What happens when a Catholic mom takes her love of making beautiful things and turns it into something bigger?

In this episode, I sit down with Raquel from The Little Rose Shop to talk about the intersection of faith, creativity, and motherhood — and what it looks like to use your God-given gifts while raising a family.

We talk about:
* How Raquel built a faith-rooted business while being a present mom
* The struggles and joys of balancing creative work with family life
* Trusting God with your gifts (even when it feels risky)
* Finding purpose and identity beyond the daily grind of motherhood

If you liked this episode, you’ll also enjoy:
 Catholic Finishing School: Becoming Who God Made You
 What Is Breakthrough Coaching? Transform Your Motherhood
 Feeling Safe and Loved: What Every Catholic Mom Needs

If you’re a Catholic mom who knows God gave you gifts but you’re not sure how to use them in this season — that’s something we explore together inside Mary’s Heart Martha’s Order. Come find your people at catholicmomcalm.com/marysheart

Raquel: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: In an interview, long before I actually, you know, before we started talking to each other, so.

Sterling: Yeah. That’s so fun. And you’ve been doing, have you been on several podcasts recently? What are some others that you’ve been on?

Raquel: Yeah, I was on, Catholic Sys Podcast, being human. Which was exciting. I was on Pruning to Prosper. Have you heard of that podcast?

Sterling: No.

Raquel: Probably she.

Sterling: So many now, which is so fun.

Raquel: Yeah.Yeah. Well, she likes to do decluttering and stuff, so.

Sterling: Nice.

Raquel: You like that? I know.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: So you can check her out. But yeah, and so this, I’m really new to being a guest on podcasts, so not too many. I’m excited to be on this one for sure.

Sterling: All right, so start by telling us your story. ’cause you’ve got a great story and it kind of ties in a little bit to how you ended up starting your company.

Raquel: Yeah. So my story is that when I was 21 years old, I found out I was pregnant. And it was obviously a life altering situation to be in. I was living, maybe what you would call a stereotypical college lifestyle, just dabbling in all sorts of things.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: I had been raised Catholic and I was, I would consider myself just kind of like a Sunday Catholic, like wasn’t really taking much ownership of it for myself was honestly pretty lost and depressed in college and dealing with all the things that you deal with in college.

And so I find out that I’m pregnant. And I become very spiritually attacked. Like I really believe I was just under so much spiritual attack. I was very isolated, very depressed, and even though I had been raised Catholic and I was ‘’pro-life” at that time in my life, I was not sure that I could choose life for myself and for my daughter. I had scheduled an abortion appointment.

And I was very ashamed and very isolated and was just so afraid of anyone finding out that I was pregnant. And I ended up by God’s grace in the back of mass on a Saturday night. I don’t even know why I went ’cause I was like, I’m not like I can’t be here.

But I went in and went to Mass and it was like God had orchestrated this entire mass just for me. And it was, the readings were the prodigal son. So I’m bawling my eyes out in the back ’cause I’m like, I’m the prodigal daughter.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And then, at the moment of consecration at that mass, it was the first time that I like saw Jesus in the Eucharist and knew it was him, and knew he was real. And like I felt him like pierce my heart basically and say like, Raquel, I love you.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Your brokenness is not too much for me. And that’s like what I needed to hear. It was also like such a consolation because at the moment of consecration, since it was a Saturday night mass. The sun was setting and the sun was coming through the stained glass windows and it was like sparkling, like so beautifully around the consecration. And it was just this big constellation to me. ’cause stained glass windows are just these broken pieces.

Sterling: Yes.

Raquel: Been reconstructed into something really beautiful. And so it was just kind of this analogy and for me. And so after that moment of like, I don’t know, it was like truly a come to Jesus. Like I knew Jesus was real and it was okay that I was. Messy and broken. He loved me anyway.

And so after that moment, I had the courage to tell my parents and friends that I was pregnant and ultimately choose life and cancel my abortion appointment. And from that moment forward, I just was very convicted of like, okay, like if this is real, I need to actually take ownership of my faith and make it a part of my everyday life, not just on Sundays. And also, becoming a mom, a young mom, I was like, now I have this child.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And I want to have an intentional like upbringing for her with the faith, like really integrated into daily life. And so that’s truly the very beginnings of the Little Rose Shop because I started kind of creating these things that I couldn’t quite find that I wanted.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: To help me integrate faith into my daily life as a young frazzled mom that couldn’t quite like just be going to daily mass or these, like reading these in depth books. I just literally needed like a prayer on a mug so I could just remember in my sleep deprivation, oh, I can like still say a quick prayer right now and I can still sanctify this moment.

