27.

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   For starters, I know I'm not old. But if my math is right, I'm creeping closer to 30 than 20 these days. It's not at all a bad thing, or even a thing at all, really. It's just a little weird to think about. Because, I'm really an adult. Even though I still sort of feel 14, I'm allowed to own a house and some cars and go on my own vacations and do therapy. Do you ever do that? Go through the motions of adult life thinking, am I really old enough to be doing this?? 
  Anyways, 25 was full of some BIG things {house, master's degree, baby, no baby} With a pretty sucky ending. But, we've all heard that story. 26 was kind of a rockstar year, in every unplanned way. It didn't go at all like I had hoped or expected, but that's life, right? And really, I shouldn't complain. Because it ended up even better than I could have thought. Not in a big, life-changing way, but more like in an easy, simple way. While I find myself desiring big adventures most of the time, I learned in 26 that simple things really aren't so bad.

  On my birthday last year, my sweet niece came home from the NICU, I did a handful of fun crafts and made some new recipes. (here here here here here}, I took a step back professionally and found a job that was a bit easier on my heart. I thought and talked a lot about joy- and picking your day.  I had my first blate! I read a lot of good books. {favorites: here, and here}. I kept processing our miscarriage- {here, here, here}

  For some crazy reason, I shared my messy closet with the world. And then again, our messy office. We went to Florida with really, really good friends and had the best time. Justin took me to my first ever Christmas tree farm! We hosted our first Friendsgiving- and started being really intentional about who we invest in. We celebrated Christmas at the beach again! 

  I teamed up with Christina to take stock of 2012. Because, evidently I like to reflect a lot? {as evidenced by this reflection within a reflection post...}. I started two new blog series! {this one and this one} I visited my bff in Denver.  We celebrated a monumental change in our house- no more dog crates!!! I planted my second garden and learned even more new lessons. But really, zinnias. {that's this year's takeaway} I hosted my first {of, hopefully, many!} Noonday Trunk Show- and loved it! We celebrated 4 really, really good years as husband and wife. We reunited with college friends for the best lake vacation. Ever. And I was hungover {summer camp style} from all the fun & frienship for a solid week afterwards. 

  And, looking back, I seemed sort of like a broken record talking about waiting and choosing joy and the same life lessons over and over. And over. But then again, there were times I wasn't sure on how much to share on the blog. 

  Then there's, of course, all the stuff I didn't blog about. Our house looks a little more like a home. We did a few landscaping projects. I lost a few lbs {wahoo!!}. We made the most amazing friends through our small group. We worked on our marriage and just spent a lot of time together. We went on nightly walks. 

  26 was a good year. It just didn't go as planned expected. A few times I caught myself being bummed about that, but for the most part, I really did keep choosing joy. And simple things. At this point, I'm feeling pretty up to whatever challenges 27 might hold. If 26 taught me anything, it's that life circumstances don't matter all that much in the big pictures of life. But relying on Jesus, that matters a whole lot. So, this year I'm looking forward to just living and loving and choosing joy on the regular. And being in more pictures. I'm never in pictures these days.