Hi. Hi there.  Jen is busy being fabulous and throwing an enormous Catholic mommy blogger conference in Texas right now, and she asked me to host for my favorite link up ever! Probably this is the second best thing next to getting to actually go to Edel. So welcome to my litter blerg, all ye who visit.

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Quick intro!

I’m Carolyn and I like warm hugs. sometimes. …after I’ve been given approximately 6+ sleeping hours of not being touched or pulled on or summoned to feed anyone.  After that, I’m good until about noon and then a nerve in my neck starts tweaking and I need more coffee and baked goods to survive until sleep time.

Not really. Kind of.
I’m an introvert who played extrovert for the majority of my youth, and I still do while out in public.  I love my Cathycathcatholic faith and have a special devotion to Saint John Paul II.  I’m a big fat art nerd who never totally fit the artsy stereotype mostly because I had inner conflict over the purpose in life for creating art (my main village man JPII helped me iron that out though).  I was a pretty solid tomboy growing up and played a bunch of sports, but now the idea of sweating makes me feel like taking a nap.  My first job was an Umpire for jr. high baseball and fast pitch softball, and I was hollering “YERRRRROUT!” until my late teens. I did, however, work for many years in a mom & pop coffee shop.   So there you go, artist cliché. meh.

Then I got married to a handsome fellow, had 3 boys, and here I am, spitting wifedom and motherhood out all over this blog.  Welcome!  If you’re dying for more, visit my “About Me” page where I drag it on and on and on.

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I’ve never met a famous person in a setting where I actually get to talk with them one on one, but I’ve always been completely confident that I’d handle being starstruck as not even a thing.  Like, I’d play it so cool, maybe the famous person would wonder to himself, “wait, am I famous?”  And I’d leave with completely dry armpits. No big deal, we are all human here. Everybody poops.

So, Craig and I went to a homeschooling conference recently.  Dr. Ray Guarendi and Colleen Hammond were the two key speakers of this event, and afterwards, we had the opportunity to meet them, chat, and purchase their books, of course.

Craig and I walked swaggered up to Colleen’s table and before I knew it, my mouth was speaking much faster than my brain knew what to do with it.
“Ahh! I read your book when I was in high school! I feel like I KNOW YOU! Of course, you have no idea who I am, but I feel like you’re my family, or like you’re an old… OLD…”

And that’s when my brain stopped working. Some distant, conscious part of it was crying no! Not now! You can’t just trail off at the word OLD!

“—FRIEND!”

General sigh of relief over an awkward save.  I steered clear of Dr. Ray.

And this is why I would not fare well at Edel.

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Which, my sentiments of not attending The Edel Gathering are of a recovering depressed person.  If you want to join the pity party, I partied here.  Come, do the Frodo dive into Mount Doom with me.  Really, though, I’m at a good place with it and I hope I hope I hope YOU and I will make it one fine day to a future Edel Gathering.

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Today is also the close of Natural Family Planning  Awareness week.  I blurted my point two cents about it here.  But more excitingly is the mega give-away action going down at Simcha’s blog.  She’s got so much to give away, the odds HAVE to be in my favor to win a copy of her book!  Go visit!

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Looky here, looky here!  My close friend, Heather, is a talented photographer, editor, and business woman, and she slapped my big ol’ face on her site.  If you’re in the Cincinnati area needing portraits taken, give her a holler.  If you’re looking for some solid coaching on how to make your own photography look great asap, go see what she’s got to offer.

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My current craftycraft thing I’m doing is crocheting blanket #2 of 3 for my boys –but Pinterest got me all jazzed over crocheting a huge rug from cut-up cotton tee shirts.  The itch to attempt it has become too great, and the box in my closet filled with ancient t-shirts to throw away overfloweth, so I began!  I’ve grammed a few shots of the progress, but I hope to turn it into a full throttle how-to post because it’s going just swell.  Interested in that kind of thing?  No? Oh well.

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Welp. I blogged, which can only mean one thing:

It was so fun to host 7QT!  I hope no one nodded off more than twice.  Prayers for all the ladies attending Edel this weekend: for safe travels, fun times, and a minimum amount of embarrassing social awkwardness!  Congratulations, Jen and Hallie, on your partay!