The Big White Farmhouse

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the passage of time.

We found ourselves watching old home videos and I couldn’t help staring at the chaos in the background; there were toys and blankets and random things all over the floor!  I can remember being so frustrated by my inability to keep a tidy house, little people always underfoot destroying my meager attempts.  Fast forward about ten years and our home looks quite different: the floors are clear but the flat surfaces are now always covered with the detritus of everyday life.  Craft projects and artwork and dishes from a baking experiment and gym gear and so much laundry.  I’m still picking up and putting things away, this time with more nudging (and occasionally nagging). The kids are bigger, but the amount of stuff is both different and the same.

And yet.  Time is speeding by and I’m trying to grumble less about the imperfection of my home and enjoy the people who are in it.  Before I know it, they will all be off doing great things in the world.  I’ll have that perfectly tidy house I’ve always desired but will be missing the most important part – them.  So yeah, my house is a constant work in progress, but it’s this way because a family lives here.

In that spirit, I wanted to try a black-and-white photo essay of sorts, documenting this season of life.  I didn’t get to photograph everything I wanted, but it was a good start:

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. All of the lovely comments on my quilt post. // Thank you all so much for your kindness.
2. A surprise lunch date with my oldest son. // He called me on his way home from work and told me to get ready, he was taking me out!  We ate at a local place that he loves and I’d always wanted to try.  I was so touched.
3. Starting to design next year’s curriculum. // I’ve been really influenced by John Senior and am excited to incorporate more of his educational philosophy into our homeschool, especially for my dyslexic kids.
4. Pork orders are in! // This was the first year that we offered whole hog options for purchase.  We ended up selling two whole and one half just by word of mouth and inquiries from our current customers – a huge accomplishment!  We are still new to this part of farming, so it was a little wild helping the customers fill out their cut sheets, facilitating payment and organizing pickup.  Even so, it was a good learning experience and I can’t wait to try again.
5. Watching my oldest son promote my husband to blue belt in jiu jitsu. // Jiu jitsu belts for adults are few and hard-earned.  After watching my son train for years, my husband also started and has been working consistently for the past year.  We (me, my son and the senior coaches at the gym) managed to keep a huge secret and pulled off a surprise promotion for him!  The belt test is so difficult and includes an hour of crucible-type endurance where you grapple with teammates and show your ability in a variety of positions.  No water and no breaks!  It was hard to watch, but my husband did great.  The best part of the afternoon was watching my son tie on his dad’s well-deserved blue belt.  My heart was full to bursting.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• cut up old scrapbook paper to use as thank-you notes for resale packages
• listed a few things on Pango/Poshmark/ebay
• made more beef tallow
• reused the tissue paper from a ThredUp order to package up a sale

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

April 7 was the Optional Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle.

To Watch: Saint John Baptist De La Salle: Patron Saint of Teachers

To Copy in the Commonplace Book: “Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and heart than words.” and “The way you behave should be a model for those you teach.”

 

Reading //

• Walking with My Dad to Calvary from Constance T. Hull at Catholic Exchange // “Even though the last two weeks of my life have been the hardest, they have also been the most beautiful. There are no words for the gift of helping my dad carry his Cross in union with Christ in those final hours. I will forever remember holding my dad close as I urged him on to Calvary. What a gift to know he died in the arms of the Holy Family.”
• The Reading Rebellion: One Book. Two Weeks. Repeat. from Peco and Ruth Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // “If we are to restore our deep reading circuits and rediscover the joy, insight, and myriad of associated benefits of reading fiction, we must begin simply by committing to regularly reading tangible books.”
• It’s Just Stuff: What Estate Sales Reveal About Us from Sherry Shenoda at Plough // “I take my sons to estate sales so they can bring home small, hand-carved wooden animals for their bookshelves, old glass marbles in jars, and yet more rocks. Mostly I bring them so they can see that the insides of other people’s homes are like their own, and so the baby can babble happily at strangers in these holy places, and the tired workers at the front can let the toddler keep the lemon that fell from the backyard tree that he’s clutching excitedly.”
• 15 years of motherhood from Tabitha at Team Studer

New Additions to The List // 

• Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge
• Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian
• Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II by Sean McMeekin
• We Have Ceased to See the Purpose: Essential Speeches of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn edited by Ignat Solzhenitsyn
• Warning to the West by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• The Educational Philosophy Of St. John Bosco by John A. Morrison (thanks again for the recommendation, Rosemary!)

Watching/Listening //

• this production of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles // This story is brutal.
• Lessons 4-6 of the Marxism, Socialism, and Communism course at Hillsdale College

Loving //

• LineUp, a memory board game // I played multiple rounds with my 10-year-old this week!

from the archives…

WEEK FIFTEEN 2024 // The Anti-Library

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The past seven days have been incredibly ordinary: a mix of good and not so good, laughter and a few tears.  The weather was typical of Virginia springtime: up, down and all around temperatures, sunshine and showers.  I spent one entire day focused on the laundry and for fifteen beautiful minutes, I had clear floors and empty baskets.  I made simple meals; my daughter made delicious treats.  I worked outside for hours and had to rest the next day because everything hurt.  (Getting old is for the birds!)  So many inconsequential things, but goodness can be found there too.

