Gratitude Over Resolutions

We look back at 2025 with grounded gratitude, pull forward the routines and moments that worked, and challenge the “dumpster fire” mindset with simple, research-backed practices. From school transitions and multigenerational travel to homemade snacks, community, and pregnancy at 40, we share what helped and how to start now.

• reflecting on wins to carry into 2026
• gratitude as a daily practice that shifts mood
• making change before January rather than waiting
• school-age transitions and family travel memories
• personal 2.0 through movement, creativity and faith
• replacing convenience foods with easy homemade options
• teaching kids wants vs needs and giving back
• dinner table prompts for positive focus
• self-care, boundaries and grace in a busy season

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Transcript

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Welcome & Year-End Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello, and welcome to Unapologetically Mom, the podcast for moms of all stages. I'm Dr. Tanya, here with my co-host Dr. Jenny. We'll be sharing tips, tricks, and unfiltered stories that will inspire, normalize, and educate moms during every stage of motherhood. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Unapologetically Mom.

Reflecting With Gratitude

SPEAKER_00 0:35

We are going to talk today about kind of wrapping up 2025 as this episode will drop kind of right around Christmas. Um, and just looking back on the year, reflecting more on um, more with gratitude, I think, than anything else. And looking at what happened this past year that went really well, um, or that, right, like work, family, friends, whatever it might be, and bring that with you into 2026. Um, thinking about reflecting on, you know, what did we do in this last year that seemed to work well for our family? I'm sure there are things that didn't, but again, looking at and reflecting more with a grain space of gratitude is gonna be make things a little bit easier. And so, I mean, we were just talking before we pressed record, but like wreck January of 2025. Like, what were what were we doing? What did that look like? I don't even remember. I know it's so long ago. Um, I'm sure if I like flip, like I still like my paper planner, but if I flip back my paper planner, probably would jog um some memories for me. But I think big things for us this year is we really made that transition to kind of school-age kids, which was was challenging. But I think we have found some things that work well for us that we will for sure continue into um the whatever spring semester of 2026 for the girls. Um, I think a big win for us, and although probably challenging a bit, is we traveled with my mother-in-law and her her friend. Um, and I know it was very meaningful to them to be able to go to, we went to BAMP Canada. Um, and it was a lot of planning and organizing, but I

Family Transitions & Travel Wins

SPEAKER_00 2:30

think really worth it and created some really great memories for my husband and my girls and my mother-in-law. Um, that those are pretty priceless. And then for like looking at me and kind of the things I've worked on on myself this year was um I've really been trying to like work on like my um coach calls it Jenny 2.0, but kind of like the things that I have started to go make me happy now that the girls are in school, I have a bit more time. Um, and I beg I got back into swimming, which I've really, really truly enjoyed. Um, that has really brought me, yeah, I think a mood change and a mood shift because it's something that's challenging, but also something that I enjoy. And so reflecting for me, I did a lot already. And like, what are things like what is it that I like to do? What are things that bring me happiness? What are things that bring me gratitude? And how can I take that into 2026 and and make yourself 2.0? Those are those are good things to think about. Um, as yeah, as we as we were talking before, I'm like, well, our wins, their wins, like whose wins? Um, but even even right now, I see like as I'm doom scrolling on Facebook and Instagram, people are like, uh, 2025 was a dumpster fire. Like, okay, but I see that every year, right? Like I see that on the social media every year. And every year can't be a dumpster fire for you. Like, how about instead of thinking that it was the worst year ever, because that's what you said about last year, can we actually just think about like we like we're talking about some of the good things? Like, what have you done? Because I'm sure you can think of some, right? And bringing it back to our kind of medical research-based thought process in our podcast is if you end start and or end your day with gratitude and thankfulness, your brain will start to focus more on the good than the bad. Yeah. The positives instead of the it is true. Like you just start to see it more. And there is, there's a study, right? Not that we needed a study to think positively, but uh, here we are. We're having to tell you to think positively because the study said so. Is that people who thought positively about their job had better job satisfaction scores. They literally just thought about the good things that happened at work versus the negative and the ick, and they liked their job more. Like that's all it took was just reframing the way that they were thinking about the daily tasks that they were doing and their overall job satisfaction scores went up. And that continued even after their gratitude practice stopped. So

