1) Networking Etiquette: Small Talk & Mingling Skills by Diane Gottsman at Verily Magazine
Networking etiquette is an art. It takes confidence, refinement, skill, and practice to make a pleasant and lasting impression on a new connection or acquaintance. There has to be some sort of fine line between coming off as an Eager Beaver or Lazy Susan – the line between turning others off or conveying carelessness; regardless if networking etiquette comes to you naturally or not, the girls over at Verily Magazine compiled a list of tips and tricks to keep you cool and confident while promoting your cause.
2) When Mr. ‘Acts of Service’ Meets Ms. ‘Words of Affirmation’ by Hallie Lord at Moxie Wife
This girl is sellin’ it and I’m totally buying. Hallie is blessed with relationship wisdom, which is a beautiful thing in and of itself, but combined with the humility to ask her readers to chime in, it makes her blog the place to be. A poor reader of hers is going through some “marital dryness,” a ho-hum period when communication just isn’t clicking and frustration abounds. Whether you have advice to offer Hallie’s reader or you can identify with that terrible off feeling we sometimes get in marriage, follow me over to Hallie’s post and say a little prayer for this girl and your own marriage.
3) How to Not be an Obstacle to Conversion by Dr. Tim Shaughnessy at Truth & Charity
Before the days of wedded bliss, I dated the boy next door. Well, not really next door – just across the street. We got along great having founded our relationship on a solid friendship and faith in God. As things typically go, we started to consider marriage and lemme tell you, that thought came to an abrupt HALT. Despite a good connection and understanding, when it came to faith practices we were nowhere close to seeing eye to eye. Shortly after we broke up, we were both blessed to find and marry our spouses who fully shared in our respective faiths; but that’s not how the story goes for every mixed-faith relationship. If your sweetheart is interested in learning more about the Catholic Church even just a little bit, drop everything and read Tim’s advice on how you can be instrumental in conversion.
4) Dave Ramsey’s legit
I’m purging our house of excess and in the stacks of dusty college texts, I found our kit from when we taught Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. SO GOOD. If you ever take the class, you’ll be given a CD wallet full of his talks on the renowned Baby Steps. We facilitated FPU roughly 4 years ago, so I needed a brush up and MAN – I need to let go of some bad financial habits and maybe resurrect my coupon clipping practices. Dave Ramsey’s I-learned-the-hard-way advice and education snap me right out of any financial illusion I’ve made myself believe. Listening to his talks reaffirm what I know to be true about myself – credit cards are not a good idea and if I penny pinch like crazy now, I can live like crazy later.
Number 3 sounds like a good one! 😉