Celebrate

Happy birthday to me! 🙂 I’m officially 31. Another year to explore this beautiful life!Each year before my birthday, I enjoy reflecting on the last 12 months worth of growths, triumphs, fails and successes.Year 30 was full! I rang in my new year with friends and family, celebrating with birthday bashes in two states. My friends, sister and husband are the best, and I felt the love!

Not even a month after turning 30, my father-in-law had a stroke and a heart attack. Anthony and I were fortunate enough to have flexible jobs, which allowed us time to visit him, usually twice a day, for a month straight. That month was all-consuming. Shortly before discharge, it was determined he’d need to move into an assisted living facility. Packing, purging and moving his belongings was a ton of work. The month of April was a breath of fresh air.

I retired from teaching group fitness and personal training! I was super passionate about coaching folks for 10 years, but needed (still do) a break from the kind of work.

Thirty was the year of saying “no” to things I wasn’t fully interested and invested in, and “yes” to doing what felt right for me.

I shattered my right pinky toe! I was at CrossFit, lifting weights without my shoes on (I squat better barefoot). Dropped a 5# plate and this little piggy hasn’t been the same since. 🙁I endured the hardest hardship to date with one of my sisters. The pain never really goes away, but the hope of better days lives vibrantly in my heart.

I intensely practiced physical yoga for a few months. It was glorious and soul-filling and exactly what I needed during that time. I’ve since stopped attending classes at a studio, but resuming is always in the back of my mind. I’m in this interesting season of life right now where “it’s okay” to flow with what I’m feeling rather than do things because I think I should be doing them. Giving myself permission to give a 🐥, or not, feels freeing!

I traveled, we traveled, so much! It was a fulfilling year of visiting loved ones and creating memories. We traveled to Utah a couple times to visit my best friend, road tripped to Kansas and Texas, took the annual Shuswap Lake trip, enjoyed both Lake Oswego and Neskowin, Oregon, explored Victoria, B.C., and drove the coast from Oregon to central California (EPIC!).

 

I spent many days with my favorite girl—my sweet sister, Timi. I am forever grateful for these times, when she lives just down the road from me. I’ve dreamed of these days for literally over a decade. Our favorite hobbies include beach days and hitting up the local nurseries. I can occasionally talk her into a hike. 😉 

We had visitors! Our most favorite friends and wonderful family stayed in our humble home (on an air mattress, hard futon or pullout couch as we figured out the transition to home office/guest room bed arrangements). We hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas and it felt so good to have that much love up in our house.

I took a deeper interest in the products we buy, from the wine we drink to where we source our protein and produce. I began to understand the meaning of voting with our dollars and am trying to be better with this each day.

We started the DIY Master Bathroom Renovation project. Hopefully that’ll be complete in another 1-2 months! Ha.

Thirty was a damn good year!

Here’s to the next 12 months!

Xo,

Jess