Minnesota Mom

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On Wanting to Crawl into a Mitten and Hide

by Filed Under: Depression, Friends of the Heart, Gratitude, Minnesota Me, Spiritual Growth 18 Comments

This past Monday morning, we drove to a play about winter in the dead of winter. Appropriate, no? It was very slow going and a bit nail-biting at times, but we made it there despite the blowing snow and slippery roads. There were semis in the ditch. We attended a ballet based on the book The Mitten. Have you read it? It's a family favorite. … [Read more...]

A Free Pre-Valentine’s Day Message

by Filed Under: Marriage, Minnesota Me, Special Events, Spiritual Growth 14 Comments

Do you love your husband? Then love your husband. Love your husband the way he needs to be loved. * * * I was at Walmart last night picking up treats for tomorrow. There were heart-covered vases, heart-bearing teddy bears, and enormous heart-shaped boxes of candy. (My personal "favorite" was one that had the picture of  a cartoon bikini-ed … [Read more...]

Boxed In

by Filed Under: Just Me, Minnesota Me, Special Events, Spiritual Growth 19 Comments

This post is dedicated to everyone who's feeling boxed in by life: the fed-up, the lonely, the huddled, the cold. The temperature is {minus} ten degrees right now. I get the idea of being huddled and cold. I would like to go back to my "Voices" post today, in part because it was just so darn cheerful. ("Cheerful" in, like, the total buzz … [Read more...]

My Weekend with Chesterton {Academy}

by Filed Under: Chesterton, Minnesohta, Minnesota Me, Special Events 6 Comments

Notes from the Chesterton Gala "There are no uneducated people. Everybody...is educated, only most people are educated wrong." G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World Seven years ago this March, my husband and I were in Hawaii. {sigh} I mention this trip for two reasons: one, it's 0 degrees outside right now and those memories of … [Read more...]

Voices

by Filed Under: Current Affairs, Depression, Minnesota Me, Spiritual Growth, The Faith, Tributes Leave a Comment

Who am I kidding, anyway? I'm just an ordinary mom with a stupid little blog. And Philip Seymour Hoffman was just an actor. * * * There are voices in our heads—more so in the artistic types, perhaps—that constantly try to define who we are by comparing us to what we are not. We look for love and seek affirmation constantly; we overeat, get … [Read more...]

A “Frozen” Heart? God forbid.

by Filed Under: Cultural Commentary, Family Fun, Minnesota Me, The Faith 12 Comments

Subtitled: On what it means to be truly Catholic. “It never occurs to the critic to do anything so simple as to compare what is Catholic with what is Non-Catholic. The one thing that never seems to cross his mind, when he argues about what the Church is like, is the simple question of what the world would be like without it.” (From The Thing by … [Read more...]

January Daybook

by Filed Under: Anecdotal, Daybook, Minnesota Me, Motherhood 13 Comments

{The Abbreviated Arctic Edition}  Outside my window... Ridiculously cold. The kids are off school again this morning. No school last Thursday, either. At least my house is getting cleaned. {ironic snort} From the kitchen... What's with me and this cabbage craving? Seriously, I opened this big Sam's Club-sized bag yesterday and … [Read more...]

Four.

by Filed Under: George, Gratitude, Minnesota Me, Motherhood 14 Comments

George, this morning: Are the beenanas ripe? Me, in response: Yes, the "beenanas" are ripe. Would you like one? George: Yup. George, passing by the computer as I typed this post: I didn't know you could spell “four” with letters! Me: {heart melting} Do you have a 4-year-old? Are they not awesome?   I think when it comes to … [Read more...]