Category: Parenting

humor
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A Politician in the Making

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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 […]

A Muddled Maundy Thursday
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A Muddled Maundy Thursday

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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 […]

UN May Recognize "Sex Rights" for Ten-Year Old Children
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UN May Recognize “Sex Rights” for Ten-Year Old Children

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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>Catholic Digest</i>: A New Look at an Old Favorite
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Catholic Digest: A New Look at an Old Favorite

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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 […]

Glimpses of our Memories, Pieces of our Hearts
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Glimpses of our Memories, Pieces of our Hearts

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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 […]

What Can We Learn from the Trayvon Martin Story?
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What Can We Learn from the Trayvon Martin Story?

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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, […]

humor
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Taking Hand-Me-Downs to a Whole New Level

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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.

“You don’t work? I could never stay home and do nothing”
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“You don’t work? I could never stay home and do nothing”

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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, […]

Loving the Rapist's Child
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Loving the Rapist’s Child

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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 […]

Prove Jesus Isn't a Fairy Tale
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Prove Jesus Isn’t a Fairy Tale

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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 […]

Book Review: <em>Letters to Gabriel</em>
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Book Review: Letters to Gabriel

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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 […]

CL77 - hbratton notxt web
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What if Newborns Had No Rights

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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. […]

humor
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Quit Fooling, Mom. What’s Really Going On?

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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 […]

Mamma Theologica
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Mamma Theologica

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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 She Does It
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How She Does It

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“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 […]

How to Homeschool Your Preschool Child
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How to Homeschool Your Preschool Child

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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. […]

Can Contraception Raise Family IQ's?
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Can Contraception Raise Family IQ’s?

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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 […]

‘Why?’ of Ohio Tragedy Deeper than ‘Bullying’
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‘Why?’ of Ohio Tragedy Deeper than ‘Bullying’

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If you get a text from your teenager in the middle of the school day, something’s wrong. It might be something minor, like a paper forgotten on the printer at home or gym clothes left sitting in the back hall, with a request to deliver them to the office if possible. It might be more […]

humor
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I Hope You Appreciate This, Lady.

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I sent my six-year-old daughter to deliver some lemons and oranges from our yard to the widow next door. Worried that she might rudely deliver the fruit and leave without a word, I called to her, “Don’t forget to say, ‘You’re welcome.’” When my daughter returned, she gave me the full report: “I rang the […]

Airport Fiasco
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Airport Fiasco

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“Wait right here while we recheck your bags,” advised airport security to my daughter. We stood there in stocking feet, staring blankly.  Suddenly, she giggled and leaned in close whispering, “I know what it is.”  I pointed out that voluntarily disclosing that information is usually the best policy in these situations. “I know what it […]

Get Out of Your Spiritual Comfort Zone
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Get Out of Your Spiritual Comfort Zone

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I am a creature of habit. I tend to exercise the same way, eat the same things, and engage in the same activities. When I go for a walk, I usually take the same route. My work, though varied, normally involves the same type of tasks. I get up and go to bed at the […]

They Just Don't Understand
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They Just Don’t Understand

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I once did not understand. So now, instead of getting upset when others don’t understand, I see it as an opportunity to inform or at least to pray for them. When I came to understand Catholic teaching on love and marriage, my heart grew to include the unborn children I once thought I did not […]

Fossils and Amethysts 100
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Inside Loaves of Stone

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I have some imaginative ideas for teaching our children the spiritual lessons of Lent and Easter, but they involve rocks instead of cute bunnies or painted eggs, so please put on your creativity cap before reading further. During Lent, church sanctuaries everywhere are xeriscaped with dusty, dull-colored sand and rocks among other dehydrated things.  These […]

Trusting God with Our Son and His Addiction, Part 2
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Trusting God with Our Son and His Addiction, Part 2

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Last summer my family began an unwanted journey: We learned that our son suffers from the disease of addiction. The realization shocked and panicked us, so we dove right into “fix-it” mode, quickly calling a couple of physicians and rehab facilities. We took him to the local hospital for a drug test, where doctors told […]