Not Alone Series: NFP

Hello hello!

Jen was slated to host this week but alas! her computadora decided to die, so we're at my place again!

This week we're talking anything and everything NFP!

While I know that there are a number of ways to practice NFP, the most common method around these parts is the Creighton Model, so for the remainder of this post, if I don't specifiy, you can assume that by "NFP" I mean "Creighton Model".

I know that there are many single ladies out there who have already ventured into the land of charting, but I am not one of those people. It's not for a lack of interest, oh no. I could talk about charting and all that good stuff for ages...I guess I just haven't felt the need to start up yet.

Although, there was a point in college when a doctor diagnosed me with PCOS (due to irregular cycles and horrendous acne) and I considered trying to learn to chart since I knew a FOCUS missionary who was becoming a Creighton Model practitioner and offered to teach a bunch of us for cheap. But I was busy and ignorant and didn't take advantage of that opportunity. Charting can really help you figure out what's going on with your body without any medical treatment...just observing what your body naturally does?! That's basically it? How freaking awesome is that?!

turns out either I was mis-diagnosed or my PCOS doesn't effect my health at all because an endocrinologist did tons of tests and didn't find anything out of the ordinary....and I've now been "regular" for almost a year :) 

I do see a huge advantage in learning to chart pre-engagement because if it takes you a while to get the hang of it, there's no rush. Also, it will become more of a habit and you'll likely have a better understanding of your body before trying to figure it out with someone else.

However, I wonder if starting to practice NFP before being engaged will take away some of that teamwork-ness that I hear my engaged and married friends growing in. Because this is new to the both of them, they both are learning together and growing together in that experience. Perhaps not all guys will feel left out, but I wonder if some guys would feel like they're behind the ball if their fiancee is already an NFP expert. Just a thought.

Regardless, NFP has definitely become more and more popular...there are even apps for charting!! That in and of itself might be enough to make me want to start up!!! Does it get any easier than that?!

What is your experience with NFP/what are your thoughts? Link up below!!!

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Next week's topic:
Careers as a Vocation?

How do we know what God's call is for us if we are focused on our careers? Is it appropriate to focus on that career and then get married/enter religious life later? Or maybe the call/vocation IS the career and you could be single?

October 8: Fav Recipes... for one!

Link-up your favorite one-person meal recipes! It's hard to cook for one sometimes and we could all use some help!

October 15: Chastity as a Single Person

Physical or Emotional. What are your struggles? How do you overcome them?

October 22: Patience

Do you find yourself becoming really impatient, or struggling with your life to "really" begin? If so, how do you combat it? Do you do anything? How can we support one another in this area?

7 Quick Takes (28)

Linking up with Jen, et al.

oh hey there....I just realized that I haven't pounded one of these bad boys out since May.

MAY, people. I've gotta get this shiz together.

hopefully I remember how to do one of these things...

[1] Last weekend, my dear cousin Ryan was married and oh man, what a party. He and I were the ringbearer and flowergirl, respectively, in his parents' wedding....20 YEARS AGO.
And now he's married. 

So crazy.

I couldn't be happier for Ry....expect that now I'm "next in line" to be wed as the second oldest grandchild. Wahhhhh

[2] This article. A must read for EVERYONE. I don't care if you aren't single....read it. And if you ARE single, you better read it right now. Do it.

[3] My little baby cousin Mason Oliver was born on Wednesday! SOSOSO excited that the next round of baby-bearing years on this side of my family has begun! 

[4] Do you pray novenas? Do you want to pray novenas? Click here to discover an awesome tool to help you pray more novenas. The next one starts on Sunday to St. Therese!

[5] This:

[6] I love this interview with Fr. Rocky of Relevant Radio in Chicago and hope to write about my thoughts on Pope Francis's interview next week.

[7] Tonight I get to hangout with my very best friend doing one of my very favorite things.  Fo free.
I CANNOT WAIT.

Check out other 7QTs over at Jen's and have a splendid weekend!

xo, mo

Not Alone Series:Favorite "Mom" Bloggers

I'm so excited that this week for the NAS we're focusing on giving our favorite "mommy bloggers" a shout-out! Just because those of us participating in the NAS desire to create a community of single folks we can relate to doesn't mean that we hate other bloggers who are married and have kids! Not at all! Some of my very favorite bloggers have kids and we wanted to give them a little love because, well, they're flippin' sweet!

Disclaimer: I'm aware that most bloggers of this nature despise the term "mommy blogger", but it's an easy way to distinguish between bloggers with kids and those without, so I hope they'll forgive me.

Camp Patton

via

I'm just going to go ahead and get Grace et al out of the way...I'm sure you've all had the pleasure of meeting the Patton crew, but if not WHAT ROCK HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER?!?! If you've read my blog evereverever you're probably aware of my obsession with Julia. No worries, I love Bash and Theo too, but I'll like 'em better when they're spouting off one-liners like their big sis. I really love Grace's honest writing style and how she just puts it all out there. It's refreshing to read an honest take on parenting.

Romancing Reilly

via

Martha is one of those moms you see on the street who makes you stop and think "woah...I hope I'm that fashionable when I'm a mom..." ...at least that's what I think I would think should I ever meet her in person. Throw in her witty writing and the best pics of Mr. Sebastian (his comb-over is to.die.for.) and you've got a great combo. PLUS I'm itching to try her Green Rice!

Cedars and Tiny Flowers

via

I just really really really REALLY want to be Katrina's friend. Not only is she just like the cutest pregnant person on the planet, but I'm pretty sure she has no idea how funny she is. Like for realz, y'all. Plus she always manages to capture Ryan's little "who, me?" face. Love.

Imperfections Welcomed

via

I've been reading Natasha's blog for awhile now....I'm not really sure how I found her, but her 2 girls are precious! She doesn't always post a whole lot, but when she does, they're gems! Plus, "Imperfections, welcomed" seems like the perfect title...not only for motherhood, but life in general!

Those Landrys

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I actually knew Alisha about 4ish years ago when her and her husband lived in BloNo and she was working part-time at the Newman Center. Back then it was just little Joan and I'd babysit her for a couple hours a few times a week while Alisha worked in the office. Those Landrys moved back down to their Cajun roots a few years ago, but it's great to be able to keep seeing their family grow. Alisha's Verbatim posts are my absolute fav...her girls are hilarous!!!

Mama needs coffee.

via

Jenny and her fam just moved back from living in ROME for a number of months (6?) and you might recognize her son John-Paul as one of the last babies to be kissed by Pope Benedict. Um yeah. Freakin' awesome. Aaaanyway, Jenny has a real knack for making me spew whatever I'm drinking onto my computer, she's that hilar. Again, it's refreshing to not read a sugar-coated version of what parenting is like.

Welllll, I feel like a total creep....and it's worse that I could have gone on and on and on, but I tried to rein in the creepy for the time being.

Who are your favorite mom bloggers? Link up with us below!

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Next week's topic:

 NFP, baby! ;)

So, who's begun charting?! How is it going? What advice do you have/what method do you use? If you haven't, is something holding you back? Are you considering starting up?

October 1: Careers as a Vocation?
How do we know what God's call is for us if we are focused on our careers? Is it appropriate to focus on that career and then get married/enter religious life later? Or maybe the call/vocation IS the career and you could be single?

October 8: Fav Recipes... for one!

Link-up your favorite one-person meal recipes! It's hard to cook for one sometimes and we could all use some help!

October 15: Chastity as a Single Person

Physical or Emotional. What are your struggles? How do you overcome them?

October 22: Patience

Do you find yourself becoming really impatient, or struggling with your life to "really" begin? If so, how do you combat it? Do you do anything? How can we support one another in this area?

alternatively....

I've talked before about my affinity for alternative rock. But lately, the genre "alternative" has come to include folk and electronic....it's not just the alternative rock that I grew up knowing and loving.

NOT that I'm complaining...I actually love "Today's Alternative"...it just took some getting used to.

The following are my Top Ten Alt Songs. I don't think the critics know what they're doing when the top ten Alt songs of the day are played....these are clearly the best.

And maybe these kinds of posts aren't your thing....that's ok, feel free to move along, but it's because of Bonnie that I discovered Adele way back when, so maybe stick around...you never know what you're gonna like!

Also, some of the videos are weird, it might be best if you just listen, mmkay? :)


Royals - Lorde





Pompeii - Bastille





Chocolate - The 1975





Trying to be Cool - Phoenix





I Will Wait - Mumford and Sons





Dark Horses - Switchfoot





Gone, Gone, Gone - Phillip Phillips





Feel Again - OneRepublic





Pumping Blood - NONONO





Wake Me Up - Avicii



xo mo

sitting waiting wishing....

....for some normalcy.

Perhaps you've noticed that really all I've been posting lately are my NAS contributions. Or maybe not.

Either way, world, I've been less-than-present for the past couple months for a couple of reasons:

1. I'm fundraising my salary.

2. I moved into my new apt Aug 1st....and haven't set up internet

BUT this week, I FINALLY got the interwebs connected in my new place. I'm uber happy and really did not think that I could make it this long. I don't have a data plan, so basically after I left work, I was without wifi.

Aaaaaand the library closes at 9PM, so from then on I was forced to do without.
Forced.

