This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a economic deep dive and the consensus is very disheartening.  Words like recession/depression, job loss/unemployment, housing market correction, small business closures, massive credit card debt and inflation are all spoken about.  Regardless of who becomes president in November, this problem will not suddenly disappear…so what to do?  Even though it all seems overwhelming, I think a return to the “old ways” seems a prudent course to take.

I’m calling it the “Weather the Storm Challenge” and am focusing on debt reduction, food storage and saving money.  Those seem like big goals to accomplish all at once, but my motto has always been “little by little” – every day, we do one small thing to get us closer to our objective.  A few things I’ve accomplished this week:

• started a gratitude journal to remind myself of all the good things in my life
• made broth from chicken backs (when we cut up our birds for pieces, we bag up and freeze the backs for just this purpose – nothing goes to waste!)
• gave myself a hair trim
• made granola to use up Greek yogurt we still had in the fridge
• sold eggs to friends
• inventoried the pantry and made a list of items to stock up on for soups and stews
• started using up some instant coffee that wasn’t my favorite but is still drinkable
• made banana bread from overripe bananas
• listed a few more items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango

So many are just one job loss away from being in dire straits (I’ve thought often about this documentary, shared a few weeks ago).  I hope we can work together to avoid that hardship for all of us.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ all hands on deck to get farm projects done.  We put broiler chicks out to pasture, hauled woodchips to the permanent pig paddocks, weeded the garden, moved pigs to new pasture and started the prep work for chopping firewood.  Many hands make for lighter work!  We also talked about hard decisions for 2025.  As of right now, I think we’ll be taking a break from broiler chickens (for a year) and focusing instead on pork production.  Feed is just too expensive and our sales are too unreliable to take on that expense.

+ sharpening a ton of colored pencils.  My kids like to draw and we’ve acquired quite a few colored pencils over the years.  And while everyone loves a brand new set, we still have more than enough to use up.  I spent a looong time sharpening by hand…just a little more to go.

+ neighborly generosity.  Our neighbor has been so amazingly kind to us.  In just the past few weeks, he caught the pesky fox that has been killing our chickens and he stopped to help my son replace a tire (after being driven off the road by a construction truck!).  We brought over some of our chicken/pork as a thank you and came home with his venison and cucumbers!  What a gift.

+ selling eighteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: 14 books, two pieces of clothing, a piece of homeschool curriculum and an educational puzzle.  After shipping and fees, I made $69.02!

Reading //

• One Dozen Eggs Please from Grandma Donna // “If we stop listening to that negative person in our head that makes us worry, and find something that is so interesting that we cannot stop reading, or do some genealogy and get on a trail that we don’t want to stop researching, or become determined that we will learn to make a pie crust and find that it was so simple that we cannot believe that it was so simple, or sing a song to a bird or frog or any kind of creature and not care if anyone can hear us. Then we will have found our way to to contentment instead of worry.”
• The New House, The New Life from Anthony Esolen at Front Porch Republic
• Towards Full Enjoyment: Use the Nice Dishes from Patricia Patnode at Theology of Home // “Nice dishes were meant to be used, to hold the meals that nourish family connections. Yet they spend most of their time hidden away, protected from the wear and tear of daily life. But what good is a possession if it’s only admired from afar, tucked away for fear of a chip or a crack?”
• A Stalled American Dream from Chris Arnade at Chris Arnade Walks the World // So very, very sad.

New Additions to The List // 

• Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World by Anthony Esolen
• The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

Watching/Listening //

• Episode 79: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie from The Literary Life Podcast
• Swedish Death Cleaning: 5 Lessons From Cleaning Out Mom’s House from Joyful Living with Jen Lefforge // Very thought provoking and has inspired me to keep decluttering.
• Paradiso Cantos 10-33 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College // DONE!

Loving //

• this air-dry clay // Great price for five pounds of clay and surprisingly easy to work with.  We made prehistoric “tablets” in history and will be using the rest for volcanoes next week!
• this memory game // Working on our recall while learning the names of dog breeds too.  (Adding memory practice to our school week was inspired by the articles linked in this post.)
• pizza puffs // My teenage boys have made these multiple times and they are delicious.
• this quote from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien:

That’s what stories are for.  Stories are for joining the past to the future.  Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are.  Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story. (p.36)

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Monday began our eleventh homeschooling year and it marked a bittersweet moment: the last first day of school with all six of my students.  (My oldest is a senior!)  Sometimes I just can’t believe we’ve reached this point already.  The days are long, but the years are so short.

