7QT on my week in KC [18]

--- 1 ---

The main part of my week was a fundraising spree. Four Masses over the weekend, lots of phone calls and appointments, newsletter sending, and relationship building with old and new mission partners. Sharing the mission of FOCUS with new people always energies me, and this weekend was no different. I went from an anxious/nervous wreck to singing on my way home from Mass.

--- 2 ---

Kurt was one of my closest friends after I moved to KC in high school. We were together all the time and always had so much fun. I don't think I've seen or spoken to him since our freshman year of college, so it was a treat to get to meet up with him for breakfast on Tuesday.

Kurt is in his second year of med school, so his life is all about studying right now. Ever since I've known him, he has wanted to be a doctor, so it is cool to see him well on his way to achieving that dream.

--- 3 ---

I love that some friends from other places have moved to KC, because that means I get to see them whenever I come home. Megan is my big in DG, and she is a super great friend. I love that we are still good friends and that I get to see her fairly often.

--- 4 ---

So...this happened...

look at that color and that shark! ah!

I AM SO STINKING EXCITED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY. I've been watching youtube videos and practicing and learning and it is so so so fun! I am definitely in D1 (zero skills, and pretty excited), and I'm basically as good as this guy. I mean, I can already play You are My Sunshine. Watch out, hollywood, I'm coming for you.

--- 5 ---

There was a very sad moment to my week. My new roomies are allergic to cats, so I had to say goodbye to Kateri for a short while. Megan graciously agreed to watch for until both of the girls with allergies move out this summer.

so glamorous.

Maybe I'll get a plant instead.

--- 6 ---

On Monday I drove up to see Tommy (the older of my two brothers) at KU and took him to lunch. Oh my gosh, he is just living the dream in college. He lives in the honors dorm and was telling me all about the community his floor has built. They hang out together all the time and have these fun games that remind me of camp that they play. It was so weird to see him in college (I can't believe I'm this old), but really neat to see KU from his eyes.

--- 7 ---

In exactly ONE WEEK I will be on my way to MEXICO! My mom called me a little while back and offered to take me along with her and my sister and I am just so excited. It will be nice to relax and spend some quality time with them. This trip ends my whirlwind of a life and I (hopefully) won't be traveling for awhile after this trip. But, this was the perfect way to end all traveling.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

February In Review

I set some pretty specific goals that had to do with budgeting this month. I even made this fancy image:

Which came first: the image or the goals? We may never know.

Let's talk about how I did:

1. Actually read Dave Ramsey's book. 

• Fail. Didn't do this. But I did sit through a very long heated debate on my way to Asheville about Dave Ramsey and his methods. So that kind of counts, right? No? Shoot...

2. Read one of my fundraising books before I go home to fundraise.

• Again...fail.

3. DEAL IN CASH. 

• Semi success? I did this for 2 weeks and then I stopped and then I did it again this last week. 3/4. I stopped mainly because I don't have a bank in Colorado and getting cash is hard. Those weeks I did have cash, I stuck to my quasi-budget, which is good!

4. Do a budget analysis.

• nailedit. I feel like I have a pretty decent idea of where all my money goes. I'm overall pretty happy with it, but now I've identified areas that I can cut back and put that money towards some of my financial goals! Hooray, being informed!

5. Set some financial goals.

• naileditagain. This one was really fun. When Emily visited at the beginning of the month, we talked about taking a trip together in a year or two. So I spent some time with that goal, which was fun to start dreaming up. Unfortunately, the rest of my goals looked pretty much like, "save money," "don't go into debt," and "don't spend all your money on things you don't need" because I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. 

Moving forward...I definitely want to keep moving on some of these. Like reading Dave Ramesy's book and dealing in cash and making progress on my financial goals. I think the main big next step is to set a budget and stick to it. Doing this will allow me to implement some of these goals that I want to turn into habits. 

Some February highlights:

• Emily's visit
• The Smokies Greek Getaway
• My dating fast post
• Speaking at my parish about FOCUS
• Working from home this week
• Cinderella, the ballet
• Visiting Tommy at KU

Cheers, friends. March is my birthday month, so it's about to get real.

scarves for the homeless

background image via.

Hey all you knitters and crocheters!

My good friend, Dana, works at Catholic Charities in Fort Collins, Colorado. She coordinates volunteers and does other cool stuff.

She accepts my taxidermy squirrel...

She even goes above and beyond and leads a Bible study for the women on Tuesday nights.

However, it's cold out here in Colorado. Especially if you're homeless.

That's why I'm helping Dana out by knitting a scarf (or two) for the women in her Bible study. Will you join me? She only needs 10. That's 9 more (or 8 if I can whip one out pretty quickly). Thank you, Dana, for this opportunity to glorify God through yarn. And crafting.

Email michelle[dot]lippoli[at]gmail[dot]com for more information on where to send your scarf!

PS - Denver peeps, I'm thinking of having a knitting night or two in March so we can hang out while we knit! I'll keep you posted.

Trusting Jesus in my Art

I was complaining to myself earlier today that 1. I hadn't posted anything for this 7postsin7days business yet, and 2. it was really, really hard to write this week.

Then I sat down to write, and I finished off two pieces that have been sitting in my Evernote for awhile, made some good progress on a few posts I've been wanting to write, and started a mini-series I've been wanting to do for awhile now.

But I didn't want to publish any of them. I wanted to save them for later, edit them up, add some images, make them more perfect. But most of all, I wanted to protect myself for future weeks with some back up posts. I wanted to schedule one a week, so I could feel confident in my blogging stability for the next few months. Get ahead, you know?

The question I must ask myself is if I truly believe I have been called to share this and gifted with writing, why don't I trust myself or Jesus with what I'm creating?

