The Fountains of Carrots Podcast

  We knew talking to one of our favorite bloggers, Dwija Borobia of House Unseen, Life Unscripted, was going to be a blast but we just couldn’t stop laughing in this episode! Pour a cup of tea and enjoy the lovely Dwija share about her conversion, life as a homeschooling mama, having a large family, and the Borobia’s adventurous move from California to Michigan after buying a house on the internet, sight unseen. We also talk about making big, life changing transitions with lots of kids, faith, and hard work. Things we mentioned today: Cari Donaldson of Clan Donaldson, who just moved to a little homestead of her own. Dwija’s remodel before and afters. Haley’s recent post on first time motherhood. To connect with Dwija: * blog * instagram * facebook * twitter You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.

  Today we’re talking to the lovely Michele Chronister: mom, blogger, and editor of the new book Rosaries Aren’t Just For Teething: Reflections on Mary by Mothers. We both contributed chapters to this book exploring the mysteries of the rosaries from the perspective of motherhood, and we are so excited that it’s been released! We thought it was perfect to begin the month of May with it’s special focus on Mary discussing how the rosary is an important spiritual tool especially in difficult times. We talk about how the rosary becomes even more impactful after we become mothers, and how in becoming mothers we gain more insight into Mary’s journey with Christ. We also talk a bit about redemptive suffering and Haley and Michele’s struggle with hyperemesis during pregnancy. We think you’re going to enjoy this conversation exploring the spirituality of Our Lady just in time for Mother’s Day. Things we talked about today: Rosaries Aren’t Just For Teething: Reflections on Mary by Mothers Enter to win a digital copy on Christy’s blog, Haley’s blog, and Michele’s blog. Michele’s post on Keeping Your Brain Active (as a Mom) The Rosary: Keeping Company With Jesus and Mary by Karen Edmisten Michele’s post For all those hyperemesis moms out there…   Michele’s other books: Faith Beginnings: Family Nurturing From Birth Through Preschool, co-authored with Amy Garro Handbook for Adaptive Catechesis: Serving Those with Special Needs To connect with Michele: * blog * instagram * facebook * twitter

    We’re going deep into one of our favourite tv shows, Mad Men,  today with the brilliant and lovely Kathryn of the blog Through A Glass Brightly.  We discuss Don’s search for real love and intimacy, how the show exemplifies humanity’s quest for fulfilment, and the ways in which St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is present in the lives of the characters. So pour yourself a martini and join us! Discussed in this episode: Kathryn’s post on Brideshead Revisited: Finding Home in a Fierce Little Human Tragedy  Love Among the Ruins in “Mad Men” by Katie Summa Christy’s Mad Men episode recaps of season seven. You can read Kathryn’s writing about other great movies, tv shows, and books at her blog Through A Glass Brightly. She is also the creator behind the blog Love Among The Ruins, a collaborative blog exploring St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body in unexpected places in culture, art, and movies.   You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.

  Today we’re talking to our great friend, Molly Walter: wife, mom, blogger, and maker of beautiful things. We discuss Molly’s inspiring attitude and approach to life as a mom who works outside the home, as well as how she and her husband decide how to make family life their first priority. We also touch on how she juggles keeping up her household, making her marriage a priority, as well as friendships and keeping up her hobbies and passions as a mom. So many great things get talked about in this episode, you’re going to find it a refreshing and relatable listen! Some of Molly’s posts that talk about these topics: All Laid Out: A Cross Section of an Employed Mother The Motto of the Working Mother The Sacrifice Myth Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Work You can find Molly: * blog * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram   You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.

Since we both love writer, poet, apologist, author and possible saint G.K. Chesterton we thought it’d be fun to devout a whole podcast to talk about him, his life, and his writings. We’re happy to have Michael Lichens here with us today who also happens to be a great fan of Chesterton. Michael is a wealth of Chestertonian knowledge and we try to cover all the major aspects of Chesterton’s writing, politics, and faith. But just as Chesterton himself covered a very broad spectrum of different topics in his writings, so too do we in today’s podcast episode – we even talk about British accents! Chesterton’s books we discussed: The Napoleon of Notting Hill The Man Who Was Thursday Orthodoxy The Everlasting Man The Ballad of the White Horse The Ball and The Cross Saint Francis of Assisi St. Thomas Aquinas What’s Wrong With the World Father Brown: The Essential Tales  The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton Eugenics and Other Evils Tremendous Trifles  

  We do a lot of talking about Catholic motherhood, but here’s an episode about Catholic fatherhood! We got to chat with Brandon McGinley, editor of the new book The Joys and Challenges of Family Life: Catholic Husbands and Fathers Speak Out and Haley’s husband, Daniel Stewart who contributed a chapter to the book. We talk about everything from the difficulty men have finding community to being a spiritual leader in the home and NFP, so we cover a lot of ground! You can pre-order Brandon’s book and it will be released April 18th! Things we talked about today: Why NFP is great for men, too To connect with Brandon: * web site * twitter To connect with Daniel: * blog * twitter * facebook * instagram You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.  

