Category: From the Vault

The Mom Weekly Volume 123: December 16, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes:

I really thought I would have a lot more ideas about the topic of today’s weekly, so I hope that you will all give me some ideas to update this post in future months! There must be dozens of other ideas like the ones I share, and I look forward to hearing yours.

Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention that today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen! I realized too late that I should have written all about her for today, but I will save that for another time, when I have time to give it my full attention. In the meantime, have some tea, scones, and maybe watch one of the movie adaptations in her honor today.

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

When I Was a Kid, Netflix Came in the Mail

This is the oft-said expression around here whenever someone remarks on some new invention or something that has become common in life, unlike when someone “was a kid.” 

Now, when I was a kid, Netflix didn’t exist, but we were just on the cusp of being able to videotape shows so that we could watch them. Things are always changing, and often for the better!

It’s important to remember that, especially at times when there is so much bad news and negativity. Of course, the many things in our world that are dreadful are bad. No one is denying that! At the same time, it is worth reflecting on little things that make our lives better or easier, and that didn’t exist before.

Just a few examples of how we all have it easier and/or better than we used to:

—Salad kits.

—salad kits have gotten really good in recent years. It’s remarkable to think about how easy it is to have a vegetable side or even a meal (when you add a protein). Some of my favorites: Sam’s Club Caesar salad kit—this is good for several meals for more than one person. The dressing is actually quite good. I think it’s less than $6, which is a steal. Also, Trader Joe’s and Aldi have interesting and tasty salad kits. When I checked at Costco recently, I was not impressed at how they looked or the prices (I think the Caesar salad kit went for $9), but otherwise, there are plenty of places to get them. What are some of your favorites?

—Playlists/Mixtape Technology.

I’m not sure what the kids call it, but it’s a selection of songs you make for someone and give to them. We used to call them mixtapes.

I vividly remember being in college and tape-recording a song from another tape, and being poised to press “pause” at the very moment the song ended, so I could cue up the next favorite song I wanted to include. Such a labor of love! These days Spotify just automatically makes playlists for you. I will say that those playlists are never as good as the ones that you can make yourself, but that’s another story.

—completing taxes (i.e. TurboTax).

Back in the day, we had to fill out our tax returns on paper and mail them to the IRS (and the state equivalent) because it was the only option. And we had to check and re-check the math to make sure that everything was correct. So much stress! Turbotax is such a great time-saver. The software gets better every year, and takes you through a questionnaire to help you include everything you need to. I know many people use CPAs or firms for completing their taxes, but I find it a useful exercise, and relatively easy these days.

—useful home and life information and tutorials.

Whether it’s how to operate a certain appliance or re-learn how to do something tech-related, to comparing recipes for a certain item, like meatloaf or ginger cookies, the Internet has a broad range of information. What actually surprises me is how it’s actually a skill to find truly helpful information, and not everyone is good at it. It takes some effort! That could be worth writing about soon.

Interesting/Notable:

Hannukah began on December 14, and runs through December 22. The latter date is when I will plan to make latkes, so get ready!

As many of you know, Hallmark produces two or three Hannukah themed movies each year, and they are usually pretty solid. They are often more family-oriented or at least involve family ties, and religious observance, than the regular Christmas movies.

“Round and Round” is a Hannukah-themed movie from 2023; we absolutely adored it. I would pay money to see it in the theater. I know I’ve mentioned it before, and will definitely watch it again this year. If you like “Groundhog Day,” you will LOVE this one.

The Mom Weekly Volume 122: December 9, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

The Perfect Christmas Story Does Exist

Several weeks ago, we watched one of the new Hallmark Christmas movies which was surprisingly good (as they sometimes are!). It is called Christmas Above the Clouds, and in it, a workaholic executive, Ella Neezer, is visited by the ghosts on an airplane. 

While nothing holds a candle to The Muppet Christmas Carol, this one was really well done, with lots of cute Dickens references. It is definitely worth a watch, if you like Hallmark movies. 

Watching Christmas Above The Clouds made me realize again why there are so many retellings of A Christmas Carol—it’s honestly one of the most perfect Christmas stories out there. Some of the retellings are awful, some are pretty good and watchable, like this one, and some are true classics (The Muppet Christmas Carol being one, and the 1951 Alistair Sim version is not only a favorite of Dad’s, but one of the best-regarded adaptations). 

I am not even that big of a fan of Dickens, but there is something about this story that warms the heart and helps us get into the Christmas spirit (pun intended?)

