And I don’t mean that in a good way.
It’s 90+ degrees and I’m already worried about keeping the family from freezing this winter while still putting food on the table. The house we’re renting (renting being the key here) has an oil-burning boiler that heats the home through baseboard units. We moved into this place [...]

Filed under: Family, Money, OMG, Or Lack Thereof | 15 Comments »

Things are afoot.
Money, that thing we’re not supposed to worship and yet the obtainment of which occupies the majority of our time, is in decidedly short supply these days, and growing shorter.
Word has come down from upon corporate high that all further allotments of pay, including cost of living increases, have been frozen, due to [...]

Filed under: Family, Prayers Please, Site Info | 4 Comments »

This morning, as I getting ready to go to work, Ivan found my pipe on my desk, and immediately began puffing on it. I almost never actually use it, so I don’t know where he got the idea from, but in an instant he was holding it by the bowl and pointing with it like [...]

Filed under: Family | No Comments »

I am wondering what unclean spirit is handed down from one child to the next in my family. Sophia (age: 32 months) was the nightmare beast from the deep for the better part of the last few months, every time she had to go to bed. Once the stories were over, prayers were said, kisses [...]

Filed under: Family, Uncategorized | 19 Comments »

At Inside Catholic. Having never seen the sort of vitriol in the comm boxes as I did on Kate Wicker’s piece on breastfeeding in church published last Friday, I felt compelled to respond.
We can have a constructive debate about the best way to nurse with discretion (or where) in Mass, but that’s not what happened.

Filed under: Catholicism, Common Sense, Epic Stupidity, Family | 2 Comments »

While my scanner somehow managed to make this photo look like it was taken by a 1970s-era Polaroid camera, it was five years ago today that I made the best decision of my life. (Those of you who know how indecisive I am may interject that it was the only decision I ever made; if [...]

Filed under: Family | 9 Comments »

Though we wouldn’t consider it an adequate reason to use NFP, a day spent at home with the kids leads, often enough, to essentially the same outcome. This of course has more to do with sheer child-chasing exhaustion, mess-cleaning frustration, or uncontrollable cathartic fits of laughter than any calculated application of the sympto-thermal method (click [...]

Filed under: Family, Funny | 11 Comments »

So, I took this morning off today, thinking it was a Holy Day of Obligation. (Apparently it’s not, anymore. We just do Ascension Sunday now…)
We get the kids ready, and Sophie is grumpy (she’s sick, making her more ornery than usual) and Ivan is shrieking non-stop. It turns out he’s screaming because he’s hungry. So [...]

Filed under: Catholicism, Family, Grrr! | 5 Comments »

Any parent with young children has probably heard about the potential dangers of some vaccines. It’s hard to get to the bottom of what vaccines you should give and what you shouldn’t, even if you have good Catholic pediatricians on your side.
The link between certain vaccines and autism has long been a concern for many [...]

Filed under: Controversy, Family, Fun with Science | 8 Comments »

I read an article during lunch about the experience of a man who discovered that his long-absent sister had become a part of the porn industry. The story is heartbreaking, a chronicle of abuse, alienation and later addiction. But what is most illuminating about it is the sense of shame that permeates the depiction, most [...]

Filed under: Family, The Commodification of Sex | 4 Comments »