It’s so easy to fall into excusing our own vices by comparison with the sins of others, while holding other’s vices up against the standard of our own virtues. It is much harder to forgive other’s vices out of the knowledge of our own sinfulness, while allowing ourselves to be inspired to battle our own vices by the witness of virtue in others. Somehow, I don’t think God judges on a curve. Read more

I got a copy of Wil Wheaton’s Just a Geek as part of an e-book ‘Humble Bundle‘ about a week ago, and this morning I picked up my Kindle to browse it and wound up reading the whole thing over the course of the day. It’s a fairly lightweight read, really, but impressively, almost off-puttingly sincere…which I should have expected from my reading of Wil Wheaton’s blog. Anyway, as I finished the last Appendix (yep, gotta read every last word... Read more

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A group I am on recently got to discussing different NFP methods, after a newcomer expressed some confusion over how to choose between all of the different methods of fertility awareness. Someone else posted this helpful and short quiz, but I came up with a few, slightly sillier, questions of my own: Match Your Method to Your Personality 1) Does the idea of touching mucus squick you out?2) Are you not only NOT squicked out, but actually really comfortable with your... Read more

I saw this article posted on Facebook today, and although I recognized the title as one I had read before, I stopped to re-read it again and see if it provoked any new reactions or thoughts. This is an expanded version of what I posted in response:  I’ve read this article before, and it is persuasive…but somehow it falls short a little bit for me. Maybe because my daughter IS so darn beautiful and pretty and I tell her that... Read more

I wanted to freshen up my Mom’s statue of Mary during the month of May, but didn’t quite manage it. Instead, this was my project the first couple of days of June. Aetheline helping clean Mary up – removing paint flakes and dirt with  a toothbrush. Of course, she had to brush her teeth. 🙂 Pascal preferred blasting the dirt off with the hose. All cleaned up, ready for primer and new paint!  I did the rest of the painting... Read more

Lovely Little ‘Lina Rose has a smudge upon her nose; has a bruise upon her knee; and ’round her finger, she has me. Darling dainty Aetheline is a tyrant; is a Queen; is a fairy creature wild — is my sweet and silly child.  Read more

Hallie is hosting a raffle for Father’s Day. In return, she’s asking for some promotion for her husband’s book. I’ve read bits of the preview, and it looks…well, worth entering a raffle for! http://moxiewife.com/2013/05/a-choosing-joy-giveaway-for-fathers-day/.html Read more

Because there’s nothing like imitation for breaking blog silence. 🙂 Honestly, I’m in the mood to write about books because I received a Kindle for mother’s day and have been gorging myself on book geekery at Goodreads, Amazon,  and Gutenberg the last few days. So when I saw this meme posted at DarwinCatholic…well, first it made me all nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ pre-Facebook when bloggers, like, read each other’s blogs, and browsed blogrolls that were laboriously coded by hand and cross-linked... Read more

I’ve been disturbed before by the startingly ahistorical assumptions modern westerners make about their ancestors—the presumption that the people who came before us must have, in many ways, thought and felt like us. (And yes, those conversations always sooner or later return to attitudes about sex). The form this usually takes is a kind of scepticism – any culture or age that claimed a virtue or ability that we lack is often assumed to be duplicitous or hypocritical. Our historical... Read more