A Dreamer's Wife

A Look Back: Our Wedding Song!

While finally catching up on my blogroll the other night, I noticed tons of peeps linking up with Grace to talk about the songs they first danced to at their wedding receptions, so of course I have to get in on this action! I can’t pass up an opportunity to talk about music and marriage at the same time!

If you’ve stopped by this blog before, it’s no secret that music is kind of a big part of our lives, considering my husband is a musician and we live in Nashville. I mean, even our girls’ names are music-related!

Pretty early in our dating relationship, Adam introduced Bryan White’s How Lucky I Am CD to me and the whole thing became our, well, CD. Forget having a special song, we had 11 of them! Not including the ones he wrote for me (Man, it’s funny to hear those now)!

Anyway, we chose one of the songs on that CD to be our first dance song, You’ll Always Be Loved (By Me). Aside from the perfect (for us) lyrics, it has an amazing symphony sound that gives the song a great energy!

Here’s the chorus:

When everything is moving fast
It’s hard to stay together
I know that we can make it last
We’ll find a way to weather

Any storm heaven sends
We’ll see it through to the end
We’ll find a way if you can just believe
You’ll always be loved by me

We didn’t have any special dancing skills – we basically swayed and turned around in circles high school-dance style! (Cut us some slack! We lived 400 miles apart for three years before we got married!)

Before we even started our first dance, though, Adam surprised me with a song he had written especially for our wedding. And, yes, I really was completely surprised because he kept telling me that he didn’t want to sing a song because he wanted to focus on us and not his music, so when his groomsman handed him an acoustic guitar and two chairs were brought out to the dance floor I was genuinely caught a little off-guard!

Adam Singing to Stefanie

I still love this special song so much, and it’s amazing how many of these things actually came true in our life! The song is called Here’s to Me and You. (I planned to share the mp3 of this song, but due to some stupid technical difficulties and formatting issues it has became way more trouble than I ever thought it would be! If I can get it figured out, I’ll come back and update this post with the song!)

Oh, and I can’t talk about the reception without mentioning that I had Adam surprise my dad by singing Butterfly Kisses during our father-daughter dance! Tears!

What a fun night shared with precious family and friends! I’m excited that my brother’s wedding is less than two months away! I can’t wait to catch up with everyone and celebrate such a great occasion!

I’ve really enjoyed reading about other bloggers’ wedding songs and stories. What a fun link-up idea! So many great songs and moments!

All photos by Dejan Photography

Tags: Bryan White, first dance, wedding song

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Categories Mommy/Wife Stuff

Learning How to Pray {5 Helpful Resources}

11 Apr

I’ve wanted to write a post about prayer for awhile, but it just seems like such an overwhelming subject to tackle! There are so many different ways to pray and so many books on the topic! I’m not going to let that stop me, though!

Since it’s such a popular subject, prayer is clearly important. It is one of the most vital things that we can do to grow closer to God and be molded into who He wants us to be. It’s essential in order to discover His will for us. Praying must be more than just a few petitions tossed up throughout the day or a quick “thank you” when things work out our way. Prayer needs to be a priority so that everything else is rightly ordered and our “paths are made straight” (Proverbs 3:6). Just as a couple needs to continuously communicate and sacrifice daily in order to cultivate a healthy marriage, the same must be done to grow deeper in a relationship with Christ.

Improving my prayer life is something that I’ve personally been focusing on the past several months. Even though I’m a full-time working mother, I try to find moments in my day that I can dedicate consistently to prayer. This idea of making a point to set aside a specific time to pray each day has been a recurring theme that I have come across often in my reading.

I use my drive to work in the morning to pray and prepare for the day. I’ve been trying to get back into praying the rosary consistently, too. (It helps that my radio is broken, too – no distractions!) I also spend a little time reading the Bible after tucking my girls in at night. I’m not spending hours in prayer, but I have found that I feel much more at peace when I stick to my new routine, however short it is.

