Sunday Snippets and Gratitude List

It’s time for another roundup of Catholic bloggers over at This That and the Other Thing. Hop on over and join us! My contributions for this week:

I’m including my 7 Quick Takes b/c there’s a reference to a shout-out by the Denver Redemptorists, calling for Catholic moms’ opinions on St. Gerard Majella.

“Mama’s On The Radio” is about my experience being on a radiothon…with my kids.

Then there’s Julianna, being cute with my flute.

“Searchability.” This is a fun exercise for bloggers to do.

And “Let Everything That Has Breath,” in which I recorded and reflected on the most amazing dream I’ve had in a long time.

It’s been super busy lately, and by week’s end I began to recognize the signs of burnout. So my gratitude list for this week focuses on the Missouri Writers Guild Conference–my first-ever writing conference–which I attended Friday afternoon and Saturday in St. Louis:

• The grace to meet and talk with people without feeling awkward or socially inept
• Which led to making connections with writers who write what I write (what a concept!)
• Which led to being introduced to an editor I was pitching the next day, and getting to make a personal connection with her ahead of time
• And because it was so natural a progression, I wasn’t nervous or awkward with HER (because it’s in my nature to make an idiot of myself around people I respect
• The chance to see an old friend of my husband’s, and spend time with her and really make her my friend, and someone who amazes me at every turn
• Good, beautiful conversation with her, covering topics of so much greater importance than writing–but that, too!
• Inspiration
• Motivation
• Encouragement
• The overwhelming expansion of my reading list (didn’t need that, but it’s still a good thing!)
• A brief, but nice, visit with my aunt and uncle, who loaned me a bed for Friday night
• A successful pitch or three, both fiction & NF (none of them guarantees of publication, but successful nonetheless)
• A spur-of-the-moment visit with my sister on the way home
• A great CD to listen to, inspiring a change of heart
• Arriving home on Saturday night to a house that I left in a disaster, and found in a state of almost-cleanliness! (Yes, my husband rocks. No, you can’t have him.)
• And last but most certainly not least, the reaction of my children when I pulled in the driveway and came inside.

I had a pretty profound insight on the way home…amazing what thoughtful ground you can cover when you don’t have three children bickering, asking “how much longer” or making sound effects in the back seat. I’ll share that one on Tuesday. Tomorrow I have a guest post coming up.