The first I ever heard of Michaelmas was in Pride and Prejudice and Middlemarch and other olden-timey English books. Apparently, it was one of the four days during the year on which servants were hired and rents were collected, so it comes up a lot...
--- 1 --- I think it's clear that for whatever reason some people in the "mainstream media" are willfully misunderstanding Pope Francis. They seem to have decided that anything Pope Francis says is awesome and revolutionary, while everything that Pope Benedict said...
I'm going to start this by saying that plenty of people do not discipline as early as I do. Which is fine. I am a firm believer in doing what works for your family. I also believe that the level of discipline in your home is up to you and can be changed at any time,...
After last week's What I Wore Sunday post, my friend Mandi pointed out that it seems like, even at the pretty darn pregnant phase in which I find myself now, I don't really wear maternity clothes. And she's right, I don't. It's not really something I set out to...
This week, I solve your problems. (I know, people hate that. But it doesn't bother me when *I* do it.) --- 1 --- Problem: You think cutting onions is unpleasant. Solution: I hate cutting onions, too. They make me cry. And not in an awesome BBC period miniseries kind...
My third trimester nest-iness is manifesting itself in manic attempts to hyper-organize our homeschool stuff. With four kids in four different grades, plus two littles, plus me needing an afternoon nap (NEED the nap) I often find it hard to find the time to give the...
As a parent, I want to figure out how to pay enough attention to each child so that he knows he is precious and valued, but not so much that he ends up an entitled brat. Fortunately, we have enough kids that I think it would be really, really hard for us to err...
It has been an interesting week on the ol' blogstead . . . --- 1 --- One of the main goals of my blogging has become trying to affirm the different but still good choices that different moms make. My audience is mostly other Catholic moms. We share the primary goal of...
So, in the comments of Sunday's post about vacuuming, Sarah and Elizabeth and Sarah Marie asked for my two cents on getting babies to sleep. As you wish . . . "Sleep like a baby." Seriously? Who started that saying? Have they met babies? I don't know who Leo Burke...
In the early years of marriage and kids we lived in a series of small apartments and houses. I had a little system in which I allotted specific tasks to specific days of the week, which I had written down on a schedule that was taped up inside a cabinet door. I won't...
--- 1 --- So, this happened during a family rosary in the car this week: All: . . . He will come again in glory to judge to living and the dead . . . Jack (11): What about the living dead? Will He judge the living dead?Me: Zombies? Well, since that issue isn't...
It's not you, it's me. I get that. I totally get that you guys are brilliant and challenging and that people love you. But I don't. I just can't. You guys are huge bummers and you make me want to drown myself in the bathtub to escape the futility and pointlessness of...
When it comes to being addressed by children, I prefer "Mrs. Tierney" to "Kendra." I also prefer "Mrs. Tierney" to "Miss Kendra," on account of me having all these kids and preferring to give off more of a married vibe (although I do secretly like the Austen-ness of...
--- 1 --- Okay, maybe that's hyperbole. But SCIENCE says that women tend to have allergies and auto-immune diseases at a statistically higher rate than men, perhaps because they don't get exposed to as much immune-system-boosting mud and dirt as children. So here my...
Why, oh why, won't this Miley Cyrus thing just go away from my Facebook? the reaction of Will Smith and his family seems about right And I tried, I really did try, to just not say anything about it. But I kept having thoughts. And I have a blog. So . . . ...
This is not going to be one of those posts where I tell you what to do, because so much of this is going to depend on your particular kids and their particular environment. But I know it's something that young moms struggle with, that I struggled with, that I continue...
I've debated writing this post for a while, because really -- who wants to be the poster-child for "irresponsible pregnancy?" But, you know me, I can't resist a can of worms. And I think it needs to be said. So, here goes: You know all that stuff you're not supposed...
--- 1 --- I cannot explain why I find this so amusing. It defies explanation. I just really, really like it. I want to put a bunch of these up in my house and not caption them or anything, but just chuckle to myself every time I go by one. Or maybe if I ever have a...
Unless you were homeschooled yourself (which I wasn't) the decision to homeschool your own kids can feel overwhelming in a thousand different ways. It's easy to look at a really easy-going homeschooling Mom and say, "I couldn't live like that, I need order and...
As you may have noticed from earlier blog postings, the kids and I were out of town for the summer. The husband came back and forth a few times to visit, and did his retreat-type stuff for the year, but I figured the time with the kids out of the house would be ideal...
--- 1 --- I see what you did there. And I like it. I hope everyone had a lovely Solemnity yesterday. We did! I really try to incorporate traditions, historical and/or from other cultures into our liturgical feasts. But there don't seem to be all that many traditions...
Have I mentioned that I do not like sassy, disobedient picture books? I have? Well, let me say it again: I doanlikum. Sometimes a trip to the library can feel like I'm slashing through a jungle of fart jokes and hating the new baby and running away from home so dad...
Blah, blah, blah, stuff happened, I found myself 24 and single. My dad (who reads this blog, but I am going to say this anyway) was a super-weirdo about that sort of thing and started immediately panicking that I would become an old maid. He kept trying to find guys...
--- 1 --- Simcha, Hallie, and Charlotte have opened up a can o'worms (which is great, I do love me a can o'worms) about how different types of blogs affect different people. the header graphic from Simcha's Blog: I Have to Sit Down Apparently, some moms (including...
Perhaps this will be surprising in light of all my posts about traveling the world and throwing parties big and small, but I am an introvert. Totally. (Or maybe you saw this, so you already knew.) I'm not shy and I do enjoy interacting with people, but I don't find it...
Just a couple of weeks ago, in my seventh quick take, I mentioned that I'm not a believer in that oft-spouted mantra: "Hey kids! You can be anything you want to be!" Well, I still believe that (or I still don't believe it, I guess), but I recently read something that...
Just to further confuse those of you who thought we lived in LA, but then thought it seemed liked we lived in Chicago, I'm currently blogging at you from Ames, Iowa: home of the Cyclones and my lovely sister and her family. We're on a vacation-in-a-vacation as it...
I feel like I need to preface this with a warning: A Rant is Coming. I'm not big on rants, as a rule. Reading them OR writing them. Because I really do mostly think even this fallen world is pretty wonderful. But this started as the first of my seven takes and was...
One isn't better than the other. They are complimentary. Both are good. Of course, that's easy for me to say, since I'm the flower. But it really does seem to be true of all the marriages I'm party to the ins and outs of. And it doesn't always break down according to...
After last week's post about not judging other moms, I figured it might be good to re-run this post about how other moms really aren't judging us anyway! Back a few years when we lived in Chicago, and I only had three kids, something horrifying happened to me. ...
