hello. If you are looking for advice on canoeing with your 13-year-old daughter, I have none. Come to think of it, I  have no advice on what there is to be done with a 13-year-old daughter, except that here we are, in the same boat, trying to navigate our way down river, or up river, without causing too much damage… View Post

hello. I think I might be breaking some kind of sisterhood code when I write that the movie “Wonder Woman” got on my nerves a little bit. (Fun fact: More people unsubscribed from my blog after I admitted that I did not like the book Little Women than any have ever unsubscribed in the 13 years I’ve been blogging. I wonder… View Post

Inspired by Jeanine Hathaway’s “ex-nun poems.” Read a few of them here.  The ex-teacher knows not to expect anything profound to happen the first day she swims laps. It is pouring down rain, and she is wearing a bathing suit so modest she’s not sure she isn’t wearing it backwards. She will not remember anything or find anything out about… View Post

hello. Harper and I were sitting outside a few days ago when a bee decided it would stop by and join us. Poor thing picked the wrong people, and I am terribly sorry I have passed along my fear of the insects to my children (no living thing was harmed in the incident). However, after a brief freak out and… View Post

“It is almost trite to say that grace operates….in an unanticipated, Flannery O’Connor sort of way. It can – and should – confound and surprise us. Grace causes pain because, as the great Southern Catholic author knew, it transforms us.” -Patrick Griffin, “The Dark Gospel of Martin Scorsese,” Notre Dame Magazine, Spring 2020 We have little yellow flowers in our backyard… View Post