Anyway, we began the year with our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast and were back to the books.  Things went smoothly for about three days…and then the wheels fell off the wagon.  Most of my kids got sick, my pigs escaped their paddocks and frolicked across the property multiple times, we had an issue with our freezer… I had to laugh because man, this is the life!  If this is any indication of how the school year is going to go, we’re in a for wild ride.  Bring it on.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ a new-to-us toaster.  My oldest son was visiting a friend’s house and overheard that they were getting rid of their toaster because they upgraded to some sort of an all-in-one appliance.  He asked if he could take it and they agreed!  Our two-slice toaster had recently had the handle ripped off (thanks, boys) so this was great timing and even better: it was a four-slice version!

+ purchasing a new dryer after two months without one!  It’s been so frustrating to have appliances wear out so quickly and not be able to fix the problem long term.  I was committed to air drying our clothes until we hit two criteria: pay cash and wait for a sale.  The stars collided this week with enough money in the bank and $200 off the sticker price.  We jumped on it and they delivered the next day!  I have never been so grateful for a piece of modern technology.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: eight books, three pieces of clothing, and one textbook.  After shipping and fees, I made $52.42!

Reading //

• Rethinking Childhood from Mary Catherine Adams at The Interior Life
• The Transformed Child from Katherine Johnson Martinko at The Analog Family // “Your screen-addled child is a very different child than your screen-free, or even “screen-lite”, child. So, while your screen-addled child will most definitely be at loose ends initially without their device, they will not stay that way. They will undergo an inevitable transformation, as one does whenever a lifestyle change occurs, and you will soon have a different (read: easier) child to contend with, one that is slowly developing the skills to entertain themselves without a device in hand.”
• How a Kansas humanities program shaped a generation of Catholic leaders from Perry West at Catholic News Agency // “The overarching theme was to immerse the students into the good, the true, and the beautiful, so that we might ask the big questions: ‘What is life all about?’ ‘What is death?’ ‘What is eternity?’ ‘What is evil?’ ‘What is good?'”
• Disabusing the Most Abused Question in Schooling: What Am I Going to Use This For? from Aaron Ames at Circe Institute // “…when you limit education to the knowledge needed to make a living and for mere survival, you limit the meaning of life itself to these things. But surely no one actually lives only to make money. Love, friendship, beauty, laughter, family, faith, these are the things that make life worth living. These are the things that give life meaning. And the true purpose of education has everything to do with the meaning of life.”
• Inside the New Wave of Old-School Education from Julia Steinberg at The Free Press
• Project 333 Challenge: 3 Methods To Help You Get Started // Thinking of doing this challenge for autumn.

New Additions to The List // 

• Black Woods, Blue Sky: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey (comes out next February 2025)

Watching/Listening //

• Some thoughts of preparedness (let’s chat) | VLOG from Roots and Refuge Farm // I agreed with so many of her thoughts, especially her feelings of defiance and this quote: “I want to live my life in such a way that I can thrive no matter what happens.”
• Paradiso Cantos 1-9 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College

Loving //

• Shop at Sullivan: The Official Anne of Green Gables store // My daughter is on a huge Anne Shirley kick and I found this amazing website for kindred spirits.  Bookmarking some ideas for her birthday.
• I Kept Track of Every Single Item That Entered Our Home Over a Month // I loved Torrie’s experiment and want to try it myself!  Maybe in September…

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

A theme I keep coming back to in 2024 is the idea that despite what society tells us, we are not machines.  Have you ever noticed the language we’ve adopted that is completely technology/machine-focused?

• well-oiled machine
• a cog in the wheel
• pulling the plug
• brain download
• run out of steam
• push someone’s buttons
• firing on all cylinders

I am not a machine.  I am a human person.  This revelation (and what a crazy revelation to have!) has transformed my expectations for myself and my children.  Our value does not come from what we do or accomplish, but who we are fundamentally: souls made in the image of our Creator.

Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §357)

So in that light, I’ve been pondering how to proceed with the upcoming school year.  This time always feels like a mini New Year, a time for re-orientation and new focus!  Here’s what I’ve got so far:

For my little boys: I’ve been heavily inspired by John Senior and his Integrated Humanities approach to education.  While these boys may have reading challenges, that does not negate their ability to engage with good ideas!  I want to increase their exposure to good things, both in the physical world and in story.

For my middle kids: This is a a transitional time of maturity.  I want to help them understand the complexities of growing up, teaching them discernment and prudence.  They also should be intentionally exposed to good things, especially outside the tempting realm of technology.

For my high school kids: As these boys grow older and more independent, I want to focus on relationship and life skills.

And for myself: I no longer want to live a stress-filled life.  It’s not a healthy behavior and I certainly don’t want it to be my legacy.  Instead, I desire an increase in discipline and wisdom.  Two mottos to repeat often: “one task at a time” and “does it ultimately matter in the eyes of eternity?”

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ receiving a ChipDrop!  We use woodchips in many areas around the farm and I’ve waited patiently all summer for a delivery.

+ using my “New Walls Fund” to pay for renovation supplies.  I mentioned last year that I was saving the cash back from our credit card rewards program to eventually hire a professional to fix our walls.  Fast forward to today and I’m DIYing the walls myself!  I was able to use that savings account to pay for putty knives and painting supplies, making the project “free.”

+ rain from Hurricane (Tropical Storm?) Debby.  SO MUCH RAIN.  We even had a tornado warning with an actual on-the-ground sighting about 45 minutes away from us!

+ selling thirteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: two pieces of clothing, nine books and two pieces of movie memorabilia.  After shipping and fees, I made $75.37!

Reading //

• Home Is Where the Welcome Is from Gregory Thompson at Comment // “For my entire life I craved these moments with desperation and, when they came, experienced them wistfully as mere fleeting reprieves from the howling loneliness I believed to be the inescapable core of my life. But what I could not see—not until I was invited to see it—is that these were not, in fact, transient aberrations in a life of homelessness, but were, to the contrary, fixed and constant invitations to the reality of home. They were reliable witnesses to what I most longed for but least believed: that the story of my life is not a story of unwelcome, but of welcome. And that this welcome will be found not simply in one, but in a thousand shining doorways.”
• The hidden economics of kinkeeping work from Jim Dalrymple II at Nuclear Meltdown
• Resisting the ‘Machine’: An Interview with Peco Gaskovski from Jonathon Van Maren at The European Conservative // A new dystopian novel to add to the list!
• St. Michael’s Lent from Around the Year // Starts August 15!
• Quality Against The Machine from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “The ultimate question, therefore, seems not to be ‘how can the Machine be defeated?’, but ‘how can we develop habits of healthy disengagement?’, ‘How can we become expertly attuned to recognising when the costs of utilising the Machine outweigh the benefits?’, and ‘How can we reflexively turn it off when the Machine starts to erode what is good?’. The success or failure of our modern age may well be hinged on how adept we all are in answering these questions — and how steadfast we commit to our costly and difficult conclusions.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age by Douglas Rushkoff
• Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age by Gregory Wolfe

Watching/Listening //

• The “Modern Day Slaves” Of The AI Tech World from Real Stories // Eye opening.
• underconsumption core // reverse haul & tips for frugal living from Gittemary Johansen // This is the first I’ve heard of this social media trend and I love it!
• Purgatorio Cantos 17-33 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College // Two-thirds of the way done!  On to the Paradiso…

Loving //

• this household planner // I’ve tried many different homemaking plans and this one is my favorite.  I’ve used it off and on for years and while it’s no longer a free download, I felt it was worth the investment.  Right now, it’s 50% off and goes until December.
• Samplize // I purchased a handful of samples last year during a sale and with the wall project now in full swing, I’m finally able to use them!  Decisions, decisions…

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Thought experiment of the week: If your ability to purchase things using debt disappeared tomorrow, could you survive?  If you had to see your purchases not as affordable “monthly payments” but the whole bill, could you afford it?

