My time updating this dear old blog is now at an end after many years. I am now working full-time as a children’s book editor and if you’d like to keep up with my writing you can find me over at Substack where I update at least once a week ..read more

  Every November, I used to create an annual Catholic gift guide. I spent days and days curating gifts by Catholic artisans and makers and it was a hit! But last year I did something different and I’ve decided to stick with this new tradition: working as a “Carrots community” to give a beautiful gift to a community in need.  Last year, as a community we raised $5,000 for women farmers in Haiti alongside Cross Catholic Outreach! That was amazing. This year, I want to support the good work of caring for pregnant women in desperate need of healthcare for themselves and for their babies ..read more

  It’s launch day for my brand new book. And when I woke up this morning, it was the #1 new release in Catholicism on Amazon! What an exciting way to start the day! Things seemed less auspicious after our cat eviscerated a bird she caught on the front porch, but I’m just going to ignore that and get back to celebrating the pub day of my little book. Here’s some thing you should know about this book I officially started writing it in 2020 after thinking about it for four years. I wrote it in my living room at 5am before my kids woke up, at the coffee shop, and at my favorite bookstore ..read more

Last October I did something I have never, ever done before. I went to Europe. I traveled to France and spent 10 days on pilgrimage with more than 50 other women, mostly Catholics, a mix of moms, marrieds, singles, teenagers, and grandmothers. If 2020 taught me anything, it’s to seize the day and so when the opportunity arose, Daniel and I figured out childcare and I flew to France with Select International Tours. We had daily Mass, visited gothic cathedrals, went sight seeing in Paris, walked in the footsteps of St. Therese in Lisieux and prayed at her tomb, stood in the square where St. Joa ..read more

For the past several Novembers I’ve created a small business gift guide here at Carrots for Michaelmas. I think this is a worthwhile endeavor, but this year, I’m not creating one. I’d like to do something different and I’m going to need your help. As we look toward the challenges of supply chain issues and the madness of holiday gift purchasing–what if we set all that aside to give a different kind of gift? What if we could help women who desperately need support? What if we could offer a gift of charity and generosity in a part of the world where it’s needed the most? I want to reach out to ..read more

If you haven’t been following on social media, you might not know that our family just began an exciting new adventure! My husband Daniel cut back his hours to part-time at the distillery (he makes and blends whisky) to become a full-time homeschooling parent and I am a full-time self-employed writer and creator.  I know many of you have been following for years and years, so I want to update you about our lives because you might care to know what’s going on with us! But I also know there are other families out there who are serious about nurturing family life but also desire to do creat ..read more

I’ve only written here on the blog a handful of times over the past year. I’ve popped in here and there, but mostly I’ve been quiet. Any creative energy has gone to other projects and this poor blog has been woefully neglected (and probably will continue to be). But one year seems like a milestone that simply must be processed. I have many exciting things to share about what’s ahead for our family, but first it only feels right to record the hard things. To remember.  One year ago I was flying home from LA from filming a video series for the Word on Fire Institute. The flight out to Cali ..read more

This post is sponsored by WellPet®, but the content and opinions expressed here are my own. On January 1st, 2020, a few weeks before Unprecedented Times, we brought a new puppy home just in time for a wild year and I’m so glad. Having an entertaining little (now enormous!) bundle of snuggles has been such a gift. In full disclosure, it had been more than 20 years since I trained a puppy and I had definitely forgotten how much work it is! But Samwise the Goldendoodle really is so precious and so loving with the kids. And he loves having his whole pack together during the homeschooling day.&nb ..read more

In 2016 I created my first Christmas gift guide post, so this is the 5th anniversary of the Carrots gift guide! Readers have requested a new guide each year and over time I’ve intentionally pivoted to including ONLY small businesses. This year we’ve all seen restaurants and storefronts close due to the pandemic. 2020 has hit small businesses so hard! This year more than ever it’s clear that we need to support them and help keep these makers and their families afloat. So I collaborated with 24 shops to put together this guide of products I think you and your families will love. Shop small and ..read more

I’m 35 years old today and feeling like some good old timey blogging. Not the shareable with viral potentional kind of blogging. Just the old fashioned here’s what’s going on in my brain type blogging. I’m writing this from my own hotel room: the best birthday gift imaginable for a homeschooling mom of four living in a tiny house and working from home six months in to a global pandemic. My husband Daniel surprised me with a room key yesterday afternoon, apparently he’s been planning it for ages. And now this is what I want every year: several hours of silence, novels, British murder mysteries ..read more