I hope you’ll bear with me today, because there’s a reason I’m about to tell this story. One thing that sometimes accompanies an extra 21st chromosome is “pronation.” This means that due to low muscle tone, the feet turn out. Julianna has fabulous health and good cognitive functioning but her feet are regularly regarded as…
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Blind Spots
Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense to add my own words to the clutter in the blogosphere, because other people have said it so well. “It is Sunday morning, and I am once again late to church but determined to go. I moved to this new town in east Texas a few months ago, and I know…
Read MoreZipline!
I’ve wanted to zipline for years, but this is not on Christian’s list of things he wants to do, so I never had the chance. Until this week, when Alex and I were hosted by Eco Zipline Tours over in New Florence (for the locals, at the Hermann exit). I’ve reviewed the experience in full…
Read MoreFeeling Holy Vs. Being Holy
I remember as a child going to Confession and telling the priest that I never felt anything about my faith. I thought I was doing the right things, generally, but I wasn’t feeling anything, and I thought there was something inherently bad in that. He told me if I see a guy shivering with cold…
Read MoreThe Grace to Let Enough be Enough
“What come next?” There was a period of several months recently when Julianna was constantly asking this question: when a song ended on a CD, at the end of a scene in a movie, whenever we got back in the van after running an errand or going to a lesson. Lately, it feels like the…
Read MoreChicken Legs, Freckles and Pokin-A: The General Goofiness of Julianna
Since I shared my freak-out about Julianna getting older, I thought I should also share the stories about how much fun she can be. She’s getting much more interactive and mentally sharp, able to chime in on conversations and sometimes even crack (unsophisticated, but adorable) jokes. And she certainly recognizes humor now. Christian is a…
Read MoreJulianna and the Ticking Clock of Approaching Adolescence
I have this parenting theory: It’s not that a child is too young to learn a particular lesson (like, say, toileting). It’s really a matter of when the parent decides he or she is ready to take on the task of teaching it. When the parent makes it a priority, the child learns.* I…
Read MoreOn The Wrong Side Of Mercy
I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later, I was going to run into someone who would threaten to call the police on me for child endangerment. I mean, the odds were not in my favor to raise four kids to adulthood without encountering someone who would take issue with the laissez-faire style of…
Read MoreHow I Do Political Season
For the last four or five months, Trump has been calling me 2-3 times a day from a 646 area code. First I answered it, thinking it was my sister because it was a New York call. Then I ignored it. Then I answered and yelled into the phone, just to see if it might provoke some…
Read MoreNothin’ But a Teeny Bit of News…
(Not that I’m excited or anything!…..)
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