![Put It To Work 33]()
by Catherine | Jun 28, 2015 | Faith
Another Monday means another opportunity to swap prayer intentions and start “putting them to work” for one another!
Here are my prayer intentions for this week:
- For couples to witness the sanctity of marriage as God created it to their children, their communities, and the world
- For our friends and family who are facing health problems and high risk pregnancies
- For our priests who may be afraid to preach boldly, that they be encouraged by their parishioners
- For my dad as he celebrates his birthday on the Fourth of July
Your turn! What prayer intentions can I “put to work” for you this week? As always, I will add them to my prayer journal and pray for you by name throughout the week–especially during my morning prayers. Please share your intentions in the comment box below, on the blog Facebook page, or send them to me via the blog contact form. Thank you in advance for your prayers.
Have a great week!
![Sibling Bridges Falling Down]()
by Catherine | Jun 27, 2015 | Family
Who needs toys when you have siblings?
The other night, after we had gotten 2 out of 3 kids jammied up and ready for family prayer time around the coffee table, they created an impromptu game. I call it “Sibling Bridges.” Jane and Walt make their bodies into bridges between the coffee table and couch, and Harry giggles as he runs underneath.
Jane and Walt giggled so much that their little bodies were trembling as they supported their weight.
Walt thought he’d make it trickier by holding onto his jet.
Starting to lose feeling in their arms…the bridges are collapsing…
Daddy removes the bridges and declares that it’s family prayer time.
The giggling minions compose themselves and assemble around the table.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Second to a strong marriage, the greatest gift we’ve given our children is each other.
![7QT: A Few Updates and a Few Favorites]()
by Catherine | Jun 25, 2015 | Everything Else, Faith, Family
A few updates and a few recent favorite things:
-1-
We took our first-ever family vacation to Kansas City last week. We had a great, great time! More on that next week.
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2 weeks until The Edel Gathering. Can’t wait to connect with other Catholic women from around the country! Counting down the days!
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Philip went on a retreat for young fathers a few weekends ago. When was the last time you encouraged your hubby to take some dedicated time for himself? Philip tends to want to spend his time away from work at home with us, and it’s rare for him to seek out guy time. I’m so glad he had this opportunity to get to deepen his interior life with some awesome, faith-filled men.
-4-
What I’m reading:
The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God by Ruth V.K. Pakaluk
Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions by Lysa TerKeurst
Laudato Si (Encyclical “On Care For Our Common Home”) by Pope Francis
-5-
What I’ve read recently that I would definitely recommend:
The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Overcoming Sinful Anger by Fr. T. Morrow
Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin
The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light by Brian Kolodiejchuk
-6-
What I’m Listening to:
The Little House Mothering Podcast
“Catholic Youth Summer Camp” Playlist on Spotify
Good Things Radio
Catholic Answers Live (Been listening since sophomore year of college)
The Doctor is In
-7-
It’s nearly July already. I say it every year, but where is this summer going??? I’ve been taking stock if life lately and setting some new goals for the next month. I’ve been praying about which ones God wants for me and which ones aren’t worth the effort. Looking forward to sharing them with you next week.
Has your summer been going how you thought it would? Any changes you’d make now that we’re nearly to the halfway point?
* * *
If you’d like to read more 7QT posts, head over to Kelly Mantoan’s blog, This Ain’t The Lyceum.
![Containing Their Creations]()
by Catherine | Jun 24, 2015 | The Homefront
Jane has been creating all kinds of artistic things since she was two. Only very recently has Walt developed any interest in art. Together, the two of them could easily go through a ream of paper in a week if I’d let them. Remember, I said we were going green(er). Slowly but surely I have convinced them that they have to color on both sides of a sheet of paper before moving on to the next one! Small victories.
We have some fantastic built-ins next to the kitchen table that contain the kids’ day-to-day art supplies. I keep the occasionally used (code: DANGEROUS) items like paint and play-doh in the pantry. They are welcome to get the markers, crayons, coloring books, and paper out whenever they’d like. Before implementing our new system, I would have piles of the kids’ artistic creations covering the kitchen counter throughout the day. I was tired of asking the kids which ones they wanted to keep and which ones they wanted to throw away (now, recycle). 9 times out of 10, they answered that they wanted to keep the drawing in question. Then, the question became, “Where am I going to put these?”
The pile of papers kept getting shuffled around until Philip or I would toss most of them. The TEARS when a drawing was found in the trash can are with us forever. Jane and Walt are like elephants. They never forget.
So, I decided we needed a new system.
I employed 2 binders full of plastic page protectors (pink for Jane, blue for Walt) and a plastic 3-drawer 12″x12″ scrapbooking container that I found on clearance. Yay for sales!
I told Jane and Walt that they each get one drawer. (The top one and surface are for my office/stationery supplies.) When they are finished drawing/painting their creation, they need to decide if they’d like to keep it or recycle it. If they choose to recycle it, it goes in the garage bin. (This almost never happens.) If they would like to keep it, it goes in their designated drawer. (I chose the 12″x12″ drawer size since, as you can see, their pictures are all different sizes, and the larger drawer helps to contain them.) Once their drawer is full and can’t store another creation, we go through their drawings together, choosing which ones are going to go in their special binders.
