Skip to content

Visit the shop to browse new arrivals!

Home
Blog
Books
- Cloud of Witnesses
- Crowned With Grace
Shop
- New Arrivals
- Valentine’s Day
- Advent + Christmas
- Apparel
- Hats
- Home Decor
- Jewelry
- Journals
- Mugs
- Ornaments
- Prints & Cards
- Stationery
- Stickers
- Tank Tops
- Tea Towels
Podcast
About
Contact

Visit the shop to browse new arrivals!

Holding space for grief

Holding Space for Grief with Compassion, Patience, and Love

Faith | Grief and Loss | Widowhood

Holding Space for Grief with Compassion, Patience, and Love

Sign up here for weekly Newsletters—A Few Lovely Things, a seasonal newsletter—The Landing and other announcements including new shop drops and other fun stuff, that will land in your inbox first. I look forward to meeting you there.

* indicates required

First Name

Email Address *

/* real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

houseofloveandlaughterblog

Catholic Writer | Shop Creator
Navigating Grief and Joy, Finding to Hope, Seeking Truth, Trusting God and Creating Beauty and a Soft Place to Land

Kinda chic that you find a vintage Eagles sweater

Kinda chic that you find a vintage Eagles sweater that’s subtle enough to wear to Mass, and it was chilly enough to wear on a rainy Sunday.

Kinda chic to get a few compliments on it when you were trying not to stand out. But in the Philly area we wear green on Sundays, and say “Go Birds!” It’s how we do it!

Kinda chic that the grocery store worker compliments you on your “old school gear from the best decade.” You know it’s a compliment because the latest trend is everyone wants to know what they’d look like in the 90s.

I already know. I was there.

Kinda chic that the 🦅 pull out a win in the last 9 seconds of the game. It’s only the second game and they already had me sweating in that sweater.

Kinda chic to watch the game with my son in real time and not text about it from different states. It’s going to be a fun season to watch with my two oldest. The other two are more interested in dance and theater.

Kinda chic that the Eagles won in Nashville for the first time with as much Eagles 💚 as Titans 🩵 in the stands. The last time we won on the road against this franchise, was the 90s when they were still the Oilers.

See? The 90s really were the best decade. At least to be in your 20s. Or maybe the 80s were better when I was a teen.

Kinda chic to find something fun to share using a dated trend and to not to really care about trends, but to borrow one as a creative way to stitch together words today about things you love.

Birds and Gospel. Stay with me.

It’s been a really hard 2 weeks. Sometimes we just need something light to shift our perspective.

Maybe it’s kinda chic to slip the words of today’s Gospel, when Jesus says, “the last will be first, and the first will be last,” into the middle of a silly trend which has absolutely nothing to do with football, though I’m sure I could connect the two. 😉

There were some amazing graces in those words and in mass today—that’s for another day.

But finding the Gospel in the middle of ordinary life is what I like to do. We are called to hear His words, carry them with us, and let them shape how we live and love the people right in front of us.

Today was a win for me and the Birds.

Go 🦅 💚
Go Jesus♥️

It has been a hard 2 weeks. More loss, grief and c

It has been a hard 2 weeks. More loss, grief and change.

After spring and summer seemed to bring one storm after another, I have been feeling a little weathered myself.

Today, among the worn autumnal colors and the first leaves beginning to fall, I found a white iris blooming. An iris in September. Wow!

This past July, I transplanted the purple Irises that grow around my yard. I dug them from the ground, divided them, moved them to a few new places that needed a little more color and glory, and tucked their roots into new soil. I prayed they would make it through the summer heat.

But the irises had already proven themselves resilient.

I wasn’t expecting to see any again until spring. But there she was today.

I really needed to see this little bit of joy today.

She was a color I haven’t seen in the yard before…White with barely a hint of purple. It popped against the canopy of dusty rose Limelights.

The new Iris reminded me when I wrote in May of 2024 about a deep purple Iris, from the same roots, growing beside a worn path overcome by weeds. Storms had washed away the soil that once covered and protected her roots.

“Maybe one more storm could take her out, but she knows how deeply rooted she is where others cannot see.”

I think I understood that blooming Iris—then, and I understand her more now. She’s being made new, too.

There are seasons when the storms keep coming. Seasons when we are uprooted and transplanted. Seasons when the landscape around us begins to fade and we wonder what, if anything, is still growing beneath the surface.

Then among the deep blush pink limelights, fading flowers and falling leaves, something new blooms. Out of season, with a new color, in a new space. Made new!

God knew I needed to find her today. This one new, resilient bloom. A little consolation among the worn and weathered things in the landscape and in my heart.

Beauty still blooms among the weeds despite storms and changing seasons.

This little Iris had been uprooted, divided and transplanted in the middle of a stormy, blazing hot summer. Her conditions weren’t perfect, but in new soil, she didn’t just survive; she bloomed and grew.

In September.

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my dear frien

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my dear friend @clairedwyer_yourbestyes wife, mom, mentor, writing coach to many, co-founder of PraiseWriters, spiritual director and author of Present Paradise and now author of the soon-to-be-released A Spacious Place. Coming November 17.

It seems perfectly fitting that today, on Claire’s birthday and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, that we get to share the news of this beautiful new book about St. Edith Stein.

The Lord timing is always best.

Mary’s sorrows reveal something about the deepest capacity of a woman’s heart to love, suffer, remain, and trust. Edith Stein understood something of that mystery, too. Her life and writings point us toward the Cross and toward what it means for a woman to become fully alive in Christ.

A Spacious Place is your true labor of love. It takes immense vulnerability and strength to write about a soul as deep as Edith’s.

Today, as we honor Our Lady standing faithfully at the foot of the Cross, I am celebrating you, too, Claire. Your faithfulness, courage, vision and words. And your yes to bringing Edith’s wisdom to women who so deeply need to hear it.

May your words pierce the hearts of your readers and bring them the same resilient faith that Edith carried into the darkness.

May Our Lady protect this book and may your words inspire a generation of women to live fully alive in Christ!

Happy Birthday, my dear friend, Claire 🎉
Congratulations on the masterpiece, that is A Spacious Place.
I am so incredibly proud of you!
I cannot wait for this book to bless all those who read it!

I have had the privilege and gift of reading an advance copy of this stunning book, and trust me, you won’t want to miss this one. Pre-order yours now!

“Before you were born, before you were even conceived, God conceived of you in His mind. He delighted in designing you with exquisite uniqueness and shaping the contours of your inner life to reflect particular aspects of His.” - CD. A Spacious Place.

Follow on Instagram

Search

© 2026 Heather Lebano • Farmhouse theme by Restored 316

Designed by Sophia Lebano

Home
Blog
Books
- Cloud of Witnesses
- Crowned With Grace
Shop
- New Arrivals
- Valentine’s Day
- Advent + Christmas
- Apparel
- Hats
- Home Decor
- Jewelry
- Journals
- Mugs
- Ornaments
- Prints & Cards
- Stationery
- Stickers
- Tank Tops
- Tea Towels
Podcast
About
Contact

Search for:

Accessibility Statement - Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy