Resolved: Pregnancy is God’s gift to us to enshrine the virtues of modesty and humility in our lives. I fought it. Man did I fight going to the basement to retrieve that box marked “maternity clothes.” I reveled in the memories of myself as the 7 month-pregnant 21 year old Army officer whom people didn’t even know was pregnant. I clung fast to made up deadlines in my mind — no, I will not don maternity clothes until after my... Read more

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At a home school meeting last night, someone suggested a beautiful idea for praying the rosary with little ones that I had never heard before. She gives her children two baskets, one with one white and 10 red beautifully crocheted flowers. After the Our Father and each Hail Mary the child transfers a flower to the other basket. It is a simple and quite Montessorian idea. A very tactile way for a young child to participate in the rosary. And... Read more

My kids are just reaching the ages where they’re invited to birthday parties regularly, and I have been spending a depressing amount of time in toy stores lately trying to find birthday gifts for the kids’ friends (approximately ages 3-6) that are exciting, not cheapo plastic garbage, and a good value. How do you handle this? It’s so time-inefficient to shop for them one at a time. What I’m saying is please tell me your affordable, slam-dunk kid gift of... Read more

Hat tip to Elizabeth who pointed me to this post on homemaking. Keeping house has been a struggle lately, so much so that Red had to talk me down from deciding that I should send all the kids to school so that I would have more time to pick up and do laundry during the day! There may come a time when it makes sense for one or more of my children to go to school outside the home, but... Read more

As I tucked Peter in to bed tonight I was so proud of my grown up boy who has made his First Communion today. Today I was truly aware of how blessed we are that the good Lord chooses to come to us in the Sacraments. We had done so much to prepare for this day, and then early this week the computer melted down and we had to stop work on his First Communion Notebook, where he was narrating... Read more

I wanted to share this foolproof butterfly cake template. Our baby Angelina turned one yesterday. We’ve called her butterfly from day one, so that was our party theme. I figured we were looking at a cheesy sheet cake with my poor attempt at a butterfly icing drawing, until I found this. It’s a single round cake, cut in half, then you cut out two triangles and flip one side around. Then frost and decorate. VERY fun for the kids to... Read more

Check out this excellent piece from First Things, entitled Demographics and Depression by David P. Goldman. Way to go, child-laden young families… it seems the economy depends on us. Our present financial crisis is a result of too many small families with few children and too many single-parent families. Our Creator’s plan for human life and love turns out to be the only way to sustain a society economically. Imagine that. Here are some excerpts, but do take the time... Read more

In the past month, the following have been lost or broken: my computermy ipodmy radiomy alarm clockmy cell phonemy dvd playermy camera’s memory card I am taking this as a bit of a sign that I need to disconnect! I hope to make it through the summer as an analog homeschool mom, and spend some time thinking and praying about what role, if any, all of this technology should play in my life, and the life of my children. I... Read more