~ 1 ~

This weekend, I’ll be headed to my first craft show as a vendor in about two years.  I’m really excited, as I always enjoy getting a chance to talk to people and check out what other people are working on as well.

Now, mind you, but “really excited,” this does not mean the same thing as “I’m well prepared.”  I’ve definitely got some work ahead of me tomorrow.  If I wasn’t afraid that the kids would finger print the metallic prints like crazy, I would pay them to work for me tomorrow by packaging prints.

I’ll have to update you all next week about how it goes.

~ 2 ~

Today, I started reading the book The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (in Real Life).  (I pre-ordered it for my Kindle, which makes a great Christmas present for someone, by the way.)  I’m not far into it yet (and warning – there is quite a bit of bad language in it, if that offends you), but I’m really enjoying it thus far.

Want to know one of my favorite things about this though?  Someone else bought the exact same book through my Amazon affiliate link.  I hadn’t linked to the book personally, so it’s just someone who was on my site and then ordered it.  Love it!

~ 3 ~

I have added quite a few new things to my Etsy shop lately:

As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord (original painting)

Beautiful Abundance (collage on canvas)

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more (original painting on canvas)

Do What You Love (original mixed media on canvas)

Lord, make me a living tabernacle (original painting on canvas)

The Peace of God - 8x10 print (available in multiple colors)

Nothing can separate us from the Love of God - 8x10 print (multiple colors)

~ 4 ~

On All Souls Day, I was able to go on a candle lit walk (while praying) with a few adults (including two of our priests) and a small group of children to a cemetery.  It was a really nice experience, and I think it was an excellent faith formation experience for the kids.  With it being a bit windy though, everyone’s candles kept blowing out.

In what is probably not surprising as a revelation, the children (fifth graders), obsessed about getting their candles re-lit.  You know, in such a compulsive manner where they would try to hold back the line trying to light their candle off another child’s candle.

~ 5 ~

Speaking of obsessive, I made a big mistake a couple of days ago.  Really, not as much a big mistake as a huge mistake that I should really know better because I know myself and my natural tendencies in life.

I played Angry Birds for the first time.  And the second time.  And the third time.  And the hundredth time.

In fact, earlier today when I was trying to write a post for The Homeschool Classroom (about the monthly stats because that’s how I roll), and I had my iPad sitting there with Angry Birds going.  I’m not proud of it, but it’s just the way I’m wired.  (I’m hoping that book in #2 helps me out though!)

~ 6 ~

Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to fill out my reader survey!  I have loved seeing the results thus far.  Plus, at least a couple of the open-ended answers actually made me tear up.  I might have to print out some of those for the next time I’m feeling down.

I would really love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out the reader survey (especially if you’re a subscriber, but even if you’re not).  All of the questions are optional, so you can take as little time or as much time as you want.

~ 7 ~

“You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.” – Jennifer J. Freeman

This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes and Weekly Wrap Up.

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7 Quick Takes: November 4, 2011 (Vol. 102) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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a glimpse of some of the items we donated

During Lent, as you may remember, we limited the types of things that we could buy from the grocery store.  We didn’t actually end up saving much money (at all), but we ate a lot healthier (given what we were allowed to buy).  Still, I wanted to report back that we did hold up our end of the bargain of donating what we saved during Lent in our grocery budget or $100, whichever was more.

Well, first we actually did a serious clean out of our pantry.  We donated probably around $30 – $40 worth of groceries from there. This also made it much easier to see what we actually had that we would want to use.

Then, we talked to one of our priests after Mass one day and told him about what we had done during Lent.  We asked him what types of things would be most beneficial for the food pantry.  First, he told us that he hoped we were going to keep up some of that healthy grocery shopping even after Lent was done.  (We have, by the way.  Although we have bought some not as healthy things too.)  Second, he told us that the best things to donate were either easy to prepare foods or any number of type of personal care products. I hadn’t been aware that food stamps wouldn’t cover things like soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, and the like.

