Category: Small Success Thursday

Small Success: Musical Wake-up Call

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

First things first. You need to go over and read Sherry Antonetti’s post that explains why Small Success is such an important thing. There’s not always a lot of participation, but it’s good to do the writing, to reflect on what goes right, to be grateful.

I’ve made my mornings a little easier by coming up with a way to get TheKid out of bed that involves a lot less yelling. His alarm goes off; he ignores it. I call for him 5 minutes later; he ignores me. 5 minutes after that, I head in with my Secret Weapon: my tablet with a Spotify playlist I’ve titled “Teenage Musical Torture.” Here it is, for your listening…um…pleasure.

My friends on Facebook helped me craft the playlist. My criteria specified that I had to be able to put up with the song, so some suggestions were denied because of that.

It’s good, though. He’s laughing, not grumpy, when he gets out of bed.

I find that anything by the Brady Bunch works particularly well. “Disco Duck” is also quite effective.

In other news, both the Big Kids have come home for dinner this week. Not on the same night, but they both came home for dinner. That’s a family success.

And I remembered to buy a set of Advent candles. Let this serve as your reminder, moms: Advent begins in 10 days! Go get some candles!

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Small Success in Standard Time

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

The big success here is that I’m still functional, 4 days into the switch to Standard Time. I haven’t gotten to bed before 10:30 on any night since Friday (and I wake up at 5:15); right now it’s just before 2 PM and I’m ready to pack it in. It’s an early bedtime for me tonight!

I had a different type of morning today: I took two trains in to Philadelphia and headed over to Reading Terminal Market to meet author Julie McElmurry, who was in town for a conference. I reviewed her book about a month ago, and it was good to meet her in person over coffee from Old City Coffee Company. We chatted about writing, blogging, and social media (of course!) Wished I could have stayed longer.

My “Mom Finds All the Lost Things” radar kicked in and led me to TheKid’s missing jacket yesterday, so I was the hero of the day there. Bigger success: I refrained from mentioning that if he’d made his bed the day before like I told him to do, he would have found it stuffed between the bed and the wall.

2015-10-31 18.23.23Best success: my family and I had a great time at the Notre Dame football game. Thanks to our neighbor, we scored an extra ticket so we could all go. The Irish won (YAY!) Do you think it was my ND fleece, or my leprechaun T-shirt, or maybe my lucky scarf that did the trick? No matter; they defeated Temple, who hadn’t lose a game yet this season, and are now in the top 5.

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Small Success: 6 More Months

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I purposely waited to do this today. Early this morning, as soon as TheKid got on the school bus (a Small Success in his own right, given his track record for making the bus), Hubs and I headed off to the cancer center for his checkup.

I had a container with 2 dozen cookies in hand, to thank the radiology staff who helped us through all the craziness with the needed referrals (thank you, ever-changing rules regarding who gets to provide what service for which patient…)

Yesterday, in the middle of all those awful moments when I was told Hubs wouldn’t be able to have the tests because of some insurance snafu, I cried. And then I prayed. I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere on my own with this. I prayed before I made the next phone call I had to make. One Memorare Express Novena (9 Memorares plus a bonus one in thanksgiving) and a plea to St. Jude later, I dialed the phone, sat around on hold for a few minutes, then disconnected the call when my call-waiting showed Hubs’ primary physician was dialing in–to tell us that he could, indeed, have the tests today.

THERE IS NO WAY THAT WAS A COINCIDENCE. And yesterday was the feast of St. Jude, you know.

double chocolate cranberry cookies (3)My new friend in radiology was happy for the cookies and immediately gave me her email address so she could get the recipe. By the time Hubs was done with his CT scan, she’d printed it out.

The oncologist gave Hubs’ test results two thumbs up, so we’re all set for the next 6 months.

We had to stop back at radiology to take care of a few details before we left. I was annoyed at the inconvenience–we’d already been there almost 4 hours and I’d had enough. But back we went, and I sat down to wait.

And someone called my name. It was my favorite cashier from ShopRite. She and her husband go to our church, and he’s been quite sick recently. Today, he walked out of the X-Ray department looking better than I’ve seen him in weeks. He’d gotten a good report. We rejoiced together.

There are not a lot of good reports in cancer centers. There are not a lot of people leaving there with smiles on their faces. Today we, and our friends, did just that.

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Small Success: Substitute Edition

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Our usual hostess couldn’t be there this week, so I’m substituting over there.

