We’re thrilled to have Catholic novelist Eleanor Bourg Nicholson back with us today discussing one of our favorite books of all time: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Eleanor is a wife, homeschooling mother of four, director of religious education at her parish, former assistant editor at Dappled Things and the Saint Austin Review, has previously ...…

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a journalist, former presidential speech writer, author, speaker, wife, and mother of four. Her new book, The Heart of Perfection, brings the common struggle against perfectionism to light by offering personal stories and wisdom from the lives of the saints who were recovering perfectionists. Today we chatted with Co ...…

The moment we met (in real life) today’s guest, Mary Lenaburg, hugs abounded. After following Mary and her beautiful story for years, we felt like she was already a dear friend. After you hear today’s episode, you’ll feel like you know her, too. She’s just that wonderful. Mary is a speaker, author, wife, and mother of two. Her new book, Be Brav ...…

Blythe Fike is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. We love any chance to chat (and laugh) with Blythe. By the end of this episode you’ll want her to be your life coach, I promise. (She’s not a life coach, you’ll just wish she was, and that she was taking on new clients, and that one of the clients was you.) Blythe is a blogger at The Fike Life ...…

It’s Holy Week and we’re here to talk about how we do it. Now that we’ve all survived Palm Sunday Mass (AKA “stop poking your sibling with that palm during the LONG reading of the Passion, the palm is NOT a sword”) it’s time to really dive into this week that prepares us for Easter. We recorded this episode before the Notre Dame fire and, to be ...…

Links to books in these notes are Amazon affiliate links. We live in a hookup culture that fears authentic intimacy above all else. What kind of problems does that cause in marriage? And how can sacramental marriage heal those wounds? That’s what we’re talking about in this episode with Dr. Timothy O’Malley, author of Off the Hook: God, Love, D ...…

Can a Catholic be a feminist? What does a Catholic feminism look like? We’re tackling some of these big questions in this episode with the wonderful Samantha Povlock. Samantha is a Catholic mom and Notre Dame grad working in project management in downtown Chicago. She’s also the founder of the popular online community FemCatholic. The first Fem ...…

Lent is upon us! We have some great lenten episodes about the hows and whys of observing Lent in the archives, but we wanted to do something a little different for this year’s Lent episode. Then we had the brilliant idea to have Tolkien aficionado Kaitlyn Facista join us to to help us bring wisdom from The Lord of the Rings to our lenten journe ...…

Every so often we like to do an episode with just the two of us to answer some of the questions we get frequently from listeners. Today we’re covering….drumroll….MARRIAGE! It was Valentine’s Day when we recorded and considering how we are indeed the queens of romance (har har) we got to talking about love, marriage, and all that mushy stuff. We ...…

After reading an inspiring piece by Brandon McGinley about a vision for the future of the Church, we knew we needed to have him back on the podcast to unpack some of those ideas. Brandon is editor of EWTN publishing and he also put together a great book about Catholic fatherhood titled The Joys and Challenges of Family Life. He lives in Pennsyl ...…

When we read two fabulous recent pieces by Dr. Abigail Favale on gender, feminism, and Catholic tradition, we knew we HAD to have her on the podcast. We were thrilled that she was willing to come on the show to talk about her journey from evangelical Christian to progressive feminist to faithful Catholic. It is … Continue reading FoC 103: Femin ...…

We’ve got a treat for you because in this first episode of 2019 we are chatting with the lovely Rosie Hill, homeschooling mom of six with one on the way, voice behind popular site A Blog for My Mom, homesteader, and generally fabulous and fun gal! Rosie’s family lives in a 19th century farmhouse an … Continue reading FoC 102: New Year, Same Us; ...…

It’s almost Christmas, one of the great festivals of Christianity, so in this episode we tackle festivity. Haley just finished a book on the topic by the fabulous Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper and is now on a Pieper kick. When we were thinking about Pieper aficionados who could make philosophy a lot of fun to … Continue reading FoC 101: Pie ...…

Over the past couple of months there has been an outcry. An outcry for Kendra Tierney to join us on the podcast and talk liturgical living and her new book: The Catholic All Year Compendium! Kendra is known as “The Liturgical Living Queen.” Okay, maybe that’s just what we call her. She is the voice … Continue reading FoC 100: Living Liturgicall ...…

Every so often we like to do an episode with just the two of us to answer some of the questions we get frequently from listeners. Today we’re covering….drumroll….HOMESCHOOLING! We get asked all the time why we homeschool and what it looks like for our families so we wanted to dive in with some real … Continue reading FoC 099: Our Honest Take on ...…

Our relationship with our bodies is a topic that comes up a lot in our Facebook group. But not just there. This topic comes up everywhere else, too! After reading Amanda Martinez Beck’s book Lovely we knew we needed to have her on the podcast to talk about body image and what it means … Continue reading FoC 098: The Lies We Tell Ourselves and T ...…

