On turning 31

Twenty eight and thirty one.  Those are the years that stand out to me as "older sister years".  As in, everyone's older sister is 28 or 31.

Until I turned 28. And now 31.

I feel like all my career idols were this age, and now I'm that age and I certainly don't feel as though I should be idolized! Ha!

In fact, I think this year I am more aware than ever that I know very little and I am greatly in need of fine tuning in all areas of my life.

I am learning to be okay with asking for help.  And to confident in dishing out a little advice now and again.

There are many days when I feel like I've accomplished little to nothing in life, but then I realize it's only because I have had more-or-less the same career for 9 years and there is no room for advancement at my current place of employment.

But when I look at other areas of my life, I am so proud of the choices I've made and things I've learned (many, the hard way)!  I'm married to an incredible man who makes me want to be a better person. We paid off 50k+ of debt in two years. Bought a house with 18% down.  Gave birth to a beautiful, well adjusted little girl.  Admitted to an eating disorder and working to over come it. Discovered new talents and spent intentional time developing them. Traveled for pleasure and for mission work.  Purposefully changed my prayer life for the better and regret not doing it sooner. And the list goes on....

So while at first, turning 31 seemed like something I was too young to do, at second glance I am proud of my age, my accomplishments and my future.

What does a 31 year old do to ring in the "new year"?

The day before my birthday I had to work, but my Confirmation class didn't disappoint. They brought me a Birthday Princess button and sang happy birthday.  Nothing like bringing in 31 with 85 10th graders singing to you!

I spent the eve of my birthday with my husband, daughter, and both sets of our parents out on my parents boat.  The parents prepared a delicious dinner and we cruised around the lake enjoying dinner, wine and the sunset.  It was absolutely perfect.

(I'm clearly not very good at selfies)

Monday was my actual birthday.  I had a (free!) massage scheduled but it fell though last minute so I ended up putting in a full, but needed, day in the office.  My mom came in to keep me company as the office-volunteer-of-the-year and help get some work done for me.

Evie and I had a typical afternoon.  Eric came home early. We had a simple dinner and I opened my two presents from them.  Eric got me a new top of the line camera memory card (yay!) and Evie made some Christmas ornaments with her hand prints.  Eric had given me the immersion blender we'd both accidentally bought for me for my birthday over a month ago.  We keep birthday gifts simple around here.

After dinner we met up with my parents for some frozen yogurt (I don't do cake!)

It was a hit!

Super low key birthday filled with all my favorite things and my favorite people!