The Big White Farmhouse | intentional living, little by little

January 6, 2021

No.472: The Wednesday Five #14

A QUOTE

The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.
– Laura Ingalls Wilder

A LIST OF LESSONS LEARNED IN 2020

Inspired by Amber’s list, a handful of lessons from last year:

Living in terror/constant anxiety/fear is a choice.
If you live in a manner that makes you ready for death (at any time in any form), there is even less need to fear or despair.
Abandonment to God’s will is not as excruciatingly hard as I imagined it to be.
God is merciful, but He is also just.
Being unable to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist was profound suffering. I now pray often for the underground church around the world and hope to never take the Sacraments for granted again.
Getting out in the sunshine is good for the body and the soul.
Hard physical work is good work.
Watching things grow from a little seed is incredible and awe-inspiring.
Man is not an island. We need each other.
My husband and children are my greatest blessing.

NEW GOAL: HAVE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NEWS

I gave up publicly posting/interacting with social media back in 2019 and haven’t looked back. It was never a good use of my time and I hated that I always had my phone in my hand. Unfortunately, with so many unknowns and changes in 2020, I returned to bad habits, but in a new way: I turned into a news reading fiend! And you can’t read just one source because there’s always a bias, so I’d read articles from all over the map, digging out what possibly were the facts and trying to sift out the rest. And then I’d listen to a variety of commentators on Youtube explain their opinions on the news. Yeesh. It’s too much and I’m now convinced that man was just not created to ingest that amount of information. So for 2021, I’m trying something new. Keeping up to date with what is happening in the world is important, but it doesn’t need to be a constant part of my day. I think I’ll check a few sites in the morning (before we start school) and then keep my phone tucked away in my bedroom until late in the afternoon. Two days in and so far, so good.

WINTER WEATHER FAVORITES

Winters are generally pretty mild in Virginia, so it took me a long time to invest in quality winter gear. I’ve occasionally gotten lucky with secondhand pieces (and continue to check in every so often on ThredUp, Ebay and Poshmark, just in case!) but less so as the kids get older. I always wait for sales and choose simple colors (like blue or black) that anyone in the family would be comfortable wearing. A few of our favorites are L.L.Bean snow pants and boots, Love Woolies wool mittens (a small business) and – new to us this year – Carhartt jackets.

THREE GOOD THINGS

bright red sunsets peeking through bare trees, another order from my favorite soapmaker (affiliate link), and a mind bubbling with creative ideas (SO welcome after a year of dryness)

January 5, 2021

No.471: Mother Culture // January 2021

Last fall threw me for quite a loop and I never got my Mother Culture goals up on the blog. A new year is as good a time as any to get back on track, right? I’ve decided to use my monthly Mother Culture list to also help with my larger 2021 goals, so it’ll be a little bit of a hodge-podge. Here’s what I’ve got for January:

ASSIGNMENT #1: Read The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, pages 1-26.

ASSIGNMENT #2: Finish the outer “frame” stitching on the “Winter” cross-stitch. (100 Little Thing #36)

ASSIGNMENT #3: Finish the Bible Reading Plan. (100 Little Thing #61)

ASSIGNMENT #4: Discover a new musical artist and listen to some songs.

ASSIGNMENT #5: Go through my closet, pull out unneeded pieces, and create seven everyday outfits. Bonus points for listing some of the extras on Poshmark/ebay.

January 4, 2021

No.470: Homemaking Notes on a Monday // Vol.06

The weather outside is //
A pretty chilly week! The kids will be excited to see snow, but I doubt it will be much of anything, let alone stick.

On the breakfast place this morning // I’m the most boring breakfast eater ever. I always eat the same thing: a bowl of oatmeal mixed with pureed pumpkin and a sprinkle of raisins or walnuts on top.

As I look outside my window // I see a forest of bare trees and soggy land. We’ve had a few days of heavy rain, so it’s a little gross out there. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week so we can finally set up the new trampoline. The kids are dying to try it out!

