Happy 5th Birthday, Blog!

I launched this site five years ago today. This was my first post. We’ve come a long way, friends.

When I launched this blog after creating my first blog during my freshman year of college and another one during my study abroad trip, I knew nothing–not how to blog or why I really wanted to [start a third blog]. I just knew I loved to write and desired to share. This site has changed with me dramatically over the past five years.

The two things I love most about blogging–bar none–is the beautiful, supportive community of women from all over the world that has grown from this space and having documentation of my life and access to my thoughts one, two, three, four, and five years ago. If you weed through the [often ridiculous] posts of yesteryear, there are posts weaving through every stage, change, and season over the past half-decade. I cherish this deeply. It’s a unique and strange experience to be able to read my own story as I told it as it was happening. I love to see how often God answered prayers and the longings of my heart through old blog posts.

And this community. There’s no way to convey my thankfulness without sounding level 10 cliché, but I’ll try. These five years have been tumultuous and challenging and difficult in lots of ways. I have been taken to the end of myself several times. In my current season, I have cherished “blog friends” who have stood in the gap while I work on finding “real life” friends here. Your comments and emails sharing about your own lives and experiences are precious and important to me. Your encouragement and “it’ll get betters” uplift me. Your snail mail letters make my whole week–I love hearing what’s happening in your life, getting to see your handwriting (hah!), and writing back. (Trips to the PO box are my favorite!) A few of you have become such close friends that we often text throughout the day and have sent each other gifts and cards. To say this community is precious to me is a massive understatement.

There have been great, exciting, beautiful times through these years, too. And y’all have celebrated alongside me–like when Charley came into my world, or when Riley and I got engaged or married, or when we bought our first home. And you’ve sent me messages and emails and letters telling me about your milestones and exciting life events too–and I love, love, love celebrating with you! Many of you feel like soul sisters, like our hearts were cut from the same cloth. I’m so thankful for that.

To celebrate this milestone, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite posts from each year. Here they are…

Favorite Posts in 2012

• The Best Cake You’ll Ever Taste
• The Single Most Important Thing
• Study Abroad: What to Pack & What to Expect from a Well-Traveled Gal
• Freezer Cooking: A New Way of Life!
• Make Your Own Shower Soothers

Favorite Posts in 2013

• I Wash My Face With Oil (The Oil Cleansing Method Explained)
• 11 Natural & Effective Ways to Prevent Acne
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Women’s Adult Acne
• When I Grow Up, All I Want to Be is a Mom.
• Life Updates, Warning: They’re Huge
• Try On My Shoes: A Day in My Life
• Dear Diary,
• When We Think Things Should Go One Way, & They Don’t
• Getting Laid Off 6 Months into My First Job Out of College

Favorite Posts in 2014

• My Theme for 2014 & Why I’ve Been So Quiet
• …And Sometimes It’s Just Joy
• I Am Here: Life Updates
• What I Need You to Know About Me
• Here’s My Ugly; What’s Yours?
• Dear Charley,
• My Brain Has Had Too Many Tabs Open

Favorite Posts in 2015

• The Road to Our Engagement: How We Met and Fell in Love
• Our Engagement Story: The Day I Said “Yes!”
• 14 Natural, Effective Ways to Combat Anxiety
• Here’s to Being Obedient When You Don’t Feel Like It
• It’s Wedding Recap Month!
• We Can’t Always Do It Alone: Sharing My Counseling Journey for the First Time
• You Don’t Have to Hate Your Body
• To My Riley On the Day After Your Birthday

Favorite Posts in 2016

• Our Wedding Film is Here!
• When the Dailies Are Wearing You Out
• How to Move Gracefully Through a Breakup
• 12 Things to Do at the Beginning of Each Month to Reset and Prepare
• New House Tour
• Why My Approach to Food is So Relaxed
• Full, But Not Busy
• Deeply Wounded and Deeply Effective

Thanks for your support + I look forward to the next five years! 🙂

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