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Merry Christmas in 7 Quick Takes
Merry Christmas, everyone! Lots going on with year end, so I’m going to try to keep this one short, but sweet — no guarantees, but here goes. A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say, so here’s my Christmas so far, in pictures. ~1~ Joy Sunday, Put Up the Tree It was one of those years where everything seemed packed into an itty bitty Advent — but we made it! We managed to find a lovely tree on the Eve of Joy Sunday and kept up our tradition of decorating the tree on Joy Sunday. I just love Christmas trees, don’t you? I never want to take…
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Dealing With Difficult People
Well, it’s that time of year — chocked full of family gatherings and recitals and work parties galore. Sometimes, what is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, can end up becoming quite stressful — ’tis the season for encounters with difficult people. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love this time of year. I love the opportunity to spend more time with the people I love and to get to know better the family, friends, and familiar faces that I don’t see so often — but there’s no guarantee that every encounter is going to be a pleasant one, am I right? I wrote this post…
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Fr. Solanus Casey’s Beatification and Asking for the Things We Need
Faith is a funny thing. When you’re a child, it often has no bounds. As you grow older, though, faith can begin to grow cold — almost without our noticing it. We can grow skeptical, jaded, and even weary of our prayers. Which is why we need a man like Fr. Solanus Casey to remind us of the place of faith and miracles in our lives, even today. It’s why we decided to trek to Detroit with people from around the country to celebrate the Beatification of Fr. Solanus Casey this past November. These are big deals in the life of the Church and we wanted to have a celebration…
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Letting Go of “Perfect”
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. This quote by Voltaire seems to be thrown around quite a bit as of late. The truth be known, Voltaire was actually rather anti-religion in his sentiment, but I’m guessing that if this mother of six kids sat down with Voltaire, the youngest of five, there would be much we could agree upon when it comes to perfectionism. Just the other day, I was reminded of the changes that have happened in my life in my own battle against perfectionism. I was in the middle of cleaning windows (one of my Advent resolutions) and came upon this scene: The old me…
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7 Ways to Live a More Intentional Advent
Advent is upon us. This year, it happens to be the shortest Advent we can possibly have — with the 4th Sunday of Advent also being Christmas Eve — so it’s more important than ever to be intentional about living out Advent. Trying to live a more intentional Advent can help us to keep the really important things a priority and to let go of the small things which don’t really matter in the end. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make Christmas special for the people around us, am I right? So it’s time to take a step back and ask ourselves what this season is really…
