FoC 056: Advent Low Down: Our Guide to Living the Beauty of the Season

 

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It’s Advent! Since it’s a favorite season of ours, we just had to devote a whole episode to Advent chat.  It’s such a lovely time of year, but if we’re not careful we can take on a whole load of stress instead of enjoy a season of refreshment and renewal. We wanted to talk about the Advent struggle and what we’ve learned over the years about being nourished by observing Advent and avoiding the pressure of making Christmas perfect.

In this episode we share about how we observe Advent with our families, how we bring quiet into our homes (and into our own whirring brains!), the importance of self-care so we don’t get burnt out before Christmas, and (of course) what we like reading during this season.

So grab a cup of holiday tea and enjoy!

Music for Advent we talked about:

Advent at Ephesus by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Book Suggestions for Advent we talked about:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

The Reed of God by Carryl Houselander

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope Benedict XVI

Blessed is She Advent Journal by Elizabeth Foss

Comfort & Joy: Living the Liturgy Through the Advent Season by  Elizabeth Foss

The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home by Leila Lawler

The Catholic Woman’s Companion (Planner by Nancy Bandzuch that Haley loves)  And here’s a discount code for it (not sure when it expires, though) NIGEL35 for 35% off.

Movies we talked about in this episode:

Miracle on 34th Street

Little Women

Links we talked about in this episode:

Advent: Preparation for Preparation: Like Mother, Like Daughter

Names for a Christmas Baby and More Christmas Names: Sancta Nomina

Christy’s Little Traditions, Big Reward: Living Liturgically to Grow Faith

Christy’s Choosing Peace This Advent When You’re the Mom to Littles

Christy’s A Relaxed but Intentional Advent; or The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Advent

Christy’s G.K. Chesterton on How To Celebrate Christmas

Haley’s Advent: Nourish Your Spiritual Life and Avoid the Holiday Burnout

Haley’s 27 Picture Books for Advent and Christmas

Previous podcast episode:

Advent Music is a Thing

Episode Sponsor:

 

This post is sponsored by Monica at Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. Her blog is packed with Catholic crafts and family traditions as well as a shoppe of Catholic craft kits, books and quizzing cards packed with Saints and Sacraments through the Liturgical Seasons.

The Super Saints quizzing cards feature the original artwork of her 16 year old daughter.  They’re packed with quick facts and formatted into cards your family can play real card games with! And this bundle is perfect for St. Nick’s Day coming up on December 6th.

Monica also has a brand new line of Prayer Impressions Journal Stamps that will transform your Prayer Journal, Catholic Planner or Sunday Mass Missal, changing how you pray and focusing your spiritual habits.

To find these lovely products, check out www.ArmaDei.com. Use the code Carrots20 for 20% off cards and craft kits until December 15th (on purchase of $20 or more).

Come hang out with us!

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.

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, sales made through these links will support this podcast.

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FoC 055: Why We Love Flannery O’Connor And You Should Too

 

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We’ve had several questions lately about 20th century Catholic writer, Flannery O’Connor in the Facebook group. And since we share a deep and enduring love for Flannery, it wasn’t hard to convince us that she deserved her very own episode.

In this conversation we discussed why we love Flannery, tips for where to start if you’re unfamiliar with her works, some typical reactions when reading her for the first time,  why she inspires us so, and whether we think there’s any chance she’ll ever become St. Flannery of Milledgeville.

So grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of sweet tea if you want to really dive deep into Flannery’s world) and enjoy!

Books we talked about in this episode:

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor

Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor and the Christ-Haunted South by Ralph Wood

The article that mentions the Flannery documentary film: Flannery O’Connor’s Genius and Grace: William Doino, Jr. for First Things

Haley’s post, 10 Things I Love About Flannery O’Connor

Christy’s post, Will We Read Blogs in 50 Years Like We Read Flannery O’Connor’s Letters

Christy’s post, Milledgeville Pilgrimage or; The Fountains of Carrots Roadtrip

Today’s episode is sponsored by audible.com, head on over for a free audiobook download and a free 30-day trial at audibletrial.com/FountainsofCarrots .

Come hang out with us!

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.

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, sales made through these links will support this podcast.

FoC 054: Finding the Face of Mary and the Saints with Kristyn Brown

 

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This episode is sponsored by our friends at CheruBalm.

A few months ago, we happened upon Kristyn Brown’s amazing Saints Project when scrolling through Instagram and we were hooked. We knew we wanted to share her work with you and get a behind the scenes look at the project.

Kristyn is a wife, mama, and a photographer who was inspired to start photographing people to portray different saints. In this episode she shares the story of how the project began, how she chooses which saints to portray (as well as the faces to photograph), and how this creative project has brought her into closer friendships with the saints.

Part way through the interview, Christy realized that this episode would air on All Saints Day! We call that positively providential!

We loved talking to Kristyn about our favorite saints and how they’ve entered our lives and helped us in our journey of faith. We know you’ll love getting to know Kristyn (and the saints she brings to life in her photographs) in this episode, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

How to connect with Kristyn:

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This episode is generously sponsored by CheruBalm, a lovely little Catholic company that makes handmade chrism-scented baby balm out of natural ingredients safe for sensitive skin. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling a newly baptized baby’s forehead, you know how good that chrism scent smells! These lovely tubes of baby balm are perfect for stocking gifts, baptismal gifts, or baby shower gifts.

And CheruBalm has generously offered Fountains of Carrots listeners a lovely 20% off discount code! Just head over to the FoC discount page to grab your code and enjoy some swoonworthy scents for baby’s skin.

(And psst! Haley’s running a CheruBalm giveaway this week, so you can head over there to enter and four lucky winners will receive some chrism-scented balm.)

Come hang out with us!

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.