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What I really want to write about was our epic family vacation. Epic. Staycation for our immediate family, ca-y-cation for those out of towners who traveled with their wee ones to join in the party. 6 kids under 4. 11 adults in the house. We all fit, somehow. And no one died. But while I’m editing the photos and weeding out all the ones where no one is looking at the camera, or my mom cut off the heads of some, find me on other places on the internet. Do you follow I Believe in Love? Well, you should. It’s an awesome project. I wrote for them about coping with being the at-home parent, but that it’s not a competition for who suffers more between…
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Not that I’ve ever done this: mombard someone? Are you guilty of it? You read every book published about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, vaccines, homemade organic baby food, cloth diapers, cosleeping, and maybe even elimination communication for when you don’t want to use your cloth diapers, and now you’re the pro. The expert. The one dispensing advice. You know you’ve mombarded someone if the following is familiar. And oh-my-gosh, we are all so self righteous and judgmental of other moms! Scenario number 1: Friend says: Oh, I’m just exhausted. This newborn is keeping me up all night. You think: She’s a new mom. She doesn’t know about night nursing. She doesn’t know about absorbent cloth night diapers. She doesn’t know about baby led sleeping…
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Do you know Kendra from Catholic All Year? She’s so electronically lovely (I can only say this because I’m still just an electronic friend). Her blog is inspirational, funny, and great. Her weekly link up of “Answer Me This” is a great virtual cocktail party Sunday nights. Or mornings. Depending on how badly the children were at church. SuperBoy (4) has morphed from perfect altar boy wannabe to monster and SweetPea (2) has always been devilish. Without further ado / / / / / / 1. How did you get your name? I love my name story because it’s a little wild. Wild for me, that is. I was baptized Ellen O’Leary, but as things would flesh out, my parents named me Ellen to call…
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This sweet friend, L.R., from law school & her husband emailed me the happiest news! After suffering loss and hoping to have a baby make it past the first number of weeks, they are 20 weeks along in their parenting journey!! She had shared about their losses in a previous guest posting. Read more of the Birth & Parenting Series here. —– Praise be to God: We are Expecting It’s finally our turn to make this amazing announcement! What you maybe don’t know is what a long journey it has been. During that journey I made a promise to God that, if He ever gave us this chance, I would give Him the glory; so He set about making sure I knew that He truly deserved the…
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I wrote this a while back and never published it. I suppose I was saving it for a rainy day. With BabyLoves here, and the world’s longest recovery, a little food for thought on character building that maybe someday we will be successful at! And no, I’m not going to quote Calvin’s dad from my favorite comic strip by Bill Waterson (still love reading Calvin and Hobbes), though he always told Calvin that doing X undesirable chore built his character. These are two Catholic sayings we grew up hearing that I think we’ll pass along to our children as well. I don’t think you have to be Catholic or Christian to appreciate them–as their properties of helping children become less self-focused are universally applicable through…
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Music used to play a much larger role in my life. I sang in several choirs, one touring, and had private voice lessons in high school. As a child I even had my own rap group called “Nell, Inc.” Our signature (and only) song went something like this . . . break it down now, puttta, puttta, oh. And all my new acquaintances in high school, college, and law school would share music love with me–introducing me to new tunes, rocking out to well loved tunes together, making music, you name it. Now that I’m a mommy. And a mommy blogger at that. I have little access to the music scene. I’m too busy listening to Scythian’s Cake for Dinner or Burl Ives. Or classical music…
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