Degrees in Idealism

I was nine when the world awaited the Y2K catastrophe. At the time, I didn’t see it as a catastrophe. I was excited! This was back when most people didn’t own cell phones and the Internet couldn’t be carried around in a pocket. Still, modern technology infused daily life and the idea of returning to […]

In our house, we watch very little TV or movies. At most, we watch one movie on some Sundays/special days. Since it is such a rarity, I like to make sure the movies we watch are really good! I obviously don’t want my children watching anything that is morally confusing or that teaches them bad […]

Babies rarely come when we expect them. This is obviously the case for pregnancies themselves, for miscarriages, for early or late natural births. But it’s true for each and every birth in all of history. Even out of my five scheduled births, only two actually happened at the scheduled time. Then, of course, there is […]

Crisis Magazine recently published an article addressing the common failure of Catholic men’s groups. I know exactly what the author is talking about— but it’s not just a problem with Catholic men’s groups. Despite the ways in which women may be more socially inclined, I have found that our “groups” often fail too. Single women […]

The palms we wave around like children, All children, Unable to resist the peeling and the bending and the twisting into crosses and crowns, And marveling at the funny fact of bringing giant leaves into Church— The palms we wave around like children Are later ground into the dirt that’s later rubbed upon our foreheads, […]

Almost three years ago, my family and I moved to the country and started homesteading. Every day, it seems, we are learning new things— we are learning about raising and slaughtering, fermenting and curing, chopping and heating, planting and harvesting— all new things to us, but not to the world. These are old skills— and […]

The first time I really understood that Christmas was twelve days was when I visited Mexico as a child. I think the churches in America were probably still singing Christmas songs but nothing ever really felt like Christmas after New Year’s the way it did in Mexico. Ever since experiencing that, my family and I […]

One recent Wednesday morning in September, my almost-two-year-old son wandered away from our house and into the woods, completely out of our sight. After a quick search of the immediate, usual areas, we called for help from neighbors, and then 911. Help came in abundance. Multiple fire departments, law enforcement agencies, canine units, volunteers on […]

A birthday can be a lonely sort of thing. After all, no matter how much other people may be celebrating you, it really is all about you, and as Pooh says, “it’s so much friendlier with two!” I believe this is part of the reason adults often have trouble celebrating their birthdays at all. Sure, […]

For most of my adolescent life I struggled with insomnia. When I was 23 I had my first baby. He kept me up all night. But I finally learned how to sleep! Next week, I’ll turn 31. I have spent the last decade pushing my body to the point of total exhaustion. It hasn’t always […]

Now that it’s Easter I’m going to turn on some happy Easter music! I told my kids when we got in the car. Gabriel’s Oboe came on first, followed by Morning Has Broken. In response to each of these songs my five-year-old remarked, but Mommy, those songs sound sad.  We then launched in to a […]