“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” - Walt Whitman

I started out this year with the goal to live it differently. It wasn’t a set of rules I wrote on a sheet for myself. It wasn’t something designed by someone else. It was something intrinsic, something floating around in my head as an idea. A goal to live my life purposefully, with passion invoked into everything.

I wanted to be bolder in my decision making. In my choices. In choices ranging from what I did with my voice, to my profession, to who I spent my time with, even right down to what I wore. I wanted to be bold. I wanted to not worry what someone else perceived my closet to look like, what one friend said about an outfit I picked out, what someone thought of me because of what I chose to wear or who I chose to have dinner with. Because, in the end, I never really have understood why people would make those comments anyway. I was always taught if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. Consider your audience.

I wanted to spend more time and make a concerted effort to eat naturally. I wanted to frequent the Farmer’s Market in 2012, to pick up fresh fruits and veggies as often as possible, to shop locally, to cook often, and to know what I was eating and cooking, what I was putting in my body. I wanted to remember verses like 1 Corinthians 6:19 and to live like that.

I wanted to be a good friend. To give space when space was needed and to recognize when it was not. To listen. To visit and spend time with the people I love and to put them first. But I also wanted to protect myself and my heart from getting hurt. To not listen to critics and to not take one friend’s lashing personally but rather to prayerfully consider their words and my actions.

I wanted to be a good sister and daughter. To make plans with my parents. To spend time with them weekly. To listen to them and learn from them and cook with them and play with them. I wanted to be the kind of sister my brothers call for advice or dinner or a running partner. I wanted to be my mom’s confidant just as she has been mine. I wanted to make my father proud.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote: ”I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

I want to be that person that soaks it all up. I want to see it all but I also want to absorb it all. I don’t want to waste time with superficials – food or friends. I wanted this year to be the year I do me.

And I won’t let anyone get in my way.

when a friend tells you an image you’ve pinned looks like you; when another friend adds that that’s her husband’s favorite Victoria Secret model; when you learn that that model is Alessandra Ambrosio; when both friends agree that the woman in said picture looks like you.

{Credit.}

[Pardon this interruption: I hear birds chirping outside. Hello February in South Carolina.]

Saturday morning I woke up, laced up my shoes, and hit the Riverwalk to run 10 miles. And I did it! Hoo.rah. After chugging a gallon of water and turning myself around in 2.5 seconds I headed over to Carolina Stadium for the double header. I met up with my friend Tyler who had box seats for us and I taught him to not be surprised by my wealth of baseball knowledge. (He tried to argue with me who starting and closing pitchers were last season. Not a good idea.)

It was a beautiful day in Columbia, especially considering the game was moved up 3 hours and then made into a double header to avoid the inevitable rain.

I also got to get my picture taken with Jackie Bradley, Jr!

After the games and after ahi tuna and oysters and vodka and dancing were all said and done, I called it a night.

Yesterday I headed over to Mom and Dad’s for Sunday night dinner in celebration of my brother’s 29th birthday tomorrow! We had so. much. fun. I really lucked out in the family department. They bring me more laughter than anyone. I don’t know why or how but at some point over the past 6 months I have really realized how much I love spending time with my parents and how Mom, Dad, and my brothers are the very best friends that I could ever ask for in my life. I’m a lucky girl.

And, as my mom said in an email to me this morning, I am her “cute little mess.”

2. I was strolling through the Valentine aisle of Target searching for Ryan Gosling Valentine’s Day cards to no avail when I decided that Ryan Gosling Valentines needed to be a “thing” since they clearly weren’t already. So I made them a thing, at least in my world. Then THIS HAPPENED.

I swear, if “Laguna Baby” becomes a reality tv show chronicling the life of Kristin Cavallari’s child, I’m gonna flip.

I’ve ordered a dress from there and most recently leather leggings, and one thing I’ve discovered is the tag that comes with their clothing purchases:

Scripture on a clothing tag? What better way to win me over?

Right now, here are some of my favorites in the store …

Shoes so colorful they make a statement:

This tribal dress with a super fun back:

A necklace with some attitude:

Shop on.

I’ve long coveted this since seeing something similar here:

{Baublebar}

And I discovered this beauty this morning:

{Anthropologie}

Happy early Galentine’s Day to me?

Saturday morning I did a little bit of the closet shopping and tried on a dress I haven’t worn in 2 years (from Forever 21 – the irony) and snapped a picture to send to Reagan in celebration (!!!).

Please excuse the background.

This weekend I spent some time with friends and family. Friday night, Brittany and I went to Target at midnight to get Breaking Dawn! What it really was was THE BEST PEOPLE WATCHING EVER. Seriously. The crazies.

(IGNORE MY NAILS. Omg.)

I also found a valentine’s day card for Ryan Gosling.

The inside says “I prefer Valentine.” Now … what’s Ryan’s address? Anybody? Bueller?

I got in some runs over the weekend (one long, one short) and had supper (and tea) with my parents (oysters!). Check out one of my mom’s million bazillion tea sets:

She’s the cutest.

I also spent a lot of time this weekend on the phone with Reagan. And I cooked! I made spaghetti sauce and oatmeal pumpkin pancakes for the week ahead with the instruction of Reagan. I also used vegetarian sausage for the first time ever.

The verdict is still out on the sausage (that will be a discovery at tonight’s dinner) but the pancakes + Carys syrup for breakfast was a great alternative to instant oatmeal and greek yogurt.