In honor of this Jubilee Year of Hope, Catholicmom.com wanted to do a series for July called "Hope Found in Prayer".  Prayer is such a personal experience and different for everyone. We may be saying the same prayers out loud, but the words are being absorbed into our hearts and minds in different ways.

couple of months ago, (or maybe even a bit longer since time just feels like it's flying by!), I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Abiding Together. Sister Miriam James Heidland was talking about using our imaginations to place ourselves in the Holy Family's House in Nazareth. She encouraged listeners to imagine spending time with the Holy family…

A couple of weeks ago, after a particularly frustrating afternoon that was marked by feelings of inadequacy and failure, I was able to escape outside for a quick walk. My usual walk routine is to listen to a podcast while I circle around our neighborhood, but on that particular day, I felt so emotionally discombobulated that I started the walk in silence. On the surface

The peace of this school vacation week has been a balm to my very weary soul. After a Lent that was full to the brim, a nonstop Holy Week, and Easter day, having time to just "be" and think, nap and even deep clean(!) has felt so amazing. I've tried to enjoy this slower pace and allow each day to just develop. Going into the week, I actually felt a lot of guilt and stress

Sometimes in difficult life situations we go searching for a saint, but sometimes it seems that a saint comes searching for us. 

Three is not my favorite age.

With all eight of my children, I always found their three year old year to be the most challenging.

My youngest officially entered into the teenage years in December. I've experienced seven other children enter the teenage years and lived to tell about it! And while each experiences has been different, I have to say that this time around I've noticed that the popular slang seems much more prevalent. (And confusing!)

Every time one of our older kids has shared the announcement that they were expecting has been a time of celebration and joy. Each of my grandchildren's pregnancy and birth stories have been special, and all filled with their own moments of joys and sorrows. We recently welcomed our sixth grandchild into our family. Her story has been filled with lots of twists and turns, but also with lots of reminders of Who is in control regardless of our circumstances.