I recently signed up to get these journal prompts in the mail, journal prompts from Stratejoy that are supposed to get you over the quarterlife crisis of getting to a point in your life when you have no idea what you're doing or where you're going. I don't think I'm quite to the crisis point yet but was just looking for a little direction in my thinking and writing. So anyway, I get these prompts every couple of days and this month the theme is intention, looking at what I intend to do and if and how the things I'm doing every day are helping me get there.

Let me just say, when I really sit back and think about the questions, they are incredibly eye-opening. Take for instance this week's topic - the addiction to busy. Are you busy doing the right stuff or are you busy for the sake of being busy? I'd be lying if I didn't say it was the latter. There is something about me that just says I have to be doing something, interacting with someone, or filling my time in some other way at all times of the day.

And it gets worse because I get impatient with doing just one thing at a time. If I'm watching TV I need to be on my computer at the same time. If I'm brushing my teeth, I'm definitely reading a book. And if I'm in the elevator going down to my car, I'm also playing a game on my iPhone. As I type this I'm realizing how ridiculous this sounds, especially since it's all true. The only time I let myself relax and really take downtime is when I am asleep, after I've read for long enough that my eyes are closed and Richie has to move the book and turn out the light for me.

So yeah, I'd say I'm addicted to being busy and while I don't know if that's ever going to change, there is something I can do about it. I can keep myself busy with the things that are the most important, not the things that I do to keep my mind constantly entertained like watching TV, Facebook, and checking my email every five minutes. Because to me, addicted to busy isn't the problem, it's the things that are keeping me busy.

My goal for the rest of February is to have better intentions, to actually follow through on those intentions, and keep myself busy doing the things that will leave me feeling refreshed instead of well, busy. And who knows, maybe I'll even take a few minutes off for the first time.

Out of all of the parties I've planned, this is one of my favorites, no pun intended. I originally found the idea on Pinterest (since I can't come up with ideas on my own) and got additional inspiration here, here, and here. Oh and did I mention I've been planning this party since November? Much easier, well maybe not easier, to plan a party in three months than three days.

The idea behind the party is based on Oprah's Favorite Things shows where she talked about her favorite things and then gave the audience a copy of each one. Since I couldn't give everyone a 7-day cruise (one of Oprah's gifts), I thought I'd come up with a little surprise of my own well because I can't just copy someone else's idea exactly.

The general idea behind the party is that everyone brings three copies of their favorite thing (i.e., if mascara was your favorite thing, you would bring three things of mascara) up to $10. Each person's name then goes into the bag three times. On your turn, you tell about your favorite thing and pick three names out of the bag and those three people get your favorite thing. Everyone goes home with three other people's favorite things.

It was so much fun, kind of like a late Christmas. Even though everyone knew that they would get three gifts, it was really fun to watch how excited people were when their name was called. It's definitely something that could easily be done once every few months since everyone could easily come up with new favorite things.

That's the basic idea behind the party. But of course, I couldn't stop there. I thought it would be fun to not only share our favorite things but also to introduce the women to new things in the area. So I contacted a ton of local vendors and Etsy shops that make things local to the area and asked if any of them would like some free advertising to women in the area. I had about 40 vendors respond and donate gift cards, handmade jewelry and gifts, discount codes, and other great items to put in swag bags for the women. So every woman received not only their three "favorite things" from the party but also a fun gift and swag bag made up of the items generously donated by all of the vendors. So really, it was a little like the Oprah show except not quite as extravagant. Come back throughout the next week to see what awesome items were in the bags!

And now for the pictures! Since it was my favorite things party, I  had to make some of my favorite foods.

Last week we went on a cruise with 22 of us to celebrate my grandparent's 50th anniversary. It was fantastic and reminded me why I love my family.

Richie and I celebrated our 5th anniversary last week! Because we got married so close to Christmas, this is the first anniversary that we weren't with family. Since we're going on the cruise next week, we decided to keep it low-key and just do dinner and exchange presents after dinner.

We had dinner at Vermillion in Old Town Alexandria and not only was it delicious, but they gave us a free dessert and cute little happy anniversary card when they found out it was our anniversary. I wanted to take a picture of the entire meal because it was all plated beautifully, but I couldn't resist this cute childhood reminiscient dessert we had. Can you pick out the oatmeal cream pie, snickers, and hostess cupcake?














Since you probably can't read anything in my awesome pictures, here's what my date of the month club (borrowed from Love, Actually) includes:
 And the dates I decided on that work specifically for us are: