Small Successes v2

Join Sherry over at Chocolate For Your Brain for this week's Small Successes link-up!!!

When I sat down to review my week, I had a hard time thinking of things to list as successes.  Really, this week has been a big ol' pile of you-know-what for me!  I'm overly emotional and just plain tired!

I think I had this beautiful vision of how this summer was going to go, and so far (week two) it's not living up to that!  So...guess what folks...next week I'm changing that.  We're taking the week off!!  The only thing on my schedule is an orthopedic appointment and our monthly Confraternity of Christian Mother's Mass.  Beyond these and grocery shopping, we will be doing NOTHING!!!  Nothing, that is, except for what is on my very detailed daily schedule.  The schedule that I love.  The schedule that allows me time to play with my kids and sit for an hour in the afternoon and just breath.  I complained so often about the hustle and bustle of the school year and here I've gone and just transferred it to our summer!  So to my friends...if I don't answer the phone or return your email...it's because I've declared next week OUR time!  We'll chat and hang out soon, I promise!  I just need to regroup!

And here are the successes I was able to pry out of my brain...

• We now have 24 meals cooked and frozen in the freezer!!  Can I tell you how freeing it is to just quickly heat up something 10 minutes before hubby is due to arrive home??  It's absolutely amazing!! 
• I vacuumed and mopped the downstairs floor!!  I was feeling pretty good about that until about 50 kids ran through the house full of mud and sand.  Oh well, so is the life of a stay-at-home mom.
• I finished a wonderful book titled Following Mary to Jesus.  I really recommend it to anyone who's looking for an easy read.  I have a strong devotion to Mary.  I often ask her to intercede in prayer for me when I need something especially important.  When I'm sick or can't sleep, I often envision her in the room with me lying her hand on my head to comfort me or placing her beautiful blue shawl over me for warmth.  The book did a wonderful job explaining how through Mary we are able to know her Son even more.  For who knew Jesus better than his own mother??   

If you'd like to toot your horn a bit too, join the link-up over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!

Small Successes v1

In the past, Faith and Family Live has hosted a link-up each Thursday called Small Successes.  Recently, Sherry, over at Chocolate For Your Brain, has taken on the hosting roll!  I've been stalking several bloggers who regularly take part in this link-up, and have loved the concept and loved reading the things they've shared. 

In the busy world of mommy hood, rarely do we take time to pat ourselves on the back for things that we have been able to accomplish.  These especially include...the little things.  I don't know about you girls, but sometimes the only success I feel in a day is that I've managed to wipe the kitchen counters clean, about 50 times!

I, too often, spend all my time hashing over the things I screwed up each day...and believe me, there's a whole lot of hashing to do on that subject!!  But, I really think it's more important to reflect back on our week and see what good we were able to do.  This can include extra time spent with the kids, fitting an extra decade of the rosary into the day, finishing a great book, or just finally getting to bed at a reasonable hour.  This is what Small Successes is all about.  Simply three things you've succeeded at!

So, excuse me now while I toot my own horn a bit!  :)

•  Last year the boys and I decided to do a wildflower garden just outside our back porch.  We threw down some seeds, covered the area with dirt, and watered it when the thought crossed our minds.  The window beyond the kitchen table soon became my favorite place to sit.  I was able to admire our garden from there.  Every day dozens of butterflies would visit our garden as well as several hummingbirds.  I promised the boys that we'd plant another garden this year.  This week we finally did!  I loaded up the kids and made the trip to Home Depot.  Hopefully, in a couple weeks we'll have an assortment of beautiful flowers growing once again!
• About five years ago, my neighbor introduced me to the concept of once a month cooking.  It intrigued me but never enough for me to try it.  I think with our first year of homeschooling creeping up on us, I'm desperate to make things as simple as possible around here.  So, I borrowed my neighbors book and went to work creating my first once a month cooking shopping list.  I finished purchasing everything today.  This weekend will be a marathon of cooking as I attempt to cook and freeze 27 meals!  I'm praying this works well.  Do you know how wonderful it would be to not have to cook a meal every single evening????
• And lastly, I managed to make it through Zep's graduation ceremony without a COMPLETE breakdown.  There was definitely a breakdown, it just wasn't completely horrible!  I can't believe he's big enough to be in 1st grade now.  Plus I had the added emotion of saying goodbye to teachers (especially the pre-K ones) and knowing that this would be the last time I would share these sort of memories with my best friends.

If you'd like to toot your horn a bit too, join the link-up over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!