and blown away to find that my prayer request has been linked to by the fabulous Simcha. If you’ve come over here from her blog, thank you. I am in great need of your prayers. And thank you Simcha, for linking to my previous post, ‘a blanket apology’. The first thing I saw in my email this morning was a comment on that post, which made me reread it. I needed that reminder today that my value lies in my beginning... Read more

If you are moved to, please consider joining me in fasting and prayer for my marriage tomorrow, the last day of the novena I mentioned in my last post. Read more

Thank you (whoever is still reading here) for your love and prayers over the years. 2011 was a year of a lot of upheaval for me and my family, with most of the roots of the upheaval going back years further. I won’t go into more detail at this time, but the sum result is this: my children and I are living with my parents in Ontario. My oldest son is no longer homeschooled, but attends a public Catholic elementary... Read more

The Boys Upstairs, by Jane Lebak. E-book, Museit Up Publishing.Fr. Jay is a veteran, a cripple, a pastor, a former hell-raiser turned father-figure and provider for the homeless boys he now shelters under his rectory roof. This task is complicated by a lack of resources and, at times, by the boys themselves. His brother, Kevin, is a police officer who is both drawn in by Jay’s altruism and repelled by his priesthood and the Church and God he serves. The... Read more

Gui found this gorgeous Orchard spider in our yard this morning. Isn’t it lovely? Read more

…to the blog of the wonderful Mary Poppins Not, who has some insightful words to say about what’s wrong around here. Read more

You are the dead. Long years agoyou fought, and died, were laid belowthe crosses, there in Flanders Field.Ninety Novembers now have pealedChurch bells and speeches for the deadby dwindling rank of comrades led,to honor you – – John McCrae,and all who stood in danger’s way. Your poem — it haunts me now as whenI memorized first, at ten.(So many children have). But I— I hear the larks sing in the skyand shiver at the dead belowthe crosses, laid in Flanders... Read more

So, I didn’t keep up with the “Things My Mother Tried to Teach Me” posts. Which is perhaps ironically appropriate, as I’ve not been a terribly good student of my mother’s lessons all these years. Bits of Mom’s wisdom I wanted to cover but didn’t get to:-The difference between private inspiration and public revelation (and how confusion between the two can cause difficulties in Christian circles).-The multiplicity of solutions to any given problem (granted, I still usually wish there was... Read more