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Choosing Your Battles Wisely
Being a parent can be exhausting sometimes. The physical demands of life with littles, combined with the emotional demands of responding to the deeper needs of your children has its challenges — which is why we need to choose our battles wisely. Believe me, if you’re a parent who cares about your children, there will be battles. Kids are naturally going to try to push the limits, at least a little bit, and these are great opportunities to clarify what you value as a family. These moments can help our kids to develop their own moral character. They also force us to examine why we believe what we believe and to own…
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Staying Consistent in a World of Sound Bites
We live in a world of soundbites and scrolling slogans. More than ever before, we need to be a people who think deeply and remain consistent in our approach to the challenges our culture is facing. If we don’t take the time to really examine our own ethics, to develop our morality in a way that is consistent, we’re not going to have the answers we need when the challenges get complicated. Recent events at our nation’s border have really left a lot of people upset by what they are seeing, and for good reason. I don’t know enough about what is happening at the border to offer the solution…
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What’s So Bad About Catholic Guilt? A.K.A. God Doesn’t Want Us to Stay in our Shame
Apparently, Catholic Guilt is a thing — at least, it’s a thing in a lot of circles and as often as I’ve heard it referred to, it always seem to be in a negative light. Perhaps it’s because people tend to confuse guilt with shame, and hence the bad wrap for Catholic guilt — but I’m here to say Catholic guilt can be a good thing — and before you write this post off as cray-cray, please hear me out. In my opinion, guilt is to the soul what pain is to the nervous system — it’s lets us know that somethings is not quite right and we need to change it.…
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How to Deal With Turkeys
I love getting outdoors — with all the fresh air, lovely scents and amazing beauty — honestly, there are few things as restorative as time outdoors surrounded by the beauty one encounters in nature. But anybody who has spent any time outdoors, also has to acknowledge that the rewards of getting outdoors, has mixed in with it the hazards of stinging insects, biting animals, sunburn, dehydration — I could go on, but I won’t. The point is, it’s not always going to be a pleasant experience and I’ve learned to accept that these nuisances serve as great reminders that we’re not in Paradise, yet. I guess you could say I…
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Why It’s Important to Just Be
Two years ago I wrote about a hilarious mishap that happened to our family while taking a hike before sunrise. Sure, the backdrop was Florence, which is pretty extraordinary, but the point of the post was that quality time can happen anywhere — absolutely anywhere — and you don’t need to go off to far off places to make those moments happen. In fact, I think that it’s imperative that you go out of your way to find little family adventures in your own neck of the woods. And these moments don’t require exotic, “insta-worthy” locations or piles of money to make it happen. Any backyard barbecue or fire pit can…
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The Day Mary Inspired Me with the Perfect Prayer
How’s your May going? Ours has been full of birthdays and family visits and lovely weather and it’s been quite enjoyable. Sometimes I find myself just surviving May — like I almost die in the middle of it — but this May has been a little less hectic. I think it has something to do with having another driver in the home. So yay for teen drivers! This post is scheduled to publish on my oldest son’s birthday. I have to say, he is turning out to be a wonderful young man, and I can’t help but think that it has something to do with the way he entered into this world. Bear…
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It All Comes Back to a Theology of the Body
Once upon a time, I traveled around the country giving chastity talks. For some reason, as I sat down to write a conclusion to the two previous posts on NFP, one of the more unique chastity talks I ever gave came to mind. Let me set the stage for you. We were invited to give a talk at a Catholic college in Louisiana. It was a mandatory talk for all the fraternities and sororities on campus. That in itself made for an interesting setting. We were pleasantly surprised by the incredibly enthusiastic frat boys, who came running up to fill the front rows of the room. They were just so…
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The Elephant in the Room…An Honest look at NFP (Part 2)
This post won’t fully make sense without reading part 1. So click here for Part 1, and then come back here. I realize that a post like this might make somebody feel guilty about their choices in life. That is not the goal of this post — not at all. There is absolutely zero value in beating yourself up over choices you have made in the past! We all need to make peace with our past, go to Confession when necessary, and move on. That being said, we have to address the elephant standing in the room right now. It’s a big elephant, worth billions of dollars, around the world…
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Why, Yes, We Do Know What Causes That. An Honest Look at NFP (Part 1)
I’ll never forget the moment that I first was asked that question, “Don’t you know what causes that!?” It was at the Chelsea Flower Show in London — and it stands out in my mind because it was one of those rare trips without our kids in tow. We had even managed to secure tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show on the opening day. Believe me, this was not an easy feat. This was no ordinary flower show. It was extra fancy. I mean, look at the fancy people walking through these gardens. The Queen of England even showed up with different members of the royal family — so believe…
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Laundry/Mudroom Reveal and Finding the Balance
Well, I am officially finished with the Laundry Room/Mudroom and I have to say it is a vast improvement over what we started with! Perhaps even more importantly, we have all managed to keep everything in relatively good order for the last month as well — so wins all around! Here’s a little recap of the whole process. I’ll spare you the “before’s” — you can go back a few posts if you want to see the disaster. Step One: began with a clean slate by clearing everything out and cleaning the floor and walls. To be clear, the last time I mopped this floor was about 12 years ago.…
