A very late recap of 2025

Happy New Year!

Happy Valentine’s Day?

 

Okay, this is probably the latest recap of a year ever, but let’s ignore that, shall we? The truth is this has been sitting in my drafts since New Year’s Day and I’ve just been too lazy to finish it. But I’m determined to post it, even though it’s February now. Shhh. Just don’t look at the date.

 

We’re also gonna skip writing a good intro and just go straight into the recap. Here we go. XD

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JANUARY

 

I had a little photoshoot in the snow with some wintery books, got some really nice pictures, and then only posted like two of them on Instagram. (I always do this.) Oh, and I built a snowman.

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MARCH

 

I turned 27 and Sunrise on the Reaping came out. Which was the WORST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER, thanks, Suzanne Collins. *faint strains of “happy birthday, Haymitch!” go echoing through my mind and I drift off into the heartbreaking abyss* Anyway, this was the month that this book and the entire Hunger Games series officially took over my life and shattered my heart over and over and over.

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APRIL

 

I went to a gospel concert featuring three great artists—Gold City, Michael Booth, and the Erwins (who are one of my favorite groups and it was wonderful to FINALLY see them in concert).

The Erwins

Michael Booth

Gold City

Michael Booth is part of my favorite gospel group, the Booth Brothers, but he was appearing as a soloist here. I’ve seen the Booth Brothers live many times, but even though I have (and love) all his solo albums, it was really special to finally see him perform solo. I listened to his first solo album over and over when I was fifteen, during one of the most pivotal times of my life when I was coming out of some pretty tough darkness. I had Michael sign that album and was able to briefly tell him about why it’s so special to me, and he was so, so kind, caring, and appreciative. Each time I’ve had the opportunity to talk to him has been so lovely, and I really wish I would have gotten a picture this time in particular because it was one of my very favorite moments of the year.

 

Later that month a small tornado hit my town (roughly a mile away from where I was currently at work :P), did some damage to the elementary school, tore the roof off my friend’s family’s shop, and brought with it some INSANE flash flooding. Oh, and this was the second tornado we had that month (the first one being EF-3). Fun times. Welcome to spring in Missouri.

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MAY

 

Long story short, while my car was parked at work, a rock flew from a weedwhacker and hit my passenger window. Which was mostly amusing to me, especially when I watched the security camera footage of the glass suddenly cracking all over and then just giving up and shattering a couple minutes later. XD (What’s even funnier is that this is the second time that car has been damaged in that same parking lot.)

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 JULY

 

We got a new addition to our family—a yellow Lab puppy we named Mack. After this guy.

 

Since our chocolate Lab passed away last year, my dog had been a bit lonely, so (among other reasons) we wanted to get him another companion. And these guys are the best of friends.

Realm Makers happened! It was a quieter year for me conference-wise, but I still had a great time, learned a lot, cosplayed as Lenore Dove from Sunrise on the Reaping, visited a new city, and marked off my 25^th-visited state. A great time all around. (full recap of that HERE!)

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AUGUST

 

More gospel concerts! This time it was a multiple-day event that brought in a bunch of different groups—some I’d seen before, plus a few new ones. It was wonderful. 

Greater Vision

The Whisnants

Jim and Melissa Brady

Mark Trammell Quartet

The Hoppers

Gold City

Tribute Quartet

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OCTOBER

 

I saw the Jonas Brothers for the first time in concert on their Jonas 20 tour!

 

I always liked the Jonas Brothers growing up, of course (Camp Rock, DUH, plus their TV show on Disney Channel was hysterical), but I never really ventured into their music past what I knew from Disney Channel. But since I’m an adult now with money and a brother who will drive me places (XD), I thought it would be fun to finally see them live, and I was RIGHT. They were awesome, and it was so fun and nostalgic to hear some of their songs from my childhood. It was also fun to see Franklin the bonus Jonas perform as one of their openers (the other opener was a bad experience and we don’t talk about them), and Natasha Bedingfield appear as their special guest for the night. I’ve heard a total of two Natasha Bedingfield songs in my life (one of them was from Tinker Bell XD), but hearing her perform Unwritten live was another nostalgic highlight.

Frankin Jonas!

Natasha Bedingfield!

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NOVEMBER

 

The Northern Lights appeared over Missouri again, and man, was it breathtaking. I was able to see them last October, I believe, and never in my life did I think I would have the opportunity to see them not once but TWICE from my own front yard. My parents thought I was crazy standing outside in the dark and cold, but they were so captivating and just overtook me with awe for God and His creation.

 

I painted a Christmas picture on the window at my job again—this is the fourth or fifth year running, and I always enjoy doing it.

 

The first Sunrise on the Reaping teaser trailer came out, and, um, well, I’ll just drop some screenshots of the texts I sent my sister after watching it to give you a hint at how I felt about that.