I read 5 Nicholas Sparks books in 2 weeks. No joke.

Actually, I semi-chose to wait. Since I'm travelling so much for work, it didn't really make sense to pay for wifi I wasn't using.

But I've reached my breaking point, so if I can ever drag myself away from the beauty that is Netflix (thanks Kevin and Liz for letting me use your account!!!), I'll be blogging a tad more often.
I do have 32 drafts I could work on....

However, I might be eating my own words since I'm still quite a ways away from being "fully funded" and have to keep going until that's done.

Shameless plug:
The Lord has been pushing me to use every possible resource at my fingertips (quite literally at this moment), it is now that I humbly ask that if you and yours are at all interested in joining my monthly support team and helping me to get back on campus, please contact me. I'm not going to post the info here to keep a semblance of privacy for my organization, but if you contact me directly, I would be more than thrilled to chat with you about how you can directly help to build a Culture of Life.

Thanks and I promise to write soon!!!

xo, mo

Not Alone Series: Can/Should a Woman Pursue a Man?

This is a topic that my friends (girls and guys alike) and I have argued about discussed numerous times and I know that everyone has a slightly different opinion, so I'm excited to read what others think!!!

Alright. In thinking about this topic, I'll admit that I find myself having conflicting opinions. It's a dilemma.
And so in order to better organize my thoughts and therefore to make for easier reading, I'm going to break it down a bit this week.

Men are Hunters

Ok, cheesy, but it's true. Men were created to be protectors and hunters and pursuers.
They have an innate desire to be the ones to step up to a challenge and conquer.
I'm not suggesting that we should view women as something to conquer, no. But in understanding that men were created this way, we can understand that perhaps this is how it is meant to be. Perhaps men are to be the ones who "chase".

I had someone tell me once that if a woman pursues a man, gone is the "challenge"
...if the guy doesn't like the girl, he might accept her pursuit and start something up because it was the easiest option at the moment...but he likely won't appreciate/value what they have because he didn't have to fight for it.
On the other hand, if the guy does like the girl who's pursuing him, he might feel like she's taking his job, or revoking part of his manly duty.

I'm not sure that I completely agree with this, however, I have seen relationships that start up (and are really unhealthy) simply because the girl threw herself at the guy and he just wanted to be with someone. Not good.

So Women Are to Sit and Wait?!

Ugh. I don't know.
This is where I begin to disagree with myself.

Because let's be honest, it doesn't make sense that a woman should be able to just sit and wait and have Prince Charming come and sweep her away. (believe me, I've tried that)

This goes back to the NAS Challenge from a few weeks ago....if we aren't putting anything out there to take a step toward our vocation, then how do we expect to receive anything?

I had this realization a couple months after I graduated from college....how the heck do we expect guys to want to pursue us if we don't give them ANY inclination that we're interested? I feel like sometimes we Christian women take the whole "let a man pursue you" to the extreme. Allowing men to pursue to doesn't mean sit in a coffeeshop with a scowl on your face and avoiding eye contact and then be upset because the cute guy you noticed didn't approach you.

I just immediately thought of Nikki's NAS challenge and remember how proud I was of her for deciding to try to smile more often...and the results she had were amazing!!!

I mean, ladies, let's put ourselves in the guys' shoes.
If you see a cute girl you recognize from class or the gym or church, but she never makes eye contact, never a smile in your direction, no inclination that she just might be interested in talking to you....what would you do?
I can tell you right now that there's no way in heck I would try to strike up a conversation! I would be more likely to approach the girl who noticed me, made eye contact, and smiled. That's it. For many confident guys, that's all it would take.

Can vs Should

"Can women pursue men?" is very different from "Should women pursue men?"

So yes, women physically can pursue men, but should we? I'm not so sure.
I think there's a delicate line to walk between being open and approachable and being the desperate throwing-herself-at-you girl.

As far as the particulars go, I'm no expert, but I make an effort to not be the one to always text or call or whatever. Any guy I'm interested in is going to have to put some work in too. I'm not going to ask him on a date or approach him for his number.
But I will invite him to come with a group of friends to a party or dinner and I might even *gasp* walk up and introduce myself if I've never met him before (depending on the setting of course...)

I'm not a proponent of the motto of "today's women" that screams "who says girls can't ask a guy out? there's no rules!" Because like everything in life, there is an order and all of that was put in place by the one who knows what he's doing.

So what do you think? Can/should women pursue men? Does it matter? Hop on over to Jen's to see what others are saying and to link-up your post!

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Next week's topic:

Fave Mom Blogs

We can't always relate to them, but we can learn a TON! Plus, we want them to know how much we love them, too!

