New Year, New Mercies

Happy New Year! The fact that I’m sitting down here to write a reflection on another year passing us by is giving me pause before I even have a chance to get many (if any) words typed out. Why is it that time can both zip by and stand still at the same time? I’ve never understood it. Three days ago my six year old daughter took this photo of me painting our basement hallway - an impromptu project we squeezed into the margin of a holiday that conveniently rolled into a weekend, granting us four days at home together as a family. This seemingly simple little candid photo that I found on my camera roll struck me. It holds so many precious layers as I sit and reflect on another beautiful year.

First, I’m reminded of the many holiday seasons spent under renovations in my childhood home. My Dad was a contractor who was never short of work, except for the couple of weeks around Christmas and New Years when nobody (rightfully) wanted someone working in their home. Inevitably, he’d take the opportunity to tackle the next project on the long list of our family’s fixer-upper. We have photos of New Years Eve celebrations with the kitchen wall ripped apart in the background and certain Christmas songs still evoke particular memories of sitting watching my Dad paint new baseboards while festive music blared through the speakers. It often added extra chaos to our already very small home, but watching my Dad pour so much love and care into our little home during the holidays was one of my favourite times of the year. I’m convinced it’s what has made me want to do the same for our homes over the years. It feels like just yesterday.

Second, seeing this photo reminded me of the fact that my daughter is now six (going on seven) and fully capable of taking a candid photo like this. Add onto that the fact that it is literally giving me a glimpse into the way she views me and I’ve been served a big ol’ slice of humble pie. It feels like just yesterday that our children were not even a speck in our eyes and suddenly we’re reflecting on six (almost seven) years as their parents and coming out of one of the most fun, joy-filled Christmases with them yet. Oh my - how does time seem to just melt away? It feels like just yesterday.

Finally, I’m reminded of the fact that I finished off this calendar year with a fun little painting project in our very dated 1990s basement. To think that a year ago at this time, we didn’t even know if or when we would finally be able to move to our home in Virginia after an already year and a half wait. A year ago we were still living in so much uncertainty. A year ago I was still living in a period of pause from so many of the things I had previously let define me, like the constant drive to make our home a more beautiful and comfortable place to be. We finally moved here six months ago, lived through a five month renovation, and now are unpacking, settling in, and leaving our fingerprints on each space as we go. All in His time after what felt like a long period of quiet waiting. It feels like just yesterday.

Why is time so mysterious? So much can - and does! - change in a year and yet the years just keep flying by. I think it’s so important for me to reflect on another year gone by because it’s always such a testament to the faithfulness of a very constant God. You’d think that by this point I’d live in a place of absolute surrender to that, but the reality is that I still need constant reminding that God is so good and knows exactly what we need, when we need it. Here’s the Coles Notes of another wild year in the Reesor household.

Our 2025 began in Virginia on a much anticipated visit to our future home. While visiting we were hit with an ice storm that kept us tucked in cozy with nowhere urgent to go. It was a peaceful and comforting way to start the year. When we returned to Canada a couple short weeks later, the warmth and comfort didn’t last. The rest of our winter was characterized by sickness after sickness, particularly for our littlest daughter. It ended up being a scary string of months with a couple hospital trips and an ambulance ride tacked on to our family bingo card. But I’d be remiss to not acknowledge some of the joys in these early months too: we celebrated our 10th anniversary, hosted many wonderful friends and family for Franny’s second birthday party, and created precious quiet memories doing puzzles and playing board games with the girls while cooped up at home.

By the early spring, we could sense that renewal was on the horizon and knew that God was working on our behalf. We had a sense that everything was about to change, even before the details fell into place. We took a mini trip to one of our favourite small towns in Ontario, went for lots of walks and scooter rides, and eventually made our way back to Virginia for another visit at Easter. While in town, we finalized the design for our renovation and gave the green light to get started, even without a moving date on the calendar. Our spring season could be summed up as spent primarily outdoors. Knowing our time in Canada may be coming to a close, we made tons of playdates with friends, partook in all the local community events, and hit all our favourite parks any chance we got. Mabel turned six and we celebrated with a joy-filled party. Our newest nephew arrived. Mabel completed a full year of piano and performed in the studio’s recital. I finally received my green card. We cried many tears with friends and family. We packed up our cars, said our goodbyes, and drove our precious family over 500 miles to our new home just in time to celebrate our first 4th of July in our new home.

The summer was a blur. We were in overdrive as we desperately tried to settle into a very unsettled home completely torn apart from our renovation. Without a kitchen, we primarily barbecued our meals, but also spent lots of time at Nana and Grandpa’s when they were gracious enough to feed us (and let us do our laundry). On weekdays, I explored the local parks, shops, and libraries with the girls and on weekends we took care of all the pesky administrative tasks on our plate, like importing vehicles and getting licenses. There were plenty of fun adventures on weekends too though: we explored all the local coffee shops and restaurants (to which there are many) to pick out our favourites and took in all the natural beauty of our new state. We really fell in love with our new town, but admittedly our highlight of the summer was trekking back to Canada for some time at our favourite family camp with some of our favourite people. The girls still talk about it. By the end of the summer, we had found our new church and started forging new friendships, which was a huge answer to many prayers.

Once the long summer days started rolling into the fall, we started to see some visual progress on our massive renovation and we made the decision to homeschool our first grader. This decision was another long awaited answer to prayer, as home educating was something the Lord had put on my heart a year or so before and we had spent a lot of time discussing and praying over it before making the final decision. Once we committed, we dove right in and had a blast learning together as a family through incredible literature and many hands on projects like natural dyeing, candle making, cooking, and weekend field trips to local historical sites. The margin homeschooling has allowed us gave us the gift of time: we hosted Grandma for a week, went to a bluegrass festival, spent lots of time outdoors and with each other. Mabel mastered a two-wheeled bike. Franny learned to balance on a scooter. We had health-related fears miraculously alleviated as God opened doors to find healthcare professionals that were firmly on our team. Our kitchen started to come together. We saw both cows and goats loose in our neighbourhood and spent many hours taking in the mountain views from our deck. By the late fall, some of our dear friends made the long journey from Canada to come visit us and it meant the world to us. We hosted them in a half-finished home, but it was a much needed week-long break from an exhausting multi-month renovation and gave us the chance to see the light at the end of the tunnel in how the sacrifice of the past few months was going to be worth it when we could live and host in our home like we envisioned from the beginning. Curtis took a week off work and we explored Virginia as a little family, hitting all the historical sites of Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown, plus a handful of antique stores and good restaurants. We popped up to Pennsylvania to celebrate Grammy’s 89th birthday and partook in our very first American Thanksgiving as a family.

In early December, our renovation finally wrapped up and we baked as many cookies we could manage in the two weeks before Christmas. We tried to make our way back to Canada, but more illness struck mid-drive and we turned around and came back home. Even though we were disapointed, it felt so good to be home. We did a focussed Advent study for homeschool and truly appreciated the reason for the season. We decorated our home and made cozy breakfast feasts and went for a warm sunny walk on Christmas day. We stayed up late and had sleepovers and read many books and drank lots of coffee. We tore the wallpaper off our basement walls and hosted a New Years Eve party with friends and family. We have spent lots of time at home. We rung in this new year in the same place we started the last one, but almost everything was different.

Except for God’s faithfulness. That will always be the same.

To a blessed 2026 -