31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 13) – End of the Day

By bobbi
October 13, 2015
2 Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 13 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

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Sunset with no filter.

Every once in awhile you get one of those days when the thing that you are most grateful for…is that it’s over. Here’s to the end of a rough day and the hope of a better day tomorrow.

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, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 11): Give Thanks to the Lord

By bobbi
October 11, 2015
No Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 11 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

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Happy Sunday! Take a moment to stop and thank God for your blessings then spend some time with those you love. 🙂

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 10) & #LoveYourLettering Recap Week 2

By bobbi
October 10, 2015
1 Comment

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 10 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

On the weekends I try to stay off the computer as much as I can so I can spend time with my family. I treasure the more leisurely days of the weekend and am grateful for the time we have to be more playful or relax and enjoy each others company.

With that in mind, I will use Saturdays to give you a quick recap on my second October challenge – #LoveYourLettering with Lisa at Creativlei.com. 🙂

View week 1 here.

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Week 2…

Day 5

On Day 5 we practiced refining our handwriting. We practiced writing in both print and cursive. I enjoyed this one since I have fairly nice writing.

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Days 6 & 7

Day 6 we practiced altering our handwriting by writing letters in different forms such as with a wide or narrow bowl. On Day 7 we added whimsy and flairs to our letters. I found this exercise a little harder because my hand felt choppy writing in a manner I don’t normally use.

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Day 8

On Day 8 we learned faux calligraphy. It was exciting and frustrating at the same time. I would look at Lisa’s writing and compare it to mine and wonder why my writing was so inferior in comparison. Later than evening she said on her periscope, don’t compare our writing to hers since she’s been doing this for twenty years. Hmm.. I’ve only been at it for 20 minutes so I guess I need to stop comparing and just keep practicing. 😉

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Day 9

On Day 9 we added color to our writing. I felt like I needs weeks more of practicing before I jumped into adding color but jumping I went.

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Day 10

The weekend is for catch up, practice and looking for inspiration. I have to say that the more I do this the more I like it. I find myself grabbing my notebook or a piece of paper and practicing letters in the evening after the kids are in bed and I am relaxing our watching TV with Brian. Each day I feel a little more comfortable. I know I still have a ways to go until I really like what I see but I I’ll get there. 🙂

If you want to check out other people taking the class with me, search the hashtag #LoveYourLettering on Instagram. There are so many amazingly talented participants on there!

I also started a new Pinterest board with lettering inspiration. – pinterest.com/bobbi_rol/creative-calligraphy-lettering/

Tempted to jump into the class late? Do it! The sessions are short enough where you can catch up or just go at your own pace. Don’t worry about getting supplies. Start off with a pen or pencil and paper. (You can even print graph paper online.)

Well, that’s it for this week. Next Saturday I’ll recap again. Have a great Saturday!

PPS – This post may contain affiliate links.

October 2015 Goals (& A Review of My September Goals) & 31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 9)

By bobbi
October 9, 2015
4 Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 9 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

Last year, I started to get into the habit of making goals.The idea was a little foreign to me. It was something I associated with business men or entrepreneurial women. Not something a stay at home mom and part time blogger would do. But now I am so grateful to those who inspired me to set goals and for Laura Casey’s Powersheets that helped me define what those goals should be in my life. I have seen real progress over the last year and in this season of life I have more free time to explore some of the projects I had to put on the back burner when I had babies and toddlers in the house. So for my progress, for my extra time and for the grace of God that helps me put in the effort, I am truly grateful. 🙂

Last month I shared with you my September goals and now it is time to review those goals and make new ones for October.

My main big goals do not change but my mini-goals change depending on the areas I need to work on the most. So here is a summary of my progress and my mini goals for October.

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Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature. – I have been doing well at keeping my morning devotional time, although it still does not come easy. I have to “force” myself to stop and spend quiet time with God before I tackle my To Do list.
Print out and memorize the “Come Holy Spirit” Prayer. – Yes, I printed it out and made it into a bookmarker and printable, which you can download here. It really helped in learning it. 🙂
Re-focus on my phrase of the year Be Still by finishing the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life. – Nope didn’t happen. I have hardly read anything at all. Ugh. Althoug, I did try to BE STILL during my devotional time so that was good.

October Mini-Goals

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature.
Substitute a half-hour (or so) of watching TV or listening to music with something of greater substance, like listening to an uplifting podcast or reading a devotional/ spiritual book.
Get away from the regular routine for a bit and go to the chapel for prayer and confession.

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Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates. – Going well. We have an out of house date planned for this weekend. 🙂
Continue to work on having the home picked up and my attitude in check so Brian comes home to respite and not chaos. – Mostly good. There were a few days when I was a volcanic mess about to erupt but that wasn’t the norm.
When Brian gets me upset, still treat him with respect and not like he is another one of my kids. – Hmm…I think I have been better. I’d have to ask Brian (or maybe the kids) for an honest review.) 😉

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates.
Make a conscious effort to thank Brian more when he does something for me or the kids and not just take it for granted.
Let Brian help me out when he offers and stop acting like he can’t do it the way I would do it. Let him have his own way of doing things. (I’ll tell you right now, that one is going to be tough!)