And bring faith into my reality and my daily life. And so I started creating these items and one of my first items was. A quiet mass book because, you know, a young self-conscious mom, and I think my child is so loud at mass.

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: And like everyone’s staring at me and it’s really not that bad, but you know the feeling.

Sterling: Oh yes. Yeah, I know.

Raquel: And so I had made this, little like soft church book for my daughter so she could flip through and it was kind of interactive and, at her level. And you know, the hope was maybe she would be quiet and kind of looking at it for 30 seconds maybe.

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: And people started seeing it at church and asked me where I got it and I said, oh, I made it. And then they asked me if I could make one for them. And I was like, oh, sure. So I started making a few on the side and selling them and it just, the demand grew and grew.

And I kind of started creating just these other items, like I had mentioned, prayer mugs. I started designing. Prayer blankets because I was, my daughter did not sleep well and so I was up all the time, right? Sleep deprived. But if I could see her like wrapped in prayers, that would just be this visual. I’m very visual and tactics of these.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: These things I was making like it was, there are ordinary things, like everybody has a blanket, everybody has a mug, but.

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: I was putting very intentionally prayers and these visual reminders so that way I could be like, ohI could pray right now. Like I can still encounter God in the spirit of normal moment. And so that was basically like.

Sterling: What year was that you started making the first product?

Raquel: Yeah, the first product I think I made, well my daughter was born in 2012 and I started making that stuff probably 2013.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: I know. I opened my Etsy shop like officially in 2014, and now I have Etsy and a regular website, but 2014 is when I was like officially selling stuff. So yeah. And now it’s like my full time. I was doing it on the side. It was a hobby. I went to, I graduated college a month and a half after I had my daughter.

And then I went to grad school and kind of did this on the side. And then I got my master’s in school counseling, which I actually love to integrate a lot of what I’ve learned. From school counseling and just supporting families and learning styles and stuff like that into my products.

But yeah, I was a practicing school counselor for five years. And then in 2020 is when I took a leap of faith and quit my job and started focusing on the little row shop full-time, and it’s just taken off ever since. And now I have a couple of employees.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And it’s my full-time and it’s like.

Sterling: Yeah. But tell people, because I think sometimes they think that means we work 40 hours a week, but we don’t work 40 hours a week.

Raquel: No, I work very part-time.

Sterling: Yeah. And I just wanna tell everybody, ’cause this is not the business podcast, but I’ll tell everybody it takes some work. It’s not easy. It takes some work to create a business that then makes enough money that you can work 10 to 15 hours a week.

But I just want everybody to know that it’s really possible to grow something and then hire people and then systemize it so that you really can have a really great business that pays you pretty well. But then not be working full time. It’s very amazing. Okay. So when, but so then you’re married and you have other kids. So how many kids do you have total now?

Raquel: Yes, I have four on Earth. Four in heaven?

Sterling: Yeah. I don’t think I knew that. I don’t think I knew that you’d been through that four times. It’s a lot.

Raquel: Yeah. Basically in between everyone, I had a loss so.

Sterling: Yeah, me too. I have never had a miscarriage, and I say like, yeah, when I get pregnant, it’s a 50-50 chance. Like I just.

Raquel: Yep.

Sterling: You know, we just, I really have to guard my heart. I really have to guard my heart and just be like, I don’t know, whatever God’s will is. ’cause it’s just like, we don’t know. . Anyway, it’s just a different experience. So then you start making more products. Tell me about the examine. You have some cool examine products. We were talking about that before.

Raquel: Yes. What’s interesting is, I became a young mom while I was still in college. And then as I mentioned, I went into grad school for school counseling. And so at that time I was like. Full, like fully convicted in my faith of like figuring out things that I could incorporate into daily life. And I stumbled upon the examine and I fell in love with it.

Because. You know, I’m in grad school, I’m working, I’m a single mom, and I just wanted to like, take in everything I could for, with learning about my faith. But I was like, I also don’t have the bandwidth to read these depthly.

Sterling: Right. Yeah.

