Birthday Celebrations

Sometimes my birthday can get overlooked because of Christmas festivities and New Year's Eve celebrations. But reality is EVERYONE in the WHOLE world celebrates my birthday so it makes my birthday so much more fun! I spread out my birthday celebrations for about a week, and each and every celebration was so fun!

We spent New Year's Eve and Kaila's boyfriend's house. Once the clock struck midnight, Patrick found this piece of cake and lit some candles and everyone sang to me. I laughed and laughed because they all knew that I don't like cake, and then once I blew out the candles, I handed the cake back to Patrick to eat. 

I went to Carrabba's for birthday dinner with my parents. THIS chocolate delight was DELICIOUS!

The fab five were at it again for my birthday dinner. We headed downtown to The Cotton Patch, and it was such a fun time with these girls! After dinner, we headed back to my house where we talked for hours about education, the government, our futures, etc. We felt like old ladies discussing these things, but I'm so grateful for these lifelong friends. 

Kaila surprised me with a trip to Atlanta for my birthday weekend. Through me being nosy and a friend kind of spilling the beans, it ended up not being as much of a surprise as it should have been. BUT it was tons of fun. We shopped a lot, ate lots of good food, played fun games, froze in Piedmont Park, didn't get enough sleep, and laughed a lot. I'm already looking forward to my next trip to the ATL. 

7 White Shirts

I came across Jen Hatmaker's book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, on someone's blog around October. I asked for it for Christmas, and I ended up getting it a few days early. This book has drastically changed my way of thinking about things. Jen (we'd be friends in real life, so I'm going to call her by her first name) embarks on a journey with her family trying to get rid of the excess in her life. She identifies 7 areas of excess in her life and takes 7 months (one area per month) to do something about it.

For example, she takes one month where she only eats 7 foods. Another month is spent only wearing 7 items of clothing. One month she gets rid of 7 things a day. The list goes on. Ultimately, the goal is to see that the STUFF of this world is not worth it and totally materialistic. It's only STUFF. She journals her feelings about each month and she writes a conclusion about what she learned after each month. Add in her hilarious writing style, and this book is such a good read.

I knew that after I read the first chapter I was in. Some of it sounds a little absurd, but the ultimate goal is to draw closer to the Lord and get rid of my junk. I'm not bringing any of my clothes with me to heaven, so why do I idolize them so much? I was going to do the 7 foods first, because I thought that would be a good way to start off the new year. BUT, I was putting some clothes up and I could barely shut my drawers. Y'all, I have a problem. I have SEVEN short sleeve white shirts. SEVEN. Who needs that many? I can justify one v-neck and one crew neck, but SEVEN. Honestly.

So, this month I'm literally getting rid of my crap. I have more stuff than I need, more clothes than I can ever wear, etc. I've been piling a few things already, but I'm going to go through everything tonight. My goal is to get rid of 7 things a day, which would end up being 210 things total. I'm not sure that I'll meet that goal, although Jen had this goal for her family of 5 and ended up exceeding it. I also want to be able to give this stuff that I have to some organization that is local and makes a difference in our community, not just Goodwill. So I'm going to be researching that and going through my stuff for the next month. If you know of anything, let me know please! I highly encourage you to grab this book and let it influence your way of thinking!

I don't know about you...

....but I'm feeling 22! Thanks TSwift for making 22 a little more exciting to look forward to than other ages!

22 has been great so far. I brought in the new year and my birthday with a few friends at Kaila's boyfriend's house. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was spent with some of my sweet friends, so I'll take it :)

I celebrated my birthday with lunch with my sweet friend Caroline, phone calls from two sweet friends and two sweet "nephews", lots of texts and FB posts, and dinner with my parents. I'm going to have dinner with my best friends from high school one night, and I'm heading to Atlanta this weekend for a birthday trip with some sweet friends! It's been a great birthday so far.

I decided to come up with 22 things that I want to accomplish through this year. And here they are...

1. Read one book a month that isn't school related.
2. Complete the 7 challenge (more to come on this later).
3. Become certified to run the high ropes course and the intermediate ropes course at camp this summer.
4. Visit someone that I didn't visit in 2013.
5. Do something completely spontaneous. (I know this is kind of ironic as I plan to do this, but you know...I'm trying.)
6. Have a phone date with a friend once a month.
7. Try a new recipe once a month (except for the two months I'm at camp).
8. Become more involved with my church.
9. Send out 5 letters each month to friends/family.
10. Redo the 4 card table chairs that I didn't redo in 2013.
11. Buy the meal or drink of the person behind me in the drive thru line.
12. Apply to grad school and/or apply for a teaching job (EEEEEEEKKKKKKK).
13. Memorize a Scripture each week; so basically memorize 52 verses.
14. Visit the Dukes with Emma Kate.
15. Go to a new place.
16. Work out more than I did in 2013.
17. Learn how to start a fire.
18. Visit the Biltmore.
19. Surprise a friend.
20. Volunteer for something.
21. Try a new food/beverage that I normally wouldn't want to.
22. Grow closer to the Lord.