25 Acts of Kindness

I was so depressed about this year's birthday for multiple reasons. However as I was wallowing in self-pity of this next year, I realized that instead of being so full of self and complaining that I should take the focus off me and serve others in this time. What better way to get over yourself by serving others? So throughout the month of May I have decided to partake in acts of kindness in honor of my birthday. So here I wanted to highlight a few of the things I did during my birthday month to share the love, take the view off of myself, and be a blessing to others: 

1. United Way Ben & Jerry's donation

While partaking of a sweet treat, the United Way was running a campaign so I was able to donate to a great cause while enjoying a guilty pleasure


2. Bought lunch for a needy college couple
also known as my brother and his girlfriend. They both just started working in Charlotte together and have little to no money. While I was in town for a work conference, I stopped by and treated them to lunch!

3. Donate books to Boys & Girls Club
I have tons of books that I've already read and needed to clean space on my bookshelf, so I packed them up and brought them to the Boys & Girls Club in my town

4. Leave a water/Gatorade for Mailman

5. Pick up trash on a walk

6. Encouraging cards for someone who needs it

7. Create a homeless bag for Church Under the Bridge
At my church we all came together and helped stuff bags for homeless people in our community. There is a great organization called Church Under the Bridge which serves homeless people in the area with basic necessities and the Word of God. Check it out here 

8. Give a book to someone
As I was cleaning out my bookcases, I felt like God wanted me to give this particular book to a girl I've met at church a few times. So I put a little note and a cute bookmark in it and gave it to her the next week at church. I hope it bless's her like it has blessed me.

9. A gift to a friend just because
I met one of my best friends for drinks and appetizers one night and just packaged a little gift bag for her, just because. Sometimes its nice to get a gift simply because!

10. Letter to a sick kid
I found a website where you can write letters to children in hospitals to brighten up their day!

11. Buy flowers for someone just because

12. Donated Rice for foreign countries

This is a super cool website that donates rice (one of the main sources of food in many improverished countries) to villages just because you answer questions! It's like the ultimate trivia game: you answer questions and people get food to eat. Pretty cool. Freerice.com   

13. Donate old glasses to people who would otherwise not be able to have glasses 

14. Donate old cell phones to veterans through local store

15. Baby Gifts for a Mom in Need
I became aware of an old friend who was in a tight spot and expecting a baby...with nothing to bring the baby home. Along with a few other friends, we chipped in and stocked up mommy and bay for a good few months. Babies are a blessing afterall!

16. Buy someone's coffee behind you.
Ran through Starbucks today and covered the car behind me and left a note! Pass along the smiles.

17. Donated toothpaste to Mary's House 

Mary's House is a local home for women who are recovering from substance abuse with small children. They had a need for toothpaste while I was at the grocery store, so I grabbed an extra tube! 

18. Donate clothes to needy (Goodwill or another shop)

19. Compassion International Ministry 

About a year ago I started to sponsor a little girl in Tanzania named "Sara". She is six-years-old and lives with her grandmother and mother in a village that is largely agricultural. This month I decided to send her a few extra sweet things including an extra gift and some pictures and a letter from me to her! Want to learn more about sponsoring a child, go here: Compassion

20. Post in notes in a bathroom. Posted some encouraging notes on a bathroom in a local store like "You are beautiful" "You are valued" "You look fabulous!"

21. "Take what you need" 
Printed off a sheet and posted it in local Starbucks. Take what you need: patience, love, joy with Bible verses attached to each slip of paper!

22. Leave some love behind
I thought I'd leave a little love for a sweet coworker on Friday night (after he left) so he can have a smile first thing on Monday morning (: I covered his computers in sticky notes with encouraging notes

#TheGalatiansProject

This year marks a milestone for me: I'm officially a quarter-of-a-century years old. Now while to some of you this is probably no big deal, this has been a daunting birthday for me. It has loomed in the not-so-distant future but now I am here. Laugh as you will but it was always a scary number to me. Maybe it's because as a kid twenty-five seemed soooo 'old' and adultish, or maybe because as it got closer to the date, the more I realize that the life my twelve-year-old self imagined and the life I'm living are drastically different. 

However different doesn't necessarily mean bad. At twenty-five I work a job I love that allows me to jet-set on a monthly basis, have been blessed to travel the world for fun,  in the middle of my Masters degree, and pursuing the Lords call to go into the mission field. As I prepare my heart for missions I just felt like God wanted me to take the focus on "me" and focus on serving others. 
Galatians 5:13 "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love".
So for the next month my focus is on others: serving others, loving others, and being a kind heart and shining light to show others that it's not about me or you- it's about love. Welcome to #TheGalatiansProject

Jour 9 à Paris: A Parisian Birthday

Your birthday only comes around once a year, so you might as well enjoy it. Well this year I can whole heartedly say that I enjoyed every moment of my birthday. Waking up in Paris is a wonderful feeling. Waking up in Paris on your golden birthday is a whole other wonderful feeling. It was another bright and beautiful morning but being a Sunday it was quiet. Kids weren’t running around outside playing and people weren’t rushing off to work; it was slower, quieter and quaint. 

