As I announced a few days ago, the Murphy Family is expecting member #8 (or child #6, depending on how you’re counting). My family has some interesting statistics. This is a geek blog, so why not have a little math geek fun? Birth Order Among my kids, all their birthdays are chronological along the year, […]
Category Archives: Blog
Spoiling Santa the Catholic Way
“Daddy, is Santa real?” Some years ago, a seminary classmate introduced to me the perplexing problem of this question. He himself had experienced a crisis of faith after discovering that his parents had lied to him for years about Santa Claus. Could their witness to Jesus Christ also be questionable? Should parents admit that Santa […]
Top 10 Reasons You Should Donate to My GoFundMe This #GivingTuesday
A broken septic tank can really stink. Literally. Do I really need to spell out Number 2 on this list? City slicker? Imagine all your biological waste going into a tub in your backyard. Now that tub is full. And the thing that empties it out is broken. Basically, it’s like the plumbing version of […]
Fan Question: “Why Don’t You Just Adopt?”
“You breeders are excited about your sixth kid? What is wrong with you? We’re overpopulated. Why don’t you do the Christian thing and adopt?” Rude Ignoramus on Facebook (Paraphrase) I’m not sure whether I should be offended by the term breeder or delight in it. It seems to me that taking easy offense is one […]
The Courage of Large Families
“Do we have to tell them? Can’t we just wait until the baby is born and then let everyone know?” I chuckled. “I don’t think that will work, honey.” Her reluctance was understandable. Just shy of 13 years into a very happy — if somewhat stressful — marriage, my wife and I are expecting the […]
Country Living: What the Magazine Doesn’t Tell You
When I was a kid, my mom had stacks of Country Living magazines all over the place. From the comforts of our suburban home, she was absolutely in love with the idea of country living. Who wouldn’t be? Spacious yards, quiet calm, porch swings under knotty pines. Sounds relaxing. It’s not. Most people who live […]
Meal Monday #1: Spicy Thai Peanut Chicken
Ah, Thanksgiving Week. Normally, an excuse to binge on turkey and other addictive substances. For me, though, ever since a mild heart scare last year, it’s just any normal week with an extra special cheat day. No enjoying any pre-game treats. No early appetizers in the days leading up to the quintessential American holiday — […]
Christ the Perplexing King
Christ the King is a perplexing figure, full of seeming contradictions. Let’s jump right to the beginning of the climax of his story to see why. Hailed as King only a few days earlier, welcomed into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna and palm branches laid before Him, Jesus rode upon a donkey, a callback to […]
Refresh
Whew! Well, WordPress has changed a lot since the last time I played around on here, let me tell you! What do you think? I like the simplicity of it. 🙂 Some time ago, I stopped doing commercial web design because it just wasn’t personally feasible any longer. Plus, I just needed a break. I […]
5 Facts about St. (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta
1. Mother Teresa was not Indian. She was an ethnic Albanian. Her willingness to serve the poor only stands out more when you consider that she left her own native land in Europe to travel halfway across the world. That’s love. Real, incarnational love. 2. Although a minority religion in Calcutta, Christianity was not new […]