Last year, over several weeks, I shared many, many quotes from A Christmas Carol. Instead of that, I will revisit a very few quotes from this classic, and encourage you not only to read the novella (see action item below), but also schedule your re-watch of A Muppet Christmas Carol.

There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew. “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Interesting/Notable: 

The Muppet Christmas Carol: A festive classic’s dark backdrop: BBC Culture

This article is from 2022, and I can’t recall how I came across it recently. It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes story of how The Muppet Christmas Carol came to be the classic that it is, instead of a “haha” funny Muppet movie. Well worth the read!

The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t add that for our family, another perfect Christmas story exists, and it is called “The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy”

An Action Item: Consider An Annual Reading of “A Christmas Carol”

I wrote about this previously, so let me say it again: reading “A Christmas Carol” should be a yearly event, to help get into the Christmas season.

A Christmas Carol has around 30,000 words, which is novella-sized more than novel-sized. It’s really manageable, and since you know the story and many of the best quotes, it should be an enjoyable time!

You can read it online at Project Gutenberg here.

If you want a Kindle version of it, here’s a very inexpensive one. 

Alternatively, you can often find editions of A Christmas Carol at thrift stores, but here’s an inexpensive paperback version.

The Mom Weekly Volume 121: December 2, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes:

As you know, the last week or so has been taken up with a lot of activity for all of us!  And you have all been amazing.

As a result, all of my writing “motors” went to other things. But that is okay, because my writing self from 15-20 years ago is the gift that keeps giving.

This is a very short but adorable “from the vault.” Enjoy, and remember how much I love you,

Mom

Why Has the Boxcar Children Never Been Turned into a Movie? (From the Vault, September 2009)

We really enjoy The Boxcar Children series at our house. They are not “great literature,” but they are fun good stories, and hilarious for adults in the implied dysfunction of the family members and assorted friends around the Boxcar Children themselves: Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. 

Grandfather Alden keeps quarreling with various family members, and his kind and loving grandchildren keep reuniting him with them, and solving a mystery to boot. But it’s all about the mysteries. They are such fun books.

I am just shocked to learn there has never been a movie version of this classic. Why not? There would be a built-in audience from so many generations of kids and their parents who have read them in the decades since they were first published.

Homegirl created, with help from siblings, this Lego version of The Boxcar Children.

Interesting/Notable:

Inside Marriott’s Disastrous Bet on Short-Term Rental Company Sonder (WSJ gift link)

I thought this was an interesting read, and an awful thing to happen. Several years ago, I explored renting a Sonder apartment for European travel, but most of them were long-term rentals only. It is surprising how quickly this fell apart, and also how people were basically thrown out onto the street.

Leo From Chicago— Vatican News (on YouTube)

I started to watch this documentary “Leo From Chicago” and it’s VERY well-produced. Perhaps it could be an edifying watch during Advent? 

One wonderful part of this is that the three Prevost brothers have a phone conversation at least once a week. Siblings goals?

The Mom Weekly Volume 120: November 25, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

The Saint Andrew Christmas Novena 

This has become a yearly reminder, but I genuinely enjoy this Christmas novena as an Advent practice, and so I’m going to share again. 

The St. Andrew Christmas novena begins this Sunday, November 30 (someone special’s birthday!) This year, it actually falls on the first Sunday of Advent this year, which is even more appropriate. And even if you’re reading this after November 30, you can jump in any time.

The St. Andrew Novena is an interesting novena. It starts on the feast of St. Andrew, which is November 30, and ends on December 24. You are meant to pray the pray 15x a day. You can read about it here on the Hallow website.

Now, 15 times a day may seem like a lot, but it’s quite manageable. Here’s how I do it: I have an album in 15 photos of different artist versions of the prayer. Some are repeated. What I do is “favorite” a prayer once I’ve said it, and come back to the album when I have a chance. Once all of the photos are favorited, I’m finished for the day. The next day, I remove them from favorites, and so on, through the novena. It’s worked really well for me. A few years ago, I decided to create my own. I quickly created five different ones in a graphic design program, and they are now part of the album. 

Here’s a screenshot of my album of St. Andrew Novenas (still labeled 2023–need to update that!):

Here are a couple of individual ones that you can save if you would like:

Interesting/Notable:

Leaving the Wrong Beneficiary on Your IRA Plan Can Be a Costly Mistake — WSJ Gift Article

This is a good yearly reminder to double-check beneficiaries on your IRAs, 401(k)s, and other accounts. There have been quite a few stories about people having an old girlfriend or former spouse as a beneficiary, and that person gets a sizable nest egg. It’s really important to check and be sure your beneficiaries are what you want, as the beneficiaries of IRAs and other retirement accounts supersede any will or estate plan.

