looks into some of the highs and lows of this season, while this post from Lucy on the Ground recognizes some of the network’s highlights of the year.
Aside from Bravo shows, though, I watched and loved (or loved to hate) some other things this year:
The Traitors (new season premieres January 1!!)
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
Shrinking
Wicked
Inside Out 2
Hit Man
Music
Do you think I liked Sabrina Carpenter this year? This is the first year someone has dethroned Taylor Swift or Kacey Musgraves, who normally vie for my top spot—it’s definitely the first year Kacey hasn’t even been in my top 5! This is also the year where my daughter’s musical taste has influenced my top songs, as evidenced by Let it Go and Sky Full of Stars.3 John Mayer is a top 5 staple, Forrest Frank is a new addition, and I’m honestly confused as to how Beyoncé made her way in, although I did give Cowboy Carter many a listen when it first dropped.
I feel like I listened to more music this year than in years past, opting for music over podcasts more and more, which has not been my norm before now.
What’s Cooking
2024 was the year of switching from digital to analog recipes. This is not to say I don’t ever follow an online recipe, but making this switch has helped substantially with the overwhelm that comes with meal planning.
Before I did this, I felt like I was wading through the abyss of Pinterest searching for a recipe that checked all of my required boxes. With all the choices available, surely if I just kept looking, the algorithm would serve me the perfect recipe. And then another. And then another. For every meal that week. Rinse and repeat the next week. It felt like Groundhog’s Day.
By choosing one recipe book to cook from each week, my choices are finite, which actually grants me more freedom. There is no infinite scrolling—what I see is what I get. By having some constraints, it actually makes choosing easier. Fun has also been restored to the process because I’m now checking out different cookbooks from the library and flipping through them, searching for meals that catch my eye. Who knew such a simple shift could be so powerful? Isn’t that always how it goes, though?
Some of my favorite cookbooks this year have been:
Gadgets and Gizmos Aplenty
I’m sure I will look around my house and remember ten more items I wish I would have included on my list, but I’m not going to overthink it and just go with the first items that come to mind when I think of my best purchases of the year.
I ordered these Skims mid thigh shorts for all of my sister’s wedding festivities and haven’t looked back. The slit in the bottom makes it where you don’t have to pull an acrobatic move to use the restroom and for that feature alone, I am sold.
The car potty is the greatest invention known to toddler moms. One reason I hesitated with potty training was the fear of being trapped in the car with no bathroom in sight. When I learned car potties existed, it didn’t make me ready to potty train, exactly, but it did ease my fears. This particular one folds up and just requires a plastic shopping bag to fit over the top to use. Whenever they’re done, everything is contained in the bag so you simply tie it up and toss everything together. I keep a small plastic bin in my trunk stuffed with bags, wipes, extra clothes, and of course, this potty.
A micro-stitch gun is something you don’t need until you really need it and then you’re so thankful you have it. It also makes you the hit of wedding parties. Ask me how I know.
I’ve sung the praises of this mini fan before, but it bears repeating. This might be my best purchase of the year.
Another purchase that bears repeating is this lip replenisher. I truly cannot live without it.
I love the length of this longline sports bra for hot summer days when I’m not trying to look too Gen Z, but maybe just a little?
These crew cut socks also make me feel just the right amount of young and hip.
Love these sleep gummies so much, I set ‘em up on Subscribe and Save. That’s true love.
Having a box of cards always on hand takes some of the stress out of birthday party prepping. These are blank inside, making them perfect for any occasion.
My legging collection was exclusively black until I bought these flared leggings and now I want them in every color.
Practice Makes Perfect
Without quite realizing it, I started sharing different practices I adopted this year which have had a positive impact on my overall well being. Some of the most impactful have been:
Stopping wearing my Apple watch to decrease the amount of notifications I receive
Cooking from a cookbook rather than online recipes
Starting therapy
Regular massages
Downloading the 1000 Hours Outside tracker to mark our outside hours. We will be lucky to come in at 500 hours, which the achiever in me hates, but the motto of this program is “even if you fail, you still win” because despite the number of hours, we were still outside more this year than the previous year. Because of the tracker, I prioritized getting outside more this year. I wasn’t perfect at it, obviously, but I’m still proud I made the outdoors a priority this year. There’s probably a longer essay embedded in here somewhere— stay tuned.
Prioritizing my creativity by going through The Artist’s Way with a cohort of other women
Joining Exhale
Writing weekly on Substack.
This year has been rife with heartache and disappointment, so much was out of my control. One element of my life I could control, though, was showing up here each week. At the beginning of the year, I had grand plans of writing consistently, but menopause and a failed embryo transfer rendered me mute. Words failed me this spring, but this summer healed me in ways I desperately needed and making the decision to publish every Friday has been part of that healing. It has helped me prioritize my creativity and made me a better writer. It has reignited the fire I had when I first starting writing. If you’re reading this, you played a part in this revitalization. Thank you for the gift of your eyeballs on my words—I know there are so many other emails fighting to be read, so the privilege of your attention is not lost on me. Thank you for giving me a reason to show up here each week. I look forward to even more words written in 2025!
If you’re interested in how I do my end of year reflections and resolutions, you can read more here
For a deeper look into this idea and for some fun ideas of different reading goals to set, check out this post.
This is actually very sweet because she became obsessed with this song after watching our wedding video where the song plays during our reception footage. She then began to request “our song” on repeat throughout the summer.
Loved your newsletter! I loved so many of the same books that you read this year. And I echo what other people said, love the idea of a separate notebook for end of year reflections! Thank you also for sharing the practices that have helped you this year. Good for you for not continuing with a therapist who wasn’t a good fit!
And thanks for linking to my post. :)
Ahh what a brilliant idea to keep a separate notebook for end of year reflections!!
Loved every bit of this post. ❤️