No.903: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Out of My Head & Into My Hands

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There’s a quote I love from Kate at The Last Homely House: Get out of your head and into your hands!

Recently, I’ve heard a lot of anxiety/frustration/anger/fear about current events.  The news cycle is nonstop and so many things seem to be beyond our control.  In my area of the world, I see how many people are coping and these activities are not exactly life-giving: lots of alcohol, an obsession with work and productivity, excessive materialistic spending, etc.

Now this is silly and I’ll probably be mocked for its simplicity, but I think I have the antidote: get off that screen and into the physical present.  When you’re in touch with what is right in front of your eyes – your family, your neighborhood, your town – your priorities in life seem to come into focus.  I have no control over how the government is run, but I can attend public county committee meetings or police department meetups or school board meetings in my area.  I can’t solve world hunger, but I can donate to the food pantry in my city.  I can’t control inflation or high food costs, but I can get my hands in the dirt and sow a few seeds.

I think there’s a place for handcrafts in this too.  The act of making something from nothing is not only a huge boost in self-confidence, but also has this amazing way of drawing you into the task at hand.  In those moments, the repetitive nature of what you’re doing helps to soothe and calm the mind.  I think we all could see a little more of that.

So pick an old favorite or try something new: baking, diamond art, sewing, embroidery, punch needlework, needlepoint, cross-stitch, gardening, woodworking, quilting, painting, writing, playing an instrument… the possibilities are endless!  Wishing you a little more peace in your life (and mine!) this week.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. A new cookbook project. // I bought The Stay-at-Home Chef Slow Cooker Cookbook at the used bookstore for $3 and it inspired a new idea!  I’ve always wanted to make every recipe in a single cookbook and this may be the one.  This week, I made Extra-Sloppy Joes and Cheesy Bacon and Ranch Potatoes and both were a hit.
2. Planting more seeds. // This time, I started all of my tomatoes.
3. Week one of Make Stuff March. // Feeling very accomplished!  I fully finished my first Christmas ornament and even learned how to make a decorative bow for the top.  I finished a half-completed cross-stitch frog and then sewed it into a log cabin quilt block, finally attaching it to a random muslin bag I had hanging around.  (My first time using iron-on adhesive, which I also had in my stash!)  I practiced zippers again and made a pouch using a finished cross-stitch piece I must have made back in 2009?  (I used this tutorial this time.  I’m getting better and at least it zips!)  I hand-quilted a little on my grandmother’s flower garden quilt and started machine-piecing a pinwheel one.  Not sure if I can keep up this pace all month, but it’s a solid start!
4. Deterring a hungry fox. // For months now, our poor birds have been relentlessly pursued by a fox.  We had about 35 hens and 15 ducks last summer and now we’re down to about 12 hens and one lone duck!  We can’t let them free range anymore which is sad for everyone.  Anyway, we’re constantly looking for weak areas in our fencing and trying to stay one step ahead of that pesky fox.  This week, we felt triumphant as we watched him unable to penetrate our reinforced Critterfence.  Our Great Pyrenees, Samson, helped scare him back into the forest!
5. A new job for my 16-year-old son. // Very excited for him!

Frugal Accomplishments //

• began a test to see if we can get away with only going to the grocery store every other week
• made beef tallow in the slow cooker twice from fat in the freezer
• made broth from chicken backs in the freezer
• listed a few things on Poshmark/ebay/Pango
• made vanilla granola to use up the yogurt in the fridge
• gave the three youngest boys haircuts

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

March 7 was the Optional Memorial of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs.

To Listen: Perpetua: A Rare Female Voice from Antiquity from The Way of the Fathers Podcast

To Add to the Library: The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity by Tertullian

 

Reading //

• The person I’ve become since I left social media from Slow Scottish Stories by Molly Ella // I relate deeply to this.

I can be hasty, thoughtless and ungrateful.

I struggle with anxiety.

I am widely imperfect.

Yet, I am me again. A better, more aware, happier version of myself.

I am finally content with my life.

It breaks my heart to think of the person I was before. There is no going back.

This is me.

• Meaningless language (and how fairy tale vocabulary can save us) from Susanna Schwartz at The Enchanted Window // “I think we’ve lost the old words and phrases we used to describe how people can live and behave, and we’ve replaced them with other terms that obfuscate the old meaning. Worse, I suspect it’s a terrible vicious cycle — we lost words like “nobility” and “virtue” because they didn’t mean anything to us anymore, and as they withered out of use, so did the ideals themselves. We lost a more human vocabulary, and along with it a more human way of life.”
• My Year in Books 2024 from Melisa Capistrant at The Calvary of Woe // LOTS of good recommendations here!  I already have a bunch of the titles on my TBR and I added a few new-to-me ones to my list below.

New Additions to The List // 

• Grey Is the Color of Hope by Irina Ratushinskaya
• And I Am Afraid Of My Dreams by Wanda Półtawska

Loving //

• this free printable Lent calendar from Quis Ut Deus Press // I’m quickly running out of little ones who enjoy these kinds of things!

from the archives…

WEEK TEN 2024 // Little Moments of Delight