It was three months after my fourth baby was born and I had been feeling like I was going to have a panic attack all morning. On the verge of tears, lump in my throat, brain whirring through all the things that needed to get done. On repeat: “You’ll never get it all done. You’re terrible at everything. You’re failing at everything in your life. Mothering? Homeschooling? Writing? Housekeeping? … [Read more...]
My Body, My Children’s First Home
As my fourth baby has learned to crawl over the past few weeks, I watch her launch out across the living room to grab toys and explore. After scurrying several feet away, she will turn her head back to where I sit cross-legged on the floor and return to me, climbing into my lap to rest her head on my chest or pat my cheek with her chubby palm before going on her next tiny adventure across the … [Read more...]
27 Books for Your Mass Bag (And Tips for Dealing with Little Ones in Mass)
After I posted about how my kids didn't ruin Mass despite their best efforts, I often get emails wondering how we deal with having small children in Mass and what we do to get them to behave. Don't get me wrong. I'm not an expert and oftentimes our two youngest still give us a run for our money on Sunday mornings, but we have learned A LOT over the past five and a half years of parenting in the … [Read more...]
“I’m Not Prejudiced, I Just Don’t Like 25% of Humanity”
What if I told you there was an article going around Facebook called 26 Reasons Women Shouldn't Be Scientists, with photographs of women doing dumb things? And that the comments were full of men gleefully agreeing that women were idiots and they sure counted themselves lucky that they were able to work in a woman-free industry. What if I told you that some men are calling for a return of Male Only … [Read more...]
The One Thing I Regret About My Wedding
I was 20 when we were married. Generally speaking, I didn’t know much of anything. I knew I wanted to marry Daniel in a church. I didn’t even care so much which church (it was a few years before we became Catholic). I didn’t care what our wedding colors were. It didn’t make much of a difference to me what song played when I walked down the aisle. It was before Pinterest. I just wanted a white … [Read more...]
The Secret to Not Fighting With Your Kids About Their Messy Room
Want to know the secret? Get rid of all the toys. Ok, ok, not ALL of the toys. Just a few garbage bags worth. Seriously. After weeks of begging, threatening, and fighting over the kids' messy room, we finally wised up and realized that they weren't trying to be uncooperative little stinkers, the task was overwhelming. When our five-year-old sat down in the middle of his room and cried that … [Read more...]
Why New Orleans Has My Heart and How to Visit with Young Kids and Have a Blast
We have some history in New Orleans. Daniel grew up there and I think that's where he picked up his appreciation for good food--something I'm really glad he brought into our family culture. NOLA's also about halfway between Waco, TX (where I went to college) and our hometown, Tallahassee, FL. Daniel and I met in New Orleans one weekend when I was a freshman and we were "just friends" before … [Read more...]
Preparing for a Child’s First Confession (And Giveaway)
I don't know the first thing about how to prepare a child for the Sacrament of Reconciliation which is why I'm glad there's people like Kendra who are a few years ahead of me in the journey of motherhood and know what they're doing. And, because she's helpful like that, Kendra wrote a book about it! AND IT'S AWESOME. And she sent me one to give away! Hurrah! The crowd goes wild! My oldest child … [Read more...]
How We Do Simple Birthdays (and a Beatrix Potter theme)
(Flowers from our garden and simple homemade raspberry cupcakes for Lucy's first birthday party.) We do simple family birthday parties at our house. Not that we don't make a fuss over our kids! We make a fuss. It's just not an expensive, stressful fuss. It's more of a homemade laid-back fuss. We really can't afford large, extravagant parties and the details of event-planning are not (really … [Read more...]
27 Picture Books for Advent and Christmas
This post contains Amazon affiliate links. I may be compensated for purchases made through these links, but all opinions are my own. It's been a couple of years since I wrote about picture books for Advent and Christmas and we have acquired so many more good ones to share with you! This year I'm going to wrap each book with wrapping paper so that the kids can unwrap one each morning of Advent. … [Read more...]
