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Travel Posts To Get You Going
Hey guys, thank goodness summer is not over yet! Here is to hoping you are making the most of your last days of summer — I know I am trying to. I am getting ready for our own family adventure, so I figured I’d share some of my favorite family travel posts from the past 3 years. Hopefully, they will inspire you to start planning your own crazy family adventures. Without further ado, let’s get to it! This one is an honest and light-hearted look at the 7 Do’s and Don’ts of Family Travel. I’ve made lots of mistakes along the way, so hoping this will help the next guy…
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Showing Our Kids The Place Their Story Began in Glendalough
“Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one. Lock it up, safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” ~C. S. Lewis~ Some would say it is a stroke of sheer madness to settle down and marry just one person — just one — when there are so many people in this vast world of ours. I like to think that John and I are a little bit mad. We were crazy enough, 19 years…
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Segovia and the Beauty of Reconciliation
Guys, it’s 10:15 at night, all Saints Day, and I’m just beginning this post. Arghh. I’ve made a commitment to posting on Fridays and darn it, I’m going to keep it — though I can’t guarantee this post will make any sense, because this girl is tired. TIRED. So what to write about? Hmm, how about the time we went to Segovia, Spain. It’s a rainy Fall day, so it seems a perfect time to reminisce about a place that was hot and arid and so different than the place I call home. Let me give you a little glimpse of a summer night in Segovia to get you in…
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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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That Time We Went to Lisbon
I love to travel. I always have, and even as a child, I was always fascinated by the prospect of traveling to far off places. Fortunately, I met John — who also shares my love for travel — and we have passed that on to our kids as well. I hope that my kids will look back on all the adventures that we have had together as a family and smile about them — I sure do smile when I think back on our time together in Lisbon. Ah, Lisbon, we did not have long enough to explore it’s streets and neighborhoods. It was magical. Of all the places we…
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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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Beach Struggles, Hugh Hefner, and Teaching Our Kids to Navigate a Sex-Saturated World
This past week, Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy enterprise, died. May God have mercy on his soul and on all the souls who have been hurt by his legacy. Though I don’t dare suggest I know Hugh Hefner’s motives, I found it surprising that some people have tried to raise this man up as a sort of hero. Are you kidding me? Please somebody tell me any good that has come from Hugh Hefner and the pornography industry? Porn isn’t about helping people — it’s about enslaving people for selfish gain. Men, women, and children are being bought and sold as commodities to feed the insatiable thirst it creates…
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7 Things that Make Family Travel Easier
I know that school is beginning soon enough for most of us, but as I’m preparing for a family pilgrimage to Spain and Fatima, I thought I’d share some of those things that have made traveling with the whole family far more manageable — dare I say, even enjoyable? To be honest, I love the adventure of traveling with my kids — but it’s not easy. A few years back, we made a little shift in our mindset about traveling and it has made all the difference for us. It’s hard to believe, but just recognizing that family trips aren’t easy or relaxing has helped tremendously. Honestly, if you keep…
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St. Peters Basilica: 7 Quick Takes
Rome — where do I begin? On some level, Rome is like every other big city out there — traffic, noise, the constant activity of people doing all the things that people do in big cities. But Rome is also strangely unlike any other big city in the world– it is literally bursting at the seams with all things Catholic — slowly the big city fades and you begin to notice that everywhere you look there is some aspect of our faith represented in living color. It is a city of pilgrims, of saints, of sinners. In a real way, it is a city that belongs to all of us — for what else does the word “catholic”…
