Please pray for the son of a friend of our family. We first met Shep’s mom when our eldest daughter started cheerleading for the local homeschool squad. Juliet was a Senior when our girl was a Freshman, but we fell in love with her open heart and upbeat attitude. Her life took an unexpected turn when she became a teenage single mom to a premature baby she named Jon Shepherd, but nicknamed Shep. ... Read more
I spent all day Saturday at a CrossFit competition, not as a competitor or a judge, as a super-fan. It was an amazing chance to see most of my favorite athletes competing in the same space. They aren’t the bit names that most CrossFitters know – Andrea Ager, Christmas Abbott, Rich Froning – they are the most amazing athletes I’ve even known. People like These are some of the top Adaptive CrossFitters in the country, and they all spent their... Read more
**I say the F word a few times in this post, and thought it a lot more than that while I was writing it. If you’re turned off by language like that, I’ll see you another day.** It was a long night of shaking hands and hyperventilating. My husband offered to bring me my asthma inhaler, but inhalers don’t fix panic attacks. When my husband’s alarm went off at 6am, and I pulled the covers over my head and curled up into... Read more
I’ve invited several readers to guest post why they choose to remain in the Catholic Church. This is a submission from a lovely lady I’ve known since she was a girl. She is a young woman, a college student, with a beautiful and vibrant faith. I’m thrilled to be able to bring you this piece by Molly Cromer. ~ Rebecca Frech When I was 6 months old, I became Catholic. While many Catholics have been so since the cradle, it is... Read more
I’ve been hesitant to write about the chaos in McKinney and the furor surrounding what happened at the pool party that wasn’t really a pool party. The reaction from social media and people in real life against anyone offering points of view not strictly toe-ing the “it was all racially motivated” party line. The McKinney neighborhood where this all took place is just a few towns over from ours, and its pool is one I’ve taken my children to for... Read more
This morning as I lay in bed watching my husband sleep, I thought back over the past 19 years of marriage and knew that If I could do it all over again, I’d do it differently. I wouldn’t have married him 19 years ago today at all. I wouldn’t have walked down the aisle on a rainy, gray June day and joined my life to his. I wouldn’t have faced down the family and friends who told us we were... Read more
I talked to my mom earlier today, right as I was leaving the gym. I was on a high after doing a workout that included 40 pull-ups. It’s the first time I’ve been able to do that many since dislocating my shoulder earlier this year in a freak putting-a-wheelchair-into-the-car episode. So when she asked what I was up to, I said “I just did 40 pull-ups!” I wanted for her to day something about how awesome that was, or how... Read more
Last week, my 8-year-old graduated to Purple Belt in karate. Of course, I took way too many pictures of him and his older brother doing their thing at the graduation. As I was editing the pictures he asked me, “Are you going to post those pictures on your blog?” “I can if you want me to.” “I do want you to. Lots of pictures.” “Okay. What should it say.” “Not too many words because it should be mostly pictures, but... Read more
Ever since that darn Pew Study came out, my social media feeds have carried the dire prediction that the Catholic Church is on the wane. People are leaving in droves, they say. And I just smile. Do the people who write these things think that they are the first to predict the demise of the Holy Catholic Church? Do they think that this is the first time in her 2,000 year history that she has been called old-fashioned, irrelevant, and... Read more
Last week, we introduced a new dog into our family only to have a giant fight break out and have him leave just as quickly. There were a lot of readers who took a personal interest in what had gone on, and even though I’d sworn off writing about our dogs again – I have new information. I heard from Gus’s new family yesterday. (If you’ll remember, he was a rescue dog.) They finally got him to their vet who... Read more
Shoved to Them
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