Telling this story is a huge step for me. It’s one that many people in my life don’t know, because it’s one I’m afraid to talk about. But in light of the recent political tug-o-wars, I think it’s time I shared my personal story with crisis pregnancy. It’s a bit long, and a lot vulnerable,… [Read More]
5 Thoughts for Newlyweds
You can always tell when there’s been a wedding. At my parish, that’s when we get to look at pretty flowers. Because, at a university parish, we don’t spend the big bucks on flowers. We’re frugal, yo. So, we love it when wedding season comes around. There’s fragrant proof of white gowns, flower girls and… [Read More]
Chastity: Getting Real with Something No One Likes to Talk About
This blog starts with a definition, followed by a confession: Firstly, I want to define chastity. If you look up the definition of “chastity” in a dictionary, the first few definitions will say something like “abstaining for all sexual intercourse” or “see – chastity belt”. Not exactly the definition I’m going for here. If you… [Read More]
Don’t Call Me Crazy: A Christian Response to the Stigma of Mental Illness
“That’s so crazy!” “You must be crazy…” ‘Crazy’ is a word we hear thrown around often in our culture. We even have multiple variations now, with ‘craziness’, ‘crazy sauce’ and ‘cray cray’ floating around online and in person. I myself am guilty of using this word flippantly to describe anything from intense stress to something… [Read More]
Supporting a Depressed Spouse: How to Help
Part Two of Series (View Part One here:) If you’ve never experienced depression, imagine trying to run a marathon while just getting over the flu. You’re achy, exhausted, unmotivated, feeling hopeless and wondering why-oh-why this is happening to you. The whole ordeal makes you so emotionally and physically wiped out, you just wanna cry, or… [Read More]
No really, I’VE GOT THIS: The Perfectionist’s Struggle of Letting Others Help
Before you begin this blog, please answer the following questions (to yourself, or out loud if you like that kind of attention): 1. Would you consider yourself a ‘perfectionist’? 2. Have you ever been accused of being an over-achiever? 3. Are you one of those people that says “I’m fine!” in response to everything? If… [Read More]
What Love Really Means (Review: “The Four Loves”)
Love is complicated. After I came back to the Church, I realized that the world’s definition of love wasn’t going to cut it. I knew that it had to be more than just a feeling, but I was still confused. How could I define something so powerful, so sacred, and so broadly applicable to everything… [Read More]
Married without Children
My husband and I have been married for over 3 years now. I’ve learned that marriage contributes to our personal salvation through its call to service. Two other sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that… [Read More]
Trust issues? I got ’em.
Trust. Now there’s a fun buzz word. We hear this all the time: “What? Don’t you trust me?” “Dude, trust me!” “You have some serious trust issues.” But what is that word, really? According to Webster, trust is the “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something,” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trust). Okay, so… [Read More]
The Challenge of LGBT Friendships
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” -Matthew 16:14 Jennifer Fulwiler wrote an article several months ago documenting a conversation she had with an old friend who had chosen an “alternate” lifestyle. She handled it remarkably well and admirably defended her Catholic faith throughout the awkward affair. However, the… [Read More]
Getting Over Myself: Battling the Ego in Relationships
You know that moment when you realize that you’re wrong? You’re looking at someone, or maybe you’re by yourself in the car or at work, and it hits you: you messed up. You made a mistake. You did or didn’t do something, and as a consequence, you’ve hurt someone else. As the reality hits you,… [Read More]
14 Ways to Bless your Marriage in February
February is always a rosy month of winter in my life, since it is filled with festivity in our home. My husband and I both have birthdays, and we have a number of friends who also share the birth month with us. There is always the hope of a light snow in Central Texas in… [Read More]
My Top 5 Reasons to be Married
No One Wants to Get Married Anymore. Look at what our culture sees as entertaining. I know for women, it seems fun to buy clothes from certain stores, not being anchored down by a man, and having the freedom to see whoever you would like. Being independent and successful are also factors that rate a… [Read More]
The ACTUAL Reason Contraception is Wrong
Lately, I’ve been on the Internet. Depressing, I know. But I have. And in particular, I’ve noticed a widespread rash of anger directed at that crotchety old institution full of crotchety old men with crotchety old ideas: the Catholic Church. Seems there’s this thing happening out there in the “real world” (a phrase whose quotation… [Read More]
Reading Your Way to Rome (Review: “Rome Sweet Home”)
As many Catholics are, I am a sucker for conversion stories. I was baptized Catholic but not really raised that way, so mine is more of a reversion story, but I even enjoy telling that! There’s something about getting the inside scoop on someone’s journey to God and to the Catholic Church that is so… [Read More]
Why I Believe in Gay Equality
