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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 behind popular blog Catholic All Year, author of two books published by Ignatius Press, wife to Jim, and mom to nine kids who romp around the 100-year-old home the Tierney’s are renovating in sunny California.

In this episode we pepper Kendra with our burning questions about the liturgical year like how to get started observing it, what fruits it will bear in our families, and how husbands can get involved.

So grab a cup of tea and join us!

This post contains affiliate links.

Kendra’s book

Order The Catholic All Year Compendium from Barnes and Noble

Things we talked about:

The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland

Our other episode with Kendra

Follow Kendra:

• blog 
• instagram
• facebook
• twitter 

This episode is sponsored by Wee Believers.

If you haven’t checked them out, you should head over to their website featuring faith-based gifts for kids. They have some fabulous items that are perfect for Advent. Enter CELEBRATE at Checkout for 30% off your entire order at WeeBelievers.com

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 4,000 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 talk.

Caveat: We do NOT think that everyone has to homeschool or that it’s the best option for every family. We are not judging you if you don’t homeschool and we have plenty of days when sending our kids off on the school bus sounds like a delightful fairyland.

In this episode we talk about our own educational backgrounds, why we decided to homeschool, and how it helps us live out the goals we have for our family life. We also talk about what most annoys us about homeschooling and how homeschooling is really just 90% parenting. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

In this episode we talked about:

Our episode all about Advent

LEGO Boost Creative Toolbox 17101 Fun Robot Building Set and Educational Coding Kit for Kids

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,750+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 to have a theological foundation for how we view the goodness of the bodies God has given us.

Amanda is a wife, mama, author, and size dignity activist. In this episode discuss the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we are told about our bodies and how we can be in danger of failing to see their goodness. We also chat about how a Catholic theology of the body can be an antidote to the negative cultural messages that surround us. We discuss the damaging concept that certain kinds of bodies are morally superior and the difficulties of navigating medical care.  And we top it off with why we need saints of all sizes!

So grab a cup of tea and join us!

This post contains affiliate links.

Amanda’s book

Lovely: How I Learned to Embrace the Body God Gave Me by Amanda Martinez Beck

Things we talked about:

The article Haley mentioned: Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong: Huffington Post

Chesterton’s lack of temperance could block canonization: Catholic Household

And the rebuttal: Chesterton the Glutton and the Drunk: Catholic Household

Follow Amanda:

• Instagram
• Facebook group
• Twitter
• Podcast

And don’t forget that for a limited time you can currently get Haley’s liturgical living eCookbook Feast! as part of the online More 4 Mom Catholic Conference package!

Check it out here.

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,750+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 a thousand pages long, it didn’t seem like a good book club option (you’re welcome, everyone!) and we’ve been wanting to branch out and read some of Undset’s other works, this 148-page tour de force seemed like a better option.

Before we get any further, consider yourself warned that this book contains some very difficult topics such as sexual assault and infant and child loss. Due to its mature content, this isn’t a good one to listen to with kids around. And if any of these topics might trigger trauma for you, feel free to skip this episode and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

In our discussion we talk about how the old saga style of this work lends itself surprisingly well to the multi-dimensional characters and strong visuals Undset presents in the story. We discuss the fascinating setting of Viking culture being introduced to Christian thought and the effects of sin on the perpetrator, the wronged, and the community. We also touch on the idea of justice versus revenge and  how it’s a crime that no one has made this story into a TV show (did you hear that, all you TV producers who surely listen to our podcast?!!!).

So grab something warm to drink while we discuss journeys in the snow and Viking halls!

Today’s book:

(This post contains Amazon affiliate links.)

Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset

Other books we talked about:

Kristin Lavransdatter

TV shows we talked about:

Vikings

The Last Kingdom

And check out our previous book episodes!

We’ll definitely be chatting more about Gunnar’s Daughter in our Facebook group so be sure to join in over there!

Our Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by the 2018-2019 Year of Virtue Liturgical Calendar created in a collaboration between The Telos Art Shop and Providential Company.

