A few weeks ago, 5-year-old Christian Oakes said to his father, “Hey, Dad, I’ve got a good song just for you.” As Christian played the song, he would give his father a little smile. Brian was a little mystified because he had never heard the song before. He asked Christian where he had found the […]

Last weekend, we hit the road as a family and drove to New York to visit my sister Maureen and her four amazing children.

Graduations bring so many emotions. I’m overjoyed to be seeing our son taking this step. I’m beyond proud of the person he’s becoming. I am honored to be his mother. I’m grateful to be here to see him reach this point.

Anyone who’s ever parented a 4-year-old knows that moment. You’re in line at the grocery store or sitting in a pew at church or attending your husband’s grandmother’s platinum jubilee when your child starts acting out.

Happy Pentecost! Happy birthday to the Church! Here are a few highlights from our week. ~1~ One of my goals every summer is to make sure our sons get some swimming time. One night this week our friends invited us to come to their house to enjoy their pool, so our boys had their first […]

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon when my father knocked on our door. He handed me a sheet of test scores from Mrs. Dougherty’s fourth-grade class, a dog’s license we had apparently never attached to her collar, and a report card from my first semester of college. Now, I was never a summa cum laude […]

Here in Baltimore, we take our Old Bay seriously. We put it on many foods—pizza and scrambled eggs and tuna melts and pasta and corn on the cob. Yum.

This story starts with a birthday wish and ends with a miracle.

~1~ Our neighborhood held its annual yard sale this weekend. Before I married John, I am not sure I had ever even gone to a yard sale. But John really enjoys selling things. He especially loves the neighborhood yard sale because we get to see neighbors that we haven’t seen all winter—and meet a few […]

I realized I could fit in a very brief trip, but it would have to be on my own, without my family.