I met John Schneider! This was so incredibly unexpected because I found out about it days before, and he was appearing at a little shop in a tiny town very, very near where I live. But he’s always been a favorite in our house, and growing up I saw him in more shows and movies than just about any other actor, it was wonderful to finally get to meet him. (incidentally, Felicity: An American Girl Adventure just happened to fall in me and my sisters’ yearly American Girl movie rotation the night before, so we prepared accordingly. XD)

(that's my sister on the left.)

 

I started a new position on the Havok volunteer team! For the past year or so, I’d been a proofreader, which I enjoyed for its ease and flexibility. But I wanted to stretch myself and try something new should the opportunity arise. And, well, it did, and now I’m one of the daily theme editors!

 

When approached with the prospect, I ALMOST said no, almost stayed settled back in my comfy little proofreading position. But I told myself, no, silly, this is the perfect opportunity to go beyond your comfort zone, try something new, grow yourself and your skills. And honestly, it’s been wonderful so far. I’m very excited to be learning more and improving my skills and getting to know new people, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me in the future.

 

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DECEMBER

 

I saw For King + Country live again, this time on their A Drummer Boy Christmas tour! A little backstory: several years ago, back before I was super into them, I almost got to see them on their Christmas tour, but it didn’t work out. Last year I was finally able to see them on their Unsung Hero tour, which was absolutely amazing and got me 100% hooked on their music, but I still hoped to see a Christmas show sometime. Then they announced they weren’t going to be touring regularly in 2025, which bummed me out because I’d JUST gotten to see them for the first time and now I didn’t know when I’d next get the chance.

 

So, I was so very pleasantly surprised and excited when they announced a limited Christmas tour and St. Louis was on the list of cities. It was the most beautiful show, possibly even better than the first one, and I just love them so much. (another shoutout to my brother who drives me places. XD) It was super cool to be among the first to hear their newest song live. Also, I got to hear Fix My Eyes live again, which is one of my all-time favorite songs and inspired my phrase for 2025 (more on that later). Another one of the best moments of the year.

 

I went to a Jubilee Christmas concert in Branson, Missouri—more gospel music! This isn’t something that comes up here on the blog much, but Southern gospel music has had a huge impact on my life, and it started back in 2013 when I went to my first Jubilee concerts (featuring Greater Vision, the Booth Brothers, and Legacy Five). The Christmas one I went to with my family on December 15^th, 2013, was truly one of the best days of my life, and had an impact on me like not many things have. It was the real start of my personal journey with God (maybe I’ll talk more about that sometime), and one of the fondest memories I’ve ever made. I was able to attend one more Jubilee Christmas a few years later in 2016, which was also wonderful; but since then, the Jubilee thing has sort of faded, first with one group unable to participate anymore, until eventually they never toured together at all, and just thinking about it made me sad, because it was such a high point in my life.

 

Anyway, I found out that they were reuniting for ONE show in Branson, and was basically willing to move heaven and earth to find a way to go, even though it was several hours away. It wasn’t quite the same as Jubilees past—Michael Booth wasn’t there, which was a huge disappointment for me, and it was just a different type of concert because it was a small part of a bigger event—but, oh, I’m so glad I went. What a beautiful time to be able to experience a Jubilee Christmas again in any capacity. Those singers and those Christmas songs will always be so incredibly special to me.

 

Also, the venue was breathtaking, and now I want to go back to Branson and explore.

 

Now for some other recaps from the year!

 

READING

 

This was probably the best reading year I’ve had in a while—in quality AND quantity. I still didn’t read as much as I would have liked, but compared to the pathetic number of books I’ve read the past year or two (purely laziness, mind you), I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and I reached my Reading Challenge goal for the first time in a few years!

 

Some notable reading moments:

 

Darkend by Crystal D. Grant—book 3 in the Gateway Trilogy by Crystal D. Grant (who also happens to be my sister). Guys, I’m not exaggerating or being partial when I say that this book was by far my favorite in the series—unheard of for me, because it takes a LOT to impress me on the final book in a series!! But, well, I’m not gonna try to go into unspoilerish detail. Just go read the whole series, mmkay? Mmkay.

 

The Hunger Games—after I read Sunrise on the Reaping, I just had to reread the original Hunger Games trilogy, thus beginning a Hunger Games/dystopian-obsessed era that I didn’t quite see coming. (I’ve loved THG since I watched/read them for the first time a few years ago, but I never loved them THIS much until SOTR. It changed how I saw Haymitch and basically the whole story and now I feel like I’ve gained Swiftie-level conspiracy theorizing skills.) Then I finally read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which I’d been avoiding for a while but ended up enjoying (as much as one can enjoy over 500 pages of nothing but Coriolanus Snow -_-)… and then I read Sunrise on the Reaping again. Whoops.

 

Divergent—mind you, I said notable reading MOMENTS, not favorites! Because, wow, I read these for the first time after THG set off a dystopian mood and, haha, I hated them! :D I’m usually not a harsh critic, and especially knowing that the sequels weren’t especially favored by its fans, I wasn’t expecting to super love it. But I also wasn’t expecting to come out of it having discovered possibly my least favorite series, protagonist, romantic relationship, and basically EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE BOOK of all time. Like… it was bad, guys. I don’t often straight-up say something was bad, but it was so bad. And now I have to stop talking about it because if I don’t I’ll ramble on and on and on about how atrocious 99% of this series was to me and I’ve already exhausted myself doing that to anybody who will listen.

