How cliche is it to say that I can’t believe that it’s 2020 already? I’ve been seeing everyone doing the “10 Year Challenge” and posting pictures of themselves from 10 years ago and now. It’s fun to reflect on my 20’s and see how far I’ve come as the person I strive to be while also realizing how much potential there is for change and improvement. Sorry T Swift, but I don’t think I would want to rewind to being 22 again. My 20’s were exciting, but at 32 I am doing what I love (blogging and cooking for all of you!) while spending all of my time with the ones I love. I’m sure my looking glass into the future when I was 22 didn’t show this picture of my life; maybe the husband and kids but not the career, location, or even interests. I’m glad I was wrong though; I have spent a long year self-reflecting, and now I know this is right where I need to be. Someday I’ll write a post about how transitioning from one kid to two really changed me, even more so than going from zero to one kid but I’m not ready for that yet. 2019 gave me George and a new outlook on life. I went from feeling like I had lost something becoming a stay-at-home mom after Rory was born to realizing that maybe I didn’t lose anything at all – maybe what I thought I lost was priorities I didn’t need anymore, hobbies that weren’t as important as I thought, and indulgences that were replaced by the true gratifications of life: my kids who give me something that my previous paycheck will never be able to buy me. 

So, like everyone else it seems, I am very optimistic about 2020, but I also want to say thank you to 2019. And THANK YOU to all of you who follow along with me, support me, and keep coming back to Midwest Mash because you fuel my fire to keep doing this and to keep getting better. In 2019 my blog grew by more than 500%. I am still in shock when I say that because it is incredible, and it truly does give me a huge boost to be more innovative and productive in the year to come. 

Thank you 💕