
Friday, March 21, 2025
Week in Review: Gaelic and Garlic, Food and Kids

Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Eye Exams and an ER Experience
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Maggie snuck this picture of my eye exam, all was good. |
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Even JP agrees :) |
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We missed our king sized bed |
Monday, March 17, 2025
Maggie's Mission Trip Memories
By Maggie Martin, age 17
This February break, I traveled to San Juan, Texas to go on a mission trip with two of my friends. I hope to go on a mission trip to Africa someday, so this trip was the perfect first experience to get a feel of what these missions are like. Going into it, I wasn’t expecting much. I knew that we would be helping poor families near the Texas/Mexico border, but I didn't know much else. However I can now say that this trip was the best thing I have ever done, and my eyes were opened in so many ways.
We were set to take off on Sunday, February 16th, and I had all my bags packed Saturday night. I went to the send off Mass, excited about the next day, only to be told that our flights had been cancelled due to snow. Big bummer. We were devastated, and didn’t know if the flights could be rebooked. Thankfully, our chaperones were able to book us new flights (yay!!) for Wednesday, and our trip was extended to Monday, the 24th.
We made it to Houston on Wednesday afternoon, and ran through the airport to make our connecting flight that was heading to McAllen, only to find out that it had been delayed (so you’re telling me we sprinted across the airport for nothing). We had seen a plane on the runway engulfed in flames, and joked that it was the plane we were supposed to board. The next two and a half hours were spent sitting around the airport, going on walks, and doing whatever we could to entertain ourselves. By the time we boarded our flight, it was almost 11pm, and we were exhausted from a long day of travel. We landed in McAllen around 12am, and made it to the Basilica hotel in San Juan by 1am. We quickly went to our rooms to get settled in and get some much needed rest.
Here's a rundown of what we did each day:
Thursday 2/20
Morning mass and a tour of the beautiful Basilica, followed by breakfast and morning chores
Walmart run to get snacks and necessary items for the week
Headed out to Mission, Texas where we toured the community center run by a few religious sisters. It was a small building with a few classrooms for the children of poor families in the community.
We all went to one of the sites that we were working on, and spent the afternoon cleaning that yard. This house was a family with 3 children, living in a small and rundown house. The yard was in really bad condition: trash was everywhere, chickens and dogs were running around, and there was a humongous pile in the back of ashes and scraps where several puppies searched for food.
Worked for about 5 hours removing all junk and doing yard work, then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. Dinner was at a local Mexican restaurant, which was tons of fun!
We had opening ceremonies back at the basilica, where we talked about our experiences that day, and the things we saw. We received journals that we could use throughout the week, and I made good use of mine, taking time to journal each night so I wouldn’t forget anything that happened. Going to sleep that night was again very easy as we were exhausted and still feeling some jetlag.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Week in Review: Spring Weather, Pay the Groomers, and Naked Day Laughs
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Andrew + JP (+ Maggie taking photo) |
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Cousin Tommy + Andrew (+ Eamon taking photo) |
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Prompted by Your Posts: Choosing and Changing (and Changing Again) a College Major
Today's post was prompted by Ernie, who discussed her journey in choosing a college major, and it struck a chord with me as we are in the thick of parenting our kids to choose wisely and trying to support them in the process. We've been on a *certain high school senior's* case lately to tell us what he might possibly choose as a career, since scholarship essays are due that require that information, and "I don't know" just isn't going to cut it anymore. If you really don't know, maybe you should take a gap year before heading to college? Nah, he doesn't want to do that, so he finally chose a path, with the full knowledge that he may change it. Let me tell ya, it is SO MUCH EASIER when your kids know what they want to study and have career goals, and yet, at the same time, they are still young and have so much to learn and experience before having to decide.
When I went to college, I declared a Biology major, thinking I wanted to become a Physician or a Physician Assistant, following in my older siblings' footsteps (three Biology majors, two of whom became medical doctors). My parents didn't attend a four year college. My dad was an Irish immigrant who built houses, and my mom was a nurse. Education was very important to them and my mom always said that we could be whatever we wanted to be, as long as we were well-educated. They were definitely hands-off in the advising of college majors or careers, in a healthy way that led to successful and independent children...but worked better for those of us who knew what they wanted than for those of us whom *ahem* weren't quite as confident.
Friday, March 7, 2025
Week in Review: Smart Cookies, Free Hugs and Introverted Extroverts
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Eamon taking a picture of me taking a picture of Phil |