Here we go again

A few things have happened recently.

(Well, between my last regular posts and now, a lot of things have happened.  Including a whole new, wonderful person who was added to our family.  But I digress).

Specifically, recently, a few things have happened:

1) I've been doing projects.  Things ground to a halt when I found out I was pregnant 18 months ago.  Since Peter's birth in September, I've had fits and starts of normalcy, but for the most part we've been thrown continually back into survival mode, especially by ear infections.  It doesn't take much to upset our (my?) equilibrium and routine for 3 kids four and under, but the unrelentless cycles of sickness really made it tough to find our normal.  15 doses of antibiotics and one ear surgery later, things are finally looking up.  Poor Julia is not in pain. We're all sleeping,  And I've got dirt and paint under my fingernails.

2) I read through my blog archives.  A few nights ago, I randomly decided to read some old posts, and ended up spending more than an hour laughing and crying myself through the memories.  I had forgotten how much I had captured, and was amazed by how little of it I would have remembered if it wasn't saved electronically.

My day-in-the-life post from November 2014 hit me hard:

"A few minutes later, I found myself basking in just how precious Anna was - I had called her a silly goose, and she said "nooo!  I'm Anna Rose, Mommy!" and she leaned her head on the door frame and looked at me with her big beautiful eyes and started singing "Rock-a-bye, Anna Rose."  And in that moment, I felt a great loss for how many of these beautiful moments that I cannot adequately capture or remember.  Over the course of the day, she makes me laugh and smile over and over again with her hilarious and sweet comments, and by the time Justin gets home I'm lucky if I can think of even one of them to tell him, and even then, the retelling is never as sweet as her little voice or her little head tilt.  I wish I had a constant video camera stream to replay all of those moments - for my own sake and for sharing, too."

3) I was honored to give advice to a mom-to-be.  A few weeks ago, I received an email asking me to share an inspirational message at a baby shower for a friend.  I was shocked and surprised at the invitation.  Even though the friend herself had asked privately for advice on pregnancy and motherhood, I couldn't believe when her mother asked me to speak at the shower and share my thoughts more publicly.  I still feel unworthy of the task, especially since I gave my talk to a room full of mothers with decades more experience than I.  Nonetheless, it got me to thinking....

And in reading this post, can you guess where all those things led?  Back here to Finding Former Glory.

My life is more hectic these days, and there are exponentially more sweet moments for me to forget.  More sadly, some days I think I'm too busy to notice, let alone remember.  I don't want these years to slip away.  And not just the adorable toddler comments, but my thoughts on motherhood.  My challenges and joys.

Sure, I could start a journal, but I've always been better with external motivations.  Maybe, just maybe, there are some friends out there for whom my ramblings are helpful.

And there will at least be projects (and adorable children) for photo fodder.

Maybe I meant next September ;)

When I posted that I'd be back in September, I really meant it.

But now that it is October, I clearly didn't.

If we could find a way to download my brain when I'm doing menial tasks, we'd have quite the blog.  But alas, that technology isn't available.  Well, it might be, I guess; I'm not actually interested in finding out.

We've been in the house almost 3 months now.  And it feels like home.  It feels like the place my heart has longed for over the last year - and, really, it longed for even in Ithaca when I thought I was content in my dream house.  I've learned that the place itself isn't really that important, but what is inside that makes it home.

The people, of course.  The things we need and use and love.  And, most of all, the relationships and the life that is built among those walls.

I have learned so many lessons about living intentionally, about living like Granny, about seizing the day and working hard and reaping the benefits, and of authentic relationships and true relaxation.  And all of the things that were theoretical for so long are coming to fruition in this house.

I've been so busy living this life that I (obviously) haven't written about it.  And I'm not sure when - or if - I will.  Stepping away from the Internet has been a lot more than just a refreshing pause to re-establish habits.  It's been a chance to really step into the authentic life we'd been too busy to create.

I'm not ready to say good-bye permanently to this blog, but I'm also not ready to put another timeline on when (or if) I'll write.  Now that the pressure's off, I might be inspired to write tomorrow.  But it might be next year.  Until then, all the best!

On Purpose and Passion: Ye ol' Blog

For most of its existence, I have felt that this blog has had an identity crisis.  I don't think I was ever sure of my goals - I was straddling the line of just being a convenient place to simultaneously update my dad, Justin's grandma, and 15 different friends with pictures of the house and the girls while also trying to be more than a wall-flower in the online community of Catholic moms which provided me so much during the isolating period of young motherhood.