Raquel: Theological books. I like can’t go to daily mass. It doesn’t work with my schedule. I can’t like make it to adoration. So I felt like, oh, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Like.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Like really embrace the faith. And then I stumbled upon the exam and I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And it takes like five minutes a day.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And it’s like really transformative. And so I like started doing the exam and I’m learning about this and diving into it and practicing it while I’m in grad school, learning about all sorts of like brain stuff and things that improve habits and things that can help with depression and anxiety. And basically what I was freaking out about. ’cause I get excited about when faith and science align.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: But every component of the examine, like if you pull it out individually, it’s actually hugely evidence-based practices that help with overall wellbeing, reducing anxiety, reducing depression.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And just like our huge support of overall wellness. And I was like, oh my gosh. The Catholics had it all figured out before something even.

Sterling: That’s what I like to tell people. I go, listen, everything we learn in science always backs up something we knew first.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: So if it doesn’t, we don’t have science yet, we just haven’t discovered it. Right. But it’s kind of like when they discovered that there’s this crazy light thing that happens when the sperm enters the egg and they were like, whoa, something crazy happens. I’m like, yeah, that’s when life begins. Like we know that. And so every time science discovers something I’m like, it was ours. No big deal.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: It was. We knew that even if we didn’t have the sciencey words, which I think is so cool.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: Amazing.

Raquel: Yeah, and so I basically like fell in love with the examine and I’ve just been wanting to share it. With so many people. So we’ve come out with some examine products and recently we came out with my first exam and it’s a board book for kids.

So families can start practicing the exam because if you’re not familiar with it. It’s really just like a simple step process. And it doesn’t have to be this formal, like I’m in a silent corner praying. Like you could really just bring it to the dinner table and like discuss it. Kind of just go through the format with your family really naturally.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Or like at bedtime with the kids for bedtime prayers. And so we made this book because I just like want to share it with families in the world. And it’s, yeah, it’s really simple. It’s like, I can go through it. It’s five steps. The first is like just becoming mindful that God is actually with you, like.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: We just go through our day sometimes, forgetting that he’s just, he’s right there. He’s with you.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And so really intentionally calling to mind his presence. And then finding something that you’re thankful for. Like choosing to find the good and find things that you’re grateful for. Like, there’s always something that you can find if you just look and take the moment to like, think about it.

And then really like neutrally reviewing your day kind of from a bird’s eye view of like, how did your day go? And like, just basically watching yourself back and seeing oh, this was kind of like a. Rough moments or this was really good and just like observing, which I think falls so well in line with what you teach we need to be calm.

And we need to like, see what’s happening and then we can kind of problem solve and troubleshoot a lot of our problems. I just think it fits exactly with what you teach with Catholic mom, calm and reviewing your day from a place of calm, so that way you can actually problem solve and it’s during that point in the examine where I think about you a lot actually.

But I also like do solve so many problems when I’m like kind of neutrally watching myself back throughout the day and being like, oh, that was rough. Like, why was that so rough? And then figuring out oh, here’s how I could maybe do that better tomorrow.

And that’s basically the last step of the exam is kind of reconciling. And then asking God and the Holy Spirit for guidance for tomorrow and like just kind of this day by day, habit of reviewing your day and then figuring out how can I just make tomorrow better?

Sterling: I love that. And two things. One, in the life coaching world, they say even if you went and talked to a lamppost about your life for one hour a week, right? For one hour a week, if you just talk to a lamppost and you were like, lamppost, this is what’s going on with my life.

And you know what’s difficult and how I wanna be better, your life will drastically improve. Which is just this concept of slowing down and reviewing your life from a detached way where we’re not in the emotional state of whatever happened. And then thinking about it, we’re such good problem solvers when we’re calm.

It’s so funny that you say that because when I review my day, I do it with my electronic remarkable. But I have this pencil pouch from Raquel, so I also think about you a lot. I like, it’s funny when you buy someone from something, like you just think about them. You’re like, oh, she made that. Isn’t that funny?

Raquel: Yes.

Sterling: I just look at that every day. I love that. Pencil pouch that I keep with me. My kids have them too, around their Notebook. Something. I think it’s a school thing.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: But yeah, it is so important. To do that. And I also like thinking about doing the examine book. You guys, even at lunchtime, I feel like dinnertime for some of you, depending on ages might be too crazy.