I listened to quite a few financial podcasts this week, pumping myself up for another intense season of debt reduction.  The financial forecast is pretty dire and most of the advisors believe that some sort of correction is coming.  In one of the podcasts, I heard a version of the question above and it really made me pause.

Like many Americans right now, we’re not in an ideal financial position and our answer to that question is no.  But we want to be!  We definitely desire to free ourselves from the stress and bondage of debt.  So instead of wallowing in frustration and despair, we’re ready to work intensely to get our house in order.  The goal seems significantly harder than four years ago, but we’re ready for the challenge.  Little by little…it all counts.

I loved and appreciated Grandma Donna’s sage advice (shared in the post below): “Get out of debt so you don’t have to pull that ball and chain around anymore. Some people get full of guilt or blame someone else when they find themselves in a financial crisis. We have to forgive ourselves for our mistakes in life. So we need to work on that and forgive ourselves for our financial mistakes so we can move one and get out of debt. It is difficult to look at the numbers when you are in debt but once again if you have to do it over again, forgive yourself and move on, it is going to be okay.”

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ making a simple chicken and potato salad dinner using ingredients we mostly grew on the farm. So satisfying!

+ elderberry season!  I picked a bunch before the birds got to them and then made my annual batch of elderberry syrup.  I like to freeze the syrup in ice cube trays and pop a cube or two in my morning water.  COVID is apparently making its rounds in the area again so I’m upping my immune system strength a bit earlier than usual.

+ selling fourteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: nine books, a binoculars case, a purse, two dresses and a pair of sneakers.  After shipping and fees, I made $74.91!

Reading //

• The Deceptive Rose from Grandma Donna // “Okay, I just wanted to make you think for a bit because the more I read the newspapers through these years of history studies the more I have understood how we were prodded along to change. It did not matter that the change they were doing most often caused debt. The pressure to change was mighty and so many people started living beyond their means and still do today.”
• 1940s Capsule Wardrobe & What Clothing Cost from Vintage Dancer // Super interesting!
• August, 1940 … ish from Grandma Donna // Lots of great advice here.
• I Will Work Harder? from Rachel Woodham at Circe Institute

New Additions to The List // 

• Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas
• The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
• The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves by Alexandra Hudson
• Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age by Frank H. McCourt Jr.

Watching/Listening/Playing //

• How Consumerism Keeps You Constantly Broke | Spencer Campbell from Damon Cassidy // Very thought provoking.
• Two American Families: 1991-2024 Documentary from Frontline PBS
• SPENT // This game is really eye-opening and the reality for a lot of American families these days.
• Purgatorio Cantos 7-16 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College

Loving //

• my new mop system // An investment for my cleaning arsenal!  I love this thing.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Vacation has a way of making you see life in a different light.  I took a much-needed break from technology that week, leaving my computer at home and my phone mostly in my bag.  It was wonderful!  I was immersed in real things, real conversations, real memory-making.  It was just the reminder I needed that we’re made for so much more than the technological prison we put ourselves in.  I felt the freedom and I wanted more!  

Fast forward to being back home and life is back to breakneck speed: kids here there and everywhere, a husband working long hours, a neglected farm that needs constant attention, school starting in just a few weeks…  Technology is needed for so many important day-to-day things but I’m also guilty of using it just as a mindless escape.  I need to carry the peacefulness of vacation into this messy reality at home!   I’m still in the brainstorming phase, but I’ve nailed down five “micro goals” to keep that mindset going:

Put your feet in the grass.  Get off the screens.  Sit in the sunshine.  Chat with the people around you.  Be a creator, not just a consumer.

It’s a start.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ LAUNDRY.  So much post-vacation laundry.

+ getting back to work on the farm.  Our second batch of 175 chicks arrived, I picked overripe vegetables for the animals, and I got a small start on the massive weeds invading the garden.

+ starting a biiiig project, one tiny section at a time.  I’ve complained about my first floor walls for years at this point.  They have a textured surface and are impossible to clean.  I thought the only way to fix the problem was to skimcoat over it and I had resigned myself to years of saving for a professional. ($$$$)  BUT!  One road trip conversation and a Reddit post later, I realized that I could just remove the texture with a putty knife!  A putty knife!  I started with a wall by my back door (in case I messed up) and it worked beautifully!