It's felt weird at times to issue a one-size-fits-all announcement about, well, whatever I'm saying at the moment.  But what I've been so pleasantly surprised by is how my random ramblings have resonated with friends from different stages of my life.  The "me too" feeling is so powerful and affirming, and I've been excited when I've had the chance to share that with a high school classmate or a work colleague who has found herself in a similar place of frustration at wondering if toddler and tornado have some etymological connection.

I've managed to collect a few (very few) readers over the years, including some new friends who, oddly enough, I've never actually met.  And while I welcome the random stranger (of the non-creepy variety) who happens upon this blog, this happily will never be the best, brightest, or biggest blog you'll come across as you click your way through an evening.  

Primarily, dear friends and family, this is for you.  

First and foremost, I hope to be the update, a collection of memories and pictures that, well, are as much for me as for you (and many that would not have otherwise been captured were it not for the nagging "hey, you should blog about this" voice in the back of my head).  As you've grown to be accustomed, it will come it fits and starts, long periods of drought followed by excited and potentially very random updates.  I'm growing more and more content to let it be what it will be, here when I want it and still waiting when I don't.  

I've also found that - purely by having been the first to experience home-ownership and motherhood (and not by any actual verifiable expertise) - I have managed to establish myself in certain circles of my friends as the one who knows about renovation and about diapering a newborn.  So I hope to also be the encouragement, the "me too," and "you've gotta try this" from a friend that you trust over the 4.5-star Amazon review, a few friendly tips and recommendations against the cacophony of the Internet-at-large.  

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So although a Pinterest search could bring you 100s of painting tutorials from (actual) experts, I'll (hopefully) be sharing my Beginner's Guide to Painting next week at the request of one of my dearest and longest friends.  

And if you've ever wondered why you traded your heels and important meetings for a life with just.so.many.body.fluids, read this beautiful and encouraging article I came across tonight: When Satan Tells You You're Too Good for Motherhood.

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Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, thanks for being you!  xoxo

Quick Takes: Edition 9 {the forgotten posts}

For inexplicable reasons, my second most-viewed post ever is the guest post Justin wrote about his fight against the ants in our old kitchen.  I think there must somehow be an errant link out in Internet-world that sends people to the post, and then it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because it keeps showing up on my sidebar in the "popular posts" section and people keep clicking.  I don't think he'd be offended if I said it was just a silly, off-the-cuff paragraph he typed up one evening, and (I hope!) he'd agree that it's not the best thing on the blog - and, at the very least, not representative of the types of things you can typically find around here.

And so, today, I'm going to give a quick run-down on some of the forgotten posts; things I've written that are more representative of the general theme, things I've spent a lot of time on, things I'm proud of....and things I want you to click on (instead of those darn ants!)

(1)

It all started as a renovation diary, and this sentimental post about the process of finding the (physical) former glory of the old house might not mean as much to the average reader, but it means a lot to me.

Remember When?  (June 2011)

(Note: the best concise way to see all of the renovations is in the House Tour tab, above)

(2)

A little theological reflection on how attitude changes everything

They could have been the "stressful mysteries" (June 2014)

(3)

Three part how-to-sew tutorial: not the best you'll find on the Internet, but hopefully a little bit helpful.  The first two parts are probably more helpful than the technical one.

So, you want to sew...Beginner Lessons Part 1 (Supplies)

So, you want to sew...Beginner Lessons Part 2 (Choosing a Project)

So, you want to sew...Beginner Lessons Part 3 (Basic Stitches)

(4)

One of my most (legitimately) popular posts, after the ants: an analysis on the practical reasons why being a stay-at-home-mom can be tough

SAHM: My five biggest challenges (October 2013)

(5)

A pair of posts featuring a little bit of fashion and a lot of cultural reflection

What I Wore Sunday, and why it matters (November 2013)

What I Wore Sunday: How Low Will it Go?  (January 2014)

(6)

My impassioned defense for striving for success as a homemaker & mother

Success and Modern Motherhood (September 2014)

(7)

Observations on how to attain joy (and success) from the example of religious sisters and my (super)mom

Lessons in Joy (October 2013)

Chasing Supermom (September 2014)

What are your thoughts?  Which posts were your favorites?  Should I just turn the blog over permanently to Justin and his extermination theme?  ;)

Linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes

To blog or not to blog?

