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My "Aha Moment" happened because of a package of hamburger meat. I asked my husband to stop by the store to pick up a few things for dinner, and when he got home, he plopped the bag on the counter. I started pulling things out of the bag, and realized he'd gotten the 70/30 hamburger meat - which means it's 70% lean and 30% fat. Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/610/I-Wasn-t-Treating-My-Husband-Fairly-And-It-Wasn-t-Fair#EY4FIxGCmr92Qrb1.99

How big a problem is family fragmentation? "Immense," says Mitch Pearlstein, head of the Minnesota think tank Center of the American Experiment. "The biggest domestic problem facing this country." So big he went out and interviewed 40 experts of varying ideology across the nation and relayed their answers in his book "Broken Bonds: What Family Fragmentation Means for America's Future." That's the good news. The bad news is that none of the experts is confident he has an answer, and neither is Pearlstein. What is family fragmentation? The facts are easy to state. About 40 percent of babies born in...

One of the nicest things about this video is the honest affection and love happening in the Riquelme house even before the parents open their amazing gift. But it’s obvious that the parents of Joe Riquelme have done it right — not only did they raise a successful man, but they also managed to raise one who appreciated them enough to want to pay it backwards, rather than forwards, and gift the people who gave him his start in life. See Joe Riquelme story and video here.

If media headlines are to be believed, 2014 was the year in which Catholics, having been “consulted” about their adherence to Catholic teaching, firmly rejected traditional doctrine on sexual morality. “Poll: Catholic Beliefs at Odds With Vatican Doctrine” ran one headline. “German, Swiss Catholics Reject Many Church Teachings on Family,” claimed another. The supposedly official “survey” in question was described by some bishops as an “unprecedented questionnaire” and even as an “opinion poll,” creating the unfortunate perception that the Vatican was “polling” members of the Church on future pastoral priorities and perhaps even on doctrine itself. The remarkable thing about...

Focused on a Functional Family: A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family By: Msgr. Charles PopeHere in the middle of the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, the Feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which makes a little more sense since the gospels appointed for the feast often take us far forward in time mere days after He is born. The gospel this year is only forty days into the future  (unlike other years when the gospel takes us twelve years into the...

To Dad--who knew how to keep Christmas well Candle wicks, like memories, flicker faintly at times, and burn brightly at others. Dickens could have been writing about my father, William Christian Stoos, when he said of Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well. Dad was the Spirit of Christmas in our household. Each year he anticipated the holiday with a childlike glee. Although a stoic man, and deeply spiritual, he became a child at Christmas time—his favorite time of the year. Whether it was the gaudy Christmas tree with its 2,000 lights that warmed our cozy house, the...

Many parents undoubtedly think they are doing the best for their children by having them bring lunch from home instead of eating the lunches served in school. But recent studies clearly prove them wrong. Home-packed lunches, the research showed, are likely to be considerably less nourishing than the meals offered in schools that abide by current nutrition guidelines for the National School Lunch Program. That program is, distressingly, increasingly under attack. But the program must not continue to be undermined, and more schools should be encouraged to participate. Nearly 32 million of the more than 50 million children in public...

A few days ago, I reported that the Ebola air ambulance (one of them) was en route to the Canary islands. Today, we find that the plane somehow jumped over to Portugal without filing a flight plan, and is now scheduled to arrive at Joint Base Andrews. The plane’s twin, N173PA, has also visited the same airport in Portugal in recent weeks.

Around this time of year I can get a little blue or down. (The events of 9-11 – and the last two presidential “elections” have made the blue this year a little deeper and darker.) When that happens, I drag this out and reread it until I again remember what this season is REALLY all about. I hope that it also helps you to drift back to those special people and times now gone and what THEY meant to us all. Merry Christmas -- and God bless us every one! ********** In a few days, much of the Christian world...

This is my second Christmas season without my mother, and so far it's been harder than the first. I had known that the first year would be hard, and all I really cared about was surviving it. Activity was my friend: My sister Kathy and I spent the fall wrapping up her estate, selling her house, sharing her prized possessions with family and friends. We talked every day. Much of our connection was activity-based: Was her account closed? Were the papers signed? It was hard, but I had known that it was going to be hard -- so I accepted...

