blessed is she retreat
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…
Read MoreI’m hopping over with Kelly and her gang for seven quick takes from the week. Is it Friday already? My brain is so mushy I can’t even stay on task over here. I absent mindedly put my chai tea in the dishwasher with a full mug, wiped my nose with the baby’s socks, and told the kids they could play with perler beads–unsupervised. #mombrain 1) Laundry has multiplied. Like by a million. I know babies poop and spit up their way through many outfits in one day, but I could do the laundry twice a week and be fine before. Now there are mounds everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It’s making me a little crazy. I’m finally well enough with my pelvis issues that I can carry laundry baskets around so I have no excuse to not get on it. But how can adding one tiny person to the family make this big of a difference? I’m amazed and agog. 2) I vascillate between wanting to do nothing but stare at the baby and do everything in the house at once. Probably normal postpartum hormones. Sometimes I want to do everything and then in an instant, I realize how tired I am and that I should just lay down with the baby snuggled in. She’s so big that she can easily side-nurse and snuggles like a little snuggle bug. The kids want to crowd in anytime she’s on me so sometimes when it’s nap time for the middle kids, it’s dedicated solo snuggles…
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Hi friends! Linking up with Kelly & crew. I feel like I’ve been so absent from my lil blog lately and it’s mostly been because of the wonderful weekend retreat we hosted for the Blessed is She team, but also a little because getting into the groove of having a first grader and part-time preschooler means I’m living in my car. People always talked about being a mom meant living in your car. I had no idea what they meant. 1// My car has bug spray, raisins, wipes, water bottles, a variety of Jim Weiss cds, and a handful of changes of clothing. And these are the items I actually have planned to have in there. Remnants of all of them are scattered and dug into the upholstery. First grade is awesome! SuperBoy loves it so much. I’m getting accustomed to not worrying about what he’s doing and just cherish that he is enjoying himself, learning, and making new friends. A handful of hours a week of nature prek has been a dream for our lil SweetPea! I was (of course, really? yes, of course) more nervous than she was as she watched her big bro go through it all last year. She never says goodbye, she tells me to leave her at the classroom door, and she can’t contain her joy when we pick her up because she got really, really muddy. She’s doing Catechesis too and her favorite part? Playing with lentils because “they’re like dog food.” There you…
Read MoreNot that kind of retreat–as in, pulling back from combat or your small army of children, but actually, yes, kinda like that. I’m going on my very first religious retreat in March. March 12. Phoenix. Blessed is She! But Nell, you’ve been a Catholic for 32 years. You mean you’ve never done a retreat? Nope. Not that I can remember. I’ve gone to mornings of reflection for Lent sponsored by our Archdiocese and heard wonderful speakers, but a full day retreat? Nope. I’ve never traveled to another place to specifically go deeper and sit in silence to listen to God. And to listen to speakers like Heather. And to finally meet friends like Jenna. And to meet other Blessed is She women. My work for Blessed is She in the past year and a half has been the first time as a cradle Catholic I’ve done something in ministry with Scripture. Maybe the ease of being culturally Catholic my whole life made me feel less urgent about actually being active in my faith community. Something along the lines of oh that kind of thing is great but I don’t really need it because I’ve always been Catholic. What a falsehood. My notion that I could rest on my laurels, as it were, to just skate through my adult life without actually making the decision to engage. Blessed is She has forced me (in the best of senses) to read Scripture daily. To contemplate where I am on my journey and where…
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