Elizabeth Foss and I are beginning to get excited about our upcoming book, Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Think. Pray Act. Every Day.



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My good friend and colleague Rachel Balducci has had an exciting day today. While she has to wait just a bit longer to hold her new bundle of baby in her arms, today the FedEx man delivered her new bundle of BOOK!

How Do You Tuck In a Superhero?: And Other Delightful Mysteries of Raising Boys is a fabulously funny and touchingly real collection of the kind of witty, faith-filled, fun-filled tales of raising boys we know and love from Rachel’s celebrated history of writing online.

I am so pleased and proud for my friend today. Please come on over and give her some congratulations. Right after you order your copy, of course.

Now’s your chance! Enter to win one of two copies of The Handbook for Catholic Moms we’re giving away at Faith & Family Live this week.

“It wasn’t quite as bad as Pride and Prejudice.”

Calling all Catholic bloggers, podcasters, vidcasters, and webmasters!

Are you interested in receiving free Catholic books, DVDs, and gifts to review on your site?

Well then, The Catholic Company’s Reviewer Program is just the ticket! As a member of our Reviewer Program, you’ll have a chance to pick a free review product from a list of items currently available. We usually have 10 to 15 items to choose from, and they are always recent releases or relevant to current events. All we ask from you is to post an honest review of the product sent to you!

Get all the details.

Over at Faith and Family Live, Rebecca Teti is reviewing a new DK book featuring a behind the scenes look at the Vatican. And you can win a free copy for yourself. Go check it out and enter for your free chance to win!

Check out the latest version of Mom to Mom. How do you say “Cool!” in Polish?

Do you want one? I have 3 to give away. Just email me your mailing address. First come, first serve!

Update: All the books are gone now. Thanks!

I brought A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning along with me to the lake the other day.

That was silly. Between continual head counts, baby-chasing, and splash-fight refereeing, I never do get much reading done at the lake. I did manage to read a few snippets, though, and I realized that I have been greedily keeping this book to myself, instead of doing my part to share it by recommending it to others.

I think I have always figured that everyone knows about this book already. But I’m sure some don’t. Especially those who aren’t homeschoolers might not be familiar with it, but I think there’s plenty for all kinds of mothers to glean from the pages of this gem of a book.

“Companion” is a good word for the title of this book. Ever since my ever-wise older sister recommended A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning to me, this book has been a regular and much-appreciated companion to this homeschooling mom.

I probably only pull it out once or twice a year, but each time I do, it rejuvenates me. Andreola is not Catholic, but she is a Christian who takes her faith and her motherhood seriously. In gentle, persuasive style, she convinces readers to try to be better mothers, to be better wives, and to nurture happier families. With chapters on nature studies, sibling bickering, Shakespeare, music, habit-forming, child training, and “mother culture,” this book is the perfect one to pick up as a means of inspiration and encouragement at the start of a new school year or any time a mom feels burned out and overwhelmed.

Yesterday, after a day where it felt like my children’s tempers and impatience were feeding my own, these were exactly the words I needed to read while watching my children swim and play in the lake:

Virtues, like flowers, grow in the sunshine. You can cultivate them or draw them out with love and reason, but you can neither force nor whip them into existence.

Amen to that. Homeschooler or not, Charlotte Mason devotee or not, if you are a mother, you’ll want to get yourself a copy of this lovely “companion.”