The Big White Farmhouse

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

If you’re of a certain age, I’m sure you remember the part in the Disney movie Alladin where the main character, floating above the ground on a magic carpet, puts out his hand to Jasmine and asks the question, Do you trust me?  Forgive my childish connection, but I’ve often thought of that scene as a metaphor of God’s relationship with me. Alladin’s next line is also important to this idea: Then jump!

God has been asking me to jump quite a bit this year.  (My husband and I often joke that our particular set of suffering is best described as “death by a thousand cuts” – handfuls of little annoyances that compound on each other.)  I’m not particularly good at dealing with the entirety of these things, but I do know one thing to be true: God is good. He works all things for good. I only have to trust Him.

When I look into the future, I am frightened, but why plunge into the future? Only the present moment is precious to me, as the future may never enter my soul at all. It is no longer in my power, to change, correct or add to the past; For neither sages nor prophets could do that. And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God. O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire. I desire to use you as best I can. And although I am weak and small, You grant me the grace of Your omnipotence. And so, trusting in Your mercy, I walk through life like a little child, offering You each day this heart burning with love for Your greater glory.
― The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina: Divine Mercy in My Soul, p.4

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ watching my favorite tree finally turning colors!  Do you have a favorite tree?  Mine is a maple and is usually the last tree on our property to change colors.  The deep red leaves are so, so beautiful and I’m enjoying every minute before the wind blows them away.

+ a decent showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  I’m even more motivated to persevere in this project because we received a double whammy: our property taxes increased (thus increasing our mortgage payment) while at the same time our health insurance also increased, taking money out of my husband’s paycheck!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy grapes, yogurt and barbecue sauce on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta sauce & macaroni and cheese)
• sold eggs to friends
• made pita bread (recipe below)
• mended a small hole in my son’s church pants
• turned my son’s beloved long-sleeved shirt with a hole in the elbow into a short sleeve
• invested in 50 pounds of flour (we buy a ton of flour so after doing the calculations, this would save me – even with the high shipping cost – $6)
• found food grade buckets that we already owned to store that flour
• listed a few things on ebay/Poshmark

+ new floors?  Because we can’t seem to catch a break, we discovered that a significant amount of water had somehow leaked into our dining room hardwood floors and was warping the panels.  It got so bad that the wood would make popping noises like fireworks!  Anyway, a mitigation company came out to see the damage and she said that if they can’t fix the issue through their dehumidifying process, we’ll have to work with our insurance to have all of the hardwoods replaced.  (Most of the first floor is continual hardwood flooring, so this is quite the project.)  Always something!

+ selling eleven unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six books, four pieces of clothing and a purse.  After shipping and fees, I made $54.69.

Reading //

• The Vulnerability and Fleetingness of Beauty from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “The bulldozer of efficiency is a machine after all. We can just turn it off. We are able to say, ‘thus far and no further’. What this requires is learning again to cherish and delight in beauty, to yearn after it, to value it more than efficiency, profit, and ease, and feel the pain and tragedy when we lose it. We need to understand and appreciate that beauty ‘fufils something in us that other things cannot, and enriches our lives in all kinds of unexpected and vital ways’. We need to remind ourselves that when beauty is noticed, it can be loved.”
• Against the tide: some thoughts on navigating the modern world from Carole Hudson // “This idea of death by comfort has been a motivator for me. It helps me to tackle a difficult book, look up words I don’t know or am not sure of, memorise scripture, get up and move around, practice my guitar, or write a long letter instead of sending a quick email. These are small things but they are diffusive acts that seep into other areas of our lives.”
• Keeping Sacred Time from Elizabeth Oldfield at Comment // “We have outsourced our formation largely to our passive consumption of culture, been too relaxed about how powerfully social liturgies—more subtle and more regular than our actual liturgies—shape our hearts and our habits. I’m more and more convinced that the way we structure our time—collectively, not only individually—is the key factor in our discipleship. The only way we can be formed to stay loyal to the logic of a different kingdom is to focus as much repeated, intentional attention on its stories and rituals and songs as we do on our phones, our televisions, and our shopping centres.”
• Wonder of Wonders from Stephen P. White at The Catholic Thing // “Such wonder, the unaffected wonder of a child who marvels at the world and the one who made it, cannot but gush into a flood of gratitude. In our most child-like moments, all sensible distinctions between gratitude, humility, trust, and praise melt away and we are left basking in the presence of someone who loves us. Wonder may be the beginning of philosophy; it is also a powerful entry into the prayer of contemplation.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Marxism: Philosophy and Economics by Thomas Sowell
• Knight of the Holy Ghost: A Short History of G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist
• One Man in: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Soldier Who Fought Off a Massive Terrorist Attack in Kenya by Chris Craighead

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I checked five more days off the list and decluttered 56 items.  Totals so far: 20/30 days completed and 275 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• this pita bread recipe:

PITA BREAD

6 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. honey

Let the yeast dissolve in warm water.  Stir the honey in the water and yeast mixture.  Then slowly add salt and flour.  Stir until it becomes tough to mix.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface.

