Meanwhile...

While life continues at the aforementioned hectic pace, here's a little something to tide all my readers over: I've got a guest post up over at Catholic Mothers Online today.  Go on over and read about 4-H: is it 4-U?

I should of course mention that I could have written so much more about 4-H.  We're supposed to keep it under 900 words, so I did, but I had to trim like crazy to even meet that.  How do you sum up something that shaped your life so dramatically?  Something that has given you a substantial number of the skills you are proud of, many of the friends you hold dear, and the lion's share of memories from your childhood?  We, of course, were probably a more-than-typically involved 4-H family.  We didn't "do" team sports, and 4-H was our substitute.  The year turned according to the 4-H calendar: monthly meetings, Sheep Camp, Addison Field Days, VT State Fair, Eastern States Exposition... events that I attended nearly every year for almost 20 years, and that now, several years later, I still miss, and yet can picture with incredible clarity in my mind.

Anyway, check out the post.  Yes, the photos are vintage shots of me, circa... 1998, from actual sheep show events (reason enough to check it out!).  But seriously, if you have 4-H-age children, or even if you don't (it's never too early to start planning ahead!), I encourage you to think about whether this is a program that might fit into your family's life.  We loved it, and I bet you would, too.

Guest Post at CMO Today!

My grandiose plans to blog more this month were pretty completely derailed by coming down with something akin to the flu nearly two weeks ago (actually, LW came down with it first, then me, then my husband).  I'm still recuperating, and since I don't get vacation days from work, being part-time, it's going to be a little while before I dig myself out of the pile of "mandatory" things that need to be done.  In the meantime, though, please check out my guest post over at Catholic Mothers Online today: Tips for Avoiding Mommy Meltdowns.

And, lest I unintentionally come across as some sort of transcendentally calm guru-mama - believe me when I say that I've sorely needed to take my own advice the last few weeks!

I'll (hopefully) be back soon with more thoughts, if I can just stop coughing long enough to type.

Retreats, Simplicity, and Ordinary Life

We're dead-smack in the middle of winter.  The Northeast just got clobbered with a boatload of the white stuff.  Cabin fever is really setting in, since I haven't stepped foot outside our house since Monday morning, and that was just to go grocery shopping.  Consequently, I have this almost overwhelming desire (maybe even need?) to jet off somewhere, preferably tropical, and go on a retreat!  Unfortunately, it's totally not practical at the moment for a number of reasons... so instead I'm thinking and writing about bringing the key parts of a retreat into my day to day, ordinary life.  See my guest post over at Catholic Mothers Online today - Bringing Retreat Simplicity into Ordinary Life. 

Hopefully more real posts to come here at some point soon.  Balancing work and toddler has suddenly gotten very difficult, and I haven't had a lot, or any, time to write!

At least I'm blogging *somewhere*...

Daylight savings time has ended, taking sleep with it, and my daughter, with new teeth coming in, wants to nurse non-stop day and night.  The end result of these two things is I'm pushed to the limit just to get my work done each day, without much "extra" time kicking around (trust me: I have projects a-plenty piling up on my craft table; I keep eyeing them longingly but not longingly enough to do them at 10 pm, which is about the only time leftover at the end of the day).  So I haven't been around here much.  But, today I'm not completely silent: you can find me over at Catholic Mothers Online, with my latest guest post, Five Frugal Suggestions From Yesteryear.

I promise I'll try to be back here soon, with thoughts, updates, and hopefully the continuation of my "A Horse and Her Girl" story.

In two places at one time...

Nope - I haven't learned how to bi-locate.  But you can find me over at Catholic Mothers Online today, with a guest post about one of my newest favorite novels: In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden.  Stop on by and say hi, and check out the blog roll of other Catholic moms while you're there!