+ planning for the new school year.  We hope to begin in mid-August, so lots of preparation to do.

+ selling fifteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: a card game, three pieces of clothing, three books, a Bible, one pillow insert and six reusable produce bags.  After shipping and fees, I made $57.95!

Reading //

• Let Them Be Born in Wonder: How the brief life of a storied liberal arts program changed lives the world over from Fr. Francis Bethel at Comment // “Senior devised a formula to synthesize these first two steps, which especially brings out the central emotion to be cultivated at each level: gymnastic begins in experience and ends in delight; music and poetic education begin in delight and end in wonder. Delighting in reality, wondering at its mysteries, with a healthy imagination, a memory full of stories, songs, poems, experiences, one would be ready for life and eventually for more elevated, abstract studies.”
• Your Boyfriend Isn’t Your Camera Man from Freya India at After Babel // “I don’t think it’s trivial, for example, that we’ve been conditioned to use the person we love as a tool—a tool to gain approval from an audience that most of the time we don’t even like or care about. I don’t think it’s trivial that the compulsion to document the perfect memory can degrade the memory, turning it from that time we watched the sunset together on the beach to that time we argued after I demanded Instagram photos and you couldn’t get the angle right. I don’t think it’s trivial that some people sacrifice their real-world reputation to improve their online one. These things matter.”
• America’s Mental Health Crisis and the Loss of Meaning from O. Alan Noble at The Dispatch // “And this is the fundamental challenge for modern people. To live the good life requires reflection on what the good life is and resonance with the real world.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters by Charan Ranganath
• The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology by Todd Oppenheimer
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Watching/Listening //

• My 2024-2025 Classical Charlotte Mason Curriculum Pick | The Children’s Tradition with Amanda Faus from The Commonplace // The educational philosophy they spoke about has made me reconsider how I want to move forward with my two youngest this year.
• Amplify Excellence Through Classical Education – feat. Andrew Pudewa from Memoria Press // Some interesting thoughts on copywork and writing.
• Purgatorio Cantos 1-6 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College

Loving //

• my new homeschool lesson planner for 2024-25 // Can’t wait to fill it up with a feast of good things!
• this Lego search-and-find book // I purchased this for the trip, but it’s still been perused daily since we’ve been home.
• these ant traps // I set these out before we left on our trip and man!  They worked miracles!  I think we finally have our annoying ant problem under control.
• a poem by Anna Kamieńska called “Small Things”:

It usually starts taking shape
from one word
reveals itself in one smile
sometimes in the blue glint of eyeglasses
in a trampled daisy
in a splash of light on a path
in quivering carrot leaves
in a bunch of parsley
It comes from laundry hung on a balcony
from hands thrust into dough
It seeps through closed eyelids
as through the prison wall of things of objects
of faces of landscapes
It’s when you slice bread
when you pour out some tea
It comes from a broom from a shopping bag
from peeling new potatoes
from a drop of blood from the prick of a needle
when making panties for a child
or sewing a button on a husband’s burial shirt
It comes out of toil out of care
out of immense fatigue in the evening
out of a tear wiped away
out of a prayer broken off in mid-word by sleep
It’s not from the grand
but from every tiny thing
that it grows enormous
as if Someone was building Eternity
as a swallow its nest
out of clumps of moments

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Bringing back this prompt once again.  (Here’s part one, part two, and part three.)  I love that it reminds me that there is much to love, even in the everyday minutiae.  Here’s my list:

Teenage boys and their pull-up challenges.  Watching how much Sammy (our Great Pyrenees) loves the baby piglets.  Getting so much out of The Divine Comedy!  Little brothers playing happily together.  Eating “pink lemonade” blueberries right off the bush.  Shady spots outside during boiling hot days.  Rain.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ the terribly unbearable heat!  It has been SO hot lately.  Our days have been focused on keeping the pigs cool with splashes of cold water, mud wallows and frozen foods.

+ selling two unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: one reusable shopping bag and a shirt.  After shipping and fees, I made $8.14!

