Kate Taliaferro is an Air Force wife, mom of 5 under 9. She enjoys homeschooling, crafting, and reading books one sentence at a time. She has a Masters in Religious Education and tries to find God's presence in all parts of her day, be it cooking, cleaning or just the everyday ordinary. Follow her blog, (link: dailygraces.net) Daily Graces to join her crazy, adventurous, God-filled family.
I have two purses, one that functions as my diaper bag/emergency first aid kit/small grocery store of snacks/receipts from the past 3 years in crumpled balls purse. The other is my date night/girls night/bible study/holy cow I get to go shopping by myself purse. When switching between the two, I usually just transfer my “essentials” – wallet and keys. After praying my way through Julie Cragon’s Talking to God I think I’m going to have to add this small book to my purse essentials that stay with me always.
Talking To God is a small handbook of prayers for nearly any situation a woman might find herself in. Discerning how to handle a disagreement at work? Julie has a prayer for that. Struggling with patience or controlling anger? There’s a prayer for that. Rejoicing in your son or daughter’s First Communion or Confirmation? Yep, prayers for those and more. Praying for your spouse (or future spouse) and your marriage? I think you get it by now.
Not only has Julie written unique prayers for a myriad of life situations (even prayers about prudence and temperance with eating habits and alcohol, prayers for the beginning and end of the day, throughout the day, and loss of loved ones), she also includes a scripture verse or quotes from saints which directly tie into the situation she is highlighting.
We browse through the table of contents and spot a chapter for our particular need, and we know we are not alone. We realize not only that other women encounter the same situation, but also that the Lord himself wants to accompany us in this moment (Foreword written by Grace Mazza Urbanski from Apostleship of Prayer and Catholicmom.com).
Julie’s prayers are written in a simple, conversational yet elegant style. As I prayed them, I felt the words easily becoming my own, even when I was praying a prayer that did not necessarily apply to my present circumstances or stage in life.
This lovely little book is being released on May 6, just in time for Mother’s Day. It has already been such a blessing in my life and it’s only been in my house a few short days!
I have struggled to write this book review. Colleen Carroll Campbell’s My Sisters The Saints: A Spiritual Memoir is thoughtfully written, compelling and and personal. She opens more than just a window into her life’s journey as she explores her spiritual transformation with the reader. Truthfully, I loved this story and connected with Campbell on many points.
My struggle with writing this review comes into play as soon as I start talking about the trials of Colleen’s life and how she chose to face them. Colleen’s father, a strong spiritual figure in her life and one of the guiding forces which lead her to encounter spiritual mentors such as St. Maria Faustina and St. Teresa of Avila, suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease. These sections were difficult for me to read because my own great-grandmother suffered from this disease. I hope that anyone who reads this book and has a personal connection to Alzheimer’s will find Campbell’s writing inspirational, even if it does highlight wounds and loss, fresh or otherwise.
One of Colleen’s and her husband’s greatest crosses which she humbly shares was their struggle with infertility. The Campbell’s road to parenthood was long, complicated, full of feelings of defeat and hopelessness, and required all of their faith and trust in God. Through this process, Colleen discovered through the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother Theresa what spiritual motherhood truly means. She also beautifully expressed what it means to carry one’s cross:
I wanted to analyze and dissect my cross, to know how long I would have to carry it and how my carrying it would glorify God. Like a groggy patient fighting to sit upright amid her operation so she can monitor her surgeon’s progress, I wanted to stand outside my suffering and scrutinize God’s work in my soul as he accomplished it.
Jesus, I realized, wanted none of this. He did not need my supervision, and he was not asking me to understand my cross. He was asking me to carry it. He wanted me to wake up each morning, bend a knee on the cold wooden floor beside my bed, and offer that day’s sufferings and joys for whatever purpose he wished to use them. He wanted me to joyfully embrace my daily duties and leave the big picture to him.
Page 166
I’m not going to spoil what happens in the book. But I do feel obligated to offer a word of caution for anyone who has struggled with infertility. Campbell’s struggle was real, constant and long. In today’s world of fertility treatments and options, more and more Catholics are choosing to use alternative means to try and conceive their children. These children are beautiful gifts of God and are cherished joys for their parents, no matter how they came into being. Hopefully, the Campbell’s story will encourage and inspire those families who share the same struggle and choices that they faced.
Maybe I’m overthinking the issues, but I want to make sure that anyone thinking about reading this book is ready for the journey ahead of them. It was a beautiful book and for me at least, very life giving.
