How do you prepare to host your first sleepover? I made sure we had popcorn and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on hand.

I have discovered now through direct experience, though I had certainly sensed it through photographs, that it is practically impossible to gaze at Mont Saint-Michel without falling into mystical reverie.

The beach is a place full of wonder. The ocean is magnificent, powerful, and moving with a rhythm all its own.

Whatever happens, darkness at the break of 2:48 p.m. Aug. 21 is going to be another grand moment with creation.

If we start sharing stories of heroic virtue and courage, we are bound to inspire religious vocations.

It forced me to recognize that racism is real, not just under hoods, but in so many large structural ways and in small daily encounters we take for granted. And I realized that I do not know how to respond to racism, even when I am confronted by it.

We are just back from an amazing trip to the beach, where we saw some beautiful sunsets. You might think I would have more time to write while on vacation, but every night we sort of forgot about putting our children to bed until it was so late that all I wanted to do was fall into bed myself.

How did a Baltimore boy get connected to Pope John Paul II, and how did he come to write “Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II,” published in the fall of 1999, and “The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy.” Listen to George Weigel talk about his new book, “Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II,” on “Catholic Baltimore.

Our older son decided to start calling us Mom and Dad. Part of me isn’t surprised. I knew this would probably come—at least for Mama to transition to Mom.

Some weeks are both long and short. This was one of those for me. Thank goodness it’s Friday. But I can’t believe it’s already time for quick takes!