For today’s Sunday Dinner, I invited Linda Grandinetti. You might recognize her last name and that’s because she’s my aunt. Linda is also a retired Educator and School Counselor. She was born in Chicago and raised in the northern suburbs. She attended Northern Illinois University where she received a BS in Elementary Education. She received her MA in School Counseling from Governors State University.
In a time when we are all encouraged to practice self-care, whether as mothers, fathers, single, married, older, or younger, we are simultaneously pressured to find that nebulous ‘thing’ that helps each of us capture what will restore our weary souls. Then, if we do discover it, we must find a way to incorporate it into our lives. This task becomes all the more difficult when what feeds us is an allusive concept as easy to grasp as the fog on a rainy day.
Six months ago today, my husband and I welcomed our baby boy into our lives. That day changed many things, as new babies do, but it also opened the door for much self-learning. The past 184 days have held challenge and joy, weakness and strength. Motherhood isn’t for the faint of heart, but the smile on my little guy’s face makes it all worth it.
Christmas, that most wonderful time of the year. It can be also be challenging: winter storms muddle travel, parties over-fill our calendar, family can have its own dynamics. Nevertheless, it has always been my favorite holiday.
This past year has been one of the biggest adventures of my life. It’s held ups and downs, twists and turns, good fortune and unexpected challenges. Most of all, it has all revolved around becoming a mom.
Joy, an emotion that lights up the eyes of a child when they open a gift to find their dreams come true. It fills the soul like a warm cup of soup on a winter’s night. It switches out wrinkles for smile lines on the eldest person’s face. No time is joy more easily come by, nor taken away, as at Christmas.
The Cottage, a novel by Michael Phillips, is the second book in his Secrets of the Shetlands series. The story follows Allonnah “Loni” Ford in her discovery of her past, her identity, and her future.
As school lets out and summer begins, what are some of your favorite summertime memories?
In anticipation of Memorial Day this weekend, I decided to share a post I wrote several years ago. It says well what I’d still say today.