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Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Revise the kids chore charts now that school is back in session. – Done. For the most part they have been doing a great job at pitching in and doing their chores, even though some unnamed kiddo may give the a drama queen a run for her money during chore time.
Do what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework. – This still needs serious work. The busy afternoons of multiple school pick ups, driving to and from appointments and practices, getting chores done, homework started and dinner on the table is the toughest part of the day. I definitely need to work on this more.
Incorporate three feast days into the family life to help the kids better appreciate the fullness of the faith. This month it will be Mary’s birthday on the 8th, the feast day of St. Matthew on the 21st and feast of the Archangels on the 29th. (This one may be a little ambition but I’m going to add it anyway.) – I think this is the goal I am most excited about! Our evening before bed time is almost as hectic as our afternoon time but on Mary’s feast day I wanted to start evening family prayer time. I thought we could have a little time for prayer, intentions and say a decade of the rosary. It went so well, we did it the following night and the night after that and every night since. It is the perfect way to end the kids’ day and for Brian and I to start our evening. I’ll share more about it on a separate post next week. 🙂

October Mini-Goals

Continue to work on doing what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework.
Get the boys involved in Just Run at school and take walks as a family on the weekend.

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Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Fill in my new planner for Sept 2015 – Aug 16. – Done and done, baby. I share my planner here.
Spend some time in the evening working on Mystie’s course Simplified Organization. – I actually put that course on hold to take Mystie’s other course Work the Plan. It had to do with working on goals and how to make those goals happen in a way that suits your family. That is what I have already been working on here and I’d love more direction and tips. I started it at the end of September so this will be ongoing for awhile.

October Mini-Goals

I’ve been slacking on my meal planning and going to the store too often so back to weekly meal plans on Sunday.
Spend time on the weekends with Mystie’s Work the Plan course. I have a full calendar in October so the weekends will be the only times I can have a little extra time for this.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Track my eating. – Big fat NO. Grr.
Plan a blogging schedule. – This is still a work in progress.
Spend a few minutes a day just writing and getting thoughts down on paper. It doesn’t have to be for a post but just to keep the process flowing. Use the Listers Gotta List challenge for inspiration. – For the most part, yes.
Record more scopes on Periscope. – I never got to this.

October Mini-Goals

Once summer is over I tend to drink less so this month more H2O and take my vitamins. (So easy to do yet I always forget!)
Complete the #write31days blogging challenge and write a post each day on my topic – 31 Days of Gratitude.
Complete the Lisa’s online class #LoveYourLettering about how to love your own handwriting and learn the basics of hand lettering. (I started here.)

Okay, I think those are all doable but if I get even half done I’d be happy. 😉

What about you? What is the one thing that you really want to work on this month?

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, Periscope/Katch, GoodReads Letterboxd, Spotify or Instagram. 😉

PPS – This post may contain affiliate links.

31 Days of Gratitude (Day 8): On This Date 16 Years Ago…

By bobbi
October 8, 2015
8 Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 8 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

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On this day sixteen years ago, I drove to the Ontario, CA airport and waited impatiently for Brian’s flight to come in from Monterey. Living over 400 miles apart from each other had been trying, to say the least, but today I was filled with excitement, anticipation and a little nervousness. This was the weekend Brian was going to officially propose to me. It may seem unromantic that we had to “plan” our engagement since we were so far from one another but I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to be engaged to the man I loved and I didn’t care about convention.

As I saw Brian walk over to me, I ran to him and melted in his arms. All was right with the world once again. We stopped to get a bite to eat (I still have the Claim Jumper receipt in my scrapbook) 😉 and talked excitedly. The original plan was to wait until Saturday. Brian wanted to ask my parents for my hand (so sweet) and then we’d go off by ourselves. But the more we talked, the more we couldn’t even wait until the next day. The evening had passed quickly and he asked me if my parents would still be up when we got to my house. I decided to give them a call from the restaurant. (These were the olden days when we didn’t have cell phones. I had to find a pay phone. Crazy.) I called my mom and she assured me that she and my dad would be up when we got there so we grabbed out To Go boxes and headed out the door.

(Brian and I met online. This is when we first met in person.)

Brian was nervous to talk to my parents but I told him to relax since they loved him. (Heck, I think my mom was ready to get down on one knee and beg him to marry me. She loved the guy!!) We got to my house and after hugs and pleasantries were exchanged we sat down at the kitchen table and Brian made his little speech. Tears flowed and more hugs were given until Brian and I stepped outside into the backyard. It was a cool and starry night and Brian held my hand and walked me over to a little section of trees. He knelt down on one knee and started to tell me how much he loved me and wanted to be with me forever. He said he couldn’t promise me an easy life but he promised to always be faithful to me, to love me and do all he could to help me and our future children live a life with God’s kingdom as our goal.

My heart was so full of emotion (I’m crying again just reliving it) I could barely comprehend everything that he was saying to me. Thank God, the writer in him actually penned all the words of his proposal. Later he was going to throw away his scraps of paper but I begged him to let me keep them in my scrapbook for days like today, when I want to look back and remember the words of love he spoke to me.

Brian’s right. It hasn’t always been easy but what life ever is? Sure, the years of infertility, miscarriages and more recently Brian’s cancer, his father’s stroke and the daily stress of family life were crosses we had to (or are working to) overcome. However, all the small (and big) moments of love and laughter that we share together overshadow and dwarf the hard times.They are not what first comes to mind when I think about our life together.

For all these moments, the good and the bad, over the last sixteen years I am grateful because they filled me with love and strengthened my faith. For the man who always seems to be giving, I am most grateful. To God, who gave me such a blessing, “thank you” seems inadequate but my heart is too full to say more…

xoxo,

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: gratitude

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 13) – End of the Day

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 11): Give Thanks to the Lord

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 10) & #LoveYourLettering Recap Week 2

Day 5

Days 6 & 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

October 2015 Goals (& A Review of My September Goals) & 31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 9)

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

31 Days of Gratitude (Day 8): On This Date 16 Years Ago…