Revolution of Love

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Theme Thursday: Secret (Coping with Stress)

I am linking up with Cari for this week’s photography challenge Theme Thursday: Secret. πŸ™‚

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Okay, here’s a little secret. I don’t have it “all together.” The other day a friend was complimenting me about something and made the comment, “I want to be Bobbi when I grow up.” HA! That’s a hot one. I don’t have it all together and sometimes I feel like I am downright losing it. This week was one of those times. I haven’t made any posts because I could not get myself to type anything other than “life sucks.” It doesn’t really and most of the time I feel like this…

But this week I felt like this. Literally.

I needed a good long cry yesterday because I was just overwhelmed with everything. When I get like this I have three secret places I like to visit alone. It depends on how bad it is where I need to go.

Code Yellow – Elevated Stress

When I need to regroup I go to the beach and take a few moments to slow down and breathe deep. It allows me to see the situation differently and realize how blessed I am and I can thank God for it.

Code Orange – High Stress

Sometimes after a long day I just need to get out of the house. Brian knows how much I love the movies so after the kids are in bed he’ll send me off to two hours of cinematic bliss. This may not be such a secret since for my birthday my family gave me a Fandango gift card and bag of peanut M&M’s but they may not know I love to keep all my movie stubs in this little wooden box Bella gave me. πŸ™‚

Code Red – Severe Stress

This kind of stress can only be elevated at the feet of Christ, particularly after receiving the grace of Reconciliation. That may not be such a secret to my fellow Catholic friends but what you may not know is that when I pray I love to think about the feet of Christ.

Where he walked. What he endured. How those feet were washed by the tears of Mary and dried with her hair. I picture myself crying at his feet and him stroking my hair and telling me not to worry, that this will pass and I will be strengthened once again. Thankfully, I am.

Thanks to 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. πŸ˜‰


7 Quick Takes (7/27/13): Busy Days, 90’s Music & Beauty Despite Disability

I’m linking up with Jen for today’s 7 Quick Takes.

~ 1 ~

It seems like awhile since I have done a Quick Takes. That’s usually because by the time Friday comes around I am so fried from the week that the thought of blogging loses its appeal. But the big kids are at school, the little kids are sitting quietly (I know, shocker) eating a banana and watching Pingu. (Yeah, I don’t get the appeal of that show but for this particular moment, silence is golden.) I just sat down to eat my breakfast burrito. (Did you notice, sis? I used the proper terminology and not the ridiculous word “wrap.” Does that only bug us? Maybe it’s a Mexican thing. But I digress…) Since I am sitting at the computer eating my breakfast anyway, let’s see what I can type with one hand while I eat with the other. Ready…go.

~ 2 ~

“Bang, bang on the door, baby…” I’m listening to my 90’s playlist as I am typing. Can you guess which song/band is playing now??

Source

September is always a busy month for us but this week it hits its peak. We had our carpets cleaned yesterday and ohmygoodness, that was the best chunk of change we’ve spent all year. We have four kids and light colored carpet. I believe it was my mother-in-law that chose the color (we are living in the home of Brian’s grandmother who has since passed away.) If you saw my MIL, you’d know why she picked that carpet. She looks JUST LIKE Eva Gabor on Green Acres. The last time we took a trip to Lake Tahoe together she wore white, head to toe. Five hours later she came out of the car perfectly coiffed and spotless. I can out of the car with bed head and a big ketchup stain on my chest from the happy meal fries I snagged from Matthew. Enough said. So yeah, this light carpet is lovely for a childless couple but it is not exactly the best for a family of six.

Anyway, the guy from My Pro Dry (if you are on the Monterey Peninsula, give them your business. They rock!) must have drawn the short straw. I am sure our customer case file says “bio hazard equipment optional” written somewhere. He made our disgusting looking carpets sparkle again. As I looked at the clean, empty room I was tempted to lock the kids out of the house so I could have just one day of my house looking like it could be on “Better Homes and Garden” instead of a repeat of “Hoarders: Buried Alive.”Β  Oh well. Now that everything is dry, I have to move all the furniture and junk that is piled up in the corners back where it belongs. Fun stuff, people.

