I’m sitting here bouncing a sick baby to sleep for a much needed nap between two coughing kids on the couch while another sick kid sits on the floor with a puke bucket and we all watch another episode of some stupid Netflix show between breathing treatments and baths. And I am weary. Three weekends in the past month have featured sick children (who kindly shared their afflictions with me). Sore … [Read more...]
Carrots 2018 Gift Guide! (Featuring Small Catholic Businesses and Thoughts on Gift Giving)
UPDATED FOR CYBER MONDAY I hope you're snuggled up on the couch in your jammies today eating leftover pie and not fighting the crowds! We are recovering from a somewhat dramatic Thanksgiving Day. Part of it was absolutely lovely! We cooked yummy food and feasted with new friends. But our nine-year-old, Benjamin, had the worst asthma attack he's had since he was three years old. It was … [Read more...]
The Triumph and Necessity of Festivity: Why We Trick-or-Treat
To Halloween or to not Halloween? While Halloween began as All Hallows Eve, the vigil before All Hallows (All Saints Day), and certainly has Catholic roots, whether to participate in cultural celebrations of a now secularized Halloween is controversial in Christian circles. In the Protestant circles I grew up in, “Fall Festival” parties or “Reformation Day” parties were the order of the day. … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living at a Glance: November 2018
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope … [Read more...]
Let’s Celebrate the Canonization of St. Oscar Romero!
Blessed Oscar Romero, a Salvadorian archbishop, is going to be canonized tomorrow on October 14th! I didn't know a whole lot about him until my husband spent time in El Salvador last summer visiting a small Catholic agricultural community. During his trip he got to see several sites connected to soon-to-be Saint Oscar Romero and was deeply moved by his witness to the Gospel through his defense of … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living at a Glance: October 2018
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope … [Read more...]
Launch Day for My Book is TODAY! Here’s what you need to know.
The day has finally arrived! My book, The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture, is officially available! LAUNCH DAY IS HERE. The writing process to publishing date took about 18 months, but it’s been much longer in the making because it’s the result of life-changing experiences and many, many late night conversations with my husband Daniel and dear … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living at a Glance: September 2018
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope … [Read more...]
The Church, My Mother
When my husband and I were received into the Catholic Church it was 2009. The news of the sexual abuse scandals and cover ups had broken in 2002 when we were in high school. We knew before converting that the Church was full of sinners and that what makes it holy is not the behavior of its priests and bishops. We entered the Church with eyes wide open. But that doesn’t make the recent … [Read more...]
What Can *WE* Do About the Abuse Crisis?
I have several drafts of blog posts in the pipeline but I just couldn't publish any of them until speaking to the horrible clerical abuse in the PA grand jury report. I am heartbroken by it. I am sickened by it. It doesn't help to dismiss these crimes by pointing out that this doesn't just happen in the Catholic Church. That doesn't make it less awful. It doesn't help to note that most of … [Read more...]
