Have you seen the U.S. Department of State’s definition and legislation for legal adulthood? The DOS website states: “When a child reaches the age of 18, they [sic] become a full legal adult in most U.S. localities. That may not be the case in overseas environments, where the age for acquiring adult status under another [...]
ASTONISHING: The Washington Free Beacon has broken the news that although a baby can be aborted up until the ninth month in Washington DC, the White House Visitors Office requires that an unborn child must be counted as a full human being when its parents register for a White House tour. HEARTENING: The U.S. Conference [...]
Style, Sex, & Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter, edited buy Hallie Lord, is full of spiritual truths and spunk! The ten women who each tackle a different current issue seem to hit most of the hot topics usually found splashed across the covers of women’s tabloids, but from a Catholic [...]
After breakfast in bed or brunch out on the town on Sunday, many families will celebrate Mother’s Day by planting flowers together. While I can’t speak for the rest of the country, here in Colorado there’s a rule of thumb that flowers simply *should not* be planted any sooner. Up until that time, the chance [...]
My two-year-old was beyond ready to get down from her high chair. As she was kicking her legs in protest of her confinement, she noticed one foot pop momentarily into view above her tray. Her yelling stopped. Slowly, she lifted her foot into view once more and said, “I seeeee youuuu!” View the original post [...]
As parents, we have so many responsibilities when it comes to our children. We need to feed, clothe, and nurture them. We need to raise them in the faith and make sure that they are educated. But in the midst of all those responsibilities, it is also important to have fun as a family. Moments [...]
For the past few months, I’ve had the great pleasure of a biweekly radio chat with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak, Directors of the Pastoral Solutions Institute and authors of Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Raising Sexually Whole and Holy Kids. As a major fan of Dr. Greg and Lisa’s work, their writing, and [...]
When I was a kid, I got in trouble almost daily. I often was sent home from school with notes from the teacher, informing my parents about my latest crimes. One day, I had to deliver a note to my parents from my fifth grade teacher that stated I was constantly disrupting her class and [...]
I try so hard to have faith, but I have never figured out the best way to take kids to Mass. I mean, on the one hand, there’s the Real Presence, and taking your children to see the Miracle that redeems mankind is unquestionably of utmost importance. But on the other hand, there’s the mental [...]
The UN Commission on Population and Development is considering “sexual and reproductive health and rights” for children as young as ten. Even the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon agrees. In a statement recently released he said, “Young people, as much as all people, share the human right to health, including sexual and reproductive health.” Currently international [...]
I grew up reading Catholic Digest. I was one of those children who would pick up and read anything that was lying around the house, and it was a magazine that my parents subscribed to. Honestly, I don’t remember all that much about the articles. I’m guessing that, as a child, many of them probably [...]
Gently making its way toward the front of the room, is this beautiful parade of humanity. The timelines of their lives, their histories… overlap, envelope, criss-cross, consume. At times, one who hasn’t been seen in Too Long is reached for. Hushed promises to Get Together Soon are whispered. Not empty promises. Life does get in [...]
Was the Trayvon Martin story about race? I can’t sit in judgment on what was in Zimmerman’s heart and mind, but objectively, from what the media has passed on to us, it does look to me like an issue involving prejudice. As a white girl growing up in the fifties and sixties in Washington State, [...]
My second oldest, Sebastian, always gets his older brother Ezra’s hand-me-downs. One day I was telling them that in heaven we won’t need our earthly bodies, but will get new heavenly bodies. Immediately, with a look of disgust, Sebastian said, “Am I just going to get Ezra’s old one?” -Drea, mother of 4.
I was at a cocktail party with my husband. “You don’t work?,” one woman said with pity in her voice, “ I could never stay at home and do nothing.” Do nothing? Really? I had to giggle. This woman obviously didn’t know my bursting-at-the-seams life of cleaning and cooking, gardening, driving, loving, meal planning, shopping, learning, writing, [...]
This story by Heather Gemmen Wilson is a dramatic testimony to the value of life–even life that results from a rape. It was featured in the Amazing Grace for Survivors book. It had been more than a year since Casey was stillborn, and it seemed Steve and I would never be able to have the third child [...]
Santa Claus? Check. Easter Bunny? Check. Tooth Fairy? Check. Even Leprechauns. My 5-year-old believes in all these things. Yet last Sunday on the drive to Mass she announced: “I don’t think Jesus is real. I think he’s made up.” Wwwhat?! I thought I had till at least 10 or 12 before that started (or what [...]
I was mourning my third miscarriage and seeking a book that would offer me comforting words from a Catholic mother who had also lost a child. I found Letters to Gabriel by Karen Garver Santorum. In the pages of this book I got to know Karen as she spoke to her son Gabriel, who is [...]
It’s a provocative question abortion opponents have been asking for years: If it is ethical to kill an unwanted child before birth, why not kill her afterward? Pro-lifers pose that question rhetorically, as a means of exposing the weakness of pro-choice arguments that devalue the human fetus until the moment she clears the birth canal. [...]
My children were really amusing me. And I mean that with the utmost sarcasm. “Who’s coming over?” one asked. “No one,” I said. “Then why are you doing that?” “What do you mean? I do this all the time!” I said. “Oh, we’re having company?” chimed in another. “No!” I said firmly. “Yeah, right. Who [...]
I’ve been reading the Summa Theologica so much I’ve started arguing with myself in the way of St. Thomas Aquinas, a rough and desperate version running through my head amidst the daily quagmire. For instance the other day, in the Third Part of the day, I asked myself a Question. “Whether it is fitting that [...]
“How do you do it?” Busy mothers hear this all the time. Time management is an important yet elusive goal. Everyone wants to know “the secret.” I’ve been blessed to know some very holy and efficient mothers. Let me introduce a couple to you and then we’ll talk strategy. My mother had 13 children, yet always [...]
A new homeschooler recently asked me, “How do you homeschool a preschooler?” Time was, keeping a child home for his or her preschool years was a perfectly normal thing to do. Children went to school when they were five (or even six!) and somehow still managed to learn to read and write and maintain friendships. [...]
Minorities are not generally high achievers so the government has a responsibility to reduce their population. (Stay with me, I have a point to make.) Singleton children from highly educated, successful parents tend to be self-centered, so the government needs to address that unpatriotic situation. Rich families breed kids with tendencies for depression, so they [...]