~ 3 ~

Name that band – “It’s the end of the world as we know it…”

Speaking of messy, last week Nicki over at A Catholic Heart for Home continued her Not Alone Series with her Favorite Mom Blogs. And guess what? My sis and I were both mentioned. My sister’s mentioned accomplishment were having 5 kids under 5, homeschooling and making things from scratch. (I know, right!) She rocks. My accomplishment? That I am so messy that I make Nicki not feel so bad about her own domestic struggles…or something to that effect. If I wasn’t in such a good mood I could get all “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” about my sis, but I won’t. Seriously, thanks for the mention, Nicki. I am glad to hear that you are enjoying the blog, messiness and all. xoxo πŸ˜‰

~ 4 ~

Name that band – “Come as you are, as you were, As I want you to be As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy. Take your time, hurry up The choice is yours, don’t be late. Take a rest, as a friend, as an old memoria. Memoria…”

[Pretend there is a topic related photo here.]

This weekend we also have Bella’s birthday party with her friends, Bella’s family party at the inlaws and our school Fiesta that all families are required to work. I am avoiding all this madness by typing and spilling salsa on my shirt. Dang it! “You should wear white more often,” said no one ever. Forget the one hand typing. I need both so I can finish this before my timer runs out. Hit the snooze! I need 5 more minutes!

~ 5 ~

Name that band – “Sorry I’m not home right now, I’m walking into spiderwebs. So leave a message and I’ll call you back. A likely story, but (Yeah) leave a message. And I’ll call you back” (Aw, remember the old days before we had caller ID.) ;-)

I wanted to join Suscipio in their 3-2-1 Fantastically Fun Friday Link-up without the link-up! Whether you are a blogger or a non-blogger, just answer the 3 questions in their comment box. This week Jen is going to the state fair so her prompts are fair related. Here is my contribution:

3 Things I’m Thankful For
~ I may jokingly complain but for the four sweet kiddos who make our carpets so dirty.
~ For twelve years of blessed life with my sweet Bella Bambina.
~ For date nights that land in Phase 3. Woohoo. (Ignore that, mom. I know you don’t like when I mention such things in “public.”) πŸ˜‰

2 Foods at the Fair I Love to Eat
~ A corn dog OR
~ A BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

1 Ride at the Fair I Am TERRIFIED of
~ I’ll go on a roller coaster but anything with a clown...Scary.

 

~ 6 ~

Name that song/band -“Teachers, Keep on teachin’ Preachers, Keep on preachin’, World, keep on turnin’, ‘Cause it won’t be too long. Oh, no Lovers, Keep on lovin’ While believers Keep on believin’. Sleepers, Just stop sleepin, Cause it won’t be too long. Oh, no!” (I dare you to hear that song and not dance around.) πŸ˜‰

Matty in the waiting room.

For those who didn’t already read the news on my Facebook page or Instagram, we took Matthew to Stanford Hospital last Friday so a specialist could take a look at his legs. Basically, Matthew’s leg bone is facing the wrong direction. In old days, they would have put him in a brace but, thankfully, they don’t do that anymore. Instead we have some simple home therapy we have to do with his legs and as he grows taller, 99% of the time, the leg bone will rotate into the correct position.Β  Praise, God.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouraging words. Please just say a prayer that he continues to heal. And let’s not forget all the kids who are suffering various ailments. As we sat in the waiting room we felt incredibly blessed that Matthew’s problem wasn’t more serious. There were so many little broken bodies, it brought tears to my eyes. There was one little guy sitting in his wheel chair hardly able to move. He was holding a Dora sticker in his hand and dropped it. He moaned for his grandma to pick it up but she didn’t look so hot herself. I don’t think she understood what he wanted. I walked over and picked up his sticker and gave it back to him. He lovingly caressed it as if it was a precious prize. Then he smiled at me and his face lit up. I smiled back and sat down.

I looked at another girl in a wheel chair and she smiled too. She had a lovely smile that was reflected in her eyes. I looked around the room and for a brief moment I didn’t see the disabilities and the limitations, I just saw kids who were happy and playful in situations that would have broken me. They were beautiful. So for those sweet kids carrying incredible crosses, let’s say a prayer for them and their families and take a moment to be thankful for our own blessings.

~ 7 ~

With perfect timing, the song β€œThat’s the Impression That I Get” from the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones just came on. It’s so good I need to add the video. (Never have white socks with a dark suit looked so good.)

