One Little Word... 2014

The other night Matt and I were out to dinner with a friend and she was telling us how she had a theme word for this upcoming year and she wanted it to be something that would encourage her to make the most of each day. Her word was enjoy. She wanted to enjoy life more in 2014 than ever before. She wanted to make it a point to enjoy her family, her husband, and God intentionally every day. Apparently this idea of picking a theme word is actually a part of a movement called One Little Word.

After watching my little brother play basketball last Saturday night we were out to dinner with Mike and Kelsey and started recapping the conversation. We had told our friend that if we had to pick a theme word ours would probably have to be celebrate. Late last spring Mike started the search for his first post-grad job. He ended up interviewing at Eastminster and it seems that ever since that happened whenever Mike and Kels have ventured over to Wichita we have found some reason or another to celebrate together. Whether it was an anniversary, an interview that had gone particularly well, or something as big as purchasing a home to something as miniscule as buying a juicer- we sure do love to celebrate. Our celebrations were mostly excuses for us to justify a nice meal out or staying up too late, but whatever the reason or result it has certainly made the past several months so much fun.

Therefore, I dub 2014 the year of celebrations. Some of the fun things that we can already foresee happening include:

• Christmas with Matt's family this weekend. Our crazy schedules made it so that it was easiest to do Christmas two weeks into January... but you better believe I have loooved the excuse it has given me to keep all my Christmas decor up!
• Matt and I will be officially entering our "late twenties" this year.... I suppose it is better to choose to celebrate these events rather than to mourn, ha.
• Me and my Mr. will celebrate a year of marriage in May.
• Both Matt and I will have little brothers participating in the graduation festivities at Sterling College this spring. Looking forward to celebrating that huge accomplishment with those two. 
• At the end of May we will get to celebrate the marriage of one of my best friends from college! So, so looking forward to that wedding.
• We will celebrate the 1st birthday of our sweet little niece, Jane. That precious nugget always knows how to make us smile and I can't wait for all of her milestones that we will get to celebrate along with my sis and Rob over this next year!
• Together Matt and I have been working really hard on saving money and paying off debt and this year (if all goes according to plan) we should be able to knock out 2 of Matt's student loans! This may be my most anticipated celebration of the year!

So there are a few of the fun events that we know will be headed our way this year. I look forward to seeing what other things pop up that will be worthy of celebration!

This morning I surprised Matt with breakfast in bed because I skipped my Body Blitz class realized that it was our 8 month anniversary. When I walked into our room with the tray and said "happy anniversary!!" his face turned to panic mode and I got a good chuckle out of seeing him trying to remember if today was actually our anniversary. 

We usually don't celebrate the monthly anniversary, but every once in a while when we remember it is the 8th we like to use it as an excuse to "celebrate"- surely that doesn't surprise anyone after reading this post :)

Wishing a happy new year to all my readers! AKA my mom, dad, sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law!

Betsy