My dear sweet, too cute for words, #6,Sweet boy, I love you, and I know that you are moderately fond of me as well.  In the time that you have known me, which really is the whole of your life, have you ever known me to not need sleep?  I ask this because you seem to have decided to give sleep up for Lent.  While I applaud your willingness to sacrifice during this penitential season, perhaps giving up sleep may... Read more

#3 made his first Confession today.  He knew his prayers, had thought about his sins, was primed and ready to go, then he asked me, “I know what we do, but why do we do it?  Nobody said the why.” I frowned a bit at this gap in his knowledge, and remembered the words of Sr Katherine, my 2nd grade teacher.  “Think of your soul as a big white bedsheet hanging out on the line, just glowing in the sunlight. ... Read more

h/t to the Crescat who has had me laughing all day. Read more

I chatted today with the woman who will become my son’s help, the doctor who will help him learn to cope with the compulsions which rule his young life.  I timidly asked her if this were something we had done or was it simply a part of the person he is.   “It is a part of him,” she told me.  “We don’t know why some people need repetition or stimulation or any of a hundred different things to comfort themselves,... Read more

“You have a little smudge, right there, on your forehead.”  Then a helpful hand reaches out to brush it away.   This scene will be replayed over and over again today as total strangers try to save me from the embarrassment of walking around with a dirty face.  Standing out from the norm is not easy; having something which marks us as somehow apart from everyone else is not always comfortable.  It is the mark upon my forehead which today proclaims... Read more

My brain is not working correctly.  The stress of having a child who eats things which are not food has caught up with me in the last 48 hours.  I can’t sleep, instead I just lay there and worry. Was it something we did? Was it something we didn’t do? Logically I know that his compulsive behavior is not something I can control, but I am a person who likes control.  Giving it up is hard.  He is my child,... Read more

When I was in the 4th grade, my best friend was a girl named Kim.  She had a younger sister, Joy, who always tried to play with us, and we wouldn’t let her.  We were 10, sue us.  But if we had known what kind of an amazing woman she would grow up to be, we might have been a little nicer. I posted a button at the top of my blog (did you see it?) asking for prayers for... Read more

I often tease my husband about suffering from Tim Allen syndrome.  He thinks bigger, louder, faster equals better.  There is nothing I want that can’t be improved upon.  I used to get annoyed and think that he just didn’t listen to me.  It occurred to me that perhaps he didn’t think I was smart enough to know what I really wanted.  I just couldn’t understand what was so hard about getting precisely what I asked for.  I go to great... Read more

Last year I did 100 things I love about the Computer Guy.  It’s a pretty comprehensive list, but I’d like to add a few things. 50. I snored louder than anyone when I was pregnant with #6, you still slept in the same bed with me.49. I invited complete strangers to Thanksgiving dinner, and all you wanted to know was where to put the extra chairs.48. You hate the snow, but took the children outside for a snowball fight at... Read more

In what has become a tradition at Shoved to Them, I offer you a little Valentine. Happy St Valentine’s Daylove always,the Mom Read more