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The True Meaning of Comfort

The True Meaning of Comfort

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever.  John 14:16 As I meditated on the concept of Comfort while preparing to write this post, I reflected that it’s a word that evokes strong feelings, and it comes with...

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Fall Break in Kentucky

Fall Break in Kentucky

Would you believe until last year I had never spent a night in Kentucky?  I've driven through it on the way to points North, unsurprisingly, but somehow went almost 50 years without vacationing in a state I can drive to in an hour. We remedied that last October during...

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Minnesota Memories

Minnesota Memories

By the time this is published it will have been almost a year since our week in Minnesota--St. Paul, to be exact--where we stayed with our friends Renee and Erik and their daughter, Mikaela. Some background:  Renee and I were roommates all four years in college....

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Keeping Kids Catholic

Keeping Kids Catholic

When I was a little girl, I hated going to Mass. My father wasn't Catholic, and we all know how hard it is to take little kids to Mass.  So for the first six years of my life, I mostly stayed home on Sundays with Daddy.  Sometimes we'd drop my mother off and then go...

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Just Like That

Just Like That

I'm sitting here in my office working on bills as if it were any other Saturday even though a seismic shift occurred in my world less than 24 hours ago.  Because life does, in fact, go on. Twenty-two-and-a-half years ago, give or take, we welcomed our third child. ...

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Shopping at the Farmer's Market

Shopping at the Farmer's Market

My mother used to take us with her to the farmers' market when I was a little girl.  This is how I remember it: We'd drive into a big warehouse on the way home from church.  We'd stay in the car while my mother got out to shop.  Through the windows we'd catch glimpses...

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How I Learned a New Way to Pray

How I Learned a New Way to Pray

Like many Catholics, I am extremely uncomfortable at the thought of extemporaneous praying.  Fortunately, I am married to a former Protestant who excels at it and is happy to preside over any occasions (Thanksgiving, for example) when it seems called for. My husband...

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Iris, Resurrected

Iris, Resurrected

Mima--my maternal grandmother--loved working in her yard.  In my mind's eye I see her kneeling in front of her porch, setting out marigolds and impatiens in the rich black dirt she'd bought at Kmart.  Later she'd move to the bed by the street, where the peonies and...

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A Front Row Seat

A Front Row Seat

I'm blessed to still be a member of the very parish in which I was baptized as an infant.  Most of the past nearly 50 years of Sundays have found me sitting (standing and kneeling) in a pew at Immaculate Conception Church.  And like most Catholics, I'm usually in the...

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Things I Like about ME

Things I Like about ME

Five years ago, I participated in an exercise in which bloggers were challenged to post a list of what they liked about themselves.  The premise was that most women are a lot better at self-criticism than self-praise, that we are always focused on the ways in which we...

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The Lent I Needed

The Lent I Needed

My plans for Lent were modest as such things go, but Ash Wednesday wasn't even over before that old adage: "Man plans, God laughs," came into my head. Y'all, it's hard not to feel you are failing at Lent when you can't even make it to Ash Wednesday Mass to get ashes....

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My Catholic Uniform

My Catholic Uniform

We'd often run errands on the way home from school when I was a little girl.  That meant we'd be spending the afternoon in red plaid jumpers.  And if we got into mischief while our mother was shopping, she'd pull us aside and sternly remind us that we were wearing our...

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Why I Blog

Why I Blog

I thought about having a blog for years before I finally started one.  My first attempt had exactly two entries.  Nothing I thought of saying seemed important enough to share with the internet.  I would stare at my screen, paralyzed, and the words would not come....

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FREE 12×8 Canvas Print: Sponsored

Just jumping off of politics for a minute to offer you a fun deal for Christmas.  Obviously, this is a sponsored post and I will be receiving a free product in exchange for my participation which I will review honestly after I receive it. If you would like to take...

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Good People?

Good People?

My high school French teacher, Sister deLellis, had a favorite saying that popped into my head today: "Tell me who you go with and I'll tell you who you are." For the past year, many of my friends who termed themselves reluctant Trump supporters assured me repeatedly...

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October Is Respect Life Month

October Is Respect Life Month

I decided recently to update and re-release some of my pro-life posts in honor of Respect Life Month.  In order to make them easier for new readers to find, I'm including links to them here. I hope to continue to add to this page so that it will eventually contain one...

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What Labor Day Means to Me

What Labor Day Means to Me

When I was a little girl, Labor Day meant watching Jerry Lewis, waiting to hear our names called out on the telethon for our donation.  It meant fried chicken and deviled eggs and buttermilk ice cream at my cousins' house.  Later it became the day that my cousin and I...

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Blessed are the Merciful

Blessed are the Merciful

I didn't write anything about how awful people were when the little boy fell into the gorilla enclosure.  I didn't say anything about how quick people were to judge the poor parents whose child was killed by the alligator.  What finally put me over the edge were the...

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Lovely Tidbits #2

Lovely Tidbits #2

You'd think I could manage to find a few minutes a week to join in this easy and fun linkup hosted by my friend Cristina or Handmaid Embroidery.  <Sigh> How wrong you would be!  I am finding it more and more difficult to carve out any time to do what I want...

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50 Years:  A Birthday Story

50 Years: A Birthday Story

So I haven't blogged for a long time.  Because birthdays.  Most specifically, this year was my husband's 50th birthday, which he had been anticipating for some time.  We had a special party, and I thought I would share some pictures of the big event. [gallery...

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All I Want for Christmas Is Books, Books, Books

All I Want for Christmas Is Books, Books, Books

Even when I was a little girl who still enjoyed getting toys for Christmas, I also looked forward to receiving books.  Then as a teenager I remember enjoying Christmas night, after all the festivities were finished, finally getting to lie on the sofa to read whichever...

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Advent Memories

Advent Memories

I’m a Catholic school veteran—16 years all told.    I sent my three oldest children to the same parochial grade school I attended.  Catholic schools have Religion class every day along with Math, English, and Social Studies, and that’s great—but what’s even better are...

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