Feelings, and feelings, and feelings. Let me try thinking instead. – C.S. Lewis Clinical depression is a beast. It’s like waking up with the flu and then someone makes you run a marathon with a pile of rocks strapped to your back. It’s physically and mentally exhausting. There are a number of reasons why depression… [Read More]
About Britt Echtenkamp
Feel Like You Failed Lent? I do!
I had the best of intentions. I really did. Despite the stress from recent major life changes (getting married, moving three times, having a baby, leaving a job, starting a business and buying a house, all within 18 months), I set myself up for a Lent of awesome fasting, prayer, and spiritual reconnection with my… [Read More]
Need Some Humility in Your Life? Become a Parent!
We had it all planned out: My husband and I would leave our little girl with my mother on Friday night. We’d drive to Houston and stay in a nice hotel for TWO. WHOLE. NIGHTS. Two whole nights of sleeping straight on through until we felt like waking up, be it 8 AM or noon…. [Read More]
How to Stay Motivated During Lent
If you’re anything like me, you get to Day 6 of Lent and you start amending your sacrifices, making them easier and less painful. You may even have a conversation with yourself that looks like this: Scene: I’m quietly engaged in a task. My brain is wandering in thought. Suddenly, Brain taps me on the… [Read More]
What You Should Give Up for Lent, Based on Your Personality Type
Lent is just 9 days away (eeep!), and while you may not have discerned what to add and/or delete from your life for those 40-ish days, it’s most certainly on your mind. And if it wasn’t on your mind, it is now after reading that sentence! You’re welcome. As a just-for-fun, not-to-be-taken-too-seriously way to prepare… [Read More]
Reflections of a Catholic Mom on her Daughter’s 1st Birthday
1 year ago, I was laying in a hospital room wondering what just happened. My daughter had been born just hours before, but wasn’t with me. Being 5 weeks early, she was whisked away to NICU to be hooked up to monitors, a heating pad, and oxygen. I, on the other hand, was whisked out… [Read More]
When Christmas Brings Out Your Inner Grinch
I went to a major retailer to pick up a couple last minute gifts, when I noticed that a big sign on their front door. It read, “OPEN 24 HOURS UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE!” Ugh. I hated that sign – to me it represents everything that’s wrong about commercialized holidays. Yes, gift giving can be a… [Read More]
What’s Your Myers-Briggs Thanksgiving Style?
Oh, Thanksgiving, you marvelous holiday full of gratitude and food and love, you’ve come a long way from your origins in 1621. You used to be based on the idea of celebrating a bountiful harvest with a feast among friends and neighbors. In Christian tradition, this included praising God for His countless blessings and goodness, as well… [Read More]
When Your Significant Other is Addicted to Porn: A Practical Guide
If you don’t know someone who is or has struggled with viewing pornography, then you are in the minority. Unfortunately – due to crazy-easy access, increased social acceptance, and the high chance of getting hooked – pornography habits or full-blown addiction, is something more and more Americans (Catholic and otherwise) are experiencing. For recent stats,… [Read More]
Coping with Grief on All Souls Day
One week from today, on November 2, 2015, we, the Church, will celebrate All Souls Day. All Souls Day is a time to remember those who have gone before us, a time to pray for them, and to ask them to pray for us. In doing so, we recognize that we are still connected, that… [Read More]
Get to Work: Reflections on Turning 30
Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. – Luke 3:23 I spent the eve of my 30th birthday sitting in the car eating Oreos, and wearing old workout clothes, pigtails and Converse. Had I not included “30th birthday” in that sentence, I could have been describing a 7 year old. I… [Read More]
Mind Blown: Top Quotes from Pope Francis’ Visit to America
Unless you’re living under a rock that doesn’t get Wifi, you’ve heard about Pope Francis’ visit to the United States of America. His visit was historic. It was inspiring. It was filled with surprises and joy and humility. Everything he said could be turned into a semester-long study on theology or ecology or human rights. If… [Read More]
When Everything Falls Apart: A Reflection on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Sometimes things just fall apart. No matter how much you prepare yourself, how much planning you do, how much you know or how much you try, everything just falls to pieces before you. Then you are left standing in the rubble, mouth agape, and brain spinning with so many thoughts that none of them come… [Read More]
Need a Break? Top 3 Sites for Relaxation
Are you overwhelmed by work? Exhausted from life’s demands? Maybe you feel frenzied by your list of to-do’s, or super-anxious about an upcoming event. Maybe you’ve just watched/read the news and now you’re in a funk. Sometimes (a lot of times) you need a break. I’d venture to guess that you need more breaks than… [Read More]
Why Kids Are Pro-Life
Yesterday afternoon, while walking through HEB with my family, a hurried mom with her two little girls rushed by us in the coffee aisle. The mom didn’t look at us or say anything as she moved past us, but one of her little girls (probably 4 or 5), stopped and said, “I like your baby!”… [Read More]
7 Signs It Could Be Depression
Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken. – C.S. Lewis We’ve all felt “down” before. Perhaps we’ve… [Read More]
God always wins.
