Revolution of Love

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Catholic Woman’s Almanac (9/2/13) & Bible Verse Photography Challenge

Hosted by Suscipio

Moments of Gratitude…

Today I am especially thankful for

  • The extra long holiday weekend that doesn’t seem to be going too fast (like it usually does.)
  • At home date nights.
  • A pen pal letter in the mailbox. (Remember those??)
  • A cool breeze to counteract the humidity.
  • When a certain tween comes up and hugs me for no particular reason.

 

Beauty in the Ordinary…

A smile to a stranger that is reciprocated.

 

In the Kitchen…

M – Italian turkey patty, broccoli and homemade Mac and cheese (made with low fat smoked Dutch cheese. Yum)

T – Slow cooker BBQ chicken, baked potato, veggies & salad. (I use my high tech recipe – Place chicken in slow cooker. Pour your fave BBQ sauce over it. Cook until done. Viola. ;-))

W – Grilled ham & cheese and homemade minestrone soup.

Th – Chef salad topped left leftover BBQ chicken.

F – Leftovers

S – Pizza night with Greek salad. (Note to self – post the recipe to fave Greek dressing next week.)

S – (My mother-in-law’s birthday dinner) Enchilada Lasagna, homemade refried beans, green beans and salad.

 

Praying…

  • That my stuffy head clears up and that I’m not getting sick.
  • For our new pastor and our previous pastor that they are both blessed in their new parishes.
  • For my kids and their new teachers and all their classmates.
  • For those suffering from heart ache, depression or addiction.
  • For some special intentions.

 

Pondering…

For me, January 1st has never been my New Year’s resolution day. It’s September 1st. After three months of summer play and lax schedules it’s nice to get back into a regular routine. After the kids go back to school I always go into “nesting” mode and want to clean up the clutter and get back on track with organizing and cleaning. I have a renewed fervor in the kitchen, trying different recipes and working hard to balance the budget. I have to seize those feelings and make the most of them while they are still strong!

 

Around the house…

This weekend I tackled my desk. This is a never ending chore because it collects clutter like crazy. Plus it also serves as my work space for small crafts so I had to get a handle on all the pens, craft scissors, washi tape etc. I rearranged and used a different organizing bin and things are so much nicer. Funny how a little order can bring inner peace. (Physically and spiritually!) I’ll blog about the updated desk soon. 🙂

 

Reading…

Past Suspicion by Therese Heckenkamp

Living Life Abundantly: Stories of People Who Encountered God by Johnnette Benkovic

 

Listening to…

Sweet quiet, except for few twittering birds. (I’m alone at the moment.)

 

On my DVR…

The Great Food Truck Race, Masterpiece’s Silk, Duck Dynasty, Season 3 of Big Bang Theory, 1950’s Father of the Bride with Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy and 1943’s Shadow of A Doubt with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. (One of my top 5 Hitchcock movies.)

 

On the blog…

I’m just trying to finish this post before I worry about beyond today. 😉

 

Posts I’ve Liked on my Bloglovin

I’m behind on my blog reading but I had to fave Jen’s post –

  • I also loved the article on Catholic Mom.com called The Duty of the Moment. I loved the opening quote: “Doing the duty of the moment means focusing our whole person – heart, soul, body, emotions, intellect, memory, imagination – on the job at hand!  The duty of the moment done for God is glamorous, exciting, wondrous…..” Catherine Doherty, Grace In Every Season.

Changing stinky diapers and washing loads of laundry it anything but glamorous but it is beautiful that each of us – whether we are single, have a house full of little ones or are sending our kids to college – are all called to perform our duties of the moment for love of God and love of those we are serving.

 

Pinned…

As you can see, I was on Pinterest this afternoon. Lots of pins today. The first three pins were taken directly from A Bowl Full of Lemon’s Meal Plan. They all looked delicious.

 

Plans for the Week…

A few school meetings, appointments, a birthday dinner for my mother-in-law, possible Catholic moms’ meeting and maybe a real date out with Brian if our sitter is available. 🙂

 

Captured…

I’m linking this photo with Ute at Flowers Round the Cross. Once a month she posts a scripture verse then asks bloggers to post a photo that captured that Scripture. Here is this month’s verse.

For thus the LORD said to me: “I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” Isiah 18:4

We’ve been having really weird weather. It will be warm and humid one day then grey and foggy the next. Last week after an unusual hot spell, a day finally came when the fog was so thick it was drizzling and covered everything in a blanket of water. The first thing I sought out were the cobwebs in the front yard because the water droplets look amazing on them. So although I already posted a photo similar to this one some time ago, I couldn’t help taking another.

Click on over to suscipio4women.com to read more almanacs/journals.

