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Why I Love Being Catholic: Anni from ​A Beautiful Camouflaged Mess
Can you believe we’ve gone through a whole year of the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series? The time has flown. My last interview is with one of my favorite bloggers out there. Anni from A Beautiful Camouflaged Mess rounds out the year for us. I’m so excited to feature her! Anni is a military…
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Do Catholics Even Read the Bible?
Back when I was a Protestant, one of the many things I believed about Catholics was that they didn’t read the Bible. I believed that the Catholic Church didn’t even want Catholics to read it. I heard that Catholics chained Bibles down in their “Dark Age” churches. I’d heard that the Bible just wasn’t that…
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The Year I Saw Santa Claus and the Thrill of the Season
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was a magical night. Some of my dearest memories are from those special evenings with my family. Everyone would show up at my grandparent’s house before dinner was ready. The house always smelled like heaven–baking food, pine, and candles. My grandmother always had the house beautifully decorated and…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Beth Anne from Beth Anne’s Best
Here we are at the end of November, but before we fully usher in the Advent season and December I want to bring you November’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. This month, I bring you Beth Anne from BethAnnesBeth.com. Beth is a blogger, but she also has another talent that she…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling in Philadelphia
In 2015, my family and I attended the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. It’s a week-long meeting full of great speakers, break-out sessions, and fellowship with Catholics from all over the world. At the end of the week, you celebrate Mass with the pope out in the open with thousands of Catholics. It was…
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A Late Night Conversation With My Teen Daughters About Abortion
Tonight, I mindlessly looked out my living room window for about 30-minutes trying to figure out how to start this blog. Honestly, what more can be said on the topic of abortion that hasn’t already been said? Is there anything new I could possibly bring to the conversation? Don’t I wish I had the magic…
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Help! My Marriage Has “Lost That Loving Feeling!”
Recently, I’ve had a lot of people private message me about their marriages. They are writing about marriages that have lost affection, ones that are void of love, and marriages that are teetering over the edge of a cliff poised to fall into destruction. It’s heartbreaking. There is a real and true pain that comes…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Leslie From Life in Every Limb
Fall is here and that means it’s time for October’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. This month, I’m happy to bring you Leslie from Knoxville, Tennessee who runs the website “Life in Every Limb.” I got acquainted with Leslie on social media probably about three years ago and I’ve always enjoyed…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling to Charlottesville, Virginia
Sitting on our porch swing in Virginia. In 2012, our military family moved across the country from the desert of California to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia. It didn’t take long for my heart to fall in love with this town. Our family lived just a little…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Dan Mattson from the Documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills”
The male interview for September is Daniel Mattson. The first time I ever heard of him was when my husband and I watched the free documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills.” It’s a very well done documentary that talks with three different individuals who struggle with same-sex attraction but are now committed to living a…
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Celibacy Does Not Lead Catholic Priests to Commit Sexual Crimes
Sometimes I get so riled up about an issue that it’s a good thing I have three kids to keep me occupied, otherwise I’d be prone to blasting off angry blogs. Yesterday was one of those days where the good Lord had to pull back on the reins because I was ready to bust out…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Jennifer of Fiore Design Studio
September is here! Fall is in the air and we have a new voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Jennifer of Fiore Design Studio joins us this month and I’m excited to feature an artist. I can’t draw a straight line, so I’m always so expressed with those that create with their…
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Raising Capable Kids Means Sometimes I Need To Back Off
A few weeks ago, while my husband was on TDY (military business trip), someone broke into my car. As I was going out the next morning to drive my daughters to practice, I opened up the car and noticed that everything in the middle console was strewn out everywhere. The intruders didn’t take a single…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling In the Heart of Washington DC–Part One
For three years, our family was stationed in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville is a short drive from DC, so during our stay, we spent a lot of time exploring our nation’s capital. There is so much to do in DC that it would take me forever to list out all the things I’d recommend to do.…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Laura From A Single Drop In the Ocean
Can you believe that August is already here? The summer definitely flew by, but before the summer completely winds down, I’d like to introduce August’s interview for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Please meet Laura who is the face behind the website “A Single Drop in the Ocean.” One thing I really admire…
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An Atheist’s Question: How Can You Possibly Believe in Noah and the Great Flood?