But even that touchpoint at lunchtime with the kids, ’cause they’ve lived enough of the morning that there’s enough to review, kids can probably only remember two hours anyway. Um, right. And then just being like, Hey, let’s just pause and think about our life and creating that. You know, at that lunchtime, which tends to be a little bit slower and not everybody’s kids are home for lunch.

But just, be creative about when is a good time to go through that with the kids. But I really love that. And because it’s a board book, it’s so simple and everybody can understand it. It’s really cute, you guys too. There’s like these wheels and you can move ’em. It’s interactive and I think we just love it. So that just came out.

Raquel: Yes. It just came out, yeah. Two weeks ago. So I’m really excited. But yeah, I mean even like a lot of people do already like the highs and lows at dinner.

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: That’s actually part of what you could call, consider an examine of reviewing the high points of your day and the low points of your day. But then adding on a few extra questions so how could we like make that better tomorrow? Or like how, if you could redo it, what would you do differently?

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: You know, just some of these like thinking through that we actually can with God and the Holy Spirit, have a new course tomorrow and make changes.

Sterling: I think. Also to show the kids how we can review our behavior without shame. I mean, I think when we grow up and even the way that we think about confession or an examine without being taught, we can feel like covered in sludge and feel really ashamed.

But when you normalize it in your family, when you see a mom or a dad saying, yeah, I got really angry and I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry for that and I’m gonna bring that to the Lord and just showing like, Hey, that’s not a big deal. It’s not a big deal to be able to say, oh, I did that and it was wrong, and Lord, please forgive me, and I want to be better about that.

It just builds in that kind of culture of, hey, this is important. I remember hearing the Spanx lady who made just, I think she sold her company for a billion dollars. Something crazy. She like was the inventor of Spanx. Her dad at the dinner table used to ask all of their kids one way that they failed every day to normalize failing and that it’s really good to try things and not win.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: And I remember thinking, that’s so clever. It’s kind of adjacent to this, which is, yeah, it’s good for us to look at things that aren’t working from a simple perspective and talk to the Lord about it. And it’s good to learn that we wanna try things and not, not win at them all the time. And that that’s actually normal. Yeah, it’s not all the time.

Raquel: Yeah, yeah. And that’s like one of the parts in our little board book, for the step when you are trying to reconcile, we have like this little boy and when he sends he is far from Jesus and he just has to say sorry and he’s right close back to Jesus.

And I think just normalizing, like reconciliation and yes. I think making that. Just more common and more normal and more daily. Because I feel like when I grew up it was kind of this big buildup to going to profession, like whatever, you know, two times a year and you’re just like.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Like it’s so stressful. But it’s like sin is actually in our world. Every day we’re broken. Like it’s kind of gonna be a part of life and we have Jesus and we can say sorry to him and we can just say sorry every day and feel his embrace every day through the examine.

And it helped me ’cause I kind of grew up with perfectionistic tendencies and I think that’s why I struggled so much when I found out I was pregnant. ’cause I just had so much shame and I didn’t even know how to like, come forward with it. Or if I would be forgiven or if I would still be loved. And so just reminding people like, we all have this brokenness and we can come to Jesus and he’s right there to just. Say, I’ve got you.

Sterling: Yeah. And I’ll say.

Raquel: I forgive you and I love you. Yeah.

Sterling: Because I was a really lukewarm Catholic for the first two years that I was Catholic and I wasn’t Catholic before that. So I think I was 25. And then for the first two years, I would just say like, I didn’t get it right. That was probably like, I was doing it, but I didn’t really get it.

And the more I learned. What has evolved for me over all these years is I just do that so much faster, you know? Like even if I am, at mass and I look at someone and I have a sharp, judgmental thought, right. Just right. Then I’ll go, oh Lord, I’m sorry. Right. Then I reconciled with him.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: And I’m just like, please forgive me for that. And it just has become more normal. But that you’re right. Like the more we kind of neutralize those things. It doesn’t have that buildup feeling. And I have such a better relationship with him because I know that his mercy is endless and I’m so willing, you know. To do that with him.

I think we have this kind of mixed up idea that it’s like how we discipline kids and it’s not exactly like that. Like when the kids do something and there’s this moment, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like that when you learn that he’s just so loving and so merciful and he wants us, he wants all of us, and he wants us to bring everything to him. It’s more like I like to say when kids bring you a dandelion. And they’re like, look at this flower I brought you.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: And you’re like, it’s a weed. I love you.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: But we’re like, oh, thank you. I think it’s more like that. Like he just really wants us to bring him our sinfulness and then he just always forgives us and.

