Read It All
I’m finding, and maybe you are too, that as things slowly start to close, I want to clutch them ever more tightly. So this coming of August, this welcoming of the big Minnesota heat waves before the autumn really begins, this time makes me nostalgic for the summer that already was, and the one that I’m still living right now! It’s a little ridiculous but that’s where I am. It was a summer of slowness, relaxed afternoons and quiet evenings, mid-day flurries at the pool & tennis courts, lots of chipotle & Mac & Cheese for dinner. Not at the same time, mind you. It was a summer of me not feeling 100% and adjusting life accordingly. #notpregnant #autoimmuneissues Our sweet summer sitter goes back to college soon and the kids will miss her and her bribes with gum, ever so greatly. We had an epic Costco trip where I only had three of the four kids, only had one kid rip off half my toe nail because he’s got slow feet and everyone was helping push the cart, and then while we all rallied ’round inside the bathroom stall because no one is old enough to be left outside the bathroom with the enormous cart, someone wasn’t done going yet before someone else flung open the stall door and while both someones shall remain nameless, I was less traumatized than I thought I would be while she sobbed her little heart out over the siblings’ correction. I snuck…
Read More
Oh, the irony! Is it ironic? Nell is super excited about her new blog design (thank you, Jamie!) and yet her own kids have zero access to screens. Wellll they get to watch the occasional movie, but we don’t own a TV, gaming system, or devices. We have one battered old laptop, one newer one, and one very almost dead desktop I’m hoping to get data recovered from. And two iPhones. Everything is password protected and the kids don’t know those open sesames. Why? Why deprive our kids of what ostensibly seems to be cutting edge, skills they’ll need, and also, what everyone else is doing socially? Because increasingly science and researchers tell us what we kinda knew but hoped wasn’t true as a society of exhausted parents looking for something for their kiddo to do that’s enriching and not fighting us/each other. Screen time is damaging to their developing minds. Social media is damaging to their emotional development. We are performing an experiment on this generation of kids and we simply don’t have enough data to know it’s safe to allow developing brains tablet, gaming, online socializing, and passive consumption of screen time in the levels we’re letting in. SO soap box aside, maybe you’re here to shift your own strategies as a parent, and maybe you have great tips for the rest of us. Here’s how we live screen-free for the kids. (Had a great discussion on instagram right here.) REPLACE // when we’ve watched a Magic School…
Read More
How many times do you see fights about Catholic womanhood on the internet? How many tweets and replies and heated stranger-v-stranger on someone else’s facebook post about the right way to be a Catholic woman and the only way to be a saint. It kinda turns my stomach. Look, I get it. We all love a moral higher ground! We all want to feel fully vindicated in our choices to work from home, work outside the home, stop working, practice NFP for mental health reasons, welcome all the babies in all the years, pursue adoption, not pursue adoption and face all the questions about your married vocation+. What gets lost in all that spluttering and finger pointing, to me, is the holy women in our faith tradition. The saints, venerables, servants of God who stepped up and lived out a life of heroic virtue, saying yes to God. Saying YES to loving, feeding, clothing, instructing, visiting, caring for their brothers and sisters in Christ. Their examples show point-blank that living out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, that becoming a saint, doesn’t look the same for everybody. So last year we started this project, Misericordia, another Blessed Conversations study. Four women in different walks of life on the Blessed is She writing team agreed to write reflections: a mother of ten, a mother of two, a grandmother, a single woman. I dreamed and prayed about how it would read & flow before I wrote the introduction. Blessed is She’s director of ministry advancement, Beth Davis, worked her mad skills on the questions for reflection and discussion.…
Read More
Ah! It’s nearly spring here in Minnesota and as I gaze upon my poor neglected blog I realized, yes, it’s been two months since I said anything here. Did you miss me?! Spring means I’ve been sewing up a storm. But in a fun twist of events, so has my dear friend Cynthia. When you have seven kiddos and you’re a talented seamstress, what else do you do with your time than take pity on your friend who has more sewing projects than hours in the day? Cynthia kindly agreed to help me sew up these bibs for this spring whole parenting goods launch and guys, she’s realllllly good. So this lovely stash will be available for YOU to purchase from tomorrow starting at 10am central. The linen tunic tops are sizes 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, 12-18, and 18-24 months. The linen dresses are 2t, 3t, 4t, 5t. My kids want to keep them all, BUT I’m feeling like sharing the love with you guys. Good luck and happy shopping! Shop is right here.
Read More
I sent resume after resume on the resume paper you’re supposed to send it out on. The employment market had crashed to a smoldering pile of burnt resumes (mine, all of them, probably). My credentials from law school and a federal clerkship, a work-abroad fellowship, all did not amount to the 5-8 years experience required. So when we moved back home, my husband and I, I was lucky enough to get a special appointment to a position that was part-time and unpaid. But it was experience with a kind and generous boss and collegial co-workers. I mean can you say you’re a co-worker if you’re a volunteer? I drove an hour each way to it. I threw up in the car, in the building, leaving court to do it, on the way home, and every other spot. Early on I was pregnant with my first. Everyone wanted to know how my “job” was going. I couldn’t face telling them I didn’t really have a job. I had a position. So I told them that. Hoping somehow by not owning the unfortunate circumstances of all beginning lawyers I would look like I still had it together. Look like I was still gifted and talented. I was still the me I had felt like in law school. Like I hadn’t failed. I eventually left the position to throw up more and more at home, and eventually, cradle a little babe in my healing lap and say: I didn’t get to pursue that dream but this one is nice. I had begun a small private practice and it…
Read More
Oh friends! I have so many new yearsie things to share. The lessons I learned when everyone was sick most of Christmas. The lessons I repeatedly learn about the gift of suffering and the past few months with health issues. The joys of a new brownie recipe (SMITTEN KITCHEN FOR THE EVERY WIN). But I’ll save all that til I can sit down and properly bang it out. Today at 8 central I’m hosting a free workshop online with my best boss, Jenna Guizar, for Blessed is She about a new course I’ve been making for you guys for the past YEAR. Yeah, I’m slow. So if you pop over tonight, you’ll hear about “Discovering the Gift of You” and what it means, why I want you to join me, etc. I even wrote an entire personality assessment test. Some of the questions are . . . ironic funny silly sooo real!!! Click here to sign up. It’s free. If you want to purchase the course afterwards, awesome, but just come and here about it first. I’ll post the link for the actual course offering later this week along with a more in-depth explanation of it all. LOVE LOVE LOVE, N
Read More