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Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea: Musings of a Catholic Mom (Pauline 2005) and Mom to Mom, Day to Day: Advice and Support for Catholic Living (Pauline 2007). Though she once struggled to separate her life …
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Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and together they are the parents of five lively boys. Besides being a mom, she is also a writer and a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has maintained her personal blog at Testosterhome.net where she …
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Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
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Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Melissa Wiley
Melissa Wiley is a homeschooling mother of six and the author of The Martha Years and The Charlotte Years, two series of books about the ancestors of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She blogs about children’s books, family, and home education at Here in the Bonny Glen.
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Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Thursday, May 28, 2009 6:00 AM
It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that.
To participate, just write up a list of 3 of your recent Small Successes and post it on your blog along with the Small Successes button (go here to get the code). You are not required to use the button, but please do link back to the main post here. Then you can add your blog here using the Mr. Linky form (please link to the individual blog post, not the home page of your blog).
If you don’t have a blog, please share your Small Successes in the comments.
To get us started, here are my small successes for this week:
1. Yesterday, I promised God that if he made it rain enough to cancel baseball, I would clean out my kitchen cabinets. It worked! He delivered the downpours and I kept my side of the bargain. Clean cabinets! Even Dan was impressed.
2. Someone has been having “accidents.” And someone has uncomplainingly added an extra load of laundry to her daily duties.
3. I emptied my inbox. Emptied it! It’s full again, of course, but that was a glorious 20 minutes.
Now it’s your turn. Mr. Linky has been temperamental lately, but I hope he will cooperate with us today. I just love reading everyone’s entries—please share all the small ways you’ve succeeded this week.
Page 1 of 1 pages
1. Cleaned the pantry cabinets and now I know what I am dealing with when it comes to preparing meals and not having to do useless grocery shopping.
2. Cleaned the boys room and found a place for everything/everything in its place so now the boys can do the upkeep.
3. Filed monthly expense report for reimbursement for my highspeed internet as my employer reimburses that as I work from home.
I really love the small successes. Sometimes it motivates me to do something, other times it helps me feel not so alone, and sometimes it makes me realize that I do have productivity even on days I don’t feel it.
1. I pulled off a Memorial Day BBQ at my house. Stressful getting ready for it, but I enlisted the help of my mom with my 6 month old and….it worked!
2. All the toys are picked up all over! OK, kind of goes with having the BBQ, but really they are all pretty much where they need to be 
3. Got everyone dressed and breakfast and it is only 10am. Sounds easy to many, but we have been lagging so….this is nice.
I’ve read these before but have never been able to remember any of my small successes. But today I have a few to share.
1. Have been able to stick with Light Weigh for 8 weeks now. Lost almost 20 pounds, and gained a deeper spiritual life. God is good!
2. Finally faced my fear of failure and meltdowns and took my kids ages 5, 3, & 2 to the “Homeschool Wednesday” at our parish which involves noon Mass (during lunch time), a picnic lunch and play afterward (during nap time)...It turned out fine. God is SO good!
3. My husband and I worked on our 2009 budget this week…and finished it (better late than never). Any given year, I’d rather set my eyebrows ablaze than do the budget. God is GREAT!
1. FINALLY ironed my husbands work shirts and the stuff that’s been sitting in the ironing basket for way too long.
2. Caught the two toddlers streaking before either of them left a deposit on the floor for me (they got bored in the playroom while I was ironing).
3. Actually read a book simply for the joy of reading. (I miss time for doing more of that)
1. I have followed through with my commitment to decide every evening whether clothing goes in the laundry basket or back in the closet. For the first time in years, there is no pile on the floor!
2. I cooked a new recipe and had dinner ready when DH got home.
3. We planted parsley in our empty pot…can’t wait to have fresh parsley!
AWESOME job Danielle! Incredible on #1, and love your whole list.
Loved reading everyone else’s!!!!!!
Blessed weekend to all!
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