So though I chose to write this instead for today's post, those other posts will come out later this week. I'm choosing to trust myself with this skill I have developed and Jesus with the gift he has blessed me with.

And, I'm combating my perfectionism by keeping this short and image-less. :)

7x7: Writing

7 posts in 7 days. Woof. I signed up on Jen's blog and now I'm telling you all about it, so that means I have to do it...right? Right.

I actually am really excited about this and I want to do it. Ever since I've implemented this 6-step planning process in my life, one of my main roles each week is a writer. And a goal for the past 3 weeks has been to find writing exercises and do them three times a week. And...I have not done that yet. So this 7x7 project is going to be my writing exercises for the week. Thanks for bearing with me.

Of course, now that I've committed to doing this, I can't think of anything to write. Recently, someone told me that writer's block is not a real thing. That only writing when you feel intensely inspired is laziness and we stifle our creativity when we do this. A little intense, yes, but also motivating. I've been in the place where I only write when an incredible idea comes to me...and that just leads to disconnected and incomplete pieces. I don't want to live in a place of perfectionism and inconsistency. No, I want to be a writer who pushes through and makes her work a priority. I want to write when the writing is hard and bad so I can improve it and grow. So this week, I'm focusing on my writing goals.

I actually have a lot of writing goals

• Make a facebook page
• Figure out a layout/branding I actually like
• Set readership goals
• Dedicate some time to writing each week instead of just doing it sporadically

...but I'm really good at brainstorming goals and not actually following through. I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately....hmm. Maybe I should figure out how to work on that.

Anyways, that's going to be all for today. Thanks for reading, and coming a long for this 7x7 journey. Thank you for giving me an outlet to grow as a writer and have fun along the way. Hopefully, we can create something amazing together this week.

7QT on moving and traveling [17]

--- 1 ---

I've been moving this week, so I've been MIA. I found an awesome Living Social deal that allowed me to pay $50 for an hour with 2 movers and a truck!!!!!! Seriously, it was the best decision I ever made. They carried all my heavy things and then brought them to my new apartment. Praise God for movers, because I hate carrying boxes to/from the car.

--- 2 ---

Speaking of things I hate: packing/cleaning is another big one. It is seriously the worst. But...it's been my life the past 2.5 weeks and it will continue to be so the week following this because I'm not unpacked yet. Ugh.

--- 3 ---

Things I like: being home!! This post comes to you from Kansas City, where my family resides. I made the 9-hour journey today (it actually went pretty fast) & I will be home for the next week-ish. I'm here to work - I've been blessed with the opportunity to speak at my parish about FOCUS, so I'll be spending the week doing some fundraising. #pleaseballa

--- 4 ---

Today, I officially crossed into the realm of being a cat lady. One of my new roomies is allergic to cats (sad day), so my kitty needed a temporary home until the roomie gets married this summer. Megan, my big in DG, is going to keep her for a few months, so I didn't have to give her up. I was not looking forward to 9-hours in the car with a cat, but she did pretty well.

someone is not pleased.

How does this make me a cat lady, you ask? Please view the pictures below from when I stopped for lunch and gave the cat a chance to stretch:

I was totally being judged by some high school girls in Hayes, Kansas. #catonalease

--- 5 ---

This morning when I checked twitter, I had this awesome notification:

Yes, that is my mother below.

I was pretty excited/flattered to be noted as an "upcoming event planner." I love this career, so it's fun to be recognized by others in the industry! Way to go, twitter, for helping me grow professionally.

--- 6 ---

Speaking of event planning, I discovered this hilarious joke on the Pinterest that I am so obsessed with, I made it my twitter bio. 

HAHAHAHAHA.

--- 7 ---

Christina sent our team this video, and I am obsessed! Talk about talent. I'm currently watching it non-stop.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

a grateful heart.

This is Jon.

well, and Carol.

Jon has been running the FOCUS twitter, and thanks to his retweet, so many awesome, awesome people read my post last Monday. Thanks to everyone who hopped on over here via FOCUS, and thanks to those of you who are still here! I'm excited you're here, and I'm excited to get to know you better!

I've been feeling so incredibly grateful this past week by the number of people that have viewed my blog. I've gotten encouraging comments and texts and messages thanking me for my vulnerability in my last post.

A good friend of mine from Drake, Erika of All Things E, wrote a great post last week on the Numbers Game in the blog world, and it came at just the right time. I was getting discouraged by my low daily readership, and then BAM, hundreds of y'all stopped by last week. But that's not even the thing that matters.

I'm on the far left & Erika is on the far right!

Erika wisely writes about putting faces to the numbers and recognizing that every click is an actual human person. So, like she did, I pictured what it would have been like to give my blog post as a speech to a room full of that many people. I imagine it would look something like this:

image via EideCom.

Okay, so that picture is the main ballroom from SLS and it is close to 2,500 people...but still. It helps put it in perspective. I also started thinking about how much time it would take me to sit down with every person who stops by and reads and get coffee with them. That's a lot of time. Thanks Erika for your awesome insight on how our worth in blogging should be more about the individuals who read rather than the stats and numbers.

I started writing after my long break because:
1. I wanted to,
2. it kept coming up in prayer, and
3. apparently writing is one of my spiritual gifts. (hollaatchya, Spiritual Gifts Inventory.)

image via.

Having the habit of picturing sharing my posts with a room full of individuals flows into gratitude for this platform to share my heart, gifts, and relationship with Jesus. It reminds me why I'm writing and why I can spend so much time on this hobby.

So to all my fellow bloggers out there, hop on over to All Things E and read Erika's post, and then spend some time in gratitude for your blog...even if only one person reads it each day!