Soup to Dutts

I turn 29 tomorrow. I really, really love my birthday. I still count down the days like I did when I was a kid. Even this year, while I'm fighting a nasty sinus infection and probably won't do much of anything tomorrow, I'm beside myself with anticipation. I just can't help myself. This year I'm feeling especially reflective. As I embark on the last year of my 20s, I've been thinking a lot about my 20th birthday. I was a junior at Clemson, and I spent the night in the library, working on a paper that was due the next morning. Truth be told, I didn't feel much like celebrating that particular birthday. I was not at all excited about turning 20. It seemed like I was surrounded by people who'd had all these amazing life experiences, and I hadn't done much of anything. At least that's what I told myself. Well, here I am, nine years older, and I still haven't learned how to snowboard. I've never been to Europe, or even to the West Coast....

You guys. It's November . I realize that I'm a little late to the party, since we're already two weeks in, but still! Where has this year gone?! Anyway, November also means that Offtime October is over. I have allowed myself to reenter the world of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The only thing is...I kinda haven't wanted to. I've gotten back on most those sites, liked some of my friends' posts, and even made a few posts of my own, but most of the time I'm just not into it like I was before. You see, October was a very productive month for me, and I attribute much of that to not wasting time on social media. Here are just some of the things I did in October: started and finished reading two books, and made good progress on some others rearranged the furniture in the den (with tremendous help from my husband), a project I'd been wanting to tackle for months spent a lot more quality time with the Little Cute Girl, including watchi...

I've decided to take a break from social media for the entire month of October. Until November 1, I will not check Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter. I may post from time to time when there's an update here on the blog, but other than that, nothing. I've removed the apps from my Nexus so I won't even be receiving notifications. Lately I've just become keenly aware of how much time I waste on social media. That's precious time that I could be spending on other things that are more important and more worthwhile. So, here are some things I hope to do with my newfound spare time this month... Get more steps. At the end of almost every day now, my Fitbit looks up at me with these sad, pitiful eyes. (No, really...I have the Flex model, which shows me my progress throughout the day by lighting up one dot for every 2,000 steps I've taken. Most days, I only have two little dots, and I think they look like sad, pitiful eyes.) I really want to get more acti...