Halloween. All Hallows' Eve. All Saints' Eve. What is this strange holiday? According to Wikipedia, it is a celebration that marks the beginning of the "time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs, ...
Come What May
Fall is finally in full splendor in our little corner of the earth, and it is simply breathtaking. I love that everywhere I turn there is some shimmer of crimson brilliance or glimmer of gold on black to force me to pause and admire and reflect. ...
Protect Them From Evil
Boys. I say this with all the love in my heart: They are awesome, they really are. But sometimes I just have to close my eyes and breathe deeply in and out for a few moments. And occasionally even this attempt at gaining composure and perspective ...
Sometimes I make cute stuff
I love to craft. I love to design and decorate and add pretty to things. Sadly, I don't have an abundance of time to do so. But every now and then I do try to carve out bits of time for such activities because it helps to keep my life in the ...
To Everything There Is a Season
A few days ago my oldest child had a dental exam after school. Let me repeat that. My oldest child had a dental exam after school. For anyone unfamiliar with the implications of that statement let me provide a pictorial representation of what ...
Back to School and My Own Growing Up
About this time of year in times past I have often felt as though there must be something horribly wrong with me. Because while the majority of my friends/sisters/strangers in passing were wiping tears from their eyes as they sent children off to ...
Summertime Highlights 2014
Two more weeks. That is all that is left of our summer break. The boys are beginning to lose their buoyancy, replacing cheerful adventurism with gradually deflating spirits as the school year looms ever closer. I don't understand this ...
Boys and Beauty
One of the things I love about raising children is watching them handle new and different situations. I never quite know how they will respond to challenging and uncomfortable things. Sometimes, I confess, I shudder in their embarrassment with ...
Can we just pause for a second?
You know how when you're a kid and the time between September and December seems to pass at snails pace and you wonder if Christmastime will ever come? Yeah, time doesn't move slowly like that for me anymore. Nowadays, I feel a little more like I ...
A Few Thoughts on Faith
I just can't take it anymore. I have got to say something. I have been passively standing back, reading and agonizing over article after article, feeling increasingly saddened and, to be perfectly frank, hurt by so much of what is being discussed ...