It’s been forever and a day… I know, I know, I owe you all a birth story, name story and two birthday letters. But before we get to the fun stuff, lets also rejoice in the fact that our city just lifted its muzzle mandate. Whoops—did I just say muzzle? I meant, mask! The new order ideal of “build back better” is erected on the crumbling foundation of tolerance and pseudo-kindness.  This is the same foundation that other people think is strong enough to justify their demanding questions and passive aggressive comments about basically anything.  Now, I honestly don’t have the gumption ..read more

We’ve all heard it… “just you wait… until you get married, have one kid, or two—you won’t sleep! You’ll argue! You’ll never socialize again… yada yada yada. Finally, it’s assumed that that’s all a load of garbage, yet one pesky version seems to be sticking like glue. “Just wait until your kids are teenagers, they’ll hate you.” “Little kids, little problems big kids, BIG PROBLEMS” “Enjoy it now before they never talk to you again!” “You won’t even want to know what they’re doing on the computer” “You know, they’re cute now but if you keep having them, you will be miserable in a home full of tee ..read more

My dear Winston, You turned three a long five weeks ago and unlike last year when we moved and daddy promoted, this year all I can blame the lateness of this post on is the everyday hum-drum of life which has been oddly busy. I say oddly because 2020 is a weird time where life outside our social bubble is seemingly canceled due to the illness du-jour. But for us, life is thriving. We see our friends, we play at the park, and we host (and attend) parties of all sorts. This past year, you have grown so much that I, along with many others, forget that you have just turned three, not five. Last ye ..read more

Tradition and modernism cannot coincide. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. On that positive note, this post is neither easy nor fun to write, but to continue to put off what God has been so clearly speaking to my heart would, at this point, be sinful. My journey as a Secular Carmelite has come to an end. After joining the Third Order in February 2017, I will be hanging up my big brown scapular once and for all. Not only was this a difficult decision for me, but one that I’m honestly angry I had to make. I said it before and I’ll say it again, modernism is a spoiled fruit of the devil h ..read more

I have debated on whether or not to keep up the blog, because I’m not sure what I say really matters in the long run. I don’t have a fancy degree in theology or other graduate study, I don’t have a super successful side hustle or beautiful ancient home that I am carefully renovating. I think the most exciting thing about me is that I’m not very exciting at all. And I love that about me! Every once and while, I’ll get some positive feedback by some fellow anti-modernists, or someone asking for info on cloth diapers so it is nice to point them to some of the things I’ve written many moons (or ch ..read more

Dear Declan, We just celebrated your first birthday and darn, I did not get any pictures of you on the day! Some will say it’s simply because you’re the third baby, but I say it’s because we were too busy loving on you all day long that not a moment was wasted. You know, sometimes your dad and I say we actually feel badly for your brothers because neither of them was lavished with love and affection the way you have been! Your entrance to the world was uneventful, but your first week was definitely for the books. Brennan got a tick-borne illness and had to be rushed to the hospital 2.5 hours ..read more

Dear Brennan, The lateness of this letter just goes to show it is not only subsequent children that get the brunt of mom’s scattered brain at times… Happy 4th Birthday! This year, we celebrated your birthday on house arrest due to coronavirus but we still made it a great day with cinnamon buns, an egg-free cake, and a new swing set! This has been your healthiest year yet with only monitoring a few kidney-related things via bloodwork. We are so incredibly proud of what you overcome each day. In your fourth year, we welcomed baby Declan, we moved to Fort Leavenworth, then realized we simply cou ..read more

It’s an uncanny feeling—writing someone else’s conversion story. Usually these types of stories are told first hand in a specific-to-the-teller sort of way because coming to Faith after a lifetime (whether that’s as a child, teen, or adult) is always a unique journey. I can only hope that through the help of the Blessed Mother, I am a worthy conduit to share this story with you all. The Backstory Bruce’s vocation was a husband to my mother, Linda, and father to me. My parents married in 1990 and I came along three years later. Though they shared the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage, my father wa ..read more

“So, what IS NFP?” I asked our priest during one (of two) premarital meetings. “Oh, erm, a sort of natural birth control you can use so you don’t have too many kids.” The Monsignor replied. That, my friends, was my introduction to world of Catholic Birth Control. Now before you modernists get all up in arms about my misuse of the term birth control, that is exactly how NFP had been presented to us. And to be quite honest, that is how many women within the Body of Christ present it—while they may not say the words “birth control” their flippant comments about avoiding children to the point of b ..read more

By now, my family’s return to the Traditional Catholic faith is no secret. Some folks call it a phase, some call it goofy or “too much” but surprisingly no one has asked what we are turning from— as it is assumed today that there lies a certain amount of relativism within Church walls where one is free to choose his or her own adventure. This ambiguity was one of the biggest problems of the second Vatican Counsel and is arguably the reason why the church faces crisis today. In one group, you have thousands of people leaving Catholicism at alarming rates—rates the USCCB are able to cover up due ..read more