How's your Lent going? The first weekend of Lent, I went on retreat, thanks to Daniel who watched the kids so I could attend (I came home every so often to nurse Baby Gwen). It was so wonderful and I discovered my patron saint (or, rather, she found me.) Today I'm over at Catholic Exchange sharing all about that experience. It's a much more personal post than I usually write for CE. So, if you … [Read more...]

My "I haven't had any sugar in three days" withdrawal headache is telling me that Lent is really here! This has been QUITE a week. Not because earth-shattering things have happened at our house (although I DID deep clean our entire  kitchen which isn't exactly a frequent occurrence) and not because Baby Gwen is blessing us with waking at 4:45am perky and ready for the day: Lookin' good. For … [Read more...]

All of the sudden, our Gwen Stellamaris is displaying so much personality. It's so strange when the baby who wakes up in the morning seems like a completely different baby from the one I knew last week. She's changing so quickly that I don't feel like I can keep up. And she's just.....gah! The most adorable thing ever! See what I mean? Can you even?! She's still waking up at the crack of dawn, … [Read more...]

Happy warmer weather! We're in those glorious windows-open-but-the-mosquitos-aren't-out-yet days (there are about 12 of those days in Florida, so you have to really savor them before the bugs become horrible.) We've been crawling our way out of survival mode from a crazy January and getting out and enjoying life again. (Enjoying life being taking long drives to an old timey country store on … [Read more...]

Happy St. Valentine's Day! Daniel and I will be chatting about faith, food, and our book this afternoon on the radio for the Around the Table Radio Show tomorrow at 3pm (central time). You will probably be able to tell that it's our first time on the radio, but we did have fun talking about food. You can listen in (690 AM in NOLA and 1380AM in Baton Rouge) or listen online when it airs it you're … [Read more...]

So you heard the big news. Who's gonna eat tacos with me?! And did anybody tune into the Jane Austen live discussion on Wednesday night? How rambly was I? How adorable and well-spoken were Anne, Melissa, and Nicole?! It was so fun to chat with them. In the Liturgical Year: So, I finally got my act together this year and made beeswax candles with the kids for Candlemas. Let's all hope our … [Read more...]

It's been awhile! Almost a month since I posted a TWM. It's been a pretty horrible month, to be honest.  And not just because of this: It was enough to make you want to snarf down too much coffee while viewing life with your crazy eyes that scream "survival mode!"   See what I mean? But it's almost February, so let's move on and focus on the good stuff... The Quotable … [Read more...]

Coming Up in the Liturgical Year: Well, the twelve days of Christmas are almost over. We are finally almost all over whatever it was we had (Gwen and Lucy are still a bit snuffly, but otherwise cheerful). I was pretty disappointed to have to scrap almost all our Christmas fun plans. But I did finally get around to trying to make a Buche de Noel this year! Gluten-Free Buche de Noel (Yule Log) … [Read more...]

We got our Christmas Tree! Although I love the symbolism of waiting until Christmas Eve to set up the tree...I just can't wait that long. So we always go with Daniel's family to cut down a tree in mid-December and then we string the lights up but wait to add ornaments until Christmas Eve. Benjamin loves it and Lucy was old enough this year to really be excited, too. And yes, we're all in short … [Read more...]

Whew! It's been a busy week over at Carrots. I can't remember the last time I posted NINE days in a row! The book had been taking up so much of my mental space and it's thrilling to start catching up on all the post ideas I've had brewing in my head during those weeks when we had to get the book finished. Speaking of the book... Eek! Last night (it's Thursday as I type this) we were surprised … [Read more...]