First things first: I apologize for my extended hiatus from posting blogs. Let’s just say a lot of very significant and life-changing things happened to me one after another. Second things second: I’d like to return to my regularly scheduled programming by speaking about a rather snaggly issue in our state/country/world at the moment: gay… [Read More]
5 Tips: How to Be a Good Mom and Not Lose Your Mind
While I’ve been ‘Mom’ now for almost 13 years, it seems that I’m still figuring out this motherhood thing. It can be hard to balance being an individual woman with thoughts, ideas, plans and inspirations that are all my own with the… thoughts, ideas, plans, inspirations, hunger, laundry, homework and tantrums of everyone else in… [Read More]
How to Create a Family Litany
All Saints Week – here we are! A week of beauty, starting with Halloween full of fun costumes and candy, All Saints Day with our holy heavenly friends, and ending with the ever hopeful and solemn All Soul’s Day, praying for those we love who have died. What a great time for our families to… [Read More]
I’m not afraid anymore…
I’ve just realized it. Just now. I’ve been sitting here at my computer, attempting to design a stunning website for a client, listening to my two little girls (ages 4 and 6) playing in the living room next to me. They’ve been playing ‘Getting Married’. This entails putting on pretend make-up, going dancing and finding… [Read More]
Ten Tips for Dealing with Anger in Marriage
We may not like to talk about it, but if you’re married, you’ve been there. How do we deal with our anger in marriage? How do we argue? How do we reconcile? We all have different ways of handling our differences with our spouse, but here are a few things I’ve learned over the 13… [Read More]
No Greater Love: 3 Heroes from Aurora
When I was sixteen, I had a boyfriend. My young heart was madly in love. I had also spent some time reading the Bible, inspired by my Baptist friends. One day, I came across this verse: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 In a… [Read More]
Parents: Quit Dumbing Down Sex for Your Kids
“Oh, we haven’t had ‘the talk’, but I’m dreading the day he asks,” a friend recently lamented. I was at a loss for what to say. You see, I think we dumb down the wrong things for our kids and focus, instead, on the silly things.We’re quick to buy that ticket to “Magic Mike” or… [Read More]
With This Cross, I Thee Wed
Today my husband and I celebrate our 4 year anniversary! It seems like our wedding was just yesterday! With marriage comes a lot of unknowns. Saying “I do” in some ways is like walking the plank without knowing whether the plank gets you to land or to a long drop into the ocean! None of… [Read More]
Be True To Yourself
A close friend of mine is getting married next month. He’s lived out in California for the past few years, so I haven’t seen him much nor do I know his future wife very well—just a couple of rather short conversations. He’s Catholic, she’s not Christian. While she isn’t interesting in becoming Catholic (anytime soon… [Read More]
The Silence of St. Joseph
I have a friend who does quite a bit of public speaking about marriage. Having heard him a number of times, I can usually anticipate his jokes long before he makes them. He pokes fun at the quirks that enter marital relationships and the way that our culture views marriages. “I might be the one… [Read More]
Sex, Love and the Pill
The last several weeks, my husband and I have hovered over our smart phones and iPads, reading every possible article about the HHS mandate and controversy. I’ve seen tweets, read controversial FB status updates, scrolled through interesting blog posts and had engaging conversations with Catholics and non-Catholics. While the controversy still elevates my blood pressure,… [Read More]
Joseph: Carpenter, Saint, Daddy
I don’t know if it’s all the Nativity scenes that are around or that really vivid dream I had a few days ago about getting married, but St. Joseph has been on my mind a lot. I love St. Joseph like I love my own father and during the Christmas season especially I like to… [Read More]
Trusting in the Truth (Review: “How to Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul”)
I hate to begin blog posts with apologies, but I feel I must offer mine for the tardiness of this review. I spent the day after-Christmas shopping with my mom and sister. I don’t see my family very often since they almost all still live in Maryland, so I try to make myself available to… [Read More]
Grappling with Fertility Issues
For couples struggling to conceive, the ache of a missing child is one of life’s greatest hardships. Living month-to-month, unsure of the outcome at the end of each cycle, couples exist somewhere between the ups and downs of a painful rollercoaster. Friends have moved on to playgroups, family members are asking about grandkids and tremendous… [Read More]
3 Not-so-Secret Secrets about NFP
A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended an evening of marital enrichment at the church. We sat down next to a couple and commenced with the regular chit chat, quickly finding out that like us, the couple had recently had their third child.“Are you planning on having more?” they asked us.“Well,” we said,… [Read More]
Sex Is Good
Catholics aren’t known for being knowledgeable about sex. The extreme stereotype says we’re ashamed of it, and our bodies. We have sex only because of marital duty and we shouldn’t enjoy it. The stereotype says that we acknowledge we need to do it, but almost as a necessary evil. Wow. I know aspects of this has existed in time… [Read More]
