Whenever life gets a little crazy and stressful, and even when it isn’t, my escapist pastime is to read. During the pandemic I read a lot a lot a lot. There were definitely perks to being very pregnant and having nowhere to go. But even now that we’re in the full swing of life with five kids, I always manage to make time for reading. You could say that it’s a vital part of my self-care routine.
Continue reading “When Life gets Crazy, Just Read”Category: My favorite things
Franz and Franziska Jagerstatter: A Beautiful Story of Marriage
“Greetings in God, dearly beloved husband!“
“Greetings in God, most beloved wife and mother!“
Have you heard of the 2019 movie A Hidden Life? Written and directed by Terrence Malick, it tells the story of Franz Jagerstatter, an ordinary Austrian farmer who was caught on the wrong side of WWII. When Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, young Franz was called away to military duty by the Nazi regime. During the months of military training and later imprisonment, Franz and his wife Franziska exchanged several letters. Following his training, the time came for Franz to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi regime. Franz courageously followed his conscience and refused to sign the oath, even though he knew his decision meant certain death for him and much suffering for the young family he was leaving behind. Ultimately (spoiler alert), Franz was martyred for his beliefs in 1943. Franz is currently on his way to becoming a canonized saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Continue reading “Franz and Franziska Jagerstatter: A Beautiful Story of Marriage”Reading in the Time of Quarantine
Photo by Jordan Christian on Unsplash
Reading is my passion and my comfort. Especially in these times of anxiety and uncertainty, I love to escape with a good book. If you, like me, are always looking for the next great read, check out my list of favorite books. I hope you find one or two gems here!
Continue reading “Reading in the Time of Quarantine”Watch this: The Nativity Story
Merry Christmas, dear friends! We are now right in the middle of the Christmas season, which ends on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6). So while it looks like I’m publishing this post a tad late, it’s not late at all!
One of our favorite (and easy) traditions during Christmas is to watch movies. It’s not something that we do often, so it’s truly a treat to gather together under cozy blankets and watch family movies while drinking hot chocolate. While there are a few good movies which capture the spirit of the season (It’s a Wonderful Life and The Sound of Music are musts), for a while there weren’t any movies which actually told the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Isn’t it strange and sad that among the myriad of so-called Christmas movies, hardly any of them mention the reason for the season?
Continue reading “Watch this: The Nativity Story”How to Observe Advent like a Boss
Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash.
For those of us who live on this (commercialized) part of the planet, we often confuse the end of Hallowe’en with the beginning of the Christmas season. Secular Christmas decorations show up in the stores before we put the carved pumpkins in the garbage bin. People excitedly begin to light up their homes and radio stations start playing Christmas tunes. All of which make my inner Grinch come out.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas like any normal, Jesus-loving person does, and I do love the lights and the trees and all the feasting. But did you know that before Christmas there is the beautiful, month-long season of Advent? Advent is a time of contemplative preparation, a time of anticipation of the epic event that is the birth of our Savior. As someone once explained to me, Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. I love the idea that we can unite ourselves with Mary and accompany her as she patiently awaits the arrival of her precious baby. Having had the privilege of happily awaiting the birth of each of my children, I keenly feel the sacredness of this expectant season and I wish for our family to enjoy it as fully as possible.
Continue reading “How to Observe Advent like a Boss”My Favorite Marriage Books
A happy, healthy marriage is one of the greatest sources of happiness on earth (for married people, that is). While each and every marriage is unique, there are fundamental truths – such as love, respect and sacrifice – which must be understood and lived in order to enjoy a lifelong, fulfilling relationship. I also believe that we all need help to succeed at marriage, whether it’s from family, friends, courses, blogs, podcasts, books or therapy. In this post I share with you my favorite marriage books; I hope they are as helpful to your marriage or future marriage as they have been to us.
Continue reading “My Favorite Marriage Books”My Favorite Things: What is Leisure, Teaching Manners, why Graphic Novels count as Reading, and Bake this Cake
Starting the Homeschooling Year on the Right Foot
Have you heard of homeschooling burnout? Many moms experience it in the bleak month of February when the weather is frigid, noses are forever runny and it’s just been too many days of nonstop math and spelling. But not me! I actually burn out the second week of September. We haven’t even cracked open all the books and I already want to quit. I’ve thought a lot about why this happens to me. I’ve realized that I get incredibly ambitious and excited about our new academic goals, only to feel deflated and defeated when my offspring don’t share in either my ambitions or enthusiasm. Huh.
Continue reading “My Favorite Things: What is Leisure, Teaching Manners, why Graphic Novels count as Reading, and Bake this Cake”My Top 10 Foreign Films
I love foreign films. I love their originality, their honesty, their non-Hollywood budgets, and their normal-looking actors. If the film includes food, then even better. I present to you my current list of favorite foreign films. Some of the trailers are a little cheesy – it’s amazing how the quality of trailers has dramatically improved in the last decade. Enjoy!
Continue reading “My Top 10 Foreign Films”My Favorite Things – A podcast about love, dating advice, and I know what I’ll do this summer
Hello blog, it’s been a while. My husband went away on a business trip and then cycling across the gorgeous Canadian Rockies. It was definitely a bucket list item for him, so I’m super happy that he got to do it. In his absence, however, I went into survival mode; my greatest ambition was to keep the kids alive and take the occasional shower. But now my knight in shining armor is back and all is well.
Anyway, happy warm weather season! While it’s been the coldest, rainiest spring in years, it hasn’t kept us from venturing out on family bike rides and stone-skipping adventures. That is, when we’re not working on our wayward garden, aka our character-building activity.
Here are some of my favorite things this past month:
Continue reading “My Favorite Things – A podcast about love, dating advice, and I know what I’ll do this summer”From Across the Pond: My Top 10 British Films
This is the third and last post honoring British entertainment (check out my favorite novels and TV series). Without further ado, I humbly present to you my favorite British films.
Continue reading “From Across the Pond: My Top 10 British Films”