The Big White Farmhouse

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Happiness is a mosaic composed of many smaller stones.  The little acts of kindness, the little courtesies, are the things that, added up at night, constitute the secret of a happy day.

Try to make at least one person happy every day.  Every morning build a booth to shelter someone from life’s fierce heat.  If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word.  If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought.  Count up, if you can, the treasure of happiness that you would dispense in a week, in a year, in a lifetime! – The Hidden Power of Kindness, p.231

Since finishing The Hidden Power of Kindness earlier this month, I’ve been reflecting on the virtue and how I’ve experienced it in my adult life.  Some examples:

• the pediatrician who helped me gain confidence as a very young new mother
• the beautiful older mom who encouraged me at church when I struggled to wrangle many small children
• the friend who insisted on vacuuming out my minivan when I was very pregnant and couldn’t do it myself
• the way my son’s jiu jitsu coaches have helped him grow, both as an athlete and a man
• our neighbor who selflessly offers his help without asking for anything in return

I could go on and on and on.  When I think of all the little ways people have been so kind to me and my family over the years, I want to weep.  What an incredible undeserved blessing.  I am convicted to be more kind, to go out of my way to lend a hand, to share the compliment, to send the note.  Little acts of kindness are not insignificant.

How can I be more kind in a world increasingly hostile?  How can I wish the best for all, even for the people I dislike?  How can I be radically positive, shifting my perspective from snark or sarcasm to joy?

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. Starting “Mail Mondays.” // Hoping to start a new snail mail writing routine!  I checked two letters off the list.
2. A focus on “Using It Up.” // You know the saying, “Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make it Do, or Do Without” that was popular during the Great Depression?  This week, I focused on the first part, looking at the abundance of things around me and making plans to make them into something new.  This included everything from food in the fridge/freezers to stationery I already own to even stickers sitting unused in a drawer!  I needed a little boost in “frugal morale” and this did the trick.
3. Hardening off the seedlings. // These poor plants…they were somewhat neglected and are looking a little rough, but I think I can salvage them.
4. Positive feedback about our pork. // Our customers have all picked up their orders and we’ve started hearing their thoughts as they cook their first meals.  All positive feedback!  I always get nervous that people will be underwhelmed or unhappy with their purchase, so this was another morale booster.
5. A frugal experiment that worked! // Late last fall, I re-planted some of our leftover potatoes from an earlier harvest.  The idea is that they overwinter in the ground and then will start growing earlier the following spring.  It seemed like a low-risk experiment…and it worked!  I usually spend at least $60 on seed potatoes every year, so this new strategy should save me some money in the long run.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• made chicken broth from backs in the freezer
• listed a few things on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• made sole water as a cheaper way to get in some electrolytes (those little packets are so expensive!)
• cut up more scrapbook paper for resale thank you cards
• made banana blueberry muffins to use up overripe fruit and sour cream
• broke down a ripped fitted sheet to use for fabric
• power washed our dirty outdoor rug
• made peach yogurt by swirling my homemade peach jam into plain Greek yogurt (delicious!)

Reading //

• Pandemic’s Effects Linger in Americans’ Health Ratings from Lydia Saad at Gallup // This is unfortunate.  How can we turn this around?
• My Lifetime Reading Plan from Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker // I loved this.

And along with it, I wanted to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. That seemed urgently important to me as a teenager. It still does today. I wanted to take the high road, with the right values, and pursue the best goals. I wanted to appreciate the world around me more deeply, more richly—and not just the world today, but also the world in different times and places, as seen by the best and the brightest.

Some people will tell you that this is elitist. But I have the exact opposite opinion. For a working class kid like me, this was my way of overcoming elitism. Some elites even tried to steer me away from this project—as not appropriate for somebody from my neighborhood and background.

I felt that this was patronizing in the extreme. In any event, I was determined to pursue this path of wisdom even if others tried to discourage me.

I felt that my best way to do all this was through books.

