{7QT} 2015 Resolutions

This will be my first Quick Takes with the new host, Kelly at This Ain't The Lyceum. 

How about some New Years Resolutions?

1. Blog more. I think it is an avenue of evangelization for me, that is my goal anyway, and that is a good thing.  I didn't blog so much in 2014, one of the reasons was that I trying to make some better priorities and one of those was less screen time. I was spending a large amount of time on the computer and felt I should be more present to my family.  Have I succeeded, well maybe somewhat, at least I am conscience of it now, but I have a long way to go. God will keep working on me.

2. Keep on keeping on. I want to continue to grow stronger in my faith, to learn more, to read more, and to faithfully serve God in whatever way he leads me. My prayer every morning is that He always guide me in everything I say and do that day, that I have the fortitude to make decisions based on His will in my life, and that others will Christ in me.  One of the ways I will work on this is by reading the Bible in a year. Brandon Vogt wrote a great post to get you going on this seeming overwhelming task.  Check it out here and see if you can do it to. (At least we are only one day into the new year so it shouldn't be very difficult to catch up)

3. Get healthier.  Gosh, I am bad at this.  I'm trying to make myself see it differently, I'm trying to remind myself that God gave me this life and this body and I need to take care of it.  I just need to be more disciplined. Discipline is always a good thing, it's just so dang hard. I may try The Daniel Plan. From the description: "The Daniel Plan teaches simple ways to incorporate healthy choices into a reader's current lifestyle and helps them understand the kind of foods God created to keep them fit and strong. The book is categorized around five key concepts for optimal health that promote success: faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. These concepts encourage readers to deepen their relationship with God and offer inspiration as they make positive choices each and every day." Click the image to take you to Family Christian.  (You can probably find it elsewhere, but I like to support Family Christian.)

4. Be more organized in the kitchen.  I really have an adversity to coming up with meals. I just really don't enjoy cooking, and I'm not a creative cook. I get stuck in cooking the same things over and over, which I think gets boring for my family after a while. I will try to mix it up a little but I find it hard to find things that my family likes, and that I can make without much skill or time.  And I have been really bad lately. I am going to try to do better, again that discipline thing.

5. Gain some personal insight. Lately I have come to understand that I am really a creature of habit. I guess I have known it for quite some time, but I have really noticed it lately.  I buy the same things, at the same stores, with very little variance. I use the same cleaning products, personal care items, and even eat the same things day after day. Routine is comfortable to me and when things get out of order or distorted, I get really anxious. So this year I am going to try to help myself try to take a step back, take a minute, to really look at the situation and ask myself if I really need to have this anxiety over this particular instance. Wish me luck.

6. Show my family I love them more.  I want to make extra efforts to do little things for the family I live near and to keep in better contact with my family that aren't near.  I want to continue to strengthen the bonds that God has given me in the people in my life. 

7. And in the midst of all the seriousness of life and work, I want to always remember to look for the joy.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to visit Kelly for all the other Quick Takers.

7QT about Books, Music, Prayer, etc.

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During our family trip to Colorado we stumbled upon a store I had never heard of. It’s called Family Christian. As the name indicates it is a Christian store they had all kinds of different things for sale. I ended up purchasing a t-shirt for our neighbor girl who took care of our animals while we were away. It is somewhat difficult to find Christian stores so I am excited to visit their website when I next need a gift or bible or anything really. Click the picture above to take you to their website. They have a reward program called 1:27 which references James 1:27 that calls us to serve orphans and widows. Here are some of things they have accomplished, it is pretty impressive.



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One of the perks of Family Christian is their daily $5 deals. While we were there I purchased a Matt Maher CD and found my new favorite song: All the People Said Amen. It’s upbeat and refreshing and makes sing at the top of my lungs alone in my car.





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Travelling back from vacation I finished one of the best books I have ever read. It is called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It is an incredible story of learning to recognize and be thankful for the gifts that God gives us everyday. And how that leads to joy in the midst of the everyday craziness in our lives. I highly recommend it. I have begun my own gratitude journal and am excited to be more attentive to God's gifts in my life. The author blogs at AHolyExperience.com.