As I look around the house // it’s still in all of its Christmas goodness and I’m okay with that! We usually keep things up until Epiphany before putting it away. Thankfully, since most of my decorations are twinkly lights and evergreens from the property, it has a “winter in the country” vibe and I think I’ll leave most of it up for January.

On this week’s to-do list //
– celebrate Epiphany with new books and a big family dinner
– start taking down some of the decorations
– order a new baby gift
– mail thank you cards
– sprinkle ash from the fireplace around the dripline of the apple trees
– make a vet appointment for Lucy

Thinking about // my garden for 2021! The seed catalogs are coming in full force and I’m so excited to start picking varieties and planning a new layout. Last year’s production was wonderful, but it was only enough to use with our daily meals and not nearly enough to put away and save for later. It really was the perfect way to start learning the gardening skillset, but I’m hoping to ramp things up in this new year.

Currently reading // My nightstand is overflowing! I’ve got bookmarks in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Advent & Christmas, Theology of Home, The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad, Saint John Paul the Great by Jason Evert, and Mrs. Dunwoody’s Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping by Miriam Lukken.

On the menu this week //
Monday: chicken pot pie soup with homemade biscuits
Tuesday: roasted chicken with jalapeno popper casserole
Wednesday: nacho taters
Thursday: Refrigerator Clean-Out Night!
Friday: one skillet Mexican rice casserole

January 1, 2021

No.469: My Goals for 2021

Aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands.
– 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Spend considerably less time online. With the daily upheaval of 2020, I fell into a lot of bad habits: scrolling frequently, reading all the opinions about all the things, even grabbing my phone the moment I woke up in the morning. It’s so silly how those things can affect my entire day! My family deserves better than that and I need to re-learn what it means to have a healthy relationship with the Internet again.
Continue to cultivate a deep prayer life. When you show up, God meets you there. I want to continue showing up.
Really embrace the homemaker spirit and focus on my vocation at home. This goal is a continuation of one I made last year about being a good steward of my home. I’ve purchased a few books on the subject to further direct me and can’t wait to share what I learn.
Dive into the Constitution and Constitutional Law. I’ve been intrigued by the concept of focused reading since learning about Callie‘s study on WWI. I was struggling to come up with a topic of my own when it suddenly hit me: the Constitution. I think it’s a really important and timely choice.
Get through a lot of my unread books and go on a book-buying fast. Some people got through 2020 with extra desserts or alcohol…I coped by buying books! I couldn’t resist the $3-4 novels on Better World Books…and their sales? Amazing! Needless to say, I am completely stocked up for 2021. I’m also going to make my yearly reading goal at 100 books(!!). Intimidating, but I think if I follow Goal #1 above, I’ll have a good shot.
Explore the art of dressing well. I am a tomboy through and through and have never really been into makeup or “girly” things. But somehow in 2020, I felt a nudge toward the more feminine. (No one is more shocked about this than me.) Some concrete sub-goals for this are to assess my closet and create a functional wardrobe of items that help me look neat and put together. I also want to invest in a few pairs of “grown-up” pajamas to help clearly distinguish daytime and nighttime. I may even get rid of most of my athleisurewear! Pray for me – I’m in uncharted territory here.
Give generously in money, time and talents. There are so many people who are struggling right now, especially in my own little community. I want to keep my ear to the ground, ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration/direction, and intentionally seek out opportunities to serve the people around me.
Aggressively work toward our financial goals of Baby Step #3 and #6. I am so pumped about these and am hoping to make a big dent in 2021. We became consumer debt free last July and have enjoyed the ability to finally purchase some of things we’ve put off. Now we’re ready to get back to work and hustle! I’m excited to return to intentional frugal living again.
Get started on our farming dreams and brainstorm how we can make this endeavor work for us, both vocationally and financially. When I was a child, I never would have guessed that I would want to become a homesteader someday. But here we are! We’re excited (and a little nervous!) to enter into animal husbandry this year.