“If you are what you should be, you would set the whole world on fire.” – St. Catherine of Siena By now we are all quite aware of the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. I think this is the first time in my life that I’ve been nervous about being Catholic (I am so blessed because… [Read More]
3 Annoying Traits of a Catholic Husband That Point You to Heaven
Last night something rare happened: My husband and I found ourselves at the MOVIES. Shocking, I know. I’ll pause to let you collect yourself. (Seriously, we don’t go to the movies. We usually watch Netflix with the volume so low that we only catch about half of the dialogue and have to ad-lib the rest… [Read More]
Miscarriage Loss, Revisted
June is a beautiful month. Sure, it’s ridiculously hot, tornadoes and hurricanes abound, and you get so many mosquito bites it looks like you have chicken-pox, but it is still beautiful. People seem more carefree and plan vacations, the sunshine is lovely to behold (from inside an air-conditioned facility), and snow cones! Good stuff. Yet, June… [Read More]
Central Texas Storms: How to Get Help and How to Give Help
For many in central Texas, this Memorial Day did not go as planned. Many of us looking forward to spending time with friends and family, instead found ourselves texting and calling friends and family to see if they were unharmed. Severe weather – complete with deadly flash flooding and tornado activity – hit Travis and… [Read More]
You’re Not a Bad Mom If You Spend Time with People Who Are Not Your Baby
This segment of “Bad Mom” brings us to Part Two of this three part series. (See Part One here.) Mother’s Day was yesterday, and if your guilt about not being Super Mom 24/7 kept you from enjoying your well-earned day, then please, read this post. Preferably with a coffee or piece of chocolate. You’ve earned a… [Read More]
You’re Not a “Bad Mom” If You Don’t Breastfeed
I’ve only been a mom for about 4 months now, and I recognize that I’m definitely still in the newb phase of parenting. But these 4 months have felt like a crash course, full of guilty, stressed and confused feelings over what I should or shouldn’t be doing. In an effort to normalize these guilty… [Read More]
4 Irrational Fears of a Girl During Mass
Mass is a time of community, prayer, and a whole lotta holy. But sometimes my brain will not focus for the life of me. These are just a few of the things that can distract me during mass (this was pre-baby… kids add a whole new level of distraction to the list). Enjoy, and feel free… [Read More]
What My Husband Taught Me About Lent
This Lenten season is the first one Danger and I have experienced as husband and wife. We began the season as brand new parents, and didn’t spend much time discerning what our Lenten sacrifices would be, either individually and as a couple. At first, I declared I would give up Sonic for Lent. Those of you… [Read More]
Addendum: “An Open Letter to Angry Christians Against Gay Persons”
I owe my readers an apology and some clarification. My last post is in need of expounding – I would blame the whole working-mom-no-sleep thing, but that’s just an excuse. The truth is I’ve got a lot to learn as both a writer and Catholic, and I am blessed to have people in my life to… [Read More]
An Open Letter to Angry Christians Against Gay Persons
Dear Reader, Before I begin, let me start off by explaining what this letter is NOT: It is not meant to be a theology lesson. (For info on the Catholic church’s teaching on gay “marriage”, look here and here.) It is not about the politics around being gay in the US. This letter is simply a reminder that we are… [Read More]
Holiday Stress During the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
This is what happens: you’re strolling along in September, enjoying football season and pretending that Texas actually has a season called “fall”, and you begin to anticipate the joy of the holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas… so much fun to be had! Then you step into Halloween and somehow, also into a time warp that hurls… [Read More]
Tips for Handling Grief During Christmas
Grieving during the holidays is like riding a giant, wooden roller coaster that you never even wanted to get in line for in the first place. You go up and down, you get queasy, your body feels banged up and you never know what turn is coming next. (Fellow ACNM blogger, Rita Suva, posted an… [Read More]
5 Ways to Survive Awkward Thanksgiving Moments
