With Praise and Thanksgiving

I know a fair amount about myself, about my tendencies and my personality. I can't be the only one who likes finding out more about myself in this regard, as there are tons of profiles and quizzes and articles discussing these topics. I've known some things for a long while: I'm a reader.  I like things done correctly versus quickly. I'm an introvert.  I'm a picky eater, and I like mostly bland food.  I'm better at editing than writing.  I love organizing.  I dislike conflict. I'm a list-maker.  And in the last few years, I've learned that: My primary temperament is melancholic . My secondary temperament is choleric (so there's a teeny bit of extrovert in there). In Myers-Briggs, I'm an ISTJ . One of my gifts is administration, which is why I like paperwork, and love spreadsheets. I am loyal, in relationships but also in seemingly irrelevant things like making sure to read every post by my favorite bloggers even if the top...

My habit tracking so far this year.  I'd intended to slow down on my non-spiritual reading this Lent (and maybe I have, some) but a few days in, a couple of books I'd been waiting for at the library were automatically checked out and downloaded to my Kindle for two weeks. One is Gretchen Rubin's " Better Than Before " and I'm enjoying digging into it.  Rubin outlines questions to ask in order to know yourself, and from taking this quiz and reading a couple of her other books (" The Happiness Project " and " Happier At Home ") I know that I tend mostly toward Obliger, so I thrive on external accountability. Perhaps when I actually lay out a plan for said habits, I'll use the blog for some accountability. We shall see.  I'm about half done and I plan to use it to continue my 2017 goal of knowing myself better in order to make positive changes and steps in the direction I want my life to go. This post won't be a rev...

It's been a while, so I'm going to link up with Kelly at This Ain't The Lyceum  for 7 Quick Takes today! I present to you seven random things I like, and for which I am grateful today. 1. Lent! Time to repent! I do like Lent, and with a weird rib-area cartilage injury and a bad cold to set the pace, it's shaping up to be a really Lenty Lent. I'm using the Blessed is She Lenten journal for my daily prayer time and am trying...t r y i n g this 5-Minute sacrifice. I did fairly well at it Wednesday, and pretty crappy Thursday. So there you go. Onward and upward. I will embarrassingly admit that it took me until my 35th year to realize that I don't have to read all the things on the interwebs, even if they are about a topic of interest to me. The webs are awash with posts about how to Lent, and but thank goodness I resisted the urge to click on all of them and just licked on this one  by Jenny at Mama Needs Coffee. Of course you know I want to share everyth...

I loved this post by Kendra at the Lazy Genius Collective: 10 Ways to Beast Your Monday . I'm new to following her and she's great, especially on Instagram  stories. I love her philosophy, " Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't." I working this year on figuring out what that means for me, but I in the mean time I accidentally stumbled on a way to beast my Monday.  A couple weeks ago I made a massive to do list for the week on a blank page of my planner. I didn't actually assume I'd get through them all that week, but I got them out of my head. It turned out that I was able to get through all but a couple of them during Monday's nap time and I felt so empowered! I was able to let myself off the hook for the rest of the week because of a couple of productive hours on Monday. I wish I could say that I developed the habit of killing it every Monday right then and there, but I didn't.  Today's to do...

My new Out-of-Control Center The blog is still in the midst of an identity crisis, but that won't keep me from using up some of my beloved nap time alone time to pound away all my thoughts onto the interwebs. Pretty random thoughts coming up here.  Above: I was (am?) ever so sick of the mountain of miscellaneous crap that kept getting piled in the middle of the kitchen island, mostly by me. I'm famous for my "I'll deal with that later" piles, and then dealing with them by just making neater piles. I finally got fed up and decided to create a little, for lack of better word, control center. I'm in control of nothing, so the irony does not escape me, but I needed to see a clean island, at least for a few minutes. We had this old box floating around full of more miscellaneous crap, so I cleaned it out and made space for a couple of magazines and fliers I wanted to keep and added the little sorter for mail that needs attention. My planner fits perfectly...

Trying to link up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes. I've never done it before, because I'm not a real  blogger, but it's a new year and I'm drinking peach whisky and orange juice, so I'm really living on the edge. You can read Kelly's fantastic blog, and link to other great blogs there as well. Once you're done here, I mean. 1. Earlier this week, I drafted up a post all about the feeling of refreshment, about how the new year brings me a sense of feeling refreshed. Or maybe that was just how I felt upon returning home from our 9-day, 2-state, 950-mile Christmas bender. Before I had time to publish the post, I was back my usual grumpiness and figured it wasn't "authentic" of me to post such a happy piece when I was actually a grouch. Although I don't really have New Years resolutions to post, I really do enjoy the excitement surrounding a new year and its potential. I'm still trying to take a moment each day to acknowledge gratitude, but I...