Personal 2.0: Swimming And Joy

SPEAKER_00 5:15

even if you stop that, that thought continues. And so I would challenge you to instead of end 2025 and say, like Sayanara, like, here's a good career next year. Yeah, like you're still the same person going into 2026, right? Like, that's why I think people continue to put on their social media or whatever that it's a dumpster fire year after year after year. And it's like, I've seen a lot of things where they want the terms and conditions for 2026, and I chuckle because it's like, yeah, I mean, I get that, but also you're the same person going into the next year, and so you're the one in control of looking and reflecting with gratitude and moving into 2026 more with a grateful heart and a thingful heart than going into it being negative because January is a long month and it's dark. Okay, yep, but it is every year, so you can make a decision if you're doing a um New Year's like New Year's resolution the New Year's resolutions. Well, can you start now? Are there things you can put into place now versus waiting until January 1? Um, because right again, research shows it's what, like, eight weeks that people like stick with their New Year's resolution. I thought it was eight minutes. Anyway, not very long, not even long enough to like create that into a habit. And so it's like, because they're the same person. And so I really think that if you can look at what things worked for you, what reflect on what was a good thing, what are the positives that are coming out of 2025 that we can pull along into 2026 and then also look at it and be like, what are other pieces I could put into place that are making me happier or the better version of yourself? I I think also like thinking about the wins that we've had in 2025 personally, um one of the things that I like to try to give myself props for is just giving myself some more space to just exist instead of having to do, do, do and be busy. And maybe that's just I've learned to say no and say yes to the things that make me more excited. Um, mostly it's been helping out my kids to school now that my two older kids are in school. Um, I get to spend more time with them. They love when I come to school. Like it's the simple little things. Eventually they're not gonna want to see me at school. But right now, if I sit with them at lunch, it's like their best day ever. Um, and I spend about two hours a week in the school copying for my son's classroom. So

Reframing The Dumpster Fire Narrative

SPEAKER_00 7:55

I make like art projects for them. Um, and it's so just easy and simple, but it's like something that I can do that gets me out of my doctor brain, out of my mom brain. And I just get to do and it's and it's great. And I I have the freedom and the ability to do that and the flexibility in my schedule, which I'm super grateful for. Um, and then another thing that we've been trying to do at our house is kind of replace some of those convenience foods with like easy homemade versions. So, like we've been making our own granola. I started making oatballs, I started making my own granola bars. I have a recipe for this week that's like a hack of like the boba bites, like just to try different things so that we're purchasing and relying less on like package stuff and sending those things with the kids so that we know what's in them. And I think that is fun for the kids because they're like, oh, what'd you make this week? Or what do we get to bring this week? Um, and for me, it gives me a bit of a creative outlet that I can that I can do and feel good about giving my kids something that isn't from a a box or a package. Tanya and my hair's Tanya's very creative and like she wants to like that's her like 2.0 version. I want to be creative and do this stuff. And I'm like, I need a challenge. I need to like, what can I challenge myself with next? Which is funny. Anyway, yes, that's my words helper. And maybe it's that it's challenging for me to come up with new ideas. Um, you're dismembered. And you also have like your Bible studies that you've been doing, which I think bring a lot of joy. Yeah, just having some community around faith and like having a good community of women that I mean, I think we've talked about it many times is like friendships change over time. And this year was no exception, right? Like joining a different Bible study, joining a young mom's group. Um, and then also I guess my body deciding that it's gonna be 40 and pregnant. Um, I guess I'm also grateful for. Um, and then also just knowing like this this is the last baby, right? Like, and trying to enjoy all of the moments of like uncomfortableness, like Jenny, I need to see you because my tailbone is on fire, and also being grateful that like I have a human that's growing inside of me for what we know healthfully and going to come out on Earth's side just fine. But thinking like how cool that is to be as old as I am and have like this healthy little human. You're not old, you're not old. 40 is fine, but there are a lot more people now who are 40 and older that are having babies, so fine, but whatever. You're not

Science Of Gratitude And Mood

SPEAKER_00 10:35

old. Um, yeah. Just grateful that this that this season is here and that we can kind of move into 2026 with knowing, like, you know, we came out of 2025 alive. It wasn't a dumpster fire, and also just because the calendar changes to January doesn't mean it's this whole big light person. No, like it's just another day, it's just another thing. And to Jenny's point, like, why do you have to wait? Like, why do you have to wait until January 1 to start when the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are a really good time to start building habits and changes because then you have all of Christmas break to like solidify and well, and also and like with gratitude, it's kind of a busy time of the year, right? Like you have get togethers and family things and all of all of that, looking at it in a positive spin, that it's nice to have an outlet for yourself and whether it's like again, whether you're doing movement or getting your nails done or whatever, massage, but some sort of self-care. Um, that you're also recognizing that, and I think for all of us, having that peace going into 2026 is really great. Like taking a minute to be like, I need to give myself grace and having some sort of like outlet for yourself, whatever that might look like, hopefully helpy, um, that can you can kind of build on as you get into 2026. And I think if we come into 2026 being grateful, yeah, it changes how the year will go. I really, really, really, really do believe that. So yeah, if if we can come into 2026 with a great fullness about us and look back on 2025 and say, this is what I learned, this is what I'm grateful for. And here's where my 2.0 comes in or 3.0 or whichever version you're on, 12.0, um, which iPhone version are we today? Um, that we can like every time I turn the TV on, I'm like, there's another one. I know I'm on iPhone 28 now. Like, um, but you're