• Listening to “Four Quartets” series from Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative // Very helpful commentary.
  • Listening to “Burnt Norton”
  • Listening to “East Coker”
  • Listening to “Dry Salvages”
  • Listening to “Little Gidding”

New Additions to The List // 

• Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien

Watching/Listening //

• A Guide to Finally Understanding T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (Audio Lecture) from Andy Patton

Loving //

• this power washer // We have had it for years and it’s one of my favorite spring chores.  SO satisfying!
• this line in Four Quartets: “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.” (p.27)

from the archives…

WEEK SEVENTEEN 2024 // Frugality Drives Creativity

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Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

– from the Exsultet: The Proclamation of Easter

Alleluia alleluia! Christ is risen, Christ is truly risen!

It always feels bizarre to share the Holy Week review during Eastertide (here was last year’s) but here were are.  This was the most somber Holy Week I may have ever experienced.  It’s a story for another day but I really clung to Mater Dolorosa, combining my sadness with hers.  It helped.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. The importance of photographs and home videos. // I finally took the videos off of my phone and saved them onto an external hard drive for the kids.  (The long-term plan is to combine all of our photos/videos throughout the years and put them all in this one space.)  I can’t tell you how many times I noticed the kids watching them this week, laughing and reminiscing.  Memory keeping, not the perfect images for social media but the real everyday messy minutiae, is so important.  I’m inspired to start printing and framing photographs everywhere.
2. The last pigs off to the butcher. // This did not go as smoothly as last month but it’s done and we’re enjoying the break.  Taking the summer off and then we’ll figure out piglets in the fall.
3. Writing thank you notes. // So many times, I think about thanking someone for their kindness but never actually send the note.  This week, I actually sat down and wrote.  I want to make it a point to do more of this in the future!  In a world so dark and angry, people should know that their kindness is noticed and appreciated.  My new motto: send the note.
4. Reading slowly. // With so much going on right now, my reading life has been reduced to almost nothing.  I’ve been plodding along with Green Dolphin Street since early March at a pace of 15-30 pages a day.  (And this is an epic novel at almost 600 pages!)  Considering this a good thing because the story is lovely, it allows me time to appreciate the writing and vivid descriptions of place, and forces me out of that ridiculous compulsion to read a certain amount of books per month/year/lifetime.
5. A much-needed nap. // I have not been sleeping well lately so this was welcome!

a photo from last week! (credit: G.M.)

Contemplating Holy Week with Art //

Reading //

• Κυριακή των Βαΐων from Catherine at Pleximama
• Mary’s Fiat from Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey // Quoting Dom Prosper Guéranger: “As the heavenly Father had waited for her consent before He sent His Son into the world: so, likewise, He called for her obedience and devotedness, when the hour came for that Son to be offered up in sacrifice for the world’s redemption. Was not Jesus hers? her Child? her own and dearest treasure? And yet, God gave Him not to her, until she had consented to become His Mother; in like manner, He would not take Him from her, unless she gave Him back.”
• On Charlotte Mason and Tattooed Sons from Heather Mills Schwarzen at Commonplace Quarterly //

I am not disappointed because Charlotte Mason took great pains to describe education as “a large room,” and I believe her. A room outfitted with the most beautiful furnishings and lavish tapestries still has corners where dust might gather, and my son, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, has been led into those places to serve. I didn’t know this, of course, when I introduced him to the couch of history, so ornately upholstered by the men God emboldened to lead His people. I couldn’t see it when he set to exploring the wardrobe of music or the cabinet where all of the greatest scientific minds held court. I saw my son touring the vast expanse laid out before him and assumed he would be inspired to try and add something to that large room. Instead, the appreciation he gained as he listened to fairy tales and observed birds in flight lit a different fire in him altogether– the desire to protect and defend that very room.

New Additions to The List // 

• Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, RN: A Nurse of Mercy by Gosia Brykczynska
• Star Lore: Myths, Legends, and Facts by William Tyler Olcott
• Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches by George Weigel

Loving //

• this soap from Ginny Sheller // Smells great!
• this poem:

from the archives…

WEEK SIXTEEN 2024 // Little Moments of Delight pt.2