The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

Archives for November 2023

No.783: What I Read in November 2023

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#81. THE HOLLOW by Agatha Christie // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

First line: “At six thirteen a.m. on a Friday morning Lucy Angkatell’s big blue eyes opened upon another day and, as always, she was at once wide awake and began immediately to deal with the problems conjured up by her incredibly active mind.”

Possibly my least favorite Agatha Christie so far?  Hercule Poirot was in the story very little and the cast of characters was quite unlikable.  I’m not sure how to describe it, but…it was just kind of weird.  2.5 stars, rounded up.

#82. THE REPORTER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF WHAT’S MY NAME TV STAR AND MEDIA ICON DOROTHY KILGALLEN by Mark Shaw // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop)

First line: “Any re-investigation of Dorothy Kilgallen’s death begins where a crack detective would start – with a background check of the deceased.”

I heard about this one when the author was interviewed on a podcast…and you know me!  I’ll read just about anything!  The book is about Dorothy Kigallen, most well known for her tough reporting as well as her time on the TV show, What’s My Line?  Shaw believes that she was on a mission to discover what really happened with the JFK assassination and that eventually got her killed.  I found his hypothesis and defense very interesting, but the typos and redundancy of the information made the reading experience less enjoyable.  (I also read this for my Reading the Alphabet Challenge.)

#83. THE TRAITOR by Ava Glass // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop)

First line: “He was exhausted.”

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Alias Emma, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this one.  Emma Makepeace, a spy focusing on Russian infiltration in Britain, goes undercover as a yacht stewardess.  Her mission is to figure out why a low-level MI6 “number-cruncher” agent was killed with a chemical weapon and that leads her into the shadowy world of Russian oligarchs.  The story was quick moving, but not as engaging as book one.  I guessed the traitor early on, so I wasn’t surprised by the reveal at the end.  Solid three stars.  (And thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book!  The Traitor was published in September 2023!)

#84. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Frank W. Abagnale // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

First line: “A man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself.”

Well, this was a wild ride!  I can’t believe that Frank Abagnale was able to deceive so many people for so long.  So many gigantic lies about everything from college degrees to career experience.  I think I should watch the movie next.

#85. THE APPEAL by Janice Hallett // ★★★★☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)

First line: “Sandra, please deliver to Femi and Charlotte.”

I really enjoyed this one!  It’s a British epistolary murder mystery told through texts and emails.  I was invested and finished the 400+ page book in days.

#86. THE CATHOLIC MASS: STEPS TO RESTORE THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN THE LITURGY by Bishop Athanasius Schneider //★★★★★
(amazon // bookshop)

First line: “The Mass is prayer.”

Such an excellent book.  What a gift we have in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

MY UNREAD SHELF PROJECT

Unread Books as of January 1, 2023: 207
Books Finished in November: 6
Finished Books Donated/Sold in November: 1
Books Added: +4
Unread Books Remaining: 203

No.782: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Caring For Our Neighbors & Myself

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Oh my goodness.  November feels like it has spun me around and around and then spit me out!  You know your life is too full when you have to make daily to-do lists on 4×6″ pieces of paper because there’s just not enough room to write in your weekly planner.  Yeesh.  The silly part is that it’s not even really farm tasks, it’s just life tasks!  To everything there is a season…I’m looking forward to a slower pace.  Soon!

There’s another new baby in our community!  When the world feels dark and cruel, man oh man do we need and appreciate new life!  Praise be to God for the light that comes from these babies.  Anyway, we brought over dinner and gifts for both the new baby and the big sisters.  And frugal accomplishment: I learned how to make a gift bag from wrapping paper to package up the itty bitty outfit!

In farm news, the two new piglets arrived on Wednesday!  We named them Millie and Sally, a la The Dick Van Dyke Show.  They are so sweet and are warming up to us already.  Max and Ruby, the “big kids” piglets, are obsessed with their new neighbors.

On my nightstand: Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale and The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restore the Centrality of God in the Liturgy by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.  I seem to be reading at a snail’s pace this month.

The kids and I made a batch of vanilla granola.  It was gone in two days.

