All posts by Haley

FoC 087: Should Jo Have Married Laurie and Other Thoughts on Little Women

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 same degree? Should Jo have ended up with Laurie? What is the deal with Meg and John’s weird marital relationship? And is Amy the literal worst?

We really dive into the romantic relationships in the story as well as determine which March sister we most identify with. We also discuss the pros and cons of the various film versions of the story.  This episode was a blast to record, so grab yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!

In this episode we talked about:

Haley’s review for America Magazine of the new series for BBC/PBS 

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Books and films we talked about:

Little Women

2017 film series

1994 film

 

 

 

 

1949 version

1933 film

Big News!

The book Haley has been working on for over a year with Ave Maria Press JUST became available for pre-order! AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING!

You can gain Haley’s undying loyalty by pre-ordering your copy of The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture today! Pre-orders are crucial to getting Amazon and bookstores to stock a book, especially for new authors, so pretty please support your neighborhood podcasting writing mama.

What’s this book all about? It’s part memoir and part reflection and guide to essential elements of intentional Christian living that Haley’s family discovered during an extraordinary year on a farm (with no flushing toilets!) and that they continue to practice today in their little house in the city. You’ll be inspired to:

  • live simply
  • offer hospitality
  • revive food culture and the family table
  • reconnect with the land
  • nurture community
  • prioritize beauty
  • develop a sense of wonder
  • be intentional about technology
  • seek authentic intimacy
  • center life around home, family, and relationships

And people who aren’t just Haley’s mom read it and liked it! Here’s what they said:

“If you’ve ever yearned to make radical changes to your life that will bring you lasting satisfaction, this is the book for you.” —Jennifer Fulwiler, SiriusXM radio host and author of Something Other Than God and One Beautiful Dream

“This book is an antidote to the Throwaway Culture, a blueprint to living a fulfilling life. What St. Benedict did for the early monastics, Haley has done for modern suburbanites and families: provide a compelling rule, a practical life plan, one centered on community, simplicity, and charity.” —Brandon Vogt, Content director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and author of Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too)

“Prophets wake us to our true state, call upon us to be better than we are, and demand that we think hard about the life we are living. And thus we shy away from prophets. Haley Stewart, however, won’t let us escape so easily. Hers is a genuinely prophetic voice, but one so full of fun and the sheer joy of living that she thoroughly charmed and convinced me. A wonderfully wise book for our confusing and misguided era.” —Paula Huston, Author of One Ordinary Sunday

So pre-order your copy today!

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,000+ other FoC listeners in our facebook group? It’s your direct line to some fantastic folks who also care about faith, culture, books, and whatever our current masterpiece theatre craze might be! Join in with the link below.

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.

FoC 084: The Millennial Crisis of Faith and Longing for the Church with Tyler Blanski

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 hours!

Tyler and his wife Brittany decided to convert to Catholicism just before the birth of their first child when Tyler was an Anglican seminarian. The story is so compelling! We know you will be spellbound by the beauty of their conversion story and if you grew up in Christian subculture during the 90s and early 2000s Tyler’s experience will absolutely resonate with you.

In this episode we talk about the spiritual crises of our generation, how spouses can help each other on their spiritual journeys, the phenomenon of being “spiritual but not religious,” Christian subculture for millennials, and the Blanski’s beautiful conversion story.

So grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the conversation!

Tyler’s book:

(links to Amazon are affiliate links)

An Immovable Feast: How I Gave Up Spirituality for Religious Abundance

More links:

Haley’s review of An Immovable Feast

Our other episode with Tyler: Seeing the Sacred with Tyler Blanski

To connect with Tyler:

Coming Soon:

This wildly popular bundle comes around just once a year (this is its 6th year!) and it’s only available April 11th-16th.

This year, Haley’s 35 page ebook The Literary Medicine Cabinet: A Guide to Self-Care Through Good Books is one of the 129 resources included!

If you’re ready to organize and declutter your home, learn to balance your many roles, be a more intentional mom, and put delicious meals on the table faster and easier, then you will definitely want to pick up this bundle for just $29.97 (pssst… it’s worth over $3,680!).

But you have to act fast — at a price like this, they can only offer it for six days! And if you grab your bundle through Haley’s author affiliate link, you’ll get a thank you gift of one of her other ebooks of your choice:

Making Big Life Changes Together: Pursuing Your Dreams as a Couple

Feast!: Real Food, Refections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year

More Feasts!: Celebrating Saints and Seasons with Simple Real Food Recipe

Get your copy with this link when the sale goes live!

