On the 50th anniversary of a British longitudinal social study, researchers have revealed that the years of collected data indicate that a child whose parents are divorced is more likely to struggle academically, emotionally and in future relationships of their…

I usually say the Rosary one decade at a time, sprinkling it throughout my day as I putter along through whatever challenges I find myself facing.  Because of this, I sometimes find myself adding an extra Hail Mary to whatever…

There is an adage that advises a young person to choose to work at a job he loves and he’ll never work a day in his life. It’s one of those sayings that is cloaked in shades of gray. The…

  There are three letters that form one little word that has been, until recently, plaguing me.  It has been popping up at the most annoying times, coming out of my three-year-old’s mouth with an insistence that is rivaled only…

 I went to the UPS store to see about mailing a set of electrical adapter plugs to my son in Rome. The bearded man behind the counter greeted me with a brusque, “We can’t mail liquids.”

I looked around because it…

“What a relief. After two decades of growth, childhood obesity rates have finally leveled off!”

“Ah, yes, you speak of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Based on data gathered from 1999 to 2006 by…

The neighborhood pool is filled to almost overflowing. Chairs are scrubbed and arranged neatly on the decks; everything is at the ready. It’s nearly summertime. And just as surely as the pool will open on Memorial Day, family schedules and…

Most everyone is familiar with the Bible story of Mary and Martha in Luke’s Gospel narrative. Jesus visits 2 sisters, Mary and Martha.  Martha is very busy with serving while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to the Master.…

‘Tis spring, the season of garage sales, and I am a garage sale convert.  Not that I am expecting to throw my own garage sale, mind you, but early Saturday mornings I leave my husband watching the children finishing up…

Heading out for an all day, multi-family excursion to the beach, I tossed a bottle of sunscreen to the back of the van and told the kids to lather up.  Twelve hours later my nine-year-old was crying in pain as…

My friend Jen knows how to get a rise out of me. All she has to do is send an e-mail with a link to a news story about tweens.

Last week, she found an article about the new trend among…

Maybe it's just me, but in our modern age family life seems to have been thrown into the back seat of a fast-moving minivan.  Parents and kids alike are living as though life were a drag race, speeding past historical…

On Saturday evening my six year old daughter Theresa ran shrieking down the stairs. I thought someone had gotten hurt and I rushed to her at once. There were no injuries but there was elation and a dangling baby tooth on the bottom of her gums — her first dangling baby tooth.

"It's almost ready! It's almost ready! "She cried excitedly. I had to agree. As she eagerly jumped up and down I hugged her and told her, "This could be it!" Then I steered her toward her father. He is the baby tooth expert, after all. Seven siblings before Theresa have climbed on Daddy's lap to have their first loose teeth examined.  And seven children have climbed off that same lap with one less tooth.

The other day I fell into a pit of despair.  Okay, honestly, I didn't fall.  I wasn't even pushed.  I flung myself in!  I had been wrestling for weeks over a decision about co-curricular activities for one of my kids, and before I knew it I had reached the end of my emotional rope.  So, I jumped, headlong, into the rocky pit of despair, and had a nice little breakdown.  It wasn't so much the circumstances as the feeling they were causing me to have that threw me over the brink; feelings of inadequacy, feelings of having failed my child, and that meaning that as a mom I was worthless.  A total wash up.  In the midst of my carrying on, the Holy Spirit visited me with a word picture.

Interruptions seem to be an integral part of motherhood.  Just as I plunge my hands into a sink of dirty dishwater, my daughter tells me that the baby needs his diaper changed.  Or a toddler comes and says he needs his shoe tied.  Or wants his bumped head kissed.  As my children grow older, the types of interruptions change.  Happy seven-year-olds want to prattle about everything under the sun just as I reach the most suspenseful chapter in the mystery I'm reading; emotional teenagers will want to talk and sob and talk some more just as I'm getting ready for bed (so I'm told they will; we don't have any teens yet in my house).  I'm sure that as long as I own a telephone, my children will manage to rearrange my scheduled day as blithely as they do now.  Nor do mothers have a copyright on interruptions; every office worker who uses a phone — and everyone under the sun who carries a cell phone — can recognize the extreme annoyance that interruptions can bring.

Gas prices change our habits.  Friends who live half an hour from us were heading on a vacation trip yesterday.  They happened to have both vans near our home but were leaving in the opposite direction.  To save an hour's time and gas, they called us yesterday, "Can we park our 2^nd van at your house for the week?"

We said yes.  No one has asked us something like that before.  But I think we will all grow more accustomed to such calls.  They dropped off the van and commented if we needed to borrow it for an emergency, no problem.

This morning, I was heading out of state to teach for the morning.  Our kids had early swimming, and I took them on my way out of town.  Our plan was for my husband to pick them up when they were finished to get them home.  

Are you married now? Or just thinking about it? "What have you done for your marriage today?" is the question the Catholic Church is asking you, whether you're dating, engaged, newlywed or a mature couple at the new Web site www.foryourmarriage.org from the U.S. Catholic bishops.

"Healthy marriages are the bedrock of our church and our society," said Archbishop-elect Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, chairman of the bishops' Marriage and Family Life Committee. "The church seeks to do all it can to encourage what goes into a solid marriage: prayer, fidelity, commitment, and the little things that count."

Well, heading deep into week three of the Great No-TV-For-Lent, Gotta-Read-Five-Hours-A-Week-Or-No-Pizza-Party Experiment. (My original post about this idea is here: http://mommymonsters.blogspot.com/2008/01/fighting-to-win-lenten-pledge.html.)

