Today I am over at Ignitum Today reviewing Colleen Carroll Campbell’s most recent book, My Sisters the Saints. I had the privilege of interviewing Ms. Campbell via email, so the article is part book review, part interview. One of the themes woven through the book is the power of our suffering, and Ms. Campbell’s own struggle with years of infertility. “I found My Sisters The Saints, Colleen Carroll Campbell’s new book, in my stocking on the morning of St.... Read more
No books this week. I mean, I love books. I have them. Lots of them. Just none today. 7. Very exciting friends! Tomorrow I’m travelling to Peoria IL with the wonderful Leanne for a blogger meet-up, Mass, dinner, and a talk with the lovely Lisa Schmidt and Sr. Helena Burns. I get to hang out with Marie and finally meet Dianna and Bonnie So excited! 6. I ended up with a free afternoon today, so I treated myself to mani/pedi.... Read more
There I was, in the cold exam room. My toddler in her stroller in the corner, watching tv on my phone. The tech began the ultrasound exam, only this wasn’t an exciting adventure of an ultrasound, checking to see a tiny human growing safely in my womb. No, there weren’t any heartbeats to hear today. “Now, here’s your uterus”, she said, moving the wand over my empty womb. “Now, your ovaries”, as she moved to first one, then the other,... Read more
just to be nominated. The wonderful Bonnie of A Knotted Life is hosting the first-ever “Sheenazing” Blogger Awards and yours truly was nominated for “Most Inspiring Blog”. I am way more excited about this than I should be. There’s absolutely no way I am going to win (come on, my competetion is Jen Fulwiler! among many other great blogs), but it really does feel good to be nominated. Just to know that people think this little blog is inspirational. That... Read more
It’s taken me a while (almost 2 years) to finally feel ready to really talk about my breastfeeding experience on the blog. I wrote a bit about it here when I was in the trenches. Recently I’ve read a few people’s reflections on the tremendous amount of pressure that is put on mothers to have all natural births, breastfeed exclusively for a year or more, co-sleep, use cloth diapers, never put the baby down, make all the baby food from... Read more
So, there’s like a group in Washington today or something. I mean, that’s what I heard. They like have a march to protest the 50 million deaths from abortion since 1973, or something like that. I heard there’s even several hundred thousand people there. I even went twice, and it certainly seemed like that many people to me. What’s really amazing is how none of the major news networks seem to know anything about it. All those hundreds of thousands... Read more
40 years is a long time. It’s longer than my life span. It’s longer than my mother’s, too. It’s ten times as long as I have been married. 40 is a lot of years. I’ve been trying to think of something eloquent to say today, on this 40th year since the day when the constitution ceased to ring true in saying, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had an abortion, though... Read more
After my post on resources for sharing the faith with children, I had a few people comment that they love to steal my book suggestions, and did I have any more. So, in no particular order, are 7 books for Catholic moms which I have either read, or own and are planning to read. 7. The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould I’ve mentioned this one before. It’s one of the first Catholic homemaking books that I bought, before we had... Read more
Atticus bought me a poem book for our anniversary a few weeks ago. While flipping through it last evening, I found the most beautiful poem. It took me back to that cold, Chicago February day when Atticus and I met. There was a moment while sitting over coffee and greek omlettes, when something just clicked and I knew, “This one is different.” Time fell away and that connection was the truest thing in the room. I love that feeling. I... Read more
When our daughter was baptized in March 2010, her godparents presented us with a gift in addition to hers. It was the book Parenting With Grace: The Catholic Parents Guide to Raising Almost Perfect Kids by Greg and Lisa Popcak. Written from a wholistic perspective integrating their Catholic faith and experience as therapists, this book has wonderful sections on cultivating attachment and the idea of self-donative love at each stage of a child’s life. Even though she was an infant,... Read more
Fumbling Toward Grace
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In