{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 73 & Theme Thursday: Faith

By bobbi
August 14, 2013
14 Comments

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

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On November 24, 2013, it will be the 300th anniversary of Junipero Serra’s birth. That’s why lately I have been thinking about the incredible faith of Fr. Serra. When he started his daunting task to found the missions in California, he was older and in poor health. He had a bad leg, and other ailments, yet he managed to walk hundreds of miles at a time and traveled over 24,000 miles in his lifetime. He established 9 of the 21 missions and worked tirelessly to fulfill his vocation and calling in life. I am sure there were moments when he was ready to give up or collapse but his motto was to never look back and always move forward. I need more of that kind of faith in my life!

The altar of the Carmel Mission. In the bottom left hand corner you can see his icon and where Fr. Serra is buried.

The Junipero Serra Prayer Garden outside the Mission.

An interesting fact from the Cornerstone Newsletter I just received in the mail today: “This Basilica is one of the only three mission churches built of stone. The others are build with adobe brick. When restoring the Basilica walls, small sections were not plastered over in order to provide ‘windows’ to display the Basilica’s previously hidden and wonderful stone work. Each wall tells a different story of over two centuries of construction and repair.” See, you learn something new every day. 🙂

Close-up of the mosaic of the Holy Family in the garden.

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Today I was soooo happy that we had a few hours of blue skies and temps in the high 60’s because over the weekend the fog was getting oppressive.

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The boys pulled out their old Halloween costumes and were having a super hero weekend. (I like how Spidey is making sure Thor doesn’t run away. ;-))

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This weekend is the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, which means there are some amazing cars driving around the Peninsula. There was a charity fundraiser at the Mission and a Blessing of the Automobiles that “combined the passion of fine automobiles with the faith.” We didn’t attend but when we went to evening Mass for the feast of the Assumption I snapped these photos before Brian started yelling at me to get into the church. (Well, he doesn’t really yell. His look and head shake speaks volumes though. But he knows me well enough to know you can’t stop the mamarazzi in me. ;-))

Thanks to LMLD and Cari 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 9): Mini Traveling Office

By bobbi
August 13, 2013
5 Comments

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. 🙂

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My Pinterest Boards –pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/

The Pin That Inspired This Post – The Traveling Blogger

Back in April one of my favorite organizing bloggers, Jen at iheartorganizing posted The Traveling Blogger. She talked about how she keeps her traveling “office” organized.

Source: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

I was particularly interested in how she used a makeup bag to hold her office essentials. I was smitten with the idea and every time I went to Target or Ulta I’d browse the make-up bags to see if there was something I could use in a similar fashion. I tried a few but they landed out being too small or too big or didn’t have enough pockets and I returned them back.

It’s August now and back to school supplies have been calling my name. I really wanted to get my traveling office together because I knew I’d be spending a lot of time in the car once school started and I was shuffling kids around and waiting in parking lots for school bells to ring. During those moments I always have a few spare moments to get some work done or a card written and mailed.

So when I went to Target this weekend, in between buying Q-tips and toothpaste, I passed the make-up bags and spotted this gem.

It had three zippered sections, sleeves for pens and was roomy enough to fit a lot but not too bulky for my tote bag. (I did not realize it at the time but when I went back to reread Jen’s original post, this was the exact make up bag she had purchased. No wonder she said it was perfect. It is!

So I gathered all the things I wanted to have in my mini traveling office: a mini journal, a small notebook, post-it notes, scissors, tape, mini stapler, staples, paper clips, binder clips, a cute little tin to hold the clips and staples (thanks for that mom ;-)) sharpie, pens, markers, thank you cards, blank note cards and stamps.

That may seem like a lot of stuff but it fit..and I even added a roll or two of washi tape since taking this pic. 🙂

Sometimes I feel a little bad that I get more excited about office supplies than actual makeup but what can I say. I’m a nerd that way. All I know is that I love my little office set, almost as much as the Hello Kitty pencil case I had in the 4th grade. Some things never change. 😉

UPDATE: It’s been over a month and I still love my little mini-office. Right now I am participating in the Planner Addicts Photo Challenge and for Day 9 I had to list my favorite essential while planning. My mini-office won hands down. 😉

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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:

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/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Snippets (8/10/13): A Round-up of This Week’s Posts

By bobbi
August 10, 2013
No Comments

Hosted by This That and the Other Thing

RAnn over at This That and the Other Thing is hosting Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival where bloggers link their posts from the past week. It was a slow posting week so I only have two to share.

On Wednesday, I reviewed the Catholic fiction novel Mysterious Albion (Vatican Vampire Hunters) (Volume 1) by Paul Leone.

