#41: A Family Guide For Annual Reflection

#41: A Family Guide For Annual Reflection

From The Ordinary Family by Coleman and Abby Housefield

January 22, 2026 · 41 min

About this episode

Coleman and Abby share their annual reflection practice and provide a framework for couples to reflect on the past year together.

I was hanging out with an old friend recently and telling him about Abby and my annual reflection practice. My friend said, “you do that with your wife?” and he sounded surprised. It was at this moment I realized what I thought was normal, was perhaps not normal for many people. A lot of people reflect on the year or make goals for the new year but they often do this exercise for work or for personal but alone Every year in December or January Abby and I go for a hike, date and reflect on the last year. We ask very specific questions so we can celebrate the meaningful stuff, grieve and feel the hard stuff, and learn about ourselves, about our work, about each other, and about our kids so we can show up more aligned with our values in the next year.My friend asked me for the questions we ask each other and the framework for how we reflect on the year and plan for the next one so we decided to put it into a podcast and share it with all of our friends here. If you want to make it super easy, you can listen to this podcast and let us be your guide as you and your spouse go through it together! Just pause the episode after each question so you and your spouse can answer it. Have a…

People in this episode

Hosts: Coleman Housefield, Abby Housefield

Topics covered

  • annual reflection
  • family goals
  • self-improvement
  • communication
  • parenting

Keywords

  • annual reflection
  • family goals
  • self-improvement
  • communication
  • parenting
  • hiking
  • values

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ordinaryfamilyshow@gmail.com, colemanhousefield.com, thenaturelabschool.com, colemanhousefield.substack.com, Instagram

More episodes of The Ordinary Family

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Ordinary Family podcast page.