The Intentional Household: A LifeCraft Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Hospitality is much more than just a nice way to spend time with people; in the loss of real hospitality households have suffered a serious wound. Join John and Sofia in discussing the fuller nature of hospitality and why and how to rediscover it for the sake of fulfilling the deepest calling of the household. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail What to do for our children’s ‘education’ is one of the most important and difficult issues. This immediately demands some clear thinking about the overall goal in raising children. Join John and Sofia in a wide-ranging discussion that addresses how to think about academic formation in light of the deeper issue of personal formation through every-day life in the home. https://life...

Send us Fan Mail Are dishes, laundry, and cleaning more of a woman’s work? Is it important for men to do such work in the home? If so, why? Join John and Sofia in considering an important and challenging aspect of making a household today. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail The pervasive decline in manners leaves many wondering what can be done and what difference it makes. Join John and Sofia in considering age-old principles that both show how crucial good manners are and point to how we can work to restore them, starting in our own homes. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail Vacations have a significant role in making a household. With an intentional approach, grounded in a couple of key distinctions and principles, we can make our vacations restful and fun even as we build relationships and deepen our family culture. Join Sofia and John in thinking about this unconsidered aspect of family life. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail An Interview with Chris Vander Woude The heroic death of Tom Vander Woude highlights the extraordinary beauty of his ‘ordinary’ life. You will be deeply moved by this account of a man’s death and life as told by his son. Here is an inspiring yet down-to-earth example of a true man of the household for our times, whose potential cause for canonization is being considered. https://l...

Send us Fan Mail We know that how we raise our children will make them different from many of their peers, but often we don’t recognize just what this really means for them. John and Sofia discuss how the challenge of being different calls both for a careful examination of what we ask of our children as well as a readiness to understand and enter their suffering. These principles apply also to any...

Send us Fan Mail You want to bring the power of great music to your home but don’t know where to begin. It can be daunting. Here are five concrete steps that anyone can take. Join Sofia and me in addressing how to act on the principles discussed in The Hidden Power of Music episode. We name many of our favorite pieces, artists, and musical groups of various genres. Chapters The Power of Music in t...

Send us Fan Mail Easter is the feast of all feasts. It undergirds all true festivity and leisure. Yet we often struggle to celebrate it well. John and Sofia offer a practical approach to how our Easter celebration—including before and after Easter Sunday—can transform and elevate our homelife and provide a focal point and pattern for the whole year https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail Finding truly enriching activities that are enjoyable and don’t require a lot of planning can be difficult. Walking—whether just around the cul de sac or across hills and dales—has the potential to transform life in our homes. Join John and Sofia in this surprising conversation that goes to the heart of homelife and offers a hopeful, practical, and simple boon for the whole househ...

Send us Fan Mail Being spiritual leader is perhaps the most difficult, under-examined, and central aspect of a man’s place in the home. Renowned theologian and online celebrity Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. joins John Cuddeback in discussing the challenge and beauty of spiritual headship. Themes include: the difference spiritual headship makes in the spiritual life; spiritual ramifications of complementa...

Send us Fan Mail Anyone living an intentional life needs to reflect on how to do movies right. This is especially crucial for parents in view of the challenge of screen time and world-view formation—for young and old. Join John and Sofia as they offer a realistic, hopeful, and principled approach to actualizing the positive of movies in the home. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail Central to our problem with time is that we miss the real issue, and so real solutions evade us. It’s not about becoming more productive, but becoming more alive, by rediscovering ordinary daily practices. Join John and Sofia in taking a fresh look at time, why it’s so challenging today and how we can transform how we live in it, starting at home. Chapters 00:00 The Nature of Time...

Send us Fan Mail Boethius wrote: "Music is part of us, and either ennobles or degrades our behavior.” Plato and Aristotle saw it as central in education and in living a fully human life. Join Sofia and me in a hard-hitting discussion about how the music we listen to can be a deadly Trojan horse or a life-giving force in the heart of our homes. LIFECRAFT 2 WEEK MUSIC CHALLENGE: Music: A Two We...

Send us Fan Mail Many of us, especially spouses and parents, struggle with it. But self-care is crucial for everyone, and is an opportunity to deepen a marriage and become better parents. Join John and Sofia in discussing a rich notion of self-care, offering principles that apply at all stages of life. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail We have both the power and calling to make others happy, a truth portrayed in stunning fashion in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of the great stories of all time. Join John and Sofia for a dramatic reading and reflection on the unforgettable scene of the dance at Fezziwig’s warehouse, which sheds a brilliant light on marriage, household, and the joyful meaning of life....

Send us Fan Mail Christmas stands out as perhaps the most significant annual opportunity to craft a certain kind of life in our home. It’s when we show ourselves and those around us who we really are and want to be. Join John and Sofia as they share specific ideas for making your household’s observance of Christmas an extraordinary expression of life. For more ideas on how to make your household f...

Send us Fan Mail It’s about so much more than keeping up with the neighbors. Decorating our home at Christmas can be an essential part of a deeper preparation for the holy days and so also a great tool in the art of crafting the good life in our home. Join John and Sofia in reflecting on the amazing fruits a deeper approach to decorating can have for us and our loved ones, at Christmas and all yea...

Send us Fan Mail It was once so ordinary that people couldn’t picture life without it. Singing together is a basic form of shared life in the home, and Sofia argues it is a wonderful part of God’s plan for the household. Join us as we discuss overcoming fears and objections and offer practical tips for recovering this precious lost art. Also, check out our downloadable recordings at Sofia’s Corner...

Send us Fan Mail Interior design matters. Given our bodily nature, the spaces in our home have significant influence on life-in-the-home. Paige Rien, an author and designer who had five seasons on HGTV on a top-rated show, combines the best of design with a counter-cultural philosophy rooted in the mission of the Christian home. Join me and Paige in discussing how the tools of design can serve bea...

Send us Fan Mail What we eat is a major determinant of our bodily health and much more. The right approach to food nourishes us in many ways and is a central feature of a flourishing household. Join Sofia and me in discussing just how food can be an ‘instrument’ of crafting a truly good life in our home. Features suggestions from Wendell Berry and our own kitchen. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail Wifery refers to something beautiful that every woman is called to be as well as to a very concrete art at the heart of life in the home. The richness of the term comes from the richness of what it is to be a woman. This lecture defines, explains, and inspires, offering concrete action steps for rediscovering and enacting the art of being a woman, especially in the amazing form th...

Send us Fan Mail How we bury our dead expresses our basic view of life. But we have lost our traditions of burial, and so our lives are impoverished. Renewing how we bury our loved ones is part of renewing life in our home. Join Sofia and me in discussing principles and concrete ways we can reclaim this essential practice of human life. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail If motherhood demands all, can there still be space for anything else? Does being a good mother mean having no personal projects? Nell O’Leary shares her journey of discovery about what motherhood demands. Join Nell and me in discussing how the ‘oblation’ of motherhood actually calls for an appropriate diversity of pursuits. https://life-craft.org/

Send us Fan Mail Husbandry names the heart of what every man is called to be; it also names a very concrete art that is the foundation of life in the home. The richness of the term comes from the richness of what it is to be a man. This lecture defines, explains, and inspires, offering concrete action steps for rediscovering and enacting the amazing art of being a man. https://life-craft.org/