We have been wanting to chat with Rebecca Frech for ages! Rebecca is a Catholic mama with seven kids and the author of popular homeschooling book Teaching in Your Tiara: A Homeschooling Book for the Rest of Us. She blogs at Shoved to Them. She’s also beginning a new exciting endeavor in radio: The Visitation Project. Homeschooling, insurance battles, Rebecca’s awesome daughter Ella, and community are a few of the things we cover–and we talk way longer than we meant to! We highly recommend Teaching in Your Tiara. It’s the perfect read for anyone considering homeschooling. Things we talked about today: Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child’s Education Rebecca’s post on homeschooling and Ella The Visitation Project Christy’s post: Homeschooling with a Bunch of Little Kids To connect with Rebecca: * blog * twitter You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.

    Today we’re swapping more of our favourite books and discussing them together. This time we picked two books the other hadn’t yet read that were focused on the life of faith: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and In This House of Brede by Rumer Gooden. Both books are beautiful examples of authentic, living faith and were rewarding to read and talk about.               We also talked about these other novels written by these two great authors: Home by Marilynne Robinson   Lila by Marilynne Robinson.   Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden.   Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden. (This is the title Christy completely forgot – but it’s actually a pretty unforgettable story!) Have you read these books? Did they touch your heart as well? We’d love to hear what you thought of them or any of the other books written by these great writers!   You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com. Coming next week:

  We are so thrilled to have the wonderful Karen Edmisten with us on the show today talking about miscarriage, writing, marriage, conversion, books, homeschooling, and more. Karen is a writer and has authored several wonderful books. She’s also a wife, mother, and convert to Catholicism. Karen has been one of our favorite bloggers for years, so getting to chat with her was a dream come true. You can check out her blog: Karen Edmisten. We highly recommend all of Karen’s books including The Rosary: Keeping Company with Mary and Jesus, Through the Year with Mary: 365 Reflections, After Miscarriage, and her latest Deathbed Conversions: Finding Faith at the Finish Line. Things we talked about today: Karen’s article: A Good Catholic Family Elizabeth Ministry What we’ve been reading: Catholic by Choice by Richard Cole Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset A Year of No Sugar: A Memoir by Eve Schaub Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

      Today we’re excited to have Tyler Blanski with us discussing the sacred and sacramental. Tyler is a writer and author of two books, a husband and father, as well as a youth minister who recently converted to the Catholic Church from Anglicanism. We chat about his conversion, his family, the importance of a sacramental attitude towards everyday living, the themes of holiness and death in Kristin Lavransdatter, as well as the sacred role of mothers and family. We cover a lot of ground in this thought-provoking conversation. Tyler’s books are entitled Mud and Poetry: Love, Sex, and the Sacred and When Donkeys Talk: A Quest to Rediscover the Mystery and Wonder of Christianity.           Things we talked about today: Tyler’s recent articles on Kristen Lavransdatter: Death in Kristen Lavransdatter and Kristen Lavransdatter and Your Nordic Medieval Catholic Heart. Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism by Scott and Kimberley Hahn. Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting by Laura Kelly Fanucci. Clan Donaldson recaps of The Walking Dead. Haley’s post: Rob Bell’s “Tribe”, MacLaren’s Pub, and the Homeless Guy I Have (Almost) Nothing in Common With. To connect with Tyler: * his website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram (Apparently he is on social media!) You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com.   Coming next week:        

As we’re both fans of her art, we thought it would be fun to talk with Heather Sleightholm, the artist behind Audrey Eclectic Folk Art. In our conversation we talk about how Heather finds inspiration for her original work, her love of literature, New England, and Scandinavia, how she finds time as a mom to pursue her art, how she feels about running a business, how religious art is created, as well as her own faith and family.   It was a wonderful chat and so interesting to learn about the artist behind the art – we hope you enjoy it! Books we mentioned: *  Hitty Her First Hundred Years * Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890 * The Lace Reader and author Brunonia Barry. To purchase Heather’s work please visit her Etsy shop, Audrey Eclectic Folk Art. She also blogs about art, faith, and her many interests, (as well as her beautiful home), at Audrey Eclectic. To connect with Heather: * Etsy Shop * Blog * Instagram * Twitter * Facebook You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com. Coming next week:          