I have to admit, I've had a secret internal debate (in retrospect, I suppose most internal debates are secret) for the past few months about canning the blog all together.  It ends up being one more thing on my to-do list, another stressor that doesn't get done.  And ask Justin, the number one contributor to my bad moods is me feeling like I haven't accomplished all that I want to accomplish.  But I can't quite give in to my desire to just end it - partly because I think of the folks out there who are appreciative whenever I post something new, partly because I'm stubborn and don't like giving up, and partly because I'm not sure yet if I'd miss it too much.  Granted, I've more or less taken the easy way out by posting once every three months, and my non-decision is beginning to look like a decision.

BUT - fear not, I'm not shutting down.  At least not yet.  Through a strange combination of factors (I deleted the weird list I had typed here, since re-reading it had even me confused) I was inspired with a crazy idea.

I'm going to challenge myself to post every day for the next 30 days.  By the end of that, I'll either love it or hate it...and thus have my answer!  So, stay tuned, and try not to be overwhelmed by the sudden feast in the famine-land that is Finding Former Glory.

The 30 days of posts won't be earth-shattering.  I'll just try to give you little glimpses into my world, including entire rooms you've never seen.  And, for today, pets you've never met.

Did you know we have a pet?  Meet JoAnn:

JoAnn is my goldfish, who lives in the sewing room.  Can you guess how she got her name?  (My dad cleverly quipped, "You preferred that name to 'Mike' and 'AC'?")  Technically, she's JoAnn the Second, but with the proper care (which may or may not include an accidental flop on the bathroom floor last night whilst in transit from her regular bowl to the temporary during-cleaning bowl), she seems to be much healthier, and dare I even say happier than JoAnn the First.  

And she's a regular model.  I swear, I have never seen her swim around so much as during her photoshoot this evening.

She's definitely the best 13 cents I've ever spent.  :)  I don't anticipate that I'll ever be a dog-lover or cat-lover (owing to a scary childhood chasing incident with the former and allergies with the latter), but I sure do find a lot of happiness in having a goldfish!

See ya back here tomorrow for day 2 of my little challenge.  And, until then...what do you think?  To blog or not to blog??

Crowd Participation [How to Post Comments]

The purpose of this post is two-fold.  10% of the purpose is to say "Hey...I want to hear that you're out there!  Here's a not-so-subtle hint to post comments."  90% of the purpose is to help people out, because I've honestly heard several loyal blog readers say they've had trouble trying to get a comment posted.

And so, without further ado....How to Post a Comment!

1) At the bottom of each blog post, you will see the current number of comments (usually, 0, although theoretically that will change after you read this!)  Click on the link where it says comments (circled in red below)

2) After you click on the comment link, this screen will appear.  Type your comment in the big open box.

3) After typing your comment in the box, click on the drop-down arrow where it says "Select profile..."  From this list, select "Name/URL"

4) Type your name in the box, and leave the URL blank (unless you have your own website, and would like to share it).  Click continue.

5) Click "Post Comment"

6) Smile, because you just increased my comment count!  You should be able to see record at the bottom of the post, and when other people click on the Comment count, they can read what you wrote

I hope this makes sense!  If you have questions, let me know (although you'll have to find another means of communication if that's the case!)  :)  Thanks in advance for the comments, it really makes my day when people respond to my posts!

Psst!!!

I've (finally) updated my House Tour & About Me pages - click on the links at the top of the page to read more!  My about me is named "Who am I and What do I hope to find?" - this is Finding Former Glory, after all!

:)

Blog-olutions

Happy New Year!!

We're back from our fabulous whirlwind Christmas tour of Pennsylvania.  Our big trip meant lots of time with our wonderful family, lots of relaxation, and an even greater appreciation for home, sweet, home (we missed it after a week!)  The early parts of this week have brought lots and lots of projects, and it's starting to look like the former glory of this home may not be completely lost, and that we may even find it in the semi-near future!  Since returning to Ithaca, we've painted the bathroom ceiling, bought a washer and dryer (YAY), drywalled the new master bedroom closet, hung the trim on the closet & replaced the baseboard/crown in the room, built a work bench, and organized the basement.  I really can only claim credit for the painting and the purchasing...my hard-working hubby has done the rest.

Clearly I've got lots to show you in terms of renovations, but that's not the point of today's post.  I was thinking a bit about it being New Years and all, and considering those infamous New Years resolutions.  Don't worry, I'm not going to blab on about exercising or health food or anything.  I am thinking of New Years resolutions for my blogging.  Here's what I'd like to do with the blog in 2011:

1) More show, less tell.  I've heard from the grapevine that certain people (namely my lovable brother) actually boycot the text and only look at pictures.  For him, and for the rest of you, I'll try to take and post more pictures of our progress, rather than simply writing about it.  (P.S. Give me a pass on this entry...the increased viewing will begin next time I write a post!)