Even though this week was crazy, I somehow decided that it was just the right time to start intentionally creating new habits!  I turn 40 next year and have been thinking a lot about how I want to feel moving into this new decade.  I want to feel less stress and more peace.  I want to feel strong.  I want to be in good health.  I want to be a saint.  (That one’s the most difficult!)  Everything I do today is a gift I give myself in the future.  A few new habits I started this week:

  • starting the morning with a big glass of water and electrolytes
  • waiting one hour after waking before my first cup of coffee
  • completing a low intensity but powerful workout 5x/wk (I started this beginner workout plan from Nourish Move Love)
  • thinking of morning farm chores as an opportunity to get sunshine into my eyes
  • finding creative ways to have protein in every meal I eat

No.781: The Wednesday Five #34

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Happy Wednesday!

A QUOTE

Life isn’t long enough to do all you could accomplish. And what a privilege even to be alive. In spite of all the pollutions and horrors, how beautiful this world is. Supposing you only saw the stars once every year. Think what you would think. The wonder of it! – Tasha Tudor

TABS OPEN IN MY BROWSER RIGHT NOW
A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART

“For to be a farmer’s boy” by Winslow Homer (found here)

A THOUGHT-PROVOKING VIDEO

I found this mini documentary really interesting and have already found a biography to add to my TBR.  It’s called The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE BRAINSTORMING

What are your go-to cookies and/or sweet treats during the Christmas season?  I’m brainstorming ideas for the neighbor’s cookie boxes and would love to hear your favorites!  I’ll go first and share one of ours: Gingerbread Men!

No.780: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Simple Autumn Days

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I worked on a new junk journal for December!  One aspect of junk journaling that I love is the ability to use up crafty projects in a useful way.  For example, I enjoy cross-stitching but I’m always at a loss for what to do with them once I’m finished.  Anyway, I recently found a finished Santa piece that I made more than a decade ago!  I had attached it to mounting board but woo, it was a terrible job.  I pulled and warped the fabric and it was nowhere near straight.  (I’m assuming I had planned to frame it for decor but the end result was so bad, I must have tucked it away in my craft box to deal with later, ha!)  This week, I decided to pull it off the mounting board – sadly warping it even further – and used it as the cover of my December journal.  It’s wonky and imperfect, but it’s something I made with my own hands and it didn’t end up in the trash!  For the back, I whipped up a quick hand-stitched hexagon piece from red and green fabrics I already owned.  Voila!  A fabric cover for all of our December memories.

New recipe of the week: pumpkin scones!  Not too sweet and delicious.

A quote from Padre Pio: “…stay in the boat in which Our Lord has placed you, and let the storm come.  You will not perish.  It appears to you that Jesus is sleeping, but let it be so.  Don’t you know that if he sleeps, his heart vigilantly watches over you?  Let him sleep, but at the right time, he will awoken to restore your calm.”

My husband’s coworker and his wife just had their first baby!  She was full term, but he was itty bitty (6lbs!) and has had to spend the past two weeks in the NICU.  I picked up some adorable, tiny preemie outfits and had so much fun packaging it up.

No.779: Little Bits and Bobs // 05

A series about little thoughts and things to share.  I hope you’ll share your thoughts and latest finds with me too!

+ There’s been a lot of brainstorming around here this week.  I’m a little overwhelmed with the idea that Christmas is only six weeks away.  Slow down, time!  As the kids get older, their gifts get harder to come up with and are way more expensive; we’re a very simple Christmas gift kind of family and trying to keep on budget is still proving tricky.  This week, the kids helped me write down all of our December traditions that are important to them, so I’ve got that list to work with too.  I also picked up a few stocking stuffers (teenage boys love their protein bars) and ordered a few gifts for extended cousins (they are all 6-under, so super fun and easy!).  Deep breaths…one day a time.

+ I’d like to do cookie boxes for the neighbors this year and this planning post was really helpful.  Now to make another list of cookie options!

+ How sweet are these Christmas jammies?  I think I love the “Away in a Manger” design best, but “Prince of Peace” is a close second.

+ A really unique gift idea: a year’s worth of storytelling sent to you via snail mail!  The company is called The Flower Letters and there are four different adventures to choose from.  Fun.

+ One of our dinners this week was pasta with this creamy tomato sauce, adding in leftover shredded chicken at the end.  A great way to use up a can of tomato paste.

