In this sixth episode of the Letters to Mothers season, we’re talking about infertility. What if you long for physical motherhood and spiritual motherhood feels like a consolation prize, like a second-rate motherhood? What if you’re experiencing infertility, whether it’s a season of infertility with hope of a positive pregnancy test some day or permanent infertility and you wonder if you have any space in conversations about the feminine genius and motherhood? Infertility is a burden that...

In this fifth episode of the Letters to Mothers season, we’re talking about mothering our babies who we’ve lost in miscarriage, still birth, and infant loss. Losing a child is heartbreaking and devastating. For mothers who lose a child before or shortly after birth, this grief comes with distinct, sudden, and difficult questions about God, the Church, and who they are now as parents to the child they have lost. If you’re looking for a companion and guide through those har medical,...

In this fourth episode of the Letters to Mothers series, Johanna Seagren joins me to discuss emotional regulation, our interior life, and burnout in our motherhood. Parenting is hard work, and sometimes it’s louder, messier, more complicated, and packed with tantrums (yours included) than you expected. So many times, we end up exhausted and feeling like this can’t be the vision that God had for your family. We’re diving into a conversation about what it means to be an emotionally-healthy...

In this third episode of the Letters to Mothers series, Kimberly Henkel of Springs of Love joins me to discuss foster care and adoption. We’re talking about how Kimberly and her husband Greg discerned the call to foster care. We’re also busting myths around adoption that might be holding you back from discerning that call as a family, and both of us are sharing our experiences as adoptive mothers.  Whether you’re exploring the possibility of adoption or foster care, you’re already an...

In this second episode of the Letters to Mothers series, Grace Stark from Natural Womanhood joins me to discuss fertility awareness and motherhood. This is a conversation about authentic womens’ healthcare, how to grow in an appreciation of your fertility as a gift, and discerning the size of family that the Lord wants to build with and for you—and what to do if you’re not on the same page as your spouse in that discernment. We also talk about what it means to be mothers to daughters, and...

In this first episode of the Letters to Mothers season we’re talking about a topic that so many of us are familiar with—body image. It’s a topic we’ve talked about on the show, but I wanted to revisit it with a specific focus on that experience as mothers. Joining me on the show today is Shelby Hirschman. She’s a nutrition therapist who specializes in intuitive eating, body acceptance, and recovery from chronic dieting and disordered eating. We’re talking about postpartum discomfort, the...

Letters to Women returns February 13th with a season dedicated to motherhood. Plus, Chloe shares her favorite part of Saint Pope John Paul II’s original Letter to Women and reveals a few other surprises.  Stay in touch and learn about upcoming episodes by signing up for the email list at naptimenotes.substack.com

A quick update about why there hasn't been a new episode of Letters to Women in your podcast feed lately ... and an announcement about the future of the podcast.

Should we care about what we wear? The short answer is “yes”—but don’t pull out your headphones just yet. There’s more to the conversation than that. What about style? What do you think of when you hear that word? Maybe the pages of fashion magazines or reruns of Project Runway flash through your mind. Or maybe you wonder if style should even be something you think about—how many of us have felt guilty after splurging on a gorgeous dress, wondering how a piece of fabric can capture our...

It’s time we get honest with ourselves as women today—we’re being lied to. Today’s cultural beauty standards are messed up. We all know it, and we all think we can resist the pull to look a certain way. But most of us—and our sisters, daughters, and nieces, too—are still striving for a broken kind of beauty while feeling like we’re not good enough. In this episode, I’m sitting down with Melissa Johnson, a marriage and family therapist. The lie of today’s beauty standards eventually led her...

We’re living in a world of filters and photoshop. Thanks to the constant pull from the smartphone in your pocket, you might be experiencing internet overwhelm and social media fatigue. Is there any relatable women’s media out there that gives an accurate representation of what it means to be a women, reminds you of your belovedness, and encourages you to be authentic? The world needs more of who women ARE. Not a long list of expectations of what we should be doing and what our bodies look...

Have you ever wished you prayed more with your spouse, but you don’t know where to start? Maybe you’re confident in praying FOR your spouse, but WITH them? In this episode, I’m sitting down with Dr. Sarah Bartel and we’re talking about Cana Feast, the marriage ministry she founded with husband, Nathan, and she’s giving some really practical, nitty-gritty ways that they’ve found make a difference in couple’s marriages - from how to get over the awkwardness of praying together to making time...

