Lent! It's coming!!! And because blogging is how I organize my life and plan ahead, I'm sharing my planning with you in order to get my rear in gear!

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Food

This list of meatless meals (with plenty of links!) is one of my top posts every Lent (and is great for reference throughout the year) - I updated it a bit this year, so check it out if you need ideas. What are your go-to recipes?

Cecilia Therese, Age 5

Sweet Cecilia, our first girl, is 5 today! In keeping with past tradition, I asked her the same questions I have in years past:

1. What is your favorite color?  Purple.
2. What is your favorite toy?  Shining Light Dolls. (I'm not sure this is true... She likes them, but she spends a lot more time playing with her doll house, baby dolls, and legos)
3. What is your favorite fruit?  Strawberry.
4. What is your favorite television show?  Diego.
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
6. What is your favorite outfit? Uh... Purple and pink clothes. 

3/52: Snow Days

We finally had our first *real* snow of the winter and boy, was it a doozy! At least 33 inches here, much more in some drifts, and the kids are having an absolute blast in it!

Peter (14 months) still hasn't been out in it, but he's loving the fact that there are shoes all over the place that he can carry around the house!

Winter Style Thoughts

I'm trying to sift through my clothes and figure out what I've been wearing lately, what should be passed on to be enjoyed more by somebody who will actually wear it, and what's just plain worn out and needs to be replaced. So far I'm still living in my J.Crew Factory leggings and loose-fitting dresses & scarves, just like last year. 

2/52

I don't know what we do that makes everybody in this family love books so much - in a normal day the kids spend a TON of time reading and looking at books, so that's what I focused on this week:

Peter (14 months) is obsessed with a select few board books, and demands them LOUDLY in his best scream. Over. and over. again. and again. Much of the time it's the only thing that will calm him down! We'll just say he's a bookworm...

Around the House {PHFR}

There I was, going through the house taking pictures of the projects I'd really like us to get done/hire out this winter...

Molding on the stairs and baby gate installation, for one. Peter keeps stealth-crawling up the stairs when nobody's watching him, and the pop-up tent we were using to block it off didn't fit once we got John Paul's new desk (which Andrew and his dad both used when they were boys - how sweet is that?).

1/52

In an effort to record the individual personalities of these sweet children, I'm going to attempt the "52 Project" I've seen some of my other blogger friends do - one photo of each kid, once a week. This week's theme, except for Peter, is apparently "eyelashes" ;)

(And all these pictures were taken last week, so it counts as the first week for me! And since the link-up is still open, I'm linking up with Micaela for Theme Thursday, on a Tuesday... Because I tried to go for "Rule of Thirds" on some of these pictures!)

Cecilia (4 years 11 months) spends so much time doing her own thing these days - leading the twins in some ridiculous game with their baby dolls, reading quietly on the couch, exploring some of the new board games we got for Christmas... She's not quite 5, but I think she's an old soul.

Jumping On the Blanket Scarf Bandwagon {WIWS}

This is the 3rd season in a row where "blanket scarves" have been a thing. So I, not being one to jump on the trend bandwagon until it's practically over, finally got one! Solely because I was getting my sister one for Christmas and I wanted us to match, sort of...

I was planning on making one, actually, using this tutorial (and I still might!), but there's no fabric store nearby and I really want to see fabric in person, so I'll have to wait until I make a trip to the city about 30 minutes north of us...

Singing the Liturgical Year {Music Education In the Home}

A few weeks ago Tara emailed me asking this:

My daughter is really starting to enjoy music (she's almost 2) and singing along. I'm looking for suggestions for Catholic hymns/songs that your kids have liked. Kateri seems to like single voices so she can imitate the words (Immaculate Mary and Hail Mary/Gentle Woman are two of her favorites.) What else would you recommend? I appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!