 

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Small Success: Discounts & Books

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

On Monday, I took TheKid shopping for new uniform pants (to replace the ones I got him in FEBRUARY, which he outgrew already). I am not in the mood to spend $40 per pair on pants for less than 1 school year, especially since the uniform company no longer adds a generous hem to the pants. They used to give 2 inches–now it’s 1/2 inch, and I can’t do a thing with that. So it was off to WalMart, because he told me that his friends got their pants there, and I found school pants for $14 per pair.

And then we headed next door to Modell’s for some new sneakers for him. When they didn’t have his size in stock, I asked if they could get the shoes for us. Turns out, store policy is to ship them free to your home in cases like that! And while I couldn’t use the 15%-off in-store coupon I had with me, the cashier offered to use a different online shopping code so I got the same discount.

I also found a pair of track pants that I’d been eyeing–and they were on sale. When I tried them on, they made me look skinny! Even better, they made me FEEL skinny! So I bought them. And then, on Wednesday, I went back and bought a second pair. If I could find a way to wear these things 24/7, I would, believe me.

I also gathered up all my courage and pressed the SEND button on an email about a project I’ve been asked to work on with a few other writers. Prayers would be most appreciated!

word by wordFinally, I walked into the parish office yesterday and the business manager waved a copy of Word by Word at me, telling everyone in the vicinity that I am an author! I’m a contributor–one of 40–but wow, it really was cool to see my name on the pages of that book.

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If you’re interested in purchasing Word by Word, consider stopping in at your local Catholic bookstore first. It’s also available online, and if you use my Amazon link, Franciscanmom.com gets a small percentage of the sales.

 

Small Success: Small is Beautiful

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

  • Thrifting: TheKid is in (another) show, playing (another) prince. In the past 6 shows he’s been in, he’s been a prince twice and a butler twice. Fortunately, we already had a crown on hand from the last time he played a prince. So he only needed a pair of black dress shoes (which we also already had) and black dress pants. I stopped at Goodwill the other day and found just what he needed–and they were half price. $1.99 for the whole costume–that’s the best I’ve ever done.
  • (Death by) Meeting. I was asked to be the parish respect-life representative and to start a group. No, we didn’t already have one in the parish. I went out on a limb and had a meeting and didn’t die of embarrassment or anxiety.
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
    My Cookbook Shelf. It holds a lot of books, but many new cookbooks are too tall to fit. Time to rethink this!

    Around the House. I bagged up 2 big bags of clothes that no longer fit TheKid (and I suspect there will be more). I cleaned out 1 big bag of things from my own closet (if they don’t fit, flatter, or feel good, they are OUT). And I decluttered the kitchen table and covered it with my favorite vintage tablecloth. I abandon less stuff on the table when it’s covered. I’m thinking about hauling a bookcase into the kitchen for my cookbooks, because a bunch of them are too tall for the one I have in there already. I’ll have to do some measuring first, though. The kitchen is 10×10, so there’s not much wiggle room.

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Small Success: Shrines and Sick Days

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’m supposed to be substitute-teaching right now, but TheKid and I both have some kind of stomach ickiness, where you just feel terrible but nothing terrible actually happens. I haven’t had (or wanted) coffee since Tuesday, so something is definitely amiss.

I know he’s not malingering today, because I reminded him that no school today means no rehearsal tonight, and he didn’t protest.

When I picked up TheKid at school yesterday after the nurse called me, I stopped at the office to let them know that teaching today wasn’t happening. They graciously reminded me that TheKid comes first. Then the secretary called a few hours later to ask how he was and to let me know that they’d found someone to sub today–because she knew I’d be feeling bad about that.

I’d worked hard on Tuesday to get ahead on things, which was good, because I just wasn’t feeling it yesterday. Instead, I did a little bit of work and then bailed to the couch with my ginger ale and crackers and a novel I’ll be reviewing soon.

SKD with Pat and Lisa 2 photo by Lisa Hendey
Photo credit: Lisa Hendey

BUT I did have one nice big success on Monday. I got to visit with Lisa Hendey and Pat Gohn on the last stop of their Papal Pilgrimage to Philly: the Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel in Bensalem, PA. It’s less than 25 minutes away, and I’d never been there. It was a beautiful place to pray, walk and chat. I took many photos but they deserve a post of their own.

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Small Success: the Unplanned Week

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’m just sitting here watching TheKid’s blood sugar levels; through the miracle of technology I can see just how he’s doing, even though he’s at school 3 1/2 miles away. It’s been a tough week in Diabetes Land, and he’s still not in a good place. But he’s at school.