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Recently my husband and I started praying Vespers (Evening Prayer) together each night. We also found a beautiful prayer via an app call Laudate. The prayer is called Prayer for a Married Couple. It goes like this:

O God, we want to live our life together with you and always to continue it with you.

Help us  never to hurt and never to grieve each other.

Help us to share all our works, all our hopes, all our dreams, all our successes, all our failures, all our joys and all our sorrows.

Help us to have no secrets from each other so that we may be truly one.

Keep us always true to each other, and grant that all the years ahead may draw us closer to each other.

Grant that nothing may ever come between us and nothing may ever make us ever drift apart.

And as we live with each other, help us to live with you, so that our love may grow perfect in your love, for you are the God whose name is love.

This we ask for your love's sake. Amen 

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So while we were wondering around a mall with our daughter in Colorado, we stumbled upon something intriguing. There was a Catholic resource center and a chapel right there in a store in the mall.

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When you've been away from work on vacation for a while you never know what kind of pile of work you will return to. It wasn't to bad that first couple of days, however this week was a different story. Lots of different things going on this week including a huge project that we are in the middle of that required a lot of reporting and data collecting and meetings. Anyway, I came back refreshed and full of ideas again, which tends to happen when I'm not immersed in the day to day tasks that have to be done. So I am hopeful that I can keep myself focused enough to get some of those ideas implemented. We will see.

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I got my copy of Something Other Than God. I can't wait to read it. Obviously if you reading this from the Conversion Diary site you know all about it, but if you aren't it is the conversion story of Jennifer Fulwiler and her search for happiness. You can purchase it at many places, but this is the link to Amazon.









 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

{7QT} Mostly about Vacation

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We booked our tickets for our family trip to Colorado this week! Yay! I am so excited. It has been 4 years since we have been there, and you see that is where all of my family is. We live so far away from each other it just isn’t possible to travel very often. We will be gone for just under two weeks, from Thursday before Holy Week through Tuesday after. I will greatly miss being at my own parish for the Holy Week services and the Easter Vigil, but this trip is important and the timing works out for several reasons.

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One of the reasons it is good timing is that my baby sister and her family is also going to be there from Germany. I am so excited to finally meet her husband and her youngest baby boy. She and her baby girl were here with us in the fall of 2010 for a little while when her husband was oversees. The baby was only 6 months old. They then moved to Germany and had another child. I can’t wait to see them all.

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We will be staying with my step mom and dad and I am excited to get to spend time with them. I also can’t wait to spend time with my other sister and her kids. It will be good for all of us.

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I am also looking forward to catching up with a few friends from my childhood. One of them was one of my best friends. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m looking forward to potentially attending Holy Week and Easter services with her and her family. You see I don’t think she knows that I am Catholic now.

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Recently my husband has come back to his Catholic faith. It has been an amazing thing and he has really shown me that he wants to grow in his love for God and learn more about the Catholic Church. He has been attending Sunday and daily Mass with me and it has been such a blessing for him and for us. He is prepared to attend Mass in Colorado with me which is something that we have never done before on our visits. I am looking forward to it.

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My son will be attending the Regional Robotics Challenge in Virginia in a couple weeks. He is excited about it, but I am little nervous about him traveling so far away from home. So he will be missing some school for that and then he will also be missing a few days for our vacation. Lucky for him that he is doing really well this year so when I spoke to his counselor, she wasn’t that concerned about him missing a few days. Unlucky for him, is that I may have just instigated some homework for him on vacation. Oh well, it is still worth it.

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How is your Lent going? I am hoping that you all are having lots of time for prayer and reflection. Like I said in my last post, I am praying daily for those I love, those I work with, those I worship with and those bloggers out there that I read, especially all of you that are expecting little ones. I haven’t done well with finishing reading the Pope’s exhortation or the Screwtape Letters, but I still have a little time. Wishing you all many blessing this Lenten season.