 

If you love this series, well, good for you. I could never. XD (And if you hate it… hit me up so we can rant together. Lol. Kidding. But not really.)

 

Echo Nova by Clint Hall—woohoo, one of my most unexpected favorites of the year!! This was a thrilling time travel story that grabbed me from the very beginning and didn’t let go until it was the end and I was going “NO DON’T BE OVER YET”. One of my favorite Enclave books this year, possibly ever!

 

The City Between—okay, I first read about these on Christine’s blog, and this year I read the first three books and LOVED them. They are nooot my chosen genre at all, and honestly they confuse me and I pretty highly dislike the three psychos most of the time and there’s some weird stuff about them that I’m not sure about, but they’re so… fun?? And addicting? And I love the vines? And I’m very much looking forward to finishing the series this year, because YES. (as of posting this, I’ve currently just started book 4 and am very much enjoying being back with these guys again.)

 

Harry Potter—I started reading Harry Potter for the first time on September 1^st, and finished up in January! I thoroughly enjoyed them—more than I thought I would, honestly. I enjoyed the movies, which I watched for the first time a few years ago, but they weren’t necessarily favorites. Well, for once I can confidently say the books are better than the movies. Shocker, I know! (I’ll never forgive The Order of the Phoenix movie for all the emotional stuff they left out from the book. SHAME.) Anyway, it’s been so lovely and cozy reading these through these chillier months, and it’s nice to finally have the whole series under my belt. (I also read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which I actually quite enjoyed as well!)

 

WATCHING

 

Agents of SHIELD—After rewatching the first few seasons and finally getting around to watching the rest, I finished watching Agents of SHIELD (with my brother and parents). That show truly takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, character development, plot twists, and a heck of a lot of other stuff from beginning to end. Also, it was because we’d just watched this that I encouraged my mom to name her dog Mack. But the most important thing is bounty hunter Fitz.

 

You’re welcome.

 

Harry Potter—I rewatched these as I was reading the books, which was really fun because I was able to finish reading and then almost immediately judge the book against the movie. And that’s how I discovered that (in my opinion) the movies truly are not as good as the books. They’re wonderful, yes, but my goodness, they leave SO MUCH out of the books that you really miss once you’ve read them. (Just to name one, the Weasley family’s whole falling out with Percy and how that turns out. It was so good and they just ignored it completely in the movies and it makes me so sad. : ()

 

The Hunger Games—like I said, after reading SOTR (how many times have I mentioned SOTR in this post?) I wanted to watch the movies again, and somehow I loved them even more this time. Even though the whole time watching them I was in pain thinking about Haymitch and everything he went through. Ugh, Suzanne Collins, you monster. (I want to be you when I grow up.)

 

This was also one of my sisters’ first time watching the movies, and she could never remember anybody’s names so she kept calling Haymitch Sammich. -_-

Oh, AND I watched The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes for the first time. A good movie, but definitely my least favorite because... over two hours of nothing but Coriolanus Snow. -_- (but also SEJANUUUUS)

 

WRITING

 

Still plugging away at Look for the Flares! The climax has been giving me major problems and tempting me to throw my laptop out the window, but I have refrained! Currently I’m taking a bit of a break from rewriting said climax and 1-cleaning up a chapter at a time for my sisters to read, and 2-trying to nail down some worldbuilding (not one of my strengths!). So much has changed about this story over the past few years and even months, and it’s hard to keep up with my own writing sometimes.

 

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I thought 2025 was going to be a year of change—the year I finally buckled down and did some things I’d been putting off, made some big life choices and some scary steps. Actually, it was none of that. Turns out, 2025 was the year I needed to realize just how much work I needed God to do in me. Like I mentioned earlier, my phrase for the year was “fix my eyes”—to turn away from absolutely everything that made me doubt, struggle, or question, and fix my eyes on Jesus and nothing else. And in doing that, somehow He gave me a look inside myself, too, and revealed to me just how much growth I needed. How many parts of myself I needed to be absolutely ripped to shreds and replaced with pieces of Him.

 

I look back at 2025 and see all the time and opportunities I wasted, that I could have spent seeking more closeness to God. I feel like the amount of growth in my relationship with Him over the past year was a joke—it could have been so much better, so much deeper, I could have shown so much more faith. But that’s the kind of thing I need to turn away from and fix my eyes back on Jesus, and that’s what I’ve been practicing. Because no matter how I feel, how the world looks, how people around me act, Jesus doesn’t change. Seeking His love and peace and light in the middle of a dark, chaotic world, in the middle of all my messy feelings and doubts, is really all that matters.

I hope you all had a blessed 2025, and pray that your 2026 will be full of great things—big or small. Thank you for reading this monster of a post—maybe I’ll start doing monthly recaps again so I don’t break my brain (and yours) packing everything from a whole year into one post. XD