7 Quick Takes Friday - First Edition! :)

I'm linking up with Conversion Diary to try out this 7 Quick Takes Friday deal-i-o. Here's to trying new things for the month of October. Also, here's to challenging myself to be worthy of all of the prayers people are offering for me, and to do more good with the life I have right now. Today, I'm going to start with these 7 things.

--1--

Today is the first Friday of a new month, so that means we're all praying for a new blogger. Please join me in offering up prayers for someone I consider a friend.  If you visit that link, you'll read a lot of wonderfully articulated thoughts she presents on infertility, marriage, faith, and so many other topics. Truly, Connie is a special person. Love her!

--2--

It's Fall, y'all! :) October is a reminder that all things, even in their decline in nature, are made beautiful through their transformation. And hope will spring again in the new year when life is reborn in nature. I challenge myself and my readers to soak in all that is October. The sights. The smells. The tastes. I'm claiming this this month for myself and hope you'll join me, in doing so for yourself. Let's decide how we might be able to experience a death to ourselves this Autumn to be made new again in the Spring. I'm positive that God rewards this kind of sacrificial effort. Making the deliberate attempt seems worth it. And it seems like a great way to prepare for Advent as well...

--3--

Getting to know you: I want to take this month to get to know my readers more. Here at Conceiving Hope, I only have 7 followers. I have a couple more via facebook. But there are thousands of unique visits to this blog. That means there are a lot of people silent in the background. If you are reading, I want to get to know you a little more, if I can. Comment on my posts and let me know what you think. Was it helpful? Did you disagree? Do you want to see me write about something else? Do you blog? If so, I'd love to follow you! Please post a comment or drop me a message on my contact form and let me know how to follow you. I can't stress this enough - the community I have found in my readers has really informed my conscience on so many levels. Let's form a tighter knit network and support each other better.

--4-- 

Something different: I'm considering writing about some other topics to give myself a little space from the weight and in-your-face-ness of IF right now. What would you like to see me branch out to talking about? Faith, photography, food, daily recaps? Give me your best ideas...

--5--

My next post is going to focus on Catholic family life. I'd like to encourage you to share the post everywhere you can. Changing our language is a big part of changing our collective understanding on this topic. Please use twitter, facebook, pinterest, and instagram...or anywhere you share links or photos. The name of the post will be "Good Catholic Families" and this will be the Permalink: 

http://conceivinghope.blogspot.com/2014/10/good-catholic-families.html

--6--

Conceiving Hope is now on Pinterest! If you'd like to follow - you can go to this link and that will show you our fledgling little page:

http://www.pinterest.com/conceivinghope/

--7--

This past week has been filled with a lot of delicious food over here at Conceiving Hope. I've been wanting to start sharing some recipes with you for a while, so here is a delicious one that I think some of you might love. It's dairy-free, gluten-free optional when you use GF spaghetti, and you can easily swap out the meat if you can't do seafood. Take my word for it - serve this with a garlic aoli. Click on the picture to head on over to the recipe.