Five on Friday, Vol 13: Lessons Learned

Happy Friday Y'all!

We're heading to Savannah for a wedding last today. Before we head off to hopefully warmer weather, I'm participating in my favorite Friday activity with Darci, April, Christina, and Natasha!

  

Today I'm posting about 5 lessons I've learned this past week:

{O N E}

If you post pictures about having cravings people automatically think you're pregnant.

I posted this picture on Instagram with the caption: "My donut craving is finally being satisfied! Why am I craving donuts?!" Evidently if you mention cravings friends think you might be pregnant. I'm not, but it I was I can guarantee there would be a lot more visits to Sublime Donuts!

{T W O}

Guest posting is fun!

I did my very first guest post ever over at Melissa's blog Loving Life Moore earlier this week. It was a great way to meet new bloggers and get new followers!

{T H R E E}

I like winning giveways!

Taylor over at Tattered to Taylored hosted a giveways recently and I won! I'm super excited to get my new shirt.

{F O U R}

Yoga is pretty cool!

I've been in a serious work out rut lately. I've blamed it on mourning the lose of my beloved Bar Method, but I'm out of excuses. I just started doing Erin Motz's 10 Day Yoga Challenge, and so far I'm a fan. I've wanted to get into Yoga for a while now, so hopefully this is my start!

{F I V E}

Cold weather is not fun.

So, temperatures dropped down to 6 degrees at the beginning of the week! I decided I deserved a coffee treat for getting out of bed on such a cold day {I live in Georgia this totally makes sense}. I got to Starbucks and attempted to roll down my window but it was frozen shut. Cue freak out. I then proceeded to sit in the parking lot for 15 minutes with the heat blasting waiting for the window to thaw. Never once did it occur to me that all I have to do was open the door to order. My Northern mother was pretty embarrassed that this never occurred to her Southern daughter.

Here's to a happy and hopefully warmer weekend! 

10 Favorite Things: New Year!

Today I'm linking up with Brianna to share my 10 Favorite Things about "a new year." My list consists of things I'm looking forward to in 2014. This year's gonna be a good one. I can just feel it.

1. Celebrating our one year anniversary and finally getting to eat wedding cake

2. "New starts" and accomplishing the goals I set for the year

3. Starting the house hunting process and maybe buying our first home

4. Having Valentine's Day date night with my husband where we had our rehearsal dinner

5. Getting into a work out groove again... it's over due! 

6. Keeping up with this little blog

7. Summer and warm weather! I'm so over this cold thing

8. Learning more about golf and maybe even playing one day

9. Spending time with friends

10. Puppies and babies... totally kidding! Just checking to see if you were still reading :)
The exciting unknown and seeing where God takes us

January Goals

If you missed my goals for 2014 you can check them out here.

1. Love my husband: Date my husband
When James and I were dating I would plan surprises all the time. I would give him little gifts for no reason and take him out on surprise date nights just because. Now that we're married I've stopped doing a lot of those things. This month I want to get back into the mindset of continuing to date my husband. 

2. Be intentional with others: Put my phone away at dinner
This is almost embarrassing to admit, but I'm pretty bad about not ignoring my phone during dinner. I won't take calls, but if I get a text message or an email chances are pretty good I'll look. Dear self, it can wait! This is one of those goals that isn't just going to last one month. My phone will remain untouched during mealtime and everything can be dealt with after dinner. Family and friends: please hold off all emergencies until after dinner. K? Thanks.

3. Go on Adventures: Plan our adventure for the month
We're going to a wedding in Savannah this weekend. Rather than just going down and coming right back we're making a weekend out of it with friends. Self-admittedly I'm pretty snobby when it comes to Savannah {Charleston has my heart}, but I'm actually really excited to get away for the weekend for some fun.  

4. Time with God & Love my Husband: Read through Wife After God
Devotionals help give me direction in my daily quiet time. This is a book I've been wanting to dive into for a while, and this is the month I do it! I'm looking forward to seeing what God reveals to me about my marriage through this book.

5. Organize: Get caught up on work notes
I'm so behind on my notes for work. I'm constantly thinking about it and have had a few sleepless nights worrying about everything I need to do. This month I stop worrying about what I have to do and actually do something about it.

Okay, I'm officially over all this "goal" talk until the end of the month!

{Guest Post} Loving Life Moore

Hey sweet friends! 

I'm so excited to be guest posting {for the 1st time ever} over at Melissa's blog, Loving Life Moore, while she is off honeymooning with her sweet new husband! Head on over to check out my post on Marriage and Relationship Advice from the Pros. 

Making Things Happen in 2014

I've told y'all before that I'm a huge fan of setting goals. Big, small, long-term, short-term doesn't matter I love them. 

Random fact: I'm not good at working out unless I have a goal of working toward something specific like a race, but that's a post for another day. 

