Today begins my 20th year homeschooling my children.This post is not self-congratulatory, a flex, nor a how-to. I have no hacks, no shortcuts, or magic bullets. What I have are 20 years of loving my children through striving to form their minds and hearts. In doing so, I’ve formed my own soul. I’ve participated a …
This weekend our parish had our first priestly ordination. A young man I have known for almost a decade was ordained to the priesthood right there in our little parish. The Maronite Bishop, Chor-Bishop, the Roman Catholic Bishop, and dozens of priests, deacons, subdeacons, and seminarians from the Maronite, Latin, and Byzantine Churches were there. …
If
It’s almost Mother’s Day. And you know what that means: well meaning posts, reels, and AP articles will start popping up with calculations of the financial worth of a mother. The hypothetical “If you had to pay for these services how much are they worth?” These imaginary salaries are based on a stay-at-home parent being …
I’ve never been one for malls, even when malls were a thing. The florescent lights and the muzak make me twitchy after a time. I get weary of window shopping for things I cannot afford. And retailers know that you only think that blouse looks cute because the way it is placed next to their …
“Sometimes, at the dinner table, a man might get up and go outside and walk and walk, simply because there’s somewhere in the East a church.” (Rilke’s Book of Pilgrimage) My fourth child is a junior at Hillsdale majoring in politics. First of all, what? How am I old enough that my fourth born is …
When this child was born, in my bed, in the bleak midwinter in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, my midwife from New Zealand stood over me, watching me give. I received him into my own hands and I laughed. She said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. If everyone had a birth like this, they would wonder what …
Years before our separation and divorce my ex-husband stopped celebrating our anniversary. He said he had no interest in it. I would still make an attempt every year because I kept trying to heal the brokenness with every tool at my disposal. The last year I tried I created a basket of all his favorite …
I have started this post multiple times and I have other iterations of it saved to drafts. It’s vulnerable. It’s a sensitive topic that not only may make others feel judged, it also makes me feel judged. But several of my beautiful readers have specifically asked I address this and so, here I am….doing some …
This post is not a flex by any means. Maybe it will be a comfort to my fellow mommies in the trenches who lay awake at night pondering all the things left undone on their lists and all the unmet desires of their hearts. I am not a great homeschooling mom. Since day one 16 …
reconciling things 