It’s hard to believe, but 2017 will mark the fourth year that Leaven in the World has been in existence. This was a project I took on at the beginning of my career as a stay-at-home mama (my oldest was just 9 months old at the time) and I had just stepped down from full-time parish ministry as a DRE. There were a lot of reasons why I chose a blog as my creative outlet, but my main goal was to provide support in ways that I wished I had when I was in parish ministry, whether as a volunteer or a paid staff member.

Not long after I started the blog, the section that has become the bread and butter (pun totally intended, ha) of Leaven in the World, Salesian Sermons was born. Brian’s homilies have been encouraging folks online since the beginning of 2014, and every time anyone leaves a comment here on the blog or on Facebook, I’m reminded of how simple things — like posting a homily for a friend — matter.

While much has remained the same for me since starting the blog, there have also been some major changes. We now have 2 daughters, who will both be in preschool soon (praise the Lord, lol) and I’ve also started working from home part-time in marketing and graphic design. The kids have finally reached an age where I feel okay volunteering more at church, thus relying more on my husband (God bless him) to keep things running smoothly while I’m out of the house.

People say it all the time, but random things like singing in the choir (and writing!!) take so much more effort when you have kids. Our time is so limited and precious that when anyone decides to commit to something, we need to make it count. So of course, all of our free time usually goes to cleaning the house (I’m only half-kidding).

With the beginning of a new year, I wanted to take this time to re-introduce myself and thank all of you for following along. I’m hoping to start writing more soon and getting back to providing content that leaves this little corner of the Internet a little better than I found it. Praying that this year brings you closer to living out the call that God has placed on your life. May we say yes, over and over again, to God’s best for us, just as Mary, Theotokos (God-bearer) did over 2,000 years ago. And may our lives bear Christ to all those we meet in 2017.