The Big White Farmhouse

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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.