Archives for November 2024

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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it seemed appropriate to focus on gratitude this week.  I’ve been feeling pretty worn down and this practice definitely helped bring me back to center and fortified my resolve to keep going.  Anyway, I made a big list of things I was thankful for throughout the week and here are just a few:

The incredibly kind comments and encouraging words on my previous post.  Getting more sleep than I have in months.  How much my children enjoying cooking and baking.  Little buds appearing on my Christmas cactus (maybe it’s a Thanksgiving cactus now?).  Early morning fires in the fireplace.  When my husband surprises me by starting the coffeemaker before he leaves in the morning.  Hanging out and shooting the breeze with my kids.  A “boring” week without any big catastrophes!

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ celebrating my first high school graduate!  He really wanted to finish his senior year six months early, so I gave him the year’s worth of assignments and he got to work.  I’m so proud of his diligence and perseverance.  Since this is my first graduate, I had to figure out how to make it “official” and thankfully, there are many great options online.  I created an official-looking transcript through Fast Transcripts and ordered his diploma through Homeschool Diploma.

+ revamping some used gift tags.  My parents used beautiful tags for our gifts last year and I just couldn’t throw them away.  I covered the backs with some book paper (left over from last year’s junk journal – I’m a hoarder) and then used a Sharpie to write each family member’s name.  If they make it through the hullabaloo of Christmas morning, I’ll be able to use them again and again.

+ gaining some momentum with the Weather the Storm Challenge after a few lackluster weeks!  Money seems to be falling through our fingers with home/car repairs (and I’ve been doing quite a bit of Christmas shopping too!) so any way I can save a dollar or two feels like a huge win.  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy chocolate chips, applesauce, and coffee on sale
• used a $20 coupon that we earned from using our grocery store rewards card
• sold eggs to friends
• organized and inventoried the deep freezers
• used tissue paper that I saved from a recent ThredUp order to package a sale
• made chicken broth
• finished the last project in the kids’ abandoned Paint by Sticker book (so calming!  I loved it)
• designated two ratty sweaters as “pajama sweaters” to give them one more season of use
• decided against sending Christmas cards (the Christmas budget is a bit slim this year)
• made bread
• found a new with tags pair of sneakers for my son for half of the going price on ebay
• helped my husband with my boys’ haircuts
• made it to November 22nd before turning on the heat!  (that little heat wave earlier in the month sure helped)

+ selling six unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: two books, a single cloth napkin (I called it a “replacement”), a sweater, a pair of sneakers and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $27.05.

Reading //

• “My Father, I am Yours” from St. Francis de Sales at TAN Direction // “Have you fallen into the snares of trials? Regard not your misfortune; look only to God; He will have care of you. Cast thy solicitude on Him, and He will provide for thee. Why trouble yourself by sighing or pining about the accidents of this world, since you know not what you ought to wish for, and God will always wish what is best for you? Await, then, in repose of spirit, the effects of the divine good pleasure, and let it suffice for you, since it is always good; so Our Lord ordered St. Catherine of Siena, saying: ‘Think of Me, and I will think of thee.’”  I needed this reminder.
• If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You’re Not Paying Attention from L.M. Sacasas at The Convivial Society // “Enchantment is just the measure of the quality of our attention.”
• On Conquering White Whales: Stemming the Tide of Cultural Ignorance from Fleur Forsyth-Smith at Intellectual Takeout // “This battle for the hearts and minds of our students may begin in elementary schools, but it must first originate with us: the parents and the teachers. By immersing ourselves in the best that has ever been thought and said and written, we are able to stand on the shoulders of giants, for they have given us the platform from which we can propel ourselves out of ignorance into the lofty pursuit of truth.”
• How Risky Play Fights Childhood Anxiety from Lenore Skenazy at The Coddling of the American Mind Movie // “What if the ways in which we are parenting are making life harder on our kids and harder on us? What if by doing less, parents would foster better outcomes for children and parents alike?”
• Embracing Candlelight in Darker Days from Patricia Patnode at Theology of Home

New Additions to The List // 

• Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter by Don King
• Collected Poems by Ruth Pitter
• Aquinas’s Shorter Summa: Saint Thomas’s Own Concise Version of His Summa Theologica
• The Quiet Season: Remembering Country Winters by Jerry Apps

Loving //

• this thought-provoking part in The Letters Home post from Grandma Donna // “There is an addiction today and it is an addiction to instant. Everything ‘now’ is causing us to waste our life, and this is not why we are here on this earth.”

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I renewed my blog for another year and then promptly ran out of things to say.

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Years ago, when I was still on social media, I remember an uprising of sorts where people were tired of seeing constant perfection.  That’s not reality, they cried!  So in response, accounts began showing “real life” – piles of dirty laundry, dishes in the sink, makeup-less faces, cluttered spaces…  And ironically, the internet was again unhappy with these “ugly” pictures.  If I wanted to see a pile of dirty dishes, I’ll look at my own, thankyouverymuch.  I’m on here to see the pretty pictures.  The internet is fickle.