Click over to flowersroundthecross.blogspot.com for the Bible Verse Photography Challenge.

Have a blessed week!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉


Theme Thursday: Shadow & {pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 74: Bubble Play

It’s another photo mash-up today as I link up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny, real} and with Cari for Theme Thursday: Shadow . (Check out {real} for that one. :-))

The fog finally stayed out over  the ocean and we were rewarded with a gorgeous, sunny day. The kids were enjoying the simple pleasure of bubble blowing. 🙂

{pretty}

I love snapping photos as the bubbles are being blown. This one with Bella is my FAVORITE! (No filters used.)

One bubble blew away and the second popped.

I think the background greenery is pretty too. 🙂

{happy}

Happy smiles.

Matthew is John-Paul’s shadow. JP’s goofiness is rewarded with endless giggles.

Bella’s happy “me time” is riding on her scooter with some tunes.

{funny}

Brian is trying to show Matthew how to blow a bubble.

The only thing Matthew manages to blow are raspberries.

{real}

A shadow of Andrew catching a bubble on his bubble wand.

Shadows of Andrew with John-Paul swinging his bubble wand like a tennis racket trying to pop the bubbles.

It was a fun day. 🙂 Thanks to Cari and LMLD for hosting!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉


Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 10): Christmas in July/ One Annual Family Gift

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin it to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like.

Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for 10 days so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately.

Don’t have a blog? No problem. Post your photo and a description on the RoL Facebook page. 🙂

* * * * *

I love gift giving! I get a thrill at seeing a person’s face light up when they open a present, especially when I worked hard to find something that is unique to them and their interests. If it were up to me I’d send presents to all my extended family – brothers and sisters (I’ve got 8 of them) and their spouses and my nieces and nephews but unfortunately our budget does not allow me that pleasure.

As we’ve gotten older and more of my siblings are getting married, we had to figure out a way to handle the birthdays, special occasions and holiday gift giving.

We decided that each family would give the other family one annual family gift. It could be store bought, handmade, food, whatever worked for the family’s budget. We also thought it would be fun to choose a month other than December to send the gifts, hence this year for my brother, sister-in-law and nephews, it was Christmas in July! (Okay, I was actually late in sending my gifts so it was Christmas in August. But my procrastination didn’t matter since there was no set time table.) 😉

After making my list and purchasing gifts, I was ready to turn on some Christmas music and wrap. One nice thing about doing this gift giving in summer is that I have plenty of time to wrap and put things together without the stress of getting things done by a certain holiday deadline.

I had such fun putting everything together and I hope my brother and his family like it. 🙂

I’ll wait another month of two and then I’ll get a package ready for my sister and her family. 🙂

* * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

<a href=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/?p=2157″><img title=”Revolution of Love Blog – Pinterest Party &amp; Link-up” src=”http://www.revolutionoflove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pinterest_2_medW32-300×240.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”240″ /></a>

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

You have 10 days to post your link, so if you can’t get things done by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉



7 Quick Takes (8/23/13): Mary, Reading & Traveling

I’m linking up with Jen today for 7 Quick Takes and because I am so on the ball today, I am linker #138. Out of the 200’s, baby!  😉

~ 1 ~

My friend Maria sent me this article last week and I forgot I wanted to post it.

Pope to Consecrate World to Mary’s Immaculate Heart

Vatican City, Aug 14, 2013 / 12:03 am (CNA).- Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary this Oct. 13 as part of the Marian Day celebration that will involve the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.

“The Holy Father strongly desires that the Marian Day may have present, as a special sign, one of the most significant Marian icons for Christians throughout the world and, for that reason, we thought of the beloved original Statue of Our Lady of Fatima,” wrote Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

Continue reading…

 

~ 2 ~

Here are some posts you may enjoy…

Speaking of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Annabelle has a great post – Blog Enthronement and Consecration to the Two Hearts.

Then her blog lead me to a great post by Sue – Confessions of a Former Hot-Tempered Mother.

I read this post from Rhonda, bookmarked it, printed it out and reference it when I start being ornery (as Brian calls it.)  It’s stuff I already know but too often need a reminder. – R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Eleven Tips for Spicing Up Your Marriage

Then when you are done keeping things nice and lovely with your spouse you can visit my sis and get some tips for having Kids at Mass.

Lastly, speaking of kids, if you have a blog with kid photos, make sure to read Kierste’s post – {do you have a family blog? tips to safeguard your family’s online photo safety}.

 

~ 3 ~

Photo Source: © http://10kmiles.com/

Okay, was that too much self-help reading? Then sit back and enjoy a treat. A friend of the  family has taken on an amazing adventure! Basically, he quit his job and is traveling across the United States exploring and taking photos. This is what he says:

I was working a great job for a private school in Silicon Valley, but I just wasn’t happy. I have a work to live mentality and Silicon Valley has very much a “live to work” mentality. So I decided that instead, I just want to live and experience life!

