Last week, a colleague realized that the Sarah Reinhard she’s working with is “the” Snoring Scholar.

“Did you quit writing?” she asked.

And I laughed.

(She couldn’t hear me. It was an electronic exchange.)

The answer is simple: no. But…yes.

I’ve been working fullish-time, in addition to the mom stuff that’s part of this chapter in my life. And that work I do has a lot of writing.

“You’re writing for other people,” a dear friend pointed out recently when I whined mentioned my lack of writing.

This is true.

But I’m also writing in other places, places that aren’t this little sandbox. In case you want a dose of my writing, here’s some recent stuff you may enjoy… (and if not, no hurt feelings!).

Inspired by Our Lady of China

At Integrated Catholic Life, I share the story of Our Lady of China and what I love about her.

I have struggled, every so often, with nightmares of my own.  I knew my prayers had been answered, during one particularly rough stretch of night wakings, when I woke in the morning and realized, in some dim, distant way, that I had prayed a Hail Mary in the midst of my nightmare, as a way of pulling myself out of it.

It’s hard to imagine persecution from the comfort of my home.  I can’t fathom what it must be like to be an underground Christian, to live my faith at the risk of my life.

I can, though, imagine what comfort I would need.  I can think of how I would cherish my Mother in Heaven even more.

Just as I go to my children when they cry out, so Mary runs to us.  Her role as our mother, given to us by Jesus when she stood at the foot of the cross, extends to all of our times of need, from daytime dramas to nighttime terrors, no matter where we are.

Read the rest at Integrated Catholic Life.

Fulton Sheen reminds me of my priorities

Over at SpiritualDirection.com, the Book Club is reading Life of Christ. It’s my fault, and I’ll take the blame credit. I’m LOVING this book.

This week we finished Chapter 2 (you can find all the posts listed in reverse order here), and it was, for me, a reminder of my priorities, inspired by none other than Christ himself.

As I write this, I’m facing Mount Laundryest, the summit of which I may not see for hours given the amount of other work I need to do.

I don’t really mind laundry, but we’ve reach the point, as a family, where the sheer volume we produce makes it never-ending.

I’m not a very good housekeeper, but up until recently, I’ve been able to stay on top of laundry. And dishes. That’s another weak point in my homemaking quiver: the pile in the dishwasher, clean and waiting to be unloaded, and the pile near the sink, dirty and waiting to be loaded.

The cycle of these ordinary tasks and the ceaseless nature of them gets me down sometimes. “All I can get done is LAUNDRY. And DISHES. But they’re! Never! Done!”, I caught myself thinking recently.

I tried to make myself grateful: for the fact that we have clothes and running water and plenty to eat and a host of other blessings, but I was rolling my eyes at myself and not so much experiencing any real gratitude.

“I have this other important work to dooooooo!”, I caught myself whining.

And then I realized, especially after reading today’s selection, that in addition to being a big ungrateful whiner, I’m distancing myself from the One I should be drawing closer to, my Savior who was, for 30 invisible years, just a guy who worked around town and helped his mom.

Then, considering that Jesus did the mundane and boring, what do I have to complain about?

Read the rest at SpiritualDirection.com.

Yes, I still use a pen and paper

I’m outing myself as an old-fashioned pen-and-paper gal. But y’all know me as an app-a-holic (at least, if you know me at all). So what’s the deal?

Here you go: why I bullet journal and don’t see it going away anytime soon.

Over the years, I’ve used a number of different planners and systems for organizing myself. Years ago, I had a Franklin-Covey planner, complete with a forest green leather binder that zipped up. It was my pride and joy through college.

Then HP came out with their equivalent of the Palm Pilot and what I now think of as the precursor to my smartphone (which is really just a pocket computer, let’s face it).

I went paperless once I had Outlook on my computer at work and I struggled to figure out how to sync things. Once I added kids into the mix about ten years ago, the challenge changed even more. And once my oldest started playing basketball and having school activities…well, let’s just say part of my brain exploded.

And then I discovered a solution that was almost too good to be true.

Read the rest at the Kennedy Brownrigg Group blog.