Christ came to visit me twice last week. The...
Essays
Embracing Dingy Socks and the Wider Lesson They Teach
At the doctor’s office, I was told to undress and get into a gown by the nurse. As I started to untie my...
Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday Are a Perfect Couple
Valentine’s Day is on Ash Wednesday this year. At first thought, they seem like an unlikely...
S(k)in Cancer
I started the new year with a melanoma diagnosis. It was a very small tumor that had not spread. The treatment was to just cut out all the skin around it to make sure there was no remaining melanoma and then spend the rest of my life being vigilant for any...
The Bible is Not Boring – Change My Mind.
The Bible is a ginormous volume made up of 73 different books spanning thousands of years following generations of people. Are there boring parts? Yes. Leviticus is a tad dry and there are other parts that take some determination to get...
Reading the Bible in a Year
For Realsies This Time I thought I’d try Father Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year podcast. This is not the first time I’ve tried the ole “Read the Bible in a Year” resolution. It’s probably the third or fourth try in as many years. I always start off strong...
A Facebook Exit and Reality, a Re-Introduction
My Facebook Exit had been a long time coming. The platform had started to make me uneasy a couple of years ago and not just because of the censoring or the privacy issues or the propagandizing or the politics or the ads popping up every time I had a conversation...
My Journey Not to Get a New Puppy
The journey began when our local animal shelter posted a dog for adoption. She was a Great Pyrenees mixed with Anatolian shepherd. She was fully grown and ready to be dropped into the life of a loving family. I’d looked into getting a Great Pyrenees...
What if the urge to go out drinking is actually a misinterpreted yearning for children?
Now hear me out. Whenever a new psychological theory is introduced, it always initially sounds preposterous. Children and drunk people seemingly appear to belong to two entirely different categories of people with which to hang out. But after...
Rebuilding the Temple to Make it More Ascetically Pleasing
“I want to start working out,” I told my husband. “I’ve been reading up on asceticism and the desert monks. I definitely think a little discipline and corporal discomfort could be just the boost I need in my spiritual life.” “But your life is fraught with daily...
Implementing a Daily Schedule for Peace in Your Homeschool Day
I often found myself lying in bed at night in my messy house, with the kids’ school half done, meals that were late (and a few only qualified as meals in the most technical sense of the word) and wondering “where did that whole day go?” Saint Paul said that Our Lord...
Take Them a Meal, They Said. It Will Be Fun, They Said.
On occasion I’d see sign-ups to take new moms a meal in my mom’s group but I never participated for two reasons: I had a very hairy dog and was paranoid some dog hair might make its way into the food, a social faux pas few can come back from. I’m not a great cook and...