Even though we have done this, I still double-check! It’s helpful. I will also say that the annoying thing is that we cannot divide the amount equally between three children. Everyone has to have a percentage, and so two get 33 percent and one gets 34 percent. Just so you know, it doesn’t mean the person with 34 percent is the favorite child—you are each the favorite child, but don’t tell the others—I think I’ve tried to alternate who gets the “bigger” inheritance with different accounts.

Epstein is a failure of the 21st Century Elites—WSJ Gift link

Dad alerted me to the Peggy Noonahn column, and it is very sobering. I believe that people who prey on those who are vulnerable—in this case, young women with troubled family backgrounds— will have a lot to answer for.

The Mom Weekly, Volume 118: November 11, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes:

I am writing this note early Saturday morning, before I go to the second day of a local retreat. I want to get this out before the retreat content actually begins later this morning. That’s because I want to clarify that I am not giving away any confidences or any privileged information. Often on retreats people can really share from their hearts, so I want to confirm that I would never share any of that, because I am writing this before the retreat actually begins.

The first evening, everyone got a chance to introduce themselves and talk about what they hoped to get out of the retreat. One man talked about how on this retreat we need to be like Mary (of Mary & Martha), because she “sat at the feet of Jesus” and “she said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

Internally, I got more than a little annoyed on behalf of St. Martha. Martha was the one who had the profession of faith at the death of Lazarus! Martha, who is a saint! Martha, who had her very own feast day—July 29—until 2021, and she now has to share the feast day with her two siblings, Lazarus and Mary! (Perhaps Martha can also be the patron of siblings?)

Anyway, when the time came for me to introduce myself, I said, “I don’t mean to disagree with you, but I’m Team Martha, because she was also great, and she loved our Lord.” I was kind of proud of holding back from correcting the very sincere and nice man about who said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I didn’t think that would be the best way to start off a retreat!

Anyway, it reminded me of my portion of a talk that Dad and I gave during a retreat for young people many years ago. I was really proud of my defense of St. Martha then, and so I’m going to include it here (edited to include only the Mary/Martha parts) and title it “Team Martha.”

Team Martha (From the Vault, 2019)

I identify strongly with one of the people in this Scripture passage, and I am going to let you consider/guess which one:

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10: 

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” 

 The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

…..One of my takeaways for you today is:

Love is … and love does.

In case you didn’t know, I identify almost 100 percent with Martha. And this is true in all aspects of my life, but in my spiritual life. 

I prefer to DO. 

Daily Mass? Check. Rosary? Check. Adoration hour weekly? Check.

Now, this can be good, because the structure of the “doing” helps me to devote time to my relationship with Jesus. But it’s not how everyone experiences their faith.

There’s a great quote from a book I’ve been reading recently in adoration. It’s called Live Today Well by Fr. Thomas Dailey, and it’s about the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales.

“With so many things calling for our attention, we often run the risk of doing more than being.”

I can fall into this trap, so I need to branch out in my spiritual life to contemplation more. But I also realize that God wants me to love him in many different ways.

Did you know that the last word on Martha was not Jesus giving her a rebuke for “doing too much?” Let’s turn to John Chapter 11, the raising of Lazarus. Recall that Lazarus had died, and Jesus was not there. It was days later when he finally went to Bethany. 

And note that Martha—MARTHA!— is the one who has an amazing act of faith in Jesus and his work.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary sat at home. 

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would have not died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give to you.” 

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”  Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?”

She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

I always feel vindicated when I read or hear this Scripture. And if I’m reading that passage aloud, I have trouble getting through Martha’s response to Jesus without crying. Martha was the one who went out to meet Jesus, and Mary stayed at home. Yay for all Marthas!

But Mary was also part of this, and even poor Lazarus. Everyone has his or her role to play, and everyone has a different way to love Jesus. 

That is one big thing that I have learned, and I would leave with you. Whatever your vocation, whether it is to married life, or to religious life, as you live as a single person, everyone will not be like you, and that is okay. 

You may be like me, a Martha, and the people closest to you may be like like a John, the beloved disciple, or a Mary, or a St. Peter, or a St. Therese, or a St. Francis. 

And of course no one is exactly like one of these saints from the past. Recognizing the differences in each other, and trying to love each other in both the way we feel more comfortable, and the way the people around you receive love best, will be a gift to them, and to your relationship.

An Action Item: Consider the Christ the King Novena

The end of the liturgical year is drawing near, and that means one of Dad’s favorite feast days in the year—Christ the King, is upon us! It is November 23 this year— before Thanksgiving. 