It’s often the same way when people share hardship and trials.  In an attempt to be authentic (whatever that means), they share their life and the responses are typical.  For every supportive comment, there are a few passive-aggressive negative ones.  Suffering becomes a contest: I hear that that’s hard for you, but don’t you know there are starving children in Africa?  Your relative may be sick, but my relative is dead.  It’s a race to the bottom and the fickle internet strikes again.

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Last week, when everyone’s focus was on celebrating/lamenting the election, my attention was at home.  More difficult circumstances occurred and I sort-of unraveled.  2024 has been a hard year for a whole host of reasons, many that I’ve shared and many much too private to be displayed across the internet.  Because of that, I’m often a ball of contradictions.  I’m good and I’m definitely not good.  I’m happy but also sometimes so terribly sad.  I have a million things to be grateful for.  I have lost so much.

But how to share all of that?  There’s been radio silence because I needed extra time to decide how I wanted to proceed in this space.  I don’t know how to be anything other than myself, a ball of contradictions, a woman full of both joy and sorrow.  I’m not special in this regard; I think most people carry some level of heartbreak.  I also know you can only watch a dumpster fire for so long before you turn away.  Going forward, I hope to keep this space as a way to document my life’s mission: to seek out and fight for the good.  Please bear with me as I navigate how best to do that.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.  May the Peace of the Lord be always with you.  And hopefully me too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ returning to a cross-stitch project after more than a year away.  Feels good to do something productive with my hands.

+ a valiant attempt to keep our boar alive.  We put Millie (a one-year-old gilt) into the same paddock with Fred and it was going well…until it went horribly wrong.  Somehow, in the span of 24 hours, Millie completely changed behavior and really beat him up.  He had deep cuts on his eyelid/snout and he fractured one leg so significantly that he couldn’t put any weight on it.  I spent a week in intense anxiety, vacillating about the best, most humane way of dealing with the situation.  Do we give him the opportunity to heal or is it so bad that we should be preparing to put him down?  In the end, we called a vet for a second opinion and she agreed with what we already knew: it was probably best to cull him.  I know he’s only a pig, but Fred was the last of my original four, my gentle giant and buddy.  There were also a lot of my hopes, dreams and plans rolled up into his life that I had to let go.  We’re all pretty devastated.

+ focusing the Weather the Storm Challenge on ways to not spend money.  This feels like a losing battle as the bills keep coming, but we grit our teeth and persevere.  I also:

• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta and sauce on sale)
• sold eggs to friends
• made english muffin bread and pita bread
• gave myself a hair trim
• cleaned/organized the refrigerator to see everything we have (even condiments/sauces) and made a plan to use them up
• unsubscribed from a bunch of marketing emails
• listed a few items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• used a gift card to order our annual Advent candle making kit (making it free!)

+ a positive update for the dining room floors.  Praise be to God, the contractor thinks he can match the color enough to just replace the ruined panels.  We still have to jump through hoops dealing with our home insurance but the end is hopefully in sight.

+ seven years of country living before we had a significant crash with a deer.  My son had a deer run into his car one night and we’re so grateful he is fine.  The damage looked mild but was actually more serious, so now we’re doing the dance with the body shop and our insurance to determine whether it’s salvageable or totaled.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six pieces of clothing, a pajama set, a bathing suit, three books and a belt.  After shipping and fees, I made $78.42.  Even though my resale numbers haven’t been great lately, those little amounts (paired with any extra money we can take from paychecks) add up.  I started my tracker in July and four months later, we’ve paid off over 55% of the balance!  Less than $5k to go.

Reading //

• This Election Season, Don’t Let Politics Destroy Your Family from Jim Dalrymple II at Institute for Family Studies // “All of this is really just a long way of saying something simple: During this season of polarization, rifts within our families over politics are not inevitable. We can put family relationships above everything else. That doesn’t mean everyone has to agree all of the time. Indeed, the point is that we won’t always agree. But it does mean that people with divergent views on controversial issues—say, abortion or the war in Gaza—can still break bread together because the most important thing is their relationship with each other.”
• the book, Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause by Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS // I just finished the section on essential fatty acids and prostaglandins and will be incorporating Omega-3/EPA food sources/supplements into my diet immediately.  Some of the benefits include:
  • Fish oils containing EPA lower blood cholesterol and reduce the stickiness of blood platelets (lowering the risk of blood clots)
  • Prostaglandin E3 relaxes blood vessel walls, preventing arterial spasms and lowering blood pressure (may relieve migraine symptoms)
  • Skin, hair and nails benefit from GLA or EPA in combination with zinc and vitamin A (may see improvement in eczema, acne, psoriasis)
  • Omega fatty acids can help combat depression

New Additions to The List // 

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (Book 1 of 3 in a series on TR)
• Ascent of Mount Carmel by St. John of the Cross
• St Nicholas Owen by Tony Reynolds
• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Watching/Listening //

• How Sheep Can Help Save The Earth from Dylan Bures
• It’s Not Just Shein: Why Are ALL Your Clothes Worse Now? from More Perfect Union

Loving //

• this sweater from Quince // I got mine on ThredUp for $10, but the full price of $40 is still completely reasonable.  100% cotton and looks lovely on.  I’ve worn it multiple times.
• this short post called “Inside the Elderly There is Wonder” from Edwin Leap at Life and Limb:

If we could see all that our elderly have endured we would more easily understand why they are wrinkled and stooped, aching and slow. Life is a battle and they have survived long years of combat. It savaged their bodies. It challenged their minds. It broke their hearts.

