Pondered In My Heart

Small Successes

"It's important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph."

Hello, blog world. I really have been up to some occasional productivity and I'm going to do a 'Small Successes' post to remind myself.

1. With it being September and all it's nice to be able to say I have actually finished ordering the school books. (As in, today!) I don't think I've ever waited quite this long. Like Danielle, I can also say books are arriving. Well, one has, and it's a biggie: Lydia's seven-pound-thousand-page ornithology textbook. (A smile and wave to all you we-don't-start-until-after-Labor-Day-types! You're not alone.)

2. I've been spending lots of time helping my big kids prepare to open an Etsy shop. Almost ready for business!

 

3. This is actually a many-week biggie - we have finished organizing our church's 450 book lending library. The books are all catalogued on Library Thing and they all have labeled pockets and cards in them. I also added color coded stickers to all of the spines for easy browsing. It all looks so simple now, but it was many, many hours of work. (I was actually having dreams about library cards and stickers...) Here's a sample:
 
 

There, I feel better now. Stop by Faith and Family to check out all the other Small Successes and Terrific Triumphs! Go, Moms, go!

Small Successes - October 29

1. Last Friday we hosted a party for 40 people - with less than 48 hours notice! A priest was visiting our TLM community while home from Mexico where he is assigned. He celebrated Masses and led the rosary for our weekly candlelight vigil at the clinic and so we decided to have some families over to throw him a little party. My friends helped out by bringing some food, my wonderful children did most of the cooking (all's I did was make punch and a cheese ball and steam carrots) and we all had a very enjoyable and blessed evening.

2. We made a huge cake for the coffee and donut time at church on Sunday to thank the social coordinators for all of their hard work. Lydia baked the cake and I frosted it. The cool part was writing Matthew 25:44-45 (abridged) all around the perimeter of the cake. I think it came out very nice.

3. Our Suburban has been in the shop for two weeks leaving me home without a car, and I haven't cracked up from cabin fever. I didn't even whine when I didn't get to go on the nature walk last Sunday, as we don't all fit in Michael's van. I was very thankful they came back with pretty pictures.

 I think I should get a bonus #4 as I actually remembered it's Thursday and Small Successes Day! Do visit Faith and Family to read lots of other successful moms. 

Small Success - August 20

"It's important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph."

 

1. I can't believe I am actually admitting this to the blogosphere, but it's true: As of yesterday I have finished ordering all of the school books and supplies for the new school year (at least I think I have). We don't start until Jonathan's college classes and it is September, so I have plenty of time, right?

 

2. I have found ahem decluttered my desk. I also completely cleaned out and organized all of the cupboards above and around my desk where I keep all of my beading supplies and paperwork. I didn't label anything but my dear husband still oohed and aaahed appropriately.

 

3. I found this neat picture frame today at the thrift store. I brought it home and cleaned it and found six pictures containing seven children and I put them right into the frame. Then I stood the frame up on the piano. All in the same day that I purchased the frame. :-)

 

 

For my next trick I hope to catch up on email (oy) but in the meantime, it's kind of like what she (the Queen Bean) said.

Stop by Faith and Family to check out all the other Small Successes and Terrific Triumphs! Go, Moms, go!

Small Successes - July 9

"It's important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph."

1. I am winning the war against the Japanese beetles that have invaded my yard, and I'm trying mightily to avoid the Sevin. Handpicking is working well and if you see me wandering in my yard with my red Solo cup full of suds, know it's not ale or even root beer but just soapy beetlejuice. I go outside a couple of times a day and hit all their favorite spots - the raspberries, the pussywillows, the crepe myrtle, the astilbes, the zinnias (oh, my poor zinnias). Every day there are fewer beetles. I am winning. (As this post is supposed to be about successes we will not discuss the groundhog who is actually living in my vegetable garden.)

2. I am making slow but steady progress in cleaning out and organizing all of the drawers and cupboards in my kitchen. Today we even tackled one of the drawers which could be considered a minor Junk Drawer with all of its doodads and thingamabobs that you don't know what to do with because even though you have no idea what they actually are they Look Important so you can't throw them out. I also discarded oodles of old syringes found in said drawer (fear not - they're oral syringes).

3. My daughters went outside to play and left me inside with all of the taffy they made and I didn't eat it all.

Stop by Faith and Family to check out all the other Small Successes and Terrific Triumphs! Go, Moms, go!

