1. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your love and support on my last post. I knew you guys were going to be the BEST, but I was still blown away by it. 2. It's Memorial Day weekend here in the US of A. This is a FB post the husband shared a couple years back. I...

Catholic Stuff Saturday: a LEGO Catechism Giveaway, and Odds and Ends from the Week
I'm trying out a new feature on the blog, which I've decided to call Catholic Stuff Saturday, and for which I have created this graphic: which really makes whatever comes next worth it, right? 😀 Anyway, I get a lot of requests from Catholic authors and artists...
Help ME Help You with the 2018 Catholic All Year Reader Survey and Prayer Book Set Giveaway
Dear Readers, My big takeaway from all the hubbub of the last week . . . is that I've really missed blogging! Somehow, just microblogging on Facebook and Instagram doesn't feel the same as being here on the blog and writing things that live on to be googled by new...
Ash Wednesday vs Valentine’s Day: the February 14th Catholic Conundrum
Mailbag time! The Question: Hi Kendra, I was wondering if you were going to write a post about how Valentine’s Day is on Ash Wednesday & how you guys will address that at your house. My thought was to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day the day before like the vigil....
Rogation and Ember Days and Vigils: in case you were starting to think you had this liturgical living thing down
I've been Catholic for forty-one years, actually making an effort for seventeen, a liturgical living devotee for eleven, and blogging about it for five. And . . . I just found out about Ember Days. As I was researching feast days for the Catholic All Year...
St. Margaret of Antioch Proves That What the Catholic Church Thinks About Women is That They Can Totally Kick Satan’s Butt
Happy Feast of St. Margaret of Antioch, virgin, martyr, dragon-slayer. And YOU thought St. George got to have all the dragon-related fun! Whenever anyone says the Catholic Church wants to subjugate women, I want to make them read The Golden Legend. Because, sure, SOME...
The Year of Mercy Family Challenge
It's the Year of Mercy! But hopefully you already knew that, as I've been meaning to write this post since, um, November. We've been making an effort to be mindful of the Year of Mercy in our home, and we came up with a Year of Mercy Family Challenge to go with it....
Sixteen Pairs of Catholic Saints Who Were Friends IRL
On the Feast of St. Brigid, on Monday, the kids and I got to talking about the saints. Of course we know that they're all friends NOW, in heaven. But we were kind of intrigued by the idea that St. Brigid and St. Patrick were actually friends IRL, as it were. Spouses,...
The Catholic All Year Quick Gift Guide for Catholics (and non-Catholics)
As someone somewhere in this blessed country is getting knocked unconscious over a discounted Keurig Machine, I plan to be observing Black Friday by continuing our family tradition of watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies (and none of the Hobbit movies) over...
The Second Annual Catholic All Year Catholic Costume Contest {now with even MORE prizes}
Last year's costume contest was really cool. I loved seeing all the great Catholic costumes you good folks and your kids can up with. So . . . even though I'm not sure the world needs any more of my All Saints Day costume posts, I decided to do it again. And, as it...
We Shall Find Our Little Ones Again Up Above: Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month {October Giveaway Series}
October is Infant and Pregnancy Loss awareness month. I don't want to let the month pass by without sharing a few resources here on the blog. ~ Bonnie at A Knotted Life offers to pray for people who have lost babies, as a tribute to her son Peter who was miscarried ....
Twofer Costumes for Halloween and All Saints 2015 Edition
It's October! Which means I want to wear sweaters and drink hot chai lattes . . . but it's still 90 degrees in LA. Oh, AND I need to figure out what we're doing for costumes. Since my kids like to dress up for Halloween and our homeschool group also hosts an All...
A Quick Look at My To Do List, and Then Let's Do a Baby Pool, Shall We? With PRIZES.
It's getting towards crunch time on baby number eight here. Just two-ish weeks to go. This is always an odd time for me, because I tend to walk around at 3 or 4 cm for these last few weeks. I'm sure it makes things go more easily when the time comes, but there's...
How to Celebrate Your Nameday When Your Name Isn’t a Saint’s Name (yet)
Between nearly twenty weeks of all-day morning sickness and my failed going to bed early for Lent experiment, I ended up with quite a backlog of mailbag questions. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing them . . . I received this one after linking to my post about...
