The Big White Farmhouse

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Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

– from the Exsultet: The Proclamation of Easter

Alleluia alleluia! Christ is risen, Christ is truly risen!

It always feels bizarre to share the Holy Week review during Eastertide (here was last year’s) but here were are.  This was the most somber Holy Week I may have ever experienced.  It’s a story for another day but I really clung to Mater Dolorosa, combining my sadness with hers.  It helped.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. The importance of photographs and home videos. // I finally took the videos off of my phone and saved them onto an external hard drive for the kids.  (The long-term plan is to combine all of our photos/videos throughout the years and put them all in this one space.)  I can’t tell you how many times I noticed the kids watching them this week, laughing and reminiscing.  Memory keeping, not the perfect images for social media but the real everyday messy minutiae, is so important.  I’m inspired to start printing and framing photographs everywhere.
2. The last pigs off to the butcher. // This did not go as smoothly as last month but it’s done and we’re enjoying the break.  Taking the summer off and then we’ll figure out piglets in the fall.
3. Writing thank you notes. // So many times, I think about thanking someone for their kindness but never actually send the note.  This week, I actually sat down and wrote.  I want to make it a point to do more of this in the future!  In a world so dark and angry, people should know that their kindness is noticed and appreciated.  My new motto: send the note.
4. Reading slowly. // With so much going on right now, my reading life has been reduced to almost nothing.  I’ve been plodding along with Green Dolphin Street since early March at a pace of 15-30 pages a day.  (And this is an epic novel at almost 600 pages!)  Considering this a good thing because the story is lovely, it allows me time to appreciate the writing and vivid descriptions of place, and forces me out of that ridiculous compulsion to read a certain amount of books per month/year/lifetime.
5. A much-needed nap. // I have not been sleeping well lately so this was welcome!

a photo from last week! (credit: G.M.)

Contemplating Holy Week with Art //

Reading //

• Κυριακή των Βαΐων from Catherine at Pleximama
• Mary’s Fiat from Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey // Quoting Dom Prosper Guéranger: “As the heavenly Father had waited for her consent before He sent His Son into the world: so, likewise, He called for her obedience and devotedness, when the hour came for that Son to be offered up in sacrifice for the world’s redemption. Was not Jesus hers? her Child? her own and dearest treasure? And yet, God gave Him not to her, until she had consented to become His Mother; in like manner, He would not take Him from her, unless she gave Him back.”
• On Charlotte Mason and Tattooed Sons from Heather Mills Schwarzen at Commonplace Quarterly //

I am not disappointed because Charlotte Mason took great pains to describe education as “a large room,” and I believe her. A room outfitted with the most beautiful furnishings and lavish tapestries still has corners where dust might gather, and my son, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, has been led into those places to serve. I didn’t know this, of course, when I introduced him to the couch of history, so ornately upholstered by the men God emboldened to lead His people. I couldn’t see it when he set to exploring the wardrobe of music or the cabinet where all of the greatest scientific minds held court. I saw my son touring the vast expanse laid out before him and assumed he would be inspired to try and add something to that large room. Instead, the appreciation he gained as he listened to fairy tales and observed birds in flight lit a different fire in him altogether– the desire to protect and defend that very room.

New Additions to The List // 

• Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, RN: A Nurse of Mercy by Gosia Brykczynska
• Star Lore: Myths, Legends, and Facts by William Tyler Olcott
• Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches by George Weigel

Loving //

• this soap from Ginny Sheller // Smells great!
• this poem:

from the archives…

WEEK SIXTEEN 2024 // Little Moments of Delight pt.2

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the passage of time.

We found ourselves watching old home videos and I couldn’t help staring at the chaos in the background; there were toys and blankets and random things all over the floor!  I can remember being so frustrated by my inability to keep a tidy house, little people always underfoot destroying my meager attempts.  Fast forward about ten years and our home looks quite different: the floors are clear but the flat surfaces are now always covered with the detritus of everyday life.  Craft projects and artwork and dishes from a baking experiment and gym gear and so much laundry.  I’m still picking up and putting things away, this time with more nudging (and occasionally nagging). The kids are bigger, but the amount of stuff is both different and the same.