Small Successes - July 2

"It's important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph."

 

1. I figured out how to keep my hibiscus happy. Knowing that flowers are one of the surest ways to my heart, my dear husband surprised me with a hibiscus for Mother's Day. It had one flower on it when I got it, and single blooms appeared occasionally after that. And then it started to drop leaves. Great handfuls of yellow leaves fell off day after day and I thought my lovely gift would soon be no more. But after a little researching and experimenting I discovered they mean it when they say hibiscus likes a lot of water. I now give it a full half gallon pitcher of water every other day, and I check the buds for aphids that often as well (a little rub with soapy water cleans them right off). Now my plant blooms almost every day, with as many as six or seven flowers at a time. I am so pleased with its beauty (and very relieved I didn't kill my present). :-)

2. I have caught up on answering all of my emails (at least I think I have) that have been piling up. And yes I just sent out a few last emails just so I could write that. :-)

3. I have managed to squeeze in time to sit down at the computer, only mildly distracted by my three-year-old interrupting me every couple of sentences, and write a blog post! I have also overcome the 'I haven't posted in a long time so I better post something of Great Substance' post-a-phobia and just written a little something. How's that for a small success! :-) 

Stop by Faith and Family to check out all the other Small Successes and Terrific Triumphs! Go, Moms, go!

Small Successes Thursday #3

1. On Saturday, February 14th my Valentine and I had date night at home: we watched almost an entire movie all by ourselves (the two little girls joined us for the very end). We had a great time watching a very good movie, and when we came downstairs we were delighted to find the big kids all hanging out together in the living room. They were playing some question and answer game they had made up and were having an absolute riot together - very heartwarming for the smooshy parents on Valentine's Day.

2. Though the triumph was short lived, the fleeting moment of victory was indeed sweet:

 

3. Josiah has just finished mopping the floor that didn't get clean last week (it seemed to quickly degenerate from not so bad to eew). This is a huge task as we have a huge kitchen and sunroom area with lots and lots of tile to mop and then dry. Josiah is awesome.

And since I can't have a post with just a boring picture, here's a bonus-

 

Stop by Faith and Family to check out all the other not so Small Successes.

Small Successes Thursday

1. We had one of my husband's colleagues over for dinner last night and the entire house was neat and tidy from top to bottom. (Okay, so we didn't get the kitchen floor mopped but Josiah noted that the 6' 8" tall Dutchman who was our guest was probably too high up to notice.) We prepared a nice meal of eggplant parmesan, spaetzle, salad and two (!) four layer chocolate cakes with French buttercream frosting and strawberries on top. (And like Suzanne, I resisted a third piece of cake, at least while the company was here.)

2. I took six of the children to the library, overcoming all of my aversions to lost books, overdue fines, PC book displays, and germy everything in the children's section.

3. Ta da!

 

Do stop by Faith and Family to help celebrate the small stuff!

Small Successes - Joy in the Little Things

Danielle Bean, ever the cheerful encourager, has arranged for the weekly sharing of the small successes that make moms smile. Here's mine:

1. I have a gigantic island in my kitchen with a vast expanse of countertop space. Actually, we have two islands so we call the big one Assateague and the smaller one Chincoteague. Keeping this seemingly infinite surface area clutter free is a monumental task, a never-ending battle against the tides of stuff. I have kept Assateague clear for - are you ready for this - five days in a row!

2. Last night I wasted a fair bit of time trying to find a crochet pattern for an afghan I want to make. Frustrated by my lack of success, I sat down with the afghan I want to copy and studied the stitches until I deciphered the pattern! It's really very simple but I feel so clever to have figured it out, and I'm having so much fun getting started on it.

3. This one is more like a major miracle than a small success but we are all delighting in this week's marvel: Eliza has started eating by herself! Getting her to eat has been a major challenge for years and we daily spend oodles of time jumping through all kinds of hoops getting her to eat. But this week finds us with our jaws hanging open  as Eliza sits around happily munching on snacks, requesting and eating foods she would never touch (she ate pizza for lunch!), and feeding herself bowl after bowl of food, repeatedly asking for 'several more'. It's absolutely amazing.

 

Go visit Faith & Family to see what's making other moms happy this week. Thanks, Danielle!