by Catherine | Jun 13, 2018 | Podcast
This week, I’m sharing a conversation I had with Ashley Stevens about how she and her three girls thrive when her husband, Brad, has to travel for work. She share some great tips and general advice.
My weekly recap:
- Our kids are participating in the Diocese of Lincoln’s Totus Tuus program this week
- It is so much fun to finally be a read-aloud family! Audiobooks before naptime are a major hit. The kids usually color or play with their Plus-Plus tubes. We are about halfway through the Henry Huggins audiobooks. Our bedtime read-aloud is Where the Red Fern grows. We have 3 contenders for our next read-aloud, and we’d love for you to weigh in with your vote:
- Big milestone last Friday night: I took the kids to the pool by myself for the first time!
- What are your limiting beliefs? How are you battling them?
Links/Resources mentioned this episode:
- FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students)
- Ashley’s blog and ministry page, Mountains Unmoved
- Ashley’s post, “Why Are Some Mountains Left Unmoved?” where she shares about the inspiration for the name of her ministry and links to her interview on the 700 Club
- The lie of “this is the way things will always be forever”
- How Brad participates in disciplining when he’s traveling
- Favorite games to play with Brad when he’s home:
- Ashley’s blog post, “Friendship is Worth the Awkwardness“
- Making friendship connections when Brad is gone
- What makes life simple when Brad is gone:
- Making a big meal before Brad leaves and reheating each day
- Blessings/pros of having Brad travel for work
- Travel reward points to visit relatives
- Getting to watch her shows on Netflix!
- More time to work on her ministry
- Self time to recharge
- In Praise of ‘Scruffy Hospitality’
- Things “saving Ashley’s life” when Brad is gone:
- Roomba
- YMCA’s 2-hour babysitting
- The Well-Behaved Child by Dr. John Rosemond check discipline system
- 6 Checks (keep track on dry erase board in kitchen)
- Checks 1-3 are warnings (“buffer zone,” limit this for older kids)
- Check 4: Lose dessert
- Check 5: Lose screens
- Check 6: Go to bed 1 hour early
- Ashley’s “holiness hack”
- Book: He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.
- Quote: “What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?”
- Turning her alarm back another 30 minutes to add to prayer time and bring peace to morning routine
Connect with Ashley!
Get in touch!
- As always, you can e-mail me at podcastATcatherineboucherDOTcom or find me on Facebook or Instagram
- Please subscribe to, rate, and review the show in iTunes to help grow our audience!
- Remember, I’d like your feedback on:
- our next read-aloud
- your limiting beliefs
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by Catherine | Jun 6, 2018 | Podcast
Last week’s recap:
- The summer chore chart is still a success around here
- Philip and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary and had a quick getaway to Palm Springs
- I’m 20 years late to the Harry Potter party. I need your opinion: Should I read the other books on paper or listen to the audio versions? Weigh in! Also, which house do you think the Sorting Hat would put me in? (Marriage tip: Don’t tell your husband would be a Slytherin!)
The Fast Food Rule:
Audiobooks and Read-Aloud Time:
Questions for YOU:
- How’s your summer going? What are your summer hacks?
- What are your favorite audiobooks (for children or yourself)?
Get in touch!
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by Catherine | May 30, 2018 | Podcast
In today’s episode, I thought I’d share about our Summer Chore Chart. This thing is already saving my sanity this summer (yes, we’re just a week in). I explained how I came up with the chart, which kid is doing what, and when these jobs are happening. It’s super simple, and it just might save your sanity this summer, too!
Our 2018 Summer Chore Chart
Questions for YOU:
- How do you enlist your kids’ help around the house?
- What jobs do your kids help out with that I might have overlooked?
- Do you have a unique system you want to share?
- Or, maybe you have a general summer sanity saving tip to share! Send those tips my way!
Get in touch!
- As always, you can e-mail me at podcastATcatherineboucherDOTcom or find me on Facebook or InstagramPlease find me on FB or IG or e-mail your feedback to podcast AT catherine boucher DOT com
- Please subscribe to, rate, and review the show in iTunes to help grow our audience!
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by Catherine | May 23, 2018 | Podcast
Weekly update:
- Happy birthday to Walt!
- Have you seen the movie A Quiet Place? Philip and I saw it last week, and I shared my thoughts about the film. Here’s Bishop Barron’s Review of the movie.
Main topic: This week, I shared my most embarrassing parenting moment of 2018…so far! Since it’s only May, I’ll probably have a new one by week’s end. I thought I’d share it in the hopes that it encourages you in all of your parenting fails.
Questions for you:
- What are YOUR embarrassing parenting moments that helped build humility?
- How do you stop your “I’ve got my life together” pride from helping you to learn from those moments?
- What are your favorite summer lunch recipes for big groups? Bonus points if they can be made ahead of time, in batches, or little hands can help with assembly!
Get in touch!
- As always, you can e-mail me at podcastATcatherineboucherDOTcom or find me on Facebook or InstagramPlease find me on FB or IG or e-mail your feedback to podcast AT catherine boucher DOT com
- Please subscribe to, rate, and review the show in iTunes to help grow our audience!
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by Catherine | May 16, 2018 | Podcast
It’s episode 20! Woo-hoo! Thank you for all of your support and cheerleading of While You Were Folding!
This week, I have a great episode to share with you. Jen Trausch shared about her experience ministering to the men on death row in the state of Nebraska. She shared what the experience is like, how it has changed her view of forgiveness/worthiness, and showed her how to be the Face of Christ for others.
Two of my favorite quotes:
“We just sit and talk and eat Twizzler’s.”
“It’s like a neighborhood block party with neighbors I’ve never met before.”
Links/Resources Mentioned this episode:
NAPD (Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty)
NACC (National Association of Catholic Chaplains)
The Corporal Works of Mercy
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”
2306 Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.
Evangelium Vitae, St. Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on the Value and Inviolability of Human Life
56. This is the context in which to place the problem of the death penalty. On this matter there is a growing tendency, both in the Church and in civil society, to demand that it be applied in a very limited way or even that it be abolished completely. The problem must be viewed in the context of a system of penal justice ever more in line with human dignity and thus, in the end, with God’s plan for man and society. The primary purpose of the punishment which society inflicts is “to redress the disorder caused by the offence”.46 Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for the offender to regain the exercise of his or her freedom. In this way authority also fulfils the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people’s safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his or her behaviour and be rehabilitated. 47
It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.
In any event, the principle set forth in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church remains valid: “If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person”
JPay is the “email” service provided to inmates. Information for their services can be found at:
www.jpay.comArt Display: A few of “the guys,” (Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo, and Raymond Mata), created works of art for Jen and her dad. These completed works are on display along with information about Jen’s ministry in the parlor of First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln (17th and F St).
Jen’s book recommendations mentioned in the episode:
A recent 5-star read that I shared: 7 Secrets of Confession by Vinny Flynn
Clearly, Jen and I aren’t very good at light, “beachy” reads. 🙂 Send us your breezy summer book titles!
Get in touch! Send questions or topic suggestions my way. As always, you can e-mail me at podcastATcatherineboucherDOTcom or find me on Facebook or Instagram
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