You Have A Choice: Talk To Those Who’ve Gone Before You

They say abortion is a women’s choice, however it seems to me many women choose abortion because they feel they don’t have any other choice. They are pressured by angry parents, unsupportive partners, persistent doctors, and well-meaning friends to terminate a pregnancy that will supposedly make life hard, or unbearable, for themselves and their unborn …

We Are All Burdens

Last week during one of my many scrolls through Facebook I came across an older article shared by a friend that talked about “finding God by welcoming the disabled”. A quote she shared from the article caught my eye and has stuck with me since. “So whether it is the disabled, the unborn, the elderly, …

Saving Money on Essential Oils

Essential oils are all the rage right now. Within a 24 hour period, I had two friends ask if I was interested in doing a review/ giveaway on the blog about their oils and I declined because I had just bought oils from a third friend a couple days prior. A search of Pinterest will …

The Hard Work of Choosing Joy; A Practical Guide

Despite feeling like I’d written everything I had to say about Spinal Muscular Atrophy, I decided I did  want to add one new post, based on a response I gave to a question on Jennifer Fulwiler’s radio show. She wanted to know how I could choose joy during the darkest times in my life. What …

My Moral Dilemma As A Catholic SMA Mom

Living life as a devout Catholic, one who feels that everything the Church teaches applies to your everyday life, is hard. At best, we are misunderstood, our decisions considered backward or misguided. At worst, the world can be unaccepting and hostile towards those who choose to make sacrifices and hard decisions based on matters of …

{SMA Awareness Month} A Six Year Journey

I don’t often write too deeply on Spinal Muscular Atrophy around here, but seeing as August is SMA awareness month I thought I would write a bit about my journey since that day, slightly more than six years ago when that acronym first entered our everyday lexicon. This year in particular I’ve reflected more on …

The Summer Bucket List For Underachievers

  About a month or so ago, they started popping up everywhere; Facebook, Buzzfeed, Pinterest, every lifestyle bloggers homepage- the nefarious ‘Summer Bucket List’.  And every single post was littered with smiling all American kid stock photos. If you created one of these and we’re friends, I’m totally not talking about you. I’m talking about …

Five Mother’s Day Crafts That Moms Actually Want

The latest issue of Highlights Magazine showed up at my house making BOLD promises. Oh great, more art projects to clutter up my school room and hold onto for years out of guilt. NO THANKS HIGHLIGHTS! I shared the photo on Instagram and the general consensus was most of us hate kids crafts. I mean …

The No ‘Poo Experiment Failure

Maybe it’s because I was feeling the Whole30 rush, or maybe I’d just spent one too many hours scrolling through Pinterest, I’m really not sure, but whatever the reason, I gave up shampoo about four weeks ago.And you know what?  My hair has never looked worse. Did you even know that going ‘No ‘poo’ is …

A Screen Time Contract: For When You Really Mean Business

This past Christmas, Santa got the three older kids Kindle Fires. I shot a great video of them opening their presents and screaming in disbelief.(Can you say- ear splitting?!?!) Up until very close to Advent, we’d always shut down their requests for personal electronic items. My husband and I only recently changed our minds. A …

{SQT} My Seven Reasonable Demands

Welcome Conversion Diary readers to the latest episode of Seven Quick Takes. I’m honored to be hosting this week as Jen continues her reign of airwave domination.If you’re not a regular reader in these parts, please excuse the lack of scorpion references and feminine cowboy hats. Rest assured that Jen would not trust me with …

Heroic Patience: The Ten Virtues of Mary

I originally offered to write on heroic patience as a joke. While I couldn’t think of anyone who was bragging about their ample supply of patience, it seemed there should be some other woman, made of stronger stuff, who could withstand the slings and arrows of daily life better than I, and who should be …

Halloween Costume Companies: WTH?

Halloween costume companies, this post is for you. Usually, I try to stay clear of all your over priced merchandise, but lately it seems you’re on a mission to drag my family into the moral vacuum of your wares. It started in July, freaking July, when my kids should still be excited about boardwalk food, …