Emily Malloy, our new contributor extraordinaire, is back baking and sharing her  Soda Bread recipe. With raisins or without, this common Irish delectable is a fun and delicious way to celebrate  St. Patrick's Day. It is simple and yet spectacular. Enjoy!

It can a challenge to break out of our sweats and various lounge ware and prioritize caring for our appearance when we spend most of our days at home. But it is worth it. Nicole Tittmann weighs in on how she reframed her thinking and got out of a quarantine-induced rut.

Saint Norbert courageously engaged the challenges of his time: corruption, petty wars, oppression of the Church, heresies, and more. The strikingly similar challenges facing the Church and world today suggest that St. Norbert is an intercessor uniquely suited for our times. Please enjoy an excerpt about his conversion from the book, The Life of Saint Norbert.

For our book excerpt series we are featuring Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love by Kimberly Cook. Her motivation in writing was, "not only to tell my journey from feminism to Catholicism, but also to educate others on what exactly feminism is." In this excerpt, Cook gives fascinating back story to the infamous Margaret Sanger. 

During several long stays in Poland, I heard many stories about life under communism. Fascinated by these first-hand accounts, it was hard to wrap my mind around what my friends had lived through. One young man had his family estate divided up by the government: the parents and son were left the kitchen and a bedroom, while strangers from another part of Poland were moved into other parts of the house to make a new home. I was told about the preciousness of a can of coke. Parents made huge sacrifices from their $20 a month salaries to gift their children just one, costing $1.

We are starting a new feature here at Theology of Home. We will be posting excerpts from new (and some old) books that we think are worthy of reading. Rather than a review, we think these short looks into actual books will help our readers decide for themselves if this is a book they want to sink their teeth into.

Our first featured book is "We Begin to Fight," by Steve Karlen, the Director of Campaigns at 40 Days for Life. Steve was your average guy, uninterested in the abortion debate, until he was faced with it in his own life.