The Diner – Episode 17

How Unknowing Relates to Chaste Yet Ardent Eros Welcome to The Diner! It’s season two and you won’t want to miss out. Come sit at the counter of our virtual diner and let us serve you a slice of mental pie! It’ll go good with a cup of coffee, then you get your refreshed self … Read more

Crosses, Crosses Everywhere

Written for the Sunday of the Holy Cross, 2025. When I wrote about invisible crosses my heart was full of love for the feast, full of ache for all of the unseen sufferings people go through. The very many trials and temptations, thorns that prick, the burdens that crush. How it is in the very … Read more

Homeschool Mom Spotlight #6

Meet Meka Every month here at Patterns for Life we highlight an individual homeschool mom through a written interview in order to encourage and inspire our readers. We know it can be helpful to meet — whether virtually or in real life — other mothers who are in the trenches with us here and now, … Read more

Homeschool Mom Spotlight #5

Meet Susan Every month here at we highlight an individual homeschool mom through a written interview in order to encourage and inspire our readers. We know it can be helpful to meet — whether virtually or in real life — other mothers who are in the trenches with us here and now, and can relate … Read more

The Diner – Episode 15

A short recap Welcome to The Diner! It’s season two and you won’t want to miss out. Come sit at the counter of our virtual diner and let us serve you a slice of mental pie! It’ll go good with a cup of coffee, then you get your refreshed self back to the fray with … Read more

Lord, Grant Me Not to Judge My Teens

The biggest secret of motherhood is that the labor pains never stop. Not everything you read on the mommy-blogosphere sticks, but this one has pestered me for almost twenty years. I read it for the first time in the early days of nursing my oldest, only a few months after a difficult birth experience. Frankly, … Read more

Thoughts on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

Plus a special treat for paid subscribers Lent is now in full swing. Clean Week flew by in a swirl of services and prostrations and today’s celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy over iconoclasm set our feet firmly on the narrow but well-trodden path of our ancestors in Christ. Each of us must struggle with … Read more