This calendar seeks to support individuals and families on their journey of faith. Through studying the lives of the saints, following the liturgical calendar at home, making hands-on crafts, and lots of prayer we open our lives to the pursuit of virtue. The focused content is centered around a core virtue or a focused feast day with relevant insights, common Catholic prayers, and family-friendly activities.

Since the new liturgical year does not start until December,  The  Telos Art Blog has already started publishing some of the activities and ideas. To learn more about their calendars and Catholic jewelry head over to telosartshop.com .

Take advantage of their coupon code CARROTS to get your Year of Virtue Liturgical Calendar at 20% off before November 1! Grab yours here.

 

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,750+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 because you all have been requesting a BenOp episode!

Leah is a wife, author, speaker, and fellow at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. In this episode Leah shares about her new book, Building the Benedict Option. We chat the basics of cultivating community through hospitality and we address a lot of the questions we hear from you all in the Facebook group about the desire for good friendships and Christian fellowship. Gatherings for people who hate small talk?  Finding friends and opening your home? We gotcha covered. Leah also shares about praying together with fellow Christians and how prayer brings God into times of fellowship. So grab a cup of tea and join us!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

In this episode we talked about:

Building the Benedict Option by Leah Libresco

The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher

Arriving at Amen by Leah Libresco

Follow Leah:

• her site
• Facebook
• Twitter

Book Club Episode

And our next episode is a BOOK EPISODE (much rejoicing!). We’re talking about Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset. It’s a quick read so grab your copy ASAP!

Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset

And psst! Amazon has a sale going right now on Haley’s book–27% off. So grab it while it’s discounted!
The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture 

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,750+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 at sarahclarkson.com and studies at Oxford. In this episode we chatted across the pond about being formed by stories, how books reach out to us when we need them most, and how good characters show us we can make our own paths. So grab a cup of tea and join us!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

In this episode we talked about:

Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson

I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Home by Marilynne Robinson

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Shadowlands by C.S. Lewis

Haley’s post about Why Voldemort Hates Homeschooling

Follow Sarah:

• her blog
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

And while we’re on the subject of books, don’t forget that Haley’s new book is now available!
The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture (Amazon)

You can also order from Barnes and Noble or straight from the publisher, Ave Maria Press.

Once your book arrives Haley would love to see you with your copy and hear some of YOUR story! If you want to make her heart sing, please share a selfie with your book on social media with the hashtag #graceofenough

You can also support Haley’s new book by requesting that your local library stock The Grace of Enough or leaving a review on Amazon!

And if you want a book club to read with, St. Teresa’s Online Book Club is going to be discussing The Grace of Enough starting Sept 22nd and you can join in on Facebook.

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,500+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 the story of her family’s radical life change of selling their house and getting rid of most of their possessions that brought them to living on a farm for a year with their three young kids and no flushing toilets!  Living authentically in pursuit of the Gospel is often a countercultural practice and we touch on how the choices we make to prioritize faith and family are going to look different in every home depending on our circumstances. We talk a little bit about the process of putting together a book and whether writing a memoir colors an author’s view of past memories. And we note how pursuing the Gospel when doing so goes against the grain of our culture is so important in light of the recent Church crisis. So grab a cup of tea (and a copy of Haley’s new book!) and enjoy the conversation!

Haley’s new book:

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture

If Amazon’s being glitchy (a few folks have had trouble getting the book to ship out today) you can always order from Barnes and Noble or straight from the publisher, Ave Maria Press.

Once your book arrives Haley would love to see you with your copy and hear some of YOUR story! If you want to make her heart sing, please…

1. Share a selfie with your book on social media with the hashtag #graceofenough
2. Share part of your story of pursuing what truly matters even though you had critics or your decision went against the grain.

You can also support Haley’s new book by requesting that your local library stock The Grace of Enough or leaving a review on Amazon!