Every so often we tell the listeners ahead of time about a great book we want to discuss and have a little FoC “book club.” This time it’s Gunnar’s Daughter by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset. You’ve probably heard us talk about how much we love Undset’s most famous work, Kristin Lavransdatter. But since Kristin is … Continue reading FoC 097: ...…

We’ve been big fans of Leah Libresco Sargeant’s writing for ages (and we even had her husband Alexi on the podcast last year to nerd out about Stranger Things with us). When we heard she had a new book on the Benedict Option coming out, we knew we needed to discuss it with her–especially … Continue reading FoC 096: Rethinking the Benedict Optio ...…

As soon as we heard about her new release, Book Girl: A Journey through the Treasures and Transforming Power of a Reading Life, we knew that we needed to have a conversation with kindred spirit, Sarah Clarkson. Sarah is a writer, wife, mom to her own wee book girl, and student of theology. She blogs … Continue reading FoC 095: Transformed by St ...…

We usually don’t publish episodes on Fridays but this is a special edition because *drumroll* it’s launch day for Haley’s book! It’s been an 18 month process but The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture is finally HERE! We’re discussing some of the themes of Haley’s book that tells … Continue reading FoC 094: Li ...…

Our summer break and Haley’s maternity leave is over! (And Baby Hildie is safely here after a wild arrival.) We have many great episodes planned for the fall but we wanted to first address the clerical abuse crisis in the Church. It’s a very difficult topic, so we knew we would need just the … Continue reading FoC 093: Becoming Saints in a Time ...…

It’s just Christy and Haley on today’s episode before we take our summer break (as Haley stares down the last few days of her pregnancy!). We chat about seasons or circumstances when we have felt helpless, how hard it is to know we’re not in control, and how experiencing helplessness can be good for us … Continue reading FoC 092: Catholic Stuff ...…

We’re thrilled to have Catholic novelist Eleanor Bourg Nicholson with us today discussing what makes Catholic creativity and writing so unique. Eleanor is a wife, homeschooling mother of four, director of religious education at her parish, former assistant editor at Dappled Things and the Saint Austin Review, has previously published a novella ...…

Listeners have been urging us to have a priest on the show for ages! We finally made it happen by asking Fr. Dan Folwaczny (who we discovered through his fantastic Twitter feed) to join us to discuss vocation. Fr. Dan is associate pastor of St. Norbert/Our Lady of the Brook in the archdiocese of … Continue reading FoC 090: Answering God’s Call: ...…

When we heard rumors that a cause for Willi Graf’s canonization might be opened, we knew we wanted to know more about this young Catholic student who participated in resistance against Nazism in Germany as part of The White Rose and met his death as a martyr. Then we found Dr. Stephani Richards-Wilson who … Continue reading FoC 089: Willi Graf: ...…

We’ve had it on our hearts to do an episode on foster care and we realized that Annie Tillberg was the perfect guest to share on the topic! Annie and her husband Dan have an amazing story about fostering–both beautiful and heartwrenching. Annie is a blogger and the biological mother of two beautiful girls … Continue reading FoC 088: Opening You ...…

A new film adaptation of one of our favorite classics, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has just been released to US audiences and so it seems like the perfect time to discuss this timeless coming-of-age novel. In this episode we tackle the big questions: do each of the March sisters grow and develop to the … Continue reading FoC 087: Should Jo ...…

Can women “have it all” when it comes to creative fulfillment and nurturing their families? Jennifer Fulwiler says “yes,” but redefines what it means to “have it all” in her new (fantastic!) memoir about pursuing her passion to write in the midst of having 6 babies in 8 years. We have wanted to have Jen … Continue reading FoC 086: Living Out Yo ...…

Divorce and annulment affect so many Catholic women (and men), but they’re often topics that aren’t discussed much in Catholic circles. And annulment is an incredibly misunderstood Church teaching (hint: it’s not Catholic divorce!). We’ve been moved by Patty Breen’s story of her experience of seeking an annulment and we knew that she was … Cont ...…

As soon as we read Tyler Blanski’s new spiritual memoir An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance we knew we had to have him back on the show. Tyler has so much wisdom to share about the spiritual landscape millennials experience and we could talk to him for … Continue reading FoC 084: The Millennial Crisi ...…

We’ve been following Mary Haseltine’s blog for years and years and we are thrilled that she agreed to join us on this episode to talk about the sacred nature of birth and how it relates to our faith. With let’s just say lots of kids between us, I’m surprised that we’ve never podcasted about … Continue reading FoC 083: The Confidence to Embrace ...…

Today we’re talking about some of our recent good reads and fantastic shows. Books and tv: two of our favorite things! For this episode we each picked three books and three shows that we loved and want to share with you. We cover everything from domestic spy thrillers to books by popes. So grab … Continue reading FoC 082: What to Read and Watch ...…

One of our favorite people to follow on social media is Brandon Vogt. He’s an author, father of many adorable children, chicken coop builder extraordinaire, and content director for Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic ministries. And he’s passionate about reviving Catholic apologetics. So after receiving many questions in our FoC facebook gro ...…

