Review of Motherless by Brian Gail

Oh, my poor neglected blog, it has been a LONG time! I'm really going to try to get back into the blogging thing, both with some book reviews and with a photo-a-day project for 2011. Ambitious, I know, but we'll see how it goes.

Let me kick off this posting revival with a review of Motherless by Brian Gail.

Motherless is a sequel to Brian Gail's premiere novel Fatherless and is part 2 in his The American Tragedy in Trilogy.  After hearing endless positive reviews about Fatherless, I fell in love with the world that Brian Gail created. Needless to say, when I got the opportunity to receive a copy of Motherless for review, I jumped at the chance, only hoping that Gail could capture the magic again. He didn't disappoint!

While Fatherless was set in Philadelphia in the late 20th Century, Motherless moves forward about 20 years and revisits many of the same characters as they have aged and moved on to different stages in their lives. The captivating characters from Fatherhood are back: Father Sweeney, a priest who encountered a crisis of faith in the previous novel but has grown stronger and more steadfast since, Maggie Kealey, a Catholic woman strong in her faith and values, Joe Delgado, an executive in the pharmaceutical industry who must wrestle between his faith and his career, and Michael Burns, the engaging ad executive who won our hearts in Fatherless for standing up for his beliefs despite the cost. Father Sweeney has grown deeper in his faith and must now struggle with making choices concerning his mother's Alzheimer's Disease and also with providing good and faithful counsel to parishioners who rely on him for guidance. Maggie Kealey's husband left her for another woman 20 years ago, and she picked up the pieces and became a nurse and has since risen through the ranks and has been named the CEO of Regina Hospital in South Philadelphia. Never did she imagine that she'd be immediately tasked with navigating the waters of insuring that her institution is both faithful to Catholic teaching and profitable at the same time. I think that the most interesting parts of this storyline involve Joe Delgado and Michael Burns and their struggles to live their faith despite the pull of society and especially their careers. Delgado is an executive in the pharmaceutical industry and Burns is the head of an advertising agency, and each is asked to ignore his Catholic faith and what he knows is a steadfast position of the Church in order to do his job. Gail does a terrific job of showing the struggles that these men face with their consciences as they try to discern and rationalize their choices.

The focus of Motherless is on in vitro fertilization, cloning, and genetic manipulation, and I think that the genius of Gail's writing is that, while this is a fictional piece, there is much that could very well become our reality. Some of the struggles that Maggie Kealey faces as a new CEO of a Catholic hospital are doctors who prescribe contraceptives and refer patients out for treatments that aren't approved by the Catholic Church--struggles that are mirrored in hospitals and medical practices in reality. The genetic manipulation technologies that are discussed in Motherless are real and the "Big Fix" proposed by Delgado and Burns' bosses is chilling to consider but also not out of the realm of imagination.

Motherless offers one author's imaginings of where these new discoveries and technologies could be leading us, and those imaginings should give us pause as we consider what we are really getting ourselves into. Brian Gail's Motherless is an engaging read with realistic and likable characters. I was very pleased with the development of the story and will encourage others to read it as well. If this review has you intrigued, then check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

I received this book for review from The Catholic Company. The Catholic Company is also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts.

I Heart Faces "Best Faces" photo challenge

I've been meaning to get back into blogging... :)




I've been reading the I Heart Faces Photography blog lately, and I'm inspired by their weekly challenges. This week's challenge is "Best Faces", so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here's a pic of Miss Katie that I just love:

Fun Halloween Giveaway from the team members at The DigiChick!

Halloween is almost here, and the Staff at The DigiChick thought that it would be fun to do a little trick or treating digital style!

I made a fun little November desktop for your computer. Here's a preview:

Click here to download! Thank you so much to Kim Wresh, Pamela Donnis, and Mari Koegelenberg for allowing me to use their designs for this project!

Here is the list of the TDC CT/Designers passing out treats on their blogs. Be sure to stop by each one for some goodies!