 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday: Where I Talk About Healthcare

 

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Some of you may know that I work in healthcare. Lately, I have been a little stressed out about the MANY government regulations and incentive programs that I will have to lead our organization in implementing this year. It really is overwhelming, but I had the opportunity to go to a conference last week with other practice managers and was lucky to have met some great people. We have been in contact and I look forward to future networking with them. For support and advice and just plain to vent to people who know what I am talking about. It relieved some of my stresses, but the fact is that all the work still needs to be done.

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Do me a favor, when you visit your doctor, keep in mind that all they really want to do is take care of you and your families. I know the perception is that doctors just want to make a buck, but in my experience, they have worked really hard to gain the skills needed to provider good quality care. At one time, they were rewarded for their hard work with great incomes like a lot of other professionals are. That has changed. I’m not saying doctors don’t make good money, but the reality is that the government has put so many requirements and regulations and programs into place that they have to participate in or their payments get cut. It has actually made it really difficult for them to focus on patient care when they are trying to remember if they selected the correct code, if they checked the right box in the electronic medical record or if they made sure to ask you what language you prefer and for God’s sake do not forget to send that prescription electronically, lest it count against them. Don’t get me wrong I think having programs that do look out for patient care and the quality of the care they are getting is important. But the enormity of and the amount of regulations and programs is just a bit overwhelming.

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There is a blog I read called Kevin MD. Dr. Kevin posts many blog posts that he writes, but also many guest posts by other physicians. Every now and then I find one that captures my attention. There are some really great, caring, and compassionate physicians out there. I thought I would share a couple recent posts that I liked.

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This first one is titled “The greatest miracle a physician is privileged to be a part of”. It is a beautiful story of how “A Country Doctor” is reminded of the miracle of pregnancy and child birth. I hope you enjoy it.

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This second one is post by a physician who began to understand what it is like for patients when they are faced with medical issues. She sees that there so much confusion and uncertainty in the middle of life changing illnesses. It humbled her and she has dedicated her blog to helping people understand how hospitals work, and what can be done for a better patient experience by everyone in healthcare. It is titled "Recognize the blessings that you previous overlooked".  The author blogs at "In White Ink".

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This one is really good and accurately reflects what we see every day at our practices. I have read other posts by Dr. Rob Lamberts before, he is an interesting guy. He blogs at "Musings of a Distractible Mind". Anyway, this post is about empathy and how he recognized how patients react and describe pain based on how they have been treated before.

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It wasn’t my intention to do a whole 7 takes on healthcare, but I might as well finish it off since I’m at #7. I am certainly not a politician, and I won’t pretend to know much of the ins and outs of the Affordable Care Act (AKA: Obamacare), but what I do know is that the simple fact that all people deserve healthcare, is not solved by the creation of health insurance programs. Having health insurance and getting healthcare are two completely different things. I’m not a fan.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Most! plus {7QT}

Sarah over at "Amongst Lovely Things" is holding a link-up.  So since I am coming to the end of my first full year of blogging, I thought I would do it...and heck....link-ups are just plain fun!!

And since it is Friday, I'm also going to link up with Jen at Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes Friday.

So, my Most Posts for 2013, as follows:

Quick Take #1 - 1st - Post with the Most Clicks - Theme Thursday: Secret

This one surprised me the most....but it was a link up, and in hind-sight the title probably drew some clicks too...who doesn't want to know a secret...

Quick Take #2 - 2nd - Post with the Most Comments - My Bookshelves

Again, another link-up, but one of my favorites.

Quick Take #3 - 3rd - Post with the Best Picture - 7 Quick Takes

The picture quality isn't the best, but I'm voting it best because I love when my kids have fun together.

Quick Take #4 - 4th - Post that was the Hardest to Write - Where I Come From

I did a blogging challenge in September called Blogtember. The first challenge was to write a post about where you come from.  I really opened up on this and put a lot of stuff out there for all to see.  I don't regret it for a minute, and this is one of my very favorite posts.

