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Easter Basket Tour 2014: Little Girl's Easter Basket
Sugar and spice and everything nice -- here's some ideas for a sweet basket for a little girl. I started with a colorful cotton napkin from the thrift store that could easily become a tablecloth for a...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: Baby Easter Basket
Easter baskets for babies should be fun and simple with a few things for Baby that are easy to grab and explore. Our basket, lined with a second-hand daisy-embroidered doily, has a soft and huggable...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: 8-10 year-old Boy Basket
As you can tell, I picked categories according to the children I have in my own family, and I have a ten-year-old son, so I couldn't resist showing off the fiction that he's enjoyed which we carry at...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: A Tween Girl Easter Basket
Instead of Easter ribbons, twine a new spring kerchief around the basket's handle, line it with a lace scarf, and organize treats with fun (and doubly useful) containers like a china teacup and a...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: Teen Boy Easter Basket
For a teenage boy's basket, you might put in such necessaries as a iPhone case or earbuds, but don't overlook the power of print media, especially in the form of good Catholic fiction. For this...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: Manga-Loving Teen Girl!
For that fun, romantic, and quirky teen girl in your life, we've assembled a few gift ideas that are sure to please. For an Easter basket inspired by the Far East, we chose a cotton scarf in a Chinese...
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Easter Basket Tour 2014: Chesterton-loving Guy
Whether that Chesterton-loving guy is a collegiate bachelor or a husband of many years, we hope that this Gilbert-themed basket will make him very happy. Of course we had to start with the books,...
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Penitential Pile of Rocks
On Good Friday my husband's idea of a hands-on devotional was to have the whole family pick rocks out of our freshly-tilled field, as a meditation asking The Lord to soften our stony hearts. It was a...
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Remains of the Easter Brunch
Being that I was due to give birth, I delegated all Easter cooking to my oldest daughter -- and my, she rose to the occasion! She created a French Toast Casserole (in the pan in front of the teapot)...
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Cora Regina born!
On April 24th, 2014, our ninth child and fifth girl, Cora Regina was born at our local hospital, weighing almost 9 lbs, and unbearably cute. Even though she was our first c-section after eight home...
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The Siren Song of Quiet Early Morning
I should still be in bed, taking the last days of my post-partum bedrest, but it is difficult not to be swayed by a quiet early morning, and the chance of a cup of coffee and the last piece of lemon...
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A Useful Travel Wardrobe
Summer is approaching and lots of us are preparing for extended vacations. Next week my daughters and teen son embark on a cross-country trip to see their uncle ordained to the priesthood, for...
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Life Hack: Baby mobile for the office
So many of my babies have spent time in my office next to my desk chair as I work away, and I am always trying to entertain them. When they are little I like to dangle a soft toy above their legs so...
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Window art for baby
My teen daughter used a window-paint marker to make this delightful mural on the car window next to the baby's seat. What a sweet way to entertain the baby during countless hours in the car!
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Double Morris Harvest decor
My daughter Joan convinced us to plant popcorn this year. Popcorn must be dried, so we decided to combine drying corn with harvest decoration, thus getting a double-Morris score ("Have nothing in your...
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Working at Home Rainbows
Rainy day. Working on John Paul 2 High Book 5. And Cora is working on learning to crawl.I just bought the little carpet square sample on the floor at a thrift store, and it makes me absurdly happy...
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My Two Desks
Working on my new novel series from 4 am to 6 am at this desk has been a blessing this past summer. I write at a salvaged desk that just fits between our two bookshelves in our parlor ("away room")...
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Baby Sneakers
Today my youngest was delighting in her baby sneakers so I snapped a picture of her enjoying her feet: we received the shoes used, and, as the picture shows, they are even more well-loved now. They...
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The Culture Recovery Journals
To subscribe to The Culture Recovery Journals on Substack, click here! For the past year, as part of my morning ritual, I've been handwriting my thoughts on recovering culture in our rapidly...
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How to Make a Child's Cloak
This post was supposed to have been published years ago, but I never got around to putting it together. For the sake of my sister, I'm doing it now. It's fall, and fall is the perfect time for a cloak....
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Wedding Bouquet, the week after
My daughter is now married. Like my own marriage and childbirth, my main emotional reaction to this event was, "How am I supposed to feel?" There was joy and pleasure but also simple shock at the...
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June is the month of the Sacred Heart
A student of mine gifted our family this hand-carved statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and it is a joy to display it throughout the month of June, with flowers from my garden. Sacred Heart of...
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Starting up on Substack
I've started to move my writing over to Substack, an app I've been reading for years. I'll try to still post here but I wanted to invite you to subscribe if you are interested. Click here to subscribe.
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