Core Truths

I do not have to tell you this because you already know it…but I will say it anyway…sometimes things just do not go as planned. The unexpected pops up, another hardship comes after a long line of hardships, things seem to be on the up-and-up when all of a sudden there’s a backslide. I get it. One of my day-to-day mottos for myself is to be thankful anyway. I have a list of things I am thankful for on an on-going basis. It’s like my go-to list when things seem to be on the fritz. If the kids and I are out of sorts, I go to my list. If hubby and I aren’t on the same page about something and we are waiting out a compromise, I go to my list. When there’s more month than money, I go to my list. It helps me get through the big things and the little things when I can be thankful anyway. One of the things I am most thankful for each and every day is that our cars start. Really. It’s like top on my list and I can always be thankful for it. I mean, most of what I do revolves around me g...

Sometimes things get messy. You clean the house, then somehow things get messy. You cook, the kitchen gets messy. You do your work, your workspace gets messy. I don’t know about you, but it seems impossible to continuously keep things neat and orderly. Sometimes a mess, a really big mess, can be the sign of progress. It seems to me you can’t really accomplish something big without creating a bit of chaos in the beginning. When I have the chance to choose what we watch on TV, I enjoy watching the home improvement shows. My favorite is the part where they show how the home is currently and then they show the rendering of what things will look like when the improvements are complete. Perfect, right?  And what comes next? We all know the answer to this one. If you have ever seen “Fixer Upper,” then you know the next step is “DEMO DAY!” Right? They just go in and tear everything apart. Talk about a mess! For me, this is the part of greatest angst. I don’t love demo day....

YOLO. You only live once. This has become quite the popular catch phrase. I have seen it used for people to take chances, take trips, spend lavishly, face fears. You name it, and it can pretty much be applied.  Let’s think about this another way…reworded. Instead of “you only live once,” let’s rephrase this to “you only have one life to live.” Think about that. You only have one life. That’s it. And it’s the one you are living.  Let that sink in. A while back I started really thinking about this concept. This isn’t a practice life and I do not get a do-over. This is it. My one chance. That got me thinking about what I can do to live right, to get the most out of this one life I have been given. I’m not necessarily looking to avoid making mistakes or to try to live perfectly (I’m no fool), but I did start to look at some things differently. When I was a classroom teacher, we were big on “backward design,” meaning we would determine the knowledge and skills we n...

As we begin to gear up for back to school, I am reminded of my number one rule for myself when I was a secondary English teacher. It was pretty much the reason I started in education, and it is what kept me going for the nearly 10 years I was in the classroom. It is how I started each school year, how I started each semester, and how I started each day. My main focus, my number one rule, my mantra if you would, was to help just one kid. In the fall when we would get our class rosters, I wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the fact I had 31 students in one class, I wouldn’t get upset that I had five different preps when I thought I would only have four, and I would try not to complain about whatever inconvenience may have popped up that I wasn’t expecting. Instead, I would start off by reminding myself, if I can help just one kid, if I can make a difference in the life of just one kid, if I can impact the outcome for just one kid, then this will all be worth it.  I would remind mys...

A few months ago my hubby and I realized that since we have had kids, we have thrown 54 kid birthday parties.  Yes, 54 parties. I would like to tell you we could remember them all, but that is not entirely true. We started recounting all of the parties; the places, the themes, the friends and family who were there. We started with our first born, made a list, remembered them all. Then we moved on to our second born, made a list, got stumped on a couple of them, then finally remembered them all. We got to our third born…and we were stuck. We couldn’t remember them all. There were a few years that were just a blur. We finally asked our daughter, who had just turned 13, if she could help us fill in some blanks, you know, from when she was about three until around age seven. Okay, maybe I deserve a “Worst Mom of the Year” award, but life sometimes just comes at you fast. At the time she was little, my husband and I had just relocated our family to a new town, we had both just ...

I have three words for you: take a vacation. Let me explain. My family and I, which is my husband and our five kids, just returned from a two-week long road trip where we drove from Texas to Niagara Falls and back again. It is by far our longest vacation, but by no means our first. We have been taking a vacation every year since we were first married, and it is probably one of the most important things we do each year. Taking a vacation has not always been easy, and at times, we have had to be very creative and flexible. Most of our vacations early on were to the beach. To me, this was the picture perfect idea for families. I had the notion I would lie out in the sun, I would listen to the waves crashing in the distance, while my sweet kids would play peacefully in the sand next to me. What really happened was my husband would be charged with lugging the ridiculous amount of food and equipment I had prepared. I would have a kid on the hip, another by the hand, and another ...

This post comes later than most and will be shorter than most.  It just so happens I am on vacation with my family.  I have chosen to take a break.  I have taken a break from emails, phone calls, and appointments.  I have taken a break from chores, from cooking, and from daily commitments.  I have chosen to focus on my husband, to focus on my kids, and to focus on myself.   We have had a full day…Mass in the morning, ice cream with the kids in a downtown ice cream shop, I took a nap on the beach while the kids played, I put my toes in the water during the cool afternoon, and we wrapped up our evening with a stroll and fireworks. My heart is full and I am exhausted. So now I am going to listen to my own advice and I am going to take a break from making a longer blog post. It is late.  The kids are up eating frozen waffles they have cooked in the microwave.  I am going to go join them! The truth is, taking a break is ...