So, we set out to our local grocery store (as a whole family) and we planned to spend our $100 on most cleaning and personal care products.  Even though our grocery store can be higher priced on many things, I had seen that they had laundry detergent on sale at a very good price, as well as many items that we were looking for as part of a 10 for $10 sale.

The kids loved shopping for the items to donate! (And so did Eric and I.)  It was such a delight to see the pride in their faces as they were putting handfuls of shampoo bottles, bars of soap, and tooth paste into the cart.  The most expensive thing we bought (though all name brand) was probably $3.50, though the vast majority were $1 each.

In the end, we left with 65 items to donate having spent $97. (I was doing all the adding in my head, so it wasn’t an exact science.)

One of my favorite moments was when the kids and I all carried bags into the food pantry.  When we were finally done, Noah turned to me and said, “You know, Mom, I feel pretty good right now.  I think we helped a lot of people.”

Funny thing is, I think that the people receiving those items aren’t going to be the only people that were helped by this exercise in sacrifice.  As a matter of fact, I suspect a certain family of five were helped even more.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Finer Things Friday.

Our Food Pantry Donation is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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photo by JonJon2k8

I have read snippets of several studies that show that people tend to buy more when given fewer choices.  It seems so counter intuitive in our culture.  Aren’t lots of choices better?

Let me tell you, if you had seen me in the Verizon store looking at new cell phones, you would have known that this is the truth.  I kid you not, I showed Eric one of those old cell phones that flips open and does nothing but phone calls and said, “We should just get these.”  (I’m a texter who has grown to love a QWERTY keyboard though, so I couldn’t really do it unless I absolutely had to.)

A guy came over to give us the spiel, although he left after just barely talking to us when he found out we weren’t picking out our phones that night.  (That was before he made a joke when we said we don’t like our current cell phones because they sometimes turn off on their own.  Thanks for standing by your product, Verizon guy.)  When someone else was going to come help us, that same guy quickly told him in a quiet voice, “They’re just looking.  They’re not going to buy tonight.”  As you can imagine, the second guy didn’t come to see if we had any questions.

Instead, Eric and I just bounced around for wall to wall in the Verizon store like pinballs saying things like, “This phone is $200, plus we’d have to pay an extra $30 per month?” and “I don’t want to try to look at the Internet on a two inch screen.”  Oh, and there was a lot of me saying, “I just don’t know.”

Finally, there was me saying, “Really – I don’t know, but let’s leave.”

photo by K!T

I’d like to have some snappy ending to this post, but it’s making me feel a little jittery just thinking about the trip to into the cell phone store.  All I know is that if I don’t come to some kind of decision eventually, you might just have to reach me via tin can attached to a rope, okay?

Too Many Choices Can Make a Person Freak Out is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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It seems like I have been a little aimless lately. I had been wanting to participate in Top Ten Tuesday and figured, “Hey, why not just talk about what kinds of things I have been thinking of lately?”  So, here are my random things that I have been pondering on.

1.  Am I ever going to order new glasses before my prescription runs out?

2. What is up with Jack’s eye?  (We had a very tense visit to the emergency room this weekend that I’ll share more about later.)

3. Why have I completely lost the ability to stay focused on a task?

4. Can I have a personal assistant for about a week?

5. What am I looking for when I head to the homeschool conference soon?

6. Will I manage to leave #5 without spending a fortune?

7. Should I open my Etsy shop back up again or is it not worth the annoyance of sending in sales tax every month and filling out the crazy business personal property tax form every year?

8. If I open an Etsy shop, should I start another blog for it or should I just try to incorporate it here?

9. Why has Molly been getting so darn cranky just before bed time recently?

10. Can I get my act together and send in some paperwork for my independent contracting by the end of the week, since I clearly did not send it in today?

This sounded like a whiny post, I imagine.  I have to admit — I feel a little whiny.  I have never felt more scattered and disjointed than I have felt for the past year or so.

Top Ten Things I Have Been Thinking Of Lately is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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Did that title catch your eye?  It probably means that you are a lot like me.  I have the best of intentions to get caught up on email, but then one email makes me say, “Oh yeah — I meant to check that on Facebook.”  Or, maybe an email mentions an idea that I want to look up.  Then, instead of looking it up later, I bring up Google.  An hour later, when I’m doing something completely unrelated to what I originally went to look for, I remember that I was working on email.

