At the beginning of this year, I chose alignment as my word of the year.
I wrote that I used to think balance meant doing everything all at once. Keeping every plate spinning. Being productive all the time. But I realized balance is quieter than that. It’s about doing the right things at the right time.
I also talked about living in seasons. At the time, I thought seasons were an alternative to balance.
Now, halfway through the year, I think they’re the same thing.
And life has made sure I learned that lesson.
If you had told January me that by July I’d be seven months pregnant, less than three months away from meeting my daughter, packing up a house, preparing to move, and completely rearranging my life, I probably would’ve laughed.
That wasn’t on my vision board.
Neither was putting school on pause.
Neither was stepping away from work.
Neither was preparing to move.
At the beginning of the year, Hector and I were renting a house with a roommate. Now we’re packing up our lives and preparing for one of the biggest transitions we’ve ever faced.
For a little while, we’ll actually be living in separate states while we figure out this next chapter. If you’ve been following along, you already know the circumstances behind that decision, but that doesn’t make it any less emotional. It’s not how either of us imagined spending the final stretch of my pregnancy, but it’s the decision that makes the most sense for our family right now.
Between packing boxes, preparing for a baby who’s due in September, attending what feels like endless doctor’s appointments, and trying to process how much life can change in just six months, I’ve had to accept that I simply can’t do everything.
And maybe that’s the point.
Life rarely asks if your plans are convenient.
It just changes.
This year has looked nothing like I expected, and honestly, there have been moments where I’ve felt guilty about that. Guilty that I haven’t been reading as much. Guilty that I’m not checking goals off as quickly as I’d hoped. Guilty that so much of my energy has gone toward simply making it through the day.
But then I remembered something I wrote back in January.
Alignment means letting your priorities match the season you’re actually in.
Well…
This season isn’t about hustle.
It’s about growing a human.
It’s about preparing for motherhood.
It’s about creating a home where our daughter will take her first nap, celebrate her first holidays, and make memories we’ll tell her about years from now.
It’s about taking care of my body, even on the days when pregnancy feels exhausting. It’s about accepting that rest is productive when your body is literally building another person.
As for those ten goals I set…
Well…
I’ve completed exactly zero of them.
Not one.
And surprisingly?
I’m okay with that.
I started Iron Flame back in January and… I’m still reading it. Mommy brain is real, and every time I pick it up, I feel like I have to reread the last chapter because I’ve forgotten what happened. At this point, I think I’ve spent more time carrying the book around than actually reading it.
Running a 5K while pregnant was obviously never going to happen.
Working out three times a week turned into, “Did I remember to take my prenatal vitamin today?”
Trying twenty new recipes sounded so exciting in January. Then pregnancy food aversions hit, and suddenly half the foods I normally loved made me nauseous. Add in my gestational diabetes diagnosis—which I’ve already ranted about on this blog—and experimenting in the kitchen became the last thing I wanted to do.
The passport?
Still don’t have one.
The tattoo?
That can wait until after pregnancy.
The hikes, the spa days, the giant canvas painting…
None of them happened.
A few months ago, I think I would’ve looked at this list and called the year a failure.
Now?
I don’t.
Because the goals I actually accomplished were never on that list.
I’ve grown a healthy little girl for seven months.
I’ve made it through countless appointments, blood sugar checks, and more medical advice than I ever thought I’d receive in one year.
I’ve advocated for myself when something didn’t feel right.
I’ve prepared for a move during one of the biggest life transitions I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve made difficult decisions for my family, even when they weren’t the decisions I originally wanted to make.
None of those things can be checked off in a resolutions list.
But they’re still accomplishments.
Maybe even bigger ones than the goals I wrote down in January.
At the start of the year, I said this wasn’t about a fresh start. It was about a continuation—a softer, more honest one.
I don’t think I fully understood what I meant back then.
I do now.
Alignment isn’t about having everything under control.
It’s about giving yourself permission to change when life changes.
The second half of 2026 is going to ask even more of me than the first.
I’ll become a mom.
We’ll settle into a new home.
Hector and I will hopefully be back in the same state after this temporary season apart.
None of it will be easy.
But for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel like I’m fighting the season I’m in.
I’m just trying to live it well.
And I think that’s exactly what alignment was trying to teach me all along.