I do have to say, though, that the more I am aware of the blessings in my daily life and promptings to do God’s will, the more I feel like my actions and special moments are like little prayers. Sometimes I find myself soaking in a genuine smile from one of my daughters and I feel it’s God showing me His love and allowing me to experience true joy that only comes from Him. I can feel God in the moment. No words even need to be said.

In doing my research on prayer, I have come across some very helpful and inspiring resources. Instead of trying to quote and paraphrase, I think it’d be best to just share and link, because they each deserve to be read in their entirety!

Recommended Resources on Prayer:

1. The Prayer Process as shared in The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly. This 7-step process is a great daily way to pray. It helps me reflect on the accomplishments and failures of the day, how God is speaking to me, and what I can do for others.

2. Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Dubay. This book really is a must-read on prayer. There were many great insights in this book. Not only did it address the various types of prayer and their value, but it discussed how to help children pray and how to pray even when we are busy. I know that this is a book I could re-read over and over again and continuously learn more.

3. Lesson One in Prayer by Peter Kreeft. I love how Kreeft writes – so visual and direct. This brief article on why to pray and how to get started is definitely a kick in the pants! Kreeft has also written Prayer for Beginners, but I haven’t read it yet. It’s definitely on my list and is actually available from Lighthouse Catholic Media for $5.

4. Meditation Stuff: The Laudate app is free and has daily readings and meditations. I also like Word Among Us for their daily meditations on the readings. I recently discovered The Catholic Company’s Morning Offering daily email. At first, I was like, “I don’t need another thing to read and meditate on,” but I have discovered that I really like the saint quotes that they share! Each day they feature that day’s saint, Liturgy of the Hours, and more. I highly recommend it!

5. St. Josemaria Escriva. One of my favorite bloggers, Erin of Humble Handmaid, has mentioned this saint’s writings often on her blog. She recently shared this post, “Making Every Breath a Prayer,” where she again shared some more of his wisdom. I definitely need to get to know this saint more!

How do you fit prayer into your daily life? Do you have any favorite resources or tips?

Tags: prayer, prayer process, quotes

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Categories God, Faith & Inspiration

5 Lovely Reflections for Mothers of Girls

1 Apr

Over the past month, I have come across some very insightful posts about the importance of mothers sharing authentic beauty, truth, and joy with their daughters. All links below are worthy of your time! These reflections are great reminders and definitely inspirational!

Linking up with Hallie and ladies at Moxie Wife this week!

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Talks With Our Daughters -Treasures from the pages Part 1.

Theresa Thomas shares some great wisdom from the book Talks With Our Daughters by Sister M. Eleanore. There is so much truth and wisdom in Sister’s writing. I will definitely be printing this and sharing with my girls when they are older. I can’t wait until Theresa posts Part 2!

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Finding Balance

This post by Melissa Michaels at (in)courage reminds us to make sure we are living with intention and focusing on serving God instead of being dragged down by to-do lists. It’s definitely something that most women struggle with, I’d say!

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10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Daughter

This PDF of ten short prayers based on scripture that Lysa TerKeurst put together is another great resource! I definitely want to incorporate this into my daily prayer time!

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Little Girls, Get Up! Get Up and Eat.

Someone shared this post by Glennon of Momastery on Facebook today. It’s another great message to make us mothers pause and reflect!

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10 Things to Bring Peace, Joy, and Silence in the Midst of One of “Those” Weeks

Mary Wallace wrote this post for CatholicMom.com today. I definitely went through one of “those” weeks last week at work. Mary offers some great ideas of things we can do to give us a little silence and/or stress relief!

Tags: five favorites, motherhood

Comments 2 Comments
Categories God, Faith & Inspiration, Mommy/Wife Stuff

What’s Keeping Me Away From My Blog? {7 Quick Takes #13}

28 Mar

I’ve been itching to spend more time writing and reading others’ posts this month, but so much has been going on! And work started getting a little crazy a couple weeks ago so my brain is on overload right now! Happy to be joining Jen and co. for some Quick Takes!

