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Tag: atozchallenge

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I is for Itemizing – a-to-z blog challenge

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The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of itemizing is a bill.  Someone who wants me to pay something lays it all out there for me – food, dry cleaning, car repairs.  Itemizing is something I always associate with something negative.

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No more.  It’s time to itemize the good things.  We take so much for granted – like my husband taking me for a ride every morning to get a hot coffee, or my daughters who fill my cup at dinner time with ice and cold water.  I do take those things for granted – and I’m sure there’s a long list of other things I take for granted as well.

I’m going to start listing them – itemizing them – the list of the good things that happen to me every day.  I know that’s just what I’ll need to get through those bad days we all have once in a while, where it feels like nothing is going well.  I’ll pull out that itemized list and see – there’s more things going well than I think there are.

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G is for Granuaile – and the Reasons We Gave Our Kids Weird Names

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G (1)Naming a child is a very personal thing.  Regardless, you will find that this very personal choice is one of the few that you will make in life that is subject to so much comment and criticism.  Everyone has an opinion when it comes to babies, but when it comes to babies’ names, everyone thinks they are way better at picking than you are.

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None of our children has a typical name.  Brighid, so named because it means strength, and my 2 pound 10 ounce preemie seemed to need all she could get, could have been Bridget – which everyone would recognize.  But when you have a child so beautifully and uniquely yours, here to carry on your heritage and traditions, why not give her a name that reflects that?

Naming my children has given me an opportunity to show a love of my Irish heritage, and a love for some of the strongest women our family has seen.  Eilis, whose name I actually fell in love with while watching a documentary on conjoined twins, is named after my grandmothers, women who raised families, worked hard, and were in their own right strong and beautiful.  And Granuaile, whose middle name is Frances, bears the Gaelic name of Grace O’Malley, Ireland’s pirate queen, who changed the way women in Ireland were depicted.  Strength, courage, and devotion to her family were the traits of the original Granuaile, and traits of Granuaile’s other namesake, my sister Frances (Bean).

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I’ve had to explain often through the years why my kids have the names they do.  I never mind.  It’s an explanation I’m proud to give.  Just be prepared for a wee history lesson.