The Spirituality of the Craftsman
I’m a craftsman. Yarn is my medium, and hooks and needles are my tools. I don’t call myself a crafter, because to me that implies too much of the arts and crafts of summer camp and too little of the...
View ArticleRooting for the “Good” Bad Guys
I watch a lot of TV. Well, not necessarily TV shows, although I do watch plenty of them, but other things on TV, like mini-series and movies (and things from England, for some reason). Let’s just...
View ArticleI Don’t Have Time for This
Far too often I hear myself saying, offhandedly and without much thought as to what I am actually saying, that I don’t have the time to be doing X, Y, or Z with or for my children. The words jump out...
View ArticleA Joyful Noise
We’ve been making a concerted effort, my husband and children and I, to attend daily Mass as noon. There have been good days, when all the kids have somehow managed to pretend to be silent angels, and...
View ArticleYoda’s Advice for Following God’s Will
I like Star Wars. The Force, the light sabers, the odd little aliens; all of it. Yoda is my favorite (and yours too, if you’ve got good taste, but I digress). The things he says, the way he says...
View ArticleOn Not Attending Non-Sacraments
Recently, my husband and I didn’t attend a wedding. This has happened more than once in the past few years. We keep getting invited to weddings and not being able to attend. There were no prior...
View ArticleThe Blessings of Raising a Large Family in a Small Space
My husband and I have 7 children, 6 of whom we are blessed enough to be raising together (the seventh being already in heaven). We live, all eight of us, in a 900 square foot apartment. There’s no...
View ArticleThe Not-Quite-Blessings of Raising a Large Family in a Small Space
Last week, I posted about the unlikely blessings of raising our “large” family in a “small” space. This week, I thought I’d write a little about the other side of the small apartment coin, the one...
View ArticleWhat to Expect When You’re Expecting…for the Eighth Time
Recently my husband and I found out that we are being blessed again with a child. This isn’t a new thing for us, as we’ve experienced this particular blessing seven times already, but with each child...
View ArticleThe Habit of Thanksgiving
Children are great mimics. I usually remember this, unfortunately, a few moments after I’ve blurted out something that was, probably, not the best thing for my kids to hear. For instance, I say...
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Review: Witnesses to Mystery
Cover Photo courtesy of Ignatius Press Recently, I was given the opportunity to review a copy of Witnesses to Mystery, a lavish coffee table style book written by Grzegorz Gorny with photographs by...
View ArticleWhat to Expect When You’re No Longer Expecting
A few months back, I wrote a piece on here announcing our joyful expectation of our eighth child, entitled “What to Expect…When You’re Expecting for the Eighth Time.” It was fun, a little silly, and a...
View ArticleLent with Littles
It’s almost that time again. That’s right folks: Lent will be here in exactly one week. If you’re at all like me, and by that I mean a fairly busy mom to a decent size family, who homeschools and...
View ArticleFor Lent, Don’t Give Up a Sin
Lent starts today. That means there are no more days to really think about what we plan on doing for the next 40 days (minus the Sundays, because that’s how we do it where I’m from) to prepare our...
View ArticleReview: Our Holy Father, the Pope
I have a confession to make: I enjoy reading children’s books. I mean, not all of them, obviously, because often I find that merely labeling something as being written for children relieves the author...
View ArticleSaint Joseph Was Just a Man
While flipping through a missalette one Sunday morning during the homily, my sister stopped short when her eyes landed on what she thought to be a very disparaging song title: “St. Joseph Was Just a...
View ArticleA Confession about Confession (A Book Review)
I have a confession to make. It’s something I’ve learned about myself over the last couple of years of having children who have reached the age of reason: I’m terrible at going to Confession. Over...
View ArticleThe Dignity of Dying
Within the last month we’ve marked the anniversaries of two important deaths that, while linked inextricably because of when they occurred, could not have been more different. On March 31, 2005, Terri...
View ArticleWhen All You Can Say Is “Jesus”
Last week, Susanna Spencer wrote about being a cradle Catholic and how it truly effects every aspect of one’s life. Her piece, “When Catholicism Is in Your Bones,” spoke to me, in part because I am...
View ArticleCatholic Family Vacation Bucket List
When I was younger, I traveled a bit. I went to Paris with Opus Dei in 1997 for World Youth Day and then to Rome, first in 2000 for World Youth Day again and then in 2001 as part of a course I was...
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