Degrees in Idealism

exploring how we would live if we truly believed life was meaningful

  • Culture
  • Marriage
  • Family
  • Wellness
  • Beauty
  • Soul

Baby Mine

07.01.2017 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // 1 Comment

We recently found out that the baby in my belly is a boy— boy number three! This news is met with all sorts of reactions, everything from congratulations to laughter to pity. And it often prompts the question… but do you/did you want to have a girl? Here’s my honest answer: I was excited about […]

Categories // Family Tags // #babies, #boymom, #parenthood

How to protect our children from social media

10.24.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

It’s difficult to figure out where the line is in sharing our children with the social media world. Of course, some sharing is natural and good. Parents are proud of their children and those children can inspire and bring joy to other people. But when the sharing is not organic— when it happens on these exponential […]

Categories // Culture, Family Tags // #babies, #instagram, #oversharing, #socialmedia

A Mother’s Bias

05.10.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // 2 Comments

I’m not doing this again.  I’ve thought it quite a few times. I thought it through my pregnancy’s complications and annoyances. I thought it as they strapped me to the operating table and started vigorously pushing and pulling on my stomach. I thought it as I first stepped out of the hospital bed and felt […]

Categories // Family Tags // #babies, #courage, #faith, #motherhood, #parenthood

Baptized Baby

04.07.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // 2 Comments

She turns her head to the stroller, He smells so good! What IS that? My husband and I look at each other like, Where do we begin? Holy oil? chrism? he got baptized today? But really what we want to say is Grace. You’re smelling grace. And grace doesn’t have much to say or do But […]

Categories // Soul Tags // #babies, #catholic, #grace

When Birth Is Imperfect

02.08.2016 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // 5 Comments

My first baby was born “naturally,” but just barely. I had done all the prep— “natural” OBGYN practice, deep breathing exercises, prenatal yoga/massage, three page birth plan. I had watched the enlightening and terrifying “The Business of Being Born” and I knew I didn’t want the big bad hospital corporations stealing my beautiful, instinctual motherhood experience. […]

Categories // Family, Wellness Tags // #babies, #csection, #motherhood, #naturalbirth, #pregnancy

What if You’re Not a Baby Person?

03.15.2015 by Elizabeth Hanna Pham // Leave a Comment

I was not naturally a “baby person.” I’ve never loved looking at Anne Geddes calendars— in fact I’d often rather look at pictures of cute animals. But I have a baby. And, obviously, I’m in love with him. In our culture we seem to have this idea that that in order to have a baby you […]

Categories // Culture, Family Tags // #babies, #family, #millenials, #parenthood

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

About Me

I'm Elizabeth. I'm a wife, a mother to three little boys, a writer, and a lover and seeker of the beautiful, the true, and the good. I am a believer in idealism-- that even amidst the chaos and the confusion, the exhaustion and the sadness of life there is always joy to be found, hope to be clung to, and a better path to be taken. I write my thoughts on this blog. A link to my fiction book is at the bottom of the page.

About The Name

“There are degrees in idealism. We learn first to play with it academically, as the magnet was once a toy. Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments. Then, its countenance waxes stern and grand, and we see that it must be true.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I found this quote well described my own experience– consistently reworking my idealism, being surprised by it, sometimes even losing it only to discover it all the more fully. I know we will never find all the answers, but how thrilling it is to find ourselves getting a little closer to the source and summit of things, a little closer, as we work our way through the “degrees.”

sons of God

sons of God

A short novella in which Lucifer talks about his dad.

View Book

Copyright © 2019 · Modern Studio Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in