Raquel: Yeah. Yeah.

Sterling: It just feels really nice ’cause so many moms are just walking around feeling terribly like they’re failing in everything. And I think it’s because. One, they’re just believing lies. So stop doing that. All of you, you know that, I’m gonna tell you that. But second, I think it’s like even when we do make mistakes, we’re not just reconciling with the Lord and cleaning that out. And so it does have that feeling of building up.

Raquel: Yeah, exactly. And with this book, I’ve been trying to make the examine like this thing that I do with my family and what I love about the structure of it is, there is that structure of you come to the reconciliation point and it’s your opportunity as a parent too, to just be like. Yeah, I’m sorry. This is the perfect opening for me to model apologizing to my kids.

Like, oh yeah, I just because of this, I remember this happening this morning, and I wanna tell you, I’m sorry that I reacted that way and yelled, and let’s think about how we can do it better, because that’s the last step of the exam. And then is looking to the future with hope. And that’s what I love is that. You’re never left like down. You’re left with Hope.

Sterling: Yes.

Raquel: Hope for tomorrow, and asking the Holy Spirit to guide you and. Yeah, I just think it’s, I think everyone needs to learn the examine.

Sterling: Absolutely. And again, it’s like one of those things, especially from my perspective, because I came in with not a really great RCI experience. And it was probably like, oh yeah. And there’s this examine, like that was probably all that was ever said about that.

And it’s almost some of the most ordinary Catholic things that are around us. That are the most impactful and we just kind of overlook ’em. And I feel like the examine is one of those where we just kind of, oh yeah, that’s there. and we know it’s on a bunch of prayer cards, but we don’t really get how powerful it is and how simple it is.

And also, like you said, when we have the experience of having all of the sins build up and then go to confession, and that feels terrible, we can then think that’s what the examine feels like. But it doesn’t. It’s much simpler. And much more gentle, and it feels really nice. And then you guys imagine how you’re gonna feel going to sleep, right?

Raquel: Right.

Sterling: You’re just like, oh, I’ve kind of done that. It kind of clears the plate in your brain. I think that’s why in God’s wisdom was like, Hey, maybe you should do this at night because then you’re going to bed. Having let a lot of that go.

And one of the promises that we really focus on in our Catholic mom planner is the promise of hope. Our hope is in the Lord. Our hope is in Him, and I think a lot of people know that phrase and don’t know what it means they’re, and so they have a lot of hopelessness in their lives around things that they feel powerless around.

And when we really understand that what we need is this relationship with Him, and it’s always there. It does feel like hope. It’s like, oh yeah, I get to hang out with him tomorrow and I can do this anytime I want and feel better.

Raquel: Yeah. And then I think once I learned a lot more about the Holy Spirit from a lot of the stuff that you teach, , and coach on, I started adding that ’cause that really is like the end of the exam and looking forward and hope.

And I’ve started to learn more about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So that’s the time when I can, like, after I’ve reviewed my day reconciled, I can be like. Wow. Holy Spirit, can you please help me with this gift? Because it’s pretty apparent that was what I was struggling today. And it’s crazy how it just comes, like the Holy Spirit just comes through.

Sterling: Yeah, I know. It’s really amazing.

Raquel: I feel like once I learned more about the Holy Spirit and like have been specifically asking for gifts, like a whole new like. Level of living has been unlocked.

Sterling: Yeah, I just, I can’t remember. I mean, it was funny. We were gonna teach that in Catholic Mom Calm. We were like, oh, let’s do a gift study. And then I started looking into it and I was like, these are like super powers. It’s like super powers that we have anytime we want. And I wasn’t using them. I mean, I must have been Catholic for eight years at that point, having never really tapped into that.

And now I absolutely asked for them a lot. And I’ll tell you guys, the one I asked for. I ask for the gift of knowledge, which leads to the growing and hope and the gift of fear of the Lord, which. Again, I think I never would’ve prayed for that just because of how it sounds like nobody wants to be more fearful, but that’s not really what that one’s about.

