Archives for May 2024

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It was a big, big week on the farm – the preparation and execution of our first broiler processing of the year!  Spread over two days, this was the culmination of twelve weeks of focused tending.  We worked hard, invited friends to help/learn the process and enjoyed the sweet satisfaction of a job well done.  I can never adequately express how farming has changed my life for the better, but this section from Wendell Berry’s essay, “A Defense of the Family Farm” shares a glimpse:

…By the dismemberment of work, by the degradation of our minds as workers, we are denied our highest calling, for, as Gill says, “every man is called to give love to the work of his hands.  Every man is called to be an artist.”  The small family farm is one of the last places – they are getting rarer every day – where men and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands.  It is one of the last places where the maker – and some farmers still do talk about “making the crops” – is responsible, from start to finish, for the thing made.  This certainly is a spiritual value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic one.  In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life, the goodness of food, both natural and cultural.  The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need.  (p.166-167)

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ cutting up old greeting cards.  I’ve been on a decluttering spree this month and I finally tackled my pile of cards.  I keep everything sent to me…and it’s getting a little unruly at this point, ha!  Anyway, I kept a few of my favorites (especially from my deceased grandmothers) but got rid of a ton.  I also cut down the fronts of some to make tags for gifts and/or reselling thank you notes.

+ a blooming peace lily!  I got this plant as a free gift from Fast Growing Trees years ago and have narrowly killed it multiple times.  This is the first time she’s bloomed and I’m so excited.

+ selling 25 unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: fifteen books, four pieces of clothing, four cloth napkins, a DVD, and a piece of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $101.27!

Reading //

•  this quote from my Abraham Lincoln biography, With Malice Toward None:

Yes, Lincoln warned, the spirit of the mob was abroad in the land; and once murderous passions were unleashed, mobs were apt to terrorize the entire country, burning innocent and guilty alike, until all the walls erected to defend the people were obliterated.  When that happened, when “the vicious portion of the population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last.” (p.47)

Mob thinking/mob rule/mob violence came up on more than occasion in my reading this week!  The more history I read, the more I see how human nature is the same throughout the ages.

• Toward a Politics of Beauty from John de Graaf at Front Porch Republic
• On the Texture of Things Past from Daxxton McGee at Circe Institute // “If the world is pretty, it tells man something about the world and his place in it; it confers a hopeful and reverent tone and demands that he do well to guard against decay, disorder, or pure industrialized pragmatism. However, if the world is ugly, it tells a man that he ought not even notice; he ought not bother to care; there’s nothing worth saving anyway.”
• Making the Long Haul, like a Tree from John Cuddeback at Life Craft
• Towards an Economy of Love from Patrick M. Fleming at Humanum // A review of Wendell Berry’s Home Economics. (I finally finished!)

New Additions to The List // 

The focus seemed to be different ways of looking at war this week.

• On The Psychology Of Military Incompetence by Norman F. Dixon
• Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare by Paul Lockhart
• The Button Box: A Daughter’s Loving Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton by Ruth Ellen Patton Totten

Watching/Listening //

• INFLUENCER INSANITY EP 6 | “Sharenting” – Oversharing parents will post ANYTHING for views from Hannah Alonzo // I’m not on social media anymore and was unaware of most of this.  I find it so sad.
• The Battle for Your Time: Exposing the Costs of Social Media from Dino Ambrosi’s TEDx Talk // Really important for teens and adults alike.

Loving //

• the brownie cookie recipe from 100 Cookies cookbook // I allowed myself a little treat after my daughter made them and they were delicious.

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The sky was gloomy and the rain poured this week.  My melancholic temperament quickly followed suit.  I felt discouraged about so many things – finances, strained relationships, the transfer of our beloved pastor to a new parish, my children’s behavior, bad news story after bad news story, chickens killed by that sneaky fox…it all felt so heavy.

But like always happens to me lately, a quote I read somewhere came to mind.  (I often jot down little things I read, even if they don’t seem applicable at the time.  They always seem to be useful later on down the road!)  I’m paraphrasing, but it basically said, “The stars always shine, even if humanity cannot see them.”  Even though we can’t see the stars during the day, they are still there, shining brightly.  What a comforting thought, right?  I think there’s symbolism with our good Lord there somewhere.

So we carry on!  Here’s hoping for a better week…and some sunshine would be great too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ going through our budget with a fine-toothed comb.  Time to stop feeling like we’re always on the defensive and get on the offensive!  I signed back into Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar (free!) budgeting program and love how easy it is to tweak the numbers.

