A quick tour of recent headlines regarding the Synod . . . in which we see that folks are, as usual, flipping the flip out over nothing new. The Globe and Mail: Bishops say homosexuals should be accepted by the Catholic church Pope Benedict, from then-Cardinal...
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Giant Baby Terrorizes Town, Gets VIP Seats to Beatification: Where Was Lulu Part IV
Okay, so where were we? Flew to Barcelona, saw modern masterpiece; went to Lourdes, prayed for intentions; went to Torreciudad, saw mosaic of Virgin Mary on her iPhone . . . which means . . . LOOK OUT TINY TOURISTS! THERE'S A GIANT BABY IN FRONT OF THE...
Awesome All Saints Day Costumes in Expert, Store-Bought, and, What? is it October?
Can you believe it's October?! With the weather we've been having in Southern California . . . I cannot. But, there you have it. Probably, you want to be an awesome, totally organized mom who remembered that All Saint's Day and Halloween were coming up. But probably...
A Home With Truth and Beauty (and another giveaway)
In my post about how we do and do not shelter our kids, I mentioned that we choose not to shield our kids entirely from pop culture influences. As with most things, we try to find a middle ground. We don't have cable, but we do have Netflix. They mostly don't listen...
Tips for Taco Tuesday . . . but on a Friday, and other nonsense for your Monday
We've been meat-free on Fridays for a couple of years now, and it's been good for our family. It's a great way to make a sacrifice that we can share with each other and with other Catholics all over the world and through time. I think it's terrific. Except, of course,...
Blessed Is She
I've mentioned it before, but I wanted to make sure you all know about my newest project. Blessed Is She is a daily devotional website for women. Right into your inbox, every day, you'll receive a link to the readings from daily Mass, plus a short reflection on one of...
How to Start a Little Flowers Girls’ Club
So, are you totally sick of this mailbag thing yet? No? Good. Because I have (at least) one more (so far) that I want to share with everyone. Jessica asked me about something near and dear to my heart . . . the Little Flowers Girls' Club. She's thinking about starting...
It’s a Worthy Cause, Make it Count Double: Beach Wheels for Fulton
I hope you've already seen this great campaign by Bonnie of a Knotted Life . . . Kelly from this Ain't the Lyceum has two sons with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Their family loves to visit the beach, but a beach chair that would allow him to get across the sand and...
Free Printable Prayers for Your Printing and Praying Pleasure, and a “Good News on the Farm” Update
A couple months ago, Bonnie asked me to make her some suitable-for-framing graphic images of some prayers: The Morning Offering, and The Act of Contrition. So I did, and I made them downloadable, for YOU. Then I made a St. Michael Prayer, because that's my favorite....
Why What I Wear Matters
In the comments to my post about the time it took us thirty-nine hours to fly to France, Erica noted that I was wearing a dress. And I was. The same dress the whole time, as a matter of fact, since while WE were hanging out in Toronto, our bags were kickin' it...
Little Kids and Death: How Taking My Kids to a Traditional Funeral Didn’t Freak Them Out
On Thursday, the husband's Aunt Maureen passed away after a battle with lung cancer. On Sunday afternoon we were all in Chicago at the wake. A real, no kidding, Chicago Irish wake. The whole family and close friends, kids included, spent the afternoon and...
This Just Might Be the Best Defense of Catholicism Since Aquinas
Did you see it? It's my new favorite. It also just happens to star Frankie's godmother, my good friend Blythe of The Fike Life. It shows the beauty and joy of our Catholic faith, lived in the particular vocation of a big family. If this somehow...
Last Minute Somewhat Free Easter Baskets
Before you rush out the door to the dollar store to put together an Easter Basket, here are a few ideas for lovely and edifying Easter gifts that you can make happen in a hurry. And sometimes for nearly free! Printables Shining Light Saint Printables! Just a word of...
A Day in the Life of Me, Kendra Tierney, in Which a Lot of Things Happen and Often I Don’t Yell
a grandfather clock built by . . . my grandfather (is your mind blown?) Okay, you asked for it. Here it is. You have no one to blame but yourselves. My days start at about 11 pm, since that's when I can usually put Lulu down for an hour or two and attempt to...
Outside the Box: 66 Things to Give Up or Take Up for Lent (in beginner, intermediate, and advanced)
Through my various Lenten fails over the years, I've learned a different way of approaching Lent. In our house, we now view Lent as a time to try adding or taking away things from our personal and family lives to see if we are improved. We make it a time, not of...
