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We share a birthday, this newly minted 5 year old and me. I love that she was my birthday present my last year of my 20’s. She is sweet, fierce, smart, and kind. Her birth story is here (my one and only water birth–though I wish they all could have been!). Each day, SweetPea bounds into my room, even as her feet drag across the hallway carpet and her murmuring about “I’M TOO TIRED TO BE AWAKE” is less than a whisper. The bounding starts are the door handle’s creek. She clamors into bed to check on her sister. Where is she? Oh HI! This enraptured love of the baby that we share, this longing to snuggle her face off, this smelling up all her baby smells, it’s pretty special. Also I found out I was pregnant with SweetCheeks on my birthday last year so that’s extra nice. Today we’ll eat a special lunch, take an extra long nap, and pound some serious sugar for our bday cake. Our gifts for her were pretty simple this year. These that Grace told me about, this desk for her doll, this outfit, and I’m almost done making her a horsey-pink-knit-skirt out of this material. And books. Half-Price books for the win! She’s still super into Little House on the Prairie books (second read aloud through) and Boxcar children. For me, Sunday morning I was served a Starbucks hot cocoa in bed along with breakfast so I really can’t beat that!! #husbandwinning **Chunky baby wanted…
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Oh these quick takes are some of my favorite ways to follow what my blogging friends have been up to. Thanks for hosting, as always, Kelly! This lil gallery above is basically my life right now. In a very small nutshell. The past month has been a lot of airports, speaking, wearing the big babe all day, and connecting. I do love to connect with people and this month was no exception! 1// Blessed is She retreats. I got to go to both Phoenix’s and Austin’s! I got to stay with my friends and co-ministry-sisters. The baby was spoiled by lots of other adults holding and loving on her. Erica, you in particular! Emily, you too! Many women shared their hearts and I feel warm and special to have heard what was stirring in them. Thank you for your trust and openness, sisters! Thank you, Jenna, for starting and enabling this ministry. It’s such a blessing for so many of us. Follow the hashtag #bisretreat on insta if you want to see what it was like! 2// Catholic women blogging conference in the Twin Cities. Already blerged it, so hop here if you missed it. 3// My house is a shipwreck. You may experience this too. You are torn. Do I spend time with my kids, laughing, reading, actually playing? Or do I tidy up? And while it’s not one or the other all the time, I am gravitating toward living with more clutter and mess than usual because I have…
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I had the distinct privilege of being asked to speak at the Catholic Women’s Blogging Network // Twin Cities this past weekend. My talk was on branding and social media and monetizing. But the true kernel of my talk answered this question: is there room for you? Another blogger? Another creative? Another woman looking to be known and to feel connected? The answer was and is always; yes. Yes, there’s room at the cool kids’ table for another blogger or maker. Yes, the whole blogging world should feel like the cool kids’ table. Those distinctions aren’t found in our network. We are all cool. We all have something distinct to offer. There is audience enough for all our voices. This doesn’t mean we don’t need to hone our craft! Room for improvement abounds over here on this lil blog of mine. It’s humbling to look around at how much better and smarter many of my blogging sisters are hustling. It’s a good kind of humbling because it inspires me to put more energies here. But when women who attended the conference asked if the world really needed their voice? Yes. The answer is always yes. Yes because I want to learn from them. I want to hear their peaks and valleys on this life journey. I want to be a reflection of God’s love for them. We do this sharing online thing for lots of reasons. Sometimes I share because I am insecure about my experience and hasten to find…
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Last Sunday was a real doozy. I awoke to my little nursling snarfling her way across our king-sized bed to find her liquid gold, checked the clock, and listened for the daily howling of my wolf pack. Happily surprised to find out it was already 6:50 and the howling had subsided, I nursed and started my mental check list. Mass. What time should we go today? How messy is the kitchen? Did I sweep the floor to combat the ant invasion we’ve been experiencing? Is that pee on my shirt or spit up? Is her diaper leaking? Am I leaking? After a happy milk-guzzling sesh, we both made our way out into the hallway, pausing to hear the howling and wrestling in the kitchen. Kids + Dad = happiness. Why don’t we just get dressed real quick like and go to the 7:30 mass? It’s the Old Rite, low mass, and fairly quick. We usually go to the 10am orchestral Latin New Rite. Can’t be that rough and we’re all awake and seemingly stable mental places. **seemingly** So off we went. The kids dove into semi-church clothes and given the early hour, I didn’t enforce our usual “dressiness on Sunday” standards. We were going to cruise in & out so Jesus would forgive me if my daughter wasn’t wearing a dress nor my sons their bowties. You can see where all my optimism is headed. Right off that cliff. We arrived at our century+ old church, the most gorgeous in all the land in my…
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Many days, I’m hustling MonsterTot to the toilet while SweetCheeks is in the sling, hoping like a tornado chaser to catch the big storm (poop) before it’s gone (in his pants). I’m spelling out words for SweetPea’s construction-paper-cut-and-stapled-into-a-book while wiping a huge spitup out of my hair and onto the hem of my bathrobe. I’m pulling snow pants on a squirmy, reluctant toddler while the baby is bouncing in her little chair, a-gooing with her big sister. Lots of juggling goes on day-to-day and the big kids need more schlepping around to school & activities & playdates than when I had my third baby and the oldest wasn’t even four yet! I’ve been on this path with a newborn four times now and each time I marvel that while she is the easiest member of the family to parent, she’s also the most needy. Here are our six top tricks to keeping life with an infant easier. A few of these are feasible only because I’m not working outside the home, so take that into consideration. 1) Nurse on demand. We feed on demand–that means whenever my baby squalks or squeaks and doesn’t have a burp or diaper, I offer to nurse her. Sometimes she drinks a ton of milk, sometimes she just soothes herself. Yes, I am a human pacifier, and yes I’m okay with that. Using a pacifier before 8 weeks old can really impact amount of breastmilk you produce for the long term. Here’s an article about it. Basically,…
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What a stunning thing it is to be able to witness a sacrament for your kid. AA and I were marveling on the drive home from SweetCheeks’ baptism that it is a privilege to be the parent, the one who helps guide, the one who makes early on decisions to help steer a child’s life. Our baby girl was baptized a few weekends ago and it was a joyous affair! Our dear friends from childhood are the godparents and we couldn’t feel more blessed. One of the best parts of the whole thing was the thrill on my children’s faces as they watched their sister’s sacrament. We prefer the Extraordinary Rite for baptism and the rituals feel extra compelling as the salt and oil and expelling of demons comes with extra zest. I totally forgot to change out her orange wool socks with the sweet crocheted unicorn ones we had, and of course, also forgot the beautifully made white blanket from my grandmother so she was half-wrapped in a jersey stretchy swaddle. Details, details. My friend Ryian lent me her baptismal gown and it fit her like the little chubby doll that she is! Our pastor is a dear friend and offered a beautiful baptism, as per usual. We’re blessed!
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