The Big White Farmhouse

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Things have felt a little heavy around here, so I decided it was a good time to bring out this practice again.  I definitely needed to take my own advice (get out of head and into my hands) and lean heavily into gratitude to keep me moving.  Here’s my list:

Teeny seedlings sprouting under grow lights.  How the hens have adopted the lone remaining duck into the fold.  Changing the blade on my rotary cutter.  One on one time with my middle son.  The random ladybug crawling on my bathroom wall.  Hearing piano music throughout the house.  Getting into a dinner routine that works for us in this season.  Feeling the subtle shift of spring weather returning.

(Previous little moments lists: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, and part six.)

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. Keeping the sewing machine out on the desk. // I usually have it tucked away in a closet and it’s always a pain to lug it out and put it back.  In this season of life without any curious toddlers, I decided to keep it out on the desk full-time and wow!  Even though it happened in fits and spurts throughout the week, I made so much progress on my quilt!  My daughter has used it for little projects too.
2. A Make Stuff March update. // I definitely slowed down the pace from last week, but have still been working steadily.  This time, I finished three little ornaments that I stitched in 2023, started stitching the second ornament for my Handmade Christmas goal and made a lot of progress on the pinwheel quilt.  (See below.)
3. A mother/daughter quilting bee and a perseverance win. // When I organized my projects last week, I found the beginnings of a quilt I must have started back in 2010.  Most of the block pieces were cut and I even found the instructions I had printed from the Internet!  I started machine-piecing and quickly saw what must have been my frustration fifteen years ago: some of the pieces were slightly the wrong size!  But in the spirit of perseverance and finishing the task at hand, I decided to do the best I could with the supplies I had.  (I only had a few leftover fabrics, so couldn’t start over.)  My daughter helped me with every step including designing the layout and tying each quilt block corner.  (We even learned how to make a surgeon’s knot!)  None of it is perfect, but we’re getting closer and closer to a finished product.  I have loved spending time with her in our little mother/daughter quilting bee.  A sweet memory.
4. A lesson in failure. // I tried to make yogurt twice in the slow cooker and failed both times.  Choosing to see this as a good thing because it got my problem-solving wheels turning, gave me a healthy dose of humility and fed my piglets a special treat.  I want to try again once I recover from the money I wasted.
5. Pie for pi day! // I would probably have forgotten about this if it weren’t for my bingo board!  My middle kids each made a pie: apple and chocolate chip.  Delicious.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• discovered that a Bandaid makes a good makeshift thimble
• used up a science kit from last year that worked for a subject we’re studying this week (the solar system!)
• gave my daughter a haircut
• made another batch of granola to eat with our homemade yogurt
• used my soap saver bag (mine is no longer for sale, but this is similar) to use up the last bits and pieces
• made banana bread from bananas in the freezer
• cooked dried pinto beans to make into refried beans
• finally finished a shampoo that has been languishing in my shower since I bought something I liked better

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

March 12 was the Commemoration of St. Luigi Orione, Priest.

To Read: Homily of St. John Paul II on St. Luigi’s canonization

To Add to the Library: The Restless Apostle: From the Writings of Don Orione

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “Without Prayer nothing good is done. God’s works are done with our hands joined, and on our knees. Even when we run, we must remain spiritually kneeling before Him.” and “Only charity will save the world.”

Reading //

• Why? Springing Forward, Falling Back, and Changing Times from Matthew Giambrone at Hearth and Field // “I had always been given to understand, anecdotally, mostly by my mother, that Daylight Savings Time was founded by Benjamin Franklin and was for the benefit of farmers’ harvest schedules and suchlike. I have conducted a short study of the matter, however, and it turns out neither assertion is true.”
• Who was Elizabeth Goudge? from Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub // “Elizabeth Goudge (which is pronounced somewhere between “Scrooge” and “rouge”) was visited by a constant stream of visitors and admirers from the 40’s until the end of her life, with them popping in the door at all hours. She felt that fame was her duty to share more of herself, so she wrote letters and visited with everyone who came. She loved her little dogs, doing embroidery, observing nature and living in the country.”
• Letters from Prison from Ben Spencer at Comment // This was so good.

On March 26, 1987, Ben Spencer—twenty-two years old, newly married, with a baby on the way—was arrested for robbing and killing a wealthy white man in Dallas. Nothing connected him to the crime. He was convicted on the testimony of three witnesses who lied for a $35,000 reward and a jailhouse informant who lied for a shorter sentence. Ben was sentenced to life in prison.

Ben’s story reveals how criminal trials can go off the rails and why innocence is not enough to undo the mistake. But it is also a story of faith. For thirty-four years in a maximum-security prison, Ben absorbed God’s Word at a cellular level: He forgave the people who framed him, and he never doubted that the truth would set him free. Ben’s spiritual journey can be traced in some two thousand pages of letters to his wife, Debra. He never succumbed to bitterness—he saw it as a poison—and he trusted that God alone controlled his fate, not the Texas legal system. His miracle came in the form of a new district attorney, who reinvestigated his case. Ben Spencer was exonerated on August 29, 2024, his name cleared and his soul burnished to reflect the image of Christ.

• It Is Time from Grandma Donna // “I have always been a curious thinker, I like to know how things work and why and I do better if I can see it and learn visually. A mentor is even better but there are not as many mentors today as we once had. We have now gone several generations without them as many of the old skills of the past have been replaced by machines that do it for you but this comes with a cost.”  I think about this often.
  • And this from Sara M in the comments after she shared how she spends her time after work: “I may have to live in the 2025 but it doesn’t need to live in me.”
• this passage from The Hidden Power of Kindness by Lawrence G. Lovasik that dovetailed nicely with last week’s thoughts:

Action is one of the most effective forms of self-encouragement and good cheer.  There is something intrinsically humble about action.  When you act, you come to grips with reality.  Action does not make your problems magically disappear, but unlike talk or dreams or merely good resolutions, it does begin to solve them.  As long as you act, there is limitless hope for you and very little room for gloominess.

In your action, however, try to take a long-range view of things.  This will further serve to encourage you.  You are often too impatient.  You want quick and easy solutions.  When they are not forthcoming, you get depressed.  Nature has a way of taking its own sweet time, and you are part of nature.  You cannot force things.  Cultivate a respect for time and the essential role it plays in all human activity. (p.43-44)

New Additions to The List // 

• Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives by Kitty and Al Tait
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Joy of the Snow by Elizabeth Goudge
• Beyond the Snow: The Life and Faith of Elizabeth Goudge by Christine Rawlins

Watching/Listening //

• Lessons 13-15 of the How to Think Like a Thomist: An Introduction to Thomistic Principles from Aquinas 101 at the Thomistic Institute

from the archives…

WEEK ELEVEN 2024 // Make It Up With Relationship

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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 Cavalry 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