I decided to share what has been keeping me so busy in March (and it wasn’t just filling out my tournament bracket)!

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One of the main things that I have been devoting my time to recently is helping my husband get his website going! He finally has a little space on the internet! There are a couple songs on there, but they still need to mastered and all. I’m just excited that adamshickmusic.com is live! AND I’m excited that the logo I created over a year and a half ago is being put to use!

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So far most of the seeds that I started indoors have sprouted! When I took this photo last week, I was still waiting on more than half of them to pop out! I spent a lot of time researching before committing to starting a small raised-bed organic vegetable garden this year, so that definitely consumed time at the beginning of the month.

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As you can see below, my attempt at nicely organizing our almost 3-year-old’s potty progress throughout the month of March was quickly abandoned! After a stubborn stretch of not wanting to go, she turned a corner yesterday and decided that she really wanted to wear her princess underwear! Let’s hope it continues!

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One of my goals for the beginning of 2014 was to add some more flair to my home decor, so that our house feels extra welcoming and joyful. After having two babies in the past 5 years, I really haven’t had time to care too much about how the house looks! I made the kitchen wall decor below with scrapbook paper and utensil vectors I found on the internet for free!

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Every week consists of cutting and filing coupons and checking out great sales at Kroger and Publix. Ya know, making sure the family has food to eat is kind of essential on the priority list! And so is saving money! I did score 2 4-packs of toilet paper for 10 cents each and Huggies wipes for 20 cents each among other deals this week!

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We have also been working on getting our oldest daughter into Kindergarten at a nearby Catholic school. She was accepted earlier this month! I plan to post more on our decision making process regarding her education soon…

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Although so much has been going on, I have to give major props to my rock star husband! He is with the girls often during the day before he goes to work in the evenings and I don’t know what I’d do without him!

See these towels below?! Yeah, he folded these for me!

See the dishes below? Adam hand-washed those. (Something he does regularly I might add!)

Oh! And he also knocked out some arts and crafts with the girls this week! He found this little project all on his own! He sent this photo to me while I was at work!

My life is full and I am blessed! Now hopefully in April I’ll be able to squeeze in A LOT more time following my blogroll and writing these posts ideas that are piling up! Have a great weekend!

Tags: 7 Quick Takes, Adam Shick, gardening, goals

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Categories Mommy/Wife Stuff

Adventures in Gardening {Part 1: Starting Seeds Indoors}

15 Mar

My long-time dream of starting a vegetable garden is underway! As my (almost) three-year-old likes to say, “We’re making a kindergarten!”

After doing A LOT of research on raised beds, square foot gardening, and vegetables, I now know Nashville’s last frost date (April 30th) and terms such as “germination”, “thinning out”, “hardening off”, and “damping off”! I may know how to talk a good gardening game now, but given my track record with plants, growing a successful garden is going to be very challenging! Let’s just say that I have fake flowers in the nice planter on my office desk because someone *ahem* did not water the real plant very frequently. Even the dog’s dish gets a little too low on water sometimes!

I’m taking a huge risk in documenting my gardening adventures! I may fail miserably or this underdog could prove that anyone can start a garden! Today, I’m posting about our first step in growing organic vegetables – starting seeds indoors!

First of all, here are a few reasons to start certain seeds indoors instead of directly sowing them into the garden bed:

1. It’s cheaper to buy seeds than transplants.
2. Plants are often healthier when started from seedlings.
3. It’s a way to get a head-start before the official frost-free date for an earlier harvest!
4. The kids can watch the seedlings sprout!

At the end of last week, my Non-GMO seeds arrived in the mail from SeedsNow.com! I researched a few different seed catalogs online, but settled on SeedsNow since they sold $.99 sampler packs of 100% Non-GMO seeds and these non-hybrid seeds can be used from these plants after harvest in future years. I’m only planting a 4×4 raised bed and couple containers of herbs, so I knew I didn’t need to spend extra money on a packet of 300 seeds. I spent about $10 on 10 different kinds of seed packets.