Poop! This has been sitting in draft since Saturday and I forgot to publish it! Classic! It was a leap year so there's actually 366... It's day 366! I can't believe it! I know I fell woefully behind on gratitude posts at some points throughout the year, but I made it! For the few who have been with me since the beginning, thank you! I am certain that God put this idea and desire in my heart at the end of 2016 because He knew I would need it this year. The grace that has been poured out to me as I contemplate my daily gratitude aided me so greatly in what has been a difficult year in many ways. Finding a thing, experience, person or song to be grateful for each day has helped me maintain perceptive in trying times, and has definitely enhanced my life in positive ways. I'm not sure where we go from here on ye olde blog. New year, new beginnings! We'll see where the new year takes us. This very morning: coffee, chatting, reading, planning. #myfavorites S...

I know that we celebrate Christmas to rejoice over the birth of a savior, of God coming to earth as man, but the simple fact is, gifts are a part of the celebration. And that's good! One of the ways we express our love for each other and for Jesus is through giving gifts.  I used to think my love of gifts was because I was the baby of the family, a bit of a spoiled brat, if you will. I delight in both giving and receiving gifts, but I know not everyone does. My delight was validated when I learned about the Five Love Languages . Gifts are a thing, and loving them is legit!  This year I had fun with much of my shopping, especially a custom necklace I ordered from Etsy for my sister, who is deep into her life as a hockey mom. Imagine my pleasure when I opened my gift from her to find a book-lover's necklace from the same shop! It's been on my Etsy wish list for a while, but so have a million other things and it made me so happy to have (kind of) matching necklac...

These are the only ones I actually have in my possession.  I have never planned my reading before, and I know better than to try to tackle a whole bunch of books, or lay out a month-by-month plan. That would mean sure failure, because lots of books will come up throughout the year that shoot right to the top of my list. So I picked eight (but actually 14) from my extensive Pinterest board and semi-committed to them by writing them in my planner. In pencil. I haven't included any audio books, but I have a large Audible wishlist and I'm sure I could find some from my list on audio book at the library.  Without further ado, here are my book goals for 2017: Little Women  - Lousia May Alcott. I had hoped to finish this one in December but I have probably 250 pages left heading into Christmas Eve, so let's be real. I love it, though!  The Family That Overtook Christ -  M. Raymond. This is the favorite book of my super-holy priest friend and he basical...

My nightstand. See below for details.* I started something new (besides ye olde gratitude blog) in 2016 and the end of the year has me wishing I'd always been doing it: keeping track of books I've read. I've always been a reader, but reading as a hobby became a casualty of parenthood for me. Then, when I became more interested in learning about my faith, I inadvertently stopped reading everything else, feeling like somehow any reading that wasn't furthering my knowledge wasn't useful. I'm glad that time has passed! I follow a couple of bookish bloggers (namely Haley and Christy ) who inspired me to actually keep track of what I read. It's nice for me as a stay-at-home mom to see something I've accomplished and completed, since so much of my work really never gets completely finished. My list has been a great tool for me to recommend books to others or to help me remember authors I'd like to read more of. One of my resolutions, if you will, ...

I can't say much about yesterday except that I took cranky to new levels. I did not win Advent yesterday, but I did listen to a couple of Advent podcasts this week that I wanted to share. The Art of Simple - Episode 49: Guilt-free Holidays Tsh gives a simple explanation of a few Adventy things, like St. Nicholas Day, the 12 Days of Christmas, and gives a peek into what her family does for Advent. I love hearing what different families do to celebrate the liturgical year.  Fountains of Carrots - Episode 56: Advent Low Down The main thing I took from this was the idea one of them had to not multi-task for Advent. To just do the thing you are doing, and be present there. I am so bad sometimes about putting all my focus on productivity. Can I knit or clean pictures off my phone or make a grocery list while also playing a game with the kids? Can I Christmas shop online while we are eating lunch? Can I answer emails and texts while finishing up my Christmas cards? I have pon...

Top L: Kindergarten Pumpkin R: Color The Psalms Bottom L: Pre-K Math Turkey R: Shakespeare quote from Inspired Life Co   Top: Beer print from Hatch Prints (not thanksgivng, I just like it) Bottom: Gaaaa. I can't find the source. Might be Inspired Life Co. But I colored it. Please enjoy these stunning #nofilter photos of the whole of our Thanksgiving decorations. (Insert laughing emoji). Holiday decorating isn't my specialty, but I got a couple of great printables via email newsletters from a couple of Etsy shops I follow. We're leaving for Thanksgiving anyway, but I figured I might as well put my $0.20 library printing to good use, right?  Bullets of gratitude for today:  Thanksgiving printables. Duh! Sanguine matchmakers - I'm terrible at introducing myself to new people, but the gal who runs the play area where I take the kids most Wednesdays is great at finding common ground for two people whom she is introducing. I met another mom of 3 who ...

TGIF, man. For real. I've been up since 3:30 a.m. Things got a little crazy up in here, between the sleeplessness and the first day of awful wintery weather. No snow here yet, but it's cold and the wind is blowing about 200 miles per hour. I'm grateful we didn't get the 18-ish inches that my in-laws got yesterday and today, and praying that it doesn't storm over Thanksgiving weekend. Like I said, I'm very tired. Please check out a blogger who can actually write words that make sense. Here's my friend Matt's new blog, Geeky Catholic Dad . He's smart, funny, and insightful. Check him out. A couple of my favorite posts are today's Expecting A Child When You Have Children in Heaven and Praying With The Church .

