No.835: Last Week at the Farmhouse // A Beauty-Full Home

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Beauty seems to be a theme I continue to dwell upon in 2024.  Lately, I’ve been thinking of this quote from a few weeks ago in terms of my home:

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. – On the Texture of Things Past from Daxxton McGee at Circe Institute

I’m still in the throes of a deep declutter, arguably the most ruthless pass through I’ve ever done, and have been pondering what my “end goal” should look like.  I’m not a minimalist, but I am looking for more than just a clutter-filled house with tons of items we don’t need.  I want a beautiful home, but not one defined by unrealistic influences (ie, the Internet, someone’s home that doesn’t have kids/a farm/dogs, etc).  All in all, I think I desire a home that is peaceful and ultimately inspires beauty.

But here’s the conundrum: we don’t have a ton of money for home projects and renovations and brand new furniture right now.  So can I make what I already have beautiful?  Fresh flowers on the table, books in every room, clean linens and family photographs…little bits of beauty-full things that don’t cost a thing.  I think it’s a worthy challenge.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ breaking out an extra Japanese beetle trap that I bought last year because…they’re baaaaack!  Fortunately, I think I installed the trap in time to avoid the total destruction of my apple trees.

+ the first potatoes of the season!  Delicious.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: five pieces of clothing, a book, a piece of homeschool curriculum, two purses and a set of train tracks.  After shipping and fees, I made $76.35 and have finally reached my goal!  Another huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Reading //

• Papa Pete’s Patriarchy from Dr. Kevin D. Roberts at First Things // “Piety is a weight. It is a sense of responsibility. It is knowing what we owe to others on account of what we have been given. It is gratitude for what we inherited. It is ‘the wise man’ who ‘knows himself as debtor’ and is ‘inspired by a deep sense of obligation,’ in the words of Bertrand de Jouvenel. It is what the Romans called pietas and considered chief of the virtues—the most essential to their republic.”
• The Poetics of Family Life from Davin Heckman at Front Porch Republic // “Billions of lowly people, each with a singular existence and intricately woven mind, lovingly created with a unique immortal soul, exist as a testimony to the tendency towards fecundity and freedom that is part of our world.”
• The Bookshelf: Gifts of Friendship from Matthew J. Franck at Public Discourse // I would love to start the tradition of “birthday books” with someone!
• Why Read Homer’s Iliad? from Cheryl Lowe at Memoria Press // “But the Iliad, we discover, is a book about the Civil War. It is a book about all wars, about the people and characters that you find in every war—and in every town—the wise, the foolish, the clever, the noble, the base, the ambitious, the old, and the young. It is about their pettiness, their heroism, their adventures, their sacrifices, and their sufferings. The Iliad is mostly about people, not war, and it gives us unforgettable and universal character types.”

New Additions to The List // 

• The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol.2 by Michel de Certeau
• Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
• Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood by Lisa Damour

Watching/Listening //

• Session One of Wit, Learning, and Virtue: The Legacy of Civil Servant, Thomas More course from Belmont Abbey College
• 100 Days of Dante: Join the World’s Largest Dante Reading Group by Baylor Honors College // So excited to start this next.

Loving //

• our new watering system for the pigs! // We had a major heatwave this week so perfect timing.