Note: I’m making this post sticky so it stays at the top of the blog at least for today and tomorrow. New posts will appear below it.
Urgent Prayer Request
April 3, 2012 By 3 Comments
I don’t usually post twice in one day, but something has come up. I can’t share details, but can I ask a huge favor? Would you remember a very special intention of my family’s during Holy Week and Easter? Would you please hold us in prayer? Thanks, friends! May God bless you abundantly.
On the Way to Behold Quick Takes
March 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
As you read this, I’m probably on my way over to the Behold Conference.
Not to brag, mind you, but I am a LOT excited.
I’m going to be spending a LOT of time with Elizabeth Duffy and Mrs. Darwin. I also plan to harass pursue follow around like a puppy dog see Danielle Bean, Jennifer Fulwiler, Hallie Lord, Arwen Mosher, Kate Wicker, and many, many more of my favorite online friends.
Hoo boy!
In the latest Catholic Foodie, Jeff’s talking fishy Fridays, and I’m sharing a Mary in the Kitchen that reflects on just why Lenten failures are good for me, every single year.
On the newest iPadre, Fr. Jay Finelli is awesome, as usual, and I’m on with a Mary Moment that’s B16-inspired.
Got a new iPod, iPad, or iPhone? I share my 13 Essential Catholic Apps in this week’s Tech Talk at CatholicMom.com.
Got a few minutes to talk New Evangelization with me? Over at New Evangelizers, I’m talking about how we’re all in this together.
You’ve probably long suspected there’s something “not quite right” about someone who names the voices in her head. But did you know I have multiple personalities online too? I talk about my dilemma over at the Catholic Writers Guild blog this week. If you have ideas for how I can reconcile myself…well, I’m all ears/eyes.
“Would you review my new book, Getting #Married: Using Social Media to Celebrate the Sacred?”
I was too curious to say no when the request came into my inbox.
For one thing, I think very highly of Meredith Gould, who is an author, a blogger, and one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter.
For another, when you put both “social media” and “sacred” in the subtitle, it makes for irresistibility as far as I’m concerned.
Read my review over at CatholicMom.com.
I’ve been tempted to start posting links to our priest’s homilies here on my blog. He’s such a talented homilist–he can say more in seven minutes than I can say in a half-hour. Last weekend, his homily inspired a whole column idea for me, among other things. (I need to listen to it a third time to get all my notes down so I can bug him with my uber-nerdy theology questions.)
This is a classic case of saving the best for last, don’t you think?
Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!
Quick Takes of the Quick & Random Variety
March 2, 2012 By 2 Comments
Less than a month until we can all have our hands on this:
Join me in a happy dance, will you?
It’s not available yet for pre-order, but just as soon as it is, I’ll be sure to let you know! 
Have you seen the great work Greg and Jennifer Willits are doing over at New Evangelizers? I have meant to mention it, and I never have. (Bad me.)
As it turns out, I’m now writing there weekly, about the New Evangelization. I’m finding this to be a topic that, like so many other topics I’ve started writing about, turns out to be FAR BIGGER than I imagined in the beginning.
My first post, “In the Silence of the Internet,” starts with a plug for the Pope’s message for World Communications Day and then a few words about how the internet inspires silence in me.
The Pope’s Message for the 46th World Communications Day has struck a deep chord with me and it speaks to each of us who are involved in spreading our Catholic faith.
For one thing, there’s the title: “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization.”
In my years of interacting on the interwebs, there is silence of a sort, at least when I’m not yelling at my screen or ranting about what some fool (whose name may or may not be Sarah Reinhard) has said or done.
Continue reading at New Evangelizers –>
In my Mary Moment on iPadre this week, I share how Mary Poppins inspired me to think about Mama Mary.
In case you want to hum along with me, here you go:
At CatholicMom.com this week, I’m talking tech with an idea I have for an app that would take off like wildfire. Or not. Anyway, if you’re curious, you can read it and let me know what you think.
I also share a detailed review of the collection of Chesterton essays I mentioned on earlier this week.
I don’t really have a good entry at the Catholic Writers Guild blog this week, though I do open it up for questions (no takers so far). If you head over there, check out the other good stuff…I really liked Ebeth Weidner’s piece on tending the garden and learned quite a bit about developing theme from a writer’s standpoint from Leslie Lynch. (I may write nonfiction, but wow! I learn so much from my fiction writing friends!)
Those are just the things that went up THIS week. If you have an interest in writing, I highly recommend at least following that blog…and why not consider a membership to CWG?
Hoping to see you at the Catholic Writers Conference Online later this month, too! (Registration is closed now. And wow, it’s going to be a great and intimate group this year!)
I found this bit of awesomeness via Danielle Bean. I have shown it to everyone I can think of, but whether you have seen it yet or not, I MUST post it on my blog. MUST.
See why?
I’m pretty sure this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of my girls:
Yes, my four-year-old is now riding by herself unassisted! She takes lessons, too. A year sooner than her sister. By our calculations, that means the mancub (who is 16-months-old!) will be riding at age three.
