24

I've never been a big birthday person. I've never been good at reacting when I open gifts, which I think is key to handling your annual day of birth. And when you get older, it's hard to know how to celebrate. My ideal day? Playing a pickup game of softball. Not your typical 24 year old birthday celebration.

But this year was.. amazing! For 24 hours, I felt so loved. Surrounded myself with community, friends, family, baseball: it was a day where I had to ask.. is this for real!?

7:30. If you know me, you know I don't often see 7:30 am. I am not a morning person. And I so desire to be, but the morning hours were not something my body was wired to love. But on June 2, I was who my body fights against being!

8:00. Orangina + yogurt and granola at Dean & Deluca + time with my mom!! So fortunate to be raised by that wonderful woman and to learn from her as she walks her journey.

9:00. Real Linds catches up: I can't keep my eyes open.

10:00. My main babysitting gig: Helen turns five! The latest Disney movie, Tangled, is one of the cutest, funniest, awesome movies this side of Emperor's New Groove and was the inspiration for Helen's celebration! Six preschoolers decorated long blonde yarn braids, threw spaghetti at a huge Rapunzel poster board, played tag, and hit a tiara pinata!

1:00. Lunch with three of the most amazing people I know. Hudaks and FT: I cherish you. Time in my corner is worth more than anything. It feels so good to be known so well.

2:30. An afternoon with Mel! We went to Dish it Out and painted pottery: that sister knows how to paint! And as a recent coffee convert, I'm pumped for my handcrafted mug.

6:45. Game time. My dad coaches a Little League baseball team of 9-12 year olds and you should see his passion and love for those kids. Baseball is one of my favorite things and heading out to Freedom Park to watch those kids play a simplified version of an MLB game is my way to relax: especially at tournament time! After several lead changes, a grand slam, two more home runs, we sealed the deal with a 20-9 win (I may write a separate blog post: that's how much I loooove what my dad does).

9:30. Putting sesame chicken in my stomach makes me one happy girl. Takeout Chinese food with my family + ice cream cake: the perfect way to end the day!

11:00. Time with myself: time in the Psalms. Psalm 30 says, "Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.. Joy comes in the morning!! You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.. you have clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!"

(Added bonus: got to spend Friday night with some dear friends of mine at Amelie's!! Their food is to die for. Shared brownies, stories, laughs, and debates of Would you Rather: you girls are so precious to me. Turns out, I don't have a mind that thinks like the rest: I failed miserably at the Would you Rather board game. Here were our most controversial ones:

Would you rather.. be mediocre all your life or know you were supposed to be great and never achieve greatness?

..be lost in the woods with a knife and no food or four cans of spam and no knife? (my Hunger Game friends: answer this like Katniss).

.. trust everyone or trust no one?)

What a day: what people I know: what a song to sing! The most important part of the life I live and every year that I add is that I live it in the Gospel. I am justified, saved from God's wrath, and reconciled to God through Christ and His work on the cross. That work on the cross is elevated through the power of community and through the friends that remind us Who to choose and remind us that living in shame is paralyzing and not who God saved us to be.

I praise, glorify, serve, worship, and fall to my knees while lifting my eyes to the Giver of Life.

Welcome 24: may I praise His name forevermore!