I bought a self-watering seed starting kit to start growing my tomato, pepper, basil, mint, and marigold seeds indoors. Some of the other vegetable seeds can, and should, be planted directly in the ground once any risk of frost is gone. Seeds can be started indoors using yogurt containers and egg cartons, but given my poor watering habits, I figured anything that can help me consistently water my little seedlings would be a smart move! I need all the odds in my favor that I can get. This Burpee kit cost just under $12 at Home Depot.

This kit comes with a tray with seed-starting pellets, a watering mat, another tray to hold the water, a germination cover, and a paper grid to keep track of where seeds are planted.

Here’s a close-up of the pellets that will expand when water is added. I bought an XL cell kit, because I knew that the tomato plants needed room to grow, so I thought I might be able to avoid transitioning them into bigger containers prior to planting them outdoors in the raised bed. We’ll see…

I let the girls use their new watering cans to add water to the pellets. They expanded quickly! (What you don’t see in this picture is the huge puddle of water at my feet after Little A energetically dumped all of the water out of her can. After quickly wiping her chair down, we tried it again!)

Here is a close up of my tray after all of the seeds were planted in their cells. I used a pencil to create little holes for the seeds. I then added two seeds to each hole. (Let me tell you that mint seeds are nearly impossible to pick up – even with tweezers I had a hard time!) I made these nice, easy little popsicle stick labels before remembering that I would need to put the germination sheet on top!

I used this handy plant-o-gram sheet that was included in the kit to keep track of where I planted everything, though!

To help the seeds germinate and sprout, warm soil is needed. I used an inexpensive tip from another website that suggested putting a heating pad in between two towels on a cookie sheet to create a heat mat. I really didn’t want to purchase an expensive seed heating mat and thermostat to be used for only 1-2 weeks. We make sure to turn off the heating pad at night and when we’re out of the house.

Once sprouts come out of the soil, I will move the tray to a sunny window where we get lots of direct light. The germination sheet will no longer be needed!

The next post will be an update on how the seedlings are doing and what my plans are for the layout of our garden! If you are a gardener, feel free to leave any tips that you have!

This has been part of my Keep Your Change series. For more money-saving posts, click here!

Tags: garden, gardening, Keep Your Change, Non-GMO, organic gardening, starting seeds indoors

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Keep Your Change!

Moments of Grace No. 4

10 Mar

Happy Monday (almost Tuesday), everyone! I’m linking up with Jenny and ladies tonight!

Thanking God for…

the beautiful warm weather the past few days
my hard-working husband
my beautiful, precious, wonderful daughters

Enjoying yesterday’s sunshine!

I am praying for…

the people of Venezuela
the souls in purgatory
several people and intentions listed in a prayer notebook that I just started

I am pondering…

Starting a garden and all the details that go with it. I’ve been doing a lot of research!

I am reading…

Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel. I’m still only just a tenth of the way through! It’s a long one, that’s for sure!
The Everything Grow Your Own Vegetables Book: Your complete guide to planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables by Catherine Abbott. I’m so glad that I downloaded this on my Kindle for free a couple years ago! It was a pleasant surprise to find it! I knew it would come in handy at some point!

I am creating…

My small 4×4 raised-bed vegetable garden! I’m starting small! I just ordered my organic non-GMO seeds and bought a seed starting kit today. I plan to do square foot gardening and grow things vertically as much as possible! I’m a little anxious about taking this on, but I’ve been wanting to grow my own vegetables for a long time and I’m determined to make it happen this year! (Any tips are welcome!)

I’m learning…

Surprise – all about square foot gardening! I can’t wait to do this with my girls! They will absolutely love watching the tomato and pepper seeds sprout and grow! Let’s just hope I can do this successfully enough to transplant them in the garden once it’s time! I plan to document our adventure in gardening on this blog, so stay tuned!

