Messy Buns & Latin Chant

When I woke up this morning at 2:15am to feed the baby, I scrolled through Facebook to stay awake for ten minutes, not imagining what I would find. I didn't sleep well the rest of the night, and like all of America, I haven't been mentally calm all day. I've been listening to the radio, following the latest revelations online, and watching with deep sorrow as the death toll continues to rise. Never letting a good crisis go to waste, all I've been hearing is "pro-gun this" and "anti-gun that". I have my opinions on that matter, but at this part of the story, they are not relevant whatsoever.  Little exchanges like these on twitter are amusing, but ultimately, unhelpful: via Twitter There is something extremely aggravating about the uncertainty of the events and the knowledge that we will probably never know what happened exactly. I hate having to wait and see what narrative is trotted out, and I hate even more the opportunistic posturing ...

Right above the stairway door in my childhood home, there sits to this day a bottle of Holy Water. Every night as we filed up the stairs for bed, my dad would take it down and bless each one of us on our way up. At about 12 years old I was not as diligent about my nightly blessing, and I began to have horrible nightmares. Call it coincidence, but I call it grace, as soon as I started making sure I got a blessing before I went to bed, the nightmares stopped. For all my daily experiences with parental blessing, the scene in The Sound of Music  where Maria is about to walk down the aisle and Mother Superior blesses her always bothered me. Then at a friends wedding, the priest asked us all to bless the couple and I thought that was plain weird. I don't have the power to confer blessings. We have priests for this sort of thing! Well, it turns out I was wrong. We can bless our people, especially our children. We should bless people, and especially our children. And I found s...

My favorite kitchen appliance is the crockpot. I can do all my dinner prep at noon, just open the lid at 6pm and voila! A pleasant and flavorful meal! (I hear the instant-pot is even better. Husband, if you are reading, take this as a hint.) Set it and forget it, man. Not having to spend the hour leading up to dinner in what often becomes a mad rush is a welcome break from the magnificent insanity that is family life. This past year, I have also done some early prep for my marriage. I've run across some exceptional marriage blogs ( Sheila Gregorie's is my favorite) and speakers (Dr. Laura, hey hey!) and I figured that I would get all the harsh realities out of the way here at the beginning. I think my unconscious goal was to be a low-key marriage expert by the time 2018 rolled around, so I could just slow cook all my wealth of wisdom until the next crisis hit. Don't laugh, I'm a millenial. I'm allowed to be ridiculous every now and then, right? I'...

"Two in diapers? You need to put a tv in your bedroom." It was almost a month ago, but that comment still gets my blood boiling. It had been a horrible Sunday, and the church was the last place I had expected to hear it; plus I didn't think two kids was all that extreme. Complaining to my mom about it, I was told a story of when she brought her third child, and first girl, to Mass the first time. A woman came up to her saying how nice it was that she had been able to complete her family and was now done. So it doesn't matter where you are, unfortunately. A young woman visibly living out God's call to be fruitful and multiply is almost unavoidably beset upon with smart comments. Praise God, I have a family and in-laws that will never tire of babies, but that is definitely the exception. Parents freak out when their adult children make what they perceive to be "unwise reproductive choices". Strangers glare at you when you hold up the grocery lin...

I grew up at what was then the most traditional parish in our diocese. About half of the women there veiled; none of the nine girls in my family did. I had a brief encounter with the practice when I was about nine or ten, but I remember it more as a chance to play dress up than a pious practice. My strongest memory of it was a distinct perception (real or not) of holier-than-thouness from the ladies who did.  Now that the Motu Proprio has been around for a decade, I am seeing many of my peers begin to veil. Not only do most of the women--young and old-- at the local Tridentine Mass veil, as to be expected, but some of my best friends do as well. Even my two sisters-in-law who don't even go to a Latin Mass on the regular walk into church sporting lovely lace over their heads.  At first I thought it was just peer pressure telling me I needed to go buy a mantilla. But a nagging voice (oh hey there, conscience) has been bothering me for over a year, and after this past ...