Quick Take #5 - 5th - Post that was My Personal Favorite - Sacraments and Confession

This post and the time around when I wrote it was a spiritually charged time in my life.  I had finally come to an understanding of Confession and was able to celebrate the Sacrament fully knowing I was receiving God's Grace.  I knew without a doubt that I was doing what I should be doing, what God intended for my life.

It was a little hard to pick a favorite post.  (So that's how I am going to make this 7 Quick Takes...)

Quick Take #6 - Another Favorite Post - My Conversion Story

This is the post that I expected to the be the Most Clicks...It's second.  Anyway, this one is a favorite for a couple reasons.  First, it's the story of how I came to this beautiful Catholic faith. I can't imagine where I would be today without it. I have been given so many blessings that I wouldn't have otherwise recognized, and I wouldn't have been shown God's love in so many people that have come into my life because of it. And second, it prompted my interview on SiriusXM's Catholic Channel with Gus Lloyd. I know God wanted my story heard....I trust Him that the one who needed to hear it did.

Quick Take #7 - Another Favorite post - New Job

This one is one of favorites because it is when I really started seeing God's active plan in my life.  And I haven't stopped since.

So, that's my contribution for this weeks quick takes and also my 2013 Mosts!  Thanks for stopping by!  You are welcome anytime!

7 Quick Takes Friday: Great Posts edition

I've been accumulating these links for a little while now to share with you.  There really are some great people posting great stuff out there in the big ol' world wide web.  Please enjoy!!





 

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This author expresses so many of my same feelings about the Catholic Church.  It is worth a couple minutes of your time.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Click here!
 

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This piece is a great example of what I feel is needed in the Church today.  I would love to see more cradle Catholics be able to express their faith the way this author has.  But it takes work, I would love to figure out how to help others learn more about this beautiful, full faith that we have.  Click here!

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This is a great piece that will give hope for young men today.  Click here!

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I had written a little post a couple weeks ago about some questions some cradle Catholics had about my protestant upbringing.  One of them was about the authority they use.  Then a couple days later, I came across this blog post with a video by Fr. Robert Barron on the same topic.  Here it is!

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This is pretty interesting.  The author demonstrates twelve traits that show us the true church.  Click here!

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If you have ever wondered about your prayer life, this is a great blog post that should give you some encouragement.  Click here!

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Leila at Little Catholic Bubble recently posted this about how people come to God.  As a very intellectual person, she tended to think that people come to God through truth, however it is more usual for people to come to God through love.  Click here!

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes: Intro to Blogging and Commenting

A few weeks back our parish secretary put my blog info in the bulletin. Since then there have been a few people that have asked me questions about my blog, blogging in general, and also about commenting on a blog post. So I thought I would put together something to try and help them out.

Some of these people have never been blog readers before. I am somewhat new to the blog world myself (well, it’s been about a year, boy that went by fast!) but I think there are a few pointers I could offer that might be helpful.

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So first of all, what is my blog about? When someone asked me that recently, I pretty much just stammered though well, you know, a lot of different stuff, it doesn’t really have a theme. But later I was a little upset with myself. I should have had an answer.

So what should I have said? I should have said “it’s about me. It’s about all the different things that make up who I am. It’s a place for me to reflect on things in my life, past, present, or future. It’s also just a place for me to document whatever I want to.”

I’ll get better at my response, it'll just take some time and some self confidence.

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Now, about blogging…there really are no rules. You can find a blog about any subject you can image. There have got to be millions of them. There are blogs about cooking, fashion, family, faith, and probably just as many more like mine with no particular theme. 

There are blogs that are private, some that are run by multiple people, and others that are run as businesses. 

There are blogs to help you be a better blogger. I think you get the point.

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Blogging can really be a place of community. If you can find several blogs by people who have similar interests, similar beliefs, and in a similar place in life as you are it is easy to start to feel like you know these people, like they are your friends. And true friendships really can be formed through blogging.  I feel like I have a couple blossoming friendships started myself.

Most bloggers feature their favorite blogs in a section of their blog, usually on the side. This is a great way to find other bloggers that have the similarities like I mentioned above.