Around the house…

I’ve been decorating my kitchen a little more! I’m obsessed with the light aqua/turquoise color and I’m bringing splashes of it in where I can!

I got this at Hobby Lobby last week, but my husband isn’t sold on it! I love the color, though! It needs to be hung on the wall!

Look what I found…

If you’re interested in where I found my non-GMO seeds, check out SeedsNow! They have an awesome variety of $.99 sampler packs! What’s extra awesome about all of the seeds offered on this site is that they can all be saved after harvest and used the following season, because they are non-hybrid. They also have a long-term shelf life!

I am looking forward to…

Another warm day tomorrow! It’s almost spring!
My youngest’s 3rd birthday next month!

A favorite quote for today…

Source

Have a blessed week, friends!

Tags: books, garden, Moments of Grace

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Mommy/Wife Stuff

Just Another Day in the Life

2 Mar

I’m exhausted! It has been a long and kind of crazy day, but I’ll be darned if I don’t post for the final day of the 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge with Jen of Conversion Diary! With the Oscars in the background, I’m going to recap another blessed day in the life of this mommy and her two little daughters! Even though there so many times when I’m like, “Are you serious?”, I’m thankful for every moment!

I took the girls to Mass this morning by myself since Adam had to work today. (Also, the only reason I’m able to watch the Oscars tonight is because he’s not here! Of course, I’d rather have him home, but I like watching award shows once in awhile!) Fortunately, the girls behaved pretty well, although we still have to camp out in the family room each Sunday because Adri (my youngest) has the worst timing when she likes to say (loudly) things like “stinky” and “Are we done yet?” And, yes, both of those were said today. I really hate sitting in the family room, but it’s better than feeling like I’m going to pop a vein due to my impulsive two-year-old!

Anyway, all was well until nap time, when Adri decided that she would take her time falling asleep (unbeknownst to me) and started crying a half hour later just as I was entering through the gates of dreamland. Fortunately, she went to sleep after checking in on her. My oldest hadn’t fallen asleep yet, so this put a wrench in our own naps since Carmen couldn’t get back to sleep after this interruption. I was really looking forward to a nap today, but it wasn’t meant to be!

Apparently, my four-year-old turned into a teenage boy this afternoon, because she about ate me out of house and home! It was like the lunch that would never end! “Mommy, I’m still hungry.” Mommy, I’m still hungry.” “Mommy, I’m stiiiillll hungry.” Yeah…

Meanwhile, Adri was practicing her newly acquired cutting skills at the table. With her little red and blue safety scissors she sure made lots of confetti! I’m pretty sure I swept up a couple hundred pieces of paper over the course of the afternoon! At least it is one activity that she can focus on for more than 2.5 seconds!

In between folding towels and socks, we squeezed in a little dance party in the kitchen while my favorite Pandora station played on the iPad. It’s fun moments like this that make being a mom of girls such a blast! I can try out all the wicked dance moves I want and don’t have to be self-conscious! If only I could spin in endless circles like they can!

I knew it was only a matter of time before my nap-less daughter started acting like she didn’t have a nap today. All of a sudden every little thing became a crisis around dinnertime. It was a good thing that a storm rolled through at that time, because the sound of thunder magically transformed her attitude. It was the perfect distraction! Oh, and turning on Sprout doesn’t hurt either!

I forgot to mention that Carmen has entered that fascination stage with “potty” words and name calling. So all day I’m hearing variations of “Booty Butt”, “Booty Boo”, “Boo Boo”, and so on. Hope this little phase doesn’t last too long! Oh, and sprinkle in lots of “Moooooommmmmyyyyyyy” throughout the day, too! Somehow a couple extra syllables get thrown in whenever my two-year-old draws it out extra slowly, and extra irritatingly.

Pajama time, clean-up, and the whole bedtime routine went well tonight. My four-year-old inspected the job that her younger sister and I did putting away the toys in the basement. She stated, “You didn’t clean up like I wanted you to, so I organized them.” Yep, that’s Carmen for ya!

