No.900: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Perseverance

“Woman with Three Baskets” by Alfred Heber Hutty

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For a few weeks now, I’ve been pondering the idea of perseverance. One way of defining perseverance is “the virtue by which one persists in the arduous good until the end is achieved.” Sounds simple enough, but why is it so difficult in practice? I don’t know if it’s because I have a little undiagnosed ADD or I’m the result of a culture insistent on instant gratification or maybe I’m just a squirrel (ooh, new shiny object over there!), but this is a virtue I struggle with.

BUT. I also know what it feels like to endure to the end. I know that euphoric feeling of satisfaction and pride. I have tons of examples in my life, from very personal to ridiculously silly, and these are the cases I hold onto. If I’ve done it before, I can do it again!

For Lent this year, I’m hoping to strengthen my perseverance muscle by focusing on one source of embarrassment and frustration: my pile of half-finished creative projects. While it’s just frivolous fabric and papers and supplies, I feel like it’s indicative of a bigger flaw in myself and one I’d like to remedy. Here’s to forty days of persisting in the arduous good until the end is achieved!

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

A tease of spring weather. // We were in the 60’s most of the week and it was wonderful. Coats off and sun on our faces…can’t wait for spring!
A weekday dinner date. // My husband called me on his way home from work to tell me to get dressed, we’re going out to dinner! We are not spontaneous people so this felt wild and crazy. So nice to spend some one-on-one time with him in the midst of another busy week.
A new apron. // Our “making do” project of the week: my daughter is a wonderful baker so I wanted to get her a full apron. (She currently has a half version.) After looking online, I ultimately decided to let her choose something in my fabric bin and we’d make one ourselves! We used my full apron as a pattern and she sewed the pieces together herself. She even added some beautiful “chicken scratch” embroidery to the hem.
Starting seeds. // It’s that time of year again! I’m a little behind schedule, but I did manage to start the jalapenos and marigolds. Tomatoes are next.
My gilt is not pregnant. // We weren’t sure if breeding had been successful (before the tragedy), but this was the week to watch and it came and went without a birth. I’m a little sad that we won’t have a Fred Jr. but very happy to not have tiny piglets in late winter!

Frugal Accomplishments //

bought twelve vintage deadstock zippers for $2.70 (vs. new zippers at $3.49 each!)
made beef broth from bones in the freezer
mended a rip in a son’s work jeans using these patches again
listed two books on Pango
covered seed trays with plastic wrap because I couldn’t find the clear dome tops
made banana bread with overripe bananas

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

February 27 was the commemoration of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Acolyte.

To Read: this entire website about St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows

To Pray: Collect for Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows

To Add to the Library: Saint Gabriel Possenti, Passionist: A Young Man in Love by Gabriele Cingolani

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things but to do the ordinary well.”

Reading //

The Practical Case for Studying Latin from Josh Allan at Antigone Journal // “Latin is useful, however; and unlike the sciences, it is not only useful to those who practise it. Indeed, Latin is useful to anyone who wishes to learn another language, or to anyone who hopes to become a doctor or a lawyer. It is useful to anyone who simply wants to improve their mental faculties, or expand the horizons of their perception, and that is without making the oft-repeated case – as I have avoided doing – that a knowledge of Latin deepens one’s understanding of Western culture, of art, philosophy and literature.”
Better than Success from Johann Christoph Arnold at Plough // “Who are the role models we can point our children to today? Who can they really emulate? And what about you and me? Do our lives inspire our children to look beyond themselves and their own little worlds to find ways of making a difference in the world? After the work is done and the bills paid, do we help them aspire to what is worthy and good, or do they see in us lives driven by selfish and self-centered pursuits? Remember, children are always watching – always.”
Classical Education’s Remedy for America’s Loneliness Epidemic from Rachel Alexander Cambre at Public Discourse //

In contrast, classical schools embrace an older understanding of education, one that prepares students for festivity and friendship, rather than socially handicapping them. Like their ancient and medieval predecessors, classical educators maintain that a crucial purpose of education is to liberate students from a calculative, utilitarian mindset by teaching them how to enjoy intrinsically worthwhile activities for their own sake. This does not mean that classical schools downplay the importance of working hard or striving for excellence, but that they emphasize the intrinsic goodness and beauty of those virtues—like those of fortitude and magnanimity—so that students might cultivate them because they are good and beautiful, not because they will help them to acquire wealth, power, or fame.

The Age Of Abandonment from Freya India at GIRLS // Very thought-provoking.

New Additions to The List //

Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic by Irene Gammel
No Bullet Got Me Yet: The Relentless Faith of Father Kapaun by John Stansifer

Watching/Listening //

Lessons 9-12 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute
Can I Make Felt Look Like Stained Glass? from The Stitchery

Loving //

this pretzel bread recipe // My daughter is a wonderful baker and tries something new each week. This time it was pretzel bread – delicious!
this creamy potato and sausage chowder recipe // A big hit.