Murphy’s Law: Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer
Yesterday, Valentine's Day, was as horrible as it could possibly be. This happens every Lent, like clockwork. If you start writing about how holy your kids are, by the time you hit publish at the end of you day, you'll be wishing you didn't have kids. If you ask for...
Radical Transformation: Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer
Ash Wednesday in our home is a day of radical transformation. There's an immediate change in atmosphere: the house is quieter, and my teen is playing chant (a rarity these days, for him). I woke up to two kids who have purposely given up their hair for Lent. My 16-yo...
Plumbing the Depths: Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer
Lenten Reading: On the dedication page of the book, there's a quote from Blessed John Paul II, which he addressed to the Austrian bishops, but is quite applicable to us as parents. "Your first duty as pastors is not projects and organizations, but to lead your people...
Unschooling Resources
From the 4Real Forums: What Is Unschooling?: " We choose to live in ways that keep us conected and involved in each other's day to day lives. ..We believe that learning will happen in its own time and is not more important than loving or hoping or laughing. We live...
“In-Spite-of-Mom” Schooling
A friend at our Catholic Filipino homeschooling forum asked, "What is unschooling?" In years past I've shied away from answering this question because the pioneers already have, and I didn't feel I had anything to contribute. Of course this was years ago at the...
An End-Of-Year Examination of Conscience for the Family
Continued from this post on Raising Pro-Life Children Amid A Culture of Death. There are many versions of an examination of conscience out there. I wrote this for our family, but I share this here in case it might be helpful to anyone else. Are we praying more? Have...
In the Quiet of Advent, the Call
Image: Daiga Ellaby Well, it's done. The RH Bill has passed in the Philippines. Now the real work begins. Some thoughts on this dreary Monday afternoon, as I ponder what my fellow Catholics and Filipino friends and family are facing: I've been thinking of everything...
Where I’ve Been
Faith: From Project: Sowing Seeds: 101!! Books to Read in this Year of Faith -- includes some of my favorites, some that I've been meaning to read, and many that I've never heard of before. Poll: Catholics want pastors to blog. Yes, Father, we do. It would be a great...
On Old Loves: An Epilogue
Image: Baher Khairy simply put, we grew apart. gone are the shared experiences, the friends, the common threads of existence that we used to be able to draw from, grow from, that nourished us as individuals and as lovers. we were young, and angst was fruit of youth...
Soulmates / Soul Mates in Catholic Doctrine
Our online pro-life group started a discussion over the weekend on "soulmates". It took several interesting turns, and many participated, but I don't know that we completely addressed the gist of the OP's question: He asked: The popular saying goes: may nakalaang tao...
Curriculum 2012-2013 6th Grade
Finally done with curriculum planning! This is for our 10-year-old, going into 6th grade: Religion: Following Christ Reading and Language Arts: Classical Writing Aesop and Homer + her booklist: The Master Puppeteer The Story of a Bad Boy Aunt Vinnie's Invasion Aunt...
It All Comes Down to Love
So you and your friend were hanging around one day on the porch, him fingering his guitar, while chatting with you about life. Suddenly he breaks into song, singing a few lines, and after a while you realize he's singing about your dad and that story you told the...
Videos, Information, and a Call to Action
For a background on all of this, here again is the link to the video of Fr. Sammie Maletta's homily + transcript. Last week, when we thought it couldn't get any worse, we saw Sandra Fluke's opening statement before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee....
Fr. Sammie Maletta’s Homily on Religious Liberty and the HHS Mandate (Transcript)
Prayers for and cheers to this courageous priest-lawyer for speaking the truth! May more of our priests be like him. Spread the word. I'm posting the transcript of his homily here for my parents' benefit. If you see any errors, please comment and I will edit. In...
Lent, In Which I Read Science Fiction
This is my Lenten penance for the year. I just finished reading Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. An exciting read, at least it gets exciting about halfway through. I had to drag myself through the first few chapters because I am so not a science fiction fan. Our kids are...