My wife and I have never been big fans of deep or controversial movies. The reason being that if we want to go to a movie, we want to go for the experience of escaping into an adventure or travelling to a distant alien planet or rooting for the underdog who travels into hostile territory to destroy a ring that nobody else has the courage or will to do. Recently, we took a different turn and decided to view the movie Unplanned.

Every night at the ending of bedtime prayers with my 9 year old son, we pray the Eternal Rest for the faithful departed, especially our loved ones and I encourage him always to pray for the most forgotten Holy Souls in Purgatory because in return their prayers for us are very powerful and beautiful because they have the sure and certain hope that they will enjoy the Beatific Vision and earnestly desire us to follow them to that same Glory. 

When my aunt asked me last fall why we chose to homeschool, I gave her the lamest answer ever: “The public schools here aren’t great and private school is too expensive.” In reality, those were contributing factors to our decision to homeschool, but they were not the driving reasons.

“Are we there yet?” Anyone who’s ever traveled anywhere with children knows firsthand how impatient they become on the journey, and the farther the journey the harder the wait for the little ones. This is especially true when they have an idea of where they’re headed. Tell the kids they're going to the dentist and they never ask when they’ll get there, but tell them you’re going to Disney World and you start getting “Are we there yet?” before you get to the end of the block.

Last year,  I won from a raffle a book called “Bless Me Father For I Have Kids.” It’s a funny book about raising a Catholic family, and the book’s dedication read: “To the children, who are frequently called expensive. To us you are priceless.”

In January of this year, Kim Kardashian had a baby daughter via a surrogate. While she wanted to give birth herself, apparently her last two pregnancies carried some risks, so she listened to her doctors who thought surrogacy was her best way to have another child.

“Dad! Isaac peed on the dog’s bed!”

“Dad! Lily punched me!”

“Dad! Tell Sarah to stop bothering me!”

“Dad, can you co-sign on my student loans (again)?”

I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about each of these real life situations.