a look back – 2012

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

What a year it was. We rang it in with fireworks in a tiny farming village on the highest peak in our part of the Rhineland Pfalz. We closed it out watching magnificent fireworks explode over the London Eye. (and can't wait to share!)

In between there was dancing

in Stuttgart, Ramstein, Munich…

and in Ireland. Beautiful Ireland.

There were parades big and small.

There was a lot of football. From little boys playing alongside the flight line to American pro football in Wembley Stadium

to English football in Manchester.

There were great celebrations. Holy Communion…

Confirmations.

As well as solemn memorials to a good man gone too soon for us.

We cheered at a high school graduation and a college graduation.

And then there were the road trips. Lots of them.

Luxembourg

Köln

Trier – a couple times.

Some of them hiked the French rock formations along the old Roman road.

another put her toes in the sand on the Italian coast

Others splashed along the Suffolk coast.

We watched another cross the finish line in Prague

Prague, the city which stole Abbie's heart.

And we boarded ship for the white cliffs of Dover, not a road trip but to make a home.

Where we pal around in Cambridge and London

From flowering rapeseed in Germany to the bowing fen grasses of East Anglia.

We have been blessed to share this year's adventures with over a half dozen American students as well. The one face you don't see in these pictures is our son Asher. He spent 2012 in Korea. Major goal of 2013 is a picture of him next to his mama.

It's been quite a ride y'all. I count it as a singular blessing to have been able to share it with the people I dearly love near and far, face to face and via this screen. 2012 saw a lot of boxes and suitcases and smiles – as well as tears. Life is full.

It is never easy.

It is always good.

Life is good. Hold on to that.

counting down

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Been feeling a a bit crunched for time this week. So much so I have been tongue tied over here. Looking at her sweet face I am reminding myself that it is more important to become like a little child this season than to be uber grown up and organized and caught up and any number of words I am not at this moment. Only one thing is needful and if I rush I am going to miss it.

Still, I really hope all the bathrooms are clean before company arrives.

That is about how my Martha vs Mary debate goes these days. : )

become part of the silence

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

A line from a book I read recently described the tree branches in winter as like arthritic fingers. I thought of that as I gazed out my window the other morning. While I stood there a group of dove-gray pigeons came to roost on those frost covered limbs, puffing out their chests as they rested there.

"In order to see birds it is necessary to become part of the silence." – Robert Lynd

It is a wonderful thing to find the quiet even if it is in tiny little pockets of the day.

Guadalupe

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Hear and let it penetrate into your heart: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you:

let nothing alter your heart or your countenance."

(Words of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Juan Diego)

a quiet life

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Mercy Covers – to give and to receive

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

“Consider every day lost in which some little thing has not been done to assist others.”

This was the maxim of Lydia Maria Francis Child and it seemed most appropos to include today, this first day of advent. After all, what better way to prepare for the greatest gift of all than to model that generosity in whatever small way we can?

This is the opportunity I am pleased to share with you.

Colleen Mitchell is a homeschooling mom of a busy band of brothers who together with her husband heard a call to move outside the comfort of suburban America. They are now living in rural Costa Rica where they have rolled up their sleeves and in typical Colleen fashion have said, “Ok, where do we start?” One of those answers has been Mercy Covers, an intiative which not only puts local Costa Rican women to work but also networks with local human trafficking programs and orphanages to multiply the blessings. You can hear Colleen tell the story in this clip:

Mercy Covers is not a hand out. It is a hand up. And it is so easy to help them do it.

This is where the fun part begins : ) If you don’t have two dimes to scrape together this season you can still help! Charlotte, another wildly talented homeschool mom is hosting a giveaway to help Colleen’s reach full funding status over at Pure Charity. She is sweetening the deal for generous givers by creating a gorgeous custom quiltie for the winner. That’s not all. There will be a second gift to win – a beautiful fiber necklace based on the designs Colleen and her hardworking ladies have created.

You don’t want to miss this. It’s win win. : )

Please take a wee little minute to click over to Charlotte’s and see how easy peasy it is to get your name thrown into the pot many times. And consider spreading the good word around too.

I will see you there friends.

contemplating

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Kim Halloran-Fry

She was helping me test my settings this morning but when I looked back at the pictures they showed her as she very often is these days, deep in thought, weighing the pro's and con's of different paths. There is a lot to think about at 18, lots of decisions to be made. Some big, some small in the grander scale of life. Often we don't know until later which were which. We pray, we step out with a mixture of trepidation and exultation.

18 is like that.

Actually, 45 is like that too. And probably all the other numbers too.

It's scary, life. We just forge ahead, not always sure we are making all the right moves, and somehow grace covers it all in the end.

It's gonna be good. I promise. : )