Tiffany - http://ascrapaway.blogspot.com/
LuAnn - http://livelaughcreate-luann.blogspot.com/
Cheryl - http://cherylisadomesticgoddess.blogspot.com/
Mel - http://www.littlepaperhouse.com/
Kelley - http://www.kelleymickusdesigns.blogspot.com/
Sinead - http://www.slaphappyandscrappy.blogspot.com/
Tracy - http://tracykosofsky.blogspot.com/
Pam - http://www.pameladonnis.com/
Elise - http://elisespiecesdesigns.blogspot.com/
Jill - http://scrappingprincess.com/blog
Jacinda- http://www.digikiwichick.blogspot.com/
Jenn - http://jennamy82.blogspot.com/
Kara - http://www.karaperrien.blogspot.com/
Heather - http://bowenyard.blogspot.com/
Juli - http://julifreshfish.blogspot.com/
Mari - http://mydigitalartstudio.com/
Julie - http://mycrazylifeasamomandawife.blogspot.com/
Linda - http://www.yamstamps.com/weblog/treat.html
Dani - http://www.danielleengebretson.com/
Cheryl - http://cherylisadomesticgoddess.blogspot.com/
Kelleigh - http://kelleighratzlaff.com/
ViVa - http://vivaartistry.blogspot.com/
The Hybrid Chick - http://www.thehybridchick.com/

Long time no post!

Boy, that resolution to post more often fell by the wayside, huh? :) Life with 3 little monkeys is pretty chaotic; that and I spend about 4 hrs a day in the car between school drop-offs and pick-ups. At any rate...

Perhaps a few photos... (Mom, you have seen these first few :) )

A couple of Molly...

I love that last one. Katie is really so sweet with Molly, despite the widely spread (by me, mostly) reputation for being DangerGirl. Molly lights up whenever either of her sisters comes around.

A few more from our most recent trip to LaGrange over Fall Break...
Molly and my mom:

One of my two super cute nephews:



Sweet Maggie:

Miss Katie (ok, this one is kinda funny. I think she was talking or something.)

My two big girls together:

My sweet sister and my even sweeter niece:

Fiona probably won't be happy with me for posting that, but I like it--I like that completely content look on MM's face. :)

Yet again, I'm going to try to do better with posting. I'll have a Halloween treat from some of the digital goodness of The DigiChick for Halloween, so swing back by! :)

A group shot and some random pics

While we were in LaGrange a couple of weeks ago (yeah, it took me a while to edit and upload the pics), I took the girls to the playground and my sweet sister and my niece met us there. The three big girls (Maggie, Katie, and Mary Maddox) had a blast on the slide and I was trying to get a pic of them going down all at the same time. Here's my best attempt:

From left to right, that's Katie, Mary Maddox, and Maggie. :)

I can't believe it, but Miss Molly is already 7 weeks old! Where did the time go? She's really smiling at us now, especially at her big sisters who love her to bits. Maggie likes to come over to talk to Molly, and Katie comes over to kiss her on the head from time to time throughout the day. For a kiddo who generally isn't very gentle, she's surprisingly careful with Molly. She's also a great early warning system, yelling "He's crying!!" any time she hears Molly crying. Sure, she's got the gender pronoun wrong and I'm almost always holding Molly at the time she's crying and Katie sounds the alarm, but it's the thought that counts, right? :)

Here's 7 week old Molly:

I've been trying to get a picture of the three girls together. That process is a laugh all by itself. Here's one of the best that I've gotten so far:


Katie was moving in to kiss Molly. Poor Molly looks a bit like she's being strangled, huh? I think that right after this shot was one of those "He's crying!" moments from Molly and Katie.

Here's another cute one of the two big girls loving on Molly, though:

I've got some 4th of July pics to edit and upload, so I'll try to get those done in the next few days. I also need to work on Molly's birth announcement. :) Until next time!

