LOOK AT THIS HANDSOME KID!!! Photography Class Portrait Practice Can y'all believe that's my little toddler?!?!  He was just 18-months old when I first started blogging.  Today he is 17 years old.  Six months shy of turning 18...and soon becoming a SENIOR in high school!  I'm not ready!!!!   Photography Class Portrait Practice Benjamin is such an amazing kid.  My "middle child" that often gets lost in the shuffle of his "super star" older sister and "baller" younger brother who is involved in just about every sport locally availabl ..read more

Can we talk about online dating for just a minute????   For those of us old enough to remember "old school" dating (i.e. meeting a cute boy from the all-boys school at Catholic Youth Group, to feeling "chemistry" with your lab partner in...well...college chem class...to being set up on a blind date with your husband post-college...) neither I nor any of my girlfriends seemed to have had a problem meeting kind, intelligent, men-of-character. But fast-forward 30+ years...and many of us find ourselves single either by divorce or widowhood...and dating is a "whole thing"...and it's n ..read more

As I wrap on this series of journal entries on my experience with betrayal trauma, I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about shame.  These thoughts are best expressed via memes and bits of conversation shared between my grief therapist and me. Yesterday's session was very raw and emotional.  After a solid month of feeling strong and resilient, questions surrounding how to move forward brought up my struggle with shame and guilt surrounding being conned. THERAPIST:  "Can you tell me, Valerie, why are you experiencing such despair?  Tell me what you are feeling." ME ..read more

Easter weekend saved my life...literally and figuratively. My parents insisted that Luke and I come home for Easter.  My older two children had different plans for the holiday weekend.  I didn't want to make the trip to St. Louis.  At all.   After weeks of crying, barely eating, and experiencing confused sleep cycles, I didn't think I had it in me to physically make the 4-hour drive home.  All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball, lick my wounds, and sleep.  But even worse, I didn't want to look my parents or siblings (especially my father) in the eye ..read more

The Triduum:  Holy Saturday A Prayer for Holy Saturday The most dominant emotion in our modern society is fear. We are afraid of losing the things we have worked hard to buy, afraid of rejection and failure, afraid of certain types of people, afraid of criticism, of suffering and heartache, of change, afraid to tell people how we really feel. What was the dominant emotion of Jesus’ followers on Holy Saturday? Fear. Fear that they had been misled. Fear that God didn’t have a plan. Fear that God had forgotten them. We all have fears, too. And sometimes, we let those fears paralyze u ..read more

The Triduum:  Good Friday "There is no path to happiness in this life unless you can make sense of suffering, and Christianity is the only religion or philosophy that understands the transformative value of suffering. While the whole world is doing everything it can to avoid and drown out their pain and suffering, we are reminded each Sunday at Mass that our pain and suffering have tremendous value when united to the pain and suffering of Jesus on the Cross. Separated from Jesus, our pain and suffering become meaningless, and that is why life is so depressing for so many in a world th ..read more

The Triduum:  Holy Thursday (The Betrayal) I stumbled upon this most beautiful Catholic prayer written by a fellow blogger...I think it should be titled, "When You Experience the Lentiest of Lents!"  My children, family/in-laws, and closest friends have been walking by my side since Ash Wednesday (ironic no?!) as I navigate a betrayal so deep I have been forever changed. Katie Cassidy prays: Loving God, this trudge toward Easter has been long and the sustenance meager. I find myself coming to you with empty hands and aching arms, from the effort of carrying a cross I did not choo ..read more

"Hometown Tourist" This weekend, Pat and I escaped for an overnight "in town".  Like many urban centers and "downtowns" ours has experienced unprecedented growth and renewal. There are so many cute "boutique" hotels to choose from.   When I found The Truitt online, I knew I had hit the jackpot!  It was the perfect "staycation" for a quiet escape within our hometown, and located on the beautiful Country Club Plaza  After a ten day business trip that Pat took to the Northwest Territories of Canada (yes. literally up near the Arctic Circle), we were ready for a lit ..read more

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." ~Hal Borland~ Oh Friends...we are on snow day #3627.  I jest, but it is only January 22nd and we have two months of winter left to weather!   The forecast does call for a warming of temperatures with lots of rainfall in the forecast coming up from Texas and Oklahoma. Looks like a "soggy days and rainboots" kind of week. For now, I am going to sip my hot tea and stay off our ice-covered roads until temps warm up and begin to melt this sheet of ice coating everything. Hurry up spring! Stay cozy, Friends ..read more

I'm a little teapot Short and stout. Here is my handle, Here is my spout. When I get all steamed up Hear me shout: Tip me over And pour me out! How many of us remember the lyrics to "I'm a Little Teapot" written by George Harold Sanders and Clarence Z. Kelley in 1939?! I can distinctly remember my grandmothers teaching me the words and motions to the song, and then performing a tap dance routine to it at a local studio.  Thinking back to my own parenting years, I'm almost certain I taught this nursery rhyme to my toddlers...at least, I'm hoping I did!   Anyway, I've b ..read more