I absolutely love my birthday. I love it. It's one of my favorite days of the whole year, and I always look forward to celebrating in a new and different way. Last year, Nathan rented a Dodge Ram 1500 that we drove around the whole day, since I've always wanted to own a big truck. This year, we're going to dinner and then a cooking class together. It's always an adventure to figure out what we're going to do, since we're not that into buying big gifts for each other.
When it comes to my birthday, though, it often feels a little anticlimactic. My story is that I graduated high school at the age of 17, and graduated college, bought a house, and got married before my 20th birthday. Yesterday marked my 4 year anniversary of working at a full time job, just two days after I turned 24. So in a lot of ways, I feel so much older than I am. A lot of people my age are just a couple years out from college, or even still working on their master's degree. While it was totally my choice to graduate college and get married so young, I often feel much older than my years.
I blogged a few weeks ago about my business goals, but I have some personal goals that I hope to reach by the time I am one year older. Some are personal, and some are big dreams, but I think the first step is saying them out loud...so here I go!
- I blogged about this Monday, but I want to find a good work/life balance...whatever that means for our family.
- My big word this year is Patience. As a very impatient person, I want to slow down, not stay so busy, and learn to give others the patience they so often give to me.
- I want to take a few cooking classes. Our first one is this week, but cooking is my other creative outlet, and I would love to learn the more technical side of cooking, baking, knife skills, or anything else.
- I've realized how important it is to take more time to read the Bible. I am good at reading it daily, but not so good at choosing to pick it up when I have more free time. I want to turn less to watching TV or surfing the web, and more to doing things that enrich my soul and bring me closer to God.
- I want to regularly volunteer. The last few years have been about growing my business, and I think in a lot of ways not serving others has made me selfish. My time has been limited, but I want to be intentional in seeing beyond my own needs this year.
- I hope to become a mom this year - that's my big dream. I have no control over this, since we don't know the timeline of bringing our little one home, but it's definitely a big possibility!
So here's to 24, and all the hope and excitement that a birthday and a new year brings. What are you hoping to accomplish this year, personally or in your business? Leave a comment below and we'll cheer each other on!