Have a great weekend! xoxo

Oh, and don’t forget to enter the contest to win a free copy of Small Steps for Catholic Moms OR A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms here. All you have to do is tell me which you prefer. (And you get an extra entry if you like(d) RoL on facebook.) πŸ™‚

 

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. πŸ˜‰


Theme Thursday: Out & {pretty, happy, funny, real} vol. 77

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: Out. The other day we were all in the house cleaning and doing Saturday chores when I could not bear to be cooped up in the house any longer. The weather was gorgeous so I told Brian we needed to take a break and get out for a little fresh air. It was funny when I checked for the theme this week and realized it was OUT. So here are the photos from our afternoon out.

{pretty}

We took a walk on one of the little nature trials by our house. There are not many flowers this time of year but I was able to find a few here and there.

 

 

{happy}

Β I love this shot of Brian and Matthew. It makes me so happy to have a husband that is such an incredible dad. Swoon.

 

{funny}

Forget the scenery and the flowers, the boys favorite part of the walk is through the tunnel where they scream like mad to hear their echo.

In the meantime, Bella and I chat and laugh at the boys as I snap photos. (Next time I will get a pic of both of us too!)

 

{real}

Okay, I ran out of “out” photos so I’ll share this pic from the Planner Addicts Photo Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. Day 20 was a sample of our handwriting. πŸ™‚

Thanks to Cari and LMLD for hosting!

Oh, and a completely unrelated commercial – don’t forget to enter the contest to win a free copy of Β Small Steps for Catholic Moms OR ABook of Saints for Catholic Moms here. πŸ™‚

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. πŸ˜‰


Daily Devotionals for Catholic Moms (& A Give-Away)

I’m linking this post up with Housewifespice’s What We’re Reading Wednesday. πŸ™‚

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Recommended  Catholic mom devotionals.

How are you at morning devotions and prayer time? Frankly, it is an area where I’ve always struggled. Brian has a contemplative nature. He loves moments of quiet when he can spend time alone with God. I am the opposite. I love noise. I cannot be in a quiet room. (Maybe it’s because I grew up with 10 other people in our home.) I usually always have the stereo playing or the TV on… although I could do with less of the rambunctious boys’ LOUDNESS. πŸ˜‰ Needless to say, quiet time in prayer is not something that comes easily to me and probably many people. We have to work at it.

Lately, however, all this working on being more disciplined has meshed into my spiritual life as well. I finally tweaked my schedule so I have a 15 minute block of quiet time for prayer in the morning. That time is pretty constant, so it’s rare that I have to miss it. I begin with a short prayer, read out of my devotional book and then talk to God and journal my thoughts. (Writing things out always help me think things through.)

There are many lovely devotional books out there, but I need something very simple…short and sweet. I don’t like flowery words and deep theological discussions go over my head. I need something that speak to me right where I am…in the middle of dishes, diapers and dirty laundry. That’s why I love reading these two books.

Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray, and Act is a daily devotional. Each month is dedicated to a specific virtue. (For example, this month is Diligence.) Each day has three elements – A quote or Scripture, a brief prayer and and Act you can do to put your faith into practice. It is perfect for moms who are short on time but it is “meaty” enough that you can also spend more time meditating on the quote. The prayer in the book can be used as an opening line to God and you continue to converse with God for as long as you’d like. For moms who are well developed in their prayer life and want something a little longer, I’d recommend pairing it with a spiritual book that deals with that month’s virtue.

I have a copy of the original Small Steps and friends have wanted to buy a copy but it was out of print for awhile. Thankfully it back in print with a new cover and available for purchase.

My other favorite book is the newer book from Lisa Hendey (of CatholicMom.com.)


A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul is also a daily devotional. It is divided up into 52 weeks. Each week focuses on one saint. There is a brief biography, lessons we can learn from the saint, traditions of their patronage, two saint-inspired activities (one for mom and one for your children), a weekly prayer to say as a family and one or two questions to ponder. There is also a scripture verse for each day of the week to mediate on. This book rocks. It is rich with information and the prayers are beautiful.

When I first started reading it, I was torn about trading in one book for the other but I have found that both work well for me. I use the Saint Book at the beginning of the week. On Mon, Tues, Wed I read through the chapter and meditate on the lessons etc. By Thursday I only have the daily scripture/prayer left, which is short, so from Thurs to Sun I pair that with the daily devotion of the Small Steps book. I also ask the ‘saint of the week” to pray for me. Working with both books has worked fine for me.

A last note, although these are geared towards moms, a single person (or even a dad) could read them just as well, particularly the saint book. On days when you are given a task that has to do with your spouse or children you could apply it to a co-worker, a friend or family member instead.

