The Big White Farmhouse | intentional living, little by little

February 22, 2021

No.491: Last Week at the Farmhouse // February Life In Pictures

Trying to combat the February “blahs” with some intentional gratitude and seeking out the good things around me. Linking up with Rosie again too!

My dwarf calamondin orange tree is growing new leaves, which is exciting! I also have some new growth on my little avocado tree (that I grew from a pit, one of my best frugal accomplishment wins!) and am praying I can keep both alive long enough to bring them back outside in the spring.

Trying to say yes to spur-of-the-moment craft projects. I loved the original vintage-looking metal green color of this “S”, but she thought pink with blue polka dots would look better….so here we are. This is why I don’t spend too much time on Pinterest looking at perfectly curated children’s rooms. My kids have a style all their own. (And it usually doesn’t look anything like mine, ha!)

We got more winter weather on Thursday and I think we’ve all officially reached that point where we’re just over it. This was a particularly horrible storm that was more sleet/ice than snow, so you can’t even really play outside. My oldest offered to shovel the driveway by himself because he said he likes the silence. I couldn’t agree more.

I’m still on a “cozy play spaces” kick. My youngest likes to play along my bedroom window sill, so I propped up a few pillows and dumped a bunch of Legos into a little plastic bowl. He loves it! Lots of building and pretending.

Lucy turned two right before Valentine’s Day. She is a joy to have around but creates a little havoc just to keep things interesting. This week, she somehow managed to pull her collar off and then ran for the hills! We all grabbed whatever tantalizing treats we could find (she can’t say no to pepperoni or a cheese stick) and finally convinced her to come home.

My official 1,000 Item Declutter Challenge is over, but I haven’t stopped. I think I’m combatting February by getting rid of all the things! I keep that green tub as my temporary holding cell until I can separate everything and make a plan. Right now, I have lots of outgrown clothing and toys that I need to post on Trash Nothing.

My daughter used Jixels to make Albert Einstein and family! I’ve been hearing a lot of “Zee answer is in zee question!” a la Night at the Museum ever since.

February 16, 2021

No.490: Lent 2021 with The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

For Lent this year, I’m planning to read through Anne Catherine Emmerich’s book, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (affiliate link). This book has been recommended to me multiple times throughout the years and I’ve never read it! To help keep me on track, I broke up the chapters and made myself another reading calendar. Sharing my plan below in case it’s helpful for someone else someday:

P.S. There’s an error in the calendar above – it’s supposed to be Wednesday, March 31!

Linking up with Rosie!

IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, YOU MAY LIKE THESE TOO:

Lenten Reading Plan with Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen
40 Days of Lenten Soups // Parts One, Two & Three

February 15, 2021

No.489: 24in48 Reading Challenge // February 2021

This post contains affiliate links.

One of my bookish goals for February was to try the 24in48 Reading Challenge! The challenge goes from 12:01AM on Day 1 to 11:59PM on Day 2 and I worked this into my schedule on Friday and Saturday. The goal is to read 24 of the 48 hours and obviously, I didn’t get anywhere near that! Even so, it was a fun way to start a winter weekend and a really good excuse to tuck away my phone. Here’s a recap:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12

6:40 am // Good morning! I was up before the little ones, so I got in a few pages from Diaries of the Chinese Martyrs while I drank my coffee. This quote was particularly thought-provoking:

Someone has called what we were experiencing in 1949 and 1950 a persecution. But I wish to be precise toward the atheistic Chinese government. I do not wish to call persecution the confiscation of goods, the occupation of our churches, of our residences, and of our works; or the restrictions on worship, the semi-house arrest, et cetera; I wish only to call them warning signs of the persecution. At this point, the persecution was at the door, and it burst in on us like a hurricane. (p.22)

I drank about half of my mug before truly starting the day: making the bed, tidying things up and getting kids fed.

7:45 am // With everyone’s needs met, I snuck away with my breakfast (oatmeal, per usual) to read my current fiction novel, The Truth According to Us. I had to force myself to get moving after 30 minutes, but I’m so close to being done! Two chapters to go.

9:00 am // After taking a shower and starting a load of laundry, off to school we go! The bigger kids do a lot of independent work, but I stay close in case they need me or have questions. In fits and spirts, a few minutes here and a few minutes there, I continued reading and finished The Truth According to Us. It was a different story than I expected, but I liked it a lot.

1:35 pm // More schoolwork, lunch, laundry and a long conversation with my oldest boys (big kids are fun to be around) before I could sneak away for more reading! I started a new book called The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff, which is about female secret agents during World War II. After 35 minutes, I was three chapters in and hooked! So good so far.

2:50 pm // Another little pocket of time to read The Lost Girls of Paris. I loved this quote:

Grace…liked a certain order to her world, took comfort in its mundaneness. Now the whole apple cart seemed toppled. (p.49)

Me too, Grace. Me too.