This 7 Posts, 7 Days thing has caught up with me, so I’m ready for bed. Have a great week, everyone! We made it!

Tags: family

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Categories Mommy/Wife Stuff

Goal Planning for March: Gardening, Lent, and Potty Training

28 Feb

Have I mentioned how much I love Lara Casey’s PowerSheets on this blog yet? I think I have at least three times, already! Seriously, though – amazing!

I spent part of yesterday evening preparing for the new month and, of course, Lent, since it’ll be here, like, immediately. March will be full of potty training my almost three-year-old, putting together Lenten activities for the girls, and planning my youngest’s birthday. I know that Holy Heroes and Catholic Icing will be helping me out a lot! I really want to make homemade soft pretzels!

The big project that I’d like to tackle as the weather warms up is starting a small garden. I’m a little hesitant about this since I tend to kill plants and we have a ton of squirrels in our neighborhood, but I would really like to be able to grow some vegetables in our own backyard! I think the girls would absolutely love helping with the whole process! It just seems like a win-win-win! Healthy+Inexpensive+Educational! I plan to keep things as simple as possible. We’ll see how it all works out!

Photo source: A Bird and A Bean

The above image is the one I see in my mind with our girls, but I’m sure it won’t look so pretty in reality! I ‘m sure there will be dirty hands and clothes. And I know for a fact my girls won’t be wearing dresses while watering the garden!

One of the things that I mentioned in yesterday’s 7 Quick Takes post is that I want to put Facebook in it’s place during Lent. Maybe only get on once per day for 5 minutes or something like that. Or only check it on Sundays. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how I want to handle it. I think I’ve been mentally preparing myself for this, because I haven’t really checked it much at all in the past week. I’m really impressed with Emily who posted the other day about how she totally deleted her account because she felt she was spending way too much time on there.

I haven’t been doing too hot in regards to my exercise goal so far this year. I started exercising at the end of January and then a week later three out of the four of us in the house came down with the flu, so that pretty much halted my short-lived progress in that area. I think with spring just around the corner, my motivation will get a boost!

I can’t believe this is the 6th day in a row of posts for me! Speaking of March, I probably won’t have anything left to talk about for the rest of the month now! Only one day left in the 7 Posts in 7 Days Challenge with Conversion Diary and Co.!

What sorts of goals are you working on this year?! Any great Lenten ideas/activities that you do in your family?

Tags: goals, Lent

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Categories Mommy/Wife Stuff

7 Quick Takes #12

28 Feb

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes about cool book moments, bestseller bling, overcommitting myself (again), and doing a 5K in a palanquin

It has definitely been eons since I did a 7 Quick Takes link-up at Conversion Diary, so I’m excited to join the crew of bloggers who are part of the 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge!

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I love Cristina’s blog, Filling My Prayer Closet! When I was ~~stalking~~ browsing earlier this week, I noticed that she had a blog button on her sidebar about her word for the year. I clicked on it and it took me to One Word 365 where I was able to sign up and create my own blog button using my chosen word for 2014- #intentional! It was neat to see that several others had chosen the same word!

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On Wednesday, I was able to meet one of my previous Dreamers in the Spotlight and former professional basketball player, Jennifer Risper. {Blogger fail – I didn’t get a photo!} She is a Varsity Catholic missionary with FOCUS and she needs donations to continue to do this work on college campuses. To check our her FOCUS page, click here!

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Source: Piku

I really want to start a small garden this spring. I’m not known for keeping plants alive, but I would love to grow my own vegetables and I think my girls would love to help, too!

Any gardeners out there? Any tips on vegetables to try first? I’m thinking tomatoes, summer squash, peppers, and green beans… I plan to square-foot gardening, I think! I’m trying to keep it as simple as possible!