+ decluttering with a new fervor!  I’ve done this before…when life feels crazy, I attempt ridiculous projects.  I’m calling this one the “Seven Year Clean.”  We will have lived in this house seven years this summer and it feels like the right time to go through every bin and drawer and closet.  This borders on absolute insanity and I’m definitely in the “it has to get worse before it gets better” stage, but I think it’s a good summer project if I can keep up the momentum.

+ figuring out the Rubix Cube puzzle!  My kids have been on a mission to solve it and after watching this video, my daughter finally did it!

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: eight pieces of clothing, one bag, one book and two piece of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $126.39!

Reading //

• Here’s How Much the Definition of Middle Class Has Changed in Every State from GO Banking Rates
• How the American middle class has changed in the past five decades from Pew Research Center (2022 numbers)
• What It Takes to Be Middle Class in America’s Largest Cities – 2023 Study from Smart Asset
• this quote from “Six Agricultural Fallacies” by Wendell Berry in Home Economics //

From an agricultural point of view, a better word than production is thrift.  It is a better word because it implies a fuller accounting.  A thrifty person is undoubtedly a productive one, but thriftiness also implies a proper consideration for the means of production.  To be thrifty is to take care of things; it is to thrive – that is, to be healthy by being a part of health.  One cannot be thrifty alone; one can only be thrifty insofar as one’s land, crops, animals, place, and community are thriving. (p.128)

New Additions to The List // 

• Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman // A reflection about society’s view on aging women and her author’s rejection of that thinking.
• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria A. Trapp

Watching/Listening //

• Leanne Morgan Comedy // She is a hoot.

Loving //

• this recipe for roasted chicken thighs // I changed up the seasoning a bit, but still delicious.

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We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things. – Charlotte Mason

I have no big “aha!” moments to share this week – just this one quote that I’ve been chewing on from Charlotte Mason.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ beginning a new spring cleaning challenge.  For whatever reason, I am feeling super motivated to deep clean and ruthlessly declutter all the things!  (More on this in tomorrow’s post.)

+ re-purposing old things into something new.  I shredded old paperwork to add to the compost pile.  I also got the tiny bit of candle wax out of a used jar using this tutorial.  Now it holds little monk fruit packets by the coffee maker!

+ the healthy return of all of the perennials in the garden.  Everything is back and more lush than ever!  It’s so encouraging to see the fruits of our hard work and money.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: three pieces of curriculum, six pieces of clothing, an unused skincare product, a hair scarf and a book.  After shipping and fees, I made $93.44!

Reading //

• Rectifying the Names: Is Conservation Liberal? from James Krueger at Front Porch Republic
• Navigating Abundance from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “Abundance is meant to satisfy us, is meant for our good and well being, and is a richly provided gift. Clearly our societal state of mind showcases we are not being satisfied or improved by the abundances we are confronted with. No — it is clear that what we are confronted with is not abundance, but extravagance and there is a vital distinction between the two terms.”
• this poem by Maurice Manning:

The Fog Town School of Thought

They should have taught us birds and trees
in school, they should have taught us beauty
and weaving bees and had a class
on listening and standing alone—
the children should have studied light
reflected from a spider web,
we should have learned the branches of streams
spread out like fingers or the veins
of a leaf—we should have learned the sky
is the tallest steeple, we should have known
a hill is a voice inside the sky—
O, we should have had our school
on top and stayed until the night
for the fog to bloom in the hollows and rise
like cotton spinning off a wheel—
we should have learned a dream—a child’s
and even still a man’s—is made
from fog and love, my word, you’d think
with the book in front of us we should
have learned how Fog Town got its name.

New Additions to The List // 

• Never No More by Maura Laverty
• Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
• Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy
• Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird // A recommendation from a reader – thanks, Catherine!

Loving //

• Grandma Donna’s thoughts and advice in her post, Be part of a memory // “How would a child feel if they came for a visit to your house? What would they see, smell, hear? Hopefully they will smell something simmering on the stove, hear only greetings, laughter, happy sounds because all electronics are turned off. The most important is do they feel love?”
• Blueberry mug cake // My kids found this recipe stashed in my “To Make Someday” notebook and decided to try it out.  A hit.
• my new Chom Chom roller // Another attempt to keep the obnoxious amount of dog hair at bay.

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

We live in a breakneck speed world.  Keep up or you’ll be left far, far behind!  (And people will mock you for it too.)  I’ve been thinking about the juxtaposition between that intensity and a section from the preface of Wendell Berry’s Home Economics:

The essays in this book continue an attempt to construct an argument that I began twenty or so years ago.  The subject of the argument is the fact, and ultimately the faith, that things connect – that we are wholly dependent on a pattern, an all-inclusive form, that we partly understand.  The argument, therefore, is an effort to describe responsibility.