The husband and I were at church yesterday when the pastor talked about how important it is to set goals and/or resolutions; "having a personal vision is a catalyst for wise decisions." I love that. If Andy Stanley agrees with me about goal setting I think I'll stick to it :)

For the past week or so I've been working through Lara Casey's 5 part series on goal setting for 2014. I'm not being dramatic when I say this stuff is game changing! I've learned so much about myself and so much about where I want to go. I've had to get honest with myself about somethings I didn't want to and open myself up to making some changes. 

I won't bore you will all of the details of all my steps. However, I will share some of the big things, not only to have somewhere to refer back to for myself, but also to maybe encourage y'all to create your own goals for 2014.  

My favorite step was creating a 2014 inspirational board on Pinterest. An excuse to spend hours on pinterest finding quotes and images I like? Sign me up! These are a few of my favorite images:

Now there are a bunch of steps from here, but you can just take me word for that. Let's just get to the good stuff:

1. Spend more time with God: This is pretty self-explanatory. More time with God daily, more time in prayer, and more time with God as a couple. I know, for me, life just works better when I make God a part of it.

2. Love and respect my husband: Truth: over the past 6 months I haven't always been a great wife. I've been selfish, stubborn, and even mean. There are many ways I can work on being a more loving and respectful wife. and I want to challenge myself to really work on this.

3. Take care of myself: Emotionally, physically, and spiritually. This looks like a good year to start working on being less negative and more positive. 

4. Be intentional with others: I want to work on being present when I'm with people I love.

5. Organize my life: I feel better when things are organized. I have organizational work to do in lots of areas.

I know I know these aren't SMART goals. They may be Attainable and Relevant, but they are also super broad and they aren't measured. The monthly goals I make will relate back to these larger goals and will be Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound. I've already got some ideas in mind for monthly goals and I can't wait to get started!

James and I also created 2014 marriage goals. We have some big goals for 2014 and hopefully our smaller monthly goals will help us get there. 

And finally, my word(s) for year:

I didn't realize how much I let fear dictate how I live until recently. So often I don't do things or don't put myself out there because I'm afraid. Afraid of failing, afraid of making a mistakes, and afraid of judgement. What do I get with allowing fear to control me? Absolutely nothing but regret!

 In the spirit of transparency: I also struggle with trusting God. I like control {just ask the husband :}. Problem with that? I want God to live my life for God and in order to do that one of us needs to give up control {hint: that would be me!}. 

This year I want to constantly remind myself to trust God without fear.

Whew! That was a lot of words. If you're still reading along major props to you! 

Here's to making things happen in 2014!

Five on Friday, Vol. 12

Happy Friday and Happy 2014!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I haven't been the most consistent blogger over the past two weeks, but family time was my priority and it was so wonderful! I have really missed this Five on Friday link-up though! I'm so excited to get back to linking up with the lovely Darci, April, Christina, and Natasha!

Instead of doing a big Christmas and New Years recap {my camera got neglected over the holidays}, I thought I'd share some of the highlights from over the holidays. Follow me on instagram for a more detailed recap :)

  

{O N E}

Celebrating out first married Christmas! 

It was so much fun to wake up with my husband in my parents house on Christmas morning!

We always go to the eleven o'clock candlelit service at church. Wanna know a secret? I wore my Christmas Jammies to church and loved it!

{T W O}

We traveled a lot over the holidays. South Carolina to Georgia to North Carolina to St. Simons to Hilton Head then finally back to Georgia! We spent lots of quality time with the car. This 6 disc CD set really helped to pass the time. Garth Brooks was my first concert ever, so there is a special place in my heart for him :)

{T H R E E}

Mom, sis, and I took a golf lesson! The men in our lives have tried to get us to play for years and it's just never happened {we've avoided it at all costs}. Well, this year in Hilton Head it finally happened. True story: a 3 hour golf lesson makes you really sore! I'm not about to go play 18-rounds of golf anytime soon, but it was fun... when I hit the ball. I have awful hand-eye coordination; that's why I swam and never played ball sports!

{F O U R}

Lara Casey's 2014 Goal Setting is rocking my world! I've never been a big on resolutions because they don't work for me. However, I've always been a goal setter. The way she encourages you to look at the past year and plan for this year is pretty incredible! I can't wait to finish it up and share what I've learned with y'all!

{F I V E}

I bought this devotional, Wife After God from Unveiled Wife, for my kindle a few months ago and never got around to starting it. Two of my goals for 2014 have to do with being a better wife and spending more time with God. This devotional seems perfect for that. Plus, two of my favorites {Jenni and Elise} are going through it too and a little accountability is always helpful :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year! I hope 2014 brings you all nothing but wonderful memories and happy days!

Also wishing my sweet mom a very Happy Birthday! I'm so very thankful for you and all you do. You've taught me so much about life and give me a beautiful example of what marriage is. Thank you for believing in me when I don't and loving even though I'm the "challenging" one. Thank you for being patient as I try to figure out this decorating thing and understanding my "vision" before I do. Love you so much and I'm so glad we get to spend your birthday with you!