iCloud Full.

iCloud Full. *Insert Eye-roll*

I feel like this is the most dreaded notification you can get as an iPhone user, and a notification I had put off for months.

Recently, Andrew and I decided to switch phone networks from Verizon to T-Mobile. With that decision we had the dreaded experience of finally addressing this notification. Our iCloud storage was full.

It’s not a huge deal until you go to switch everything over onto a new phone … and then it matters! Then it’s time to address the problem. There’s no more procrastination. It’s time to clear out some space so you can get everything transferred with one swoop. If not switching phones takes a lifetime, and the set up is never quite like you had it.

Honestly, it’s like a reckoning. The whole process makes you really decide what is truly important and what actually is not.

The random games you download to play for a week straight and then forget about. The random apps everyone tells you you’ll use every day and you use for a week and then forget about. The previous apps from other jobs or other clubs or organizations or churches that no longer apply to you and then you forget about.

It’s a lot of forgotten.

Unbothered, Unused, and Untouched - until it’s time to clean up.

And then it’s time for inventory. And as someone who worked in a consulting position for restaurants for quite a few years, I can say I always dreaded those nights or days.

It’s chaos and it’s mentally taxing.

No wonder we let this “iCloud full” message kind of just hang out in the back of our minds for months.

Turns out with streaming services, I don’t need thousands and thousands of hours of music downloaded to my phone and I also probably don’t need 19,000 photos on my phone either. And as a mom of two balancing two businesses, I can certainly tell you I don’t need 20 random games that haven’t been touched in who knows how long. The purge is sometimes obvious and sometimes harder, but once you get started you just have to ride the momentum.

My inner dialogue turns into a battle field - But clash of clans… My clan was so good in college. I don’t wanna lose that history…. No honey, your clan has been raided about 1000 times since then it’s time to let go!

In this cleanup process, it has me reminiscent of the year to come in the cleanup that we have been having on our lives in the past few years as cliché as that sounds.

Andrew and I went into 2025 feeling very intentional. We had a set list of goals, a set list of big prayers, and a set list of outcomes that we weren’t willing to compromise on at the end of this year.

Taking inventory on our phones is kind of symbolic of us now taking inventory on our lives.

Did we accomplish what we set out to do? Did we change fix or get rid of the things we intended to? Did we hold fast to the promises we made ourselves, our children, and each other?

For us, the answer is yes! I am incredibly proud of my husband, my marriage and myself. I’m proud of the dedication we have had to our goals and the work we have put in this year. Year five has been a year of growth and a year of trials, tribulations tests… But more importantly, a year of happiness, peace, stability, changes, and comfort in who we are and more importantly who we are rooted in.

Going through our iCloud storage was fun. I’m not gonna lie. I had in my mind this idea of it being this dreadful process of having to get rid of things I didn’t want to get rid of, but the truth is there’s so much that we keep in our lives for no reason. There’s so much that we hang onto that we’re not using. In no time at all Andrew and I had deleted countless apps. We no longer have thousands of screenshots of memes and tons of secular playlist that we haven’t even touched in a year. We deleted duplicate photos, merged burst shots, and got rid of everything that felt like wasted space to us at this point in our lives without getting rid of memories. I think 2025 was like that as well.

2022 to 2023 were really hard years for us. We had lots of loss and personal development to go through. 2024 felt like catch-up from all of our setbacks, and in 2025 it felt like the first chance for us to truly sit down and just find peace with where we are at and enjoy. We found normal rhythms in constant careers for the first time together, we established healthier boundaries with our loved ones, we committed to time together as just Chrstina and Andrew instead of mom and dad. We truly slowed down, took inventory, and prioritized what mattered. We know who we are now, and we know what our goals are. We know how we want to raise our boys, we know the strength of a good community, we know how strong our marriage is, and we know the importance of God being at the center of it.

When you clean out the things that take up space but don’t provide any valuable use you realize how much space you have for the blessings God has given you. You realize how abundantly full and blessed you are without all the clutter. What you thought you’d miss was really just collecting dust and blocking the view of the beautiful provisions in front of you.

As we go into 2026, I encourage you to sit down whatever is weighing you down; clear up some storage in your heart, and allow there to be room for God to work his miracles in your life this new year. Cleaning out our iCloud storage or reprioritizing our lives in 2025 are both very reminiscent of a true Christian walk.

Luke 9:23-24 tells us, “Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will save it.”

We have to make room for God in our daily life. We have to make him a priority. But more importantly we have to lay down our own selfish and fleshly desires to seek his.

In doing this, we know God will give us a new heart as he promises in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

The plans he has for us, the JOY we find in him - BOTH are GREATER than anything we could ever dream.

I promise if you clear out the old, God will make something new that is better and more magical than before.

God’s Love and Mine,

Christina