Category Archives: Catholicism

When do YOU have time to blog???

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Be not of those who think perfection consists in undertaking many things, but of those who place it in doing well what little they do.  For it is much better to do little and to do it well, than to undertake much and do it ill.”  St. Francis de Sales

My  blog posts are becoming fewer and further between.  WTH?  When do you people have time to write?  Do you pound it all out at one sitting or draft and edit and edit?  I’m a sit down, get it done, publish kind of girl.  I like to wrap it up.  No loose ends.

My writing time is in the morning and since I started morning boot camp last week that killed 3 days during the week of “writing” time.  We also implemented a new scheduling system at work that has opened up a whole box of cluster for our company as there are MANY people trying to learn (all at different paces) AND utilize the system all at the same time.  We’re waiting to see if a head will roll (or two), but in the meantime our company has offered OVERTIME (unheard.  of.) to get the backlog of scheduling caught up.  Yours truly is all kinds of up on that train.  We have back-to-school in 4 weeks (already?!?!?) and the OT will definitely ease the burden of supplies and new shoes, shorts, shirts, etc., which means even less time for blogging!!!  I guess until the blogging pays for itself that’s the way it will be and since I’m not really in it to market anything, nor really found (or am looking for) a niche to fill, I don’t foresee that any time soon!  So, in the meantime, (or at least the next 3 weeks I have boot camp in the mornings) my blogging will be sporadic.  Unless you all give me some good ideas.

This weekend when I wasn’t blogging I was here:

Walking with one of my oldest and dearest friends for ONE WHOLE HOUR on the beach early Saturday morning! Great sweaty girl time!

Then, later in the day when I wasn’t blogging we were here:

Ending the day with friends on the beach

So, really.  How and when DO you blog?  Does the beach (or other fun) get in your way?  I really want to know….

By the way, it is Natural Family Planning Awareness week.  For those of you thinking it’s the ol’ Rhythm method here are a few sites to check out and learn a little somethin’ somethin’ about your body (or your wife’s), save a little dough and avoid added carcinogens in your body (because don’t we get enough from everything else we face on a daily basis?).  So, I may (or may not) have a few re-blogs here this week on interesting NFP stuff.  Excited, aren’t ya?  😉

iusenfp.com

1Flesh.org

Weekly warbling..

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Joining in with the usual suspects @Conversion Diary for a wild weekly wrap-up.  You never know what you’re going to get, there’s some great stuff in those who join in, from theological discussions to Pinterest, to Youtube silliness, funny kid stories and so on….check ’em out!

This will be quick because I need to get the girls and I out the door in the next hour…I’m an envelope pusher like that.

1.  It’s been a good week in the exercise category, what with switching it up and all.  I’m back to the a.m. workout cycle AND mixing in some afternoon lunch cardio as well.  It worked THIS week.

2.  As an added motivator in my switching things up, I’ve been positively obsessed with success stories and Socially Fit has their usual every Friday, as well as Peak313 on Wednesdays, so if you need a little boost they are a good place to start!

3.  Also from Peak313, I stole this and put it on my Facebook….

4.  I also snuck in some veggies to our pseudo Thanksgiving-in-July dinner the other night with Cauliflower Mashed potatoes.  It’s the little changes.  The kids loved it AND it was a bonus veggie.  Win-win all around.  well, except for the extra gas….

5.  We have passed the 1/2 way mark of Summer.  Can I get a Hallelujah??  We have 5 full weeks of summer left.  If you shop at Wal-mart or Target you might think it’s next week….since they have all the school supplies displayed in plenty.  I just can’t even go there mentally yet.  I still have some beach time to get in and some non-rushed mornings and homework-free afternoons left!!  But…..I do miss the routine (hence the need for a Hallelujah).  It’s a double-edged sword…

6.  Anyone who is using NFP and Marquette, we are finally online charting with an interactive model.  You can find it here and the staff is very helpful if you have any questions.  You can find it HERE.  Just takes a few minutes to register and you are good to go.

7.  A few months ago my neighbor made a reference to his “Outlaw” neighbors as a young guy on his Harley rode by.  He has a dry little sense of humor and I thought he was joking….the subject of their Very.  Loud.  Bikes.  had come up a few times. Since they kept rather late hours and early mornings, sleeping with the windows open was a bummer with these guys.  Anyhooo….  This morning I was walking and they were leaving (later than usual) and lo and behold….HOLY COW, they really ARE Outlaws.  Wearing their colors and all.  wow.  To be fair, aside from their noisy cycles they haven’t bothered us, nor do I expect them to.  It’s just that you don’t expect to see infamous motorcycle gang dudes riding out of your sleep little ‘hood in the a.m.  On that note….

