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Faith & Family Live is where everyday moms offer one another inspiration, support, and encouragement in Catholic living. Anyone grappling with the meaning of life or the cleaning of laundry is welcome here. Read the blog, check out our magazine, join our community, learn more about our mission, and come on in! READ MORE

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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An Unfortunate Choice of Words

What do you think of Jennifer Aniston's recent gaffe?

Over the weekend, I blogged at our sister site, NCRegister.com, about Jennifer Aniston’s recent use of the “R” word.

I was intrigued by the discussion that followed my comments there.

I normally scoff at most forms of “political correctness” but I have to admit that the word retard, even when used in a joking or self-deprecating way—really does bother me.

This actually isn’t about Jennifer Aniston.... READ MORE 


We'll Miss These Days

busy but joyful

My youngest sibling is about to graduate from high school, and he’ll be going away to college this fall. My parents are about to be empty-nesters. Compared to a decade ago, their house seems quiet these days.

I, on the other hand, cannot go to the bathroom without a child pounding on the door.

Parenting young children is physically demanding, and life is busy for us. I always say that I bend over... READ MORE 


Talking Babies

When have yours done it?

I am ridiculously excited about the word “ball.” I’ve heard it several times today, and on each occasion I’ve wanted to clap my hands with glee.

Why? Because Blaise is the one saying it.

He’ll be sixteen months old tomorrow, and he does not say much. He’s had the words “Mama” and “Daddy” for a while, and he hisses “pzz” while he swipes his hand down his chest, the sign that we’ve taught him for “please.”... READ MORE 


Beyond Soda vs. Pop

Fun with vocabulary variety

Not long before my sister married her husband, she travelled across the country to Idaho to meet his family. At one point during her visit, she got caught in a funny situation while conversing with two of her future sisters-in-law.

The topic of the conversation was gardening, and Sister A mentioned that she liked to wear thongs when pulling weeds. Sister B expressed her disbelief: how could this possibly... READ MORE 


It's the Little Words That Count

Warming my heart with proper usage

I love grammar and proper usage.

I come by it honestly; you should hear the members of my family correcting the others’ grammar. It’s obnoxious, actually.

For my children’s sake I’ve never wanted to be one of those mothers who hen-pecks her children when they talk. (I should note that my mother did not do this; it was my siblings and I who pestered each other as self-appointed grammar police.)

On... READ MORE 


How Do You Say That?

Navigating name pronunciation

This time of year brings my school memories rushing back.

There were a lot things I loved about being in school, especially in college.  I miss many of them.  I do not, however, miss the job that comes to me and all the unusually-named whenever we are in new situations: explaining to a fresh crop of people how to pronounce our names.

I was in school before the Lord of the Rings movies came out, so... READ MORE 


Please Don't Say That

What are your family's forbidden words?

Yesterday Camilla and I were unloading laundry from the dryer when she suddenly said, “Stupid!”

I glanced at her, trying to play it cool, and as she began to repeat the word it became clear that she wasn’t using it as an adjective to describe either of us.  She was just saying it because she liked the sound.

Still.  “Stupid” is not a term we want our child using.  I gently told her that she needed... READ MORE 


Write or Die - Easy way to overcome Writer’s block

The writing zone - set word count and time

Okay, this is it. I have to write a post because I am a guest blooger.. and guest bloggers are supposed to blog about something. Doesn’t matter if they have nothing important to say.. They should have thought of that before they agreed to be a guest blogger! So here I am at Dr. Wicked dot com - with my timer set for ten minutes and my word count for 500. And I’m off.

Do you know about Dr. Wicked?... READ MORE 


So Natural

it must come from above!

Yesterday at Mass, one of the boys started to sit back during the consecration.

“You need to kneel,” I whispered to my son.

“It’s just that I’m so, so tired,” he whimpered.

“Jesus was so, so tired when he carried that cross for you,” I said.

To be honest, I didn’t finish the whole sentence because I was caught off guard by how naturally the words flowed from my mouth. Did I really just think that, I marvelled. Where do I get this stuff?

Forming their conscience, or Catholic Mother’s Guilt—call it what you will. Either way, I think it’s a gift God gives us at the baptism of our first born child.

Enjoy, my fellow Catholic moms—and keep up the good work!


‘Banished’ Words

Words and phrases we're tired of hearing

I love words.

So you can imagine my fascination with Lake Superior State University‘s 2009 List of Banished Words.

What did these words and phrases do to deserve “banishment”?

Nothing, really. They’ve only been overused to the point where some self-appointed “word watchers” have voted them out.

Making the list of overused and therefore banished words this year are environmental buzzwords like “green,”... READ MORE 


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