5:00 pm // The rest of the afternoon was a blur! I had the night off from dinner duty (my husband made homemade pita bread and we ate it with hummus, feta and olives) and instead cuddled a sleepy 4-year-old. He fell asleep as I read a few more pages.

8:00 pm // I got into bed with every intention of making up some time and reading as long as I could…aaaand I was sound asleep by 9:30. Better luck tomorrow!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13

6:50 am // Day two! I read more of The Lost Girls of Paris while drinking my coffee, but tore myself away to start the morning’s chores and throw in a load of laundry.

8:20 am // Finally sat down to breakfast with some homemaking inspiration. I read a few pages from Home Economics and then read the Introduction chapter to Theology of Home II: The Spiritual Art of Homemaking. I think I’m going to like this one even more than the first!

9:15 am // It is absolutely miserable outside with sleet and ice everywhere. Mark thankfully made it back safely (on our rural untreated roads!) with groceries, so I helped put everything away before heading back to The Lost Girls of Paris. I had to take a few short breaks to accommodate children, but otherwise read for almost three hours!

1:15 pm // I broke for lunch and an afternoon cup of coffee, then went back to reading. The Lost Girls is definitely a page-turner, but I haven’t decided about how I feel about it as a whole.

3:45 pm // Finished!

4:30 pm // Hoping to put in a few extra reading minutes before starting dinner, I read the first chapter of Theology of Home II. This quote was good:

Fundamentally, fruitfulness is about relationships – about sheltering, birthing, midwifing, cultivating, nourishing, and being receptive to the needs, gifts, and potential of others. It is like the conductor who knows which part of the orchestra needs his attention, when to tone things down, when to step them up, when to encourage and when to silence, when to focus in and when to let go. Such activity requires really knowing others. This type of womanly knowing can happen outside of the home, in the workplace, in schools, in spiritual motherhood, or in mentorship of others. But while certainly not limited to the home, the home is the natural environment for this sort of intimacy, knowledge, and responsiveness to take place. More and more women are beginning to make these connections and return to valuing home life. (p.33)

7:00 pm // Time for a new fiction pick. I decided to go with a recent thriller called Never Look Back. I learned about this one from someone on Youtube and I’m going into it completely blind. One chapter in and I’m not sure if I’ll like it. We’ll see.

8:00 pm // In bed and ready to get some hours in. Never Look Back is picking up speed! I read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 10:00.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND STATS

This challenge is a little tricky if you have children and responsibilities, but still completely doable! When I would be tempted to pick up my phone or my computer, I’d try to pick up a book instead. I was reading, but available to my family and they generally played or hung out around me. With over 14 years of motherhood under my belt, I can tune out just about anything. This was such a good challenge for a chilly, winter weekend. I think I may try it again this summer!

Total hours read for Friday: 4 hours 22 minutes
Total hours read for Saturday: 6 hours 46 minutes
Total hours read for the weekend: 11 hours 8 minutes

Total pages read: 580 pages
Books finished: 2

February 10, 2021

No.488: A List of Winter Frugal Accomplishments

We’re working on two big financial goals right now: saving (a little more than) six months of expenses and paying down our mortgage! I’m happy to return to intentional frugal living as we chip away, little by little. Here’s what we’ve been up to this winter: (Linking up with Rosie again too!)

+ Last year, my husband and boys chopped up a bunch of fallen trees from our property. Even though they aren’t completely seasoned yet, we’ve still been able to keep our heat quite low when we burned the wood in the fireplace. Other frugal fireplace accomplishments: I sprinkled the wood ashes around the driplines of our fruit trees and we tried a DIY firestarter from toilet paper rolls and dryer lint.

+ I gave my daughter a haircut.

+ I buy a lot of used books and sometimes they are hardcover rejects from libraries. I carefully cut the plastic cover off the dustjacket and boom! Looks like a brand new book!

+ Groceries seem to be getting more expensive, so I worked on incorporating a little more rice and beans in our dinner rotation. I even learned how to cook dried beans – so easy and makes a ton!

+ I took advantage of ebay’s waived listing fees (I get 200 a month) and posted a bunch of unneeded and outgrown clothing.

+ I made chicken stock from a roasted chicken carcass and a bunch of vegetable odds and ends that I keep in the freezer. I used my beloved Souper Cubes (affiliate link) again.

+ I started browsing ThredUp for deals to get a head start on spring/summer clothes for my daughter.

+ After almost a decade, I finally bought new glasses last November and now I wear them almost every day! (Ironic since I hated glasses with a passion when I was in high school, but here we are.) This is saving me lots of money in contact lenses and solution.

+ I took out my soap keeper (affiliate link) once my bar of soap turned small and unwieldy. This has proven to be quite a handy purchase for stretching soap even further.

Your turn! What did you do to save a little money the past few months?