    We are chatting motherhood and finding your parenting style today with Kathy Helgemo, author, blogger, wife, mom, and Catholic convert. We loved Kathy’s book she co-authored with Melinda Means: Mothering from Scratch: Finding the Best Parenting Style for You and Your Family and asked her to share all about how she was inspired to write the book. She has so much wisdom to share, including the one thing you will never regret doing as a mother. In this episode we discuss how as moms we expect to be able to do it all (but can’t) and how to ask for help and find mentors to encourage us in our vocation as mothers. Moms Together is the Facebook mentoring community started by Kathy and her writing partner Melinda. We also mention the idea of productivity and efficiency being words that simply don’t mesh with mothering small children which reminded us of Haley’s post about that: I’m a Mother, Not the CEO of My Household You can find Kathy: * at her blog, Mothering from Scratch * Facebook * Twitter You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com  

  We’re talking all things Lent today with our good friend Bonnie Engstrom, blogger at A Knotted Life. We talk about how we approach lent in general, simple ways to help our young kids learn about Lent, how to focus a bit more on prayer as a family, as well as fitting in confession when the kids should be in bed. We cover a lot of ground while laughing a lot so we think this will help ease any Lent-stress you may be feeling as Ash Wednesday looms around the corner. Some things we mentioned in today’s episode: 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge at White House Black Shutters Printable Lenten Calendar for Kids from Catholic Icing Bonnie’s post on making a Stations of the Cross Box for kids Bonnie’s Knot Bad video on getting ready for Lent Haley’s post, Preparing for Lent Haley’s post, Bury the Alleluia Christy’s post on great books to read for Lent Lent and Easter Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton: Daily Scripture and Prayers Together With G. K. Chesterton’s Own Words (Lent & Easter Wisdom) Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen You can find Bonnie: * A Knotted Life * Facebook * Instagram You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com This episode is brought to you by Holy Heroes. And be sure to check out the fantastic Lent resources from this episode’s sponsor: Holy Heroes!  You can find  CDs, children’s books, coloring books, and the free Lenten Adventure and free Mass Prep at www.holyheroesfun.com.  And to get 10% off your purchase, just type in podcast10  into the coupon box at checkout to get your discount! Coming next week:      

  In this episode we talk with Jenna Guizar, the founder of the scripture devotional site for Catholic women: Blessed Is She. We talk about how she felt called to begin this online ministry, how she took a step out in faith while joining together with other women, her journey through blogging, living a missionary life, and how she balances her work, home, and ministry. If you haven’t already checked out Blessed is She head on over and sign up for the daily emails of scripture and devotions. You’ll love having this beautiful gift of scripture in your inbox! You can also join the regional groups to get connected with other Catholic women. Blessed Is She is also on Facebook, Instagram (with the hashtag #projectblessed), and Twitter.   Only One Thing, the 2015 Lenten Journal is for sale now and you can order for delivery before Ash Wednesday! Where you can find Jenna: * website * Instagram * Twitter * Facebook We also mentioned Tsh’s recent podcast with The Blog Maven, you can find that podcast here.   You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com Coming next week:    

    It’s hard to choose a favorite episode, but this one just might be ours.   Listeners kept requesting a podcast with Leila Lawler and we thought it was a great idea. We can’t wait for you to get inspired by all the wisdom she has to share! Affectionately called Auntie Leila by the readers of her blog, Like Mother, Like Daughter, Leila Lawler co-authored the beautiful book The Little Oratory published by Sophia Institute Press. This episode is going to be a life-saver for anyone who desires to center their home in prayer and especially for young moms. Get ready to hear some practical and beautiful steps to draw us into a daily liturgy! Leila’s lovely book: The Little Oratory We chat about restoring wonder and beauty in our homes to draw our families close to God and how our family traditions should reflect our families and not someone else’s. We talk about how we don’t have to do every liturgical activity/tradition and we don’t have to do them as well as so-and-so from Pinterest does them. We also discussed dealing with toddler tantrums and whiners and how more sleep, more food covers a multitude of toddler maladies as Auntie Leila writes in this post about whining whiners and how to cure them. Find Auntie Leila… * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest You can listen to us on iTunes, and we’d love a quick rating or review. If you have an android device we’re also on Stitcher. And as always, you can find all links, show notes, upcoming guests, and listen to all episodes at Fountains of Carrots.com