Taking Stock : A Look Back at Early 2026

Making : Intentional action plans towards the life I want to live. These things don't happen by accident.

Cooking : My entrepreneurial skillsets. These tech companies are re-defining the future of the workforce from role based to skill based. More now than ever, it is so important to have multiple streams of income.

Drinking : Ice teas but hot coffees.

Reading : 3 books once - An investigative thriller and 2 personal development books at the same time.

Wanting: Equity over Equality . I hate that people cannot just do the right thing by default. That we have to riot, and protest and raise up our arms and basically stress our nervous systems to get them to do the right thing. And even then....They still don't do it, quite right.

Looking: Forward to an amazing trip I have been working hard to gift myself

Playing : On AWS Cloud QUEST - Talk about mixing fun and business

Wasting : my time on people who do not deserve a second of it.

Sewing : and fixing my favourite torn jeans because I refuse to throw them out.

Wishing : caps off to the class of 2026! Huge congratulations to our Spring and Summer graduates

Enjoying : Learning about AI prompts

Waiting : to hopefully eventually get my copy of the epic graphic novel : Songs of Sahara by Eplleseed 

Liking : Unsweetened Ice Tea with lemon slices on ice - Refreshing against the summer heat 

Wondering : When certain prayer requests will be answered

Hoping: That we will hold on to our mental health collectively as a nation through out this presidential cycle. 

Marveling : At this beautiful cupcake bouquet a friend brought over as part of the desert section of the women's luncheon.

Needing: A staycation - My definition of a staycation is traveling to a city within the United States. I consider all travel within the US as "local" trips. 

Following : My intuition. I've been making a conscious effort to trust myself more and second-guess myself less — especially when it comes to decisions. Over the past few months, I've noticed a pattern: I'll make the right call instinctively, then talk myself out of it and end up making the wrong one. 

I'm not sure where this self-doubt is rooted, but it's become impossible to ignore.

Noticing: The need all around me. People are crying out because of the weight of the world and everything that is happening from the economic crisis, the war with Iran and disease outbreaks. We seek relief in temporal unhealthy places without realizing the deeper spiritual root of our pain.

(volunteering at Andres House - https://andrehouse.org/)

We need living water - John 4: 13- 14 

"Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Knowing: That nothing lasts forever. Both the good and bad times. It is all cyclical. As beautifully written in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Thinking: This year is flying by really fast, a girl just wants to be outside - having fun.

Feeling: Grateful that the women's luncheon event that I hosted in my home was a success

Bookmarking: Everything AI related. Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and we all need to up skill and pivot and rethink how we show up in the market place whether as a corporate worker or an entrepreneur.

Pick a platform and become an expert as it.

Opening: Up and trying to be more transparent with my circle of support (my village)

Giggling: From the jokes at the clean comedy events I attended. I attended a show and won tickets to another show

The first quarter of this year has given me a lot to be grateful for. Some experiences I planned and anticipated. Others arrived unexpectedly — and were better for it. Both kinds mattered.

And I am holding onto that — deliberately — because the world right now is heavy. The news cycle is relentless. The economic pressure is real. The US is fighting multiple wars on multiple fronts. Disease outbreaks threaten us with another lockdown. These things are not background noise. They are present, and they are felt.

Which is exactly why I am choosing gratitude. Not as a way of looking away from what is hard, but as a way of moving through it. Gratitude, for me, is not denial. It is the decision to anchor myself in what is still good, still working, still worth protecting — even when everything around feels uncertain.

The first quarter showed me that good things still happen. Planned ones and surprise ones alike. I am carrying that into the rest of the year — not as a passive hope, but as an active practice. Staying open. Staying grounded. Letting what has already been good become the foundation for what comes next.

The world will continue to be complicated. I am choosing to meet it with gratitude anyway.