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Blogging is a lot of fun too. One of the fun things, that I have done a little bit of, are link-ups. Link-ups are a great way to discover other great blogs and bloggers. (This Quick Takes post is a link-up hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary)

Another fun thing on some blogs is give-a-ways. I have yet to win anything, but it is still fun. Usually a blogger will do a review of a product and then the company will give something away to a lucky reader. Sometimes bloggers will do give-a-ways that are not company sponsored, just something they have or something they made. It’s all fun.

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A couple things to get you acquainted with blogs:

A. Sometimes in blog posts there are hyperlinks that will take you somewhere else when you click on them. They are usually easy to see because the text is a different color.

B. A lot of bloggers can also be found on other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can usually find links to ‘friend’ them on their blogs.

C. Most blogs have a ‘follow by email’ submission box. You put in your email address and you get an email when this blogger posts a new blog post. There are other ways to follow blogs but not necessary to keep up with your favorites.

D. Many blogs have tabs across the top (sometimes the side) that take you to other pages of the blog. Often times an ‘about me’ page, but there could be anything on the tabs, it’s completely up to the blogger.

Notice I don't have an About Me page -- I'm working on one -- stay tuned

E. Most blogs have a section that are quick links to past blog posts. Usually it is in a year/month format, but sometimes it is just a search box. When you find a blog you like, this is a good way to catch up and read older posts they have published.

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Now for commenting on a blog post…

The first thing you should know is that bloggers LOVE comments.

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Second, to comment you usually have to have an account with one of a few various providers. The good thing is, if you have a Gmail account, that will usually work for most blogs.

The next thing might be a little complicated, but you should know whether you are looking at the home page or an individual post. Here’s the way to tell: if you scroll down the page and you see more than one blog post, you are probably on the home page.

You can get to the comments from here, but the easier way is to click on the title of the post. This will change the page to just that one post and at the end of the post will be the comment box.

Type out your comment and then you will have to pick what account you want to use to comment as. This is what I was talking about above. If you have a Gmail account, pick Google and log in. Make sure you don’t forget to click on ‘publish’.

Depending on how the blog owner has set it up, you may have to enter letters or words from a picture. There will be some sort of message saying you have to enter it so the computer knows you are a human and not a computer. I have that feature turned off on my blog. I find them annoying.

But what I do have turned on is that I must approve all comments before they can be seen. That is so if I get spam or a nasty commenter, I can choose to not publish the comment.  If you comment on my blog, you will probably not see your comment until I approve it.

There are several different ways to comment on different blogs, but once you do it a time or two, it should be pretty easy to figure out.

So there you go! I hope this had some valuable information and that you will comment now!


P.S. Here’s an extra…if you were ever thinking about blogging yourself, here is a link to a great blogger’s post that gave me some tips when I was starting out myself.  Plus you’ll love her blog.

http://www.houseunseen.com/2013/01/7-tips-for-new-bloggers.html

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday

 

Linking up with Jen and the gang over at Conversion Diary for this weeks Quick Takes. 

 

Here we go...

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Did you see this video this week? What an amazing kid that gave up his ball for the other kid. He did something selfless for another, and his parents, I’m sure, are proud of the kindness that they have instilled in their child.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/giants-fan-gives-baseball-to-crying-diamondbacks-fan-090313

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Thursday this week was the first day of school for our kiddos. Hunter was kind of excited and kind of disappointed that summer was over. He had worried that he wouldn't sleep much the night before, but he slept just fine. Unlike last year, I don’t think he got a total of 2 hours sleep the night before school started.

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So, I have completed the first week in my new position. The week was basically a ‘data load’. I just tried to wrap my head around all of the things that are going on and get myself acquainted with my new responsibilities. It was a lot, but not to overwhelming. Let’s see how next week goes. 

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I learned to can tomatoes on Monday. It had been something I had wanted to do for a long time and just never took the time. My husband’s aunt graciously came over and gave me the live tutorial. I am thankful to know how, and since we planted a garden for the first time this year, I now have something to do with all those tomatoes. It really was something special to me to learn. I really had a great feeling of accomplishment.

