Years ago, I said something to my 11-year-old son which he found to be unsympathetic. His response? “I don’t think that is what a real parent would say to her child.” I have no idea how he came up with his frequent one-liners, but perhaps all 11-year-olds have this...
Occasionally, when I am feeling particularly adventurous, I load up the minivan and bring my five kids (eight and under) to the nearby Benedictine monastery for one of their hours of sung prayer. It is a little monastery, and when we go, we outnumber the nuns...
I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day and he asked me where my fourteen-year-old son was at with his discernment of the priesthood. He wanted to know what I was doing to encourage him to be open to this vocation. My initial response was….to cringe. ...
Putting my children to bed is my favorite time of the day! I have a 2 year old and 4 year old and life can be so busy and nonstop. Sometimes the end of the day is the only time I have one-on-one quiet time with each child. As a Catholic mom and previous Early...
Sitting around the dinner table, my young son asked me a seemingly simple question, “How can I know that God exists?” He wasn’t asking about prayer or the Bible, but about logic. Why does our belief in God make sense? This was one of those rare parenting instances...
I don’t have time to pray I have almost always struggled to feel like I pray “enough.” Believe it or not, the last time that I could definitively say that I didn’t struggle with that was before I had kids. I have 5 kids now and we also have some neurodiversity in the...
A book with all the milestones you’d want as a Catholic parents? Impossible, you say… But, it does exist, thanks to Kate from Thy Olive Tree! It can be overwhelming how many milestones, photos, and memories you want to record for your children. You could fill in a...
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be a formula for raising Catholic kids; it's simply one family's experience of how the witness of parents shaped children who became faithful Catholic adults. Each of my siblings and I got to a point in life where we had to choose...