Welcome to our first Little HolyDays link up and Happy New Year! No, I haven’t gotten the months confused, it’s the beginning of a new liturgical year. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Let’s hope you were more organized than I and didn’t spend part of your Sunday scrambling around looking for your Advent wreath (don’t worry! I found it!). Anyhow, for our very first Little HolyDays … [Read more...]
The Feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30th
Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Andrew. Daniel whipped up this fabulous meal of Tahini Tilapia for our celebration of St. Andrew (a fisherman) a couple of years ago and it's still a staple at our house. And since November 30th is on a Friday this year, how handy that it's fish for us Catholics, right? The following is drawn from a post on Feast!, our woefully neglected Christian Year blog, that … [Read more...]
The Adventure of Motherhood
You can find me today over at Mama and Baby Love talking about The Adventure of Motherhood: We recently got the wonderful news that we’re expecting Baby #3. (Yay!) I thought by the third time around, discovering we were pregnant would feel old hat. It didn’t. I was just as shocked and in awe at this news as the first time we found out we were expecting. Truly. I literally screamed “I’M … [Read more...]
Gluten-Free Real Baked Potato Soup with Sausage and Swiss Chard
If you've been here awhile, you know that I don't post recipes very often. It's mostly because my husband is the real culinary genius in our home and he never cooks with recipes because he's brilliant and creative and handsome and wonderful. I am not skilled like him but I am slowly learning that I don't have to follow every recipe exactly and since our 3-year-old is severely allergic to gluten, … [Read more...]
The Cost of Parenthood: The Best Isn’t Something Money Can Buy
A friend sent me the link to the recent NYTimes article “Opting Out of Parenthood, with Finances in Mind” by Nadia Taha, probably because she knew it would get me all riled up. She was right. Here’s Taha’s premise: Children cost an unfathomable amount of money (her absurd estimate is close to 2 million per kid). If you want financial security and a comfortable retirement, your best option is to … [Read more...]
The Best Baby Wrap?
With Baby 3 on his/her way and my first niece due in the next month, I've been thinking a lot about my favorite baby items. One of my must-haves is a baby sling/carrier. I love baby wearing. It makes like so much easier to have your hands free and be "holding" your baby. Not to mention the perks of not galavanting everywhere with a giant, awkward stroller in tow (I didn't even bother buying a … [Read more...]
Holy Time: Observing Advent Instead of Fighting Santa
Every year I hear folks bemoaning the secularization of Christmas and how commercialism has overtaken what used to be a Christian holiday. I read news stories about which retail stores are promoting “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and which groups and organizations are boycotting those stores for choosing to greet their customers in one way or another. People label it the “war on … [Read more...]
3 Slow Cooker Recipes and a Cookbook Review
As you may know, I’m just now coming out of several weeks of horrible pregnancy nausea/vomiting. Food has been my arch-nemesis. I felt sick if I didn’t eat. I felt sick if I did eat. The thought of food was just unbearable. Now that my cookbooks aren’t vomit triggers and I can enjoy them again, I took an afternoon getting to know the beautiful new edition of my friend Stephanie Cornais’s From … [Read more...]
When Motherhood Is Hard
Becoming a mother is truly one of the very best things that has ever happened to me. I get so much joy and satisfaction from raising my babies. But I don't want to give the impression that it's always sunshine and rainbows over here. And if I'm honest, I'll confess that I've just come out the other side of a time when motherhood was a little dark and very difficult. A time when I'm faced with the … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday, Bright Star!
Sweet Lucy's first birthday was almost three weeks ago, but in typical "I'm pregnant and behind on everything" fashion, I'm way overdue for a Happy Birthday reflection: Dear Lucy, The afternoon before your first birthday my morning sickness suddenly improved a little bit. After weeks of barely functioning, I wasn't sure how long this no-vomiting spell would last so we called your … [Read more...]
