A Totally Biased Review of CatholicMom.com

Since I'm now a monthly columnist with CatholicMom.com, I can't really write an unbiased review. But this is still an awesome site! It has articles from more than 150 columnists, who write mainly on the topics of faith, family, and fun. Updated content appears frequently, averaging between ten and fifteen articles a day. The site also offers podcasts, videos, and give-away contests.

Lisa Hendey created CatholicMom.com in 1999, and she has also authored three books on Catholic topics. "Lisa Hendey is the sister friend of Catholic motherhood," enthuses Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, a fellow Catholic author. I can vouch for Lisa's welcoming support and acceptance. She was the first person to befriend me on the social media platform of Google+ (where I now have about 700 Catholic contacts), and CatholicMom.com was the first website to publicize my blog's early milestones.

As for the website's design, CatholicMom.com has a clean lay-out. The articles are accompanied by brilliantly colored photos that pop against the simple white background. At the bottom of the home page, there are purty pictures of all the contributors. (There's even a picture of me, but it's very, very small.)

My favorite feature, because of how helpful it is, has to be the print-outs of children's activities related to Sunday Mass readings throughout the year. There are printable activity booklets, crosswords, word searches, coloring pages, and worksheets. Toddlers will like the coloring pages; teens can answer questions on the worksheets. You can use the print-outs before Mass to prepare your kids, during Mass to focus their attention on the readings, or after Mass to see what they remembered. Golden! Links to "Sunday's Gospel" appear at the upper right-hand corner of the home page, and in case you missed it, in a giant button in the middle of the page, too.

The site's most unique feature might be the daily Tech Talk posts, written by a team of talented technophiles and edited (and sometimes written) by the hilarious Sarah Reinhard. In our online conversations, Sarah Reinhard routinely makes me guffaw. She even throws around terms like dpi and ppi in a nonchalant manner, and promises that one day I really will get all this interwebs techie jingo. Tech Talk posts include reviews of Catholic apps and games, and interviews of cool Catholic techie-types. You can reach the Tech Talk posts by clicking on the link that appears in the middle of the navigation bar at the top of the home page.

In short, this site is totally worth a visit. Check it out and let me know what you think!