Motherhood

December 24, 2016

A Special Christmas Gift From God

holyfamilyI’ve written before about my younger sister, Kathryn Mary, who was born on September 13, 1972. Within a couple of days of her birth, her doctors discovered that she had Down syndrome and a heart defect that was going to eventually need to be corrected with open-heart surgery.

November 12, 2016

An Unlikely Tag Team

tag-teamLast month, Georgette and I attended a retirement party for Dr. Ed Kaizer. The party was at Bradley University, where Dr. Kaizer taught music for 45 years. We got to know Dr. Kaizer during the early 1990s, when our three oldest children — Harry, Anna, and Maria — were students at Bradley. They were all involved in the music program at Bradley and each of them had the opportunity to take piano lessons from Dr. Kaizer.

October 8, 2016

A Champion in the Marketplace

simone-biles

Simone Biles – 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist

April 16, 2016

A Decision Not To Be A Victim

victim-mentalityTwo weeks ago, I wrote about some of the abusive teachers that I had at the Catholic grade school that I attended during the 1960s. Last week, I wrote about how the behavior of those teachers wasn’t much different than the behavior of other teachers in the 1960s. I wrote that at that time, there were some parents and teachers who believed that abusing and humiliating boys was a necessary part of transforming them into real men.

April 9, 2016

Changing Beliefs About Hair Color

Miss ClairolThere was an article in Adweek magazine a few years ago that discussed how women weren’t open to using hair-color products when they were first introduced in the 1950s. In 1956, Clairol introduced “Miss Clairol,” a “hair color bath” for women that provided a one-step product for natural-looking results.

March 26, 2016

Women Who Showed Up The Men

Women in the ChurchWhen Georgette and I got married in June 1980, I told her I wanted our first four children to be boys. The reason was that I wanted to form a barbershop quartet with them. While I was in high school, I organized a barbershop quartet, and while I was in college, I formed another quartet.

March 12, 2016

Living Up To Expectations

ExpectationOne Sunday morning during the summer of 1997, I was in the bathroom getting ready for church. The door was open and I was standing at the sink, shaving. My oldest daughter, Anna, appeared in the doorway and the following conversation took place between us:

December 19, 2015

Would the Mother of God Ever Wear Jeans?

JeansI’ve written before about the first time I went Christmas shopping alone with my mom. It was in 1969, when I was 12 years old. At that time, my parents had 13 children — seven boys and six girls — all of whom were living at home.

November 22, 2015

Sex and the Soulless Being

human-vs-robotFor the past several weeks, I’ve written about the sin of contraception and how it has led to the proliferation of premarital sex, divorce, abortion, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, out-of-wedlock births, the breakdown of the family, assisted suicide, and surrogate mothers. I’ve also written about how contraception has caused a shortage of Catholic priests and how it has allowed couples to easily overrule God’s plan concerning the number of children God planned for them.