From the Big White Farmhouse archives…
+ Advent School 2019

No.778: A “Little Autumn Joys” Junk Journal

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This “little autumn joys” junk journal is a project that I have enjoyed immensely this past month!  Everything about the process has been new to me; I have made quite a few mistakes but have also learned so much.  A few details:

For the cover, I used the spine of an old, water-stained Little Women book.  I had kept it in my craft stash “just in case” and was so happy to finally have a use for it.  I glued a piece of my hand-stitched quilting (remember when I mentioned it last year in this post?) on top and added a little blue button for some interest and dimension.

The inside pages are a hodgepodge of things: pages from two children’s books that were ripped/had the cover pulled off, kraft cardstock, pages from a picture story pad (sort-of like this), a brown paper bag, pages from an adult coloring book, pages from the Little Women book itself and a few scrapbook papers that I purchased.  My goal was to create something beautiful with items I already owned, spending the least amount of money possible.  I think I accomplished that!

 

Junk journals are a great home for those little notes and drawings from the kids.

 

For my birthday, I asked for and received the Canon Selphy photo printer and it’s so great!  You can link it to your phone and it makes printing photos a breeze.

 

I have had that postcard of the fox playing cards since the Big White Farmhouse Shop days!  So nice to have a use for it – I used the back as journaling space.  This photo also shows one half of the paper bag I included in the papers.  I tucked a picture of me and Samson in that side space and used a fabric scrap as the tab.

 

One last photo: I stapled in a dried leaf (hopefully it won’t crumble into pieces!) and made a little flip up space with the “BOO” card.  Underneath, I have journaling and another photo.  So fun!

No.777: Around Here in November 2023

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Around here, I have been:

ENJOYING // an unintentional, but very welcome mini fall break.  We took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off from school and it was so nice.  (We’ve been schooling for 12 weeks with only one day off so far.)  I was able to catch up on some homemaking tasks, finish up a few lingering farm projects and just relax without lesson plans nagging me.

ORDERING // November and December birthday cards from a small stationery company called Yeppie Paper.  They are a brother/sister team and their cards are so cute.

CREATING // a junk journal for the first time.  So excited to have my creativity back in full force!  I’m new to bookbinding and while I’ve made a lot of mistakes on this first journal, I have also learned so much.  I’ll have to make a separate post all about the details, but I love how I can mix papers that would normally be trashed along with more traditional scrapbooking supplies (materials I’ve owned and saved for a decade!) to make something beautiful.  I’m using up things I’ve kept in my stash “for someday” and that feels so good too.

PRAYING // the Novena for the Holy Souls by St. Alphonsus Liguori.

FEELING // anxious about world events and am trying to find that balance between being informed but also slightly detached.  Not because I don’t care, but only because I need to be more focused on the family and community right in front of me.

READING // The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much by Mark Shaw, Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara, and The Catholic Mass by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

WATCHING // old episodes of Unsolved Mysteries on Youtube.  Everything in the world seems so incredibly heavy and this show has been my escape.  Bonus points that many of the unsolved mysteries are now updated and solved at the end!  Modern true crime sometimes stresses me out, so it’s nice to know most of these criminals have been caught and are in prison, ha!

PREPARING // for the arrival of new piglets!  I KNOW.  Because of the disappointing farrowing situation this spring, we had to make the agonizingly hard decision to process our sow.  We’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to purchase new breeding stock and it seems early November is the time!  I feel a little insane bringing new animals to the farm just as we slow down for winter, but whatcha gonna do?  Farm life never ends.

No.776: Five Good Things // Vol.19

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1 // A SKINCARE REGIMEN THAT WORKS FOR ME

My sister-in-law is super knowledgeable about all things makeup and skincare.  This summer, I was complaining to her that I have struggled to find a product that doesn’t make my skin worse and she offered to search for a solution for me.  She bought me this e.l.f. face cleanser and this superhydrate moisturizer to try and I love them!  Very gentle and easy to use.

2 // AN ADORABLE COLORING BOOK 

My daughter loves coloring in those “adult coloring books” because they have more detailed, intricate designs.  For her birthday, I found her this city one and this town one and oh my goodness, are they the cutest things you’ve ever seen.  Big hits.  I think they’d make Christmas gifts (maybe paired with our favorite markers?) or stocking stuffers.