 

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I’ve been able to keep up with the Blogtember challenge this week. I wouldn’t say they were all high quality blog posts, but I’m confident that a few of them will turn out that way.

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Pumpkin coffee is back at Dunkin Donuts!  My favorite!  Had my first cup today, but can't wait until the pumpkin spice creamer is out in the stores so I don't have to buy it at DD.

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 Ohhhhhh, quick take #7....what to say...what to say...How about "Have a great weekend!"

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
 

7 Quick Takes Friday

Here we go...

 

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Last weekend we had an office cookout. All of us and our families were welcomed to the homestead of another staff member. The kids enjoyed the farm animals and almost everyone enjoyed riding Daisy. She is a great horse that put up with being led around the yard with toddlers on her back to being taken for a full trail ride by an adult and the a few more people decided they would take a ride too. It was a beautiful day with delicious food and great conversation. It was a really nice time to get together with everyone outside of the office.

My Hunter taking a ride on Daisy.



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I came across this short article the other day. It says a lot about the value of every life. It is called “When sparrows fall: A tribute to a baby girl". You can read it here, I highly recommend it.

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Lately my son has surprised me with tidbits of thoughts he is having. This sort of thing is usually the funniest when your kids are toddlers, but when they are 14 I guess you just don’t expect it as much. Anyway, at the county fair, while eating deep fried Oreo’s, he says “these are like the opposite of baptism, they are so good they are sinful”.

Then the other night he comes out of his room and asks to get on my computer. He then pulls up a Youtube video that is the theme song from the video game “Civilization IV”. The song is titled “Baba Yetu”. So he plays it and then says guess what it is? It’s “The Lord’s Prayer” sung in Swahili. He knew I would appreciate it and decided to show me, I’m so glad he did, it really is beautiful.

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Did you see Anderson Coopers interview with Antoinette Tuff? She is the lady that talked down the Georgia school shooter last week. What she did was amazing and she is completely up front that God did it through her. Her words “God has a way of showing you what’s in you”. What an amazing witness her story is! This is a small clip from the interview. 

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School starts next week. Hunter says “I think I’m excited but I know it won’t last long”. It seems like only a few weeks ago when I was posting about all his end of year activities. Summer goes by way to fast.

Anyway, I did his school supply shopping today. And I hate it. Maybe everyone hates it, but it is just crazy. First of all, the stores put the supplies out with great prices at least a month ago. The problem is you don’t get the list of what your kids need until the week before school starts. So by the time you can go fight through the masses to find the right size binders and the correct color of folders, everything has been picked through, half of everything doesn’t have a price on it, and most of what is left is the most expensive of it all.

Now, I guess the solution is to pick up what you think your kid might need as soon as the stores have it out, the problem with that is the lists are specific and different by teacher and grade that you don’t really know what to get. For example, you probably can’t go wrong if you buy pens, pencils and notebook paper, right? But if you try to buy binders you definitely won’t be getting the right size. One subject needs a 1 inch binder, another a 3 inch, and on and on. And I certainly don’t need heavy duty, sure kids are rough on their stuff but they are going to destroy it anyway, so I would rather just get the economy priced one. Sorry for the rant, but I am cheap economic, and it is drives me crazy to not be able to get the best deal.

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I have decided that I would take on another blogging challenge. (Do you remember the 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge?) Well this one was brought to my attention by a sweet blogger that I recently discovered. Her name is Nay and she is just adorable, and she is so real, she just makes you feel good when you read her posts. She blogs over at coffee-n-ink. 

The Blogtember Challenge is hosted by Jenni at “Story of my Life”. The challenge is to blog a total of 20 days in September (you get Labor Day and weekends off) and she gives you a topic for each day of the challenge. That is what clinched it for me. So be on the lookout for many posts coming from me in September! 

