Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend, or Ode on a Mattress Sometimes saying goodbye is hard to do, especially after 13 years. But sometimes goodbye is necessary. After all, 13 years can be a long time. Especially for a mattress. We said goodbye today to our faithful mattress. It’s been the only mattress we’ve had… Continue reading Random Musings #21
Category: Normal Blog Post
Forty-Four: New Year, New Things Coming!
Ringing in 2026 with My Top 2025 Finds for Big-Family Life: Affordable Essentials We Can’t Live Without Quick note: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you—it helps keep this big-family blog running! First things first: Happy New Year to anyone… Continue reading Forty-Four: New Year, New Things Coming!
Forty-Three: Merry Christmas 2025
As I sat in Midnight Mass early this very morning with my two oldest (another tradition is for them to attend Midnight Mass with me when they turn nine. I don’t know why nine exactly, but that’s when my oldest first went, so my oldest son turned nine this year, so he went. New tradition… Continue reading Forty-Three: Merry Christmas 2025
Forty-Two: Our Family Christmas
Today was the big day for us, our Christmas celebration. As we do every year, we marked today on the calendar as our day to share our gifts, a big meal, and our time together as our big gift to each other. I’ll walk you through each part of our day, one by one, as… Continue reading Forty-Two: Our Family Christmas
Random Musings #20
Rare and random two post day. It must be Christmas! My oldest performed Christmas songs with her choir at a local pizza place. They sang six or seven (sorry. I couldn’t help myself) songs, and as they were singing, I couldn’t help but notice a dad in front of me on his phone the entire… Continue reading Random Musings #20
Random Musings #19
Short one today. Go visit people in the nursing homes. Pick one in your area, call to make sure you can come and hand out treats, and just go, especially if you have kids. The people there adore seeing little ones. Their smiles make it worth every second of your day and every dollar you… Continue reading Random Musings #19
Forty-One: Green Pipe Cleaners
Old Man: “You know, Zudock just bought one of those brand new… green plastic trees.” Tree Guy: “Oh no!“ Old Man: “Darn thing looks like it was made out of…green pipe cleaners.” [Both men laugh.] Mom: “This is a very nice tree.” Tree Guy: “I’ll throw in some rope and tie it to your car… Continue reading Forty-One: Green Pipe Cleaners
Forty: Christmas Traditions
Our big family has many Christmas traditions, both big and small, but there are too many to list completely here. That being said, I’m going to tackle at least a few of them for those of you who might be curious about what we do as a big family each Christmas. Of course, this year… Continue reading Forty: Christmas Traditions
Thirty-Nine: The Christmas Season Begins!
As Catholics, we believe the liturgical Christmas season begins on Christmas Day with the season of Advent preceding it. But for this dad, Christmas begins after Santa shows up at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade at the absolute earliest. No pre-thanksgiving Christmas nonsense here. Thanksgiving deserves to shine on its own. Even then, Christmas usually… Continue reading Thirty-Nine: The Christmas Season Begins!
Random Musings #18
One of our yearly family traditions is visiting one of two corn mazes in our area in the fall. In our busyness this year, we almost missed out as we found out yesterday that today was the last day that the closer one was open for the season. We also noticed that the weather today,… Continue reading Random Musings #18