I’m sure you all remember wee Henry, the Ukranian special-needs orphan who was adopted by the Dobrovits family in 2011 and who died last year from a massive post-op infection. It has been a painful year for Henry’s family, and especially for his mama, Carla. Yet I have never witnessed someone still be so thoughtful of others and so compassionate and giving, even in the wake of a shattering loss, as Carla has been. She is an amazing woman, and... Read more

Yesterday evening, while I was lying on the floor next to eternally sleep-striking Lincoln, I decided to google myself. Nothing good ever comes of googling yourself. Last night was no exception. I ran across a few posts about how I’m the worst person ever for slamming Michael Voris, and none about how, oh yeah, I pretty much admitted that I was the worst person ever for doing that and then apologized. I came across a few posts about crisis pregnancies.... Read more

Just a heads-up, y’all. Patheos is moving our comments from WordPress to Disqus. This will mean some wonkiness going on with comments in the coming days….don’t be surprised if your comment disappears and then reappears, or if all the comments disappear. I’ve been reassured that they will all reappear eventually. Thanks for your patience! Read more

In what will probably be news to no one, my Lenten lights-out-at-sunset fast was more or less a failure. I say “more or less” because I don’t actually consider it a flat-out failure. The whole point was to try and organize my life so that I would have some time for prayer and silence. When it became clear that turning the lights out at sunset was going to be impossible, I started saying the Daily Office instead. It’s perfect, really.... Read more

Yesterday I was so delighted with Elizabeth Duffy’s 200-word “Why I Am Catholic” offering that I was inspired to write a little post of my own about what all this unruly life that springs out of Catholicism has taught me about, well, life. But then our newest little Catholic life decided that sleeping wasn’t really his style anymore, so instead of marshaling my thoughts to write something coherent I’m joining up with Jen and Hallie and telling you what my... Read more

Because I’m too exhausted from braiding endless koulourakia and folding endless spanakopita to write a real post, I’m just taking the lazy blogger’s route and re-posting my Greek Easter post from last year. It’s still relevant, though, except I’m pretty much done with the prep work instead of just starting. And so it begins. The great, heroic undertaking that is Easter Preparation Week. Growing up, we didn’t have many holiday traditions. The only thing we always did was go to... Read more

Yesterday, I wrote a 200 word post about why I am Catholic. It was a prompt from the Patheos editors, a little push to get a wide sample of raisons d’etre from all the bloggers across the different faith channels. I loved writing it, because I always love looking back at those who have propelled me along my faith journey. But today, I was baking bread and watching my 4 year old play with my 6 month old, and a... Read more

When I was a college senior, pregnant, unwed, barely a month off crystal meth, I joked with the Ogre that I might as well just sew a red A on my chest. I said that while we parked, the first day of that first semester back, and I laughed manically and thought I might hyperventilate. I was terrified. It took all the courage I had, and a hefty dose of stubborn pride besides, to step out of the car and... Read more

Today I ventured into my Paypal account to transfer the donations I received after the election of Pope Francis to St. Matthew’s House. Apparently Paypal has a limit on the amount of money you can withdraw in a single month. I had never realized this before, because my Paypal account has always been mostly a waste of internet space. But today, I realized that it would take two solid months before I could move all the money from my account... Read more