With March for Life happening just a couple of weeks ago, there’s been lots of excitement about the pro-life movement and many discussions about abortion in Christian circles. One of these important discussions is the trauma women experience when they’ve been through an abortion. And yet many women who regret their abortions and need healing … ...…

One of the questions we get the most from listeners is “I’m really lonely and feel isolated. How do I build a community and find friends so I’m supported in my faith? ” Well, our friend a former guest on the show, Rebecca Frech is here to share all about doing the hard work of … Continue reading FoC 079: How to Fight Loneliness and Build Real F ...…

Do you love Stranger Things like we do? We hope so because that’s what we’re diving into with this episode! Today we’re interviewing Alexi Sargeant, theatre maker, game creator, fellow Stranger Things fan, and writer for such publications as First Things, The Weekly Standard, Commonweal, Aleteia, and more. He lives in New York City with … Conti ...…

Regardless of your vocation, the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieux can help you in your spiritual life. But what exactly is this Little Way and how does it work on a practical level? This is what we wanted to discuss and we knew just the right person to invite to share her wisdom … Continue reading FoC 077: What The Little Way Means for Your ...…

Every few months, instead of chatting with a guest, we like to ask our lovely listeners for questions they’d like us to answer and record a Q&A episode! These are always a lot of fun and it’s fantastic to hear your questions. While we couldn’t convince our husbands to be guest hosts discussing British … Continue reading FoC 076: How We Adult (A ...…

We love Bonnie Engstrom and she’s joined us on the podcast before to chat about liturgical living, but we’ve never devoted an episode to her amazing story of her son James and the alleged miracle that brought him back to life….until now! Despite being familiar with the Engstrom’s story and hearing it from Bonnie … Continue reading FoC 075: When ...…

Caring for children with special needs is a challenge that so many families face. We’ve been inspired by how artist Carolyn Svellinger has vulnerably shared about her family’s journey with one of their sons who has autism and really wanted her voice to be heard on the podcast. Carolyn is a mom of four boys … Continue reading FoC 074: Open Heart ...…

Every so often we tell the listeners ahead of time about a great book we want to discuss and have a little FoC “book club.” This time it’s the Father Brown stories by famous British Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton. A longtime favorite of Christy’s, Father Brown was a new read to Haley. The central character, … Continue reading FoC 073: What Mak ...…

For ages we’ve wanted to discuss the pornography epidemic on the podcast because it affects so many marriages and women’s lives. Even though pornography is a problem even for many in the Church, it’s a difficult topic to breach which can make those suffering from the effects of porn feel even more alone. We … Continue reading FoC 072: Confronti ...…

Leticia Ochoa Adams’s vulnerable writing about her son Anthony’s suicide convinced us that more discussion of mental illness and suicide in the Catholic community is needed. We are so honored that Leticia was willing to share her story and her wisdom about this tragedy in her family. Leticia is a writer, mom, and grandmother in … Continue readi ...…

Well, folks, it seems like whenever we have Jenny Uebbing on the show we always talk about sex. We’re teasing her that it’s just her brand now. Jenny is a mom of four (with one on the way!) living in Colorado. She is the voice behind the popular blog Mama Needs Coffee where she isn’t afraid to … Continue reading FoC 070: Uncharted Territory: Ge ...…

When we were brainstorming topics for our “just us” episode, we remembered our undying love for British female monarchs. We made it the topic of this episode since there have been two great series recently about queens beginning their reigns and since we don’t turn down a chance to chat about a good costume … Continue reading FoC 069: The Crown ...…

Our most frequently asked question we get from listeners is how do you practice self-care in your busy lives? And how do you find a balance in nourishing your body and soul to be fit for service to your family without diving into self-absorption? That’s exactly what we got to chat with Kate Wicker … Continue reading FoC 068: Choosing Real Self ...…

Sometimes Providence really just takes the wheel when we’re looking for good podcast guests. At least that’s the way it happened with this interview with Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. Christy read a fantastic piece penned by Jessica on a topic dear to our hearts, told Haley about it, and Haley realized she knew Jessica from … Continue reading FoC ...…

After Haley met Justina Kopp at a recent gathering for Catholic bloggers, we knew we had to have her on the show for this episode airing just before Mother’s Day. Justina lives in Minnesota, blogs at Love Multiplied, and is a Catholic wife and mom to….wait for it….quadruplets! In this episode Justina shares all … Continue reading FoC 066: Love ...…

We’re excited to welcome Brandon McGinley for a second time on the podcast! Brandon is editor of EWTN publishing and he also edited a great book about Catholic fatherhood titled The Joys and Challenges of Family Life. He lives in Pennsylvania with his lovely wife and three kids. In this episode we discuss whether the … Continue reading FoC 065: ...…

We’ve been big fans of writer Laura Kelly Fanucci for years. Haley and Christy have had the pleasure of meeting her in person and she’s been on our list of folks we’d love to interview for ages. Our conversation with Laura was beautiful, poignant and compelling and we know you’re going to be inspired and … Continue reading FoC 064: Vocation, Su ...…