Reviewing a New Book at Catholic Sistas

I got the opportunity to review Pat Gohn's new book, Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious: Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Womanhood. I was very excited since it was a book I was planning on buying and reading anyway. Check out what I had to say over at Catholic Sistas.

Doing Something New!

I'm hesitant to advertise this, so maybe the fact that I'm doing so at the eleventh hour means that no one will have a chance to catch me on the radio.

Radio??

Why yes, I will be on our local Catholic radio station on Friday evening.  There, I said it.  I'm nervous about this and not entirely sure what to expect.  I hope it will be a fun hour of discussing Catholic topics, my own faith life, plugging Catholic Sistas, and maybe some Gamecock Baseball.

You should be able to listen regardless of where you are, although I will warn you that the online streaming has not always been working for me lately.  It is today, but I can't guarantee what will happen tomorrow.

This is the red box on the website
with the "Listen Live" link.

If you want to listen in, go to Real Life Radio and click on the "Listen Live" link on the right side of the screen.  A new window should pop up, it'll take a moment to load, you'll hear a short advertisement (worth it to keep this service free) and then it *should* go right into streaming the station.

If you're local you can, of course, tune in to 1380 AM or 94.9 FM.

The show (The Mike Allen Show, Not Just a Sports Show) starts at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday evening and is an hour long.

Wish me luck!!

Tune in for Catholic Sistas

The founder of the Catholic Sistas blog will be doing a radio interview THIS WEEK!  And the best part: you can listen in, no matter where you are.

The interview will be on Thursday November 17 at 4:00pm Eastern time.  You can listen one of three ways.  If you are in the local area (Lexington, KY) you can tune in at either 1380 AM or 94.9 FM.

If you are not in the local area you can go to the website for Real Life Radio and click on the "Listen live" link.

The interview will last about 15 minutes.  We hope you'll tune in and hear more about the Catholic Sistas.  You can help us spread the word too by sharing the Facebook event with your friends list.

Thanks in advance for sharing this with others and for listening in if you can!!

A New Adventure!!

Life is a journey so with each new thing we take on it is like embarking on a new adventure.  That is exactly what I and several friends of mine are doing.  And we want to invite you to come check us out.

We are starting a new blog called Catholic Sistas.  It is all things Catholic from a group of Catholic "sistas" who like to talk ... a lot!!  I hope my readers here will come over and check us out.  We're just getting started and there are just a few posts up, but the writing talent is easy to see.  I'm already feeling humbled by my fellow sistas writing abilities!

Nothing should change here.  I'll still be posting as infrequently as always and always with a desire to post more frequently.  I'll be sure to link up my posts over at Catholic Sistas when I do post there.  But do check it out for the other writers, we have some really good ones in the group!!

Catholic Media Promotion Day

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day! Check out their Facebook page and “Like” it before midnight tonight (Eastern Time) and you can win a free iPad2. Today, Catholics involved in various media are taking time today to promote their favorite 3 blogs, 3 podcasts, 3 other media, and 3 random Catholic things online, as well as promoting their own projects.

So here is my list of favorite Catholic things. Hope you enjoy and will participate as well.


3 Favorite Blogs
1. Snoring Scholar: just another day of Catholic pondering by Sarah Reinhard. This is probably one of the first blogs I ever found when I first got into blog reading and I’m still following it! Sarah has great reflections and a variety of guest posters.

2. Conversion Diary by Jennifer Fulwiler. I’ve been regularly following Conversion Diary for a few months now but have read it on and off for a couple years. Also great reflections, insightful conversations, and Jen hosts the weekly 7 Quick Takes every Friday. During Lent she is doing a series of posts on the Our Father word by word that has been very interesting.

3. Fear Not Little Flock: anonymous thoughts on family, spirituality & religion from a Catholic priest’s wife. This blog is a more recent find for me and one I've really enjoyed following.  It's interesting to read and learn about a different Rite within Catholicism.

3 Favorite Podcasts
One caveat about this category: I am still new to podcasts. But here are three that I am enjoying so far.
1. Among Women. I’ve only listened to two episodes so far (have 5 waiting in the queue) but I’ve really enjoyed it.

2. Catholic Moments Podcast. Another great one to check out, contains short segments by regular guests as well as good discussions.

3. Faith & Family Live! Podcast. A fun podcast to listen to; makes you feel like you’re sitting around the kitchen table chatting with friends.

3 Favorite Other Media
For “other media” I decided to go with some of my favorite iPod apps. I don’t have an iPhone or iPad, but I imagine these are all available for at least the iPhone, if not also the iPad.
1. Word on Fire app. This is from Fr. Robert Barron’s ministry. It includes the podcasts of his weekly sermons, links to his blog, videos he has made on a range of topics, articles from his ministry (written by him and the people who work with him), news, and a description of the Catholicism project (Fr. Barron’s latest project) along with the trailer and links out to learn more.

2. Divine Mercy app, from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. This is a very cool app for those who have a devotion to Divine Mercy. It include the chaplet, excerpts from St. Faustina’s diary, a timeline, biographical info on St. Faustina, a Way of the Cross, explanations of the 3 o’clock hour, a novena and other prayers, and info on the Marians, the Marian Helpers, and the shrine as well as so much more.