(Photo: CNS) The III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops met for several weeks in October 2014 and issued the document, “Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” There has been much commentary about the ill-conceived interim report, Relatio post Disceptationem, which implied that homosexuality had inherent positive gifts and that divorced and remarried people who were in a state of perpetual adultery could somehow be accommodated to be able to receive communion. The scandalous nature of these ill-conceived paragraphs created great public confusion. Thankfully, in the final Relatio Synodi, the scandalous language was removed....

" Even bad people love their children".  But do they? Its not so much, "are they capable of love", as, "do they know what love is"? It's parallel to "what is freedom"? The ability to do whatever you want? Or the ability to do what is right? Love is preferring the good of the other for the other's sake. It can be explained to a five-year-old, as simply as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider's mutual, self-sacrificial love.  (Rapunzel is willing to remain the false-mother's slave, to save Flynn Rider's life. Flynn is willing to die so that Rapunzel can become free. Self-sacrificial love that perfects their...

Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

My High School-aged son brought home a flyer regarding a group at his school called the FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) Club and that there are dues required to to join. Do any of my fellow Freepers have any experience with this club/organization? In reading info about them at their website, I admit to the attractiveness of their motto and purpose but I also admit to being a little incredulous - that a Dept. of Ed backed program really cares about "family" and not just another avenue of indoctrination. Your feedback would be appreciated.

How to Advent Haley Stewart Celebrating liturgical traditions is no longer part of our shared culture—although shadows of it remain. This makes liturgical living far more difficult today than in yesteryear because setting our clocks by holy time is now decidedly counter-cultural. This becomes particularly apparent during the season of Advent.Stores are decked out in holiday bling, Christmas music blares in every restaurant, and the hustle and bustle is in full swing all around us. Meanwhile, the Church is calling us to slow down, reflect, and enter a penitential season. Marketers promote the gift-buying season leading up to December the...

New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson stirs the Facebook faithful with thoughtful and moving post on tumult surrounding the Michael Brown-Officer Darren Wilson case and Ferguson. #Ferguson Fox News: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren

Everyone knows my first name. "When I'm walking down the street, people instantly know my relationship to them. And I know they're entrusted to me." A Catholic nun was talking with me about her gratitude for her calling in life. It's not every day, perhaps, that you see a nun walking down the street. Though if you were with me last week, it might have appeared the most natural thing in the world. The scene around me included Sister Antoniana navigating a cart with a slow cooker, a laptop and a large pot of tortellini soup from convent to convent,...

I found it very suspect that our King plus a huge trade delegation visited Japan a day before Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda announced the new extreme surprise round of stimulus. Gold Repatriation Stunner: Dutch Central Bank Secretly Withdrew 122 Tons Of Gold From The New York Fed http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-21/gold-repatriation-stunner-dutch-central-bank-secretly-withdrew-122-tons-gold-new-yor Need Tips on Sticking to your Trade Plan? Global Consequences The impact of the Dutch gold repatriation can be huge. First of all, because it underlines more and more countries are getting nervous about their gold reserves stored in the US. Venezuela repatriated most of its reserves from abroad in...

There are more important things in life than politics. One of those things is happening as I write. Most of the world is oblivious to it. The press corps has completely ignored it. But it may be one of the most consequential events in the early twenty-first century. It is called Humanum. In Rome, at the Vatican, an interfaith gathering is occurring to discus marriage. Leading voices in the Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, and Christian communities have gathered to support and strengthen each other in the struggle against growing anti-faith norms toward marriage and family. Pope Francis opened the...

Princeton University law professor Robert P. George ROME — So far, Pope Francis’ most significant internal opposition has come from conservative Catholics alarmed over what they see as playing fast-and-loose with Catholic doctrine. This week, however, an all-star lineup of conservatives gathered in Rome has come to the pope’s defense. “I am a conservative politically,” said Princeton University law professor Robert P. George, considered one of America’s most prominent Catholic commentators. “But I’m a Pope Francis Catholic, which is simply to say that I’m a Catholic.” Harvard law professor and former US Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann...