Our boys love to collect and create. But my hyper organized self has a hard time accepting the mess that comes with such creative genius. What I want hidden from sight, my boys want to proudly display (to the piano teacher, neighbors, even the exterminator). My trash is their treasure (I know this is true because I often find them creating with things I have recently thrown away). Recently a priest told me that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”... Read more
Dear friends, it seems like just yesterday that I was writing a post about Annie’s birth, and now it has been one full year since we welcomed her into the world. We are celebrating Annie’s birthday today by going to Mass, making a visit to the cemetery, and then having some fun together as a family. I have a feeling that we may be making a trip to our favorite cupcake spot, spending some time at our neighborhood pool,... Read more
It has happened… our five-year-Army-subsidized stint in Germany is drawing to a close. We have had two children here, traveled to countries of which I never dreamed and generally expanded our minds and opinions. The packers have taped the last box shut, we are vacuuming Cheerios out of our van to put it on a barge and I am more than a little pre-nostalgic. (is there a single word for this feeling? If you know it, comment please, I need... Read more
Our summer has just begun, and so far we are having a great time! I should qualify this statement by disclosing a couple of things: I just got my hair cut at a salon that is part of a fancy fitness club (not ours), so my kids were in a very cool Kids’ Club for over an hour while I got my hair washed, cut, and blown dry by somebody else. The kids were excited to play, and I got... Read more
Lest this blog succumb to the temptation of presenting only a picture-perfect, carefully-edited facade… We have decided to post email conversations of ours from time to time. This blog began five years ago as an extension of our ongoing email chats about all the big and small thoughts and happenings that punctuate our days. Through emails, we have shared inspirations and sorrows, lots of laughs and way too much information (in fact, we have unofficially nicknamed it the “TMI Listserve”)... Read more
I just finished reading an article entitled “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning,” by Mario Vittone, and feel that it was filled with a lot of relevant and potentially life-saving information. The general gist of the article is that drowning victims often do not look like they are drowning, and therefore nobody jumps in to rescue them until it is too late. A couple of noteworthy quotes from the article: Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing,... Read more
Recently, we had a plumber come out to fix a slow drain in the children’s bathroom. This particular bathroom is the handwashing and toothbrushing station for 6 children, so it is heavily trafficked, and the plumber recommended that we put an organic septic solution in the drain once a month to prevent future back ups. It’s a fifteen minute process of mixing the solution, letting it sit for a while, putting it in the drain, flushing with hot water, and... Read more
Since we (sadly) missed my 10th Princeton Reunion this weekend, I thought it would be fun to look through some pictures of Reunions past. Enjoy, and I can’t wait to see pictures from Reunions 2013! We attended my first reunion with my 4 week-old son, and I have hazy memories of sitting with Kellie in Aquinas House as we nursed our newborn babies! I also remember introducing our son to some confused classmates – “Wait, you have a what? A... Read more
…just eat them! Thanks be to God for a super sanguine 4th child who always goes with the flow! Read more
My dream of having 5 children on one swim team, with the entire family attending swim meets on summer Saturdays, has come to an end. We can’t sustain travel soccer, travel baseball, softball, summer shows, choir, piano, dance, and swimming with 5 children. In fact, we just learned that we can’t even do it with three! Read more
Building Cathedrals
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