• Home
  • Making a Home
    • Farmhouse Diaries
    • Homemaking Notes
    • Frugal Accomplishments
    • In the Kitchen
    • Decluttering
  • The Farm
  • Goals
  • Books
    • The 20th Century in Literature Challenge
    • Reading the Alphabet Challenge
    • WILLA Literary Award Winners Challenge
    • The 10 Year Reading Plan for the Great Books of the Western World
    • Daily Spiritual Reading Challenge
  • Projects
    • Summer I.H. Program
    • Five Good Things
    • The Wednesday Five
    • Extraordinary Ordinary
    • One Hundred Beautiful Things
    • Small Biz Showcase
    • Snail Mail

The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

February 24, 2025

No.897: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Bringing Order to Chaos

“Still life with a profile of Mimi” by Meijer de Haan (1890)

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

It is done.  The floors are done!  It took a long time to come to fruition, but the end result was worth every delay.  We chose a wide plank French oak and it is beautiful.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the week bringing order back into our home: unpacking our belongings, puttering around, organizing and decorating.  I could feel a physiological calm wash over me as each item went back into its place!  I already knew about this at some level, have read the studies about decluttering and order in the home, but now have a personal experience to confirm it.  Feeling very inspired to keep our home simple and tidy going forward.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

  1. Forced rest. // We somehow all got sick again!  It seems to be a common occurrence everywhere this winter.  While I hate coughing and general feeling of yuck, I’m glad it’s not the stomach flu!
  2. An honest mechanic. // Our frugal fix didn’t work long term, so we had to bring the car to the shop.  So thankful for an honest mechanic who does great work at a fair price.
  3. Paying off another loan. // We used the $3,000 that we saved by removing the old flooring ourselves to pay the loan off in full!  Another huge weight off of our backs.  One credit card to go and we’re back to being debt-free except for the mortgage.  (But that’ll be next!)
  4. A cross-stitch project for my teenage son. // When your 16-year-old son asks if you can make him something, you jump on the opportunity, ha!  We chose a pattern together and it is huge!  Thankfully, it’s only one color and is coming along pretty quickly.  I hope to have it done and framed before his birthday in the fall.
  5. Deep freezer organization. // We have a few deep freezers on the farm and despite my best efforts, they always turn into a chaoic mess.  I saw a picture on Pinterest that would work for us and got right to work!  I ordered a bunch of HÅLLBAR bins (in both 3 gallon and 6 gallon) as well as a few UPPDATERA containers from Ikea and they are perfect for my needs.

Frugal Accomplishments //

  • found my son’s preferred shirt (same exact shirt, bigger size) new with tags on the secondhand market
  • refreshed my first floor curtains by washing with Oxyclean

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

February 21 was the Optional Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop & Doctor.

To Read: Message for the 100th Anniversary of St. Peter Damian by Pope Benedict XVI

To Listen: St. Peter Damian—The Lord Be With You from Catholic Culture Audiobooks

To Add to the Library: St. Peter Damian: His Teaching on the Spiritual Life by Owen J. Blum

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “A very good penance is to dedicate oneself to fulfill the duties of everyday with exactitude and to study and work with all our strength.”

Reading //

  • We Still Need Paper Maps from Katherine Johnson Martinko at The Analog Family // “Maps do more than orient a person. They also spark imagination, curiosity, and wonder.”
  • How to Raise Readers, in Thirty-Five Steps from Brad East at Front Porch Republic // Loved this list and agree with it all!

New Additions to The List // 

  • Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder and edited by Stephen W. Hines
  • Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes by Amy Twigger Holroyd
  • Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions by Donald Theodore Sanders and Jelle Zeilinga de Boer
  • I’m Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC by Jim Proser

Watching/Listening //

  • Lesson 6-8 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute
  • Keeping a Comic Diary from Jane Porter // This looks fun.

Loving //

  • the cards from Painted Tongue Press // I keep forgetting to share about my first purchase on Go Imagine!  I was so pleased with these letterpress cards and will definitely buy more.
  • this quote from Henry Ward Beecher: “Every tomorrow has two handles.  We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”

from the archives…

WEEK EIGHT 2024 // Now Is the Time

February 19, 2025

No.896: Small Biz Showcase // Pen Pal Supplies

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

One habit that I would like to reignite in 2025 is sending more snail mail.  For whatever reason, I have been terrible about sending regular correspondence and I’d really like to get back into the practice.  (Thank you to all of my friends and relatives who have been patient with my radio silence the past year.)  With those thoughts in mind, I decided to browse etsy for pen pal supplies!  Obviously, none of these things are necessary – you can write a note on the back of just about anything – but it sure is fun to look at all of the inspiration.

Be sure to check out my other Snail Mail posts for lots of greeting card recommendations too!


+ This Snail Mail Letter Writing Kit from The Paxton Press is so creative!  I love the idea of passing game and recommendation cards back and forth – so fun.

+ Everybody loves a good sticker and this “Send More Snail Mail” sticker from Modern Printed Matter perfectly fits the theme.

