Welcome to Catholic Sistas’ newest series, featuring some of our friends in the Catholic blogging world entitled Fabulously Featured which will run on Wednesdays. I have always wanted to introduce you to some new blogs to follow and support, but seriously lacked the time to put this together before now. In a Facebook group of fellow Catholic women bloggers, I asked ladies to answer some questions for this series, and they were all too excited to participate! I give you their answers in their own words.
Today we feature A Slice of Smith Life a wonderfully faith-filled and inspiring blog by Tracy, homeschooling mama to 5 blessings. When she’s not busy baking cakes for her family she is busy making memories with her family. Pull up a chair, cut a slice of cake, and take the time to get to know Tracy and her family! We promise you won’t be disappointed that you did!
ESTABLISHED
June 2010
THEME
I blog about my Catholic faith, family, homeschooling, and document the many birthday cakes I have made for my own children through the years.
INSPIRATION/MOTIVATION
I always thought I never knew how anyone had time to start a blog or even manage a blog, especially busy homeschool Mommas J Then it became just a dream of mine to one day start a blog myself. I would read other blogs and admire them and then by a strange turn of events, I sent an email to a blogging mom about her business. While chatting with her over the phone, she encouraged me to start my own blog to document the birthday cakes that I made for my children. So I taught myself how to start a blog by asking other bloggers lots of questions. My blog has evolved into now mostly blogging about my faith, family, and homeschooling. Trying to live out the liturgical calendar and feast days with my family and documenting the richness and beauty of our Catholic faith is what motivates me to write today. Also, when non-Catholic and Catholic friends tell me that what I post inspires them to learn more about our faith that motivates me the most to keep blogging.
FAVORITE ELEMENT
Since I just had someone redesign my blog in December 2014, I really like writing on it more than ever J But, aside from loving to visit my corner of blog land myself, I really love how blogging makes the world seem like a smaller place as I have built online friendships with so many like-minded bloggers. As a busy homeschool Mom to 5 children, I’m not able to go out or chat on the phone as much as I would like, so blogging has allowed me to “meet” people without having to leave my home. I also enjoy sharing my passions with others through my writing and reaching more people than I ever thought possible through my blog posts.
FAVORITE POST
One of my favorite blog posts is this one: St. Joseph Feast Day Celebration! where I blogged about our homeschool group’s annual St. Joseph feast day celebration. This post was so much fun to write as I tried to capture the beauty and festivities of the day by including old black and white photos of when my Dad was younger and used to celebrate St. Joseph’s feast day with his family.
I also enjoy writing up my Curriculum and Classroom posts each year like this one: 2014-2015 Homeschool Classoom Curriculum because I like to peek into other’s learning spaces and maybe others want to peek into mine. Also, I love looking at how clean and organized my schoolroom starts out on Day 1, but 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks later it looks like a tornado went through J.
BALANCE
Oh balance, or lack thereof, how that word haunts me! As I type this very minute, my balance with blogging and home life is way off since it’s way past my bedtime. J But, when I do have my priorities in the right order, I get to bed at a decent hour so I can wake up at 5:00 AM. Then I try to have a prayer time before exercising. Then get dressed and ready for the day before all my children wake up. But, I’m always off balance usually because I stay up way too late, my toddler wakes up in the night to nurse, I oversleep, rush through my prayer time, skip my workout and then my children are up before I know it. My only practical tips that I sometimes don’t manage to follow consistently is getting to bed at a decent hour and starting the day with having quiet prayer time alone.
AUDIENCE
I am primarily writing to anyone willing to listen. I mostly write to document my families memories and milestones while living out our Catholic faith, but I also hope I’m writing to an audience who is interested in learning more about the Catholic faith and how a Catholic family, like mine, tries to embrace and live out the truths and richness of our faith with God’s mercy and grace.
CATCH PHRASE/TAGLINE
The tagline for my blog is “Savoring the Sweetness of Faith, Family, and Homeschooling” When I began my blog, I had a similar tagline, but it wasn’t until recently another homeschool blogging friend came up with this current tagline which I think captures my blog’s theme very well.
ADVICE
For someone who wants to start a Catholic blog, I would tell them that many things may surprise them. One, blogging is time-consuming (because it is so fun!). Blogging will also bless them in many ways that they never could anticipate as they will build friendships online and realize that they aren’t alone in their struggles and triumphs. Also, when they start a blog, don’t compare their family and blog to someone else’s in blog land. That is an easy temptation to get sucked into with so many talented bloggers out there who seem to “have it all” and be able to “do it all.” Always remember that what you see on blogs and pictures is not necessarily real life all the time.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
Have a question or comment for our featured blogger? Please leave them in the comments below!
Would you {or someone you know} like to be fabulously featured?
Send an email to Martina@CatholicSistas.comand reference the Fabulously Featured series and we’ll get the ball rolling to get you or your friend featured!