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.

FoC 079: How to Fight Loneliness and Build Real Friendship with Rebecca Frech

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 friendship. Rebecca has been researching for and writing a book on the problem of loneliness and how to build good community and she has some brilliant insights to share with us! Did you know that a human being can really only handle a certain number of relationships? Rebecca’s going to tell you what that number is and how to make the most of it.

If you’re not familiar with Rebecca, she is a fiery and fun writer and mom of eight living in Texas. Her new book Can We Be Friends? comes out May 22nd. You can also find her at The Catholic Conspiracy.

In this episode we discuss the pervasive problem of loneliness in our culture and how our connection to virtual life through social media is both a symptom and a contributor to this problem. Rebecca gives us some real talk about doing the work of finding friends (“go where the people are!”) and how to go about building up a real community. We know you’ll love this episode, so grab a cup of tea and listen in!

Books We Talked About in this Episode:

Can We Be Friends? by Rebecca Frech

(You can pre-order and it releases May 22nd!)

Connect with Rebecca:

And psst! Can you help us get to know you better and understand what our listeners want from the podcast? We put together a survey and it’s super short. We so appreciate it if you could spend a couple of minutes filling it out for us! Complete the survey here.

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.

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FoC 077: What The Little Way Means for Your Holiness with Nancy Bandzuch

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 on this topic: Nancy Bandzuch! Nancy is a mom of many little ones who has shared extensively about the spirituality of St. Therese on her blog Do Small Things with Love and her podcast Just One Small Thing. She is so lovely and down to earth.

In this episode Nancy talks us through St. Therese’s Little Way and acceptance of our own smallness can open us up to the grace God wants to offer us and lead us to holiness. Nancy also explains some misconceptions about St. Therese since many of us have trouble connecting with her because we assume St. Therese didn’t struggle  like we do ( her writings show that she really did!).  We also get into what living out the Little Way looks like in our daily lives and how it can help us in our vocations. It’s an inspiring and beautiful message, so grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

Books we talked about in this episode:

(This post contains affiliate links.)

The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

Our Sponsor:

 

This episode is sponsored by Sister Moon Graphics, a family-owned Catholic card company. The online shop provides both greeting cards and blank correspondence cards for all seasons of the liturgical year.  The designs are inspired by traditional Medieval illuminated manuscript, and seek to bring the beautiful dignity of the Christian faith to all who receive them. Cards are sold individually and as packaged Christmas cards sets. Sister Moon Graphics can be found at sistermoongraphics.com and at their new Instagram account.

Sister Moon Graphics is offering 20% of all purchases for FoC listeners from November 21st through December 25th with code “fountains.” Additionally, we are offering free shipping on all orders over $50 for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend (November 24th-27th), no code necessary. So head on over and use your discount code!

Connect with Nancy:

And don’t forget that you can get Nancy’s 2018 Catholic Women’s Companion Planner at the discounted rate of $30 for FoC listeners! Just head here to see more details or make your order.

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.

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FoC 074: Open Heart Parenting on the Autism Spectrum with Carolyn Svellinger

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 (and one on the way!) with a lovely blog, Svellerella, and beautiful etsy shop.

In this episode Carolyn shares her story of discovering that her son Emmett had autism and how special needs parenting has expanded her heart and her understanding of what it means to be pro-life and honor the dignity of each person. We discuss how friends and relatives can support and encourage families with children on the spectrum as well as how Carolyn balances self-care and her creative work with her obligations to her family. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy the conversation!

Connect with Carolyn:

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.

FoC 073: What Makes a Good Mystery? A Discussion on G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown Stories

 

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, Father Brown, is an ordinary and humble Catholic priest with the ability to get to the heart of the matter and solve murder mysteries when everyone else is baffled. These classic detective short stories are full of charm and wit.

In our discussion we tackled some fun topics such as why we are drawn to mysteries and Chesterton’s take on detective fiction and how the character of Father Brown is a response to popular detective characters of the time like Sherlock Holmes. We also compared Chesterton’s tales to the recent Father Brown television series (and some of our other favorite murder mysteries).