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This has been an exciting week for me at work. I took a new position. It is really a promotion and I am excited. I have a lot of ideas and can’t wait to get started. It means a lot of changes and that is always hard, but I am up for the challenge and hope I can make a difference. Keep me in your prayers, I may need them.

 

Have a Fun Labor Day Weekend!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

{7QT} Camping + A Couple Favorites

Day 5 of the 7 Posts in 7 Days Challenge by Jen who also hosts every Friday's Seven Quick Takes.  So I'm cheating just a little bit.  One blog post, some pics, and a couple favorites will round out my seven.



 

 

1. My husband and son went camping last Monday.  That's right, pretty much just Monday.  It was an impromptu trip, supposed to be later in the week, but the weather forecast scared them into going early.  So Sunday evening the packing began, including pulling the kayaks out of the shed to 'de-bee's nest' them. Then Monday morning they were off. They couldn't get a spot on the lake that they wanted (free camping) so ended up at another lake they like to kayak on.  Too bad there were a lot of boats on it, so Hunter was the only one that got to kayak, close to the shore.  The neighbors were noise with barking dogs. And they just weren't feeling it. So early Tuesday morning they packed up and came home.  After all, they decided they could make bacon and eggs just as easily at home.  Oh well, it was good father/son bonding time spent and that can't be bad.

 

Here is some of the proof:

 

2.

Hunter and their Campsite

 

3.

Isn't he cute?



 

4.

The view sure was pretty though.

5.

Just chillin'

  

6. This week I was trying to figure out 5 favorites so that I could link up with Moxie Wife Camp Patton guest hosting this week.  And I guess I just don't change things up enough to get some new favorites. But what I did discover this week were Lemon Twist Oreo's.  ohmygoodness Yummo!!!  They're limited edition, but if you can find them, you must try them.

 

7. And I was able to come up with a second favorite thing this week.  And that is a new blog I came across. So go check out Haley at CarrotsforMichaelmas.com.  She's just the cutest little mommy and funny and insightful. I'm so glad I came across her blog.

 

 

See you all tomorrow for Day 6. :) 



Seven Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

I didn’t grow up on a farm or even anywhere near one. And honestly when I was younger I probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. But over the last few years I have taken notice at how fast the summer corn grows. For some reason it is just amazing to me. I pass many fields of it every day as I drive to work and it just seems incredible to me. I have wanted to photo document it for a while now, but never have done it, so this year I decided I would do it. Once a week I am going to stop at the same field and take a picture or two of the field. I started this week and hope to include them in each week’s quick takes. If I decide not to do quick takes some week, I will just post them as a single blog post. I hope you are as amazed as I am by how quickly the corn grows.

Monday full field

Monday close up to growth



Friday full field and close up of growth.

 

 (I can't get the stupid picture tool bar to work right so sorry I can't get the pictures bigger...ugghh)

 

 

--- 2 ---

Last weekend I was away from home at a retreat for my Formation for Ministry class. It was a very peaceful and rewarding time spent in prayer and reflection. I have grown so much more in my faith over the last few years. Our retreat leader was the priest that brought me into the Catholic Church twelve years ago. For me, that just brings my conversion full circle as I look forward to our commissioning on June 30th.

 

--- 3 ---

It is the time of year that we begin preparing for the summer mission trip. We take a group of teenagers to Boston to help those in need. The week is spent in service to others but also in praise and worship. The organization we do this through is called Catholic Heart Workcamp. I will be sending out letters early next week for donation requests to help us pay for traveling expenses. Please say a prayer for a safe and blessed week for all the attendees. You can learn more here.

These three songs, on repeat, are what I have been listening to this week. When I say repeat I mean over and over again, I just can’t hear them enough. Hope you love them as much as I do.

--- 4 ---

Matt Maher – “Sing Over Your Children”

 

--- 5 ---

Sidewalk Prophets – “Live Like That”

 

--- 6 ---

Building 429 – “Where I Belong”

 

--- 7 ---

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. As you are enjoying time with family and friends, please remember why you are able to do so. Remember all the soldiers who have died gaining that freedom for you.

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!