Minnesota Mom

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The “Real” Cake and the Rest of the Story

by Filed Under: Friends of the Heart, Honest Blogging, Minnesota Me, Special Events, Spiritual Growth 15 Comments

A.K.A. My Fallen, Flawed, Predictable Me The “real” cake, of course, was absolutely gorgeous. “It had to be,” NiNi’s godmother teased me, “You bragged up my cakes in that birthday post!” (Okay, so she didn’t say exactly that…though there was some ribbing about having set the bar so high.) (When I thought about it, I realized she was … [Read more...]

Our 5th First Communicant!

by Filed Under: Minnesota Me, My Girls, Special Events, Spiritual Growth, The Faith 13 Comments

Prologue: These days—and my life—are flying past. Why, I can still remember, clearly, being in labor with this little girl. It was around 7 o’clock in the morning and I was waiting for our neighbors (Gloria & Emily,  shown in a photograph below) to arrive; they were coming to watch our other children while John went with me to the … [Read more...]

Sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit

by Filed Under: Joe, Minnesota Me, My Boys, Special Events, Spiritual Growth, The Faith 11 Comments

Subtitled: On Being Salt and Light in a Bland, Shadowed World Sometimes, when I am dropping my sons off at school in the morning, I will tell them “Salt and Light!” They know, by now, that I am quoting the book of Matthew—“You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world”—and that I’m reminding them to be a good example to their … [Read more...]

Easter Clean (Part II)

by Filed Under: Minnesota Me, Spiritual Growth 10 Comments

Or, Things My Almost-Three-Year-Old Teaches Me(You can read Part I here.)Now, none of this made sense to me. I knew this mother to be an efficient & capable & loving mom and yet, she wasn’t doing what I thought she should do. I tried to wrap my brain around this—I tried, but was really struggling. And then the little guy approached his mom … [Read more...]

Divine Mercy Sunday

by Filed Under: Gratitude, Living Liturgically, Minnesota Me, Special Events, Spiritual Growth Leave a Comment

The Second Sunday of Easter is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday.Today’s message—that of unconditional love and forgiveness—is both a consolation to me, a sinner, and a call to action. In other words, having been shown great mercy in my life, I am called to show great mercy.I stand to learn a lot from this feast.For me, it’s more like…really, Lord? … [Read more...]

Easter Clean

by Filed Under: Minnesota Me, Spiritual Growth, Toddler George 7 Comments

Or, Things my Almost-Three-Year-Old Teaches MeI’ve been hanging onto this story for a while now, waiting for the perfect time. Well, guess what? There is no perfect time, ever!There have been Mother/Daughter tea parties for American Heritage Girls.There have been recorder concerts where I waited, patiently, for the third-to-the-last name on a very … [Read more...]