My Old Lady Lent and Italian Easter

Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a penitential 40 days and is reveling in the Easter octave (every day this week is a first class feast)! After a Lent sans sweets, meat, dairy, wine, olive oil, and the ever popular fish with backbones my digestive system is in an uproar with the introduction of so. …

2022 Year End Review

Probably time to give an update to round out 2022. If you just want to know what I’ve been up to for the last two months (since my last post), just skip to the bottom. I won’t judge you for it. Most pictures are at the end. Also – affiliate links! So if you click …

Bodacious Costumes, a Radical Party, and a Totally Tubular Solicitation

Happy Month of the Holy Souls! Is it too late for a Halloween costume round up? This year I went around the neighborhood with the kids vs staying home and handing out candy. We don’t get too many trick or treaters at our house, so I figured I’d head out in my luchadore mask and …

Cookbooks, Travels, And Speaking At Length

I’ve been writing this post over the course of a week…or two. The hardest part has been continually going back and changing all the present tense to past tense as it takes me longer to finish writing everything. I mean, maybe that means I should do more frequent shorter posts, but why do the thing …

44 Rotations Around the Sun

Happy Birthday to me, I’m 44! Ten years ago I wrote my first blog birthday post, but since Addie’s birthday is the day after mine, it was largely focused on her. Ten years ago, she turned ten; tomorrow she turns 20! In 2012 I shared that she got Lego sets and Barbie hair extensions. Tomorrow …

2022-23 Curriculum and Back to School Adjustments

Since I’m only homeschooling one child this year, I figured I would just combine my usual curriculum post with whatever else I was writing about. So come for the curriculum, stay for the family photos! Or vice versa. Edith, Grade 11 Unlike Addie and Byron, Edie has no desire to take classes at the local …

Back to School: Brick and Mortar Explanation

So I left y’all with a bit of a cliff hanger last week: Fulton and Teddy are going back to school! I thought I would write a post to explain the decision so it can jog my own memory down the road, and also to explain to those who remember the original enthusiasm with which …

Florida and Cleveland

It’s time to recap MDA camp / Mama Papa week 2022! It’s the best week of the year as far as Tony and I are concerned. Thankfully, the boys had a good week too. But in all honesty, I sincerely hope that the MDA camp outside Philadelphia takes place next year as neither Tony or …

College Expectations, Festivals, and End of July Travels

Greetings from sunny, and insanely hot Florida! This blog post is brought to you by all the free time I have thanks to MDA camp! Although I’m constantly afriad of getting a call from camp that cuts our week short, Tony and I are enjoying ‘Mama Papa Week 2022’ with all the joy that comes …

Todd Moves On, and the Rest of June

Lots has happened in the last month, but I’m only catching my breath now because Todd, our foster son, was placed with a family member last Monday. In New Jersey, reunification with the child’s parents is the top priority, but placement with a family member or close family friend is the next goal, so when …

Searching For Camp Once Again

Don’t worry, Fulton isn’t still in the hospital. If you don’t follow me on Instagram or my page on Facebook, you might have missed the happy discharge photo. Thankfully, he’s been feeling back to normal here at home since Friday May, 27. We took him in to CHOP after only a few days of being …

Another Hospital Post

Since I’m sitting in the hospital, I feel obligated to write a blog post. One, so I can update everyone who wants to know how Fulton is doing, and two, it gives me something to do between trips to the cafeteria. Not that I’m bored! But, typing out a post is usually easier to do …

Documenting April

It was not my intent to stop blogging for the entire month of April. I’ve been mentally writing an Easter post since Good Friday, but made no success at actually putting those thoughts down. If you could see the calendar in my kitchen, and stopped by any time outside school hours, you’d quickly understand why …