Idle Threats, the Miracle of Waffles, St. Patrick’s Day Printables, and a Winner
I don't do these family glimpse posts as much as I used to, because I tend to share that stuff on the Catholic All Year Facebook page and on my Instagram account now. But I forget that not all of you are all those places. And I share different stuff on Facebook than I...
Liturgical Living for Beginners: A St. Patrick’s Day Tea Party Play Date, with help from me and CCC
This is a sponsored post. See my disclosure policy. It's March! Spring is in sight (at least in California), we are mostly in the swing of Lent (however much that's possible, anyway), and around the Tierney gaff, it's time to get super excited for the upcoming feasts...
Lulu Had a Birthday, and She’s Got Some Presents for You! (a giveaway from BabyLit, Shining Light Dolls, and Whole Parenting Goods)
Jack, my oldest, said of his baby sister the other day, "I think she's probably tied for the third best baby who ever lived. Jesus and Mary were probably better, but she's got to be at least tied with St. John the Baptist for third." Now, I don't have any way to...
Cranky Frankie Turns 3: a little monster birthday party
On Sunday, Frankie turned three years old. You can imagine his excitement. We threw him a Little Monster-themed birthday party. Here's how it went down. THE DECOR Red tissue balls and green hanging fans, fabric circus bunting, a mini monsters banner, a homemade...
The Virtue of Blind Obedience (yes. that’s actually a virtue.) Part of a Series on the Ten Virtues of Mary.
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...
A Book You Should Know: An Interview and Giveaway with Stefan Salinas of Catholic Churches Big and Small
I've got a birthday coming up this month, so over the next couple of weeks, I'm pleased to be able to offer you, my dear readers, some hobbit-style birthday presents in honor of the occasion. First up: a book and a fine art print! I am really excited today to...
Here’s Where You’ll Find Me Today
1. Trying to Figure Out Mac Computing Well, we did it. We got a Mac Mini. Thanks for all your advice and encouragement on my last post. I marched myself and all seven kids down to the Apple Store at the mall, which is fine with them because the place is simply teeming...
Halloween Movies to Spook the Whole Family
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...
Every Kid is Special (three days per year)
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...
Lent Challenge to Myself and You (There Will Be Prizes)
Adam from Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families has issued a challenge to Frankie and me and all of you too! This challenge is now closed, however, you can still take up a Chore and share with me on the Catholic All Year Facebook page! Every time you tackle a special...
20 Easy Saint Costumes Made of T-Shirts!
Hey guys! If you’ve been following me for any time at all, you know I like to go all out for All Saints’ Day. But just to prove that's not required, today we’ll be making twenty simple saint costumes . . . out of t-shirts! For many years, creating awesome costumes...
Praying for the Dead With Children
November is the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. If you aren't in the habit of hanging out in cemeteries and praying for the dead with your kids . . . well, you're really missing out. And so are your kids. AND so are the dead. As Christians, we believe that the...
Pumpkin Picking, Pumpkin Carving, and the Anarchy and Socialist Anti-Religion Agenda of Curious George Boo Fest
-- 1. Pumpkin Picking -- We had Frankie's birthday party last weekend and the husband has been out of town this week, so our first chance to get pumpkins was Thursday. I suppose it's just as well, because I've learned the hard way what happens when you carve pumpkins...
2024 Costume Contest: Winners and Honorable Mentions
Can we just say that y'all pulled out all of the stops for this year's contest!? It was so fun to get to see which saints your families chose to dress up as, and so difficult to narrow it down to just three winners! But alas it had to be done, so without further ado...
Merry Christmas from the Tierneys
Dear Family and Friends, Here we go on Christmas letters again. Let’s see if we’ve still got it! We were all working on getting our bearings again in 2023, and settling back into the comfortable normalcy of being just bonkers busy all the time. Lulu, Midge, and...
2023 Home
TeachingFamilies to liveCatholic All YearHi and welcome!My name is—KENDRAFor twenty years now, I’ve been using food, prayer, and conversation based around the liturgical calendar to share the lives of the saints and the beautiful truths and traditions of our Catholic...