+ Have a kid who is interested in starting their own snail mail pastime?  This penpal kit for kids from CC Paper Designs has everything you need to get started: I miss you postcards, three different penpal games, a pre-filled note to help you start the conversation and even a few envelopes!

+ Stop hand-writing your address and invest in an address label from Seas the Day Labels.  This shop has over two hundred options, so be sure to browse the entire store!

+ This medieval flower stationery set from Arte of the Booke is absolutely beautiful.  The set comes with ten sheets of 40gsm paper with matching envelopes.  Made in Italy!

+ I liked this collection of airmail-themed papergoods from Maggieful Designs.  The notebook would be perfect for logging addresses or even using as a traveling journal between penpals.  The memo pad, sticky notes and washi tape are all adorable and would be fun to tuck into letters too.

+ This ephemera pack from The Cloaked Fox is perfect for creatives.  I love the vintage stamps and postcards, but all of the pieces would be great for making unique cards or letters.

+ Last but not least, how about another beautiful letting writing kit, this time from Peach and Poppy Co?  This one is winter bird themed and includes paper, envelopes, a sticker sheet and even some washi tape samples.  You can even add stamps to your order!

February 17, 2025

No.895: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Rolling with the Punches

“Seated Female” by Giovanni (Nino) Costa (1869)

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

I had a good chuckle when I stumbled upon the painting above because…the look on her face was pretty similar to mine this week.

We have been in limbo with our flooring situation since October 29th and have hit delay after delay after delay.  I’ve been relatively patient as the months have gone by, but after moving all of our furniture into a POD and then hearing of another delay due to a snow storm…I about hit my limit.

In a moment of desperation, we decided why not, let’s just do the floor demo ourselves!  A couple of Youtube tutorials later and we were fairly confident in our abilities.  (It really wasn’t hard, even for non-handy people like us.)  As a family, we spent Monday through Wednesday doing the work entirely ourselves, getting everything removed and prepped and ready for the flooring team to arrive on Thursday.

And then…even though we were in contact with our estimator early in the week and he knew exactly what we were doing, there was still some sort of miscommunication and the person sent out on Thursday was for demo!  The poor guy came in and looked around so confused, ha!  Anyway, we had to be put back on the schedule for the installers and they wouldn’t be available for almost a week.

It’s funny to look back at my 2025 goals and the virtues I wanted to work on in the new year.  Ask and you shall receive!  Oh well.  We’ll just continue rolling with the punches, hoping we grow in patience and perseverance along the way.  We’ll have floors…someday.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

  1. Doing the flooring removal ourselves. // We felt like we were on a HGTV show!  We also saved $3,000, learned a new skill and even discovered a new interest for one of my sons.  (Maybe general contracting is in his future?)
  2. Six years with our dog, Lucy. // She is a joy and we can’t imagine life without her.
  3. Warm temperatures that melted the snow within two days. // We are pretty done with this relentless winter!
  4. Starting my “handmade Christmas” challenge. // I purchased the “Christmas Lights” pattern by Stitch With Coffee and am stitching 2 over 1 (two threads over one square) – tiny!  It’s turning out so cute.
  5. A plan to organize our deep freezers. // More details once I acquire the supplies, but I’m excited to bring some order to chaos.

Frugal Accomplishments //

  • frogged a discarded knitting project to use the yarn in a different way
  • used a scrap fabric for the ornament cross-stitch
  • refreshed my white bed quilt using Oxyclean (thanks to the prompt on February’s bingo board!)

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

February 10 was the Feast of Saint José Sánchez del Río, Martyr.

To Read: The young Mexican who gave his life for Christ the King

To Add to the Library: Saint José: Boy Cristero Martyr, Saints and Sinners in the Cristero War: Stories of Martyrdom from Mexico and Mexican Martyrdom: Firsthand Accounts of the Religious Persecution in Mexico 1926-1935

To Watch: Looking at Heaven: The Life of St. José Sánchez del Río

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

Reading //

  • Humane Learning in a Machine Age: A Professor’s Resolutions from Dr. Ben Reinhard at Hearth & Field // “We will have to move more slowly on this model: to read fewer works, but read them more deeply; to write less, but invest more in what we create. This seems to me an acceptable tradeoff. As we enter the machine age, the goal of introductory humanities coursework is no longer to teach close reading or the Western literary tradition, but something more fundamental: how to be human.”
  • C. S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft, and the sequence: truth, goodness, and beauty from Jeffrey Wattles at Universal Family
  • From Gourmet Pork to Subsistence Farming: Why Buellton’s Winfield Farm Will Stop Raising Mangalitsa Pigs in Favor of Sheer Survival from Matt Kettmann at Santa Barbara Independent // “At a time when supporting honestly raised, regionally grown, sustainably minded food is on the lips of every self-respecting restaurant lover, why is it essentially impossible to make a stable living off of working the land?”  A blog post for another day, but these questions are frequently being asked here at our farm too.
  • The challenge: Avoiding the grocery store from Bruce Steele // “The challenge, To stop eating anything storebought. To see how long you can go on foraging , dry provisions from last years garden, preserves from your own trees or foraged fruit. And of course the garden.”

