Today, I visit my blog to talk about this girl: Wednesday nights, Julianna goes to “church school” (because it’s easier for little kids to say than “religious ed”) while we’re having choir practice. Usually, in the chaos of grabbing boys from the nursery, cleaning up octavos and books, and getting an overtired family of six…
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Staying Home vs. Working Mom
Last week, we watched the movie Suffragette. I hope many of you have watched it, so I don’t have to explain that it was…sad. Sad beyond expression. But one thing that really struck me in that movie was the fact that Maud worked full time—more than full time—outside the home. She sent her kid off…
Read MoreFirst Communion Day
What if Thanksgiving Wasn’t Just One Day?
oes God (or the great nation of America, if you’re not the believing type) want/need our “I’m grateful for” lists on this on one day, only to have us revert to business as usual the following day? Or would the world–and not coincidentally, we–be better off if we showed our gratitude in our actions on Thanksgiving Day and every other day, too?
Read MoreTen Simple Ways To Model Mercy For Your Kids
Modeling #mercy doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are ten simple ways to teach your children to live #mercy.
Read MoreThe Problem Of Teaching A Child The Faith
It’s got to be tough to be the kid who has two musical parents who are extremely involved in their church. He has a set of gifts that are his birthright—a great ear, the ability to pick out tunes in multiple keys and sometimes even harmonize them, plus a blossoming skill on the piano and…
Read MoreThe Grace to Let Enough be Enough
“What come next?” There was a period of several months recently when Julianna was constantly asking this question: when a song ended on a CD, at the end of a scene in a movie, whenever we got back in the van after running an errand or going to a lesson. Lately, it feels like the…
Read MoreMercy In The Age of Facebook
Because the spiritual works of mercy have always been a little tough to pin down, I offer this today: The Spiritual Works of Mercy – in the Age of Facebook Mark Piper 🔶 To Give Counsel to the Doubtful, in person, without a shield of anonymity, with charity and goodwill as your motivation 🔶 To Instruct…
Read MoreDefault: Happy
There are two basic states of being: default happy and default unhappy. This is the insight that leaped out at me me almost as soon as I started reading Chade-Meng Tan last week. Some people are happy all the time, except when something bad happens to them. Other people are unhappy always, unless something good…
Read MoreTwo Pieces of Candy
I must have been six or seven, not yet old enough to be fully aware of the vague sense of financial worry caused by growing up on a farm in the 1980s. But plenty old enough to know better. I stole a couple pieces of candy from the open Brach’s bin at the IGA. I…
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Kathleen M. Basi 