Finally, because I love these books so much, I am giving a copy away on the blog! To enter just leave a comment and tell me which book you’d rather win – Small Steps for Catholic Moms or a Book of Saints for Catholic Moms. Want an extra entries? – Like RoL on Facebook. (Just leave a comment letting me know you did or have already) and/or tweet about this give-away.Β  πŸ˜‰ I’ll pick a winner in two weeks on October 8th. Good luck!

(For next week’s post, I’ll let you know which Catholic books for women my Mom’s Group will be reading for our book studies.)

Have a great day.

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. πŸ˜‰


Pinterest Party & Link-up (vol 12): Lower Fat Baked Mac and Cheese

It is busy, busy, busy here so for today’s Pinterest Party I am linking an updated post from two years ago that was damaged in the blog move. I’ve fixed the links and added some new photos. I hope you enjoy. πŸ™‚

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. Tell us about it in the comment box. Or post your photo and a description on the RoL Facebook page. πŸ™‚

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Yesterday I had an abundance of broccoli that I needed to use up so I decided to make macaroni and cheese. I am not a huge mac & cheese fan, only knowing the boxed kind but last year I made my first homemade version. It was a recipe I saw on Food Network’s “What Would Brian Boitano Make?” (Stop laughing. I actually liked his show. And not just because I had a crush on him 20 years ago.) His Cheese Cart Mac & Cheese was easy and delicious, although a bit on the “fancier” side as he used asiago, fontina and gouda. My bigger concern was how rich and fattening it was. I had to find a low fat version that the family would still eat. When Brian (my husband, not Boitano) saw me making the cheese sauce last night and he was excited until I told him it was a new lower fat recipe. He gave me “that look” and walked out of the kitchen mumbling something about “low fat, low flavor.” It was finally time for dinner and I served the mac & cheese with broccoli and Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa. I’m happy to report that the meal was a hit (even Matthew had his first serving of mac) and everyone wanted seconds. (Which then brought up the debate of how low fat is it when you eat more than one serving…) If you want to try it out, I got the recipe from LiveStong.com. Here is the recipe. Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp of flour
  • 2 cups skim milk
  • 2 cups reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
  • 2 cups elbow macaroni (I have since started using whole wheat bow tie pasta instead of regular macaroni.)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
  • 2 tbsp low-fat margarine

Note: I usually double this recipe so we’ll have leftovers. For the cheese I use 1/2 low fat sharp cheddar and 1/2 of this low fat smoked cheese from Trader Joe’s. It tastes similar to smoked gouda and it is delicious! Directions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the milk in a saucepan over low heat until small bubbles form. In a separate saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the flour and stir for two minutes.

Slowly pour in the heated milk, whisking thoroughly. Stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens and begins to boil slightly. Reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in the cheese by handfuls until it is thoroughly melted. Stir in the salt, pepper and cayenne. Set aside.

Boil 6 cups of water. Add in the elbow macaroni and boil as directed, generally 8 minutes. Drain well and pour into the cheese mixture. Lightly spray the casserole dish. Pour the macaroni into the dish.

Melt the margarine in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the bread crumbs and stir constantly until they are lightly browned. Spoon over the macaroni. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Healthy Additions Stir chopped parsley, chopped, cooked broccoli or sliced mushrooms into the macaroni and cheese mixture before placing in the casserole dish to add color and flavor.

Considerations Make sure you cook the flour for the time directed; cooking thoroughly dissipates the flavor of the flour and enhances the flavor of the sauce. Carefully stir the cheese sauce until all the cheese is melted, monitoring the temperature to ensure that it does not scorch. Avoid adding foods containing any additional fats, such as crumbled bacon or butter, when serving. Garnish with parsley for additional color.

My note: I like to make this dish with Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa or the chicken & apple sausages from Trader Joe’s and broccoli. Also, the recipe didn’t give serving size or nutritional info but when I used this online calculator to calculate this recipe serving about 6, the amount of calories was 300 and fat 16, which is not bad for homemade mac & cheese. (Also, that was a larger main dish size portion. A smaller 3/4 cup side portion what more than cut that in half.) Adding the Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa/chicken sausage and broccoli would add roughly an extra 100 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving. It’s a nice (occasional) comfort food treat. πŸ™‚

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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. πŸ™‚ (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/. πŸ™‚

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. πŸ˜‰