New Additions to The List // 

  • A Bold Return to Giving a Damn: One Farm, Six Generations, and the Future of Food by Will Harris
  • Politics by Aristotle

Watching/Listening //

  • Lessons 1-2 (on George Orwell’s 1984) in the “Totalitarian Novels” course from Hillsdale College
  • How I Turned Over 300 Scraps into a Beautiful Quilt in 1 Day from Sew Easy by Sandy

Loving //

  • The Last Homely House Youtube channel // Her voice is so soothing and her projects are inspiring.  She reminds me of a British version of my grandmother!

from the archives…

WEEK SEVEN 2024 // Patience

February 10, 2025

No.894: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Abundance at Home

“Davis House” by Edward Hopper (1926)

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

This week, our primary focus was packing up the first floor as we prepare for our new flooring.  I’ve spent a lot of time decluttering the past few years but it still astounded me to see how many items we own, neatly tucked away in cabinets and nooks and crannies.  None of this is junk per se – it’s our puzzle collection and stacks of books and throw blankets and pillows – but it was a good reminder to never complain.  How fortunate am I to have collected an abundance of beautiful, useful things!

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

  1. Celebrating my husband’s birthday. // We did the math and have celebrated 20 years of birthdays together.  Time flies!
  2. Making it through the ice storm (relatively) unscathed. // A wild experience.  Trees were snapping everywhere and roads were blocked in every direction.  We even lost power for 30 hours!  So thankful for our generator and fireplace.
  3. The gentle reminder from my kids not to stress. // I think they could see it in my eyes.  With the unpredictable weather, my husband’s insane work schedule, car issues and a sick pig, I was very overwhelmed with all of the tasks that needed to be accomplished.  My sweet son joked, “So is No Stress 2025 out the window now?” and that was enough to pull me out of my spiral.  One step at a time.
  4. Not breaking my finger. // In the midst of this crazy week, I somehow managed to jam the ring finger on my non-dominant hand!  Thankfully, taping it to the next finger helped significantly and I was back to normal a day or two later.
  5. New art! // My “making do” project of the week: I finished my second cross-stitch project and planned to frame it for my dining room.  I took a quick look at framing services and realized that I might be able to do it myself!  I laced the back using this tutorial and put it in a secondhand frame I purchased on Poshmark.  Definitely not perfect, but done.

Frugal Accomplishments //

  • used every tote and bag and piece of luggage we own to pack up instead of buying boxes
  • did all of the heavy lifting (moving furniture into the POD container) ourselves
  • found a secondhand frame on Poshmark to use for my cross-stitch project
  • used the newspaper packing from the box to start a fire
  • reused an Old Navy bag to package up an ebay order
  • fixed a gear shifter issue without having to see a mechanic (maybe. hopefully.)

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

February 8 was the Optional Memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita.

To Read: St. Josephine Bakhita Was a Humble Witness to God’s Love

To Make: African Inspired Meal for St. Josephine Bakhita

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know him. What a great grace it is to know God!”

Reading //

  • The Rules of Discernment: A Practical Guide – Rule 7 from Megan Hjelmstad at Spiritual Direction
  • That I Might Be Seen from John Cuddeback at LifeCraft // “How I see the persons around me is more in my power than how they see me. Maybe, when I feel unseen it is then most important that I look outward at others, that I renew my effort to see them better. Lord, that I might see. Them. Even now.”
  • Hannah Coulter, the Green Lady, and Me from Emily G. Wenneborg at Plough // Thought provoking.
  • The Gift of Kindness from Melisa Capistrant at The Cavalry of Woe // I loved this.
  • “Immanence” by Evelyn Underhill // A poem mentioned in the Tasha Tudor documentary I watched last week.

New Additions to The List // 

  • Aristotle: The Desire to Understand by Jonathan Lear
  • Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

Watching/Listening //

  • Lessons 4-5 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute

Loving //

  • this book from Alicia Paulson // A used bookstore find for $3!

from the archives…

WEEK SIX 2024 // Patience

  • ← Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • …
  • 419
  • Next →
About Me
Welcome to the Big White Farmhouse!

The 10 Year Reading Plan for the Great Books of the Western World

Popular Posts

No.871: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Thankful

No.907: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Common Themes

No.664: Last Week at the Farmhouse // If You Give a Mom a Crooked Rug…

No.824: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Contemplation

No.603: Advent at the Farmhouse // Homemaking Notes for the Fourth Week of Advent

THE BIG WHITE FARMHOUSE IS A FOR-PROFIT BLOG AND POSTS MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. ALL CONTENT ON THIS BLOG BELONGS TO ME. PLEASE DO NOT USE MY POSTS OR PHOTOGRAPHS WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

© THE BIG WHITE FARMHOUSE 2011-2025.

Amazon Disclosure Policy

The Big White Farmhouse is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Archives

Copyright © 2025 The Big White Farmhouse · Theme by 17th Avenue