And with that title, I have fulfilled a long-held dream of naming a blog post after a Hanson song. Go me. But actually, I’m looking around and not seeing much of it lately, and it’s making me sad. Not sad in a “let me cast my droopy Disney eyes upon you and guilt you into being a better human being because you are negatively impacting my emotional state” way, but sad in a, “I doubt everything I know to be... Read more

The other day one of my friends posted a link on facebook, comparing the modesty debate (or at least certain portions of it) to an attempt to argue that a woman eating chocolate causes others to want chocolate, and thus indulge in gluttony. Here’s an excerpt: What you may not understand is that it is just a part of the way that God designed us. When we see chocolate, we are provoked to gluttony. That may or may not be... Read more

I stumbled across this video on my beloved io9 the other day, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.   I was raised in the Bible Belt. I attended a private, Evangelical school until I went to college. I came away from that school with lots of good things. My love of literature was fostered and encouraged there, as was my belief in an objective moral truth. Unfortunately, the theory of evolution was never presented to us, certainly not... Read more

#7 Seriously, this week has been insane. The first week of school went beautifully for Sienna, but unfortunately all the long, quiet hours of blogging I envisioned never quite materialized. This is partially the fault of Florida and its stupid tendency to get hit with hurricanes, and my subsequent need to prepare for said impending hurricane, partially the fault of Lincoln, whose due date grows ever nearer and whose enormous piles of newborn clothes insist upon being washed and put... Read more

#7 Okay, so I haven’t been posting because I literally cannot think of anything to write about except how miserable I am in this last trimester. And I didn’t want to inflict that on you, since it’s already being inflicted on my husband, my children, my friends, my neighbors, and the check-out clerks at Trader Joe’s. Remember how I’m not great at suffering? Yeah. That’s still extremely true. (In my meager defense, let me just say that for the first... Read more

The Ogre is home. I picked him up at midnight last night, and I’ve spent every spare minute since then sneaking kisses, holding his hand, and watching him play with the kids. My neighbor sent this video to me yesterday because it made her think of us:   It’s perfect. Five weeks was a long time, but I’d wait longer if I had to. Don’t get me wrong, I hope I never have to again. But seeing our kids leap... Read more

As most of you know, we live in Ave Maria, Florida. This teeny-tiny town was built around the university of the same name, where the Ogre teaches. The best way to describe Ave Maria is to describe it as it is: imagine a swamp. Now imagine a beautiful, perfectly manicured town dropped in the middle of that swamp. Add the biggest church on the planet, statues galore, Catholic street signs, some little shops, a rockin’ pub and coffee shop, and... Read more

I know I’ve been the worst blogger in the history of blog-dom lately. I’m really sorry. Screen time has been necessarily limited because of migraines, and I’ve also been trying to keep myself and the kids busy to keep our minds off the fact that the Ogre has been gone for five weeks. But guess what? He comes home tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Sorry for annoying you. But that’s how excited and happy I am: even Aileen Quinn, the most annoying... Read more

  This post is not going to earn me many friends. Luckily, I’m eight months pregnant, have had a migraine for four days, and am about as cranky as you can imagine a beached whale with a drill going through her head would be, so I’m going to post it anyway, secure in the knowledge that making new friends is not going to happen in my immediate future. I’ve loved Chick-fil-a since I was a kid. Their food is yummy.... Read more