That one is about like loving the Lord so much that we want him to be pleased with us. It’s like holy people pleasing. Right? If there was like a sense of holy people pleasing the Lord, that’s what fear of the Lord is, and but it leads to growing in the virtue of temperance. And so many of us want to stop over scrolling, over drinking, overeating, over shopping, like those things.

And if that’s you, if you feel like you’re kind of overing something. Really pray for the gift of fear of the Lord. And it’s calming, like, oh, I don’t need that. That’s enough. I can just do it a little bit. And we grow in this virtue of temperance, which, yeah. I really started to blow my mind when I started asking for those.

Raquel: Yeah. The one I asked for the most, or it’s changed recently, but in the beginning I was asking for wisdom all the time because, that corresponding, virtuous charity.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And I think I didn’t really understand what asking for the gift of wisdom was until I think you actually have.

Sterling: Yeah, I didn’t either because wisdom, understanding counsel and knowledge all sound like the same words.

Raquel: Right. Yeah. But wisdom is like seeing others and yourself. And that’s the main reason I was praying for. It’s ’cause I had a lot of like shame and like being so overly critical of myself and just really harsh on myself when I would mess up as a mom or just in anything. And so praying for the gift of wisdom that. which is seeing that I’m like a beloved daughter of God and like, giving myself charity.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Which makes it easier for me to then, you know, give my husband and kids charity when they’re irritating me or something. So that was the one that I was praying for a lot in the beginning when I kind of first discovered it.

And that helped, you know, in the examine. ’cause it’s easy when you do an exam and you are reflecting and you maybe if you do have kind of those tendencies to shame on yourself, to feel really bad. But that’s when asking for the gift of wisdom when you are praying and thinking about tomorrow with through a lens of hope. God really will work and help you have charity for yourself and just be more loving and gentle with yourself. So.

Sterling: Yeah. I love that. And it’s true, I go through seasons, of which one that I ask for.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: And I always pray for the gift of counsel, and my husband and I are praying over a decision and trying to make a good and holy decision. And then I think moms need to pray for the gift of fortitude. Especially when we’re just feeling a little worn out and it’s like, Lord, gimme the courage, gimme the heavenly. Right. To carry on, to do what you want me to do.

I think it is courage and bravery that can fuel us to do things even when we’re tired or we don’t feel like it. And I don’t know a mom on the planet who doesn’t probably feel like she needs a little bit more of that. And so, yeah, I think the Holy Spirit is just really underplayed under talked about underutilized and we just need to like bring back this revival.

Raquel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t know what it is about like early, I don’t know, religious education. It was just so mysterious and it just wasn’t very tangible. And so once I learned about like the gifts and what they meant and that I could literally just ask.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And it’s, some days it’s like immediate graces, to help me so. Yeah. Which, I mean, I owe a lot of that to you ’cause you’re the ones that kind of opened my eyes to that.

Sterling: Yeah. We studied it on the Catholic mom com side, and then I was like, oh obviously we need this in business, right? And so we ended up talking a lot about it on the business side because as moms are trying to make decisions about their work and their family and all of that, like we can just let the Holy Spirit guide us.

And so many moms feel confused, right? We live in this world that’s very confusing. It’s very noisy. There’s so many things put in front of us, and this has cleaned so much of that up for me when I get calm and I’ll just pray over things.

He just, he does, he brings down the wisdom and he nudges us in directions. You’ll feel it, you guys like, you’ll feel, oh, I feel really nudged in this direction. And then it just makes living life so much more simple.

Raquel: Yeah, it really does unlock just a different quality of life. Even like, it’s just everything seems calmer and it’s not like the circumstances have changed. Like things are still hard all around you.

Sterling: Right.

Raquel: It’s not like, you know, he takes the problems away. He gives you the strength, to make it through and to kind of have a different perspective. And yeah, it’s really amazing.

Sterling: So tell us more about what’s in your store. ’cause you have blankets. We have a couple blankets. But you also have like baby ones because a lot of your things I like had raised most of my kids through the baby stage. So I don’t have some of your baby things, but just tell us ’cause there’s so much, and I just want people to know. Including that cross body purse that you have.

Raquel: I love that.

Sterling: Yeah. So just like, tell us some things so that they know.

