Why, yes, I AM crazy. Thank you for asking!

 

    Well, hello friends! Looks like I'm back to blogging after a 5.5 year hiatus! And, boy-howdy! How much life changes in just 5 short years! And, we've added 3 beautiful faces to the family picture. 

How about a bullet-pointed recap? OK!

• Sadly, on January 9, 2016, my wonderful father passed away. We all miss his larger-than-life presence, his unrivaled generosity, and his unconditional love. If you think of it, please say a prayer for the repose of his soul and for my mom.
• In May, 2016 we sold our home of 15 years in Illinois and our 2nd oldest, Joe, graduated high school.
• In June, 2016, Kyle and I and all 7 kids moved to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia! And we LOVE it!
• That move spurred some unplanned choices, such as homeschooling our grade-school age kids. We also love that! Who knew? (Spoiler: not me)
• In October of 2017, we finally sold our lakehouse in Michigan. But the memories remain always with us.
• In 2018, our firstborn, Killian, graduated Ave Maria University with a degree in Accounting and our oldest daughter, Maeve, graduated high school.
• 2018 also brought to a fruition a lifelong dream of Kyle's and mine: a trip to Rome and Paris!
• But, the best thing that happened in 2018, was the birth of our first GRANDCHILD: Mason!!
• 2019 brought us the beautiful wedding and marriage of Killian and Catie. What a blessing!!
• 2019 also saw us become the owners of a laundromat as our "side gig". 
• Not all was terrible in 2020: Will celebrated his 2nd official Leap Day birthday (but chronological 8th birthday!) over international waters, as our family traveled to Ireland! We joyfully invited Maeve's college beau, Sean, to tag along. (And, if you can survive 10 days in a 9 passenger van driving all over Ireland with our family, you're either really committed or you should be committed!)
• And, since homeschooling grade-schoolers was proving too easy for me (hahahaha!), I decided to homeschool Jack for his senior year of high school. It looks like Eamon will be "graduating" to Mom's homeschool high school next Fall, as well.

    That just about sums up the major changes in the lives of our family, but I am sure my kids would tell me that I forgot a few. Mostly, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed and crank out a post to "just get it over with". I'm really looking forward to sharing more of our family life and my thoughts here again. And, as always, if you have any questions or post ideas, drop them in the comment box. 

Merry Christmas! Glad to be back!