Gran and Molly

We went to visit my mom and dad in LaGrange and Mom got to spend some quality time with little Molly. :)

I'm not sure that my mom would be happy with me posting that last pic, but I really love it! :) hehehe They're so cute!

Summertime and Bubbles

My girls have been enjoying these first weeks of summer! I picked up some great bubble wands from Dollar General (they are huge, and you don't actually have to blow the bubbles, so it's easier for little kiddos to make cool bubbles) and set them up outside while Molly was napping.

Apparently Maggie feels that bubbles are close enough to water and therefore require a swimsuit. ;) Katie just had a blast running around chasing the bubbles.

See the big huge (and cool!) bubbles that Maggie was able to make? That's not even a great shot--they were super cool!

The wind helped Katie "blow" some bubbles, too.

Maggie went back to the old school way of blowing bubbles.

and Katie had a song to sing...

Finally, here's a little Molly goodness. She's still sleeping a lot (yay for that!), and she's a super sweet baby. At her 3 week check up, she'd moved up from 9lbs 7oz to 10lbs 10oz and from 21" to 23". Clearly she's growing well! :)

We're heading out to the story hour at the library tomorrow morning. Fun! Have a great week!

I'm Alive! And Introducing Molly!!

Yes, it's true, I'm still here! I spent much of the last year buried under tutoring/essay reviewing work and just the busy day to day life of a mom with little kiddos. Did you also know that I spent most of that year preggers, too? Yep, surprise baby #3 made her appearance last week, so I figured that this would be as good a time as any to jump back into blogging. How else am I going to keep everybody up to date with photos (assuming she lets me put her down and actually take some, that is!)? You know I'm rotten about keeping Facebook up to date...

So here is my big ol' belly the night before I went in for the c-section:

Yeah, I know--it's huge. I was actually 38 weeks and 5 days, but I was measuring almost 42 weeks. Apparently, I just make big homes for babies. :)

Maggie has been so excited about this baby and has spent the last several months talking to my stomach and kissing it and making plans for her new little sister. Katie has used my stomach as a bouncing platform (the baby always kicked back, though)--ah, the joys of sisterhood, even before you're born!


My first time meeting Molly. My doctor was amazing and did a terrific job with the c-section! Thanks, doc!

Introducing Molly Ann, born at 12:30pm on Tuesday, May 12. She was 9 lbs, 7 oz (I told you I make big homes for babies; apparently big babies, too! Maggie was 8 lbs, 15 oz; Katie was 9 lbs even) and 21 inches.



It was love at first sight for Maggie. She wanted to hold Molly immediately and settled right in and started singing sweet songs. Katie seems to like Molly, too, but I haven't trusted her to be gentle enough with the baby yet to actually step far enough away to take a photo. ;) Katie's only 2 and a half, and her idea of kissing and hugging Molly is a little intense right now. hehehe

Clearly, Maggie is in love with this baby. I think she'd hold Molly all day long if I let her. She's been a terrific big sister so far, too, and has been very very sweet.

Here's Miss Molly all ready to come home from the hospital. Do you recognize the dress, Paula?! Finally, I am able to put it on one of my babies!! It's so sweet and small, but my other two were born in the wrong season for it. It looked perfect on Molly, though. :)


And here's Miss Molly at home asleep in the pram. Isn't she just perfect? We certainly think so!

I'll try to update more often and be a better blogger. At least it might force me to find some time to take some pics!

Our New Baby

no, not that kind of baby!

We've got a new puppy--Lady. :) She's a Dachshund mix (with who knows what else) and is almost 2 months old. We picked her up this morning and the girls are head over heels in love already. Head over heels! Maggie has been asking for a dog for a year (at least) and we kept saying, "When you're older" or "When you sleep in your bed all night" or "maybe someday." Well, she is a little older now, she's doing better about sleeping in her bed all night (she is sleeping in her bed, though she still wakes up once a night and needs a few minutes of Mommy or Daddy lying on her floor while she gets settled back in), and heck, I guess today is someday.

