I'm Aisling (pronounced Ash-LEEN). It's a gaelic name, meaning "dream, or vision." I'm half Irish, and half a lot of other W. European ethnicities, and I love it.

I'm the second of five--four sisters, and a little adopted Colombian brother. Between them and my parents, I'm crazy blessed. I couldn't ask for a better family.  

I am Roman Catholic. Catholicism to me is a way of life. What I believe about God is what gives meaning to everything else. The Incarnation--that God has become a human being like me and pitched His tent among us--is what wakes me up and lays me down and fills the in-between. 

I was homeschooled all the way. I loved it. I am every day more convinced how integral it is to the authenticity, maturity, and capability of an individual to have a wholistic, structured, personal, faith-based, and meaningful education. 

I love life. And the little things that make is so beautiful. Like garlic bread, barely-ripe fruit, jewish rye, white pizza, coconut macaroons, pesto, herbal tea...good smells, like books, crayons, rain, olive oil, shea butter...earthy colors like dark olivey greens, browns, rosebud pink, slate blue and navy, auburn, and grey...trees, especially willows, sycamores, tulip poplars, and magnolias...music, especially acoustic guitar, piano, bongos, tinwhistles, violins, hornpipes, waltzes, Strauss, Rich Mullins (greatest Christian song artist of all time), Jars of Clay, Bebo Norman, Rush of Fools, Jon Foreman, swing music, and traditional Irish...literature, J. R. R. Tolkien (my all-time favorite author), C. S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, George MacDonald, Elizabeth George Speare, George Eliot, Meriol Trevor, Allen French, Charles Brady, Wendell Berry, and Charles Dickens.

In my leisure time I read and write and sometimes sketch things. I also like taking photos, making greeting cards, playing badminton, watching good movies, playing music, and ceili dancing. I love good poetry. I love baking. I love going barefoot. I love watching stars. I love holding a baby, and having their "whole world fall asleep on my shoulder" (I can't remember where I heard that...a poem somewhere). I love standing before an ocean, half thrilling and half terrified at how huge and how powerful it is. I love falling asleep in a puddle of moonlight. I love having into-the-wee-hours sister talks in bed.I love praying, writing :), being with my family. I love loving life.