Learning a new language

by | Jan 10, 2023 | Connection, education, family

I have renewed my goal of learning to speak Italian this year.

Why Italian? Because half of my family of origin was from Italy. The other half is from Ireland, and I already speak English. 🙂

Also, I want to go to Italy and visit where my grandparents were from. Learning Italian makes me feel closer to that goal, which is, sadly, already about ten years overdue.

This is the second foreign language I’ve studied so far. I learned French when I was younger. I began in seventh grade, continued in high school and college. I remember sitting in the language lab in college and having no fun whatsoever. The end result is that I can understand and read some French, but I am (and was) a poor speaker of it. Keep reading

Pastina Emergency!

by | Jan 8, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Comfort, Connection, family, italian, recipes

I have been making Pastina for decades, since my children were babies. Back then, they called it “Stini”, and sometimes I still do. It was a quick, easy, comforting thing to eat and they loved it.

Making Pastina was also a tradition, because my mother and my grandmother made it for me when I was a baby and for all the years after that.

Over the past several months, I have been having trouble finding Pastina at the grocery store. I had quite a stash so I didn’t worry too much about this at first. I preferred Prince Pastina but decided that Barilla or Ronzoni would also be fine. Keep reading

My One Word 2023

by | Jan 2, 2023 | Clarity, my one word, Spiritual Practice

I’ve been writing about the practice of choosing one word to focus on for the entire year for over a decade now. I write about and I do it.

The book My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen describes the practice. Check it out if you are interested in finding out more about it.

Alternatively, you could visit the My One Word website and learn more that way. I have shared these resources before and I still refer to them from time to time.

My past words have been:

2010: Breathe

2011: Edit Keep reading