And if you want a book club to read with, St. Teresa’s Online Book Club is going to be discussing The Grace of Enough starting Sept 22nd and you can join in on Facebook.

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,500+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 right person to discuss it with. Providentially, Meg Hunter-Kilmer was driving through Waco and gave an IN STUDIO interview (AKA Haley’s living room).

Meg is, in her words,  a “hobo missionary.” Trained in theology at Notre Dame, she travels all over the world as a Catholic speaker and evangelizer. She also podcasts and writes about the saints. In this conversation about the abuse crisis, we asked Meg about saints who lived during times of crisis in the Church and how we can emulate them in their commitment to speak difficult truths (even to the pope like St. Catherine of Siena did!) and their pursuit of holiness.

In today’s episode we discuss our responses to news about the crisis and ways to take action through practical means like letter writing and spiritual practices of prayer and fasting. We hope this episode will give you some hope in the midst of the heartbreak we are facing.

In this episode we talked about:

Meg’s previous podcast episode

The Siena Project

The homily Meg wrote: Please Don’t Leave Jesus

Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women

On the Catholic Clergy Abuse and What We Can Do: Blessed Is She

Sack Cloth and Ashes Prayer and Fasting Movement: Catholic All Year

What Can WE Do About the Abuse Crisis? (Haley’s Blog)

The Church, My Mother (Haley’s blog)

Follow Meg:

• her blog
• her podcast
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,500+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 spiritually if we turn to God in our distress. We also share about how sacraments and sacramentals can comfort us and remind us of God’s love for us.

Then just for funsies we share what books and movies/shows we’ve been enjoying lately. So settle in, grab a cup of something COLD, and listen in!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

In this episode we talked about:

Somebody Feed Phil (On Netflix)

Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson

Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

The Woman Who Was Chesterton by Nancy Carpentier Brown

The Americans (Amazon Prime)

Luke Cage (On Netflix)

Seinfeld

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel

He Knew He Was Right

The Way We Live Now (Amazon Prime)

Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Haley’s Book Discount Code

The book Haley has been working on for over a year with Ave Maria Press is available for pre-order!

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. And if you order from her publisher, Ave Maria Press before August 31st you can get 20% off by using the code STEWART

Come hang out with us!

Haven’t joined in on the fun with 3,500+ 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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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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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 entitled The Letters of Magdalen Montague, and she has also edited the Ignatius Critical editions of Dracula, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility.

Today’s conversation was a fun foray into why Catholics love great literature! Eleanor shares her love of Victorian era literature, the gothic novel, and why she chose to write a novel about Dominican vampire hunters. We also share why aspects of our faith make for great dramatic and artistic elements that other non-Catholic writers have loved squeezing into their stories. Eleanor shares how she came up with her characters and how she became attached to them and in many cases had to kill them off.  We think you’ll love this episode going behind the scenes with a Catholic novelist working in today’s publishing industry!

Eleanor’s new book:

A Bloody Habit

Remember to use the coupon code CARROTS when ordering Eleanor’s book from Ignatius Press to get 35% off!

Eleanor’s Author Page on Facebook

Books we talked about today:

Dracula 

Mansfield Park 

Vilette

Jane Eyre

Father Brown

Hard Times

Great Expectations

A Tale of Two Cities 

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017 film)

Our past episode: Scandalous Books are Good for Your Soul with Dr. Jessica Hooten-Wilson

Thanks again to Ignatius Press for sponsoring today’s episode! To see more of their Catholic novels head over to IgnatiusNovels.com. They’ve got many favourites of the podcast including Sigrid Undset, G.K. Chesterton and great critical editions of the classics!  And take advantage of their coupon code CARROTS to get a copy of Eleanor Bourg Nicholson’s brand new novel A Bloody Habit to get 35% off before August 31!

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.

• The Fountains of Carrots Raspberry Cordial Social Club on Facebook (our Facebook group)
• Connect with Haley on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and her blog
• Connect with Christy on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog

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.