I’m not sure what moms did before we understood there were hours and minutes keeping track of the day. How on earth did one monitor sharing, playdates and events?? Now, I realize that our ancient forebears probably didn’t have scheduled swim lessons at the community pool or playdates with specific families at the local playground. But sharing, sharing has always been something to deal with. I’m not sure how many times I say or I hear my kids say, “In how many minutes?” when it comes to sharing. Sometimes we even go so far as to set a timer, just to make sure all is fair.
A big part of my time as a mom is being the timekeeper for the family. How many minutes until dinner? How many minutes until playgroup? How many more minutes until we can go home? Why don’t we have a playdate today? What time is that meeting again? Is the commissary closed yet? Watch out, Clare only took an hour long nap today and she is grouchy this evening.
So much time is spent keeping track of time.
We recently decided to take our oldest two out of gymnastics. They had been involved for about a year and loved to go, but it was taking up a lot of time and becoming increasingly difficult for Clare to stay on the sidelines. Plus, there weren’t any times when both John and Rosie could be in class at the same time, so two mornings a week were filled automatically with gymnastics.
Pocket Watch by Romina Campos (2008) via Flickr, CC. Altered by Kate Taliaferro 2016.
We are a few weeks into the new schedule and I have to say it was the right move. I am less stressed out about getting things done in the mornings, especially on Thursdays when we were trying to cram homeschool plus gymnastics all before 11am. The weather is beautiful right now so we are spending more time outside in the mornings and the kids are getting just as much exercise, if not more, by being home and playing. Plus, we now have so much more time for simple, unstructured play.
Watching my kids simply play has been so wonderful. I can see their imaginations working as they come up with different renditions of how to rescue Rapunzel or Snow White or how they intertwine the characters from a book we are reading and a tv show they watched. I love when they are able to problem-solve together and celebrate one another’s achievements.
Now to be completely transparent, not all unstructured play is picturesque. They are still kids and still fight, still talk over one another, still don’t always want to share and definitely all must be first. But that’s ok, it’s all part of growing up.
As an adult, I am seeing in my children’s need for unstructured play a similar need in myself. Even though I don’t necessarily need “playtime”, having time that isn’t scheduled is so important. Sometimes it is ok to just sit and listen to the wind in the bushes in front of my house or watch the hummingbirds hover by their feeder just beyond the front window. Some days I need to just crochet or knit for its own sake, not not because I want to finish the project faster. I try not to “schedule” too much time for writing, rather waiting for inspiration to strike and then writing that day when I can, carrying it over to the next when I don’t finish. To be free to create means first I must have the freedom, a.k.a. the time.
Time is a precious thing. We can all think of days that we wish we had spent differently. Lately, I have started to build some safeguards into my day to help me make sure I accomplish a few things every day. The most important for me is to pray.
I pray everyday, but I do not necessarily have structured prayer every day. Something that I have done to help me remember to pray throughout the day is to set alarms on my phone which are simple reminders to pray (took this idea from my mom – thanks Mom!). At 1:30pm every day my alarm goes off and reminds me to slow down and pray 2 consecration prayers, one is my consecration to Jesus through Mary and the other is a consecration to Merciful Love. (I will be posting about both of these consecrations in the coming weeks, stay tuned!). And at 3pm, an alarm goes off so that I can pray the 3 o’clock hour prayer of Divine Mercy. Just last night I realized that I still have the Angelus memorized from my high school days praying it in our school chapel with a few students and our theology professor so I might start either a noon or 9am alarm. Personally, I need alarms or I forget (I tried and miserably failed).
So I am the timekeeper, both of my own life and my family’s life. When I am doing a good job, it is a blessing. When we get over committed and stretched thin, I resent it. So, as a challenge to me and to you, how well are you managing your time? Are you resentful of how your day is filled or do you enjoy a balance between work, rest and play? What can you do (it might be to say “no” to something) to achieve a better balance?
Talking To God is a small handbook of prayers for nearly any situation a woman might find herself in. Discerning how to handle a disagreement at work? Julie has a prayer for that. Struggling with patience or controlling anger? There’s a prayer for that. Rejoicing in your son or daughter’s First Communion or Confirmation? Yep, prayers for those and more. Praying for your spouse (or future spouse) and your marriage? I think you get it by now.
I have struggled to write this book review. Colleen Carroll Campbell’s 
Daily Graces 