Let’s face it: not all of us have the 60’s-TV-sitcom-family experience during the holidays. Some of us may have small families, large families that never see each other, families that see each other too much, or maybe families that consist of friends and no actual blood relations. And while we may love our families however they… [Read More]
Getting Yelled At For Being Pro-Life: How to Deal
You’d think working in the world of therapists – full of feelings, acceptance, warm regard and the fluffiest Kleenex money can buy – that we would be loving and accepting of all people, no matter their beliefs or religious affiliations. But you’d be wrong. In my limited experience in this profession (6 years and counting)… [Read More]
Jabba the Hutt, “Sexy” Costumes and Other Things That Distract from All Souls Day
All Saints Day and All Souls Day are coming up this week, and instead of basking in the rich history and awesomeness of these days, I find myself looking at what constitutes for a female Halloween costume these days and fending off negative self-talk. So, yeah, I’m pregnant. I’m 25 weeks and while I understand… [Read More]
How Adoption Saved My Life
On September 22, 1966 a little boy was born in Minnesota. His mother, for reasons unknown, was unable to keep him and left him in the hands of a group of nuns who devoted their work to the care of children without parents. Unbeknownst to the boy and his mother, there was a young couple… [Read More]
5 Relationship Myths Debunked
Cinderella. Belle. Jasmine. Disney’s version of Rapunzel. Disney’s version of Ariel. All of these love stories have their struggles – what with missing glass slippers, evil sorcerers, solitary confinement and being half-fish – but they all end the same way: happily and without problems. Hundreds of other movies and songs tell us the problems in… [Read More]
The Psychology of Terrorism and What We Can Do About It
Unless you’ve been living under a rock without cable or wifi your entire life, you have most likely heard about and been horrified by the plethora of terrorist attack stories lately (and since the dawn of mankind, really). Barbarism – acts that include severe cruelty, not the male hair-cutting profession – have daunted us from… [Read More]
Don’t Read This Blog: Enjoy Labor Day Unplugged
We live in an overstimulated society. Between TV screens, phone screens, computer screens, tablet screens, phablet screens, laptop screens, and movie screens, are brains are just plain ol’ overloaded. Just for fun, think back to your last work day. How many hours were spent looking at a screen? What about when you got home? If… [Read More]
Back-to-School Jitters: How to Help Kids Cope with Anxiety
It’s that time of year again, where parents breathe a sigh of relief as they prepare to free their children from the seemingly endless days of summer. Off they go to school again (sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes excitedly), to make friends, to learn new things and to bust out those shiny new school supplies. While some… [Read More]
Breaking the Girl, Part Two: The Hype of “Fifty Shades of Grey” and Why Slavery Isn’t Love
Let me start off by admitting that when I was in college I was addicted to romance novels. I would binge-read stacks of them in bed while eating my way through a roll of cookie dough. Healthy, right? It started out as a means of escape from my seemingly soul-crushing breakup with my boyfriend of… [Read More]
Breaking the Girl, Part One
This is the first of a mini-series of posts focused on socially acceptable things that make me fear for the future of girls everywhere. I recognize some of these topics are not the most popular to bring up, and in fact, many friends or readers may not agree with what I have to share. But… [Read More]
Honeymoon & Newlywed Myths, Realized
As a girl, and probably right up until I actually said “I do”, I assumed my honeymoon would be glamorous: all smiles and laughter, as my groom and I danced on the euphoric high of our perfectly magical nuptials, to the rhythm of tropical waves in the glow of a soft sunset. I mean, there… [Read More]
Memorial Day the St. Michael Way
Hello dear readers. It has been awhile since my last post, but that’s because I just got married (AUGH!!!) and have subsequently been dealing with this: My house has become a whirlwind of leftover wedding decor, moving boxes, gifts, empty gift boxes, and other random wedding paraphernalia that I will wade through once I… [Read More]
