Just a reminder that I’ll be in Oklahoma City this coming Saturday, October 3 for the following event:

Wit & Wisdom for Women
9:00 am – 1:30 pm

St. Eugene Catholic Church
2400 W. Hefner Road, Oklahoma City
Cost: $20 (includes luncheon)

For more info call (405) 751-7115, ext. 120 or email.

If you can be there, I’d love to meet you!

Now’s your chance to find out.

Read the play-by-play of a recent Wednesday in my latest column at Inside Catholic: Another Day in the Life

When we were at the store today, Daniel noticed a mark on my arm.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Oh, I burned myself,” I told him. “I accidentally touched my arm to the hot cookie sheet when I was baking yesterday. It looks funny, but it really doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Daniel studied the spot and then touched it, ever so gently with the tips of his fingertips. In his soft touch there was such care, such concern, such genuine love and hope for healing that even an older lady standing nearby noticed it.

She gave me a knowing smile and I smiled back. Because what the two of us saw and felt in that tiny touch was real.

My boy might not always show me such tender care, but today he does. And I am holding onto that. Real tight.

Don’t forget to come celebrate the small stuff at Faith & Family today.

The sweet young mom who laminated my school schedules for me at Staples handed them to me with a shy smile.

“This looks intimidating to me,” she admitted. “I am a homeschooler too, but I find it so hard.”

“Really?” I asked, “How old are your kids?”

“Three and one.”

Three and one.

What I wanted to say was, “Oh don’t do that! Don’t even try to do that! I did that and it was a disaster! Bake brownies and read stories and count buttons, and play with play-doh, but don’t do that!”

But it would have been silly for me to say that. She wouldn’t listen to me. Not any more than I would have listened to someone like me 10 years ago. She needs to learn and grow and stretch and change in her own time and on her own schedule.

So what I did say was, “I have a 4-year-old and he’s not on these schedules. He plays with rocks in the sandbox and makes up imaginary games with Playmobil. We read to him and I think he might be able to count some, but that’s only from playing hide and seek. School will still be there when he’s ready. Next year probably.”

And then I smiled and I left, breathing a silent prayer for that mom and for earnest mothers everywhere at the daunting start of a new school year. Myself included.

You can read my latest column at Inside Catholic today:

Riding the Waves