Last week, one of my kids told me, “Summer is almost over.” Say what? When I shared this with Greg, he didn’t sound surprised. Apparently, one of his coworkers said something similar to him. Something along the lines of it being the end of July. On July 10. I returned to my child, and we counted the remaining days of summer. We discovered that we have a few more than 40 days left of summer break. I thought that would…
Summer has proven to be a wonderful time to catch up on one of my favorite past-times: reading. Except for one minor hiccup: I am not a fast reader. Therefore, I am never going to read all the books I hope to read in any given amount of time. If I am OK with that, and I think I am, then, yes, summer is a wonderful time to catch up on my reading! In June, I set out to read…
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a nice chat about books. The last time I shared what I’ve been reading was back in October. For some reason, 2018 has not started out as my year for reading an impressive list of books. In fact, according to my Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge, I’ve only read three books in five months. (Yikes!) The thing is, I love books, and I love to read. And now that it is summer, and our family schedule…
Tomorrow marks the beginning of summer vacation for my six children. And they can’t wait. Currently, my oldest three are cramming for final exams, while my younger three are cleaning out desks and making teacher gifts. As for me, I am switching back and forth between excitement and trepidation about what the next three months (87 days to be exact) will bring. I am the type of mom who likes the predictability of the school year—the rhythm of the day,…
The vocation of motherhood is a beautiful one. In Mulieris Dignitatem, St. John Paul II writes, “Each and every time that motherhood is repeated in human history, it is always related to the Covenant which God established with the human race through the motherhood of the Mother of God.” Wow! To think that every pregnancy points to the Incarnation is nothing less than amazing! As beautiful as motherhood is, it also can be difficult and even painful. [Motherhood] is constituted more…
Remember the sabbath day — keep it holy. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh…
Lent begins tomorrow! Ready or not, the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is upon us. Are you ready? Or not? I am mostly ready. God has given me a very personal invitation to spend more time in prayer, so that is going to be my focus. And with my ongoing struggle with Hashimoto’s (an autoimmune disease that attacks my Thyroid) and the various symptoms that accompany it, I am also going to pay closer attention to my diet by…
I am preparing for my annual silent retreat weekend, and I have been thinking about my past retreat experiences. Sometimes I doubt that they are doing any good. Have I really grown spiritually in the past 2, 4, 6 years? I know that discouragement can be normal in the spiritual life, which is why I’m trying not to pay too much attention to the nagging voice. Still, as I reflect back on the post I wrote for CatholicMom.com three years…
It is hard to believe it is already June! This spring was so busy with softball, musical performances, choir concerts, final exams … And those are just the things involving my kids! But when something involves a child, it involves a mama, too. And I am grateful for the honor of being part of the events and activities my kids are involved in. It gives me a bird’s eye view into how God has created them so uniquely and where He…
This was first posted on March 2, 2015. It some ways it surprises me that this is still so applicable to my life, and in other ways, it does not surprise me at all. Life is funny that way. Our struggle—our cross—may take a lifetime of carrying, and yet how often do I just wait for it to disappear? Sure, our cross might look differently from year to year, decade to decade, but often it is the one way God has invited us…