If despite reading my review of the first installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, you (as I did) still held out hope for improvement and wanted to see the second movie: The Desolation of Smaug, here's what I have to say about it . . . If you like no-look...
I mentioned this technique in a post in which I used it on Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, and MTV, and I can't remember hearing much about any of them since, so I'm going to assume it was a big success and they've all decided to turn their lives around. In which case,...
It's pick on three-year-olds week here at Catholic All Year, which is odd since I don't even have a three-year-old right now. But I have had five three-year-olds previously, so I can say with some level of expertise, that those guys are generally up to something....
Guys? I need everyone to promise not to tell Grace about this post. She pretty much explicitly forbade its writing. But I wrote it anyway. INTJ and all that. Here's the thing: I really DO think twos are better than ones, and better than threes as well. I have written...
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...
Hey all, I'm super excited to be guest posting today for my friend Haley from Carrots for Michaelmas while she finishes up the edits on her Liturgical Year Cookbook. The Three Most Important Things I Do Before Having a Baby If you’re expecting me to say things like...
I'll never forget reading Ender's Game in the ninth grade and realizing that, probably, like Ender, all of my own awkwardness could be solved by getting selected for battle school where I would learn that my problem the whole time was that I was just smarter and more...
I've already posted about some of the spooky books we like to read/listen to around Halloween, but there are also some shorts and movies we like. Here are five of our favorites, then I need YOUR advice for where we go from here! 1. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The...
Kaitlin from More Like Mary wrote me asking about how we deal with toddlers' picky eating habits. I fired off a quick email back to her before I remembered the super-frustrating food allergy issues her family is dealing with. Our family does not have any allergies or...
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...
Well, since at least 1812. That's when the Grimm brothers set out to scare the dickens out of generations of children. But clearly these stories, and the concept that scary stuff is good for kids, existed well before they started gathering the stories up. What we...
Here's another installment in my occasional series of answering Caitlin's questions! It's our goal to allow our kids, even though there are a lot of them, to have enough access to extra-curricular activities to experience the fun and exercise and enrichment and...
In the comments of a kind of random post about some Latin quizzes I made, Tamar and Caitlin asked me how I manage a homeschool day with four different grades, a preschooler, a toddler, and one in the oven. I guess the real answer is: Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't....
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
--- 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...
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...
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...
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. ...
In my last post: In Which I am Asked Not to Come to Mass . . . by a Priest, I mentioned that I would like to fill all cry rooms in the country with cement. You guys noticed. And some of you wondered why. Hannah said: I'm confused - what is it that you hate about cry...
The husband knows an awesome priest who likes to say, "You should remember that when you pray for humility . . . God just might humiliate you." I think he said it in reference to having tripped up on the altar, which I would do every day and twice on Sundays, rather...
--- 1 --- I was so sorry to read Dwija's sad news that they lost baby Nicholas at 21 weeks along. I have felt so identified with her struggles since I am also 21 weeks pregnant. It's been such a joy to witness how she dealt with the challenges of this pregnancy with...