The binders are my makeshift scrapbooks I’m using to store the kids’ memorabilia. We add only the kids’ very favorite pictures to them and recycle the rest. When they realize how many drawings they have accumulated, it’s easier for them to part with some.
I snapped a few pictures from the kids’ binders. I’m a fancy blogger, so I laid them out on top of the washer and dryer. Keepin’ it real.
A random page from Jane’s binder: On the left, we have a note home from the preschool sub about Jane saying Walt punched her in the stomach. On the right, we have Jane’s rendition of The Little Mermaid.
A random page from Walt’s binder: On the left is a typical drawing. He’s all about writing “W,” his name, and little guys (or monsters) with various numbers of eyes. On the right is one of his invitations from his 4th birthday party.
The binders are releasing me from the guilt of never finishing the kids’ baby books. It’s been a fun way to archive all of their mementos and creations in a way that we can actually maintain. As an added bonus, it’s giving all of their creations a “home” instead of the kitchen counter. I’m so glad I reclaimed the kitchen counters!
How do you archive your kids’ creations? Any tips to share?
![Going Green(er)]()
by Catherine | Jun 23, 2015 | Family
I am embarrassed to admit that we’ve never been a recycling family–until now. I hope we’re making you proud, Pope Francis!
In Omaha, every house received a green recycling bin, and recycling pick-up was part of the trash removal services. Why we never participated when it was so easy is beyond me. I’m gonna blame it on being in survival mode for most of our time in Omaha!
This last year, Jane and Walt got on the recycling bandwagon thanks to the great modeling they learned at St. Joseph’s. Their preschool classroom has different receptacles for the different kinds of recyclables. They learned about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Walt come home from preschool one day wanting to know where our recycling bin was and why we didn’t have special containers like they had at school.
Sheepish mom moment.
If I were honest, I would have said, “Well, honey, it’s because we’re lazy and wasteful.”
So, I started researching. In Lincoln, you have to pay a pretty penny for a special service to pick up any of your recycling (separate from the fee you pay for trash removal). I didn’t want to pay the obnoxious fee, so I told Philip I wanted to start small and create our own recycling center. It started as an empty diaper box that I filled up with all of the recyclables during the week. Then, when the box got full, I would take it to the nearby recycling center. This went on for about a month.
Before this point, I didn’t realize how many recyclable items we were just tossing. When Philip saw how many items were piling up and how many trips I was having to make to the recycling center, he agreed that we could invest in some durable containers to sort the recyclables. I found this bright, colorful set on Amazon. (FYI – it retails for the same price at Walmart.)
Here’s how the set looks in our garage:
I used my to-do list notepad and handy dandy roll of blue painter’s tape to stick on some makeshift labels. I didn’t want to spend too much time on them in case I decided to change categories, etc. They’re still gettin’ the job done, and I haven’t switched ’em.
We had the green tub to the left of the trash can hanging around. I enlisted it for cardboard since the cardboard we go through gets to be unwieldy, and I didn’t want a lid. The larger boxes that don’t fit in the tub go against the wall until recycling day. Pro tip: Buy green tubs in January like I did when they’re on clearance after Christmas!
Our 3 categories for the stacking bins:
- Paper
- Plastic
- Aluminum/Tin & Glass
Paper goes on top so that it’s handy. That way, junk mail never has to enter our home from the mailbox. It just goes straight into the recycling bin. Yay! After using the bins for nearly two months, I’m thrilled with the minimal investment. They are the perfect size for our family. The lids limit the visual clutter, and they are effective in containing smells. Yummy! Even if you wash out all of those recyclables, they still have an, uh, organic aroma to them. I usually go once a week to the recycling center, but we could get by with going every two weeks.
I am glad we decided to create our own recycling center instead of just paying for a service. This way, we are much more conscientious about what can be recycled, how much we’re recycling, and how much less waste we’re hauling to the curb each week. Before we started recycling, I thought we were going to need to get a second trash can. Now, we can very reasonably get our week’s worth of trash into one can.
Also, the kids absolutely LOVE the whole process! They volunteer to bring the various recyclable items out to the bins. “Mom, I’ll put that in the yellow bin! Can I SMOOSH it?!” I affectionately call them my little recycling police because they’re constantly wanting to know if something we’re about to throw away can be recycled. “WAIT! Can’t that go in the green bin?!”
Their favorite part is the visit to the recycling center. I simply stick the bins in the trunk, and we head out. It helps that our library is just a few blocks away from the recycling center, so we usually make it a recycling center and library trip. I know there’s going to be a day when my kids think going to the recycling center and library with their mom sounds like just about the worst way to spend a morning ever. Until then, I’m enjoying the simplicity of this chapter.
All done! Recycling is tough work, people.
The recycling truck blockaded me in today. I was ticked off until I realized that meant that the kids would get a front row seat to see how their recyclables get transported. They loved watching the truck’s arms lift the metal boxes and shake the contents into the truck bed. JACKPOT! Who knew a trip to the recycling center could be such an exciting field trip?
What small (or big) steps are you and your family taking to go green(er)?
