Most of the time, my brain clicks along like a 6-part Bach fugue on steroids, all angles and gears turning, pushing forward without a pause for breath. What I aspire to is a brain that works more like a Gregorian chant, or one of those “music from the hearts of space” pieces with long, sinuous…
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Power Down
One of my blog friends has helped start a new meme. It’s called Power Down. This group of women felt that the glut of connection demanded a response, and that response was to take a step back–to disconnect from the Great WWW for a period of time every week. When Amy first introduced this idea,…
Read MoreIn This Season of Life
There are times when I realize I will never understand my children. Like Julianna, who can drag a pile of “Your Baby Can Read” cards the thickness of a Tolstoy volume around the house…but when I tell her to put them away, she must do it one at a time. (Whimper, pick up a card,…
Read MoreThe Value of Singletasking
I’m a multitasker. Shocking, I know. But it’s true. I’m a make-lunch-while-feeding-baby, scribble-notes-in-grocery-store-checkout-line, do-spiritual-reading-while-nursing, scrapbook-while-watching-TV kind of girl. A girl after Martha’s own heart. Not that I don’t appreciate Mary. I want to be Mary. I crave silence and stillness, yet I always begrudge the time. And the logistics of making it happen keep getting…
Read MoreSo Much To Say, Not Enough Time
I’ve been trying to do too much in this time with the fourth baby nursing–carry too many responsibilities, juggle too many balls. Something’s got to give. I love posting every day, but let’s be honest–it’s a lot of extra writing, and lately I’ve been scrambling to get it done at all. So I am switching…
Read MoreOrganizing Summer Break
Summer break begins officially today. It feels like a watershed summer; in the fall Julianna starts kindergarten, and Nicholas starts preschool. When we contemplated the fourth child, I knew life would get more and more chaotic till the day three of them went to school, and then everything would ease off (at least during the…
Read MoreBalance Is…
I’ve been out of balance lately, and it showed: short fuse with the kids, a constant sensation of barely keeping my head above water, a house so disorganized and messy that it grated on my nerves. I don’t like feeling this way, and every time I do, I question whether I’m actually doing what I’m…
Read MorePlanning Advent When You’re Even Busier Than Usual
News flash: we’re having a baby in two weeks! So what does a family that puts such a big focus on Advent do when there’s a four-day hospital disruption in the middle of the season? I decided to share our Advent calendar activities list this year as a guest post for Catholic Mothers Online. I…
Read MoreIn Which A Writer Mama Finally Understands What Makes Her Father Tick
There were many mornings in my childhood when I would watch my father stride across rough gravel or dewy grass at an hour when everyone else still wanted to be in bed, knowing we wouldn’t see him again until dark some fourteen or fifteen hours later—at least, barring a Farm Bureau or a road district…
Read MoreI Filled The Diaper Drawer. Then I Freaked Out.
They’re so small. You’d think that a mother approaching the birth of her fourth child in seven years (well, 7 ½) wouldn’t be floored by the sheer tininess. But as I pulled out our trusty cloth diapers, counted them, stacked them in the drawer, I couldn’t believe it. Every single baby diaper fit in one…
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Kathleen M. Basi 