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Hi Tara! My kids love those two songs as well :) Really any *good* hymn is pretty accessible to them - are there some that you guys sing at church frequently? I'd look through your hymnal and jot down a few that you like after Mass one day, since once you sing them at home and she hears them at church she'll probably get REALLY excited like my kids do! I like to try to incorporate different hymns throughout the liturgical year - right now we're singing a lot of "People Look East" and "O Come O Come Emmanuel" as well as "The Angel Gabriel" and "O Come Divine Messiah."  When Christmas comes we'll sing a lot of our favorite Christmas songs, especially from this book (out of print, but affordable used!)

2015 Top 5 Posts

I've pretty much given up on trying to write any year-in-review posts this year - those things take FOREVER for me! But I do get a kick out of finding out what a blogger's most popular posts were for a given year, so here are mine for 2015, based solely on views per post:


#5: Winter Mom Uniform: Nursing-Friendly Dresses

Seriously, I'm still wearing most of these outfits this winter and they're SO comfy, flattering, and easy to nurse in!

#4: The Romper Post

This will forever be the most awkward post I've ever written. And it continues to get daily page views from such ingenious searches as "chunky mom" and "mom in shorts" so... I guess that's flattering? But I promised I'd do it if I hit 500 "likes" on Facebook because I wanted to stick it to the man and not pay for advertisement... And I did.

#3: Stitch Fix #2

My Stitch Fix review posts get a lot of hits, period - smart shoppers google the styles that are going out for the current month to see if there's anything they want to request from their stylists. I don't think it's a particularly engaging posts, but as you can see from my #3, #4, and #5 posts, the fashion posts get a lot of traffic.

#2: That Time We Bought a Farm

In which we made a crazy, life-changing decision to become complete stereotypes: Homeschooling, homesteading Catholics. So hipster. Much chickens.

#1: My #1 Parenting Tip

One of my few posts that has actually been shared somewhat on the internet, hence the number of hits... And still a reminder I could probably use daily!

I'm going to link these up with Ashley at The Big White Farmhouse for 5 Favorites - go link up yourself, you could win a prize!

Why I'll Never Be a "Real" Fashion Blogger

Ages ago when I started following blogs, I followed a small sampling of fashion blogs. And very quickly stopped following most of them when I realized they were just making me covet clothes and accessories that I couldn't afford and couldn't justify buying even if I had the extra cash lying around.

I got an email today telling me the about "6 Shoes [I] Should Own" - not one pair made sense with my lifestyle, but I still opened it to see if hey, maybe there was something I need that I didn't realize I needed! And I deleted it, because no way do I need "heeled sandals" or "over-the-knee boots."

See, my kind of "fashion" blogging mostly revolves around finding quality secondhand pieces and shopping sales to fill wardrobe gaps or replace worn out or outgrown clothing that I can't wear anymore. It takes me a long time to be willing to try a new trend, which is why I could never be on the cutting edge of fashion bloggers even if I did have a limitless disposable income, an even fancier camera, and a photographer husband.

What A Mess {WIWS}

You might have "spirited" children if...

Your almost-5-year-old drops the baby when she's carrying him in the aisle, making him bang his head on the side of the pew...

You take the crying baby out and look into the chapel to see your 3-year-old and 5-year-old playing tug of war with a teething rosary...

You tell the older kids they can stay in the chapel for a few minutes to pray in front of the nativity, then have to go retrieve them because they're wrestling in front of the communion rail... (Elizabeth was trying to climb to get closer, Cecilia was trying to get her to stop)

2016: The Year of Reading?

Every once in a while, I make the unfortunate mistake of getting out of the habit of reading books. Part of it is not having a bed to myself - my very favorite place to read has always been in bed, and with a baby who has been sharing it for 13+ months, books ain't happening. Part of it is the children who immediately remove any bookmark I place in a book, or just take whatever book it is for themselves, leaving me with nothing to read... And part of it is laziness on my part - it's easier to sit around scrolling my phone instead of being intentional about spending time reading.

No more!

This year, by golly, I'm getting back into the reading habit. And since the best way to hold myself accountable is by blogging about it, I might as well set a goal right here in an attempt to ensure this goal is met!