There is a novena to Christ the King that is traditional around this time of year. This year, the novena starts November 14, and runs through November 22. Here is a link to the novena on the USCCB website. Consider praying it!

(Also related: I am trying to encourage many to pray the St. John Paul II Novena for Healing for the upcoming surgery in our family. It starts today, November 11, and runs through November 19, the day before the surgery. Here is that novena in case you want to join in.)

The Mom Weekly Volume 115: October 21, 2025

You can read this, or any other previous Mom Weeklies, by going to the home page here.

Notes

Your Mom’s Birthday Week is well underway! I am happy to be celebrating all week long, and so grateful for all of you and what a full life I have because you are part of it.

I love this “Frrom the Vault” because I still hold these views about confession, and these views about raising spiritually healthy kids.

Remember how much I love you,

Mom

Moments of Grace (From the Vault, December 2009)

The girls and I decided to go to confession Saturday after Sir told us that he had gone to a downtown parish for confession and Mass earlier that week. It was so nice to hear that Sir had gone because it gave me an opening to suggest it to the girls, and they readily agreed. Ideagirl reported that in Atrium they had talked about how Advent was a good time to go to confession. I was so glad for that reinforcement, too.

I still would like to have a regular time for confession. I go regularly-ish, but getting the kids there on a regular basis is not a part of the schedule, and I am frustrated by it. I used to take the girls bike-riding to Church for first Saturday and the confession that was offered after Mass, but the confession time is no longer offered.

I know that confession is such a personal thing, and I don’t want to force it. Yet I want to inspire in our kids when they are young that it is normal and usual to go regularly, so they will hopefully have that habit when they are on their own. We also talk about how sometimes we feel good when we come out, and sometimes we don’t, but we do always have the graces of the sacrament. 

I don’t want anyone have an experience like I know some people have had, of going to a bad confession (confessor or whatever) and then not going back to the sacrament for a long time.

I try to tell kids that you can have a good or bad experience sometimes, but that keeping going in the important thing. That’s also the same for Mass. This is actually part of my much larger theory of trying to raise spiritually healthy Catholics, a theory very much in flux but in avid conversation with Sir.

Anyway, before we left on Saturday, we were all having a quick cup of tea, we were talking about how long it had been for the girls (we were thinking about 2 months), and then trying to encourage an examination of conscience. And I was moved, almost to tears, by our casual banter about confession. 

There was much lighthearted joking about the lists we had all made for each other of our sins. Ideagirl was laughing as she said that my list was so large she had to store it in the attic, but she would be happy to go and get it for me. I know it may not seem like a moment of grace—some people may be offended by joking about sins or confession—but it was all lighthearted and loving, and I felt it as a moment of grace.

At church more moments of grace—Ideagirl and Homegirl starting to bicker because of who would go after me (both wanted me to go first), and Ideagirl deferring to Homegirl. It was so big girl of her, I was just touched again.

When Homegirl came out of confession, after she said her penance she immediately turned to me to whisper, “What did you get (for your penance)?” Her eyes went wide because mine was 40 percent larger than hers, but we both recognized that was probably because I was a Mommy.

As we walked back to the van, (too cold for bike riding, or even walking that day), we chatted about confession and starting to talk about their first Confessions and how much better we feel after we go to Confession.

All grace.

An Action Item: Consider Going to Confession

As I request every year around my birthday, I’d like you to consider going to confession. It’s really a birthday tradition for me, both going to confession, and asking others to go.

I paused before requesting this this year, as some of us this summer had a long discussion about scrupulosity and how a tendency toward that can make confession fraught. But reading what I wrote above made me realize that I did have a good perspective all those years ago about wanting to raise spiritually healthy Catholics. 

Also, it’s been a pretty consistent desire of mine, to want people to have a healthy relationship with confession, and go often. So I’m sticking with it! 

Interesting/Notable: 

Jane Austen Loved Music. What Was on Her Playlist?

We’ll just keep October as a month of Jane Austen. Dad shared this with me.

This is not how this works—Claire the Catholic Feminist

Most of this is behind the paywall, but it’s honestly worth subscribing just to read. This article was published in the week after Charlie Kirk’s murder, but I find it still highly relevant.

One quote:

If you are a person with a big heart who cares about the world, as I know most of you are, events like the murder of Charlie Kirk will quickly make you feel utterly unhinged if you are not moving carefully through the world with your eyes on Jesus, doing intentional work to be in charge of your own emotional responses.