Mother's Day is coming and it seems like as good a time as any to open that evergreen can 'o worms, a topic of discussion in Catholic circles since, oh, 62 AD . . . the ever-controversial question inspired by Ephesians 5:21-33: Must Catholic wives submit to their...
Every few months, I will get a message or two like one I received today, from someone who says she has followed me for many years but can no longer do so because I haven’t publicly supported a particular issue in the way that she thinks would be appropriate. I’ve...
People seem to believe that cell phone use is this new, unprecedented behavior about which there are no established customs that could govern our conduct. George Washington and I beg to differ. The technology might be different, but human desires remain pretty...
I've had something on my mind for a while, and as today is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, I figured I'd finally sit down and type it up. I'm generally a social media apologist. The Catholic mommy blog little pond of the internet (which is also peopled with...
You've probably heard about the troubling study recently released by the Pew Research Center, stating that only one-third of self-professed Catholics believe in the Catholic Church's teaching that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ, and nearly half...
It's July! Get this month's booklet of prayers and devotions here as a print-at-home pdf or here as a paperback booklet. The July installment of the Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Show is ready to go, I just need to get it captioned and write a post for it, so it...
The historic sanctity of the seal of confession is being reconsidered by courts around the world—in England, Ireland, Australia, Louisiana, and in my own state of California, among others—specifically in regards to the crime of child sexual abuse. It begs the question...
Nathan Pyle is the creator of a comic called Strange Planet, in which blobby aliens do regular people stuff and describe it in unusual ways. It’s gentle and amusing and, until very recently, utterly uncontroversial.
Rather heavy things loom on the horizon around here in general, and on Friday specifically (click for details here, but only if you have a hankie handy) . . . and Lent is here and Holy Week is coming for all of us. But we Christians know there is always a light in the...
New prayer booklets for April, and other new printables for Easter and the sacraments are up in the shop, details at the bottom of the post, or see here. If you're new around here, you can get up to speed on this particular issue here. And the recent, not so great...
It's been a very busy week and is going to be an even busier weekend, but I wanted to pop in here to share some thoughts that really resonated with some of you already, and this week's very excellent Catholic Stuff giveaway. From a social media post . . . Mothers of...
Happy Columbus Day! This is not a feast of the Catholic Church, of course, but it's a national celebration (at least it WAS a celebration, now it's more like one-more-excuse-to-be-mad-on-Facebook) of a Catholic person with admirable qualities and great failings, both....
Disagreement with Catholic teaching is something that saints and heretics have in common. The great St. Paul himself, we read about in today's first reading, was a dissenter and debater. But the difference between the saints and the heretics has always been in how...
October is the Month of the Rosary . . . Sometimes I imagine Saint Bernadette, eagerly and devoutly praying the rosary at the feet of Our Lady. She reverently hold the beads, she carefully recites the prayers, her heart and her mind full of Mary's love for her son...
Mailbag time! It's the million dollar question for big Catholic families: How can we keep having them, if we don't know whether we can afford them? - question - Hi Kendra, I feel a little silly emailing someone I have never met such a personal question, but I've been...
With baby Mary Jane closing in on the two-week anniversary of that time she was accidentally born in our bathtub, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some photos of her, and a few things I've learned NOT to do while parenting my newborns. 1. Change Her Diaper...
Planned Parenthood is yucky. I hate that they exist. I hate that they use lies and doublespeak to prey upon the most vulnerable among us (the women AND their babies). I was not one tiny bit surprised by the latest Planned Parenthood scandal. Sad, yes. But not...
Welcome to another edition of Answer Me This. It's like a bloggy cocktail party where we can all click around and chat about six totally random topics of my choosing. 1. How long have you lived in your current home? This question was a plant. Last week, when I was...
Here are some Friday Seven Quick Takes for you . . . on a Saturday. 1. I'm at Blessed is She today, reflecting on Matthew 6:25-34. You know the one . . . Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall...
Look out world, 'cause Answer Me This is back . . . for a limited time. It's the McRib sandwich of blog linkups, so get it while you can. Here's how it works . . . today, I will give you six questions. NEXT Sunday, I'll answer those questions here on this blog. If...
I almost didn't go to see Disney's new Cinderella, and I certainly didn't plan to take my daughters to see it. Why? Because I saw Maleficent. Maleficent is everything that's wrong with a modern re-imagining of a classic story. It takes a tale of good vs evil and...
Dear Lady Who Commented on My Instagram Photo, I can't remember your name, because I deleted your comment very quickly. I don't usually delete comments, but I just didn't want a whole big thing to get started. I had a party to plan.The photo was this one . . . of the...
I've written before about why and how we homeschool. But, recently, as we go about our daily routine, I keep noticing odd little things that I really like about homeschooling. I don't think any of these would be a very good reason to have decided to start...
I've missed you guys! Pictured: This was not MY funeral. This was the funeral of Brian Urlacher the hen, who was found dead on Boxing Day, and was buried with due reverence by her caretaker Bobby, with supervision by Frankie. But, whew, yesterday was the first day...
Dear Mr. President, So, you gave a speech last weekend, huh? And . . . three, two, one, BOOM went the mommy wars. I'm pretty sure you didn't intend to say that being a stay at home mom isn't "a choice we want Americans to make." I mean, that IS what you said, but it...
Tomorrow, Sunday November 2nd, is All Souls Day. In our home we commemorate the day by going to a cemetery and praying a family rosary for people who have died. We pray particularly, but not exclusively, for our family's deceased friends and relatives. In honor of the...
Blind obedience is a tough sell these days. If you're anything like me, it's going to take a lot to even convince you that it's not utterly WRONG, let alone a virtue to be cultivated. In our culture, the concept of obedience has fallen out of favor. We are hesitant to...
It often seems like we, as parents in a modern world, have two choices. We can . . . a. shelter our children from the world, safeguarding their innocence, and protecting them from knowledge and experiences that might be confusing or damaging to them or . . . b. expose...
Today's Seven Quick Takes are brought to you by the letter . . . F. - one - I'm at Blessed Is She today, sharing some thoughts about observing the feasts and the fasts on the liturgical calendar. You can read the post here, and sign up to receive the daily emails...
At my high school in San Diego, you could see the ocean from the upstairs classrooms and if the surf was good, there were a lot of open desks in my math class after lunch. The coolest guys in school weren't football players, they were on the water polo team. Water...
