13): Prayer, Discipline and Foyle’s War

By bobbi
September 5, 2013
2 Comments

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

~ 1 ~

Pray for Peace – You’ve most likely seen these already but in case you haven’t, I’m posting it here. The Holy Father has called for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria. It is on Saturday, September 7. I think I will fast from my phone/computer/camera. Hopefully I can make it 24 hours. 😉 But seriously, whatever level you can do, we should all be joining in!

~ 2 ~

Prayer Request – Speaking of prayer, please say a prayer for my little guy Matthew. He has an issue with his legs – he is pigeon toed and has relatively severe bow legs. His tibula bone (particularly on his left leg is facing outward instead of forward. Usually in time, it will rotate but he is going to be 2 1/2 and it is still pretty bad. So now we need to take him to a pediatric orthopedic up in Stanford (about 2 hours north of us) to get an evaluation done. We are hoping he will not need surgery. So an extra prayer for my little guy is much appreciated!!

~ 3 ~

Quiet time – Speaking of Matthew, with Bella and Andrew back in school and John-Paul going three days out of the week for a few hours, Matthew and I have more time alone together. After dropping JP off at preschool we’ll often go make a visit to the Chapel. It’s good for him and definitely good for me. Sometimes I get so busy with day to day living I forget to just stop, quiet myself and be in the presence of Our Lord. Amazingly, Matthew is quiet and just sits/kneels with me patiently. Quite the opposite of how he acts with his brothers at Sunday Mass!

~~ 4 ~~

Slackers Unite – Along with spending a little more time in quiet before God, I could also use a reboot in the discipline department. That is why I was intrigued when I read Jen’s post about doing an online book discussion of the e-book 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life. I clicked over and read the intro of the book, not expecting much. Then I read this section:

Who is this book for?

You have trouble following through.

You get overwhelmed by huge projects.

You start strong, but your passion fizzles out.

You are super-disciplined in a few areas of your life, but you have one or two pet areas that you just can’t get under control.

You check out 10 different books on discipline and organization from the library, but return all of them late.

The last one had me laughing out loud. Yeah, that is so me. This summer I was in super slacker mode and as I mentioned on Monday, September 1st is my Jan 1. My drive to improve my problem areas is strongest right now. I pulled out my planner and got back into using it (cuz if I don’t write it down, I don’t remember it!) and I am ready to work on a little discipline that doesn’t burn out in a day or two. I downloaded the e-book and will be joining in the discussion. If you are interested, join us!

~ 5 ~

Bday Wishes – Bella’s birthday is coming at the end of the month. She is going to be 12! She loves the music from the Broadway musical “Newsies” so I thought I would give her a Newsies themed party. The poster is my base. Colors could be black, white and red. Any other suggestions??

~ 6 ~

Foyle’s War – Are you a Foyle’s War fan? Brian and I have been watching Foyle’s War of PBS for years and were ecstatic when the show was coming out of retirement and picking up where it left off. Season 7 starts on Sunday, Sept 15 on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. If you’ve never watched it before and like period dramas or mysteries, you should check it out on Netflix.

~ 7 ~

Okay, it is an hour past my bed time (and you wonder why I need a book on discipline) and I can barely keep my eyes open so I better stop here. Have a great Friday!

UPDATE: At midnight last night I could not remember what the #7 Take was supposed to be. Now in the light of morning, I remember!

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 Angela is hosting. Here is my contribution:

3 Things I’m Thankful For
~ When my little guy hugs me from behind and says, “I wub you, mama.” Swoon.
~ For the upcoming weekend and having everyone home.
~ For packages in the mail with sweet surprises.

2 Things in My Purse That Don’t Need to Be There
~ A 1/2 of string cheese that’s hard as a rock
~ A roll of scotch tape. (My 4 year old would disagree. He is always accidentally tearing a page in one of the books he’s always carrying around. He likes me to fix it immediately, not when we get home. 😉

1 Thing I Love, Love, Love to Eat
~ It’s a tie between a BBQ Turkey Burger or Taco Salad. Yum.

Thanks for hosting, Angela!

Okay, now you can 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. 😉

Theme Thursday: Growing

By bobbi
April 11, 2013
14 Comments

This week’s photography challenge for Theme Thursday is Growing. Since Matthew’s 2nd birthday is tomorrow I have been thinking a lot about how fast he is growing. Here are some photos showing his growth. (The last one is today’s shot.)

One day old.

2 months old

6 months old

8 months old

10 months old

1 year old

15 months old

18 months old

20 months old

Happy 2nd birthday, Matty!!

Tanks to Cari for being a fabulous host!

