Trying Small Steps

2011 - A new year - A new beginning ....

I planned the end of 2010 to make the most of the Advent and Christmas seasons. And while in the midst of those seasons I wanted to enjoy and truly savor for what they brought, I started planning the beginning of the new year. And somehow I missed enjoying the Advent and Christmas seasons. And my first week of the new year was good. We got some of the plans implemented and I started planning for Lent - the next season. And then God decided to stop me: the family got the stomach bug and I stopped doing and stopped planning and then just plain stopped. And after a couple days of not doing, or planning, or thinking, I got up.

And that first morning after, I got up to a quiet house and poured myself a cup of coffee (and can I tell you, after 3 days of no coffee, it tasted pretty darn good) and sat down in Momma's Red Chair  and decided to see what was in my very large, neglected reading basket. And I found Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss' book Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Now, even a few short months ago, I would have looked at the calendar and saw "January 14" and thought: "too late to start now, I'll put it away for next January 1st." Really. No, really, I would have ignored the book for 50 weeks until the 'right' time to start. But the Holy Spirit nudged and I opened to January 14, well, actually I had to read January 13 first, and decided to try something new this year. I was going to write in a small notebook each morning the "Think" for the day and my thougths on the 'Think' and then try to do the 'Act'. January is the month for "JOY". Yeah, I need to practice that more often. A good place for me to start. Excitement welled and January 14, 2011 was good.

Today, I was discouraged. I have managed 2 days. Yep, that's it: 2 days. (and that does include the first day) The book is "Small Steps" and I think I turned it into "Big-Giant Steps". So my small steps went backwards and my attitude and behavior this week did not reflect any joy. I needed to adjust the size of my steps. So I decided to get on the computer and ignore the dishes and laundry and school work, just for a little while, and see what was up in the blog-world. And look what I found tonight: Elizabeth has started:

So, on Tuesdays, I can visit other Catholic Moms taking small steps. And maybe, holding on to others, and having others hold on to me, I can keep the small steps small. Maybe you can join us.