3 // A NOVENA FOR STRESSFUL TIMES

2023 has been a wild year.  Between inflation and divisiveness and wars and rumors of wars, I often feel overwhelmed with the heaviness of life.  And that’s not even counting the little sufferings of the everyday here at home!  In these times, I come back to the Surrender novena written by a friend of Padre Pio, Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo.  The prayer’s refrain is so powerful: “O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”

4 // AN ALL-IN-ONE MULTIVITAMIN

Included in my big supplement order for winter, I also bought the Garden of Life women’s multivitamin and was so excited to see that it also included probiotics and bioflavonoids.  According to The Cortisol Connection, a good multivitamin will help alleviate any vitamin/mineral deficiencies and the bioflavonoids are helpful for reducing cortisol.  Win/win!

5 // A SWEET TREAT FOR FALL

‘Tis the season!  My kids have made our traditional pumpkin chocolate chip cookies multiple times this fall.

No.775: October in Review & Goals for November 2023

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FIVE THINGS I LOVED
  1. blood pressure mostly back in normal ranges (after 7 years!)
  2. an entire month of not having to turn on the heat
  3. peak leaf season with reds, oranges and yellows everywhere you look
  4. new sweaters
  5. roaring fires in the fireplace
THREE LESSONS I LEARNED
  1. “Feeling better” is not a linear process. // This month, my health “journey” has been up, down and all around.  I’m feeling more rested, but am still sound asleep most nights by 9pm.  My energy levels have increased, but my weight hasn’t budged.  My blood pressure is finally within normal ranges, but I still feel like my stress isn’t completely under control.  I’m making tiny bits of progress, but it’s something, so I’ll celebrate it!  One day at a time…
  2. The Congo has been used for their riches for a long time. // “No one knew at the outset that the Congo would prove to be home to some of the largest supplies of almost every resource the world desired, often at the time of new inventions or industrial developments – ivory for piano keys, crucifixes, false teeth, and carvings (1880s), rubber for car and bicycle tires (1890s), palm oil for soap (1900s+), copper, tin, zinc, silver, and nickel for industrialization (1910+), diamonds and gold for riches (always), uranium for nuclear bombs (1945), tantaum and tungsten for microprocessors (2000s+), and cobalt for rechargeable batteries (2012+)…At no point in their history have the Congolese people benefited in any meaningful way from the monetization of their country’s resources.  Rather, they have often served as a slave labor force for the extraction of those resources at minimum cost and maximum suffering.” (from Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, p.15)
  3. Regular creosote cleaning in the fireplace is important. // We recently had our fireplace cleaned and inspected.  Since we use our fireplace a lot during the winter, the technician recommended using a product that will help keep creosote from building up.  There are a lot of different options on the market, but we decided to try Co-Mate Chimney Cleaner.  Hopefully it will keep our fireplace clean and safe.
THREE “LITTLE PEOPLE” WE SUPPORTED
  1. Farm goods from a farmer friend
  2. Treats and pumpkins from another local farm store
  3. Sneakers from a seller on ebay
FIVE GOALS FOR OCTOBER REVIEWED
  1. ✔ Stock up on vitamins, medicines, and tissues for winter. // Done.  Some of my favorite vitamins for the cold weather months: probiotics, vitamin D, quercetin and zinc.  I even found a great vitamin C option that includes probiotics and bioflavonoids in it!  We also stocked up on tissues and throat drops.
  2. ✔ Finish building the permanent pig paddocks. // Done!  The piglets and Fred are in neighboring paddocks for the winter and we are happy to have an easier chore schedule for a few months!
  3. Return to the habit of making homemade bread. // Nope.  Not a single loaf!  Maybe next month.
  4. Take our own family pictures. // Another task that I just didn’t have the brain space for.  Between everyone’s schedules and the weather and more pressing farm to-dos, I just couldn’t summon the energy to get this done.  Instead of feeling like a failure, I’m giving myself the grace to take the year off.
  5. ✔ Create a junk journal. // Yes!  This little project has been so wonderful for my creativity.  Can’t wait to share more soon.
FIVE GOALS FOR NOVEMBER
  1. Get the majority of my Christmas shopping done.
  2. Participate in the Historathon and Nonfiction November readathons.
  3. Finish filling the paddocks and barnyard with woodchips. 
  4. Create a junk journal for the month of December.
  5. Plan Thanksgiving!

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