October 11, 2008
October 11, 2008
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What Makes You Happy? A Painted Room…

Sometimes finding happiness takes a lot of hard work. This week at “Mommy Monsters,” I reflect on a quote Julie posted at “Happy Catholic” by Jim Elliot, the first husband of evangelical icon Elisabeth Elliot, on what it takes for a couple to be happy. To wit, the wife focuses on the 80% of her husband that she likes, rather than the 20% she wants to change. Last week, I took the same approach to my house. Inspired by my dear friends Katy and Todd, who “borrowed” my grandmother’s buffet and painted it a lovely shade of white (and replaced the wooden shelves with glass ones, and […]
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October 10, 2008
October 10, 2008
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Should We Consider Foster Care or Foster-Adoption?

Check out my article today at Catholic Exchange, and decide for yourself! WIth 500,000 children currently in need of temporary or permanent homes … TODAY, Christians who want to affirm the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death can do no better than to open their hearts and homes to a child. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or how rich. The other day at the Post-Gazette I read this heartwarming story of a couple who has been fostering kids for 35 years! You don’t have to be a homeowner, or have a lot of money (foster kids come with their […]
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October 9, 2008
October 9, 2008
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Budget Better Recipes: Monkey Bread

Right now “BlogHer” is inviting women to share their cost-cutting grocery tips, and it inspired me to share one of my mother’s favorite recipes. When times were tough, Mom could feed a family of six (plus assorted strangers and friends) on less than $50 a week. Whenever she saw one of my bottomless-pit friends pulling in the driveway, she’d whip up a pan of biscuits — or pull out a loaf of her special pull-apart “Monkey Bread.” If you have a lot of left-over, about-to-turn milk on hand, this is a great way to use it up! Monkey Bread 4 cups milk, scalded (heated till bubbles […]
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October 6, 2008
October 6, 2008
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Mighty Mom Monday: “Baby Shoes”

Sugars is now 18 months old. She has started pulling up and “cruising” pretty regularly so I figured it was about time we bought her a pair of shoes. (I have a barefoot till walking rule) Now, I have bought a handful of shoes and been given many more. But have not been able to find any that would fit her foot.  She just couldn’t get more than the tips of her toes in any pair I got, no matter what I tried.  Finally, today I took her to a Stride Rite outlet store and had her measured there. The clerk tells me, “She takes […]
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October 3, 2008
October 3, 2008
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Lessons from the Littlest Women: Guest Post by Sylvia Dorham

Sylvia Dorham is one of my favorite writers at CE … while I was editing “Canticle,” I begged her to let our readers benefit from her gifted wordsmithing. Today her column was a poignant reminder of how even young girls are “hardwired” for our vocation to motherhood — no matter how many Tonka Trucks are put in our hands. Whether or not we give birth, that deep-rooted desire to love, to nurture, to relate is evident from our earliest years. Did you have a favorite doll — or a favorite “doll story” to share?   Lessons from the Littlest Women Posted using ShareThis
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October 2, 2008
October 2, 2008
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“What Should I Say?” Comforting the Grieving Heart

Yesterday I posted an article from a grieving mother, who lost her baby at six months’ gestation, and whose grief was compounded by the evident joy of her sister-in-law, whose baby was due at the same time hers was to have been born. C.S. Lewis writes about grief: “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is liike being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness …. Other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it […]
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October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
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Weird Mom Moments: EMN Mini-Carnival

Congratulations to Kate Sherwin at “Rosemary Sauce.” Her entry, “Like Mother, Like Son” was this month’s winner of the “Weird Mom Moments” Carnival Contest! Kate won $50, since she had the EMN button prominently displayed on her site! Good work, Kate! Every mom must have them at one time or another … the moments she looks down at herself and say, “What have I DONE to myself?!” I know I have, as my daughter reminded me only recently. “Don’t be weird, mom…” I can’t help it. I was born and raised that way … by a woman who clearly did not mind appearing ridiculous for the benefit of […]
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October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
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Life After Miscarriage: A Guest Post by Dawn Wilde

One of the last articles that I acquired for Canticle did not make the “final cut”… but I felt the subject matter was too important not to give it a wider audience. And so, I’d like to share this woman’s story with you here. “Dawn Wilde” (a pseudonym) experienced her own painful journey from grief to hope after having lost her fourth child six months into her pregnancy in September 2007. She received an outpouring of support from Catholic, Protestant, and even Jewish friends … but her pain was compounded by her own family. Dawn writes, “My sister-in-law was due just two weeks prior to what would have been my […]
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September 29, 2008
September 29, 2008
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Mighty Mom Monday: “Potty Training 101-102”

This classic post is from “My Wonderful Life” . For those who just can’t get enough, here’s installment #3!(June 2007). Thanks, Sarah! OK, here we are halfway through the summer. I had 2 goals for this summer back in May. 1) Get Alligator’s fingers OUT OF THAT MOUTH. 2) Potty train Sonshine. Apparently, God laughed and laughed when I told Him these goals. I’ve given up on Gator-Boy for now. He started cutting those 2-year molars and, to tell the truth, it just wasn’t worth the fight. Sonshine, however, I am working with. So far he’s decided he wants to spend every waking moment in the […]
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