2) Forgetting perfection.  I'm a perfectionist (I know, HUGE shocker, especially to those of you who knew me in high school).  While I'm learning to let that go with a work-in-progress house, it definitely carries through on the blog.  I hesitate to post until I've come up with a creative title (my personal favorite here), taken nice pictures, completed a project, cleaned up, written a novel, etc, etc, etc.  I imagine that you'll all continue to read (and perhaps even enjoy it more) if I let go a bit and share things about the house and our progress a bit more organically.  At the end of the day, I didn't create the blog to impress you all, just to share with you because so many of those I love are far away from Ithaca!

3) Host a virtual open house. As a result of my perfectionist approach to sharing things online, as well as the limited number of hours in a day, I have yet posted a tour of the house. I'd like to work on sharing a before (and eventually after) room-by-room tour of our home. Maybe that can be a January-February resolution instead of a 2011 resolution - don't want to leave you hanging too long!

4) You tell me, what should this resolution be? Maybe it was just my family, but has anyone else ever had resolutions made for them?  Growing up, I often remember my mom saying, "Your New Year's resolution will be...[insert new good habit here]."  Most of the time, she filed in the blank for me with "going to bed earlier" because then, like now, I had more interests than could neatly be compacted into 16 waking hours.  I think it was really just her sweet way of showing us her love and her commitment to our continual growth as human beings.  And proof that mothers always know best.

But anyway, I find it's actually an enlightening experience to have other people make your resolutions for you.  Justin jumped right on the bandwagon when I told him about it, and assigned me to drink more water in 2011 (isn't it wonderful that I have all these loving people who care about my health & well-being!)  So, please (PLEASE!) let me know what you think I should do with my blog in 2011.  Perhaps you'd like to see more posts.  Fewer posts.  Less wordy posts.  Exclusively renovation posts.  Step-by-step how-we-did-it posts.  Perhaps you enjoy my posts where I detour from home renovation and write about other, only tangentially related, topics.  Maybe you hate reading those ones.  Maybe you'll keep reading no matter what I do (thanks, Mom & Dad!!) 

The bottom line is, there's no point in me writing a blog that you don't like to read, and as we've reviewed, I'm a pretty busy girl, so I don't want to waste my time.  Let me hear it - I want to know what you think my 2011 "blog-olutions" should be. 

Oh, and while we're at it, my New Year's resolution for YOU, dear readers, is to post more comments.  All you have to do go down to that little box at the bottom of the post where it says "Post a Comment."  Tell me what you think, ask a question, or just say hi, and click "Post Comment."  I simply like to know that you're out there in big-ol' cyberspace.  :)

Like the prodigal son...

There is much rejoicing (on my part, at least) that my camera battery recharger has been found! Lots of credit to Justin, who told me to look in his orange bag a week or more ago (but I didn't believe that it could have possibly ended up in there).

I also anticipate rejoicing on the part of my many (ha!) readers, as the long dry spell of posts will be coming to an end. In addition to finding the camera cord, we just submitted an order for a laptop!! I will soon be able to write blog posts without feeling like I'm stealing away valuable educational time from the Dr.-to-be.

Now we can all go slaughter the fattened turkey to celebrate! There's lots to be thankful for (even without the new found technology).

One tiny step for our house, one giant leap for the blog

Well, folks, I am [VERY HAPPILY] sitting on my front porch and typing a blog post.

This is a very exciting occasion in two regards:

1) THE INTERNET WORKS AT OUR HOUSE! Thanks to my genius engineer husband-to-be, there's a wireless router sending signals my way. As I mentioned in my last post, I have been waiting (mostly impatiently) for a while for a connection. My apartment doesn't have internet, so any online use was limited to a quick log-in on my lunch break. I feel a little silly for how lost I felt without being able to regularly check my email or google things, but I suppose it's simply a sign of the times. And besides, I've got some loyal readers to update on the amazing progress we've made at the house while Facebook wasn't a distraction :)

2) We have porch furniture and if you were to look only at the front porch, you'd think the house is set up and lived in! Granted, it is in fact lived in, but only in the sense that Justin is currently sleeping here - on a mattress in the kitchen. It has a long way to come indoors to looking like a real home, although day by day we see progress and get more excited about having a residence as opposed to a falling down structure.

With internet access, I plan to post blog entries much more frequently. I also have lots of pictures to share, but of course getting me, the computer, the camera, the camera cord, and the internet all in one place can be a challenge. As soon as I get the camera cord from the apartment, we'll be in business to show you the new porch furniture, our American flag, new light fixture, mailbox, and numbers, and many plants.

