Friday, October 25, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday {Take 17}

This is the official "Everyone Recovers From Tiffany's Trip to the CNMC" edition of 7 Quick Takes:

-1- Anne has been clingy since I returned, and now she's got a nasty cold, making her even clingier on top of being overtired and feisty. She's also cutting a back molar, and points to her cheek regularly to proclaim: 'ANNE NO LIKE THIS!" As you can imagine, this has been fun for the entire family. But poor babe. She really seems to have caught whatever is making the rounds, which likely means that I will fall sick within 7 days and will take 3 times as long to recover as she does. :-\ She's also been waking in the night again as a result. Good times I tell you, good times.

-2- Also following my return, a mysterious ailment has beset my left knee. Is this connected to the "everything falls apart!" aspect of getting older? Oh joy. All of a sudden, that knee was very sore when I'd put weight on it. Carrying Anne up the stairs has been particularly challenging. Luckily, it has improved since Monday, which is a good thing since I have to dance tonight. Knowing what you all know about my Type A personality, I'm certainly not a single one of you is surprised to learn that I don't exactly like change to be present in my routine, no sir. I dance on Friday nights. Unless I've just had knee *surgery* I want to dance tonight. #noexceptions

-3- There has been another interesting consequence of my trip: I have lost my knitting mojo.

!!!

You're probably all wondering what knitting mojo is, because you're not weird like me. Knitting mojo is that constant anticipation and impetus that you feel toward your craft. You're excited by it, you're inspired by it, you enjoy it. Well, when I was so busy over the weekend, my mind awhirl with all of the exciting things that I was learning, I didn't knit. By the evenings I was exhausted, so I didn't worry too much. I first noticed that something might be wrong when I didn't want to knit in the airport and on the plane on the way home. That would usually be prime knitting time. Instead, I was on my tablet, tweeting with all my new friends from the conference. :) Then when I got home...I still didn't want to knit.

Uh oh.

You would understand why this is such a problem if you saw (a) my Christmas knitting gift list, and (b) the sheer volume of yarn that is housed in our guest room closet. The past few nights, I have picked up a gift project in the evenings while Mike and I watch the World Series, and that has gone well, so I'm holding on to hope. But at work this week, I barely knit at lunchtime. I wouldn't yet call this a prayer intention, but let's just say I'm gently concerned. :)

-4- And so, you could certainly say that the CNMC was a huge source of inspiration for me. Truly, the inspiration doesn't just come from the information imparted in the sessions themselves. It's the interactions with the people I met there, both in person and online, and just being present in a dynamic environment committed to the same source of passion as you. I'm still dwelling on what it all means for me and how I'm going to put the things I learned into practice, which is a perfect segue to...

-5-...discernment. If there is anything that I have come to appreciate in my adult life, it's that discernment never ends, truly. You may discern your vocation, a biggie, to be sure, but after that your job is not done. There is still so much to discern about what God wants for your life, in both small ways and large. I know that my vocation is as a wife and mother, and my top priority must be there. But in my free time, what does God want me to do? Pray more, certainly. Seek His will, always. I do feel like there are things that God wants me to do that I haven't quite figured out yet...

-6- ...and I wonder a lot about writing. I have always loved to write, I wondered at one point whether I would do that for a living. In a sense I do, because I'm a tenured librarian and we are expected to publish as part of our job responsibilities, and I do have this blog. Is there more opportunities out there for me, though? I don't know, but I have a feeling that I should try and find out.

-7- And finally, based upon the above, I have decided to unveil a new series on this blog which will debut shortly. :) I'm super excited, and I do need the help of all of you on this. I got in touch with a few of the priests that I met at the CNMC, and they have agreed to be featured on this blog as part of a short series on vocations, talking about their call to the priesthood and interesting tidbits about their ministry. AND SO, please leave me some comments!! I need to send these nice gentlemen some questions for them to answer, and so what do we want to know from them? If you could ask a priest anything about why he became a priest and/or about his life in ministry, what would it be? Leave me a comment, I'm putting together the list to send them next week!!

All right everyone, I suppose that's enough prattling on from me for today. Check out other 7 Quick Takes today over at Conversion Diary!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome post, Tiffany! Sorry to hear about your knitting issues, but excited also to see your writing career advance. CNMC was awesome, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ryan! So nice to have you here, and thank you very much!!

      Delete
  2. Question for a priest ~ how do you maintain a steady prayer life among all the activities you are asked to do and participate in? Do you schedule time for certain prayers? How do you keep track if you are interrupted during prayer? What is your prayer life like?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These are great, Kate, thank you! I jotted them down on my handy-dandy notebook. :)

      Delete

Thank you for commenting! I read and appreciate every single one, and I will respond to each one personally!