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We’re Ba-aack!
Just got home last night from our family pilgrimage to Ireland. We are exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. How does that happen? As I began unpacking I came upon the itinerary I made for my parents and John and I. One thing we have learned is that the itinerary is the thing that keeps you on track when all hell breaks loose — which is sometimes a few times in one day — it was invaluable for keeping 10 people on track with all the miles we covered on this trip. We started off our epic family pilgrimage with the baby climbing into the car and patiently waiting…
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Getting Ready for a Family Pilgrimage
Hey guys! I figured I’d put together a quick post as I work feverishly to make sure we have all the loose ends tied up for our upcoming trip. It’s going to be a full time job to get ourselves out the door and on that plane in a week’s time — but it’s always worth it in the end. Somebody please tell me, why is it so hard to get ready for a family trip? Yikes! It still feels a long way off, but we’re beginning to feel the excitement of it all. We have made the conscious effort to make every family trip a pilgrimage of sorts —…
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Just Some Funny Clips
I feel like things have been getting intense around here, and it’s a good time to lighten things up a little bit as we enter into the weekend. The serious will still be there on Monday, but just maybe it’s time for a good laugh or two. I figured I’d share some of my favorite funny clips from YouTube. Here goes — in no particular order — some of the best of the funny things I’ve found on the internet lately. Hoping you can enjoy a little break from “breaking news” and take a moment to laugh at something silly. P.S. This is all clean humor. P.P.S. Can we take…
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A Crisis of Holiness
Recent scandals among some of the Cardinals and Bishops in the Catholic Church have left many Catholics angry — angrier than I have seen faithful Catholics in a long time. We should be angry and we need to be bringing these things out into the light. We also need to move beyond discussion and do our part to right the wrongs –and that is going to look different for each one of us. I have to admit, some people’s reactions have worried me a bit — only because I have seen a subtle attack on the authority of the Church that has little to do with solving these problems. I agree…
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How to Pray, Why to Pray & Books I’m Currently Using For Morning Prayer
Prayer isn’t just a good thing, in many ways, it’s everything. Prayer does for the soul what breathing does for the body — it is essential. The truth is we were made for prayer, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. Prayer takes effort, patience and trust that God is working — especially when you can’t feel God’s presence or wonder if He’s even there. Our prayer life can be a bit of a mystery at times — incredibly hard to gauge, because God is often working below the surface in ways we may only understand later. It takes faith to put aside your doubts and come before God and…
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Perhaps It’s Time to Flip Over Some Tables
I begin this post with a bit of trepidation. The truth is, I don’t want to come down on the wrong side of things, because coming down on the wrong side of things would mean finding myself in a battle against Jesus and His Church — which is not my intention. No Siree! To be clear, my beef is not, nor will it ever be, with the Church Christ established. My beef is with the people who are trying to destroy it from within: the abusers, the careerists, the wolves in sheep’s clothing. I write this after a few days of wrestling with the reality of a Cardinal in the…
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Staying Peaceful in the Midst of Chaos
Let’s be honest. Having kids can push us to the very edge of our physical, spiritual and emotional limits. I guess what I’m trying to say is that parenting ain’t for sissies — let’s take a moment to let that sink in. If we don’t take the time to face that reality, we just might not make it out alive. This is serious stuff, people, and we need to have each other’s backs when the days get long. We need to share the things we’ve learned along the way. So this is my attempt at sharing a few good coping mechanisms for keeping our stuff together when we’d rather just…
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Ireland and Connecting Our Kids With Their Story
This year we will make the last of our family pilgrimages before we reach the next stage of our lives: children in college and finding ourselves absolutely broke for the next twenty years. Ha, Ha. The truth is, we are likely broke now, but we’ve decided to ignore that reality and finish the “Trilogy” of family pilgrimages before our kids have grown too old to have the time or desire to travel with us anymore. We knew that Italy, Spain and Portugal, and Ireland had to make the top of that list — not because of their appeal to tourists, but because of their deeply Catholic roots. There are plenty…
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Seeking Out Community
Summer is in full swing, and for us Midwesterners that means making the most of the beautiful weather and packing our summer with parties and get-togethers. Honestly, it can be exhausting — but it’s the best kind of exhausting. It’s the kind of exhausting where we get a chance to catch up on each other’s lives and have deeper conversations about ourselves and our families and the things that matter most to us. It seems many of our get-togethers, as of late, have included conversations about the desire to live an intentional life — to not get stuck in the weeds of life, but to live our lives with purpose.…
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Choosing Your Battles Wisely
Being a parent can be exhausting sometimes. The physical demands of life with littles, combined with the emotional demands of responding to the deeper needs of your children has its challenges — which is why we need to choose our battles wisely. Believe me, if you’re a parent who cares about your children, there will be battles. Kids are naturally going to try to push the limits, at least a little bit, and these are great opportunities to clarify what you value as a family. These moments can help our kids to develop their own moral character. They also force us to examine why we believe what we believe and to own…
