Here goes nothing.

I’m remembering today that I’ve been blogging since I was 13 or 15…I can’t remember the exact age, but within that range. I remember how significant it’s always been for me to get to write my thoughts for myself and to share them with others. In a way, it’s like coming home to a part of myself.

It’s the thing I’ve missed the most the last few years as I stepped back from my photography career and took the last few years to spend more time with my family and to launch Pursue Whole. But it has been on my list of desires every year since. And this year, I’ve promised myself I would return to it. So today is day 1 of keeping that promise to myself!

It’s intimidating to return to something after such a long time. I’m a bit rusty. And the tech is so different. And don’t I need to have everything perfectly setup and presentable? I used to think this way. But Charity that has spent some years healing and getting my butt kicked trying to live into that expectation for myself has/is learning to let a lot go. So, ready or not, here we go!

To start, I thought I’d take the time to do a Yearly recap and and share my intentions for the New Year. I always enjoy hearing what’s on other’s minds as we enter the new year and even more importantly, I want this to serve as public accountability for myself. No more making excuses.

2024 Recap

In 2024, we accomplished huge personal goals! Honestly, it was so refreshing. It was our 4th year into Pursue Whole, and after making so many personal and financial investments into the business those first 4 years, it was truly amazing for me and our family to put time and resources towards personal goals. I had capacity to slow down, take care of myself, and get refreshed. I’m so grateful for that.

Highlights from 2024

• Finished the flip on the fixer-upper we purchased and lived in for 3.5 years. We bought this home seeing the potential and lived with cracked tile floors, a master bath tub that didn’t work, and almost everything needing to be redone (but the AC units were new! ;)). Over three years we touched almost every inch of it, and finally finished in June 2024. We sold it for almost 2x what we purchased for (of course the home appreciation over the last 3 years was a big player in that). I’m still so proud of what we did to that beautiful 80’s home!
• We traveled 10x as a family or couple. Some of these were work trips, friend trips, family trips, and small weekend trips. It was amazing to get to do that together.
• We relocated to South Tempe to lay roots for the next decade with our boys. I loved our old home, but after two years and seeing our family life revolve around Tempe between school and family friends, it started to not make sense anymore. I thought we’d live there a lot longer. But now I rarely drive on the freeway (which was my daily norm to get anywhere from our old home) and I love how many kiddos are at our home on a weekly basis simply due to proximity. We have plans to add our Maurer touches to this home too (maybe I’ll blog about that ;)) but just enjoying for now and taking a breather from home projects.
• We finished paying off Andy’s 8 years of graduate school’s student loans. We did half of this in our first years of business, but then other financial priorities arose and the business required a lot of reinvestment during early years, it just wasn’t priority. But this year we finished them out and it feels so good. That was a big goal for us!

2025 Intentions

For 2025, I’ve created a list of intentions rather than goals. They somewhat function the same, but if I’ve learned anything being an entrepreneur, mom, human etc it’s that flexibility is crucial :). So, rather than calling them goals, I’m calling them intentions, or things I “Intend to do” that provide direction for what I plan to pursue. For me, this gives the freedom as a recovering perfectionist to allow things to change and evolve as needed. I do pull from these to set specific quarterly, weekly, and daily goals using my Full Focus Planner (def recommend).

My verse for the year:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you where you go.” – Joshua 1:9

Unlike 2024, Andy and I have determined together that 2025 is a year to swing the pendulum again and significantly reinvest into Pursue Whole. This makes me 10x more grateful for the year we are coming off of. We desperately needed that year after 3 years into a new business. But this year feels like it’s time to play it more conservative on the personal front and make investments for the business again. This is not my place of comfort. Hence my verse. But I’m bought in. I’m just praying for the courage and strength this year to ride the entrepreneurial waves. You’d think this would get easier after more than a decade owning/running businesses, but it doesn’t. For better and worse, here we go again. 🙂

• Family
  • Invest into hobbies and interests for the kids. I’m sensing that Achilles and Cyrus are at pivitol ages for self-development and exploration. We have historically been conservative about extra-curricular activites because we don’t like the pressure it puts on our family schedule, but there are a few things I want to intentionally create space for the boys to dive into this year.
  • Wednesdays with Max. I decided to take Max out of school on Wednesdays this last semester of preschool with “big school” on the horizon. This has costs for me, my schedule, and my emotional capacity but I’m delighted to get to make that choice. My intention is to spend one-on-one time with him for those last special memories before elementary school starts. He is so fun and such a joy.
  • Define our home as an Alcohol-free home. This is something we want to try out this year. Andy and I are both one-ish drink a year people and have always been open to others bringing drinks to get-togethers at our home. However, after having discussions on what we feel alcohol sometimes brings to gatherings and defining “Authentic Connection” as one of our family’s core values, it just makes sense to us and for our home. I think we’d like to challenge others to find connection outside of alcohol playing a role, create safety with being a home that hosts a lot of kids, and are just interested in experimenting with this.
• Faith
  • Doing Alabaster’s Bible in a Year study. Week two down, not sure this is what I’ll continue to do all year as I’m not sold on the format being right for my season, but continuing with it for now.
• Fitness
  • Continue with formed habits of at least 5 workouts a week and tracking macros for accountability, but continue to tweak and experiment with what feels truly “good”. Sometimes I feel overly exhausted by my current workout schedule and want to keep experimenting with what feels “optimal” and allows for good recovery. Working out specific goals with my weekly/daily reflections with my full focus planner.
• Finance
  • Meet 2025 retirement threshold savings
  • Save the difference in our adjusted monthly health plan payment. This year I switched our share program to low monthly payment and high deductible and want to experiment with saving the monthly difference for ourselves instead. Realizing maxing out the high deductible is only 3k more a year than original plan, and in the years we don’t have major health needs, saving the difference seems smart. I’ll see how this goes and hopefully I don’t regret it! 🙂
  • Support PW through a year of reinvestment. I like intentions because I don’t know how to make this a goal, but it is a mindset I’m comitting to for the year. I like to budget and control financial flows, but the varying needs and income of a business have completely destroyed almost every plan I’ve ever set in place before. This year I want to fight it less, embrace it, and lead with trust, courage, and hope for what we desire to build.
• Fun
  • Kauai to see Teena! I’ve never been to Hawaii, and a best friend moving there is definitely a good reason!! I really hope this can happen this year, but currently holding tension with the complexity of this year so we will see.
  • Beach trip with the kids. Maurer fam loves the beach. Not sure how much family travel will be a part of this year, but at least one beach trip is important to me this year.
  • Celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary and my 35th bday <3. Big year!
• Learn
  • Take the NASM personal training certification. No idea how this will be applied in my life, but it’s been on my mind since last year. Excited for what it will shape in me with my own fitness journey (I want to blog about this!) but also curious how it may be applicable to future PW projects.
  • Read 10 books: parenting, theology, fitness, finance topics
• Create
  • blog 40x this year. Just want to put in reps and see where it takes me.
  • Dream up and create mood boards for eventual home remodel

That’s it!!

And now, to ask for a favor. If any of those topics are of mild interest to you and you’d be interested to hear more, would you drop a comment below and let me know? I love writing about helpful habits, rituals, and things I’ve found that make life better, easier, or presented valuable gain. My plan is to break down a few topics on here from practical finance to fitness or home design, but I’d love to do that with feedback on what is interesting to others and not just myself :). Thank YOU!

Xoxo,

Charity