I’m out.  It’s time to make lunches and get rockin’ and rollin’…..Y’all have a good weekend ya hear?!

Running away….for 26 hours!

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With 17 hours in my old city to visit friends (and 6 of them filled by sleep), I wanted to make the most of my time.  I wasn’t able to see EVERYone, but the friends I did manage to visit……QUALITY time.

The trip was spontaneous-ish and came about because a sweet friend is moving from my old city to Washington D.C. with her family.  I happened to be taking a few days off of work at the same time.  The girls lucked into a VBS @ a Catholic school the next town over for the same week (with my neighbor who was driving there AND back!!).  Hubby was on board and encouraged me to go.  And so, the quick “up and back” plan was hatched.  Continue reading →

All good things must come to an end….until next year!!

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Thanks to The Treasure Trove (Lynnell), Dance Mommy’s Odyssey (Laura), Sempiternal (just call me AJ), The General (MB) , Redefining Normal (Brite), The Eagle’s Nest (Amanda), and Blog it ALL (Lea) for this month’s “Blog-Every-Day-in-May”.  Or most days.  Or some days.  Or whatever you felt like days.  It was fun and all good things must (PRAISE GOD FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!) come to an end. (I know my Hubby is happy, too!)  So we will all now return to our regularly planned blog schedule or non-schedule and I thought I’d wrap it up with what I gained from this little exercise Bloggapalooza.

In no specific order:

  • I gained new “Followers” this month….these lucky people automatically receive an email each time I post a new blog, so they never have to worry about missing one single minute detail of my life.  Lucky, right?  Well, in case you want to be lucky, too…just click on the “+Follow” in the top left of the screen…..see below….other handy-dandy tools, “Like” if you enjoy the post and “Reblog” if you really like it and want that to be your post on your blog.  I didn’t even know what that WAS until Sempiternal “Reblogged” me…very cool indeed!
  • I found several new blogs along the way, one to encourage my fitness and health journey AND encourage my Faith walk like Clare @ Peak313Fitness.  The woman loves her some Jesus and keeps the workouts fresh to constantly keep that temple humming and wondering what in the heck is coming next?!?
  • Ellie @ Emerald Pie.  Her life in Ireland is fascinating to me, a world apart and yet no different in her daily life, challenges and busy-ness as a mom and wife.  Her Irish scenery is AH!MAZING!!!!
  • Ex-pats and their very interesting lives in Dubai @ Circles in the Sand and Three years and home in Switzerland.  Witty, insight and photos into other parts of the world, customs, differences in their “normal” lives and how they adjust and roll with each day.
  • A gem of thoughts to teach our daughters (though us parents and sons would benefit, too) from One Joyous Heart . Witty, dry, sometimes right on the edge of cracking, raw observations on motherhood and life to two very young and very close-in-age cutie-pies, Camp Patton (I see glimpses of myself when the girls were so very young at this stage….I want to hug her and tell her, keep taking pictures, take videos…they grow up and you. will. survive!!)
  • I’ll be keeping my day job.  The only time I want to write is first thing in the morning…that 20 extra minutes or so (the “or so” often sets me running behind!) after my Quiet Time.  I don’t think I’ll get a Nobel in those 20 minutes.  Probably.  Apparently you need to write often and enjoy it..another strike.  Soooooooooo…..just press “Follow”…you’ll know when I update.
  • You can get lost for VERY.  LONG.  PERIODS.  OF.  TIME.  on the internet.  You might think I learned this from Facebook.  Child’s play.  There are so many flippin’ blogs out there.  Thank goodness for my Reader, but then I often get sidetracked by hyperlinks to other blogs, then add them to my reader and boom….there goes another hour.  CrAzAY!!!!
  • Stepping out of my comfort zone to share something I feel passionate about usually brings out my best writing.  Over the next couple of months as I move my old mac blog over to WordPress (an EXTREMELY time-consuming process–one would think as “user-friendly” as apple generally is, that “THEY” would have made it easier to transfer blogs once they decided to no longer support mac blogs–but that is a whole other venting blog…) I will also add a page of “The best of….according to Hubby”.