I’m not going to pretend that by giving strategies that it means that I’m keeping up with my emails.  Just ask Brenda, I’m not.  But, here are a few strategies that always seem to make me clear out my inbox (at least partially).

Work Offline: I have been making it a practice to take my laptop along with me to the boys’ piano lessons.  We spend an hour at the teacher’s apartment, and I spend most of that hour just working on email.  Because I’m offline while doing it, all of the emails have to wait until I get home to send.  But, it also means that I can’t pop online to be distracted. 

Just this week, their teacher said that she had been meaning to ask me if I wanted her security code so I could get online.  I told her that as much as I would love it, I found the time to be most productive because I was offline.  I was proud of myself for not caving in to my usual distracted behavior.

Set a Timer:  I really enjoy using Tiny Timer to set a timer for working on my email (or other tasks where I tend to get distracted).  What I will do is decide how long I want to work on email and then put it in the timer.  Then, I can’t do anything else on the computer (other than email) until the timer goes off.  I have been known to then give myself a little time to play around after the timer goes off, and then set it again.  The timer, of course, is great for any number of purposes though — check it out.

Delete Emails that Don’t Need Answers:  I have a tendency to forget to delete emails that ought to just be deleted.  When I let them build up, it makes me overwhelmed to check my email.  I am always more apt to work on my email when my inbox isn’t brimming over with messages.

Set up Filters/Separate Email Accounts:  I don’t tend to use filters on my email, but I do have a few email accounts.  While this may seem counter intuitive to being caught up on email, it helps me to have specific email accounts for specific tasks.  For instance, my email account for Catholic Mothers Online gets a lot of email, but it is also not something I need to check every day.  But, when I do check it, I tend to work through it all in one setting.  (This works for me because I use Outlook Express for most of these and can change between email accounts with two clicks of the mouse.)

Five Sentence Emails: Based on the idea on Sentenc.es – A Disciplined Way to Deal with Email, I work hard to keep some of my emails as brief as possible.  This helps me to move through some of them faster (and I’m less likely to let my mind wander).  Then again, I also manage to write emails that are as long as this post, so that does cut down on my efficiency.

Put Email on my To Do List: Sometimes, I just have to write a specific goal on my to do list, when I get really behind.  For instance, I may write, “Answer 20 Emails” as a to do item.  I really enjoy checking off tasks, so this is like a challenge to me.  It helps to keep me from being distracted when I know I can make a notch on a paper for every email sent.


Anything that I missed that works for you?  Do you tend to keep up with your email or let is pile up?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Strategies For Getting Caught Up On Email for the Easily Distracted is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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~ 2 ~

photos by: google images (post it notes) / Image Editor (science)/ hannahspanna (writer’s block) / creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign (handmade gift box)

7 Quick Takes: October 23, 2009 (Vol. 19) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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I had previously decided that I wanted this to be a productive summer. I suspect that I felt more strongly about this because now that we’re homeschooling, this break time feels more important than summer break ever has before.

One of my goals for the summer has been to do some “spring” cleaning around the house. To start this goal, I have been decluttering around the house.

Surprisingly, I whipped through the kitchen. I got rid of some things (some to friends, some to Goodwill) and then reorganized the cabinets. WooHoo!

Then, I still felt really pumped to keep working on this task, so I decluttered in both our bedroom, and in the boys’ closet (which is where all of their toys are). It was nice — it was the first time I remember not having to secretly get rid of toys. The boys told me what they wanted to keep and what they just weren’t interested in anymore. With their help, I did all of these rooms in just about two days.

But now, I’m trying to tackle Molly’s room/toys. It’s not fun. She is willingly parting with some things, but all for the strangest reasons. For example, she brought me some Fisher Price Little People whose hair styles she just didn’t care for. Likewise, she gave me a F.P. animal whose expression she was suspicious of.