7 Quick Takes (2/8/12) & {pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 59 Mash-Up: Spring, Pebble Beach & Pinterest

By bobbi
February 8, 2013
3 Comments

AND

My computer time is so limited these days that I have to combine posts and kill two bugs with one stone. (I hate killing birds…unless it is that nasty seagull that did his business on my windshield.) So today we have a 7 Quick Takes & {pretty, happy, funny, real} Mash-up. Enjoy!

~~ 1 ~~

{pretty}

I hesitate to post photos of flowers or sunny skies when people are sitting in snow but hopefully it will give you something to look forward to as you wait for spring. It seems to be arriving early in California.

~~ 2 ~~

{happy}

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have Brian feeling better and cancer free! As I mentioned in yesterday’s Theme Thursday (Cari rocks!), Brian and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner at Pebble Beach (where Brian works.) It was much needed outing after Brian’s surgery and all the stress we’ve been under lately. I love the Spanish Bay Inn there and they have a great restaurant called Sticks. It is a tradition that each evening The Bagpiper plays at sunset to close the day.

However, our original babysitting plans changed and my in-laws watched the kids instead. To make it easier on them we brought Matthew to dinner with us as our chaperone. I loooove this photo of Matty’s precious face and rosy cheeks. (He had just woken up.)

~~ 3 ~~

Speaking of Pebble Beach, this weekend is the AT&T Pro Am. It is a big deal to the town but as for me, it just mostly means everything will be super crowded so we won’t venture far from the house this weekend. There are a number of “stars” and athletes on the Peninsula but unless they happen to stop by Target in the next day or two, I’ll not be seeing them. (Although there was that time I sat behind Kevin James at Mass. ;-))

~~ 4 ~~

{funny}

As I mentioned earlier, I have not had time to blog much this week. But Matthew offered to help me out.

~~ 5 ~~

{real}

I finally took down the Christmas wreath on our door this week and put up our Valentine’s welcome sign. How is it possible that both Valentine’s and Lent start next week??? I am still in shock.

~~ 6 ~~

More {real}

Remember when I mentioned a couple weeks back that the kids got lice from school? Well, we went through the treatment and got rid of the nasty things only to go back and to school and get reinfected. It lands out a number of kids had it without knowing and it was being passed back and forth. Thankfully, the school took care of things now. (It still baffles me that we even have lice in our day and age!)

So now we are on Round 2 of the lice war and on Tuesday I just broke down and sobbed. I mean I cried my eyes out. Not so much because of the lice, but it was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back. With Brian’s illness, and cancer, and surgery I was uncharacteristically calm and unworried and dry eyed. But you know how it is, you can only stay strong for so long until you’ve got to get it all out. I thought all the crying I did at Sybil’s death was enough but I still had more in me. Now I am feeling back to myself and the lice war seems to be ending, although I still spend over 2 hours each day going through the kids hair with a nit comb (Bella’s long hair is the worse) to make sure it stays away.

On top of that, the washing everything in hot water that touched their head is insane and this is what my house has looked like all week. The dirty piles were far outweighing the clean piles but I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Praise God!

~~ 7 ~~

Once I get all the laundry done I’ll work on something for next week’s Making it Count Tuesday. Actually, let me ask you a question about that. Originally the link up was called Pinning It Down.

It was hosted by Sarah at AmongstLovelyThings.com and Pam at EveryDaySnapshots. It encouraged people to make or do some of the things they pinned on Pinterest. But then there was the concern about breaking copyright laws and not giving the right people credit for their work etc.

They changed the link up to Making It Count with the idea being to…

“Simply start with any one of those fabulous ideas you’ve found online or on Pinterest. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you’re done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count!”

However, with their busy schedules, Sarah and Pam couldn’t host anymore. I offered to take over hosting duties and Sarah gladly let me but she warned me that participation dropped off once they switched from Pinning It Down to Making It Count. And once it moved blogs, it really dropped.

My question to you, after all that, should I go back to a Pinterest themed link up and just require links to the original site (rather than their pin link)? It could be a Pinterest Party or something. Or should I make it more general? For example, a link up to share something you did creatively (cooking, crafting, photography, a school project) whether the idea came from an online source or not. Please give me some ideas or let me know if I should just leave it as is and give it time to build up again. Thanks in advance!

Okay, I just heard the washer buzz so my blogging time is up. Time for another load. Have a great weekend!

Saturday Evening 7 Quick Takes (12/22/12) & {pretty, happy, funny, real} Mash-Up

By bobbi
December 22, 2012
3 Comments

Hosted by Jen.

AND

Hosted by Like Mother, Like Daughter

~~ 1 ~~

I’ve been away from the blog all week. It has been crazy busy with Christmas and family things so I haven’t had time to post. I’m catching up a little today by posting a {pretty, happy, funny, real} and 7 Quick Takes Mash-Up. I only have half an hour, so I’ll set the timer…and start.