But the memories, the skills, the knowledge, the love and wisdom inside those scarred and failing shells?

If we could see it all we would be blinded by such unimaginable light and deafened by the symphonies of their lives. And their untold stories would leave us wrecked, full of wonder, and hoping against hope that we could live so long and so well.

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The farm projects are slowly finishing up for the year and that means more time to read!  I’m excited to resume my Mother Academia studies as they’ve largely been on the back burner as our crazy life unfolded this fall.  I recently heard the phrase, “To be a good teacher, you must also be a good student” and that really resonated with me.  I’ll be using that as my motto as I dive back into the books.  Here’s the beginning of my plans for this winter:

• AMERICAN HISTORY // I’m continuing on with my Civil War Era rabbit trail and hoping to make some significant progress!
  • With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen B. Oates
  • Faith and Fury: The Rise of Catholicism During the Civil War by Fr. Charles P. Connor
  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
• GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD // I started this list in April and have really enjoyed challenging myself to tackle books I normally would never have attempted.  These are three more selections from Year 1.
  • Shakespeare’s Hamlet
  • St. Augustine’s Confessions
  • Plato’s Republic
• UNMACHINED WORDS LIST // A new addition to the Mother Academia lineup!  Starting with books on the list that I already own.
  • Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
  • The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
  • 1984 by George Orwell

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ completing the first hurdle in the floor remediation.  The water mitigation company pulled out half of the dining room floors and installed dehumidifiers/fans for 72 hours.  It was so loud and sounded like we lived in a wind tunnel!  The next step is now to find a contractor to see the flooring and determine if it can be matched or if we need to replace the entire first floor.

+ a very weak showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  Truth be told, I was in survival mode as my husband was traveling for work and we had all of the repairs being done in the house!  Trying to embrace the ebb and flow of this project and not give up.  (Especially when we had another household item die this week…oy.)  This week, I:

• avoided the grocery store, only purchasing a handful of needed items
• made it another week without turning on the heat! (we actually had a bit of a heat wave)
• listed a few things on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• made pita bread

+ finishing up Clutterbug’s 30 Day Declutter Challenge.  This time around, I did something hard for me: I threw things away.  My previous decluttering challenges have generally involved items in good condition that I was able to pass along to others.  I hate waste but those holey/stained t-shirts and little bits of mostly-used up science kits were not being used.  I’m not doing myself any favors by keeping trash in the house!

+ selling two unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: one kids belt and one book.  After shipping and fees, I made $6.45.

Reading //

• The Walking Rebellion: Restoring the Mind at Three Miles an Hour from Ruth and Peco Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // “There might not be any natural remedy in the world as protective as walking against the deadening impact of our sedentary, chair-bound, screen-mesmerized lives. Walking is the original form of scrolling. Yet it doesn’t lead us down online rabbit holes, but past real rabbit holes. It keeps us grounded, literally by keeping our feet on the ground. It keeps us softly fascinated by ever-changing scenery. Walking is calming, head-clearing, and social and even spiritual when we do it together. If walking were a food, it would be a celebrated superfood packed with nutrients that feed our mind, body, relationships, and contact with nature—and it would cost nothing.”
• A New Preparedness Class from Patsi at A Working Pantry // “If you’re looking for a reasonable and sensible class geared towards women helping women learn how to live in and prepare for uncertain times as well as emergency type situations, then this class is for you. If you’re looking for a ‘dooms day, end of the world rush out and buy anything and everything you can find to ward off the zoombies’ kind of class then this class is not for you.”
• It’s Time to Declutter And Reduce Your Sensory Overload from Jennifer Guttman Psy.D. at Psychology Today // “In a study conducted by UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families researchers examined 32 California families and found that clutter had a strong impact on their mood and self-esteem. They determined there is a link between high cortisol levels in women and a cluttered household. The same was not true of men.”
• The Clutter Culture from Jack Feuer at UCLA Magazine // This stuff fascinates me.

New Additions to The List // 

• No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 by T. J. Jackson Lears
• The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hackett Fischer
• Survivals and New Arrivals: Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church by Hilaire Belloc

Watching/Listening //

• A precision approach to end Alzheimer’s Disease | Dale Bredesen | TEDxManhattanBeach // Fascinating.  I need to pick up his book, The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.
• A Day in the Life of a Catholic Priest from the Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Loving //

• this quote from Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison:

It has occurred to me that I am only doing what every housewife did as a matter of course only a generation or two ago.  She always preserved food for the coming year as it came into season and bulk-purchased staples such as sugar and vinegar.  Our grandmothers did this not because they were paranoid, isolated survivalists, but rather because they had learned from experience that blizzards, crop failures, and epidemics happened.  The prudent, prepared household prevailed.  (p.13)