Or, On Looking Back at Lent and the Little Lessons that I Learned In a word, detachment. * * * So I can’t say I gave up a lot for Lent. Forgoing my daily cup(s) of coffee? Not an option, and anyway my husband forbids my giving up caffeine because he knows that it would be his penance too. I did try to give up playing Candy Crush … [Read more...]
Easter Outtake
Today is the feast of the Annunciation, according to my Magnificat. Can anyone explain to me why this is?? I’m confused. In other, less-confused news, I’m writing a post about Easter and detachment. As per that subject, I submit to you our Easter 2013 family photo. (One of them, anyway.) Why, you may ask, did we take the photo outside the … [Read more...]
A Little Lenten Meditation
I stood at the kitchen window yesterday, wondering if ever the snow would melt…wondering if ever this Lent would end. I miss you guys. I miss your comments. I glanced at our salt dough crown of thorns and smiled to see its thorns half gone. So many sacrifices offered in love for Him! So many thorns tenderly plucked from His crown. I did … [Read more...]
Grace sufficient for my Weakness
First, an admission: I am—and have always been—prone to drama. This is a shocking revelation, I know. You had no idea. And yet, even knowing as he does my off-Broadway tendencies, my husband was startled when he read my latest post. “Sheesh,” he said, and I’m quoting him verbatim. “Sheesh.” Because even for me, that post was dramatic. … [Read more...]
On Raising Boys & Watching Lost & Baking a Banoffee Pie
(Oh, and a wee little bit about blogging) Prologue: I had a jarring experience two weeks ago. It was, for me, a sort of spiritual September 11th—thoroughly unexpected and entirely unasked for—and yet it happened and I know it was God's will. Since then, I’ve been pretty quiet over here. It is hard to blog when you can’t say what you most … [Read more...]
Food for Thought
“In the day-to-day struggle with self, with the forces of evil within and around us, it is only too easy to give up, to shut our eyes to the reality of our redemption, and to sink into despair. It is essential never to forget that Our Lord has accepted our human condition and saves us from within it. “The very existence of the sacrament of … [Read more...]
Checking In
Alternately Titled: On being me when being me isn’t easy. First, a photo. You see that kid in the turban giving me a raspberry? I lean on him repeatedly throughout my day for a hearty sampling of K.I.S.S. therapy. I “keep it simple, silly.” I kiss my boy. Also? I understand that your life is no less difficult than mine right … [Read more...]
Asleep on the Job
Just checking in to…check in, I guess.In other words, this is not the post I should be writing but the post that I should be writing is taking longer than I’d like.Oh, for heaven’s sake. Enough of this procrastination.Have you ever taken, as your Lenten penance, the desire to embrace whatever God sends? In other words, you don’t choose something … [Read more...]
A Seasonal Admission
Sometimes Advent wears me out.I love this season—I truly do—but given my perfectionist tendencies, I find myself trying way too hard to drain the dregs of every feast day and squeeze every symbol like a sponge.I realized this last night when “St. Nicholas” decided that perhaps the ornaments he’d brought for the children—made with love by those cute … [Read more...]
Changes
Today, thanks to Tracy, we watched a monarch caterpillar go from this: ...to this: They have milkweed plants growing in a garden at Pinewood Castle and were good enough to share some caterpillars with us. Hooray for the changes that took place before our eyes! Also today, thanks to...hormones, I guess, I watched my firstborn son go from … [Read more...]