My actual Wednesday gratitude was that the maniac toddler actually slept until 7. Praised be the Lord! He hasn't done that in a while, maybe since we moved 3 months ago. I'm not sure what it is, but 7 used to be his normal wake time and it's been 5:30-6 lately. My mood was greatly uplifted by this fact, but it's hard to say much more about it because we got up at 3:30 this morning. Someone drop off more coffee ASAP.  Have I shared that my friend Kate, the world's best and luckiest thrifter started an Instagram shop? A few of us have been begging her to do so for a while and she finally did. Find her at @fmthriftandflip. She's amazing. 

Disclaimer: If you don't appreciate nerds, discontinue reading this post. A few of my "recently pinned" items.  Like many of you, I store thousands of photos on my iPhone. With Christmas coming up, both sides of our family are working on annual photo books which require me to weed through my zillion pictures and get them uploaded to the appropriate book creation website. I realized that in addition to pictures chronicling our family's life, I have many, so many , shots of funny memes I texted to friends and also more book recommendations than I could probably ever actually read. I also have a disproportionally high number of shots of the kids sleeping in weird places. Is that a thing? Today I finished up a week-long escapade through almost 3,000 iPhone pics. I deleted duplicates, memes and screenshots that were past their prime, and saved almost everything else to Evernote or Pinterest. I'm well aware that it's a silly thing, but it feels so good ...

Saturday was a great day all around, and I'm hesitant to start typing because I could just give you boring play-by-play of all the moments I enjoyed so much and everything I felt gratitude for that day! We were in Fargo (Moorhead, actually) for our monthly couple's group, Teams of Our Lady. We met at our good friends' house and our kids and theirs got along great being banished to the basement with a babysitter for 3+ hours. We enjoyed a fruitful meeting and discussion and a great meal. In the afternoon, I helped a friend set up for her Noonday Collection debut trunk show. The jewelry and accessories were so beautiful and I had a blast trying on all the things and creating my wish list. I hadn't planned on really staying at all, then I thought I'd leave after setup, and then I ended up staying for the whole thing and I had a blast! We ended up milking their hospitality for all it was worth, staying for supper and until bedtime so the kids would sleep on the w...

My brother and his family stopped by yesterday unexpectedly and it was such a joy. We haven't had many visitors here and there's not much that excites the kids more than seeing their cousins. I've gone on and on about how great my nieces are, so I won't do that again today. Day 312's birthday festivities have worn me out and I'm heading to bed. Today in linkdom: Most people won't read this but I REALLY WISH ALL OF THE INTERNET WOULD DO SO. I'm sorry to shout. Not that sorry. Check out Jenny's  When we are offended .

The weather just killed it again today. It's November 3 and the boys all wore shorts and t-shirts outside. I mean, they've been doing this for the last several weeks, but then when we get outside they have to pretend they aren't cold. Not today! Just enough warmth from the sun to feel good, but with enough chill in the air not to sweat. Delicious! I've been meaning to share a couple of links, and of course I can't remember most of them right now. Here's one: Why I'm Staying Off the Pill (Even Though Some People Think I'm Crazy It's likely that only people who already know and understand Catholic social teaching with bother to listen to this, but this episode of Catholic Stuff You Should Know explained some concepts that, if Christians would understand and work toward, would change politics in our country for the better. Solidarity and Subsidiarity for the win! Politicks and Polikicks . The Pioneer Woman Mercantile opened this week and I'...

Saturday we held a fairly impromptu birthday party at a hotel in Fargo for #1, who will be turning 6 in a couple of weeks. The cousins I mentioned in 295 were there and we were joined by a friend family, grandma, grandpa and Auntie Kathy. I managed to forget all the things at our apartment, including my sanity, and I had a mini-meltdown. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law swooped in and saved the day by actually remembering stuff and thinking about things we might need.  Details. So often my pride tricks me into thinking that I'm the only one who can do the things correctly and that everything will fall apart without me. It turns out that it's possible to pull off a casual sixth birthday party without super detailed plans. It worked out and he and his guests seemed to have a great time. We only broke one planter at the hotel, so that's a victory, I guess. As it usually does, hindsight proved that it was actually a pretty great day. AND Saturday was the feast day for m...

I'm coping out here. I've had a few tabs open of stuff I wanted to share, so here are some links. About Those Unthinking, Backward Catholics - Archbishop Chaput. Chaput is awesome. How We Discuss Imperfect Heroes With Kids - Kendra from Catholic All Year. We all know Kendra is my hero, so it was great to have a new post from her. She's busy. I admire how truthful she is with her kids, and how well-thought-out her parenting is. The Interwebs seem to think Columbus Day shouldn't be a thing because he wasn't perfect. I like her perspective. Why "Don't Look" Won't be Enough - Jenny at Mama Needs Coffee. I can't have a link fest without Jenny. Terrifying but true. We all need to address kids and pornography, and way earlier than we think we should. Raising Saints - More Jenny. I wish she was my next door neighbor. Take a free Love Languages quiz here . My spouse and I both took it. We haven't taken it for the kids yet but I'm p...