The cafés open later on Sunday so we ate a quick bite in our apartment before heading out to my birthday treat: a French baking class! La Cuisine Paris, a French baking school, offers cooking and baking classes in a multiple of different ‘themes’. We chose to do a morning baking class where you learn to bake some of the most iconic breakfast pastries: croissants, pain au chocolat, pinwheels with jam, cinnamon twists, and raisin bread. 

Emilie was our instructor and led the small group of us in making the perfect pastry dough to make fluffy French pastries. What I found out: it’s all in using rich high-fat content butter and fresh unprocessed flour. We sifted, rolled, folded and patted the dough until it was perfect. We set that dough aside and she brought out pre-made dough as it has to sit for hours before use. Then she started instructing us on the fun techniques to make all the different pastries.

In the end we had wonderful, warm, rich and gooey pastries that we got to enjoy with our tea and coffee plus we got to take the extras home!

 The class was lots of fun, Emilie was a wonderful instructor and I have to say I was highly impressed by our baking skills in the end. I wish that I could eat like that every morning and a) not get sick and b) not gain 50 pounds in a year! Wouldn’t that be a great birthday wish?!

After packing up our extra goodies we left the school and spent the afternoon in Paris! Sunday is definitely a quiet day and some of the shops are closed but I found it enjoyable and fun to just walk around the city (and buy myself a few birthday gifts too). 


Mom asked what else I wanted to do on my birthday and I honestly just loved the Jardin Tulleries so much, I just wanted to go back there and enjoy one more bottle of rosé before having to leave tomorrow. Sunday at any park in Paris is amazing because it is the epitome of rest and relaxation. There was live music, tons of families having time together, people reading, couples laughing and talking…it was just so different than what my typical Sunday looks like back in the States that it was so relaxing and wonderful- plus the rosé was amazing as usual!

Following our afternoon shopping and sitting in the park we returned to our apartment to get organized and pack up our belongings. After getting things together we packed our picnic bags, grabbed a few blankets from the couch, a wine opened and our coats and headed out towards the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and watch the lights come up and sparkle and that is exactly what we did. Kelly bought a bottle of champagne this week to toast my birthday and we enjoyed our picnic on the grass.

 As it got later and darker it was just a matter of time before the Eiffel Tower came to life and sparkled for the first time tonight and not too long after sunset, she came to life and sparkled. It was an amazing sight and it was the most perfect way to end the most perfect trip of the most perfect birthday a girl could ask for.

All I wanted for my birthday this year was to sit under the Eiffel Tower with a macaroon and a glass of champagne, and my wish came true tonight. This has been the most wonderful week ever. It makes me incredibly sad that tomorrow morning we will have to pack up and leave this wonderful apartment and this beautiful city but as Dr. Seuss once said, don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. So I reflect on this trip with smiles and memories that will laugh me a lifetime, especially because I got to take them with family. I’ve loved every moment and will dream of Paris from now until the day we get to meet again.

Day 07 of 30: What's Your Sign

Day 07 of 30: Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality. 

I've never followed my zodiac sign or payed any attention to them growing up but I googled what Gemini's characteristics were and these were some of the funny results: 

The Gemini Woman 

Impossible to pigeon hole, she is a will-o-wisp, a changeling, a mix of intriguing personalities. One minute demure and doting, the next ruthlessly sarcastic, Gemini can turn from Madame Jekyll, dotting her I's and crossing her T's with impeccable manners, to Ms Hyde, wild and unpredictable, but no less fascinating.   

A Gemini woman is extremely clever and has the ability to discuss every subject under the sun - politics, religion, travel - then just as easily switch to talking about the latest celebrity faux pas.  She is incessantly curious, prodding and poking at every angle and idea, her agile mind flitting from one thought to the other faster than lightning. She is witty, quick with one-liners, and will remember the tiniest, most obscure trivia. She loves to talk, but as a means to discuss, to gather ideas and information, not simply to fill empty spaces of silence.  

Easily bored, Gemini women need constant change, movement, and communication to feel challenged and entertained. Geminis are renowned for their charm, and use it to great effect. This combination of high intelligence, eloquence, wit and charm serves the Gemini woman well. She is often a writer, musician, playwright or politician. 

Gemini's in Love

The Gemini woman is waiting for her Prince Charming to sweep her away. But her idea of Prince Charming isn't necessarily about being tall, dark and handsome. It's more about the ability to make her laugh with their witty sense of humor and showing her a bit of their romantic heart.

Mercurial, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood." Gemini ladies are unpredictable! One day she can be singing and dancing and the next she'll barely speak a full sentence. Best of all – the Gemini woman is never boring.

Gemini's in the Working World

With her effective communication skills, confident nature, and logical mind, the Gemini woman can find her career path leading to successful positions in sales, the legal profession, journalism, teaching, or media opportunities. 

Enjoying the limelight and being able to easily switch from kissing babies and shaking hands to razor-edged debates, she'd make an excellent politician. Actress, writer, newscaster, public relations, politics, researcher, saleswoman, interpreter, dancer, and adventurer are all possibilities.

I do have to say a lot of these things are spot on. Intellectual, challenging, always changing, communicator, witty and loyal are definitely ways in which I'd describe myself. There were a few of the Gemini characteristics that didn't fit me but overall, it was funny to read about what a "Gemini Woman" is all about.