Recently, I’ve been having a back and forth with an atheist and he’s thrown out a ton of questions, but I told him we can only take one topic at a time. It’s hard to debate and discuss multiple topics in person, let alone on Facebook Messenger. I’ll present his question in his words and…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling Down Highway 1 in California
Back in 2012, my family was living in California. Now, before you go and get all jealous thinking we were living the lap of luxury on a beach somewhere–think again. We were stationed at Edwards AFB which is smack dab in the middle of the Mojave Desert and there is no civilization around it. None.…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Desiree From Green Catholic Burrow
We are nearing the end of July, but before we do, Desiree from the Green Catholic Burrow is here to tell us why she loves being Catholic. Desiree is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. As I read her answers, I had to go ask her one more question: What was it that converted…
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Q & A: Does the Church Only Allow Catholics to Marry Other Catholics?
A few weeks ago, I was asked about my thoughts on whether Catholics should marry people who aren’t Catholic. Since I’ve been moving, I haven’t had the chance to really sit down and write my thoughts out. I’ve finally found a few moments between the boxes, painting, and organizing our new home. First, I wasn’t…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: My Husband, Dustin
{UPDATED} So, I roped my husband into being July’s male voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. Part of the package deal of being the spouse of a blogger is being interviewed from time-to-time. Lol! Truly, though, I wanted to share Dustin’s thoughts on Catholicism because he is one of the smartest people…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Amy from Prayer Wine Chocolate
June’s female voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series is totally awesome because, like me, she is named Amy. All people named Amy are automatically awesome people, right? Amy is the founder of the website prayerwinechocolate.com. She is just an awesome woman who writes a lot about her journey of adopting three beautiful children.…
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It’s Time To Reclaim our Families
One afternoon when I was young, my brother, sister, and I lugged this gigantic box out onto our back patio. My parents had just bought a new dryer and here was this huge box full of possibilities. Something had to be done with this great box; to leave it by the trash pick-up seemed like…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling To Las Vegas
I will never forget how I felt when we crested the hill that overlooks the entire city of Las Vegas back in December of 2015. I’d been to Vegas a few times before but now I was coming to live here. After coming from my beloved Virginia, it felt surreal to see all the lights stretched…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Fouad Abou-Rizk of Humanitarian Prayers
Don’t you just love when you find great people doing great things? Of course you do. That’s why you are going to love reading May’s male voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series. His name is Fouad and he is a Lebanese-American living in Winston-Salem, NC. I came across Fouad when he joined a blogging…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Lexie from 4 The Love of Lexie
I’m one of those people that can appreciate beautiful things, but I struggle to create beautiful things myself. May’s female voice for the “Why I Love Being Catholic” series is Lexie. She’s a young, energetic, creative woman who has a keen eye for all things beautiful and she’s pretty crafty. I really enjoyed her honest answers and when I…
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My Journey: Living Together Before Marriage
When my husband and I were first dating, we literally spent all our time together. You know how it is in those first new days. It’s intoxicating. When we started dating it was the second semester of our junior year and classes just got in the way. Homework? What homework? All we wanted to do…
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So, You’ve Struggled To Read Through the Bible? You’re Not Alone.