We had a lot of fun chatting about this lovely read and we tried not to spoil the tales for you if you haven’t had a chance to pick them up yet. So grab yourself a basket of laundry or a cup of tea and enjoy!

Today’s book:

(This post contains Amazon affiliate links.)

Father Brown: The Essential Tales

Other books we talked about:

G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

In this episode:

A Defense of Detective Stories by G.K. Chesterton

Father Brown (also streaming on Netflix)

Father Brown

Sherlock

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Luther

And check out our previous book episodes!

We’ll definitely be chatting more about Father Brown in our Facebook group so be sure to join in over there!

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.

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FoC 070: Uncharted Territory: Getting Real About Natural Family Planning with Jenny Uebbing

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 get into the nitty gritty of topics like NFP.

Today we are getting into some real talk about natural family planning: what it looks like in real life, how the Church can better support couples, and why we should be honest about the ups and downs of our experiences with it. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy the conversation!

Links discussed in this episode:

Jenny’s posts:

Christy’s NFP talk

Haley’s post about how NFP should be a part of parish life

The last time Jenny was on the podcast

Connect with Jenny:

Our sponsor: 

This episode is brought to you by a new shop, Rose Harrington (formerly known as Hatch Prints), opening on July 13th, the Feast of the Mystical Rose!  The aim of this lovely shop is to have your walls call you to heroic virtue and to bring beauty to your home.

 

There’s a beautiful new collection called Botanical Rosaries that contains botanical watercolor paintings of flowers that historically represent the mysteries of the rosary.
All of the artwork and hand lettering are done by Katrina Harrington, the watercolor artist behind the shop and is inspired by the saints and historical botanical Christian meanings.

 

All the Hatch Prints inventory (including the popular Morning Offering, Offer It Up, and Fiat mugs are still available and are all made in the USA, dishwasher safe and microwave safe.

 

Head over to the podcast’s facebook group to enter a Rose Harrington giveaway for two mugs and a lovely print!

 

And don’t forget that we’ve chosen our next FoC book club pick: Father Brown: The Essential Tales

Grab yourself a copy and join us for an end of the summer episode of discussion!

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.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

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FoC 066: Love Multiplied — Four Times with Justina Kopp

 

 

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 about discovering she was pregnant with quads, her pregnancy, birth, and surviving her first six months as a mother to four sweet babies. We also discuss issues in maternal care, support for moms in stressful circumstances, and more. It was such a treat to talk to Justina and hear her absolutely crazy story!  So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.

Links to what we mentioned in today’s episode:

Sancta Nomina’s baby name consultation post for the quads

Justina’s book recommendation for moms of multiples:

When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads

Connect with Justina:

 

And a huge thanks to this episode’s sponsor: Sister Moon Graphics, a Catholic card company.

Their online shop provides both greeting cards and blank correspondence cards for all seasons of the liturgical year!  The designs are inspired by traditional Medieval illuminated manuscript, and seek to bring the beautiful dignity of the Christian faith to all who receive them. Cards are sold individually as greeting cards and blank correspondence cards, and also as sets of six. Through May 31, Fountains of Carrots listeners can receive 20% off their order with the coupon code “fountains” at check-out. Head on over to visit sistermoongraphics.com!

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.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

FoC 057: From Catholic Single Life to the Altar: Relationship Wisdom with Christina Grace Dehan

episode57

When we realized it had been awhile since we’d recorded an episode that focused on Catholic single life, we knew Christina Grace Dehan was the right person to chat with! We’ve been following Christina  over at her blog The Evangelista for ages. She writes about everything from fashion to Pope Benedict XVI and has been beautifully open about the challenges of Catholic single life and vulnerable about her journey to the altar.

Christina is a speaker, writer, and former high school Theology teacher who resides in central Texas and Haley is so glad they’re neighbors now! She writes at her blog and for other sites about personal growth, relationships, the benefits of therapy, and faith. And for the past couple of months she’s been very busy with wedding plans for her Christmastide wedding!

In this episode we talk about the challenges that Catholic single folks face in modern life (particularly the womenfolk), how to encourage and support single friends, and how to prepare for seasons like engagement and marriage. We chat Catholic weddings and Christina also shares her dating and engagement story with us and it is NOT to be missed. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Links for this episode:

Christina’s post: My Engagement Is Not a Fairy Tale

How to connect with Christina:

 

 

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.

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

 

episode55

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.