Graduated in 1992 from the Franciscan University of Steubenville with a degree in Mental Health and Human Services and a minor in Theology.
Growing up with a chronically ill mother, I found it very difficult to embrace Marian devotions as an adult. A true and present (and perfect!) mother did not seem real to me. Just as a faithful father reflects the love of God the Father to his children, a faithful mother reflects the love of the […]
It is the topic no Hollywood film maker would touch with a ten foot pole. It is the topic no abortion advocate will discuss let alone admit. It is the topic many pro-lifers do not even know exists: survivors of failed abortions. It is the topic that Jon and Andy Erwin chose for their first […]
After doing my treadmill workout, I sat on the couch with my oldest son so we could go over some World Literature questions. We read through the poems, discussed them and, as happens many times in my homeschooling experience, we ended up on an entirely different topic. The poems were of a religious nature, but […]
The Tripods Attack! is the first book in the Young Chesterton Chronicles, an adventure series aimed at middle and high-school age boys. Its main character is a fictional, teenaged GK Chesterton. In The Tripods Attack! Gilbert fights off an alien invasion with the help of his mentor, Father Brown, and his best friend, the youthful […]
In the midst of living your vocation did you ever wonder what became of some of your college classmates? Since graduating in 1992 I have been continually surprised at how fellow Franciscan University alums have popped up on the radar — locally and nationally. Seeing Regina Doman’s books on the shelf of a local Catholic […]
The recent release of the movie WARRIOR has prompted many different “takes” on the story. I would like to focus on the impact of addiction as portrayed in the film. The Conlon family, having been torn apart by the father’s violent alcoholic behavior, is in a situation that many people, unfortunately, can identify with. Alcoholism […]
My name is Kay (“Hello, Kay”) and I was oppressed for four years of my life by being forced to endure a same-sex dorm. No matter that I chose this college for the very reason it had same sex dorms — those persons wishing to sue Catholic University of America for sexism because of CUA’s decision […]
Not too long ago my daughter came up the basement stairs in tears. It seems her two big brothers and one younger brother were destroying her eight year old world and she had had it! “Mom, you have no idea what it is like to have to deal with 3 brothers!” She wailed. A perfect […]
Did you ever look at your husband and wonder just what you did in your life to deserve such a man? Does that scene in The Sound of Music, where the Captain and Maria declare their love for one another finally make sense to you? (“I must have done something good….”). There are so many […]
It starts around age 35. For over a century is has threaded its way through the female side of my mother’s family. My grandmother had it, my mother and her sisters had it, and my two older sisters are still dealing with it… five years ago it was my turn. No, it is not finding […]
As I pulled the minivan into our garage late one night my 14-year-old son came out to help me carry in the bins and boxes of materials I had used at a talk I gave that evening at church. I knew the real reason he was being so helpful: I had promised to bring home […]
About 23 years ago I packed all my belongings into my Dad’s Suburban and drove 1500 miles from my Rocky Mountain home to live in a place I had never seen and could barely pronounce. I had never planned to attend college – since there was no such thing as a faithful Catholic college, to […]
In the late summer of 2000 I entered the doorway of the nearest Weight Watchers and tipped the scale at a little over 200 pounds. After having two little boys within two years of each other, health issues from the first birth experience, and the death of my mother just days after my second son […]
