No.803: Last (Two) Weeks at the Farmhouse // Patience

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Have you ever heard a homily/sermon/talk that felt like it was spoken just for you?  We had a visiting priest say Mass for us on Sexagesima Sunday and his homily felt specifically for me.  But let’s back up.

The past month or so has been a roller coaster experience of hives and facial swelling.  The worst would mostly disappear only to come back out of nowhere again.  So frustrating and discouraging.  I’ve been like a dog with a bone, a mad woman researching everything I can find for possible solutions to make it go away permanently.  On some level, it’s been a great educational deep dive (thinking positively here!) but on others, it’s been incredibly draining and just one more thing on my already full plate.

Back to the homily.  The visiting priest’s homily was about the virtue of patience.  He said that we often think of patience as that thing we need to do when we’re stuck in traffic or our children are being crazy.  All true, but it’s so much more.  Patience is also a sister virtue to fortitude.  Seen in this way, patience enables someone to endure his/her sufferings without sadness or resentment.  The person is then able to conform their will with God’s and even accept the hardships with a kind of spiritual joy.

The perfect lesson at the perfect time when I was struggling so badly!  Like all virtues, this one requires some effort to pursue, but I’m on the right path.  Deo gratias.

Quick health update: At the time of this publishing, some of the issues have subsided, praise God!  I am still on a carnivore(ish) diet, feeling great and am much more positive about this way of eating.  (I did LOTS of complaining as I adjusted!)  I just had an indoor/outdoor allergy test done to see if I can pinpoint the origin of the issue and avoid another flare.  Currently waiting on the results.  Adventure to be continued…

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ the tender way my children looked after me when I was feeling crummy.  Anti-histamine medicine makes me terribly tired and they were so sweet encouraging me to take a nap.  I could hear them through my bedroom door, telling the littler ones to be quiet and helping out so they wouldn’t wake me up.

+ pulling vegetables from the freezer to give to the livestock.  My winter pantry challenge quickly fell apart due to my health fiasco, but I’m back on course!  This time, I thawed a bunch of green beans and peas to give to the chickens, ducks and pigs.  A big hit!  They’ve been dying to eat something green.  I also took a frozen chicken carcass I had saved and made bone broth.  Making dents in the deep freezer, little by little!

+ beginning seed start prep for the new growing season.  Here we go!

+ giving my wooden spoons new life with olive oil.  They were looking quite sad and dried out, but a quick swipe and they look much better.  (I let them dry on a towel overnight.)

+ selling two unneeded items: a holster and a book.  After shipping and fees, I made $100.59!

Reading //

• Make Haste Slowly or Festina Lente by Christopher Perrin at Renewing Classical Education // “But festina lente does not merely focus on avoiding waste; it focuses on doing things well from the start, it focuses on mastering what is important in proper sequence.”
• When Teaching Children History, Embrace Imagination by Dr. Dixie Dillon Lane at Hearth and Field // Great encouragement.  I liked this quote:

Our children need to know the factual nuts and bolts of history before they reach adult levels of interpretation. But they also need to develop a conceptual sense of history to go hand-in-hand with this classical foundation so that when they engage with historical facts and arguments as they grow older, they will have the ability to make something of them rather than just swallow them whole at the hands of a manipulator. Neither facts nor imagination alone can lead to the kind of maturity that our kids will one day need to exhibit in both the private and the public spheres of modern life.

Watching/Listening //

• Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent by St. Michael’s Abbey // Inspiring!
• Self Lymph Drainage Massage // This felt a little ridiculous until I tried it…and it worked!  I’m learning all kinds of things on this adventure to wellness.
• Going Deep in History Made this Protestant Scholar Catholic (w/ Joshua Charles) // This interview came up randomly in my Youtube recommendations.  Over an hour long but so interesting.
• Woman of the Household course from Life-Craft //  Module 2 was focused on Woman as Wife.  So good.

Loving //

• Primal Kitchen’s buffalo ranch dressing // keeping my meals tasty!
• St. Michael’s Abbey’s “virtual retreat” for Lent // I am really enjoying the daily reflections, prayers, and readings.
• this quote from Saint Alphonsus Liguori:
  

  Those whose hearts are enlarged by confidence in God run swiftly on the path of perfection. They not only run, they fly; because, having placed all their hope in the Lord, they are no longer weak as they once were. They become strong with the strength of God, which is given to all who put their trust in Him.