September 24: NFP, baby! ;)
So, who's begun charting?! How is it going? What advice do you have/what method do you use? If you haven't, is something holding you back? Are you considering starting up?

October 1: Careers as a Vocation?
How do we know what God's call is for us if we are focused on our careers? Is it appropriate to focus on that career and then get married/enter religious life later? Or maybe the call/vocation IS the career and you could be single?

October 8: Fav Recipes... for one!Link-up your favorite one-person meal recipes! It's hard to cook for one sometimes and we could all use some help!

October 15: Chastity as a Single PersonPhysical or Emotional. What are your struggles? How do you overcome them?

October 22: PatienceDo you find yourself becoming really impatient, or struggling with your life to "really" begin? If so, how do you combat it? Do you do anything? How can we support one another in this area?


Jen and I are so still SO thrilled that the Not Alone Series is still going so well. :) Have you been enjoying it? Do you think anything needs to change? Frequency of posts still good? Is letting you know the topics ahead of time helpful? We just like to check-in every so often to make sure this is actually fruitful for you. We are always open to other ideas/changes/suggestions.

And as always, in order to keep these posts going, we need your suggestions! Jen and I only have so many ideas!! ...well, maybe that's not true...but this isn't just about what WE want to talk about, it's about ALL of us! Email me, email Jen, tweet me or Jen, smoke signal...whatever works!

blessed.

I couldn't help but overhear a young girl (college aged) talking in a coffeeshop the other day about her entire faith life journey.

She was telling her friend about how her family jumped from church to church and how she struggled to ever find a place where she felt at home. Her family would choose different churches based on what they were looking for at that point in their lives but when they would outgrow a church, they'd move on.

It sounded like she had finally found a faith community that she loved, but there was so much hurt in her voice when she spoke of her past. That restlessness. That searching for "the right fit".

I sat there trying not to eavesdrop. Trying to pretend like I was actually working on work rather than listening to her story.

As I knelt in Adoration last night, I couldn't help but remember this conversation.
It's times like these that I'm reminded of how grateful for the Truth of the Catholic Church.
I feel so blessed to have been raised in the Church.
While I've had my own search for Truth and belonging, I always knew deep down that I could go to the Church for answers to my endless questions.

Thank you Jesus for your Church.
And thank you for your love.

Not Alone Series: Peace

This week, we posed the questions "Where do you find peace? How do you keep it? If you struggle finding/keeping peace, what's holding you back?"

(inspired by Jen's Follow the Peace post)

When I was a freshman in college, I knew a missionary who forever changed my perspective on "peace".

She would talk about certain situations or people she'd encountered that "took her peace" and how she would avoid anything that could potentially take her peace.

I'd never thought about peace in that way, and now we're talking about not only how to keep that peace, but where to find it! I can think of lots of things that take my peace, but I think it's much more productive to identify what DOES bring me peace so I can continue to seek those things out!

Productivity

Ending a day when I've accomplished so much brings me peace. I like being a productive person. I LOVE lists and being able to cross most (if not all!) of it off brings me waves of peace that stay with me. To keep this peace I try to avoid anything that will stand in the way of my productiveness. Like multiple coffee breaks or too many trips out of the office. I try to consolidate my day and make a P.O. run at the same time as Office Depot to make the most of my time.

Not being lazy

I find peace when I give my all throughout my day. It's when I hit the snooze button too many times, or waste time on Facebook at work, or take a too-long lunch, or just don't get enough done that I lose my peace. This links with the first point, but they're different because I can not be lazy on the weekends without being super productive. I make an effort on a daily basis to shake off laziness in order to keep my peace. I always feel unsettled going to bed at night when I know that I was just a slug of a person that day.

Sacraments

The beauty of our Catholic faith is that I can receive this source of peace on the daily. But it's when my laziness gets in the way that this peace is stolen from me. Ugh. I have the opportunity to go to mass and/or confession every. single. day. [since my office is right under the chapel] But as much as I know that mass ALWAYS brings me peace, there are days when I just can't tear myself away from work. It's frustrating. So I try to schedule it into my day (or better yet, put it on my to-do list!) and make it a priority.

Prayer

Being centered in prayer gives me the peace I need to keep chugging along. Even if I only pray in the morning and at night before bed, I really try to make SOME time to speak with our Lord. One thing that really helps me is to always be praying a novena or something like that. I've prayed multiple novenas to St. Anne and St. Joseph and Pray More Novenas helps with that, too!

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm excited to read about how YOU find peace! Share and link up below!

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Next week's topic:

Should/can women pursue men?

What do you think? Any and all perspectives welcome!!!

Jen and I are making a new topic schedule! Is there anything you'd like to talk about? Please email me or email Jen and let us know! We want to write about what YOU'RE interested in! :)