Happy First Birthday, Miss Madeleine!

I can’t believe we’ve gone from this…

To this…

Her smash cake is a Hedwig cake!

What an incredible year it’s been!

Dad and I went out to Denver to celebrate Maddie’s first birthday (Mom has a broken leg, so she didn't make the trip—thank goodness for FaceTime!). She had a Harry Potter themed party—my sister went all out and did a fabulous job creating a magical day for Madeleine!

The party table with the house scarves I made for Maddie’s sorting!

Maddie was sorted into Slytherin—though some people were calling for a re-do, saying that she was a Ravenclaw because she sat on that scarf—and greatly enjoyed eating her chocolate Hedwig cake.

And she very much enjoyed her presents (Aunt Sarah got her the Harry Potter PJs!)

Tunnel also from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Bryan, and Hailey!

Yes, there was Baby Lit.

Happy birthday, Miss Madeleine! We’re so glad you were born!

Blogmas '22 Day 12: Spiritual Testaments

I cut out this photo from a newspaper and kept it at my desk at work—there’s something about it that I just loved.

In reading about Benedict XVI’s death last week, I found this story about the Pope Emeritus’ “spiritual testament”—so I thought for the last day of blogmas, I’d share if with you. You can read it here.

And in honor of him, we’ll wrap up Blogmas ‘22 with a German carol, “Josef Lieber, Josef Mein”

Blogmas '22 Day 11: Welcome, Miss Hailey

Hailey Rose DeArdo

December 15, 2022 at 3:24 A M

6 lbs, 2 oz, 20” long

Hailey was the best Christmas gift this year! She obviously could not wait to get out and spend Christmas with us, so instead of being a New Year’s baby, she’s a Christmas baby.

She is so sweet, and really, is there anything sweeter than a newborn at Christmas? I don’t think so, especially when I get to spend Christmas Eve with a snuggled up baby on my chest.

Because she was a little early and there’s so much respiratory crap going around this year, the pediatrician asked us to wear masks if we’re holding her, hence my face gear. :) But it’s me!

Music: This is one of my FAVORITES—”The Seven Rejoices of Mary”, sung by Loreena McKennit.

Blogmas '22 Day 10: Word of the Year

When I was brainstorming my 2023 goals, one of the things that kept coming up was I do all the things I want to do—but I’m not consistent in doing them.

So my word of the year was pretttyyyyy evident. It’s consistency!

Let’s take goal three, for example—Creating a deeper relationship with God through regular prayer and confession.

I already have a regular prayer life. I already go to confession semi-regularly. But I want to do these things consistently. I want to say morning and evening prayer and my rosary every day—and that doesn’t happen. I want to make sure I’m going to confession once a month, etc. (The goal is every two weeks, eventually. Not right now!)

Consistency in fitness, in decluttering, in saving money, and in prayer is what I’m going for this year. Once I achieve consistency—and it’s easy to achieve, it’s almost automatic—then I can think about expanding what I’m doing to continue to reach higher goals. For example, the ultimate goal with working out is to be hitting the treadmill 5 days a week for thirty minutes. THat’s the ultimate, final goal, the “I’m running a marathon” goal. By consistency, I can work up to that goal and achieve it.

Here’s to being consistent in 2023!

Music: “The Echo Carol” (How Great Our Joy), Sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Ephesus in Gower, MO.

Blogmas '22 Day 9: New Year's Goals

If it’s a new year, then it’s time for resolutions and new goals.

My goals this year really aren’t new, so to speak—they’re continuations of what I’ve been working on for the past few years, but with an adjusted focus. Does that make sense?

For example, I’ve always wanted to have a comfortable, cozy, organized home—but I wasn’t sure what that really looked like, in terms of appearance, decor, etc. Over the last year I learned what I like and what I don’t, what works and what doesn’t, and now I can apply that to focusing on this year’s house goal, which is to have a home full of things I love, and organized in a way that works for me and how I live.

An example of this is this lamp I got last year from Target.

I’d needed a new lamp in this space for years, but I couldn’t find one I liked—until I found this one. And finding that lamp solidified the “look” I’m going for in my house, which is English Cottage (think The Holiday or Country Living UK) meets a beach house.

With all that digression out of the way, here are my goals for 2023!

Goal #1: Grow emergency fund

Goal #2: Continue peloton work to become stronger and more fit—continue to have good lab results.

Goal #3: Deepen my relationship with God with regular prayer and confession. (I do do regular prayer but it’s not consistent. More on this tomorrow!)

Goal #4: To create home by decluttering and keeping what I love.

I’m not giving a ton of detail here—I’ll do that in future posts. But these are the four main goals for 2023 and I feel good about them!

Do you make new year’s resolutions or set new goals? I’d love to hear about them!

Today’s music: Ave Maria isn’t specifically a Christmas song, but it appears on a lot of holiday albums, so here’s a good version!

Blogmas '22 Day 8: Happy New Year!

Dear brothers and sisters, it is only by pondering in the heart, in other words, by piecing together and finding unity in all we experience, that, following Mary, we can penetrate the mystery of a God who was made man out of love and who calls us to follow him on the path of love; a love to be expressed daily by generous service to the brethren. May the new year which we are confidently beginning today be a time in which to advance in that knowledge of the heart, which is the wisdom of saints. Let us pray, as we heard in the First Reading, that the Lord may “make his face to shine” upon us, “and be gracious” to us (cf. Nm 6: 24-7) and bless us. We may be certain of it: if we never tire of seeking his Face, if we never give in to the temptation of discouragement and doubt, if also among the many difficulties we encounter we always remain anchored to him, we will experience the power of his love and his mercy. May the fragile Child who today the Virgin shows to the world make us peacemakers, witnesses of him, the Prince of Peace. Amen!

—Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022)

In today’s carol we have some trivia! Did you know this hymn was written by a Dominican blessed? It was—Bl. Henry Suso!