I took this picture to show how tall my seven-year-old’s horse was next to the pony my four-year-old rides.
Have a good weekend!
Be sure to stop by Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes and lots of goodness!
Quick Takes: Order WRJ, Enter to Win, & Smile
February 3, 2012 By 2 Comments
Lent is coming and I have a book that’s hot off the presses.
And guess what? It’s only $1.99.
So go to your local Catholic bookstore (or one of the many other places you’ll find it, if you don’t have a store locally). Parishes receive bulk discounts, depending on the quantity they order, and can call 800-325-9521 to speak to the sales department at Liguori about that.
Mary Moments are back! Thanks to Fr. Jay Finelli’s support, I’ll be producing a weekly Mary Moment segment on the iPadre show. This week: 3 reasons I love Our Lady of Lourdes. Listen to the whole show for a fabulous summary of the story of Our Lady of Lourdes, too.
What’s your favorite game app? I share three of my kids’ favorites in this week’s Tech Talk.
Remember how I promised a full review of Strategies for a Tech-Savvy Classroom? It’s up over at CatholicMom.com.
It’s hard to believe that Daria Sockey has been blogging at Coffee & Canticles for a year already!
In honor of her one year anniversary, she has a pile of giveaways related to the Liturgy of the Hours. Go on over and enter.
While you’re there, be sure to wish her well!
In case you missed it the other day, I’m giving away a ton of books. You can enter as many times as you qualify for until February 21.
There are new titles by Christopher West, Mark Shea, Lisa Hendey, and Anthony DeStefano, among others.
So what are you waiting for? Enter!
Been a big week for the Tooth Fairy around here:
Visit Betty Beguiles, our lovely sub hostess, for more Quick Takes!
This One’s For You, Grandma
January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
My grandma’s been off visiting her sister in upstate New York, and we talked on the phone the other day.
When she told me she had read my blog, there was a thunk as I fell out of my chair.
Turns out, her sister and brother-in-law (my great-aunt and great-uncle, if you’re keeping track of the family tree) are logging her onto the computer.
Then she told me about how they had lunch with some girlhood friends of her sister’s, one of whom is Catholic and…get this!…has heard of me.
Let’s all pause for a good laugh, shall we?
Now, to encourage you to laugh more–it has tremendous health benefits, after all, and hey, it’s fun–here’s a look at my life of late. (These pictures are also to answer all of Grandma’s questions about the kids, who she misses a lot.)
This is the mancub, 13 months old and into everything. He is all boy.
Yes, he is walking now. And climbing. He especially likes stools. And the couch. And the recliner.
He is also a big fan fan of rocking.
The seven-year-old loves reading and math. She hates–with a passion–the reports she has to do about the books she reads for school.
I realized, when I compiled our photo calendar for this year, that I need to take more pictures of the seven-year-old.
Which is how I captured this moment:
And no post would be complete without the four-year-old, whose quirkiness and personality make us laugh hourly (and inspire hair-pulling episodes with equal frequency).
She likes to help. That makes her a good big sister, as you can see:
So there you go, Grandma, a post just for you! (And one that the other grandmas are all enjoying, too!)
The January 3 Anniversary
January 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
Dear Allen,
Today is your day. And we remember.
As we look at the beauty of the day, as we struggle through commonplace challenges, as we get on with our lives forever changed, we remember.
As we pray for your soul and those who grieve most deeply, we remember.
As we heal and yet remain broken, we remember.
It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since we got the phone call on the country road, changing all of our lives forever.
Time dulls pain, or so the saying goes. But on January 3, after only two years, I can’t help but think that the pain is not so dulled.
I feel, sometimes, like I end up writing about things that aren’t mine. It wasn’t my husband who died, after all. It’s not my children who have to comfort themselves with thoughts of a father in heaven, as opposed to the feel of his arms hugging them.
Maybe that’s my role. Maybe my job is to share, to commemorate, to expose whatever small part of the grief that I can access. Maybe I am chronicling it and sharing the gift with more people.
Because it is a gift, even though it hurts. It hurts people whose pain I would carry, whose burdens I would bear.
I see it in her eyes, sometimes, when she doesn’t remember to guard them. I see it, other times, in the tilt of a head, in the extra-long moment spent in the bathroom, in the surreptitious wipe of hands across a face.
It’s funny, how we remember. There are times when we’ll be talking about something, and you will come up, be a part of the conversation.
It’s odd, in fact, how we feel that we know you better now that we’re around your girls–all three of them–so much more. I feel, at times, like you left us something like a living memory, one that we may not have appreciated if not for the lens through which we see it now.
You must be so proud of your girls. It’s hard on them, though they are brave and courageous and do their best to be self-sufficient.
Send them some comfort today, a hug from heaven. Have Mama Mary hold them tightly.
Related:
- In 2011: Remembering and Remembering with Prayer
- In 2010: Be a Mother to Us Now and Living in the Now
- Allen’s tribute
Here at Snoring Scholar, you'll find marriage and motherhood, book talk and rambling remarks, observations and distractions, in the midst of life in rural Ohio on a farm, with kids, critters, and Catholic flair.
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