After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Vanessa has spent time as a Catholic Worker, a case manager, and a theology teacher. She now works for a Catholic school and is a freelance writer who lives in Austin with her husband and two sweet little girls.

	May 1st, 2012 Jesus and The Lorax Since I was a kid, I have been in love with Dr. Seuss. His writings are so prophetic and contain such simple but powerful social ...
	April 18th, 2012 The Hunger Games and Self-Worth Spoiler Alert: This post assumes you have read The Hunger Games series and gives away parts of the story. I totally jumped on The Hunger ...
	April 11th, 2012 Simple Faith: Trusting the Church One day Brandon and I made up our minds to run a marathon. If you knew us, this decision would have sent you into laughing hysterics because we are both the most un-athletic people we ...
	March 27th, 2012 Simple Home: Detaching from the “stuff” of life I come from a family that shows its love through gift giving. I think this stems from La Lupe. She raised eight kids on ...
	March 20th, 2012 Simple Charity The other day I was buying some food from a food truck and I noticed a homeless man sitting by the truck playing his guitar. I ...
	March 7th, 2012 Simple Work I am a workaholic. When I have a job to do I am almost obsessive about it. Especially working in education, there is just so much ...
	February 29th, 2012 Simple Food I ate fast food for the majority of my life. Jack in the Box one day, Taco Bell the next, McDonald’s for breakfast, Sonic for ...
	February 22nd, 2012 Simplicity During Lent I was at Target the other day looking at coloring books for Olivia who is an avid colorer. There were about 100 options. I wasn’t ...
	February 14th, 2012 The Accommodation The White House issued an accommodation Friday exempting religious employers from having to pay for contraceptive services in their insurance policies. When I heard this ...
	February 7th, 2012 The Government’s Attack on Consciences I ...
	January 31st, 2012 Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Good I’m going to be honest. At the end of December I was not in a good place. I was unhappy with everything -- my home, ...
	January 25th, 2012 Why Did You Marry Me? I always pictured my life differently. I’ve always been a simple girl with simple wants. I pictured that we would have a home without a ...
	January 17th, 2012 My Matriarch Level: Not a Total Failure Every year the rollercoaster speed at which the year passes from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is always baffling. Every year I’m caught so off guard ...
	January 10th, 2012 The “Other” In Our Midst For the past 18 months, I have seen a man pass our house in his wheelchair every week. He has long, dirty hair, lots of bags, and a bandaged foot. The first time we saw ...
	January 5th, 2012 Church Hopping The more years that separate me from my time at Notre Dame, the more I realize how easy college made certain things in life.  Making friends ...
	November 17th, 2011 My Thoughts on Corporate Greed While I am partial to things that people may classify as hippie -- like peace, love, granola -- I don’t very well understand the ...
	November 2nd, 2011 Día de los Muertos Honoring the dead in the land of the living I’ve never celebrated Día de los Muertos. I’ve never heard La Lupe speak of celebrating it, either. But I’ll get back to that in a minute. A lot of people wrongly think that Día de los ...
	October 18th, 2011 Ruben: “Life With the Volume Turned Up Loud” A good friend passed away last Wednesday. He had fought cancer a long, long time. Ruben was that cool kid that everyone, and I mean everyone, immediately loved. He just had this vibe. Laid back but ...
	October 7th, 2011 Steve Jobs and My Daughter Due to my admittedly Amish tendencies when it comes to technology, I was surprised at the wave of sadness that washed over me when I ...
	October 5th, 2011 God Has A Sense Of Humor I am a perfectionist and a micromanager and am easily overwhelmed. There really is no combination that would result in a more tightly wound person. ...