Small Success Thursday {vol. 3} Halloween edition

It's a bit of a dreary Thursday here in western New York, but what are 3 things that I'm grateful for this Halloween?

-1- It's All Saints Day tomorrow. Cam mentioned this the other day, but I too adore the autumn feast days on the Church calendar. It's jam packed with saintly goodness throughout September, October and November. And All Saints Day is the day that we celebrate all of them. I love an excuse to go to Mass during the week as well. I'll be heading to morning Mass tomorrow on my way in to work. I went to the vigil with my 1 year old last year, and let's just say the experience should be a notch toward my entrance into heaven someday. She's 2 now, and this morning we had the following exchange:

"Anne, come give Mommy a kiss!"

"NO!" *huffily turns her back* Yes, she TURNED HER BACK ON ME. Right there in her pink kitty cat footed sleeper.

"Well, you have to be a good girl today if you want to go trick-or-treating tonight. Are you excited to wear your pretty Rapunzel dress?"

"NO! NO RAPUNZEL DRESS! Anne NOT wear it!!"

So. You can see why I (a) am going to go to Mass by myself tomorrow morning, and (b) am bringing a vodka & tonic with me tonight when we go trick-or-treating. A fun time will be had by all, I assure you. But I digress. Which I do. A lot.

-2- I have consolidated down to a single handbag. You're probably wondering why the heck you read this blog when I discuss such superficial things, but I assure you, this actually is a quality of life issue. A woman who has small children, plus is a knitter, a dancer, and a librarian often has a LOT of "stuff" in tow. At any given time, I could need my Kindle, a diaper, an in- progress sock, a case of needles and cables, several gigantic safety pins, her iPod, a sippy cup, a coin scarf, a random ball of yarn, a couple of books, a veil, or a box of Cheerios. And multiple bags were just cramping my style.

Before my trip to Boston, I procured this:

It's a Namaste Harlow bag, and I sort of love it. And yes, it's orange. Well, more accurately PUMPKIN SPICE. So perfect for the time of year, no? SEE, I told you I would bring the story back home to our Halloween theme, SNAP!!

I stuffed 3 books into it at the CNMC, plus my tablet, my chapel veil and all of my regular purse entrails. I bring it to Mass with Anne's implements in it to prevent her from screaming during the consecration or dealing with a poo explosion. I bring it to dance with my shoes and costume accessories in it. It is *aweSOME*

*angels sing*

And I love the color, it's ridiculous.

-3- And on this Halloween, I'm so, so grateful for my online Catholic community (link your blog up if you haven't already!) I am so unbelievably grateful that God has blessed me with a community that loves and supports me.

I'm officially approaching a milestone age that most women dread, and I'm not too proud to admit that I am one of them, but when I think back to life in my 20's...there is no comparison. My life is joyful and meaningful NOW, encroaching gray hair (not that it stays around for long with my significant powers of coloring...) and smile lines be damned. Age is unfortunately not just a number (how do I know? let me count the ways...) but it is what you make of it, and I choose to make it joyful and wonderful.

Life is good, my friends. Wing up a prayer for me tonight, if you would, that my toddler is not running down the street screaming while carting off someone's paper mache witch in a pointy hat. I'll toast you with my "water bottle" and say a prayer for you as well. Happy vigil of All Saint's Day!

Read other Small Success Thursday posts over at Catholicmom.com!

Small Success Thursday {vol 2}: Blessings abound...

Happy Thursday all! I'm trying to settle back into a normal routine following my CNMC Hangover, and every day it's getting a little bit better. Overall, the whole experience has made me realize how blessed I am and how much I have to look forward to.

So what are three things today that I am very grateful for?

(1) Fellowship - I am lucky enough to have found Catholic fellowship both in real life and online. It sounds strange to say, but Twitter has been a huge blessing for me. (@CatholicTiffany for anybody who would like to follow me there ;-)) And in real life, I have a group of friends I met in a prayer group following graduate school whom I have stayed in touch with. We all discerned our vocations together, and ultimately all got married save for one who went on to seminary. :) And so I was invited over last night to attend a house Mass with our former chaplain, whom we haven't seen in 10 years. It was *wonderful*. The only issue was that I had Anne with me, and let's just say that she didn't see a Mass said in someone's dining room as "church," where we're quiet and (somewhat) still. For the first time in my history of Catholic parenting we had instances of the following during Mass:

(a) Removal of pumpkin-shaped sippy cup from right off the altar surface where Anne set it.

(b) LOUD exclamation of: "LOOK MOMMY, A KITTY CAT!!"

(c) A chase sequence in which I desperately grabbed at Anne, who was pursuing a cat around the back of the altar.

Lovely. But I tell you, Anne antics aside, it is fabulous to have supportive fellowship. And they all told me that they thought Anne behaved beautifully. Because they love me.

(2) Our Priests - One of the things that Fr. Mark mentioned in his homily is something he took away from a recent message of Pope Francis. That message is that our faith cannot remain stagnant; we can never just stay frozen within one moment in time. We always have to be moving forward, always taking what we learned and putting it into practice in a new way. This really struck a chord with me based on my CNMC experience. When something wonderful happens, we all wish that we could just stay in that place forever. But of course, life does not work that way. We have to keep moving on, trying to do even better and create more wonderful experiences. And that is never more important than in the spiritual life. Remaining stagnant means that you are moving backwards in your relationship with Christ. And *relationship* was a key theme at the CNMC this year, in every session that I attended, and even at the homily of the Mass at a random suburban Boston parish that I attended before heading back home. Relationships are what make life most meaningful. Relationships with our family and friends, relationship with our blog readers and other social media connections, relationship with Christ. The priest this past Sunday morning said: "It's not about *learning about* Christ. Anybody can do that. It's about forming a relationship with Christ, and He with us." That's a significant distinction.There is certainly a lot of priestly wisdom to think about in this paragraph.

(3) You - This blog just passed it's 5 year anniversary. It's hard to believe, really. And this blog has always been a blessing to me. This morning, I went back through my post list so that I could get a feel for the most popular posts based upon views. My numbers have definitely increased this year, but I've never worried about the numbers per se. It pleases me to know that people read what I write, because I love to write, and if two dozen people read a post, I'm more than happy with that. Back when I first started blogging, my numbers were quite modest. Truly, they still are, though they have mostly tripled, which is wonderful. Some posts though, really do take off, and *that* is a huge thrill for me.

I would say that this blog has changed a bit in the past few years, as I myself have changed. It's interesting how that ties into item (2) above, no? It has gotten more focused and more spiritual, and so have I. :) Hence, I honed my efforts in post analysis from 2010 onward. So what are the most frequently read posts from that time period?

Catholic Women's Almanac {No. 8}, in which I reveal my lamb prototype for the Jesse Tree swap.

My review of Fr. Roderick's (then forthcoming) book, Geekpriest: Confessions of a New Media Pioneer.

A particularly spirited edition of 7 Quick Takes Friday {Take 15} in which I get all emotional about the series finale of Breaking Bad and blather on about other family and dance-related antics;

AND, by far the most read post on this blog at over 700 views (!!) is my post on modesty and the Catholic belly dancer.

We have a few honorable mentions. The Thanksgiving of the explosive poo incident, and my post on becoming a Third Order Dominican are also quite popular.

It's been a great 5 years. And I look forward to many more. With all of you. :)

Link up to more Small Success Thursday posts over at CatholicMom.com!

Small Success Thursday: Going on a jetplane edition...

Good day all! I'm in full trip planning panic mode for my journey to the Catholic New Media Conference this weekend, so I knew today would be a shorter post. And I found a perfect avenue in a wonderful linkup with a concise but power-packed angle with Small Success Thursday over at CatholicMom.com!

So what are three things that I'm grateful for today?

(1) The prayers of family and friends. I can't even fully convey what this does for my peace of mind lately. By nature I am an anxious person. Is the right expression Nervous Nellie? Or perhaps, One Who Needs Prozac? At any rate, when someone prays for me, I *feel* better, I feel calmer, I feel soothed. And that is such a beautiful thing.

(2) A trip to see my younger sister and her twin sons tomorrow. I don't get to see them nearly often enough, and I'm so excited. My sister and I are attending the Catholic New Media Conference together, followed by a girls night of dinner and wine, and possibly a vigil Mass. :) Also, probably us exhausted moms in bed by 9 pm. We're just 2 wild and crazy girls!

(3) The completion of the lambs I crocheted for the Jesse Tree Advent swap over at Liturgical Time. I wanted to finish them before my trip, and I managed the feat. I was aided a great deal the other night by my wonderful husband, who stuffed lamb bodies with lots of bossy directions from, ah hem, *somebody* ("Sweetie, make sure you get the stuffing into their faces real good, see like this?! Mash it in real tight! Face cuteness is of utmost importance!!") while I sewed butts closed. The lambs were very glad when that process was over, let me tell you. Now they are all strung and ready to be shipped to Michelle!! TA DA:

A box full of lambs, California here they come!!

If you'd like to write about your own Thursday graces, head over to CatholicMom.com and link your post up!

All right, all. I'm traveling tomorrow and Monday, so you won't hear from me for a few days, including my regular 7 Quick Takes Friday (so sad!). I was hoping to queue up a post for tomorrow morning, but sometimes things just don't go the way you planned. I will, however, be on Twitter, so do check in with me there, I am @CatholicTiffany! I'll blog again Tuesday morning, and I'm certain I will have lots of amusing details to share. Look for me to be posing with Fr. Roderick in a Twitter photo near you!

:)