Raquel: There’s honestly so much, and it’s because I truly like make stuff because I’m like, oh, I want this. And so this is a need in my everyday life. And so I figure out how to make it. But I definitely would say like the quiet books, the board books, the baby swaddles, the Baby Blankets. Blankets in general are some of the most popular ones. And all my blankets have some type of like hidden.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: Symbolism or prayer on it or meaning, because, that’s what I wanted were these visual reminders to pray or to like have hope or like, yeah, just have strength through the night when you’re sleep deprived. So basically everything. That I make is going to have some type of little hidden.

Sterling: Yeah. What’s the sweatshirt that has like the little hidden message? Is it, I think it’s an Augustine sweatshirt?

Raquel: Yes. It says restless on the front, with like a little heart, but then on the sleeve it says restless or until I rest in you, which is saying.

Sterling: I just love those little, like, you know, I don’t necessarily like overtly catholicy things.

Raquel: Right.

Sterling: And I don’t mind, but I just in general, I am a minimalist in the way that I dress too. Like, I like things that are really subtle, but I love those little nods. Like boop boop.

Raquel: Yes.

Sterling: Right there.

Raquel: Yes, I do too. Because, as I mentioned, it was like a hobby for a long time and I was working in public school. And so when I was making especially apparel, I was making it very subtle, so that way. I could wear it without, you know, causing any type of controversy or anything. And it was more for me, like a little subtle reminder to me. So that’s kind of how I like to hide things in my designs for that.

Sterling: You have a lot of house stuff, a lot of housey things too.

Raquel: Yeah. I have mugs are like a popular one. I know you have a lot of mugs.

Sterling: Yep. We have a lot of mugs.

Raquel: My first. Well, not my first mug. What was my first mug? My first mug it’s attributed to Mother Teresa where she says, I thirst.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And I just put, I thirst. ’cause I thought it was kind of like a play on where it’s like I needed my coffee, but she, it was just a reminder like.

Sterling: Is that the one with the really subtle blue lines?

Raquel: Yes.

Sterling: I have that one because like, again, it’s like so beautiful and it’s so understated, you know?

Raquel: And then the one that was really popular, um, was the morning offering mug.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And that one was more explicit. It has the entire prayer on it. And I did that intentionally because I just couldn’t remember it.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: I just like could not, for whatever reason, I could not commit it to memory. So I was like, well, I’m slapping the whole thing on there so I can literally just.

Sterling: I also have that one you guys. I also have the whole morning one. I have that one and then I think I have either the Divine Mercy one or there’s like a third one that I have and I forget ’cause I know it’s a lot of Family Hearts one.

Raquel: You have the Holy Family Hearts, one where I have all.

Sterling: The hearts.

Raquel: All the heart’s hidden.

Sterling: We have your.

Raquel: I like to make little bags, like you mentioned, the pouches and the cross body and the pouches I actually made because, it was more of like a psychology hack that I had heard, the 22nd rule that I had learned in grad school, which is basically if you’re trying to start a new habit, you need to make whatever you’re doing accessible within 20 seconds.

Sterling: Nice.

Raquel: Time’s. Actually gone down with the way.

Sterling: I believe it. Oh Lord. Help us.

Raquel: I know, but it needs to be accessible within 20 seconds, or you probably aren’t gonna do it because our human nature is just kind of lazy.

Sterling: And this is one of those, you guys, this is why they say like. Sleep in your workout clothes and then put the shoes right next to your bed so that you just get out and put the shoes on if you’re wanting to work out in the morning because. We’re just a little dumb. We have a dumb, dumb brain. I know. We don’t like pain and we have to like trick that part of the brain into doing the things that we want until the wiring and the programming is in place.

Raquel: Right. Yeah, exactly. And so I basically had made this pouch because I wanted to start a better like prayer routine and I was always like scrambling around for my pencils or like never had my rosary.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And like I said, I’m more tactile and visual, so I like to have different highlighters and all this stuff for my, to make it like feel like me and my journaling or prayer time. And so I made like a big. A pouch that has like a strap so you can like literally strap it to your entire Bible or your planner or journal so that way you can have everything you need, you know, within 20 seconds.

Sterling: Yeah, I have a pen and a pencil and a highlighter and then I love that the blue for those of you that have the blue prayers book or any of those kind of like small prayer book.

Raquel: Yes.

Sterling: It totally fits in there too. So I always have that.

Raquel: Yes.