This month I’ve celebrated Mother’s Day internationally, my birthday, my sister’s birthday, the end-of-the-year chaos, enjoyed new baby pictures, witnessed the ups and downs of a NICU baby doing her best to grow big and fat and go home (and won a T-shirt!), remembered the joys of maternity leave and the heartbreak of it ending, new house pictures, great words of encouragement, learned about Broadway plays, enjoyed recipes from new gardens and a world of LIFE happening.

So, this month comes to a close, but the blogging goes on.  Maybe not everyday, but it goes on.  Like life.  So get out there and enjoy it!!  And THANKS for visiting!!

Last Friday in May?!?! or 7 months until Christmas…..

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— 1 —

We’ve been in a rut (according to the kids) as far as dinner goes, so I’ve been letting our youngest (8) pick out a few new dinners from our Publix Apron Meals collection.  (We grab the recipe every week while they stalk  chat up Rick, the cooking dude and see if he has any grub ready.  Last week was a Rib dinner (not so great), Scallop dinner (delish!) and Honey mustard chicken pasta (pretty tasty).  This week, she picked out Peanut Satay chicken.  I figured it would be tricky, since we aren’t a very spicy or Thai craving people….however, OH MAN!  Huge hit.  Especially the Edamame sauté side dish.  We’ll keep up with this…it’s shaking up dinner in a good way!

— 2 —

I finished the Kite Runner.  I can’t say my Hubby didn’t warn me.  Multiple times.  I just finished yesterday.  It was “difficult”.  In that heart wrenching, yanking it out of your chest, stomping on it, trying to shove it back in “difficult”.  A glimpse of a life I really can’t bear to think about most days.  I’m still processing the book.  Rest assured, the next book will be light and fluffy.  Maybe the next two books. I need to regroup.

— 3 —

We hit the beach for Happy hour last night.  I needed it after finishing my book (see #2).  It was great.  Nice breeze.  Refreshing water.  Fun waves.  Ahhhh.  My soul rejoiced.  Heart refreshed.  Zero calories and no hangover 😉

— 4 —

Adoration.  Lunch break.  Never disappointing.  I went for peace regarding a few things in my life right now…ask and you shall receive.  (Matthew 7:7) Super cool.  I don’t ALWAYS get my prayer request answered so quickly!!  Sadly, I did NOT get the handout with bullet points and step-by-step instructions as to the direction I should take.  It’s coming though.  Probably in the format I least expect, seems to be how it usually works out.

— 5 —

The kids all received their FCAT scores from their teachers and everyone passed.  Hallelujah!  There wasn’t a “doubt” per se, but there’s been a lot of controversy on the testing changes this year and they had to have an emergency education meeting for the state to address the scores (they were THAT bad).  It’s an awful test.  Every year they take it is another year I mourn the fact I can’t home school (sorta) and not subject our kids to this ridiculous test and the immense amount of pressure it brings to the teachers and the students.  EVERY.  YEAR.  There must be some growth in it for us.  somewhere.

— 6 —

Apparently, my our lazy summer plans just got less lazy.  Our youngest wants to do Pop Warner cheerleading.  She’s been interested before, but dance and soccer have always won out in prior years.  This year she’s committed.  And our oldest daughter wants to play Club soccer.  She’s been conditioning with DaddiO this week, running and biking and will start drills next week since tryouts are in about 10 days.  She’s better than she thinks she is, she’ll just need to find that “competitive” spirit and learn to dump the “nurturer” to the curb during game time.  Thankfully the boys will be focusing on skateboarding and practicing French Horn and Xbox.  And they have their little lawn business.  So they are set.  phew.

— 7 —

We’ve been hitting the old home movies this week.  The girls LOVE to see themselves as babies (their baby scrapbooks are worn. out.)  The movies are putting them over the moon.  Meanwhile, Hubby and I have vacillated between sadness, laughter and absolute AMAZEMENT that we made it through those years mentally intact–for the most part.  It’s such a bittersweet, tangible thing to see your sweet BABIES and toddlers and now you look UP to look them in the eye.  Surreal.  And I did not enjoy those years enough.  I am, however, relieved that I am not really shrieking or scolding anyone (on camera), and I have video proof that I did laugh, so maybe I enjoyed it more than I think and it just went so quickly I don’t remember.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

and my other May blogging friends!

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva 

MB

Brite  

Amanda 

Lea