I did manage to work through some things in Molly’s room, but it’s pretty slow going. I guess I’ll just have to count my blessings that I have made it through so much already, and I’ll have to remember that we have a long summer ahead of us.

Do you have any big projects that you want to tackle this summer? Have you worked on them yet (or do you have a plan)?

This post is linked to Tackle it Tuesday

photo by Rosa Say

Spring Cleaning for the Summer is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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I wrote last year about my “fewer gifts + more thought = nicer Christmas” equation. My post on it last year, however, was one of those “in theory” posts. I hadn’t actually tried it out at that point.

So, today, you can read my new and improved article (with my experiences from last year) at Happy to be at Home. I have been a long time reader of Happy to be at Home, so I’m pleased to be a guest writer there today!

You can click here to check out my new and improved Fewer Gifts + More Thought = Nicer Christmas article at Happy to be at Home

Fewer Gifts + More Thought = Nicer Christmas is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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1. Use an ice cube tray to organize small items, such as paper clips and thumb tacks in the office, eyelets and brads in the scrapbook room, or buttons and notions in the sewing room.

2. Put the date that you bought spices on their lid (or the bottom — your choice) as a way to keep track of how old they are.

3. Open top baskets or clear containers are great for organizing kids’ toys. If you do that, you can buy a bookshelf (instead of an expensive “toy organizer”) to store toys.

4. Speaking of those toys, use pictures on the front of the baskets or containers for kids that are not old enough to read. Better yet — use a picture AND the word in order to introduce them to the words.

5. Hey — one more toy idea…for large toys, you can put a picture of the toys directly onto the shelf as a visual reminder of where that toy belongs.

6. We use a (flat top) wooden toy box as a bench for our kids to sit on when they play video games. The same toy box can be used as a side table for someone sitting on our couch. And…we have it filled with blankets! Whenever you get the chance, buy furniture that has multiple purposes.

7. If DVDs and games are over running your home, take the plunge and take them all out of their cases. If it makes you feel better, keep 10 or 15 of the empty cases and stick them away somewhere. And, of course, if you want, pull all of the inserts out and file them away. Once you have all of the DVDs or game discs pulled out of the cases, put them in a zippered binder that you can buy in most electronics departments. We did this and now have four binders (of different sizes): DVDs, GameCube/Wii games, Playstation games, and Computer games/software. We *LOVE* this system and it has really freed up space in our home!

8. Don’t feel obligated to your things. Don’t keep things you don’t like or don’t use. It just clutters your home and makes you feel bad when you see them. Sell items you don’t use or donate them, if you can. You’ll feel better and your house will instantly be more organized.

9. Likewise, evaluate anything that you seem to have too much of. For instance, do you find it difficult to open the drawer that you keep large utensils in (you know, things like wooden spoons, ladles, whisks, spatulas, etc)? If you do, then you need to pull everything out and go through it. Do you have duplicates of many things? Are there some things that you never use, but maybe have just kept because it was a wedding shower gift (even if you have been married for 15 years)? Use this same idea with other things that seem to be overruning your home and life.

10. When you pick up your mail, head straight to the shredder. Immediately shred or throw away anything that you don’t need.

11. Oh, and then when you are done getting rid of the junk (so that it doesn’t sit on your counter and collect dust)…put your bills and mail away. Designate a spot for mail and put it there. All of it. All the time.

12. While you’re at it, keep envelopes and stamps with it. Well…unless you sit down to pay bills somewhere else. If you do this elsewhere, then keep all of those things where you will need them to pay bills. (You know, unless you already pay all your bills online, which can help you be even more organized, by the way!)

13. If you decide to organize a room, envision what you will do before you do it. Make a plan. However, if you are starting to work on the room and you come up with a plan that will work even better, then go with it. You will be more organized if you have a plan, even if that plan needs to be tweaked.

13 Random Ideas for Organizing Around the House (TT #30) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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I saw this video while bopping around the blogosphere and I was really moved by it, so I wanted to share it.

h/t to Gold Family News

Advent Conspiracy is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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