Wednesday Was the Eighth Grade Graduation. Adrienne has done wonderfully. Once I pulled the plug on homeschooling and put her in a public school, she began to shine. She taught herself ways to get around the dyslexia that astonished me, and quickly became the fastest reader with the best comprehension in class. She was moved from the normal classes up to the honors section and still maintained that flawless academic record. She tested into 100-level college courses which the... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to... Read more
Nothing went the way that it should, and that was a mercy. It all began with the catalytic converter– or, rather, the lack of a catalytic converter. Jimmy was curious as to why my car still ran so loudly and smelled so terrible after the engine replacement last year. He examined the underside of the car, which is when he found out that I did not have a catalytic converter, just a pipe. Ohio doesn’t have emissions inspections, so... Read more
The Princess first came to LaBelle last summer, and stayed for months. She was a tiny little girl, barely bigger than a toddler, the granddaughter of a friendly man who lives down the street. Every single day she would wear some emblem of royalty with her clothing: a plastic crown from the dollar store, or a pair of gauze fairy wings, or a pink satin dress-up princess dress over fuzzy pajamas. She never left the house without her... Read more
I met a new friend at nearly midnight, last weekend. Michael had just gotten off a late shift. It was quite dark and chilly. One of his regular customers was still in the restaurant as he ate his dinner after a twelve hour shift. The customer was on the phone, arguing loudly with a cab company. I suppose that Steubenville is the only place on earth where you can’t get an Uber or a Lyft. Back when I didn’t have... Read more
Have you ever thought about the way changing a name can change your whole perspective? If you follow medical news at all, you might have heard that a consensus of health organizations has changed the name of the chronic illness that up until yesterday was called poly-cystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The sickness formerly known as PCOS, is now called ‘polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome” (PMOS). There’s no change in the official list of symptoms, the treatment or the diagnostic criteria, just... Read more
It hurts to go to Mass alone on Mothers’ Day. I’ve healed so much the past several years, but sometimes the old hurts still sting. I am happy hundreds of days out of three hundred sixty-five, every year for the past two or three years, but sometimes the old grief chokes me. Sometimes I catch myself being happy, and it feels unfamiliar, which reminds me of the feelings underneath. The other night I had that dream I thought... Read more
Things go on as they always have, with variations. The guinea pig is elderly but active as ever, and she likes to graze on weeds while I prepare the garden for summer. I’ve got plants nearly bursting out of their pots in the dining room, just waiting for the night time temperature to stop dipping below forty, just like every May. The cat likes to go in and out of her basement hideaway so often that when I... Read more
The discourse is on the death penalty again. My veteran readers know that I am against the death penalty because I’m a Catholic who tries to hold a consistent life ethic. That’s what Catholics are supposed to do, and I’m doing my best. So I wasn’t at all surprised when Pope Leo XIV reiterated what we already knew last Tuesday: “The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred... Read more
The sunflowers will not stop. In 2023, I planted a few different varieties of sunflower in my garden to see what would happen. I ended up with great towering blooms that I left to dry out until frost as a treat for the birds. The birds dropped seeds. The next year, and every year thereafter, I have had scores of free cross-pollenated sunflowers, growing out of the garden beds and the compost. Every year I transplant as many as... Read more
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