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On Thursday I shared photos for a double link-up: {pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 72 & Theme Thursday: Statues.

Thanks to RAnn for hosting. Have a blessed Sunday!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 72 & Theme Thursday: Statues

By bobbi
August 8, 2013
12 Comments

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

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The altar at the Carmel Mission has numerous statues, all which have been recently cleaned and restored.

A sweet friend gave me this statue when I was pregnant with John-Paul. Since then I have kept it on our home altar as a reminder to keep in prayer all the pregnant mamas out there (and for the spiritual mamas who nurture God’s children.)

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I love how kids can find the simplest things to keep them amused. Here Andrew is proudly sporting his mustache.

John-Paul started off happy but then he got upset that his ‘stache wouldn’t stay on his face. 😉

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John-Paul is definitely a chip of the old block. Like his father, he always has a book in his hands. The other day I told him he had to go outside and get some fresh air. I thought he’d ride bikes with his brothers but instead he sat on the floor and read his book. I guess, technically, he did do as he was told. 😉

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I was getting tired of all my boys sporting messy 70’s hair so I gave them all haircuts. Remember my little guy from last week?

Well, he got his first short big boy haircut.

He was very proud of his “After” look. 🙂

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This is a last minute add-on photo.

My statue from the {pretty} photo was the victim of boyhood exuberance. sigh. Having kids definitely teaches you how to have a healthy detachment from material possessions. Luckily some crazy glue repaired our ladies, even though they still have a few war wounds. Oh well. (And if you think I sound a little too calm it’s because I already blew my top and cooled off before typing this. ;-))

What We’re Reading Wednesday – Vol 3

By bobbi
August 6, 2013
6 Comments

I’m linking up with Jessica over at Housewifespice.com for What We’re Reading Wednesday.

Before I read the featured book of this post, I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments). I was intrigued with the idea of supernatural demon hunters and a seemingly ordinary girl who could see the invisible hunters and the demonic activity that other normal humans could not. I decided to read the book and see if it was any good.

I will admit that I enjoyed the adventure and suspense of hunting down demons but there were too many negative points to make it worth it. I debated between giving it one or two stars on GoodReads because there were moments I was swiping the screen in a hurry to see what would happen next and other times I was rolling my eyes at the writing.

From a Catholic point of view, there were definite problems, most notably, that the characters are fighting a war of good vs evil with demons, yet God is viewed as non-existent at worst or disinterested at best. I also hated the plot twist at the end, so all in all, it was a let down.

The following week I read a positive review from The Curt Jester/Jeff Miller about Mysterious Albion (Vatican Vampire Hunters) (Volume 1) by Paul Leone. Vatican Vampire Hunters?? Wow, sign me up! (To read, not to hunt.)

Here is the Amazon description:

Lucy Manning just wanted an ordinary life. But surviving a vicious vampire attack has put the young American in the middle of a holy war between a secret society of vampire hunters loyal to the Catholic Church–and an ancient and powerful vampire queen who has awakened from a long slumber with dreams of blood and conquest in her demonic mind.

Lucy may not want to do battle with a ruthless, eternal evil, but evil has other ideas….

While other vampire books may make vampires seem attractive, there is no mistake that in this book vampires are evil and closer to being demonic. Lucy’s world is turned upside down when her friend is attacked by a vampire and Lucy barely escapes. Lucy is eventually recruited into a secret society of vampire hunters operating unofficially for the Catholic Church. She goes from an inexperienced novice to a skillful hunter fighting a devastating war.

I enjoyed the description of British locations and culture and I loved the suspense and the battle scenes and the integration of the Catholic faith. However, it was not the slightest bit “preachy.” On the contrary, it seems completely natural, even for non-religious people, that when you are dealing with evil/demonic creatures, the Catholic Church provides the big guns.

The only negatives were a few plot aspects that seemed confusing (ie. Why was a vampire killed with holy water at the beginning of the story but holy water wasn’t used on any of the others?) and there is a bit of language. Lucy can be praying to God in one scene and then dropping some f-bombs in a battle scene. So be forewarned if you’re sensitive to that.

I still gave the book 5 stars because I couldn’t put it down while I was reading it and now that I’m done I can’t wait for book 2. 😉

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: weekly quizzes/questionnaires

{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 73 & Theme Thursday: Faith

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 9): Mini Traveling Office

Sunday Snippets (8/10/13): A Round-up of This Week’s Posts

{pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 72 & Theme Thursday: Statues

What We’re Reading Wednesday – Vol 3