Living
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Laundry/Mudroom Reveal and Finding the Balance
Well, I am officially finished with the Laundry Room/Mudroom and I have to say it is a vast improvement over what we started with! Perhaps even more importantly, we have all managed to keep everything in relatively good order for the last month as well — so wins all around! Here’s a little recap of the whole process. I’ll spare you the “before’s” — you can go back a few posts if you want to see the disaster. Step One: began with a clean slate by clearing everything out and cleaning the floor and walls. To be clear, the last time I mopped this floor was about 12 years ago.…
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Fun Fact: Sometimes John and I Fight a Lot
When I decided to begin a blog, one of the goals was to be honest about my life — not because anybody would necessary care about my life — but because I think it’s nice to know you are not alone. It’s nice to know that other people struggle like you do. Not nice like, “Hah! So happy she’s actually miserable”, but more like, “Wow, we all have our struggles, and if she can overcome them — then so can I”. That’s the kind of nice I was hoping to bring to the blogosphere. Sometimes, people will look at me and think I have things together because I can write…
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Happy Easter and Home Improvements Reveal a Lot
Happy Easter! It was a beautiful Triduum, followed by lovely gatherings with family and friends. I am so grateful for the beautiful people we are privileged to call family and friends! I hope your celebrations have been equally lovely. I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted! Besides all the Easter celebrating, I have been working my fingers to the bone trying to finish my crazy mudroom/laundry room project — but the end is in sight! My project has left me with some profound questions, like, “why do I like to punish myself?” and “have I bitten off more than I can chew?” and even shallow things like, “will…
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Entering Into the Triduum
“Why is tonight different from all other nights?” The phrase appears at the beginning of each line of The Four Questions, traditionally asked by the youngest child during the celebration of the Jewish Passover Seder. It’s a great question to ask ourselves as we enter into the Triduum. How was this night, over two thousand years ago, different than all other nights? Holy Thursday began with the celebration of the Jewish Passover. But Jesus didn’t take the traditional fourth cup and drink it on that night — He even asked if that cup might pass him by — because He knew what it meant. He knew that He would be…
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Getting Organized and Why It Matters
Well, next week is one of the most beautiful weeks of the year — and I’m not saying that I always feel that way while going through Holy Week — but I know that it is. No matter what our Lent has been like thus far, we have a chance to finish strong this next week. My best word of advice is to forget about all the things you’ve failed to do this Lent — just give it your all this last week — we can do that, right? Even though the Triduum is not an obligation, if you can attend all the services, I highly recommend you go, go,…
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Why Friendship Matters
Just getting back to life after a 20 year reunion in Phoenix. The long and the short of it is, it did not disappoint. I had expected it to be fun, but I didn’t expect it to be so blessed. It was healing, restorative, and an authentic experience of true friendship. It was so much more than I imagined it would be. Twenty years had passed since most of us had seen each other — and we picked up exactly where we had left off. How does that happen? Needless to say, it was a special time. Here’s a quick peek at my time with these amazing ladies. Fortunately, I…
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Quick Takes: Lenten Edition
So much life happening right now, so I thought this the perfect time for 7 Quick Takes: Lenten Edition. Let’s get to it! ~1~ 20 Year Reunion I meant to get on top of my life and write a post about our reunion, but with out of town visitors and all the catching up on life — it will have to wait until next week. There’s a takeaway for everybody about friendships and faith and how twenty years can go by and you can literally pick up from where you left off — I was expecting it to be fun, but I think the deep stuff surprised all of us.…
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Getting Ready for a 20 Year Reunion
Well, I mentioned it last week, but I’m getting ready to head off on a 20 year reunion with girlfriends from college. We chose Arizona because it happened to promise good weather and a central meeting place for most of us to reach. It also had girls we hoped to see living there already, so it was a perfect choice. Honestly, there were other people we would have liked to invite to join us, but it came down to the practical number of 5 — 5 people will fit in a rental car and we could likely squish 5 girls into a hotel room. So we kept it at five…
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Weaning Babies and Lent
It’s 11:30 at night, and life has been so busy that I’ve had no time to put a proper post together. So forgive me, if I ramble. 🙁 I’ve been pushing hard to get everything in order before I leave for a 20 year reunion with girlfriends from college. At the time of planning this trip, we had no idea it would fall in the middle of Lent, but God knows what we need, and maybe I needed a different kind of retreat this Lent. I also didn’t realize I’d be in the middle of weaning my toddler. I should have guessed that this little guy would be holding out…
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Lent Begins and Making Sense of “Pathetic” Sacrifices
How’s your Lent going? Lent is a funny thing. On Fat Tuesday, I was craving absolutely nothing — but come Midnight, Ash Wednesday, suddenly I was craving everything. Why is that? I even found myself rationalizing, “Well, it’s 12:02, does Ash Wednesday begin now, or when I get up?” Really, those were thoughts going through my head. We humans can be so weak. Recently, a friend posted a meme on Facebook. It showed 5 images of various sufferings: the men in orange before they were beheaded by Al-Queda, starving children in Africa, dead bodies after a genocide, a poor man eaten away by starvation and poor little Asian kids with…
