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Bloggers

Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Elizabeth Foss

Elizabeth Foss
Elizabeth Foss, an award winning columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald, published her first book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of My Home in 2003. The book is now in its third printing. Her popular blog, In the Heart of My Home is a source of inspiration and support for Catholic women …
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Sifting Through the Aftermath

Post Christmas Homemaking Coffee Talk

(Join each day’s Coffee Talk discussion: Mon: Parenting; Tues: Open Forum; Wed: NFP; Thu: Marriage; Fri: Education; Sat/Sun: Homemaking)

Our weekend forum is for discussing Homemaking.

Have a great craft idea? Want to share your favorite cleaning products? Have a super recipe to share? Want to ask a question or share a strategy for meal planning, family schedules, laundry techniques, or any other household dilemma? This is the place to do it.

Come on in and join the conversation!


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

How have you cut back and made Christmas more “simple”?  This year I made bath salts for all the ladies, they loved them, and it was an easy and fairly inexpensive project.  The biggest expense was the essential oils, but once you have them, they last quite a while.  I recycled glass jars and decorated them with doilies from the dollar store (3 in a package for 99cents).  I also cut back on the amount of baking I did.  No complaints from anyone. I just made sure I made the favorites!  A Blessed Christmas to you all!

 

Our Christmas was simpler this year in that I didn’t do nearly as much decorating—we are expecting #4 any day now, and the tree, outside wreaths and lights and a few decorations inside was what was ‘doable’ for our family.  Joan, when you said, ‘no complaints from anyone,’ same here—I think sometimes (or often!) our expectations of how things ‘should be’ are mostly self-imposed.

 

Katie and Joan,  I agree completely with your reflections that no one complained about having less.  Dh and I were talking this afternoon and agreed that although our Christmas was very scaled back this year, the kids didn’t even seem to notice!  We purchased several board games for family gifts and we had so much fun playing them together all day yesterday and most of the day today.

 

I promise I don’t work for the company wink—I just wanted to ‘put in a good word’ for a household appliance I received this Christmas.  A friend had recommended the cordless motorized swivel sweeper, so I took a chance and asked for one for Cmas. I’ve only had it 24 hours, but seems to work well picking up crumbs, fuzz and small bits of paper.  My kids have also had alot of fun using it.  It certainly won’t replace my vacuum, or do heavy cleanups, but is perfect for a quick touchup on my tile, laminate, and even our carpet.

 

I 2nd that!  We got one a month ago.  It really does work great and the kids still fight over who GETS TO sweep.

 

My big Christmas decorating triumph this year was to put all photos and photo cards we received on a small, about 3 ft tall, pre lit tree in a corner of our living room. I have these cute little clothespins, some are gingerbread kids and some are little trees which I used to attach the photos to the branches. Everyone loved it and it was a nice way to display them.

 

Does anyone get annoyed with receiving photo cards, particularly ones with “Seasons Greetings” on them and not religious Christmas cards each year? Just my opinion, but I think Christmas cards are a great way to remind everyone of the true meaning of the season. The photo cards are often unpersonalized and leave me wondering who people are celebrating, the birth of Christ or their families?

 

I love the photo cards so I can see how everyone has changed and show our friends how our family is growing.  I do notice when the greeting ignores the reason for Christmas but don’t think simply being a photocard ignores Christ.  One can choose a background that focuses on the meaning of Christmas and the greeting you have printed can speak to it as well.  As a Mom to 3, 3 and under, it’s nearly all I can do to address cards, never mind add extra inside.

 

Re: Photo Cards
Anonymous: I think we all need to remember that not all people think as we do, and have to respect however they wish to send out their greeting cards. I think the intention of sending cards is good, but not all people focus as Jesus as the Reason for the Season and we have to respect them.  We can give them a good example by the greeting cards we send.
Maureen: God Bless You, I remember when I had 3 under 3!!

 

I can’t get enough of this cranberry salsa recipe that my friend shared with me. And now with cranberries at .99 a bag! hello! It’s so festive looking and fresh and delicious. Recipe on my blog http://www.craftyscafe.blogspot.com

Also, I tried Annie’s Eats (blog) recipe for cranberry lemon scones and they, too, are out of this world. Incredibly light and flaky.

yeah for Christmas celebrations lasting until the 10th of january!

 

Since my husband had surgery on the first of the month, this Christmas was definately simpler.  I cut back on the number of gifts the children recieved.  We also limited decorations out, anticipating that the clean up will be after DH’s recovery period. Everyone seems to have taken to the changes, and I will continuing these things in the future.  Our focus definately has definately switched for the better.

 

I am loving the Bissell floor steamer that Danielle brought up some weeks ago on the blog. After reading customer reviews I ordered one on Amazon for my husband to give me for Christmas. This is the first time the white tile on the bathroom floor has really looked good since we moved here. Worked great on vinyl and hardwood floors too. Not much else in the house is clean right now but the floors look great.


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