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I’m a big fan of the Enneagram. I’ve mentioned it on my blog before, but have never really done a thorough post on it. Being someone that majored/minored in three different areas of behavioral sciences, I’m highly intrigued by personality stuff and why people do what they do!

Fellow Nashville blogger, Leigh Kramer, has been doing a great series called The Enneagram and Blogging! I’m without a doubt a Type 1 and it was interesting to see how that relates to my blogging style and purpose! If you don’t already know your personality type there are tests to take to determine what number you are! Leigh does a great job of explaining it here. I’ve had Fr. Richard Rohr’s book, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective on my to-read list FOREVER! Probably like five years! I’ll get to it one of these days!

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Earlier this week, Theresa Thomas posted a video outlining the crisis in Venezuela. She’s been doing a great job of bringing awareness to the oppression going on there. Please pray!

Caracas/Source: Wikipedia Commons

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Katie at The Catholic Wife wrote this post about investing more time in our husbands instead of social media. Often times we have great status updates, but really it might mean more if we just sent a little message to our spouse instead! While I don’t live on Facebook or Twitter, there are definitely moments when I’m wasting time instead of being productive. I’m thinking of cutting a lot of social media time out for Lent…

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This completes Day 5 of the 7 in 7 Challenge! Although, it’s been a little crazy this week, it has been fun writing and reading so many posts this week! There has been so much to read, though, that I’m probably going to have to spend a good part of next week catching up! Cheers to those of you slugging through the week!

7 day blog challenge 7 posts, 7 days

Tags: 7 Quick Takes, Catholic, enneagram

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Miscellaneous

Meet My Two Little Girls!

27 Feb

When referring to my girls on this blog (currently ages 4 and 2), I’ve been pretty hesitant to use their full names. I know that’s a little odd for a Catholic blogger, but I just don’t feel quite comfortable with plastering photos of them with the possibility of being seen by some random crazy person browsing the internet! Maybe I’m being a little paranoid, but today I’m making an exception! I’m linking up with Kathryn of Team Whitaker to talk about the stories behind our girls’ names! {Congratulations, Kathryn, on your new baby!}

Carmen Sofia

Let me just say that I had no idea how incredibly difficult it would be for us to agree on a name for our first born daughter! I felt like 99% of my name ideas were rejected by my husband. To be fair, I rejected most of the name ideas that he had!

About a year before we even knew we were pregnant, Adam co-wrote a song titled, “Sophia,” that was a beautiful lullaby-type song from a father to his daughter. He really liked this name and we thought that it would be neat to name her after this song. However, it was a very popular name especially a few years ago, and as one of three “Stephanies” in my elementary class I did not want her to have such a common name. We decided to keep this name as a middle name and change the “ph” to “f” since that is how my name (Stefanie) is spelled. Bonus: Sofia means wisdom, so that can’t hurt, right?!

Carmen was a name that I had liked for awhile. Once I discovered that it meant “song” in Latin, I think that sealed the deal for Adam and me! I liked that it was a fairly uncommon name- at least among white Americans! I’m sure there are several women with the name Carmen Sofia all over South America and Spain!

When we started telling people what her name would be, a couple responses I heard were, “Is that a family name?” and “Are you going to call her Sofia?” Basically that meant, “Why on earth would you name your child Carmen?” I loved her name, though, and it didn’t affect our final decision, obviously!

Adriana Grace

This time around, I made sure that we found out the gender before we even began discussing baby names. I figured it would cut our ~~arguments~~ discussions in half!

Since we went with a music theme with our first daughter, we wanted to incorporate that in some way for our second girl. One of Adam’s favorite musicians is Vince Gill. He always loved the song “Pretty Little Adriana.” I thought this was a beautiful name and had ear-marked it in the back of my mind.

We did consider her first name to be Grace with Anna as a middle name, but her initials would have been GAS, and I wasn’t going to do that! So, we settled on Grace as her middle name! All in all, we spent about one evening seriously discussing her name before deciding! It was much easier than the first time!