I can’t believe I am already writing this post because it felt like 2025 went by so fast! This year was very transformational for me because I started out the year deciding I was ready to be a mom, got pregnant, and then had a baby! Last December, having a baby was not even on my radar. However, I am so happy that I now have a healthy baby girl!
In this post, I am going to cover a 2024 goals recap and share some of my favorite products. Like my 2024 goals recap post, I am going to go through the goals I had made in 2025 and whether I reached them or not. This year, I also did a mid-year check-in, so I have tweaked them just a bit since I had made my goals without knowing that pregnancy and having a baby were in my near future! So, I will be going off the goals that I adjusted mid-year.
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2025 Goals Recap
Financial
Pay off Danny’s student loans – Completed June 2025
At this point, it feels like this was forever ago! We did pay off Danny’s student loans, which would have made us completely debt-free… but then Danny bought a truck. However, it is so nice not to have student loans weighing on us anymore. Instead, we can focus on saving and investing more (and now paying off a new truck hahaha).
Max out my Roth IRA – Completed September 2025
Maxing out my Roth IRA is a goal of mine every year. 2023 was the first year that I was able to max it out. This year, I was able to max out my Roth in September, which was the same as 2024! I now have a pension through my work, but I want to continue contributing to my Roth as my primary since I will not be vested in my pension.
Save a down payment for a house – Completed (ish?)
I didn’t have a specific goal as to how much I wanted saved for a down payment. Our lease is up in June, and I would say that, at this trajectory, we could probably buy a house in Texas. We wanted it to be our last year renting, however… We are moving back to Washington this year! We don’t want to buy a house outright after another cross-country move, so we are going to rent again. I think it is probably for the best so that we can continue to save for another year since the housing market is improving, but still not great (especially in Washington).
Hobbies
Sew a quilt – Completed January 2025
This year, I definitely got back into sewing and quilting! I sewed a full quilt and a baby quilt. I also have another large quilt front waiting to be basted. I also decided to sew another, more girly baby quilt for Lainey (since the previous one I sewed before knowing her gender), so I started working on Sawtooth blocks for that project. Next year, I want to continue to quilt, and I am so excited because there are a few baby quilts I need to work on for pregnant friends!
Read 52 Books – Completed December 2025
I was very much up to the wire on my reading goal this year. Originally, my goal had been 100 books, but after becoming pregnant, I wasn’t reading much due to nausea and fatigue. I did a lot of sleeping this year. Postpartum, I have been reading a lot since I am up breastfeeding at all hours of the night. I am trying not to be on my phone as much and doomscrolling, so I have replaced that with reading on my Kindle.
By December 31st, I will have completed this goal. There is a week left in the year as of writing this post, and I have 4 more books to read, but I am almost done reading my current book. I am focusing on shorter books, and since I have *lots* of free time during contact naps, I am pretty sure I will complete my reading goal.
Some of my favorite books this year have been:
- The Compound by Aisling Rawle
- Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
- The Perfect Marriage & The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
- The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
Try sewing clothing
I did not end up sewing clothing because I am a perfectionist and realized that I need a serger to get the quality of clothing that I want. However, after having a baby, sewing baby/kids’ clothing (as well as clothing to fit my new postpartum body) has become an even bigger goal of mine. So, I want to focus more on this goal in 2026.
Travel
Take an international trip – Completed May/June 2025
Denmark and Sweden were our international trip for this year! I am hoping international trips aren’t something that I have to give up now that we have a baby, but I know it’s probably not in the books in 2026 since our PTO is going towards maternity/paternity leave and our cross-country move.
Visit 5 new Texas State Parks
There has been no change to this goal since my mid-year check-in. Originally, my goal was to visit 10 State Parks, which went down to 5 mid-year. We visited one new Texas State Park on January 1st, and none since! I did go to Big Bend, but being so tired this year, long road trips to visit new State Parks were not in the books, and I didn’t do much camping since I was pregnant during the prime camping months.
Blog
Have 100,000 pageviews
This was a very ambitious goal because I had never had 100,000 pageviews (even during my peak year), and I wasn’t super active with my blog. I did not complete this goal, but it’s a milestone I am going to shoot for every year. Like reading, pregnancy made me neglect working on my blog and posting as much. Less posting means fewer views. During my mid-year check-in, I was sitting at around 20,000 views for the year. With about a week left in the year as of this post, I am sitting at around 35,000 pageviews. Not my best year, but I am hopeful that I will have more time to put into my blog next year and will get back to my “roots” when I move back to Washington! Texas has not been great for my blog motivation.
Make $1,000 from the blog
This is another goal that I want to make for next year. With the little effort I put in, I made around $250. So, I didn’t reach my goal, but it maintained the cost to keep my blog up and running.
Post 20 times on the blog
When I posted during my mid-year check-in, I had only posted on my blog TWICE. As of now (and including this post), I have posted 13 times. So I didn’t quite reach this goal, but the second half of the year was much better than the first half! Next year, I want to attempt once a week.
Baby
My baby goals were all new and added during my mid-year check-in!
Walk 30 minutes and do 15 minutes of pelvic floor/core strengthening exercises daily
I didn’t track this goal great, but I will say that after the first trimester, I was walking at least once for 30 minutes a day, probably every day until I went into labor. At 37 weeks, I even did a walking challenge at my work, and when tracking my steps, I usually got around 10,000- 12,000 daily without any extra walks. n terms of pelvic floor and core strengthening, I didn’t do great. This is something I want to work on now, postpartum. I am honestly looking forward to my 6-week follow-up so that I can be cleared and get back into a workout routine!
Prep 10 freezer meals by November – Completed November 2025
I did end up prepping a ton of freezer meals for postpartum in October and November! I think that it is worth it for freezer meals, but for future pregnancies, I would probably go with different meals. I did a lot of soups with potatoes, which I have come to realize do not freeze and reheat great. However, I made a ton of breakfast burritos, which were a hit! Since my mom was staying with us for the first 3 weeks postpartum, she ended up cooking us a lot of homemade meals, so the postpartum meals weren’t super necessary anyway!
Take a labor class for unmedicated births – Completed November 2025
Danny and I took a lot of classes to prepare for postpartum and birth, which I think was helpful for him since he does not have a nursing background or much experience with kids! The breastfeeding class was most helpful for me, and I think it prepared me well for postpartum. We did take an online labor class for both medicated and unmedicated births. I ended up not having an unmedicated birth, but I am still glad I took the class.
2025 Goals Recap
There was room for improvement when it came to my 2025 goals and resolutions, but I am not disappointed! 2025 was so good to me and it brought me my baby girl! I can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store.
Thanks for reading this 2025 goals recap! As always, you can find me on Instagram @maddie_deer here, or can follow me on my Facebook page to be alerted of any new posts here. Did you have goals for 2025? If so, let me know what they were in the comments below (or what your 2026 goals will be!).
