{WWRW} Small Steps

 

Linking up with Housewife Spice this week for an evening installment of What We're Reading Wednesday.




First up, hooray for Madeline at Dash of Snark - she won the book I put up for giveaway last week!




We're as scientific as second grade over here, and I was rooting for everyone, so I had my impartial 8 y/o pull a name from the ski hat....we're from the Midwest :)

I crumpled everyone's for good luck - because isn't that how you win a raffle?

Little Bean finds it a little challenging to read my handwriting

Maybe you do too...but it says Madeline!

Let's all be friends are pretend you didn't notice how dirty my living room or computer are.  Thanks friend.

Next order of business will be getting that sent out this week.  Hope you love it Madeline!

Now, on to what I've been reading this week - or trying to read.

About a month ago, I won a giveaway at Revolution of Love.  I got a copy of Small Steps for Catholic Moms.  The first couple weeks, I was very good about reading it, but last week, I wasn't so great.  So, I made a commitment to be more diligent this week.  I've done it nearly every day.  Since we had construction on the house this week, I'm going to call that a win.

To be fair, I haven't actually finished the book.  Since there's a page for every day of the year, it's going to be a while before that report.

The book is divided by month.  Each month is given a theme.  The month of November is Gratitude.  Next month, I'll be reflecting on Peace, and couldn't we all use a little more of that!

Each day is broken down into three segments; Think, Pray, and Act.

The "Think" section is a quote from a thoughtful person like Chesterton or Mother Teresa.  The "Pray" section is a prayer directed to God by the reader, bringing the "Think" section before God as a petition.  The "Act" section is really where I become a C student.  I'm good at acting on the "Act" days where the action is reaching out in community to share gifts....I'm really bad at acting when it's something like journaling or making a photo collage.  Still, going through those three things every morning...or sometimes at lunch when I'm sitting for the first time that day, helps to really give that day some concrete intention.

This book also ties so well into the Matthew Kelly talk I attended at the beginning of the month.  He really emphasized working on becoming the best versions of ourselves by taking away one thing the Holy Spirit was calling us to do to be better that week.  This is like taking that and breaking it into even smaller bite-sized pieces.

I'd recommend this read to a Catholic mom (I'm just going with the title here) who feels like she has NO TIME in her day for prayer.  I feel like that a lot, and this book is really helping me find those places of opportunity to make my day more intentional and prayer-filled, just by acknowledging that the playdate with another mom can be a part of my day's prayer.

This book came in the mail during a particularly bad week for me, and it's been helping me get through a time when prayer is hard to come by.

Thanks to Bobbi, I scored another free read for next week.  It's billed as a Catholic thriller, so we'll see how my nerves are next week.  Free on Amazon for Kindle download until November 21, I'll be having weird dreams and staying up late thanks to Don't You Forget About Me this week.

See what everyone else is reading at Housewife Spice!