This Party Ain't Over, Some of Us Just GOT Here!
--- 1 --- Contrary to reports you may have heard . . . the blog is not dead. Maybe it's different than it used to be (it is according to Waltzing Matilda). Maybe it's not what teenagers are doing (it's not according to this guy). But, I'm not a teenager, and I'm okay...
If You’ve Already Taught Your Kids Everything They Need to Know About Their Faith, You Don’t Need This
But if, on the other hand, you have NOT already taught your kids everything they need to know about their faith, if you MEAN to teach them stuff, but sometimes don't get around to it, if you'd LIKE to teach them stuff, but don't know where to start . . . I've got...
An Open Letter to People Who Are Good at NFP
Dear people who are good at NFP, Have you ever found yourself saying things like, "Oh, I don't really even have to chart, I just KNOW," or "I'm sorry, what did you say? I was just noticing myself ovulate," or "You just need to try Creighton, it's made of...
Keeping Christmas: How we keep celebrating from the partridge all theway to the drummers
At our house, we've been making a concerted effort to wait to celebrate Christmas, until . . . about now. It gives us at least a chance of keeping up with the kids' enthusiasm for the whole twelve days. (Or however many days of Christmas you like.) So, in case you're...
An at Home Nativity Play for Increased Christmas Awesomeness
Maybe it's the new baby, but Advent has FLOWN by in our house. Christmas is almost here! I just had to re-type this because I'm pretty sure I have to say my favorite part of our Christmas celebration is the Mass. But a VERY close second is our At Home Family Nativity...
The Baby I Didn’t Know I Needed
I really can't say that any of my babies has been "planned." Most, in fact, were conceived while we were actively (albeit inexpertly) attempting NFP. I guess Frankie would be the closest to a "planned" pregnancy. After finally figuring out how to use NFP effectively,...
Keeping Advent: Our Family’s Traditions
Here's a little glimpse at what the first few days of Advent have looked like at our house . . . Journey to Bethlehem (the board game) It's pretty much the best advent-themed board game ever. But it's a very limited edition, since Jack made it when he was in the first...
Three Reasons I Love Advent
A few weeks ago, I wrote about our family's advent philosophy, but now that advent is actually upon us, I wanted to share a little more about our three favorite advent family traditions. 1. Little People Nativity We have many nativity sets. We've got a big outdoor...
A Pregnant Lady’s Thoughts on Suffering
Well, as it turns out there's still time to enter the baby pool to win a copy of Haley and Daniel's new ebook: Feast. (Since I haven't had this baby yet.) It isn't even my due date until Wednesday, so I really shouldn't complain. But I will anyway, just a bit. My...
Just the Book I Needed
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how we were able to start celebrating the liturgical year in our home only by taking baby steps. And I mentioned how overwhelmed I had felt reading the first book I found about the celebrating the liturgical year in the home....
Our Favorite Family Read-Alouds for Advent
Advent is fast approaching, preceded by Thanksgiving of course, and (around here anyway) a new baby. Last week, I shared how Advent traditions have changed in our family. We really try to focus on Advent as a time of waiting and preparation. So, rather than watching...
Advent: How We Try to Celebrate Things in Their Proper Season Without Feeling Like Total Jerks
Now that Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls are behind us, I'm going to make like the mall and jump right in to Christmas. Thanksgiving schmanksgiving, amitrie? (I'm kidding, we do celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact this year we'll be having 15-16 family members at our...
Hallowtide . . . It’s How We Roll: All Saints Day Costumes for Awesome Kids Only
Happy All Hallows Eve, Feast of All Saints, and Commemoration of All Souls everyone! Here's how we celebrated/are celebrating/will celebrate. For Halloween, we carved pumpkins and went trick or treating around our neighborhood. It was lovely. The weather couldn't have...
Naysayers Gonna Naysay: 7 Quick Takes XXXI
update: I've edited this post to remove links and references to other people's articles, for fear of having misrepresented the positions expressed within. You're stuck with just my opinion now! --- 1 --- I have witnessed a lot of back and forth recently about the...
You’re Welcome: 7 Quick Takes XXX
I'm pretty sure you're going to want to thank me for these awesome links, so: --- 1 --- I wasn't surprised when my Open Letter to Breaking Bad and Flannery O'Connor inspired other posts, but now I'm going to go ahead and take credit for the existence of a whole new...