We got her from the Birmingham Humane Society (yep--I drove all the way to Birmingham to pick her up...worse than that, Maggie and I drove to Birmingham yesterday, too, which is when we picked her out, but then we couldn't bring her home because Katie wasn't there and they won't adopt an animal out unless the animal has met all of the kids in the house. Boy, THAT was an UGLY ride home. Never has an hour and half car ride taken longer or been more emotionally taxing. Poor Maggie.). Anyway, her original name was Mercedes, but Maggie immediately wanted to change that. Her first choice was Barbie. Umm, no. So then she suggested Barfy. Dude. Do you know what "Barf" is, Maggie? hehehe Then I mentioned that she had freckles like I do and like Maggie does, and Maggie jumped on Freckles. That's what we called her all day yesterday and all morning. Somehow, though, on the way back to our house, Maggie morphed the name into Lady. Oh well--that's cute, too!

Here are a couple more pictures of her in the backyard today...

Meeting the dogs next door:

O'Neill just looked at her and didn't really seem to pass any remarks either way. Meg took one look at her, hissed, and jumped over the baby gate that keeps Lady confined to the kitchen (no carpet there!). She'll come around. Oh, I didn't tell you about Katie. Katie shrieks with joy whenever she sees the dog. She's fascinated with her and wants to pet her and hold her. They seem to get on well already. :)

So I know I'm way behind with posting my picture of a day pictures. I've got a bunch to post...just need to find a few minutes (or a few days!) to get them up.

two days in a row! more pics and getting caught up! Days 100-111

Day 100/Apr 9-- I love seeing Miss Katie trotting off down the yard. Check out her cutie patootie crocs! :) She was trying to put Maggie's crocs on and getting frustrated because they were too big, so we got her a Katie-sized pair. :)

Day 101/Apr 10--Can't you just hear Katie saying, "the camera? again? Mommmmm!" hehehe
Day 102/Apr 11--Happy Birthday, Delaney Grace! We went to Maggie's best friend Delaney's birthday party today. Maggie and Delaney have been more like sisters ever since we moved to Montgomery, and they miss each other desperately since we moved away. We still see them every few months, though, so at least they still get to see each other.

Clearly there's still a bond there. :)

Day 103/Apr 12--We were at my parents' house and walked down to the water so that Dad could show us the new wall. Katie was determined to get over that wall and into the lake--not just on the wall, but OVER it. I ended up carrying her back up the yard and she threw herself on the ground having a hissy fit. She might be more easy-going than Maggie, but she's definitely got her mommy's temper!

Maggie was drawn immediately to the swing down by the lake. Doesn't she look happy? :)

Day 104/Apr 14--So honestly I don't know if these were from the 14th or the 13th. Those days sorta melded together. Here's one of my new favorite pictures of Miss Maggie.

Maggie was pushing Katie on the swing and Katie loved every second of it!

Day 105/Apr 15--One afternoon Maggie got tired of running around after O'Neill and went to get a book from her room. This was what I saw next. :) I love seeing her happy with a book. :)
Day 106/Apr 16--Katie can be so serious! She's been obsessed with my water bottles lately, and she's working hard to drink out of them without spilling the water everywhere. Day 107/Apr 17--This look on Maggie's face is one we see fairly often. :)Day 108/Apr 18--The two girls playing...sorta. Actually, it's Maggie playing and Katie hanging out trying to see what her sister is doing.
Day 109/Apr 19--Would you believe that I pushed around this same little doggie when I was Katie's age? You can't really see the the doggie here, so I'll have to get a picture of it soon. :)
Day 110/Apr 20--We went to Cullman to the Ave Maria Grotto, and Maggie and Chris took a little rest on one of the benches. :) Maggie has a little bird whistle that she was trying to figure out. Day 111/Apr 21--Maggie was having an emotional day. I still love this picture. :)