Also through the miracle of technology, I am listening to the Pope addressing Congress. I am just in awe of the ways in which technology and social media have opened up the Papal visit to people who can’t be present at the events in person.

Some successes this week:

  • I didn’t blow a gasket when it was suggested that TheKid should not have eaten the donut (from a classmate’s birthday celebration) or drunk the soda (given him by the PTA ladies after the milk delivery was a no-show and they were scrambling to give the kids who’d paid for beverages something to drink. For the record, he did so well self-dosing his insulin for those things that his blood sugar was a perfect 105 at the end of the school day. Fighting this same battle again and again is frustrating. He can eat a donut every now and again. I’m proud that he was responsible and careful about self-dosing for an unexpected treat, and I’m happy for him because, for once, (and thanks to the miracle of technology in the form of an insulin pump) he got to just have his donut and not have to be singled out.
  • I didn’t lose my mind regarding those last-minute schedule changes that happen when a kid misses school. I managed to roll with it a whole lot better than I usually do.
  • I totally nailed a seat-of-the-pants recipe for beef noodles. I hope to get it written up over at Cook and Count soon. Since you can’t taste it, I’ll just give you a look:

beef noodles with pot roast C

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Small Success: Get Cooking!

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Here’s what’s been going on around here last week:

  • I survived that meeting I was all nervous about on Saturday. Turns out there wasn’t anything to worry about, but worrying is what I do best. The only glitch we encountered was courtesy of the fluorescent light in the meeting room that decided to flicker, then died a slow and smelly death. That put an end to the meeting very quickly and led me to call the parish business manager at home so she could get a maintenance worker to check it out (turns out, it was a ballast in the fixture and when those things go bad, they fill the room with stinky smoke). So we didn’t burn down the building.
  • My chicken chili was a hit (that was lunch at the meeting), and I got the recipe up at my poor, neglected cooking blog. chicken chili blanco (3) c T
  • I also put up some new photos for the 2 things I baked this week: sesame tahini cookies (which I turned into a slice-and-bake recipe) and apple coffee cake. I’ve been working hard on getting better-quality photos for the blog and on labeling those photos with titles and my foodie Twitter handle.

slice and bake sesame tahini cookies (1) CT

apple coffee cake (12) c t

  • And I listened to some podcasts while cooking and cleaning. That’s the kind of multitasking I can get behind.

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Small Success: Better Late than Never

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I am very, very late for Small Success today.

I stuck my nose in a novel early this morning and that seems to have thrown the whole rest of the day off. (It’s really good, though!)

In spite of that, I managed to get a good bit accomplished. Except for the laundry that I tossed into the machine at 8:30 AM and haven’t moved since. But here’s my day:

9:00. Mass, which turned out to be a Communion service, because Father was very ill today. (Memorare UP!)

9:30. Home to check TheKid, who was still asleep. Add a few donated books to the Excel spreadsheet for the Secular Franciscans’ library, which we are getting ready to divide and share with the parish.

10:15. Pick up a roll for my lunch and a latte at Wawa, then over to the parish center to pull all the Franciscan-specific library books for the Secular Franciscan library. All others will become part of the parish library.

11:15. Back home. Wake up TheKid, make sure he has breakfast, and send him out the door for a haircut.

Noon to 1. Adoration, followed by a quick stop in parish office to tell business manager that I’m done with the library.

1:15. Return home, admire haircut, force TheKid to make bed before agreeing to drive him to visit theater friends in different zip code.

2:10. Return home, eat quick lunch (meatball sandwich using last night’s leftovers) and head to supermarket. MAJOR success here involves eating before shopping. I saved mucho dinero that way.

3:30. Back from supermarket. Put away groceries and return phone call from my mom.

4:40. Back out to pick up TheKid.

5:30. Home again. Prepare to make dinner, begin preheating oven and get text from Hubs that he’s just leaving work now. Turn off oven and wait until 6:30 to finish cooking.

You’ll notice that nowhere in there did I mention work, which fortunately I got done ahead of time yesterday (though I did not expect, even a little bit, that this day would turn out this crazy).

And I’m kind of wishing I’d remembered to wear my Fitbit because I think I’d have clocked up quite a few steps along the way today.

Amazingly, I’m not too tired and I’m even in a good mood after all that. (Perhaps the biggest success of all!)

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