Visit with Melanie

We went to VA on our way to DC and stayed with Cousin Melanie on Monday. She was very gracious with allowing us to crash at her place and we’re grateful for her hospitality.

Happy Easter!

We attended Blessed Sacrament for Easter Vigil last night to celebrate our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Christopher went to Easter Vigil at St. Monica / St. George and Clara was in Lourdes this year. Happy Easter!

Molly successfully harvests two white tail

I made a deal with Molly. If she drops a deer during youth gun season, I would take care of everything else. Turns out she dropped two deer during youth season. So true to my word, we quartered or field dressed both deer and then had them processed.

Christmas 2025

Here's a photo of our crew snapped by Uncle Mark after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 2025 at Blessed Sacrament.

Infant Simulator 2025

Sabrina and Molly had to bring home an infant simulator as part of their class. It was surreal seeing the girls with their pretend babies in car seats. Sabrina said it was very unsatisfying because she got no positive feedback from the doll. Molly treated it like a video game and just buckled down to get through it. Annette and I had some flashes forward in life and are glad the infants were only around for a day.

KY Crafted Market

March 9, 2025

Last Sunday Annette and I took Molly and Sabrina to the KY Crafted Market. There were many vendors who created some incredible things.

Officially commissioned

In September, Molly was officially a commissioned member of the YCET team. She received her commissioning (and t-shirt) from Bishop Iffert.

Wool Fest 2025

We went to Wool Fest this fall as is our annual tradition. This year we went on Saturday instead of Sunday afternoon. The weather was lovely but we missed having Christopher and Clara with us.

Emily joined in for a quick photo. She was there with her boyfriend's family.

Oh yeah - and Sabrina drove us there which was a new experience.

Lucy goes to the woods

Lucy got dressed at 5 am and went out into the woods to pursue the mighty whitetail. It was an early morning but she was excited about the possibilities. We setup shop in the corner of a field and waited for the sun to rise. It was fun being out with her and though we didn't come back with any meat there will be other hunting in the future I'm sure.

Frassati at the Aronoff

We got dressed up and went to see a play at the Aronoff about St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.

The girls were moved by this touching story about a man who loved to serve, to climb and to worship the Lord. We had a lovely evening.

Molly’s on the board

Today is opening day for youth firearm deer season. A rite of passage for each of my kids is to go out deer hunting when they're 15 years old to harvest their very own white tail.

First Christopher shot a 4 point buck in 2020. Clara shot an 8 point buck two years later. Sabrina shot a doe last year and this year it was Molly's turn.

Now Molly is the least likely of my kiddos to have anything to do with blood and such. So I made a deal with her. If she shoots the beast, I'll take care of the rest. What I hadn't accounted for was that young Molly would be motivated to one up her siblings.

So this morning around 8:30 am Molly shot her first doe. And then about 15 minutes later she took out doe #2.

True to my word she didn't have to lift a finger after the deer were located. We knew right where doe #2 was but it took us about 45 minutes to find doe #1.

We were joined by some friends in the field and after some necessary preparation the two deer have been delivered to the processor.

At the moment I'm back out in the field with my friend and his son serving as a guide as they prepare for their own harvesting adventure.

Sabrina’s first race

Sabrina competed in her first ever mountain bike race this weekend. It was hot but she raced like a champ taking 5th place in her division. (#6 popped a tire before the race but details, shmetails).

It was fun to see her do her thing at England Idlewild.

Deck refresher

We spent some time this Labor Day weekend restoring the deck. We knocked off all the paint that was peeling, sanded it down as best we could and then slapped some stain on most of the deck. There's still work to be done but it's good to make progress.

A New Day

It's a new day around here. On the first day of her Junior Year, Sabrina drove the morning school drop off route. Molly and Lucy were good, quiet passengers while we inched our way through traffic. I liked how the sun flares were picked up in this snapshot.

Sabrina attends GSA

Sabrina attended a three week session of the KY Governor's School for the Arts in July 2025. She spent countless hours studying and practicing her skills as a vocal performer. We don't know where this is going to lead but it's pretty clear she's very talented and dedicated to vocal music.

July 16

Well today we learned the answer to a few questions that have been on our collective mind for several months. We learned that Clara is going to be heading up to Detroit for her year long mission and we also heard from Christopher's former co-op employer that they'd like to have him back at KZF. There are many moving parts for our young family at this stage and today is one to reflect on and be thankful for all the gifts that God gives us.
Sent from my iPhone

Twinning at camp

Clara and Lucy are at Challenge Camp this week. Clara is the teen leader for a group of middle schoolers which include Lucy. We're waiting to see how this goes for them but I suspect they'll have a great time together.

Here's a photo of the two of them on Twin Night.

This photo of Lucy looking older than I think of her in my mind reminds me that the days are long but the years are short.

Outstanding recognition

Clara was honored as the outstanding YCET Member. Here she's pictured with the Bishop.

‘Twas the night before moving out

I snapped this photo of Annette and Christopher shopping at Kroger around 9 pm on Sunday May 11 2025 aka Mother’s Day. I was tired and ready for sleep but instead of slumbering in my bed I was lumbering at the grocery store with my bride and my son shopping for a week’s worth of groceries. Christopher had just completed an internship at an architecture firm in downtown Cincinnati and was preparing to start summer classes the next day

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Verona Vineyard on a Saturday night

Here's a photo of Annette and I snapped by one of our girls (either Sabrina or Lucy) at Verona Vineyard from a Saturday evening a week or two ago. We went out to listen to a former school counselor who is trying to make it as a Nashville musician. Sabrina seemed to really enjoy the performance.

We had a nice time but the beautiful evening stroll with my beautiful bride was absolutely lovely.