Eating and reading. Cooking and writing. Food and stories. If asked to describe my “passions in life,” this is how I’d respond. One I blame on genetics; the...
Parenting
“Havoc” may best describe the lives of many Midwestern families this winter, as Mother Nature brought unrelenting wind, rain, snow, ice, and record-setting...
“Show, don’t tell” is one big commandment of writing. Telling is super boring: “The left fielder had a strong arm.” You want a writer to show you the scene:...
Kevin and Amy have a rule at their dinner table for their three teenagers as well as themselves: What is said at the table stays at the table. “Our family...
“I don’t know,” my father said, looking down from where he would sit nightly at the edge of the bed as I prepared for sleep, a ritual throughout my childhood...
I went to Spain so I wouldn’t need to make any decisions. Liam, our 20-year-old, is spending this semester studying in Spain, and two of my friends offered to...
When I was in eighth grade I was what I like to call a standard achiever. To me this meant doing the amount of work needed to get where I wanted to be and no...
Parents who want their children to grow in appreciation for and commitment to Mass are much like parents who are determined to make sure their kids go off to...
I was making dinner last January, my then-3-year-old following me around the kitchen like an insistent cat in want of food, when he asked me a question I...
As a child I attended a K–8 Catholic school and went to church with my family every Sunday. For me, Mass was a thing to get through so that we could go home...