I had this tugging in my gut for months to just drop everything and hit the road. The opportunity finally provided itself and I gave notice at my job. In August 2013 I will be hitting the road on a 10,000 mile journey throughout the US. I’ll be taking photos (which I would love for you to purchase to help me eat on this journey) and looking for hidden gems.

K.C. is blogging about his journey here – http://10kmiles.com and he’s on Facebook here.  It has been exciting and moving to read. The traveler in me makes me want to go on a road trip, although the mother in me worries about his safety! LOL. And the woefully amateur photographer in me is in love with his photos. So gorgeous. Go check it out!

 

~ 4 ~

For your random bit of humor… Have you ever wondered what celebs would look like if they were normal schmucks like us? NYC artist Danny Evans used photoshop to give us peek at what could have been. Frankly, I could not stop laughing. My long ago teen idol Johnny Depp went from dream to nightmare but it is interesting that they only way he could make David Beckham look bad was to change him into a businessman. LOL.

 

~ 5 ~

Attention back seat shoppers, if you read my 5 Favorites post on Wednesday, you already know that I am looking for a sleeve to carry my Macbook Air. I have narrowed it down to two from Etsy.

I like the bright colors and design of this one and the fact that it zips all the way around and has sturdier protection.

On the other hand I also really like the color and design of this one, especially the zippered section in the front. However, the main compartment does not zipper and has a button opening instead.

Help an undecided girl out, which do you think would be better?

 

 ~ 6 ~

 

Jen over at Suscipio is hosting the 3-2-1 Fantastically Fun Friday link-up without the link-up! “Huh?” you may say. Instead of linking your blog you simply answer her 3 questions in the comment box so bloggers and non-bloggers can participate and so it does not interfere with your already scheduled link-ups (Like Jen F’s 7QT.) So here is my contribution:

3 Things I’m Grateful For:

  • Brian finally got his scheduled changed so he no longer has to work the late shift (coming home at 7:30) and he has his weekends off now. Happy dance. (To the glee and embarrassment of my children.)
  • For a great (even if it was incredibly fast) summer that officially ends on Monday when the last of the kiddos are back in school. Then Matthew and I will be solo at home a few hours of the day. Now if only I could teach him to throw the dirty laundry in the washer instead of the toilet, we’d be golden. 😉
  • I’m thankful for another year of this crazy but incredibly blessed life.

2 Places I Would Love to Visit

  • I’d love to take another cross country trip but this time with my hubby and kids. (See what you started, KC.)
  • Either back to Rome with the kids (Brian and I went for our first anniversary) or to Austria, where my mother-in-law is from and the pictures I’ve seen are gorgeous or actually the whole UK… (Did I mention I have a hard time of narrowing things down?)

1 Place I Love to Go

  • There are so many spots of gorgeous nature here along the coast that I love but I still can’t resist slipping away every once in awhile and going to sit inside the movie theater to be swept away in a good story. (In fact, if you texted me last night and I didn’t answer, it was because my phone was on Cinemode. ;-))

 

~ 7 ~

I know I almost never miss Cari’s Theme Thursday photography challenge but since the topic was Food and I just posted a recipe with strawberries…

and I just posted a recipe with blueberries

that I thought I’d skip this week and join next week’s theme “Shadow” instead.

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉


Five Favorites: Birthday Edition

This weekend I celebrated my birthday so this Five Favorites, hosted by the adorable Hallie, is the birthday edition.

~ 1 ~

Birthday Flowers

Nothing cheers up a room like fresh flowers.

 

~ 2 ~

Love Letters

After Brian and I got married, we agreed not to spend money on store bought cards. Instead we write letters to each other. I have to admit that my favorite part of a special occasion is to receive his sweet letter.

~ 3 ~

Mac

For a long time I’ve been wanting to get a laptop (I’ve only used desk tops) and I had been thinking about getting my first Mac. Well, Brian got a bonus and I had some money saved up (all that money from not buying cards ;-)) so Brian surprised me by saying I could go pick one out for my birthday. HAPPY DANCE. I am loving my new Macbook Air and this is my first post written on one.. 🙂

~ 4 ~

Laptop Sleeves from Etsy

I found these macbook covers  on Etsy and I really like this one.

~ 5 ~

Mi Familia

But of course, my biggest favorite of the week (heck, of my life) is having the privilege of being the mama to these cuties and the wife of this amazing man. There’s no greater gift than that. Blessed be God. (And when I forget and start complaining, feel free to give me a swift kick in the butt. ;-))

 

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