Start Now, Not January

SPEAKER_00 12:50

right. Looking at, yes, I like that a lot. Like looking at it and being like, okay, what can we do to make ourselves our next, the next best version of ourselves? Because as a mom, you're always changing what and how what age your kids are at, what season you're in, what worked for us before may not now work for us next year. But like, what did we learn from these things, the season that we're in, that we can pull into the next season or into the next school year or whatever it might might be. And even if there were things that didn't go well in 2025, learn something, hopefully. Yeah, like it maybe it was a dumpster fire for you for whatever reason, but we can still be grateful that one it's over. We can be grateful that we learned something from it, and that's how you grow. Yeah, as a person, you you have a choice, you can either learn from it and grow, or you can cause it to make you into maybe not the best version of yourself and and repeat. Right, rinse and repeat. And so here's just like you're like you are. We I think we all would like to be a better version of ourselves. I think it just it's a challenge. And so being willing to like make those steps to grow and learn from your things to become a better version of yourself is hard and vulnerable at times, and we don't love that. And so trying to find again baby steps, what worked for you? What can we learn? And then baby step that into 2026 or do a big jump and really go crazy. Yeah, it's up to you. But I think growth and gratitude are really important for a more positive mindset, which then leads into a more positive lifestyle and all of the things. Yes, absolutely. It's one of the things that we've been talking about in our house was uh with the Salvation Army bell ringing, and my kids were like, Mom, what is that? And why did you just give us money? And to because we we gave some dollars at at Shields when we were there the other day. And I, you know, just even teaching your kids like, hey, we're really lucky. Like, we you guys have all of the things that you need. You might not have all the things you want, but you have all of the things that you need, and you I want them to be grateful for the things that they have, and to try to teach them not to take what they have for granted because

Saying No And Simple Joys

SPEAKER_00 15:20

not every second grader has the things, right? Or not every kindergartner has the same experience. And so teaching them that this too is a privilege and to be grateful for the things that they have, even at a really young age, I think is important because it gives them also that same servant heart, but also the gratitude and then the mindset change instead of an I want, I want, I'm greedy, versus how can I help other people and how can I be grateful for the things that I have might also result in less demands at Target for new monster trucks. Yes. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, we talked about what's the same type of thing and how lucky we are and how blessed we are to have the things that we have, or Finlay was learning in school difference between wants and needs. And we talked a lot about, right, like you're you have a lot of wants, right? And like, yes, yeah, your needs are also met, but you have a lot of wants and you get a lot of those because you know, mom and dad work, whatever the case may be. But I think that having them understand and work towards like there are people who actually don't have their needs met and maybe be reflect on that a bit too as we like move into 2026 and have I guess the gratitude that you have your need, hopefully have your needs met, but also like can we give more too? Because that always makes you have a little bit more gratitude. Yep. My husband always goes, Well, I want a Lamborghini too. When my kids ask for something, you know, unrealistic or whatever. Um, and just you know, they don't get it, right? Like they just they see the world around them. And I think if we can set out an example and say, gosh, I'm really grateful for that's one thing we started doing at our dinner table is when we sit down, what was the best part about your day and what's one thing that you're grateful for? Okay. And sometimes it's silly, right? It's I'm grateful for the fact that I got to eat cupcakes today, or you know, something, you know, in a five-year-old's brain. Like, okay, that's awesome. But at least he's thinking about positive things versus this bad thing happened or this terrible thing, you know, went wrong, or I didn't get this. Yes, it's what was one good part about your day. So we're always kind of ending our time together with a with a positive note. And so regardless of, you know, kind of you coming how 2025 went for you, we hope that uh coming out of 2025, you can find some things that you're grateful for, some things that you learned, some things that you can improve on, and that you step into 2026 with a grateful heart

Creativity In The Kitchen

SPEAKER_00 18:10

and an open mind to all of the things that 2026 will hopefully offer you. Uh, and we look forward to continuing our podcast and continuing, you know, just topics that we're interested in and you're interested in, and hopefully uh we'll we'll see you in the new year. Thanks so much for spending a little time with us today. If this episode spoke to you, please follow the podcast and leave us a quick review. It helps other moms find our community and feel supported too. And if you have a friend who could use a little encouragement, share this episode with her. Thank you for listening, and remember, you are doing an amazing job.