One more thing: did you know that April is National Poetry Month?  I thought I would share this poem that perfectly encapsulated my love for this time of year:

Today
by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. Piano lessons! // The sister of a friend (don’t you love those connections!) offers piano lessons and I jumped at the chance to enroll my daughter.  An extra blessing is that the price is so reasonable!  She had her first lesson this week, really liked the teacher and is excited to learn.  I can’t wait to see how she progresses.
2. A Lord of the Rings movie marathon. // One of my sons wanted to share his love of the movies with me, so we watched the trilogy over a couple of weeks.  I’m not a big fantasy reader and have never read the books, so I went in completely blind.  And it was good!  So long, but good.  (And after listening to Joseph Pearce explain Tolkien’s vision – see below – I love it even more!)  Even more so, I’m grateful for the memory we made.  I’ll always remember LOTR as a Lenten journey we traveled together.
3. Listing every day for extra cash. // There are only so many extra hours in a day and this week, I replaced all of my creative time for reselling.  I have a big plastic bin full of decluttered items to sell and it’s time to get them moving on to a new home.  I also went through my unread books (parted with about a dozen!) as well as an initial sweep of homeschool curriculum.  Hoping to make some extra money to pay for our short summer trip as well as make a significant dent in our debt.
4. Reading Thomas Aquinas’ Shorter Summa. // Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is on The 10 Year Reading Plan for the Great Books of the Western World but that’s a bit more than I can commit to in this season.  Instead, I decided that I would start with his Shorter Summa – a much better fit!  I’m reading alongside The Thomistic Institute’s video series, which has been helpful.  I’m currently working through the course called “Who is God? How Can We Know Him?“.
5. Helping my daughter finish a project. // She has been working steadily on this big diamond art project since early February and was starting to lose steam.  I was so thankful for her help with my pinwheel quilt that I wanted to return the favor.  I’ve been sneaking in some work when I can and together, we finally finished this week!  Now to find a frame and hang it in her room.

Frugal Accomplishments //

• mended a hole in my youngest’s favorite pajama pants
• listed a bunch of items on Poshmark/ebay/Pango
• turned off the heat on April 1st and will see how long we can go before turning on the A/C!
• deep cleaned the washing machine with these tablets
• made more tallow from beef fat in the freezer
• avoided the grocery store, only buying milk and burger buns

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

April 4 was the Optional Memorial of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

To Read: Benedict XVI’s General Audience Address on June 18, 2008

To Listen: Isidore of Seville: Last of the Red-Hot Latin Fathers from Way of the Fathers Podcast

To Add to the Library: An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville, Vol. 40

Reading //

• Why JRR Tolkien Made March 25 the Day the Ring Was Destroyed from Joseph Pearce at National Catholic Register //

How can a story about, hobbits, dwarves, elves and wizards have anything to do with the life, death and resurrection of Christ?  The answer is revealed in the date on which the Ring is destroyed. The One Ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them is destroyed on March 25. This should make us sit up and take note because March 25 is, of course, the feast of the Annunciation, the date on which the angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived by the Holy Ghost. It is the date on which the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, the date on which God became man. Most Catholics know this but few know that, according to tradition, March 25 is also the date of the Crucifixion. It is, therefore, not merely the date on which God became man but also the date on which Christ died for our sins.

• In Praise of “Old” from Reid Makowsky at Front Porch Republic // “The world ‘old’ is just that, having changed little since the Proto-Germanic *aldra, and having related forms in Latin and Greek. For that reason alone, wisdom and humility might suggest that we hesitate to condemn it. But besides the deference owed to age, it is a beautiful word. Those who have no ear for the music of words, or who think that such music is purely in the ear of the beholder may scoff at this sentiment. But I think that most people can tell the difference between ugly and beautiful language, between the fatuity of the advertiser and the sincerity of the child.”
• A Mother’s Thinking Love: or, Stir the Jam and Read Some Shakespeare from Liturgy in the Home with Maria // “If there is drudgery in the life of the professional, there is also drudgery in the life of the homemaker. But it is also true that if there is the potential for an intellectually fulfilling life for a professional, the potential is there, too, in the life of a homemaker.”
  • And this quote too, because I am living it:

And, although you might think it unimaginable now if you are a mother with small children, someday sooner than you think, you will come up for air, and you may realize that you now have the time to pick up that novel you always wanted to read or to freshen up the French you learned when you studied abroad. Your intelligence, skills, and experience are not wasted on your children. They will help cultivate that thinking love that your particular children—given to you by a God Who knows you and them intimately—most need.

• In the Kingdom of Noise from Francis X. Maier at The Catholic Thing // “The more resentment we bring to our public discourse, the more poisonous our shared culture becomes. If so many of us feel that we’re now the targets rather than the active agents of our social and political environment, it’s because that’s what we are. That’s what we’ve become, the world we ourselves have helped create. And it will get worse until we as a people – assuming we can still call ourselves ‘one people’ – remember that even our perceived enemies bear the image of God and thus deserve some compassion and respect.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Tree and Leaf: Includes Mythopoeia and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Tolkien: Man and Myth: A Literary Life by Joseph Pearce
• Frodo’s Journey: Discover the Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings by Joseph Pearce
• Bilbo’s Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in The Hobbit by Joseph Pearce

Watching/Listening //

• Lectures 1-6 of The Genius of J.R.R. Tolkien at The Pursuit of Wisdom at Ave Maria University // This was excellent.
• Lessons 1-3 of the Marxism, Socialism, and Communism course at Hillsdale College

Loving //

• these silicone piano “stickers” // Very helpful for my new piano player.

from the archives…

WEEK FOURTEEN 2024 // Putting Down Roots