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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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The Cry Room: A Parents’ Guide to Survival
Okay, we’ve all been there — we’ve all been in the cry room. That awful, horrid place were children and parents are left to live sad, lonely lives — spurned by the families with well-behaved children. That room where all your hopes and dreams have been dashed to pieces amidst the cheerios, that awful diaper smell, and the other equally pathetic parents who find themselves there. That room where you are will ultimately find yourself asking questions like, “What is wrong with me?” “Why can’t I get it together?” or “Where did I go wrong? ” Well I’m here to tell you that you are just fine — in fact, you are more than…
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Advent Has Me Like…
Wow, Advent has been like a mini Lent — exactly what the Church says it’s supposed to be — but I don’t really like to suffer and be inconvenienced so it has been a time of stretching. We’re not talking a pleasant yoga-type-stretching — it’s been more of a medieval being-stretched-on-a-rack type of stretching — not pleasant. 🙁 And just when I thought we were over the hump of little sufferings and inconveniences and making way for Christmas, we found ourselves in the midst of another entirely unexpected kind-of-big drama this week. We’re still in the midst of it and it’s sad for a whole bunch of reasons — but I’ll leave…