And yet.  Time is speeding by and I’m trying to grumble less about the imperfection of my home and enjoy the people who are in it.  Before I know it, they will all be off doing great things in the world.  I’ll have that perfectly tidy house I’ve always desired but will be missing the most important part – them.  So yeah, my house is a constant work in progress, but it’s this way because a family lives here.

In that spirit, I wanted to try a black-and-white photo essay of sorts, documenting this season of life.  I didn’t get to photograph everything I wanted, but it was a good start:

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. All of the lovely comments on my quilt post. // Thank you all so much for your kindness.
2. A surprise lunch date with my oldest son. // He called me on his way home from work and told me to get ready, he was taking me out!  We ate at a local place that he loves and I’d always wanted to try.  I was so touched.
3. Starting to design next year’s curriculum. // I’ve been really influenced by John Senior and am excited to incorporate more of his educational philosophy into our homeschool, especially for my dyslexic kids.
4. Pork orders are in! // This was the first year that we offered whole hog options for purchase.  We ended up selling two whole and one half just by word of mouth and inquiries from our current customers – a huge accomplishment!  We are still new to this part of farming, so it was a little wild helping the customers fill out their cut sheets, facilitating payment and organizing pickup.  Even so, it was a good learning experience and I can’t wait to try again.
5. Watching my oldest son promote my husband to blue belt in jiu jitsu. // Jiu jitsu belts for adults are few and hard-earned.  After watching my son train for years, my husband also started and has been working consistently for the past year.  We (me, my son and the senior coaches at the gym) managed to keep a huge secret and pulled off a surprise promotion for him!  The belt test is so difficult and includes an hour of crucible-type endurance where you grapple with teammates and show your ability in a variety of positions.  No water and no breaks!  It was hard to watch, but my husband did great.  The best part of the afternoon was watching my son tie on his dad’s well-deserved blue belt.  My heart was full to bursting.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• cut up old scrapbook paper to use as thank-you notes for resale packages
• listed a few things on Pango/Poshmark/ebay
• made more beef tallow
• reused the tissue paper from a ThredUp order to package up a sale

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

April 7 was the Optional Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle.

To Watch: Saint John Baptist De La Salle: Patron Saint of Teachers

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and heart than words.” and “The way you behave should be a model for those you teach.”

 

Reading //

• Walking with My Dad to Calvary from Constance T. Hull at Catholic Exchange // “Even though the last two weeks of my life have been the hardest, they have also been the most beautiful. There are no words for the gift of helping my dad carry his Cross in union with Christ in those final hours. I will forever remember holding my dad close as I urged him on to Calvary. What a gift to know he died in the arms of the Holy Family.”
• The Reading Rebellion: One Book. Two Weeks. Repeat. from Peco and Ruth Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // “If we are to restore our deep reading circuits and rediscover the joy, insight, and myriad of associated benefits of reading fiction, we must begin simply by committing to regularly reading tangible books.”
• It’s Just Stuff: What Estate Sales Reveal About Us from Sherry Shenoda at Plough // “I take my sons to estate sales so they can bring home small, hand-carved wooden animals for their bookshelves, old glass marbles in jars, and yet more rocks. Mostly I bring them so they can see that the insides of other people’s homes are like their own, and so the baby can babble happily at strangers in these holy places, and the tired workers at the front can let the toddler keep the lemon that fell from the backyard tree that he’s clutching excitedly.”
• 15 years of motherhood from Tabitha at Team Studer

New Additions to The List // 

• Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge
• Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian
• Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin
• We Have Ceased to See the Purpose: Essential Speeches of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn edited by Ignat Solzhenitsyn
• Warning to the West by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• The Educational Philosophy Of St. John Bosco by John A. Morrison (thanks again for the recommendation, Rosemary!)

Watching/Listening //

• this production of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles // This story is brutal.
• Lessons 4-6 of the Marxism, Socialism, and Communism course at Hillsdale College

Loving //

• LineUp, a memory board game // I played multiple rounds with my 10-year-old this week!

from the archives…

WEEK FIFTEEN 2024 // The Anti-Library