I just made a post entitled Ways to Help the Victims of Sandy Hook & Newton. There’s info on the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook, #26 Acts of Kindness and the letter from the sister of Fr. Luke Suarez, who is a priest at St. Rose of Lima parish, a Catholic church just down the road from Sandy Hook Elementary. Ten of the children killed were their parishioners. (Fr. Luke is the younger priest in the above photo.)

~~ 2 ~~

I’m still shaken up by the Sandy Hook tragedy. The other day my mom called and when she started talking about it I couldn’t speak. The tears wouldn’t stop. I keep holding onto that feeling every time I start to complain about something. I just think of those grieving moms. They would give anything to have my “problems” as their only worry. Consequently, I’ve just been wanting to spend time with my kids and embrace our family life. Since I love snapping photos, Beth Anne’s #adventphotoaday has been a welcomed distraction to the news. Here are my favorite photos of the week.

~~ 3 ~~

{pretty}

#adventphotoaday Day 15 – Something rose or pink. I saw this small pink rose on an almost bare bush at a local church.

#adventphotoaday Day 16 -Candle. From the Mission’s Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

#adventphotoaday Day 18 – Heart. This is my favorite icon in our home, the Sacred Heart/ Divine Mercy. We bought this on our honeymoon when we visited the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Redwood City. (It was New Year’s Eve of 1999. Everyone thought the world would end with Y2K. We figured if we were going to die, this was the place to be.) Now look, we survived Y2K and 12/21/12. God still has work for us to do. 😉

~~ 4 ~~

{happy}

On Wednesday we had two Christmas performances scheduled. Here are my three performers.

A class of 3 year olds singing is both sheer cuteness and unintentional comedy. I love this shot of John-Paul afterwards.

Andrew was my little angel. So precious.

My sweet Bella sang with her class and I am still astonished that she is growing up so quickly! Wasn’t it just a short time ago I was cradling her in my arms??

~~ 5 ~~

{funny}

I found Trader Joe’s at the end of the rainbow.

#adventphotoaday Day 20: Free Day. Matthew was dreaming of a White Christmas so he used the flour to make one. Ugh.

~~ 6 ~~

{real}

#adventphotoaday Day 17 – Christmas tree. When I go to look for a tree I usually drive Brian crazy as I look for the “perfect” one. This year I rolled the dice and bought a tree that was wrapped up and didn’t open it until I got home. I got lucky. It was perfect.

#adventphotoaday Day 21- Christmas tradition/ decorations. Every year we add a new ornament to our tree. Here’s a few of my faves – 1. House – for the year we moved out of an apartment and into a real house. 2- Our 1st visit to Disneyland as parents with our own kids. 3 – Baby angel for the two babies we lost in miscarriage. 4 – A little stocking for the year I was surprisingly pregnant with Matthew.

For 2012, I added a set instead of one ornament. To represent this year of really embracing motherhood & homemaking, I have four knit animals to represent my four kids. (Thanks to Target, natch). There’s an owl for Bella, my oldest girl. An owl for Andrew, my oldest boy who is so fond of Bella. A bear for my John-Paul who can be cute & cuddly bear but also a grizzly when he’s mad. Lastly, a fox for my mischievous Matthew who can cause trouble but then give a cute smile and win you over.

~~ 7 ~~

Okay, time is up and I’m 5 minutes over. Have a wonderful weekend and last few days before Christmas!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 54

By bobbi
December 13, 2012
6 Comments

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Here are my favorite photos and instagrams of the week.

{pretty}

From Day 12 of #adventphotoaday – My favorite photo of Mary. I think I already mentioned this icon when I redid our bedroom but it is still one of my favorites. I got it shortly before I met Brian and I took it with me to all the kids’ births. Whenever we travel, it is always set up in our hotel room.

Our Lady of Guadalupe that hangs in our home.

{happy}

Andrew was sporting his James Dean hair for 50’s Day and he was excited to be holding the cookies he decorated at school. (He made sure to decorate four so he could give one to each of the his brothers and sister. That is so sweet…even though he didn’t bring one for me. 😉

{funny}

We keep our shoes on a shelf by the front door. It works out well until Matthew decides to rearrange the shoes. Brian texted me from work and showed me what he landed out wearing that day. That gives whole new meaning to casual Friday. LOL.

{real}

Speaking of my little spit fire, it’s been awhile since Matthew has tried to give me a heart attack. He is usually not allowed in the bathroom but one of the boys left the door open and he made a run for it. The kid is a fast worker.

Have a great evening!

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: matthew

7 Quick Takes (9/6/13): Prayer, Discipline and Foyle’s War

Theme Thursday: Growing

7 Quick Takes (2/8/12) & {pretty, happy, funny, real} vol 59 Mash-Up: Spring, Pebble Beach & Pinterest

Saturday Evening 7 Quick Takes (12/22/12) & {pretty, happy, funny, real} Mash-Up

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 54