Reflections on the Stations of the Cross Jesus Meets His Mother Does anyone actually say “This hurts me more than it hurts you”? I have to admit I have my doubts. I certainly never heard it except in a Bill Cosby routine. I can’t help thinking that’s one of those “elder” tales that everyone learns…
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Respite
There is no such thing as a truly quiet day (holiday or otherwise) in a house with four children, three of them boys. And yet something unexpected happened on Christmas day this year. I made a sort of off-the-cuff, vague decision that wasn’t so much a decision as a shrug and a “whatever.” I never…
Read MorePlaying Favorites
Julianna is in love with Mary Poppins at the moment. She asks for the movie virtually every day the instant she gets off the bus, and sometimes before (although it comes out sounding more like “Harry Potter”). But Mary Poppins is a long movie, and there’s crying and drama every time we have to turn…
Read MoreVignettes
I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody’s reading blogs today anyway, so I’m going to record a few vignettes for the sake of my own chuckles and family history. Vignette #1: Michael Mayhem’s Daily Dose of, Well, Mayhem They were all ready for bed before I left to go shopping. Teeth brushed. Jammies on. Christian…
Read MoreContemplating Crazy (A Christmas Shopping Manifesto)
Let’s face it: My house is stuffed with Stuff. I am engaged in an ongoing war to rid my house of junk (Halloween rings shaped like bats, useless party bag favors, toy airplanes built so shoddily they broke the first day, T shirts, T shirts, T shirts–what is it with the “we must have a…
Read MoreSibling Love?
“I’m sure you know this already,” said Julianna’s teacher, sitting in our living room on Saturday morning, “but…Julianna is just so sweet.” Christian and I exchanged a glance and chuckled, because we hear it all the time. In fact, he’d heard it from the counselor at her school just a couple of days before. And…
Read MoreYour Weekly Fix of Kid Funnies (a 7QT post)
___1___ We finished Jazzercise last Friday and Michael ran away from me on the way to the car. When I caught him I swung him high up over my head. “Whoa, baby, you’re about to be too big for me to do that,” I said. “What am I gonna do when you get too big…
Read MoreA Fry Pan Can Be A Holy Thing
Over the weekend we had a memorial service for my grandmother. When it was all over, the family went to her apartment and looked through her things. Each of us was able to go home with items that belonged once to her. And I’m reminded of the wisdom of a faith that manifests the spiritual, the…
Read MoreCars and Vans And Things That Go
When Alex was a baby, the time I felt most secure in my role as a mother (outside of nursing) was bath time. At bath time, I knew what I was supposed to do. There was a structure to it, and he loved it, so I felt confident that I was seeing to both his…
Read MoreNinety-eight
When I was a kid, my sisters and I stayed with my grandma for a few days when my parents had to take a trip to some far-flung northern location to pick up farm equipment. Tracks for the combine, maybe? A ridge-till cultivator? I don’t remember. It probably happened more than once. We slept in…
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Kathleen M. Basi 