It's Michaelmas, friends! Which means it's technically the 5th blogiversary (I know....ridiculous word) of Carrots. And I have a big favor to ask. Would you, pretty please, fill out this quick survey to help me learn more about what my readers love (and don't love!)? I will be eternally grateful. You may have to click over to the actual site if you're using a reader like feedly or bloglovin'. I … [Read more...]
The Freedom of Giving Up
We have a very mixed up idea of what freedom is. We think that freedom is choice, and more specifically in our consumerist society, we think true freedom is having a multitude of choices. We expect the t-shirt we want to be available in every color under the sun. We expect hundreds of flavors of coffee to be waiting for us at the grocery store. But on a deeper level, we think moral freedom is … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living At a Glance: April
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope … [Read more...]
Making a Simple St. Joseph’s Day Altar (Liturgical Living Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect)
Yesterday, March 19th, was St. Joseph's feast day. And every year, we forget to celebrate. Maybe it's because it's Lent? Maybe it's because St. Patrick's Day comes just two days before. Even though it's not as important a feast as St. Joseph's Day, it seems to overshadow it because St. Patrick's Day is a big deal culturally for Americans (because so many of us are descended from Irish immigrants) … [Read more...]
Bury the Alleluia and Other Last Minute Lent Resources
It's here. Lent. Ash Wednesday. After a rip-roaring Mardi Gras, Baby Gwen made it her special task to mortify my flesh by getting up at 4:45am...Pretty typical wake time. But it hurt a little more after eating too many cookies and staying up too late. So here I am gulping coffee while she chomps on banana and we wait in the dark for the rest of the family to wake up so we can go to Mass. Lent … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living at a Glance: March
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living At a Glance: February
February can be such a bleak month weather-wise (it might SNOW today in FLORIDA! We're anxiously watching the skies!) so, we thought it would be fun to put the ebook version of Feast! on super sale to spice things up! I'm always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we … [Read more...]
Liturgical Living: Candlemas (Feb. 2)
Most of the content for this post about celebrating Candlemas is drawn from our book, Feast! Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year. Candlemas is coming up this Sunday and I wanted to share some information and resources for celebrating! About the Feast Candlemas on February 2nd celebrates the Presentation of Christ: the event described in the Gospel of Luke when the … [Read more...]
Amazon Sells Our Book for 30% Off and Why That Is
I'm just dropping in to let you wonderful readers know that you can get our print book for cheap on Amazon and why that is. Here's the deal (and it's kind boring so feel free to scroll down to the bottom line at the end), we set up our print version with a company called CreateSpace that is a part of Amazon. When Daniel and I set the price, we priced it so that we would receive the same amount … [Read more...]
New Shoes and St. Nicholas Day
Each year we get the kids a new pair of shoes for St. Nicholas Day (the ones above are for the girls, my favorite shoes for babies and toddlers!) and then we fill them with treats. It's our big gift-exchange day instead of Christmas (although we do Christmas morning fun with Daniel's family). We start out the day with Mass, then the kids get to open their gifts and try on their new shoes while we … [Read more...]