When I was a kid, on Sunday night my mom would lay out all the leftovers from the previous week’s dinners and we’d just pick and choose. I always liked smorgasbords because it meant that I could pull out a tortilla, grate some cheese on it, stick it in the microwave and enjoy a yummy quesadilla. And by that point in the week my mom was too tired of doing dinnertime battles to insist that I eat leftovers, so she... Read more

It’s the first Saturday of the month, and Elizabeth Esther is continuing on with her Saturday Evening Blog Post roundup. Here’s the way it works: Elizabeth has a linky widget on her website for bloggers to link to their favorite post from the past month. Normally we choose just one post from the last month, but since she skipped December, this time we get to choose our favorite post from December and from January. So pick your favorite posts, link... Read more

After an evening and morning fraught with anxiety about dying under anesthesia and never seeing my beloved or our three wonderful children again in this life, my tooth was pulled and a bone graft done quickly and relatively painlessly. Until the numbing shot wore off, that is. Now it flipping hurts. Nevertheless, I didn’t die and the going to sleep/waking up process was quicker and smoother than any surgery I’ve ever been knocked out for. Yay for a cool, competent... Read more

It was with great sadness that I learned about the resignation of Fr. Thomas Euteneuer this morning, and with even greater sadness that I read his statement. I didn’t allow my eyes to wander down to the comments because I got enough of a taste of the anger at Fr. Euteneuer on Dr. Nadal’s website, where I first learned of this terribly sad situation.  I want to talk about this a little, but first I want to address the spirit... Read more

(Disclaimer: The title of this post is in honor of my father-in-law, who loves to call his daughters-in-law “Eve”) Life as a wife and mother is not easy for me. In fact, it is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I think many wives and mothers out there find, to their surprise, that this road is a harder one than they expected, but that’s not really what I mean. The daily grind of diapers and runny noses and tantrums... Read more

for making Splice. Ugh, shudder, shudder, retch. Grossest movie ever. The most disappointing thing about this totally creep-tacular and cringe-worthy movie is that up until the point where it devolves into bestiality and violence, it actually brings up interesting ethical questions. Ehhh…well, look, it actually brings up interesting ethical questions for Hollywood. The fact that questions of morality are even tangentially mentioned is enough to give it an A for effort in my book. And they could have done something... Read more

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Liam’s surgery went very well, he is home and fairly cranky but otherwise fine. I only cried for fifteen minutes, and managed to pull it together enough to read ten whole pages of the book I brought with me. It was disjointed reading, though, because every time a door opened I looked up frantically. The plight of a mother. #7 The Hospital Isn’t it pretty? And yet, like everything in Vegas, it... Read more

Hey guys. I’m hoping that I can borrow some prayers from you. I promise to give them back the next time you need them. Liam is going to be *gulp* circumcised today. Because he has a bit of an odd condition in his nether regions, it requires a full-out surgery, complete with anesthesia and loads of paperwork. Oh, and fasting. That’s right, my poor child has not eaten in three hours and won’t be eating for another five. Worst. Day.... Read more

It’s true. I’m a total jerk sometimes. And it took my five-year-old to point it out to me. Here’s what happened. No, wait, I can’t just tell you what happened unless I give you a context for it, so perhaps you won’t think I’m quite as bad as I appear. Although I’m still pretty bad. As most of you know by reading my sidebar and catching my frequent references to the godforsaken desert, we live in Las Vegas. Well, we... Read more

Yesterday I took Sienna to an abortion clinic to pray outside. I’ve never done this before. I’ve never participated in a March for Life, or what I grew up with, a Life Chain. I’ve always been pro-life but I’ve never outwardly done anything to further the cause of life. Recently I’ve been terribly convicted about my silence, so yesterday I woke up early, made everyone breakfast and got Sienna and myself ready to go. We went to Starbucks first so... Read more