Years ago, I followed one of my favorite writers, Emily P Freeman, on a quarterly habit of reflection. Now that I’m getting some of my pink back after having two kids in two years, it feels like a good time to revisit the practice.
It’s important to look back before moving forward, to document what we’ve learned (or continue to learn). No lesson is too small. After all, as author Jan Johnson says, “it’s not the experience that brings transformation, it’s our reflection upon our experience.”
Looking to start your own habit of looking back before moving forward? I wrote a post about what I look for and some of the tools I use to uncover what I’m learning.
Here are 11 things I learned this winter.
The trunk of my car won’t open unless the car is in park.
See, no lesson is too small. This seems logical, but I’ve only had this car for about a year, and I didn’t know. We ordered a produce box from a local produce rescue, and I picked it up the morning of Valentine’s Day. As I was moving forward slowly in the line, I tried to open my trunk, but it wouldn’t. Then it dawned on me I needed to be in park. And now I know.
How to make homemade spaghetti sauce.
Ok, admittedly, we haven’t eaten it yet. For the first time, we were able to score a “rescued produce” box from a nonprofit in our area. $20 for almost 70 pounds of produce, and more than 22 pounds of it were tomatoes. While we split the box with another family, I still had a lot of tomatoes left. So I made spaghetti sauce from scratch for the first time. I will report back once we try it. (I also learned a lot, so expect a kitchen lesson coming up soon).
Vacuum the dusty furniture first.
I have known for a long time that I am more tidy than I am clean. I like things put away, in their place. But I don’t feel the need to vacuum every week. So, naturally, we get some (larger) dust bunnies, especially in relatively untouched places like behind the TV or on the nightstand shelf. Previously. I’d spray some dusting spray and wipe it away. But it would leave my cloth with a lot of clumpy dust on it. Why have I not considered vacuuming them up before now? Just vacuum it. (Informal poll: be honest – which camp do you fall into? Do you vacuum the dust off the furniture before you wipe it down?)
In 2016, I was really brave.
You don’t always see it when you’re in the thick of it, but looking back, she was a badass and did a lot of really hard things.
A.A. Milne was a man.
The kids have been watching Winnie the Pooh, so I looked for the book at the library recently. I always assumed A.A. was a woman’s initials or a pen name. Nope, Alan Alexander. He served in WW1, and his son, Christopher Robin, served in WW2.
Sometimes, the nudgings from God we think are for someone else are really for us.
You know what I mean? Those words that repeat in your head, or that still small whisper you hear when you’re thinking about someone or something. Often, I think those words are actually for someone else. Especially if I’ve just been chatting with someone.
But sometimes a nudge from God isn’t because someone else needs the words; instead, we need to be focused enough to hear them for ourselves. On a trip last month, I chatted with my seatmate. During the short flight, some words started bouncing around in my head. I thought they might be for her, so I shared them with her. But the more I sat with them, the more I realized they were actually for me.
A paper planner can be really helpful.
Is this just because I’m a child of the 90s and our schools gave us paper planners every year?
Anyway, I bought a paper planner for the first time in years. A big one, just bigger than a sheet of paper. It has big daily spaces and a monthly calendar. I find myself using it for blog brainstorming, noting what day and time I make a post, recording house things (like when a filter was changed or when I last cleaned the bathrooms), and keeping track of my workouts. The last few times I’ve gotten a paper planner, I’ve mostly left it unused. Mapping out a month of writing makes me feel less “fly by the seat of my pants,” and more like “I kind of have a plan.”
There’s a lot of math in baking.
I knew this, but also not really. I’ve been watching a lot of the Great British Baking Show and noticed they use scales to measure ingredients far more often than anything else. I think I’ve even seen them measuring liquids by weight. Is this a thing?
Because of this show, I now have a list of things I’d like to try to make, including a cake and brownies from scratch, crème pat, and choux buns. First up – a from-scratch birthday cake for a birthday celebration this week. I’ve been making my own buttercream for a few years now, but never a whole cake. Wish me luck.
I read 9 books in 2025.
After having 2 babies close together, it’s nice to have some motivation to engage with long-form writing. I feel like I have a bit of brain space back. Husband and I have started reading on weekend mornings in the hour before the kids get up, instead of turning on tv. And I’ve been practicing reaching for my Kindle instead of Facebook during downtime at home with the kids. It’s slow, and I’m not great at it, but I’m trying.
How to use a new camera lens.
I’ve never bought a lens that didn’t come with the camera body. To be fair, I didn’t buy this one either, but my in-laws gifted me a beautiful 50mm lens for my birthday. It’s taking some getting used to, but I’m pulling out my camera more often these days, and that’s lovely.
I love watching people live fully as themselves.
I didn’t watch any of the Olympics, which is usually where I revel in people living out their gifts. But recently, I stumbled upon a video featuring Jacob Collier. (This is the video. It’s long, but so good. And so fun to watch him put everything together.) I found myself almost brought to tears by his energy and sheer joy. He was not only using his gifts but enjoying them, and in turn bringing joy to us. We need more of this in the world.
Do you have a regular habit of reflection? If not, I encourage you to sit down with a cup of something warm and spend a little time seeing what you’ve learned. What you find might surprise you.
