I don’t know about you, but 2025 was a year of interesting twists and turns. I would not say it was an overly harsh year, but rather a year of growing and learning.

I read a lot of great books in 2025. I recorded 26 of them on my Goodreads account, but I don’t always share every book I read. 😉

Here are my top favorites from the book reviews I shared with you…

It’s a TIE between Such a Pretty Picture and The Things They Didn’t See for the fiction books I’ve read.

In regards to the nonfiction books, I read a few of them, but none were worth the extra attention. HOWEVER, in January 2026, there is a review going live that I will be prompting a lot because this nonfiction book is one I feel any aspiring writer should read.

My top movie picks for 2025:

We watched a lot of great movies this year, and my daughter and I even experienced our own real-life Ripple moment (there’s a wonderful Netflix series by that name, and I shared how our ripple unfolded this year in my review). Still, the movie that ended up feeling the most meaningful, especially as we watched it at the beginning of 2025, was The Life List.

In my review, I wrote about my desire to finally pursue the dreams on my childhood life list. And now, I can honestly say I’m well on my way to making those dreams a reality.

The movie that shocked me the most as being worth watching was the Sketch movie. It was great for all viewers over the age of at least 6 or 7. I didn’t expect to like that movie as much as I did.

On a Personal Note

I have had a challenging year healthwise. I ended up in the hospital, almost having a stroke. I got there in time for them to get meds in me to prevent my blood pressure from reaching that level. But ironically enough, that happened right before I got the green light to take part in helping a local equine therapy center grow and thrive. Considering that event scared the living tar out of me, it was an eye-opening experience too. I’ve faced death many times over in my life, but for some reason, this one was more impactful.

Maybe it’s because I’m almost 50, my last child is a teenager, maybe it’s the fact that I now have grandkids, or I haven’t been happy with my current job….who knows. Either way, it got my head out of my behind enough to push for what I truly wanted in life.

My daughter and I got all the tack we need at this point for Christmas because my family is so thrilled to see me get back into the horse world fully. My husband told me to let him know when he has to build the fence, and he’ll make it happen. (We have a place we can clear out and use as a barn already.) And I’m counting down till we can officially start our project in 2026.

We became indoor cat owners, which is something I never dreamed I’d do. They have a 1/4 of my office as a huge cat zone now. Cats seem to be far more entertaining than dogs. My dogs love to play with them, too. To me, that was a rather interesting outcome.

I feel like my marriage has reached a new level. That may be because I’m feeling like myself again. I do want to recommend that you do take some wise advice of surprising your spouse sexually in some form at least once a week. It doesn’t have to be something drastic.

Talk to us in the comments:

How was 2025 for you? I’d love to hear about it.

Happy New Year!!

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