This weekend, I'm headed to Harrisburg for a dress fitting, taste testing, floral meeting, and other wedding planning. Justin will hold down the fort up here and work on the den. The floor is about half-way sanded using a belt sander, but Justin (after remarking that the belt sander feels like he's cleaning the floor with a toothbrush) plans to bring in the big guns this weekend with an orbital sander rental from Home Depot. We've picked out the wall color (brown) and the stain color for the floors, so we're getting close to having a finished interior space!

Woo! What an exciting day :)

It's all in a name...

This post's title is multi-purpose:

Post Title Purpose #1: To publicly laugh at myself. I have to admit that my number one reason for delaying in updating the blog is not having a clever title for the post. Kind of silly, but true. [As a side note, lack of pictures is a close second, but I convince myself that it's better to at least write something, even if I don't have photographic evidence of the work that's been done!]

Post Title Purpose #2: To explain yet another delay in house renovations. My closest friend from Bucknell changed her name this weekend! :) I had the ultimate pleasure of being the Maid of Honor for the very lovely Amanda. In addition to celebrating love and standing up next to a wonderful friend, it was wonderful to scrub the semi-permanent renovation dirt from under my nails and wear something other than work clothes. I also didn't mind riding out the remainder of the heat wave in an air-conditioned hotel!

Congratulations to Nick & Amanda on a beautiful day and a beautiful relationship. I love you guys! Congratulations, also, to another dear friend, Jillian, who also changed her name on Saturday. I was terribly disappointed at the overlap of dates of these two weddings, but I was there in spirit for Jillian as well! Kudos to facebook for confirming that Jillian was a beautiful bride!

Post Title Purpose #3: To expand upon the name of my blog. "Finding Former Glory." When we were house shopping, Justin and I tended to name the houses we visited. "Jail house" (the place with the metal bar divider in the living room). "Ugly chimney place" (name self explanatory). "Cozy danger" (a lovely place that we disqualified due to the scary landing at the top of the steps that was just asking for someone to fall down). One house that particularly stuck out for me was one that Justin called "No former glory." This house was (like most we saw) a fixer-upper. However, we noticed that being relatively new and relatively shabbily-built, there wasn't a lot of charm or previous beauty that we could restore. Seeing that house was a turning point in our house search, as it helped us to better understand our intrinsic wishes for a home (and, obviously, inspired my blog title!)

This is beginning to be a very long introduction to a very simple, and exciting announcement. I was thinking of all this former glory business today when we were at the house. We pulled up the carpet in the living room and den. After also pulling up the carpet pad and the linoleum, we found beautiful hardwood floors. (!!!!!) We had suspected that the floors might be nice [I have a picture from inspection of Justin pointing this out, which I would show you if they were easily accessible at the moment. Please see aforementioned lack-of-photo disclaimer], but after the kitchen ceiling discovery, my hope for the under-carpet discovery was hesitant to say the least.

However, this evening under all these layers, WE FOUND FORMER GLORY! The floors are not only beautiful wood, they may not even need refinished. The center of the living room is still practically gleaming (minus the dust we stirred up in the process). The outer edge has some black paint (we're not sure exactly why), but I've been pretty successful thus far in scraping this paint off with favorable results for the wood there, as well.

What a rewarding feeling to restore something to its original splendor. We're a long way from saying that for the whole house, but these floors certainly feel like a great first step!

In the other good news department, a few other announcements: 1) my first "solo" day at work (without the former coordinator) went well. 2) I found a fabulous little apartment to rent until October, so I'm pretty thrilled to be upgrading from the air mattress. 3) Word on the street is that people actually read my blog. Woo hoo for readers! :)

By way of introduction...

Among many other dreams, I have always wanted an old house to renovate. Like my desire to make a quilt (check), stand on the Four Corners (not yet), and go snorkeling in tropical waters (maybe someday), I have wanted to fix up an old house for as long as I can remember. I've also dreamed of my prince charming - as my friends can attest, I've hoped and prayed for a "tall Catholic who can cook in a microwave."

And yesterday - my dreams came true! Together with my wonderful fiance, Justin (who happens to be tall, Catholic, AND has the microwave skills I lack), I closed on a house in Ithaca, NY.



Our new house isn't really so new - it was built in 1880. There are many, many, MANY projects to come, but we're excited.

Because we'll be relatively far from friends and family - and because after completing even small projects I have the same feeling I had running home from the school bus after kindergarten with artwork to show my mom, I've decided to create a blog. I hope you enjoy watching our progress as much as we enjoy finding the former glory of our house!