The Knights of Columbus has been a beacon of light in the pro-life movement since the very beginning. They are an organization of Catholic men that are both nationally and locally passionately devoted to the cause of the unborn.  I…

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is now the Republican candidate for Vice-president. This news made the women I know — pro-life, fiscally conservative, desperate to have a good female role model in politics for our daughters — extremely happy and…

“Are they all yours?”

I get asked that question at least twice a week these days.  It doesn’t bother me very much since I realize that having seven children makes me a bit unique by societal norms. I can’t imagine why…

In a movie landscape dotted with such heavy-on-the-boy themes as Iron Man and Speed Racer, the first American Girl feature film looms as a breath of fresh girl-powered fun. The first feature film based upon the popular American Girls book series…

Summer is just such a wonderful time of year. The weather is warm and inviting, the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming. Unfortunately with this lovely warm weather comes a barrage of skin both attractive and unattractive. In…

Since he was old enough to articulate it, Ryan has wanted to be a priest. He has played Mass in the most reverent way possible since he was six years old. For a long time he had, permanently, set up an altar on my coffee table using pieces from his sister's tea set, a stack of white handkerchiefs from his father's drawer and my crocheted table runner. He would express his great displeasure whenever I walked past my own coffee table and did not genuflect.

I had the holiest coffee table in town.

When he got a little older, I purchased the lovely Mass Kit from Our Father's House and I taught him the proper names of all of the pieces. He used his First Communion robe as an alb and I had one happy kid. Other boys dream of becoming a short stop for the New York Yankees. My autistic son dreamed of conferring sacraments. He wanted to assist at Mass, even though he was too young to serve. He wanted to sing hymns all day and his favorite outdoor activity was to walk around the perimeter of our large yard praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Catholics and the rosary.  They go together like ham and cheese, love and marriage, salvation and redemption.  OK, so that was a little off-beat but then, so are a lot of rosaries.

Every Friday night will find my family here at my house or at the home of one of four other families consuming pizza and praying the rosary.  This rosary group has existed for about fifteen years and my family has been a member for about nine.  We gather in the evening and the hosting family provides pizza while the other families contribute soda, juice, wine and, when not in Lent, desserts.  We eat and then settle down to pray together.

Catholics and the rosary. They go together like ham and cheese, love and marriage, salvation and redemption.  Ok, so that was a little off-beat but then, so are a lot of rosaries.

Every Friday night will find my family here at…

Nearly three years ago I was happily pregnant with my sixth child when I went to the doctor's office for my first ultrasound.  I was ten weeks along and I was so looking forward to my first glimpse of this…

On December 16, 1998 I became something I never expected to be. I became the mother of a disabled child.  On that day, in a dreary hospital office of a "leading" children's neurologist, my then, three year old son Ryan…