Such an argument is necessarily an essay – a trial or an attempt.  It risks error all the time; it is in error, inevitably, some of the time.  The idea that it could produce a verdict is absurd, as is the possibility that it could be concluded.  I am never completely happy with this project, and sometimes I am not happy with it at all.  I dislike its necessary incompleteness, and I am embarrassed by its ceaseless insinuation that it is a job for somebody better qualified.  I keep returning to it, I think, because the study of connections is an endless fascination, and because the understanding of connections seems to me an indispensable part of humanity’s self-defense.

The essays appear here in the order in which they were written, each having been formed under influence of the ones before.  The pattern of the argument, by now, appears to be a sort of irregular spiral; any subject that it has passed through it is likely to pass through again, sometimes saying the same thing in a different way in a different connection, sometimes changing or developing what was said before. (p.ix-x)

Basically, he’s saying that he’s been wrestling with the development of an argument, using essays written over many years to try to clarify/mold one idea.  Isn’t that such a lost art in our age?  To ruminate on an idea, spinning it around and around, looking at it from all angles.  To read and read some more, listening to other people’s opinions and then weighing that against our original ideas.  To fortify those original ideas or yield to a new and better one.  Does anyone still do that?

I think that process takes margin; it won’t compete with the noise of today’s world.  It has to happen in relative silence.  Do your best ideas or prayers or decision-making happen in the shower?  There’s probably a reason for that.

2024 has been the year that I’ve been striving to cultivate the practice of contemplation: turning off the flashy screens and music (even Gregorian chant or classical!) and just sitting in that silence.  No multi-tasking, no distractions, no numbing my worries or stress with the easier choice.  And it is HARD.  It 100% feels like an intentional rewiring of the brain.  But it is also good and life-giving.

A few things I’ve noticed so far:

+ I don’t have knee jerk reactions to the hot button issue of the day.  There’s always something happening in the world and so many people want immediate reactions.  Contemplation allows me to step back from all of the emotional hysteria, learn from all sides and form a rational opinion on my own.

+ Deep thinking, information retention, and focus are all like exercising: the more you practice, the easier it gets.  I’m definitely not in the “easy” stage, but getting closer.

+ The more you learn, the more you realize all you don’t know.  At least for me, this has kept me humble as I seek to understand things more and more.  I also believe that the more you contemplate what you read, the more you buck the idea of binary boxes – you don’t have to choose Team A over Team B!  So much of life is very nuanced and gray.  You don’t always have to pick one side.

+ I see my words on this blog in a new light.  The thoughts I write are a representation of my wrestling with a complex world.  They will always be evolving, fine-tuned over time or possibly completely abandoned.  And this grace should be given to anyone, even when we don’t agree!  Wrestling with a complex world is okay.  This is the human experience.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ the tender way my family cared for me as I healed from my foot debacle.  I wasn’t able to do anything for days and they all stepped up to help, even (lovingly) yelling at me when I tried to hobble around.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six books, three pieces of clothing and one curriculum guide.  After shipping and fees, I made $52.29!

Reading //

• Endangered Habitat: Why the soul needs silence from Stephanie Bennett at Plough // “Silence is disappearing. It’s disappearing because we’re being trained to hate it.”
• Why Children Need Lego Now More Than Ever from Joshua Gibbs at Circe Institute
• What Will Tech Mean to Gen Z Families? ​A Conversation with Ben Christenson from Hearth and Field
• Be Present from Katherine Johnson Matinko at The Analog Family // Related to this idea is a book I read years ago but still think about: You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy)
• “Two Economies” from Home Economics by Wendell Berry // This quote was thought-provoking:

One of the favorite words of the industrial economy is “control”: We want “to keep things under control”; we wish (or so we say) to “control” inflation and erosion; we have a discipline known as “crowd control”; we believe in “controlled growth” and “controlled development,” in “traffic control” and “self-control.”  But, because we are always setting out to control something that we refuse to limit, we have made control a permanent and a helpless enterprise.  If we will not limit causes, there can be no controlling of effects.  What is to be the fate of self-control in an economy that encourages and rewards unlimited selfishness? (p.68)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and His Adventures in the Wilderness by Darrin Lunde // I’m interested in learning more about Theodore Roosevelt and how much he loved the natural world.
• The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart by Noreena Hertz
• Behind the Dolphin Smile: A True Story that Will Touch the Hearts of Animal Lovers Everywhere by Richard O’Barry // I watched an interview with the author and am curious to learn more about his backstory.

Watching/Listening //

• the latest selection in the Learning to Look series from Fr. Hugh at St. Michael’s Abbey
• St. Joseph talk from Fr. Sebastian Walshe // A great explanation of Biblical typology.  So good.

Loving //

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library // A new find and what a gift to the world!  So much wisdom to learn…and for free.
• RIND “straw-peary” snacks // yum.