7 Quick Takes #274: A Decade in the Making

1. Writing this very grateful for my warm house as we have been having crazy cold weather recently, while also acknowledging some of you have my area beat all-hollow so hoping wherever you are reading this ~ you are warm too!
2. After watching most of both National Championships games last week including overtime I'm a bit grateful for a football-free weekend. I am of course thrilled that the Patriots are Super Bowl bound and will of course be watching; but happy for a bit of downtime before the Championship.
3. The other excitement of last Sunday was the Great Wolf Moon turn Blood Moon turn Lunar Eclipse. Adding to the excitement was given the holiday on Monday we could let Lisbeth stay up for the eclipse. In reality it was so cold that starting at 11:30 we would go outside watch for a couple of minutes, come inside & color for a few minutes, repeat till about midnight. Still an amazing sight and a fun one to share with family.
4. Catholic School Week begins on Sunday and the kids are excited for all the fun activities planned by the school including various contests and a fun dinner-out at a local restaurant, and I'm looking forward to helping again with the Book Fair.
5. It is also Pine Box Derby time and Liam (a Wolf Cub) is hard at work with Dr Daddy in the design and creation of his car.  He made one last year but this is his first year entering a car in the derby which is adding to the excitement and fun.
6. This week marks 10 years since I started this blog which is a little beyond belief for me; but as the 9 month old I spent my days with then is talking about what she wants to do to celebrate her 11th birthday I am well aware that time has indeed been passing!!
7. The support, encouragement and fellowship I have received from you readers and fellow bloggers over these past 10 years (and 997 posts) has been amazing and I thank you all very much for coming along on this blogging journey with me.

Please head over to Kelly's for more 7QT's.

Quick Takes #253: Post-op Reflections and Lenten Plans

1. Caitlin two weeks post surgery is doing well. Overall it went very smoothly; the staff was kind and worked with her very well. Her recovery was up and down but mostly the medicine regiment they recommended worked well and with encouragement she was willing to drink. All about the popsicles to start, now ice cream is the fave.  Another funny memory will be the day she was very reluctant to drink but ate 3 mozzarella sticks at a birthday dinner for a friend.
2. She is actually home from school today complaining of a very stiff neck but I believe we are coming to the end of the acute recovery period. The key question being if she actually sleeps better and snores less after all of this.
3. Was happy to see that Jess Ptomey is again hosting a Catholic Reading challenge this year. Am not sure that I'm up for another reading challenge but given the first category is the same as the MMD challenge 'read a classic' perhaps I can find enough overlap to make it doable.
4. Last Sunday went very well for two of the teams we root for in the house.  The Super Bowl will hopefully prove to be a lot of fun with very little downside.
5. I've found that a guided devotional really helps my prayer life in Lent and this year I ordered the Take Up and Read.  It arrived earlier this week and is thick, beautiful and I'm very optimistic about what it will bring to my observance of Lent this year.
6. Somewhere in the past week this little blog of mine had a blogaversary and marked 9 years since it's starting. Thank you to all those who have read, commented and encouraged me to keep writing in my corner of the blogosphere!
7. This weekend kicks off Catholic School Week here and the kids are excited for us to see the various projects in preparation for the Open House.

Have a  good weekend and please head over to Kelly's for more 7QT's!

Quick Takes #200!! In celebration of a blogaversary!

1. Checking the archives my first Quick Takes post appeared on January of 2009 as my fourth post and seven years later we have reached 200! Needless to say I've grown so much in these seven years; mostly as a mom, wife and Catholic but also as a blogger.
2. While I certainly don't post as often as I wish; having this space (and format) to come back to and share ideas and thoughts (even those that never get published) has been such a wonderful blessing in these 'in the trenches' years.  And often the posts that I worried were the most incomplete struck the biggest chords.
3. And reading others has given me more than I can describe but regardless of how tiring a week it has been or how crazy a Friday it is I always make time to read at least a few of the 7QT's posted. And without fail there will be something that uplifts me or makes me laugh or think about life in a different way.
4. Really want to giving thanks for Jen for creating this wonderful format and Kelly for keeping the fun going.
5. Looking back on a mission statement I made 3 years ago, I find that it largely holds true and is a story I'm still interested in telling these many years later.
6. Coming back to the realm of the everyday; it has not started snowing yet but we are ready and the kids are excited for Jonas. Hoping everyone in the path of the storm stays safe!!
7. Thanks to all of you who have read and commented and made these past seven years more fun than I could have ever imagined!!

First picture I ever posted here: Lisbeth age 1

Please head over to Kelly's for more 7QTs

A blogaversary and thoughts for the way ahead

   6 years ago I started this blog and while this past year I struggled a lot I kept it going ~ the blog is still here and some am I. Perhaps not posting as often as I would like and but maybe the 'little engine that could' feeling I've been feeling is not so wrong.

The Saint Generator sponsored by Jen Fulwiler of The Conversion Diary selected Saint Therese of Lisieux for me this year and in the spirit of her Little Way I will continue.

In pretty much every way this is a little blog but as long as I'm trying my best and am sincere in my desire to share a bit of what I know and what I'm learning as I grow in my vocation there is a reason to keep posting and sharing.

A huge hug and thank you to you readers who have kept reading though the postings grow lean.

Onward!

Four years later..

Four years ago I started this blog, and four years later:

• I've finally created an about page
• I'm still finding my voice
• I'm proud of myself for staying with it through dry spells
• I'm starting to understand the story I want to tell
• have many post ideas in the works
• I'm grateful beyond words for the friends & fellowship found
• I'm excited for what the coming year might bring.

Blog-aversary ~ 3 years later!

So three years ago when I started this blog, the little person I shared my world with

was about this size, 

she has gained a buddy, and he too has brought his own rhythm and moves to the dance of our days 

so much of which has been recorded here as I have sought out a place of community and discernment.

Thank you for your support, comments and wisdom.

Your own blogs inspire me and your readership honors me.

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning. Ps 30:5

Thanks 2 You!

Happy Blogaversary 2 Me!

Two years ago having so enjoyed other blogs and as a long time journal keeper I started this blog with the hope that it would be a good way of getting my thoughts down about mothering and being a woman of faith at this new stage in my life.

It has become so much more ~ a wonderful place to record those darling daily moments that go by so quickly as the little people in my life gets bigger ~ a springboard to following many other amazing bloggers, some I've been blessed to meet in person ~ and that safe place I imagined to share my thoughts and beliefs at this point in my life and faith journey.

I'm writing this with my sweet baby sleeping in my lap, a baby whose coming was still such a new blessed idea in my world a year ago ~ who is now so much more than an idea, making me so excited to see where life takes me and this blog in the coming year.

2 years old and going strong ~ thanks 2 you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Happy Blogaversary to me and you!

So as you may have gathered from the title today is my one year blogaversary and to celebrate and show my gratitude for all of you who have visited, commented and made this whole have a blog, write 'bout my life, my thoughts, my ideas so much less scary and actually quite fun I am giving away a book that I have enjoyed that you think you might like.

Your options are:

Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris

Glimpses of Grace by Madeleine L'Engle or

Babyhood by Paul Reiser

To enter leave a comment with which you would like to win and what you would enjoy seeing in the second year of this great adventure.

Extra Entry, if you blog about the giveaway

Entries accepted until Sunday night (January 24th 9 pm EST)

And thank you again for reading, commenting and not seeming to mind the many pictures of

my favorite (formerly ten month) soon to be 2 year old.