Have you ever had the experience that life is flying by you at lightning speed and you’re just an observer? The year is already over halfway done, you’re not sure really what you’ve even done for the past six months. You’re just along for the ride. But what if there was a daily practice that helped you grow in your ability to focus, to be grateful, and to be present? In this episode, I’m sitting down with Tsh Oxenreider. I love Tsh—her writing is absolutely fantastic, her podcast is one of...

When Sarah Swafford first started talking to college students about friendship, it was 2007. They were trying to figure out cellphones, dorm life, emotions, and virtue. Sixteen years later, Sarah is still talking about friendship—and it hasn’t gotten any easier with the rise of social media, smart phones, and a world pandemic. Sarah fist came on the podcast way back in 2018 to talk about emotions and virtue. She’s back for another conversation about virtue, a brand new book called Gift and...

I’m sitting down with Grace Babineau. She’s a wife and mom of two, and she recently wrote an article on Verily Magazine called “Thrift is the Really Romantic Thing” about why saving money might be the best thing for your marriage. And today we’re talking about thrift and romance, but also the virtue of simplicity, prioritizing creativity in seasons where it’s easy to write it off as a luxury or selfish desire, and how to actually cultivate time in your day for creativity. So whether you are...

We all know someone struggling with substance use disorder. We might not know it, but since nearly one in five Americans older than twelve reported illicit drug use in 2018, someone in our life is struggling. And those numbers were before a pandemic threw our culture into further isolation. With those kinds of numbers, if you live in the United States, it’s nearly impossible for you to not know someone battling an addiction to drugs or alcohol. It could be your aunt, cousin, neighbor, your...

Have you ever wanted to sit down with a woman who is a few season of life ahead of you, settle in on her couch with a big cup of coffee, and pick her brain about all of the joys and challenges of the season of life you’re in now -- and the seasons you’re looking forward to? To hear her advice and learn from the wisdom she’s gained over the years? That’s exactly what today’s episode from the archive is all about. These past weeks have been really full here at the Langr house -- spring...

There are so many tasks on our to-do lists as women, wives, and moms that are repetitive—and hidden. You plan meals every week and wander the aisle of your grocery store, only to be back again the week after to do the exact same thing all over again. You fold a massive pile of laundry and as you’re putting clean clothes in dressers, you find the laundry baskets are full again and ready for the next load. You make a meal, only to be faced with a pile of dirty dishes and a full dishwasher ready...

Every single one of us has a feminine genius -- a particular way that the Lord is inviting us to bring forth new life into the world. But embracing that feminine genius in your daily life can be incredibly challenging if you’re facing something challenging in your life….but you’re pretending everything is fine, that you’re okay, and that you don’t need any help. Maybe it’s hard to admit to a friend that you’re really struggling in your marriage or in your motherhood. You might be...

It’s an incredible gift to share the beauty of the Catholic faith with the kids in our lives. Whether you’re sharing about Christ in the Eucharist with your toddler, diving into Scripture together, or preparing children for their first reconciliation or first communion, there’s a lot that goes into evangelizing the littlest people in our lives. How can we explain the faith, the realities of sin, and the incredible gift of the Eucharist in ways that resonate with little kids? How do we live...

For 2,000 years, Catholics have been at the heart of the culinary arts. Maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the sacred feast of the Eucharist and how it gives life to our faith. But, like so many other things in our lives today, our relationship with food has become compromised, cheapened, and robbed of its wholesomeness and purpose. And it’s so easy to lose the sacramental nature of eating and the sense of community that comes from a good meal. In this episode, I’m sitting...

In my home growing up, we said a family Rosary every morning at 9am—my mom, dad, and seven siblings gathered in the living room and prayed together. We took turns leading decades and corralling toddlers. But when I moved out, I got out of the habit of the daily Rosary. And I have a growing desire to get back into it now that my little crew of kids is able to say a few words of the Hail Mary themselves. But building that habit back is challenging, which is why I was so excited for the chance...

Valentine’s day is around the corner, and that means that you might be encountering a lot of Instagram-worthy pictures and posts about marriages over the next few days. And the vocation of marriage is incredible. God draws spouses closer to the ultimate Heavenly marriage through the powerful sacrament of marriage. That doesn’t mean that marriage is always easy, and it isn’t always like what I imagined when I was a newlywed. The reality of marriage involves communication (and...

We’ve all experienced moments of pain and suffering. And while all of us carry different crosses, suffering is something that is part of every one of our stories. But how do you pray when you struggle to find words to express your pain and trauma? How do you validate the emotions you experience in the valleys of life and embrace them as a gift instead of stuffing them down some place deep inside you? And in those hard seasons that seem to stretch on forever, how can you refresh your faith...