(Possibly) My Last Post for a While...
Prayers, please!
This may be my last Substack newsletter for a little while, as we are awaiting the birth of our second daughter any day now! I am spending my time as I usually do, with my three-year-old (we’ve started doing some homeschool preschool and a Catholic co-op, which has been amazing so far). But, of course, I’m also pacing, stretching, not sleeping well, and trying to be patient. I sometimes feel like the end of pregnancy, with its (usual) complete mystery of when and how it will end, was tailor-made for my control and patience issues.
We would very much appreciate your prayers during this time! We don’t anticipate any problems, but prayers for a safe delivery and healthy baby—and a smooth postpartum—are always so helpful. Thank you!
What I’ve been up to other than nesting…
I wrote yesterday’s Gospel Reflection for CatholicMom.com, on St. John the Baptist.
The Catholic Women Lead podcast is continuing our series of excerpts from interviews we did for our book. So far, we’ve released conversations with the incredible women Caroline Kenagy, Stacey Sumereau,
, Meghan Maloof Berdellans, and Lisa Canning. Don’t miss these and our forthcoming episodes! They’ll give you a taste of what’s to come in ’s and my book.Speaking of Holy Ambition, final proofs are in, and it’s being sent to the printer! You can preorder it now—links to everywhere it’s available are listed on our website, but you can also use the discount code CWIB to purchase it for $15 from Ave Maria Press (list price is $18.95).
Lisa Mathias Johnson, our talented creative director, and I have started working on the 2024 CWIB Christmas Gift Guide. We heard feedback from sellers that they needed more time for shipping and from buyers that they wanted more time so they could finish shopping before Advent, so we’re releasing it earlier this year! If you are a Catholic woman who owns a product-based business, you have until tomorrow to submit.
Links I Liked:
- , who is a good friend of mine but also genuinely a writer I admire a lot, about work and motherhood.
This article by psychologist and family physician Leonard Sax, written for the Institute for Family Studies, on the research that suggests there are actual brain differences between men and women (and, of course, boys and girls).
This Aleteia article about a miraculous spring connected to St. Joseph in France.
This short Her View from Home essay by entrepreneur and mother Megan Wegner-Goeke about band kids that made me a little nostalgic for high school.
This Aleteia article about a married couple whose cause for canonization has been sent to the Vatican. (I love news about saints or possible saints who were laypeople!)
This The Bump article about Jodie Grinham, an archer who is competing in the Paralympics while seven months pregnant.
This Angelus News article about a “renaissance” in Catholic children’s literature (as a bookworm mother of a bookworm, I am very excited about this renaissance).
Books I’ve Enjoyed:
The Enchanted Symphony by Julie Andrews (yes, that Julie Andrews) and Emma Walton Hamilton and illustrated by Elly MacKay—Such a beautiful book, both visually and in its language and story! My daughter and I both loved it.
A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman—I drew a rainbow for my daughter after we read this book, and she promptly sat on it, “like the boy!”
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis—mixed feelings on this one, especially until my husband finishes it and can share his perspective as someone who grew up in Appalachia.
ADHD for Smart Ass Women: How to Fall in Love with Your Neurodivergent Brain, by Tracy Otsuka—definitely an enjoyable read, but not as informative as I’d have liked. Also a little too much of the toxic positivity that I’ve disliked seeing from much of the disability/mental illness community, where she says that ADHD is not a disorder, just a neurodivergence. (I feel that this perspective minimizes the suffering associated with disabilities and mental illness.)