I'm delighted to report that, while I've yet to get them to embrace fully my "five different types of…

My daughter saunters into the kitchen, her head wrapped in a wet towel, her body swaddled in an oversized fleece bathrobe. "What are you thinking?" I say. "Your date for the dance is going to be here any minute."

Looking at…

The other day Lisa Hendy sent me a request from an adoptive mother, who wanted to buy a book to help her tell her adopted child how he entered their family. I found some good pointers for parents at this site.…

Lent is approaching quickly. We literally just took down the Christmas tree. I'm still finding stray ornaments and ribbons here and there. But soon, it will be time to drape the religious pictures and icons and statues in purple and…

"Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho! Joshua fought the battle of Jericho! And the walls came tumbling down!"

I can still see the scene in my mind's eye: the cafeteria of St. Mary's School, surreal to me at night,…

They look so innocent, so pure. They weigh next to nothing, and to a boy, armed with a metal implement, victory seems certain.

My boys looked at them this afternoon and immediately assumed the swagger of victory assured and anticipated.

"We'll shovel,…

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…

Appalachian State versus the University of Michigan. A small college from the hills of North Carolina against my colossal alma mater in Ann Arbor, the school with the winningest record in NCAA football history and ranked fifth in the nation.

Most…

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…

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." –Burton Hillis (Better Homes and Gardens)

With the approach of Christmas, this week is the perfect time to slow down…

I am blessed to live in a multicultural parish.  The five thousand families who are my fellow parishioners come from a broad cross section of traditions and backgrounds.  We celebrate parish festivals with Mariachis, Portuguese sausages, Filipino dishes and a…

When I was pregnant with our fifth child, our family developed a special devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When we began our dedication we did not even know what she looked like!

During the summer of that year, we learned…

This week, Catholic families will begin to prepare our hearts and homes to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ by commencing the season of Advent.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Catholic families have a unique opportunity…

On a recent Sunday we piled in a pew behind a lovely lady I know from the Christian Mothers group at my parish.  She was with her husband, with whom she had raised six wonderful children.  She fussed over the…

Almost thirteen years ago a doctor placed our newborn baby boy in Dave's arms.  He welled up (he denies this) and looked up at me with love in his eyes and said one word….

"Football."

I smiled gently; I was too tired…

On the way home from piano lessons one day, my girls and I got into a discussion of prayer and grace. We were talking about why we pray, how prayer helps us. I told them to imagine that their soul…

As we embark upon another year of holiday celebrations and commence our new Liturgical year with the season of Advent, it is good to reflect upon the many blessings that fill our lives.  While Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, it…

Recently, my poor Kevin was up with a cough. It was one of those relentless, croupy coughs that all parents are familiar with and dread.  After a long session in a steamy bathroom and several barfing incidents that left us…

I was walking into the dance school office to pay our daughters' tuition and order some sweatshirts for a Christmas performance. The girls had just finished their first rehearsal, and I was grateful that the office was open on a…

Events such as this week's unfortunate California wildfires are reminders to us that we all need to take proactive steps to have family emergency preparedness plans in place in the event of a disaster, storm, or emergency. Watching families depart…

It happens every day at 3:20 p.m. I brace myself behind the kitchen counter, the door opens and I defend myself with apples, peanut butter and pretzels.

They mow through them like linebackers then retreat to their rooms where they unburden…

If something is broken around here I know that one of the boys did it. I don't even have to ask. The girls would never do such a thing. If they break something, they tell me. If the boys break…

Because the strict and loving homes my husband and I came from were environments where our parents were very much in control, the concept of a "problem child" seemed like an oxymoron. We were all obedient children, loving children. No…

I've been slightly stumped this week on article topics, so in a moment of enlightenment I turned to a very erudite gentleman and asked for his suggestion on a "family finance" topic. His prompt response:

"Spend time with your family,…

He had on his pirate cape, his pirate hat…and a pink purse slung over his right shoulder. He was ready for action.

Until the ants attacked.

Little girls keep tissue, lip gloss and hair barrettes in their purses. Little pirates keep…

When the kids aren't present sometimes judgment falters and we parents do things that maybe we shouldn't.

When I was ten years old I had a skateboard. My father found it in the garage and, perhaps feeling a bit younger than…

Forget hiring one of those beefy personal trainers at the gym. My new fitness guru is my two-year-old nephew Patrick. "Little P" came to Fresno this week while his parents are traveling. Since his arrival, I have yet to make…

It's that time of year again. I half expect to hear Target announce my arrival when I walk into the store with the kids in tow.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 13th running of the Back-To-School Derby for the…

This weekend, I plan to visit Scotland. A few months ago, our family had dinner in Greece and during the late summer we actually time traveled to medieval England. Frequent flier miles and passports? No — just a calendar filled…

This week, I spent two evenings at large local college fairs representing my Alma Mater, the University of Notre Dame. As our community's local Alumni Schools Coordinator, it is my volunteer responsibility to attend these events in lieu of our…

I decided to eat healthy. Two hours later I got the results back from a blood test declaring that I am a prime candidate for a heart attack. Is there a better sign that eating healthy is the right direction…

Yesterday, for my Catholic Moments Podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Mark Hart, one of my favorite authors. It continuously amazes me that busy, talented people will take time out of their day to share their thoughts and ideas…

I love visiting family, but I've done a lot of thinking and I now know why my little ones are like mice on speed once we arrive at our destination.

When families travel the children sleep but the parents don't. We…