Knead for about 10 minutes.  Then place the dough in a buttered bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp dishtowel.

Let dough rise for two hours or until doubled in size.

After punching down the dough, shape into 10 balls.

Let them rest for 15 minutes, then shape into 6″-7″ round shapes, like a mini pizza crust.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes on the lowest oven rack.

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

Another week of contemplation as I primed and repaired and painted the living room walls.  It’s been pretty heavy in our neck of the woods: we had my husband’s basal cell carcinoma surgery, the news of a leukemia diagnosis for an acquaintance’s wife (a mother of four) and a concerning spot/possible cancer for another friend.  Life is so fragile and can change in an instant.

Naturally, these things make me reflect on the last four things and the direction of my life.  I’ve talked about this in various ways ad nauseum on this blog, but the latest phrase I’ve been repeating is this: I want to imitate great things.  Imitation is the best form of flattery, right?  But who to imitate?  Certainly, it’s not the popular social media influencers or famous celebrities or millionaires or politicians.  This is who I want to emulate:

My grandmothers.  Neighbors who take care of each other.  The great thinkers throughout the ages.  The saints who kept the faith during challenging times.  The people who do things instead of just talking about them.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ spending all of my spare moments on the living room walls.  The room has been in disarray for weeks and with this sudden cold snap, we’ve been dying to have our first fire of the season.  I worked and worked and managed to complete half of the room to completion.  (I ran out of paint, so the rest is on hold until I can get to Home Depot.)  Typical insanity around here, but this is the life!

+ another decent week for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  It doesn’t seem very significant when we’re spending $100 for a dozen straw bales and $630 to get our propane tank filled 30%, but…we carry on!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy potatoes, cheese and honey on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (toothpaste and deodorant)
• sold eggs to friends
• made bread, tortillas and granola
• avoided turning on the heat, even though the morning temperatures were quite chilly
• made chicken broth from carcasses I had in the freezer
• repurposed greeting cards into mini thank you notes for my resale packages
• listed a few things on Pango/Poshmark/ebay
• reused an Old Navy return bag to mail an ebay sale

+ decluttering like a fool!  Since my “baby” is turning eight this year, the youngest three kids helped me make decisions regarding what toys to keep and what can go.  A much overdue project!  I tucked away some of our favorites for my grandchildren someday: wooden blocks, train tracks, Magnatiles, Little People sets and Matchbox cars.

+ selling nine unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: seven pieces of clothing, one book and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $63.39!

Reading //

• Motherhood as an Intellectual Vocation from Shannon Donald at Nota Bene // “Indeed, the first and ongoing intellectual task of the mother is to identify the particular knowledge that she requires to fulfill her duties—now and in the future—and the best means, timing, and strategy she can use to learn what she currently does not know. The answer will be different for every mother, and it will be ever-changing for the same mother. No one else can do this work for her. It is hers alone, to accept or neglect.”
• Home Libraries Will Save Civilization from Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic // “When books are everywhere, they distract us with their presence in a good way—they demand to be read, shaping the people around them in small but meaningful ways, moment by moment, page by page. They send us on rabbit trails to find yet more books on related topics, to ask friends for recommendations, and sometimes just to sit quietly and reflect, overcome with an emotion sparked by an author who has been dead for centuries but one that expresses the state of our soul in this moment.”
• The Search for Stillness in a Mad, Mad World from Peco at School of the Unconformed // A nice companion piece to read after finishing The Power of Silence by Cardinal Sarah last week.
• presence & repair from Rachel at five acres four generations // “Right now, to combat perfectionism and burnout and despair, I try to hold two things at the front of my mind: presence and repair. In the end, those are the things that matter most. It’s not the amount of Little Bear my toddler watches when I’m sleep deprived: it’s the way I still sit with him and snuggle him, or make sure we have one-on-one creative time later. It’s not the number of times I lose my temper: it’s the way I apologize and ask forgiveness when I do.”  So wise.  I loved this.

New Additions to The List // 

• Our Lady of Fatima by William T. Walsh

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I checked seven days off the list and decluttered 78 items.  Totals so far: 15/30 days completed and 219 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• Mastermind // The kids pulled out this game and whew, it’s a brain bender!  They are better strategists than I am.

