No.889: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Little Moments of Delight pt.6

*“Vase of Peonies and Snowballs” by Henri Fantin-Latour (1878)*

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Bringing back this prompt for the first time in 2025! (Here’s part one, part two, part three, part four, and part five.) I needed this intentional practice as our weather was bitterly cold and most of my family battled a nagging illness.

Here are the little moments of delight I found this week: Picking out a few papergoods from my rolling cart to add to my journals every day. Puzzles with artwork by Charles Wysocki. Making a fire first thing in the early morning. Finishing my cross-stitch sampler. Big plans for my oldest’s future. A job opportunity for my second oldest. Paying off a little chunk on our next debt challenge. A family slowly returning back to health.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

More snow and ice. // Choosing to see this as a good thing even though we’ve had snow and ice on the ground for three weeks now and we are over it. Definitely not used to this here in the mid-Atlantic!
Our incredibly kind feed provider. // Our feed delivery was supposed to come on Monday but due to our location and the precariousness of the roads, they had to postpone until the next day. They called twice to apologize and explain and of course, we were completely understanding.
A Youtube feed full of creative endeavors. // So inspiring. I feed off of their enthusiasm and can’t wait to be more of a creator in 2025.
Burning an entire candle! // It took about a month, but I burned the entirety of this candle. Next candle on the desk: Battle Cry from CORDA Candles.
A new-to-me book genre. // I’ve been reading Kennedy’s Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby all week and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like it. I would describe it almost as a courtroom transcript but rewritten in prose, a play-by-play of the trial. So interesting. I keep placing myself in the jurors’ shoes and asking if each testimony was believable or would sway me one way or another.

Frugal Accomplishments //

avoided the grocery store, only purchasing milk when we ran out
cut down two of my husband’s old dress shirts, saving the fabric and buttons
visibly mended three small holes in my cotton gloves
made chicken broth from frozen chicken backs to bring out to the pigs
removed the remaining bit of wax from my finished candle jar to use again as storage

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

January 24 was the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor.

To Listen: Introduction to the Devout Life audiobook on Catholic Culture

To Pray: Lord, I am yours, and I must belong to no one but you. My soul is yours, and must live only by you. My will is yours, and must love only for you. I must love you as my first cause, since I am from you. I must love you as my end and rest, since I am for you. I must love you more than my own being, since my being subsists by you. I must love you more than myself, since I am all yours and all in you. Amen.

To Add to the Library: St. Francis de Sales: A Biography of the Gentle Saint by Louise Stacpoole-Kenny, A Man of Good Zeal: A Novel Based on the Life of Saint Francis de Sales by John E. Beahn, and The Catholic Controversy: A Defense of the Faith

Reading //

The Rules of Discernment: A Practical Guide – Rule 6 from Megan Hjelmstad at Spiritual Direction
Shakespeare’s Grief from David Bannon at Front Porch Republic // “Hamlet also offers profound insight into the complex nature of masculine mourning. The obvious similarity of the names Hamlet and Hamnet aside, the play itself is preoccupied with twinning: the act of sublimation; doubling themes; the use of two points to describe a single complex meaning; a play within a play; all are delivered in a masterpiece of lyricism. The title character displays much of the terrifying anxiety and exhausting nature of grief while examining internal struggles that lead ultimately to transformation.”
Where Is All the Fiction-Inspired Art? from Jonathan McDonald at Dappled Things

New Additions to The List //

Run by Blake Crouch
The Children by Edith Wharton

Watching/Listening //

the 1948 rendition of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier // Watched as I read along with the play.
The True Horror Of WW1’s Tunnel Warfare from All Out History // I just read a book about tunnel warfare and wanted to learn more. This documentary is long (almost three hours!) and I’ve finished about half so far.
Lesson 3 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute

Loving //

this pretzel bites mix from King Arthur // I purchased a handful of mixes for my baking-loving daughter for Christmas. These were a big hit!
this quote from Fulton Sheen: “Because God is full of life, I imagine each morning Almighty God says to the sun, ‘Do it again’; and every evening to the moon and the stars, ‘Do it again’; and every springtime to the daisies, ‘Do it again’; and every time a child is born into the world asking for curtain call, that the heart of the God might once more ring out in the heart of the babe.”