Sterling: With me. And it’s more protected now ’cause the one I had before was so beat up ’cause it just like rattled around in my purse and it got really beat up. So now this second one is really straight and lovely and I love that.

Raquel: Yes. Yes. So, I have a wide assortment of things and they’re all based on things that I just have felt like I needed in my daily life to just better integrate faith into just the day-to-day. So.

Sterling: Yeah. And really great gifts too, you guys. And one of the things I do is I wait for a sale ’cause you guys have really good sales. And then I’ll just stock up. On extras of those, because at that price, it’s like the same amount that you’re spending at Target or whatever for your friend’s birthday, but it’s way cooler to give someone like a Catholic thing. They just love it. So I just have some in my closet.

And then when it’s someone’s birthday, and I used to do this around kids’ books, but now the kids are older, so I have to come up with like bigger kid ones. And so the pencil pouches are great. Like you can give a 12-year-old a pencil pouch and they’ll be like, Ooh, I love that.

Raquel: Yeah.

Sterling: And so it’s funny how my gift closet has evolved as my kids have gotten older because their friends are now older ages and I can’t give like a 12-year-old necessarily like a little kid sticker book anymore, you know?

Raquel: Right.

Sterling: And so that’s just a hack and. Just being thoughtful about what we do as moms. This is just one of those things where if you slow down and you’re like, oh yeah, people’s birthdays do come up, and then I have to go to the store and get something.

But this is the same amount of money that you’re spending at the store. You can buy a bunch of them and then leave them in your closet and then just know, okay, I’m gonna get ’em. So just look for sales and do that. If you’re gonna buy one for you, just buy three and then stock ’em up and your friends or their kids will really love that.

Raquel: Yeah. Yes.

Sterling: Yes, do that. Plus I love supporting Catholic companies. You know, I love supporting Catholic companies over like the big box. Who knows where that money is going stores. And sometimes that’s the only option we have. And that’s fine too. But thank you for just making beautiful things and putting them into the world. There’s so many cool Catholic companies now.

Raquel: There’s so many fun things out there.

Sterling: Yeah, there’s just really cool stuff now. I think sometimes we live in a world where everyone’s like, everything is ending. The world is awful. Everything’s terrible, and there’s darkness.

And I just wanna say I see a lot of light. I see a lot of light. I see a lot of people becoming Catholic, a lot of Catholic products that are great now. ’cause they used to be janky and I wanted to support them, but I was like, I don’t like it. I don’t like what they made.

And now I just feel like there’s some really nice Catholic companies that make really cool things and I genuinely like them and I just see a lot of light in the world. I have a lot of hope.

Raquel: Yeah, I do too.

Sterling: Isn’t it better to live that way?

Raquel: Yes. Yes.

Sterling: Better. If we just think things are getting better, this is an amazing time to be alive. That’s one of the thoughts I really like, is I’m just like, it is so cool to be alive. I’ve been using, chat GPT on my phone and everything I eat, I just tell it what it is and it has all the facts.

So, you know, in the food tracking apps you have to find it and type a bunch of things and I just go, this is what I ate. I use the microphone and it just goes and pulls all of that and keeps it all for the day. And then I just go, cool. It’s the total for the day and it just does it. It’s the most amazing thing. I just love that so much.

Raquel: That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s really awesome.

Sterling: Alright you guys. Thank you for coming and just making beautiful things and creating light in the world and your story.

Raquel: Well, thank you for all your support and all that you’re doing with spreading the Holy Spirit.

Sterling: Yeah.

Raquel: And how.

Sterling: But your website, I mean, I’ll put it all in the show notes, but just tell them out loud for the people who are listening.

Raquel: Yes, it is thelittleroseshop.com and all my socials are the same, thelittleroseshop.com. So that’s where you can find us.

Sterling: Okay. Go check it out. Holidays are coming.

Raquel: Yes,

Sterling: And that is a good time.

Raquel: Have some great sales coming up. So.

Sterling: All the Catholic things. All right. Thank you Ms. Raquel for coming and thank you all for just being moms. And doing work and putting beauty into the world, you’re doing that too just by raising your kids and just making it through the day like that is a type of lightness that you’re putting into the world.

And even if the rest of the world doesn’t see it, you know God sees it and he’s always with you. And I think that that is something that we can really hold onto and feel proud of.

So thank you so much you guys for listening. I’m praying for you. Please pray for me and have a blessed day.