Health update: Not much to report. Treatments are progressing. We are awaiting test results. We are all in good spirits. Your prayers are SO appreciated. God's will be done. In case you prefer watching/listening to reading . . . this post is also available as a video....
Hey all! Father's Day is coming up soon, and I wanted to share some Catholic Dad Gift Sets we've put together for you guys, along with some free printables and our family favorite movies for the day. You'll find those at the bottom of the post. Note: Since drafting...
Dear Kendra, First, thank you for your blog. I've been reading it for a while now and it's been a big help [to] me as a convert of a few years ago . . . . I wanted to ask how you guys handle sick kids, as we move into our umpteenth minor illness of the year so far. I...
More from the Catholic All Year mailbag today . . . Question: Dear Kendra, I have followed you for over a year now and it has been wonderful adding more liturgical traditions to our year! I'm pregnant and it's a big shock. We have always been generally open to life,...
I’ve received many reader questions on this topic over the years, and just discussed them again this week in a Q&A session after an online talk I gave to a parent group, so I figured it would be a good time to go ahead and get it in a post. Updates on The Catholic...
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...
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...
I don’t want to fall into hyperbole, but the apostolate of bringing a meal really and honestly changed the way I see the world. It changed my heart when it happened to me, and practicing it for others is something that brings me great joy. While I was expecting my...
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...
It's been an AGE since we dug something out of the old mailbag. Let's take a peek, shall we? The Question: Hello Kendra, I know you are very busy but I have a few questions from something on your blog. You said the kids can’t get out of bed during nap, how do you...
This is the time of year I start getting emails and Facebook messages from parents who are trying to decide how to handle the cultural traditions surrounding Christmas, and how to balance them with their Catholic faith. There is genuinely a lot of worry that they'll...
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....
I tend to get mailbag questions in bunches. All of a sudden, I'll get a flurry of questions on similar topics. Maybe it's Facebook? Maybe it's some sort of hive-mind phenomenon? But there you have it. It's a thing. The most recent wave was on kids and modesty. And the...
Mailbag time! The Question: Hi Mrs. Tierney, My name is Sanasi and I am a 21 year old university student. I stumbled across your blog when I was looking for more Catholic blogs to read in my free time and it's kind of weird, but I feel like I see so much of myself in...
If the figurine genre has taught us anything, it's that children love to kneel reverently and piously recite their prayers. But if your children happen to not be figurines, maybe they sometimes complain about saying their prayers. Maybe sometimes prayer time turns...
Cranky Frankie is four today. He likes lots of things. Cowboy boots: His little sister: His other little sister: Confined spaces: A good seat for his brother's football game: The Communion of Saints: Chicken Frank the chicken (and Nana): This exact setup of buddies....
Mailbag time! Today, you get two for the price of one, on a really challenging topic: how to handle family members who undermine our parenting. - first question - Hey, Kendra! I was at the funeral for one of my relatives, and after at the cemetery, we went to visit...
I've been sold for some time on the benefits of a big family: many hands with which to share the work, and plenty of folks for games and conversation. But, really, the benefits I appreciate most in my big family, are actually because it's also a wide family. Having a...
Mailbag time! This is a variation on a parenting topic I've addressed a lot on the blog. But I know it's something a lot of us struggle to figure out how to handle. So here we go again . . . - the question - Hi Kendra, I'm a new fan of your blog, and I love all of the...
When I had my first baby thirteen years ago, I knew a lot of things would change. I was warned that sleeping, and showering, and getting laundry done would all suddenly require ingenuity and advance planning, and back up. And that was true. But no one warned me about...
Something I get asked about quite often is what we're doing with our kids to help to raise them to have an understanding of and an appreciation for our Catholic faith. It's a tough question, but a very important one. Whether our kids are homeschooled, or go to...
Mary Jane was baptized last Sunday, and since a few of you asked in the comments of Facebook and Instagram photos, I'll use this photo dump to answer your godparent/godchildren related questions. How Do We Choose Godparents for Our Children? We choose practicing...
Maybe you don't need this post. Hopefully, you don't. It's pretty obvious. But it didn't come easily for me. So, I'm going to put it here on the blog. Juuuuuuust in case. We are all very fortunate around here. We've got a fun, loving, involved dad. But, especially...
Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. And I just happen to have a mailbag question that is particularly well-suited to the day. Let's get to it, shall we? the question: Dear Kendra, Hi! First, I enjoy your blog very, very much. I am on my way into the Catholic...
It had been many, many years since I had read The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward when we got it out of the library last year. And I was like, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD, children's book from 1939 about how to become the Easter Bunny!" Because,...
It's the million-dollar Christmas question, right? And I've been asked it many times in the lead-up to Advent and Christmas: Do our children "believe" in Santa Claus? But . . . I don't think it's the right question. Hang in here with me. Seriously, let's look at what...
I've already written about how we are planning a more simple and a more toy-free Christmas than we've had in the past. Not because we are AGAINST toys but because we have reached the natural conclusion of a few years of more mindful toy-buying, more discerning...
I got this mailbag question a week or so ago, and responded to it. Since then, my Cryin' Babies Go To Bed post was shared on a parenting forum, to GREAT misunderstanding, confusion, concern, and general unpleasantness. Sometimes I kind of forget that my blog is...
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...
Before school started up this week, I did a major tidy up of the playroom and the desks in the kids' rooms. We do our twice yearly clean outs during advent and lent, in which we select things we don't love or use all that often to donate. That's not what this was....
