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7 Things I Am Grateful For
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope your celebrating was beautiful and you have woken from your turkey coma and are full of gratitude for the time you had with family and friends yesterday. I hope you soaked up all the great conversations and food and wine that you could, because just around the corner is Advent, which is traditionally a time of fasting. Just remember, it’s the lukewarm ones that God spits out of His mouth — so if you have got the feasting thing down, the next season of Advent is a great time to get the fasting thing down, too. That being said, today is a day to reflect on all…
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7 Things That Make Me Grateful
I literally am surrounded by clothes that need to be packed and food that needs to be made before I can leave my house to spend time with my amazing family in Chicago. I have an hour and a half before I need to get out of my door. Sounds like a perfect time to write a post, am I right? 🙁 I just couldn’t let Thanksgiving go by without writing my annual “7 Things that Make Me Grateful” posts, and I know that it would be more grammatically correct to say, “7 Things For Which I am Grateful” — but it just sounded too formal to me. So, please…
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Random Thoughts: Keep Marching Baby
The March for Life was amazing! I gotta say — it was definitely worth the 18 hours of round-trip travel time and every other chaotic moment that comes with traveling with 6 kids. So glad we went! It was such an impactful experience that it’s hard to put my mind around it all — but I’m gonna try. To gain better perspective on the reasons for the March, you might like to check out last week’s post Why We March. But for those of you who’d don’t mind a few random thoughts here or there — I offer you my “Random thoughts on the March for Life”. Enjoy. First Random Thought: Preach it. Pope John Paul II got the importance of…
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Why We March…
My mother is one of the founders of the March for Life — in fact, she was pregnant with me during that first March — and the story of how it all came about is an interesting one. A few years prior to the March, my mother found herself in a convent in the South. Though the “nun” thing didn’t work out, this time did help her to gain insight into the plight of the African-American living in the South at the time. Having a heart for what they were suffering, she decided that she was going to help black men and women register and exercise their right to vote. She marched with Martin Luther King,…
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And…It’s a Wrap!
Happy Epiphany! (technically, it’s been moved to Sunday in the US — but for the rest of the world –Happy Epiphany!) How was your Christmas? Mine was just what it was supposed to be — sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, sometimes chaotic, sometimes peaceful — and I wouldn’t change one second of it. I know we’re still in the Christmas Season, but we’re slowly coming to the end, and all of us are beginning to look forward to a little more normalcy in our lives. Even last night, I returned home from a gathering with friends after midnight — and my baby was still up! So, though I love this time of year and…
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7 Ways to Make Advent More Meaningful
It’s the most wonderful time of the year — or is it? I really, really love Christmas — and if you’re anything like me, you have really fond memories of Christmas trees, twinkling lights, and the building anticipation of wonderful things to come — but hold your horses, it’s not Christmas yet! I know, I know — it’s hard to not jump right from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It is especially hard because the days are getting shorter, the mornings are getting harder — I’m hitting snooze at least 3 times on most days — and we want a little Christmas cheer to get us through the darker days. But I’m going to suggest something that…
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The Problem of Santa Claus
This time of year brings with it all sorts of challenges — some serious and some not-so-much — but one question any family with kids has to decide this time of year is, “Will Santa be coming to our house?” You can get away with ignoring this question if it’s just you and your husband and possibly for the first few years after having a child. But if you have kids, eventually this question will become an important one, because it will influence what Christmas will look like in your house for many years to come. We’re talking important stuff here, and if you make the wrong decision, your children will be…
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Things To Be Thankful For
How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was full of good food, family, friends, and all the things that make this time of year so special! There’s a lot of life going on right now, but I couldn’t let Thanksgiving Day go by without sharing a few things for which I am grateful. 1.I’m really grateful for all the men and women that sacrificed so that we could live in a democracy! Democrats, republicans, independents — and countless other men and women of all faiths and creeds died so that you and I could live freely in this country. They died for people who were very different from them, politically, but…
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Looking Back: 17 Years of Marriage
This weekend, John and I are celebrating 17 years of marriage! So, I thought I’d dedicate this post to the man I married 17 years ago. On our wedding day, John’s sisters told me that I would never be bored. They were so right. This guy keeps adventure alive in our house! I’m so glad I took that great big leap of faith and agreed to marry him on a sunny day in Glendalough so many years ago! Our Engagement: Ireland was a big part of our beginning. Our first time together in Ireland was when John visited me and my family for Thanksgiving– we were visiting my sister, who was working there…