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

I turned the big 4-0 this week.  I met this milestone not with dread, but with a sense of awe and immense gratitude.  How quickly I reached this point!  What a gift to have been alive for four decades.  What an incredible life I’ve lived so far.

You know me, I’m a ponderer.  I reflect on the past and look ahead to the future.  The question I kept thinking about this week was: what do I want my next decade to look like?

The next ten years should be a significant time of change.  By the end of this new decade, I will be close to becoming an empty nester.  Most of my children will be out carving their place in the world.  My hair could be completely gray.  I might be a grandmother!  As I reflect on the next ten years, I know I’m at a critical junction: what I do and how I take care of myself in this decade will greatly influence how I age in the (hopefully many!) decades to come.  So here are my priorities as I enter into my 40s:

• Eat in a way that makes me thrive. //  I know what that looks like and how my body reacts when I stick with it.  Time to stick with it.
• Take care of my oral health. //  If I want to keep my teeth as an octogenarian, I probably should focus on taking good care of them now.  I’m seeing some gum recession that I would like to mitigate and am curious to try this dentist’s recommendation.
• Prep for perimenopause/menopause. // This is a big change and I want to lessen the worst symptoms as best as I can.  Lots of research to be done in this area.
• Deal with stress. //  My constant nemesis.  Always learning, always trying to improve.  My lifespan depends on me getting this in check.
• Continue in personal education. //  The past few years of Mother Academia have changed my life!  If my reading has taught me anything so far, it’s that man is the same throughout the ages.  Without virtue, we follow our base desires and we act like animals.  Life is a battle!  I want to read and read and read, learning from history, acknowledging perennial truths, and continually challenging myself to be better.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ taking a mini fall break.  We’ve had a fairly typical autumn so far, but the temperatures are quickly taking a chilly turn and we’re scrambling to finish a bunch of farm projects ASAP!  I decided to put a few “Teacher Farm-service” days on the calendar so I could work on the list.  The kids helped with a bunch of the heavy lifting – so grateful for strong teenage boys!  I put in at least six hours each day and boy, did I sleep well each night, ha!

+ a weak showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged with the whole thing and my priorities were with the farm anyway.  Maybe a little distance from the project, if only for a week, is a good thing?   Anyway, this week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy apples, croissants, and Primal Kitchen mayo on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (soups)
• planted seed potatoes from my spring batch to grow/eat over the winter
• got the kids to look at their things for anything to declutter/sell (I list for them and they keep the money when sold)
• listed a few items on Poshmark/ebay

+ finding mold.  Our basement generally tends to be quite damp and all of the rain we received last week didn’t help things.  Even with the dehumidifier running, I could smell something off.  After a little investigation, we found mold growing in one section: on cushions, luggage, an old couch…it was a mess and we had to throw out a lot.  Digging deep here to find the good, but I guess I’m thankful for an excuse to declutter the basement.

+ selling five unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: two books, a pair of snow pants, a fleece pullover and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $44.15.

Reading //

• Rehumanizing the Humanities from James Hankins at First Things // “People who want to learn just need a knowledgeable teacher to orient them to the books they want to read and help stir their enthusiasm. They want the framework of a course to help impose some discipline on themselves, and they want congenial companions with the same interests who like to talk about literature and philosophy. Teachers just want students who love books and want to talk about them, and enough income to supply themselves with tea and cakes. You can have effective education, it turns out, with very little fuss and expense.”
• Why “The Great Music” Is as Important as “The Great Books” from Peter Kwasniewski at The Imaginative Conservative // “Although one cannot train the ear in a day, a week, a month, or even a year, a beginning must nevertheless be made in developing the skill of what we might call ‘attentive listening to beautiful sound that is inherently worth listening to.’ “
• So, a Chatbot Did Your Homework from Jacob Riyeff at Plough // This is a really important conversation.  If education is nothing but an “information-processing exercise to get a degree”, what’s the point?
• Candy! Candy everywhere! And a case for the Ascetic Economy from J.E. Petersen at Dispatches from Outer Space

New Additions to The List // 

• Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health and How We Can Get It Back by Catherine Shanahan
• Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future by Thomas M. Kostigen

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I got a bit behind this week, but did check three days off the list and decluttered 56 items.  Totals so far: 8/30 days completed and 141 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• this fleece vest // Mine is a hand-me-down (thanks, Mom!) and I’ve been wearing it almost everyday when I’m outside working.
• slow cooker pot roast // ‘Tis the season!  The perfect dinner for chilly evenings.