3. Mass Times app. You may already be familiar with the masstimes.org website. I love the app as well for when I’m traveling. I can also bookmark entries for churches I’ve been to making it easier to know where to go the next time I travel to the same location. In addition, it also contains the mass readings of the day as well as a Saint of the Day with biography and it contains videos of masses.

3 Favorite Random Catholic Things Online
I chose three websites that I have bookmarked over time that have lots of great info on them.
1. http://www.catholic.org/. Lots of good info: prayers, Lent resources, the Bible, a Catholic Life section, News, Saints, and more.

2. Our Sunday Visitor. I don’t actually use the website much, but I get the newsletter sent to my email each week and I enjoy going through the various articles. If you get the print publication, I believe there is much more in it than what I get in the email version.

3. uCatholic.com. Again, I don’t use the website a whole lot, though it does have lots of good info, but I have also “liked” them on Facebook and I see the Saint of the Day they post each day. It’s a website I really should explore more; they really have lots of great Catholic resources there.

My own Projects
I don’t really have any projects planned at the moment, and definitely not 3. One thing that have been on my mind though is:
A book idea on pregnancy loss from a Catholic perspective. My hope is, should I ever do this, that I can put together a resource not only for parents who have lost a child but also for friends and family who want to understand and be supportive of their loved ones as well as for clergy. Don’t know if this idea will ever come to fruition, but it has been on my mind a long time.

Seven Quick Takes, vol. 16

~1~

If you follow this blog regularly you know that I had surgery a couple weeks ago, related to my pregnancy, and I am now on bedrest.  I've had lots and lots and LOTS of suggestions for things to watch on TV, movies to get, etc.  I'm not much of a TV person.  I'd much rather read the books I have that I've never read, catch up on my blog reading, and read the magazines and newsletters I get in the mail.  I also want to finally listen to the podcasts that I recently subscribed to and have only listened to a few of.  So what podcasts am I listening to?  Continue reading to find out!

~2~

Among Women was recommended to me by some readers of this blog.  So I subscribed a while back and finally yesterday I listened to the first of 6 episodes that had downloaded to my iTunes account.  I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to catching up on the other 5 episodes soon.  A podcast for women, by women, and about women.  In the episode I listened to the host told the story of an early Christian martyr and then also interviewed a blogger and writer about her work.  This will be a great podcast for learning about women saints as well as the amazing work and accomplishments of Catholic women in today's world.  I'm looking forward to listening to more!

~3~

I first downloaded the Catholic Moments Podcast  in December and have listened to a couple episodes.  This is another great one.  It offers a variety of things in each 30-40 minute episode.  I especially like Sarah's Mary Moments section, but the whole thing is great.  I highly recommend this one.

~4~

EWTN has several podcasts available.  We don't have EWTN in my area (unless we want to spend a ton of money on cable just get add that one station along with a ton of others we don't want).  So I'm not familiar with all the offerings EWTN has.  I was pleased to see that I can listen to their shows through podcasts, but I don't have time to listen to them all.  So I downloaded one. I have The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi.  This has been a good choice because I love conversion stories.  He interviews people on his show that have come into full communion with the Church or converted to Catholicism from a variety of backgrounds.  I listened to his interview with a former Church of Christ minister and was fascinated (and a little shocked) with what I learned about the Church of Christ and by his amazing story.  My husband has listened to this one with me on occasion, too.  I'll turn it on during dinner or if he comes home to have lunch with me we may listen to an episode.

~5~

Another favorite I've found is the Faith and Family Live podcast.  I subscribe to the magazine and have known about this podcast for some time.  A sister-in-law sent me a link to one of their older episodes on Pregnancy Loss several months ago.  I finally went in this past December and listened to it and subscribed to the rest of the podcast.  I've listened to a few episodes and love it!  I have four in my account that I still haven't listened to, but will be soon.  Check this one out!!

~6~



Finally, I highly recommend Fr. Barron's Word on Fire Sermon podcast.  This is a 15 minute, once a week podcast on the Sunday Gospel reading.  I've heard Fr. Barron speak, read some of his articles, and seen his commentary on current events/issues on You Tube.  He's a great speaker and has wonderful insight.  This is one podcast that I am actually caught up on; I only have one unlistened to episode in my account and it's his sermon for this coming Sunday.  So maybe I'll listen on Saturday to help prepare myself for Sunday's mass.  This is also what I listened to when I came home from the hospital a few weeks ago since I had missed mass that weekend.  (There is also a Word on Fire iPhone app, but I'll save discussion of that for another post.)

~7~



Random Quick Take: Today I take the last of one of the medications I'm on.  Yay!!  This will leave just two vitamins and one other medication (prometrium).  I'll be taking these three the rest of the pregnancy.  But that's just fine with me!  Hopefully no more.  I've been on so much stuff in the last three weeks!!  So glad to see it decreasing!

For more Quick Takes, check out Jen Fulwiler's blog, Conversion Diary.  (This week, you'll be redirected to another blog for the complete list; Jen is on a temporary break since she is speaking at a conference this weekend.)  Enjoy!!