When I was a teen, I’d get a sudden burst of inspiration to read through the whole Bible. I’d grab my Bible, open it to Genesis and dive in with enthusiasm. Genesis and Exodus I found particularly interesting, probably because a lot of its contents are covered in the movie The Ten Commandments, so I…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Kedon from Kid Catholic
I’m so excited to bring you April’s male voice. Kedon is the youngest person I’ve interviewed. I was first introduced to Kedon when I opened my Seton Homeschooling Magazine a few months back. His family was the featured family for the month and I discovered that Kedon runs a Youtube channel where he speaks about the…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Michelle of the Give Him 5 Ministry
(Update: Michelle passed away on July 10th, 2018. If you are reading this, please offer up a prayer for her and her family.) I’m so happy to bring you April’s featured woman, Michelle, of Give Him 5 Ministry. Michelle was prompted to start her ministry to encourage people to give Christ at least five minutes…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling At the Grand Canyon
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I If the sum of all our praises still falls shyThen we’ll sing again a hundred billion times. God of Your promiseYou don’t speak in vain, no syllable empty or void. For once You have spoken all nature and science follow the sound of Your voice. –Hillsong  …
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If I Could Have Met Christ In Gethsemane
One of the moments in Christ’s earthly life that I reflect on the most is when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Aside from the Crucifixion, it’s one of the most emotionally stirring accounts of Christ for me. I think it’s because in a small way, I can relate to Christ in that…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Joseph From Kansas City
I’m so excited to bring you March’s featured guy, Joseph. His wife, Chloe, was January’s female voice on why she loves being Catholic. I was listening to a podcast they did together on Chloe’s podcast “Letters To Women” and I found myself smiling the whole time listening to them share their love story. While listening,…
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How The World Gets God’s Unconditional Love Wrong
On social media there is a figure who calls himself “God.” I’m not sure who is behind this persona, but I’ll just refer to that person as “he” to make things easy. This person that presents himself as “God” is not a believer. Recently, I saw a meme by “God” that attempted to speak about God’s…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Laura of Healing Heart of Jesus
It’s so easy in this world to become jaded and think that everything is going to the dogs. The news makes us think that people are becoming worse and worse. Then you read about someone like March’s featured lady, Laura, and you feel renewed in your faith in humanity. Laura runs the website Healing Heart of Jesus…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling in Phoenix, Arizona
A big ole seguaro cactus. Native to the area. This past week, my daughter’s gymnastics meet saw us rolling down the road through the Sonoran Desert to Phoenix, Arizona. We didn’t have much time in Phoenix, but we did hit up some pretty cool spots and if you are a Catholic Pilgrim traveling there, I…
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The Parkland Tragedy and My Thoughts On Our Nation’s Response
Before I start with my thoughts on the tragedy in Parkland, I need to take care of some basic truths about me. I am a conservative Independent. I did not vote for Trump. I praise him when he does something good, I criticize him when he acts a fool. Nor did I vote for Clinton.…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Br. Anthony Freeman a Seminarian in Rome
Update: Br. Anthony Freeman passed away on April 2, 2018, on Easter Monday. He died peacefully in his sleep. I know that I am not alone in saying that he will be missed. Thankfully, we have all gained a powerful intercessor. Please pray for the repose of his soul and for his family members and friends who…
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Believe It or Not, I Fell In Love With Going to Church
After my middle child “retired” from gymnastics, she wanted to try out different sports. She chose volleyball first and after learning the game, she was invited onto the traveling team. She was pretty excited, as was I, seeing as I played volleyball growing up. The coach set up an orientation meeting with the new parents…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely
This February, I want to feature one of my favorite bloggers. Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely, is the real deal. She is open, honest, vulnerable, and amazingly faithful. She encourages me in my walk of faith and I so enjoy what she brings to the table. Sara is a prayer warrior and IÂ have found much…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling In San Diego
San Diego. One of my favorite places in the United States. Old Town in San Diego My family started vacationing in San Diego back when I was a teen and it immediately became one of my favorite cities. So, as a Catholic Pilgrim where should you go, what should you see, and is there any…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Todd From Massachusetts
For my featured series on “Why I Love Being Catholic,” I really wanted to express some guys’ voices on here about why they love being Catholic. So, each month, I hope to have a woman and a man answer that question for us. Men see things in differently and have different ways of conveying their experiences and perspectives.…
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Giving the World Our Best By Kicking Out Low Expectations
When I was young, I tended to be somewhat of a loner at school. I was not a cool kid, I didn’t have name-brand stuff, didn’t flirt with boys, loved playing outdoors with the boys, and just in general walked to my own tune. This caused me to be left out and made fun of…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Chloe from Old Fashioned Girl
This year I’m featuring Catholics and asking them why they love being Catholic. The first gal up this year is Chloe. Chloe and I became connected when she interviewed me about miscarriage on her podcast “Letters to Women.” I found out she lives in Kansas, my home state. Her husband went to Kansas State University, which…