Reading //

• LOTS of new information in Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen, including this (less scary) fact:

In the 1950s, President Eisenhower created the U.S. highway system with this kind of dual-use in mind.  He modeled America’s original “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” after “the superlative system of German autobahn,” he wrote in his presidential memoirs.  Not only could U.S. highways facilitate large-scale evacuation of cities in a nuclear war, but the broad, flat interstate lanes could be used as runways for takeoff and landings on bombing runs.  For setting down a helicopter in the median strip, or along the side of the road in the grass.  This is how many of America’s mid-century transportation systems were designed. (p.100)

• What City Kids Learn on My Farm from Larissa Phillips at The Free Press // “Here are some things I have taught the kids who visit my farm: animals don’t care about your feelings, and sometimes we kill them to eat them. It doesn’t matter how desperately you want to find more eggs, the hens don’t lay on demand. Tomatoes aren’t ripe in June. The stalls aren’t going to clean themselves. Cuts, scrapes, and stings aren’t really a big deal. And there will always be poop.”
• You Don’t Need To Document Everything from Freya India at Girls // “Influencers are of course the most extreme examples—but this impulse is so ingrained in everyone now. This pressure to post everything. And I think it’s a massive cause of anxiety for Gen Z. There’s a sense now that something didn’t happen if you don’t share it. There are young people who wouldn’t understand going to an event, travelling somewhere, being in a relationship, if they couldn’t post about it. They would not see the point. They simply cannot conceive of a life that exists without an audience consuming it.”

New Additions to The List // 

• What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel
• Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
• One Poor Scruple by Josephine Ward // another Melisa recommendation!

Watching/Listening //

• Harmed by Prescribed Medications: the Untold Story of Pharmaceutical Companies from Best Documentary // This was very eye opening.
• The Letter: Appalachia’s All-Time Classic Remastered from The Appalachian Storyteller
• Inferno Cantos 19-27 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College

Loving //

• The Homeschool Printing Company // I needed a PDF file printed and spiral-bound and they did awesome work!
• dried mango // I’m obsessed.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

If you didn’t think I was an odd duck before, this will probably convince you: I like to read the local obituaries.

With the exception of the occasional heartbreaking childhood cancer or teenage suicide, the majority of the obituaries share the stories of lives well lived.  A few examples (I removed some of the more specific information):

John, 95: “He was an avid reader and also enjoyed his extensive collection of old movies and many genres of music. He was an active member [in his church] and deeply valued these relationships.”

Stanley, 80: “He will always be remembered as a giver, mentor and support to those who knew and loved him. And besides his passion for his career, he could always be found on the golf course with good friends…Stanley was a devoted and loving husband, father and grandpa and was the foundation of his family. He was always there to support his family and friends, even if just to share a joke to make you smile.”

Barbara, 91: “Bobbie’s life was characterized by her strong Christian faith, devotion to family and her compassionate servant’s heart. She was active in her community throughout her life, serving [her local church]… Bobbie served for many years in various community and civic organizations. She was selfless, content in all circumstances and experienced great joy in caring for family, friends and those in need.”

Reading about these lovely people always makes me introspective: What will my legacy be?  What will my children write about me?

Those behaviors have to be cultivated today.  If I want to be remembered as “content in all circumstances” like Barbara, I need to practice that right now.  If I want to be known as deeply valuing relationships like John, I need to act like that today.  An important reminder to focus on what matters most.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ homemade decorations for the 4th of July.  I love the kids’ creativity.

+ fresh produce all over the kitchen counter!  Our onions and potatoes are ready and the tomatoes are ripening like crazy.  Time to include those ingredients in the meal plan.

+ selling four unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan.  This week, I sold one pair of jeans and three books.  After shipping and fees, I made $9.64!

Reading //

• The Greatest Gifts We Can Give Our Teens from Kathryn Whitaker at Mothering Spirit // “Please Jesus, let them make mistakes, I want to yell. By ‘helicoptering’ faith formation and mowing down all obstacles, we are preventing our children from the (often painful) experience of growing up and owning their own faith. The two greatest things we can give our children is the space to fail and a community to love them through it.”
• I Regret to Inform You That We Will All Grow Old, Infirm, and Unattractive from Freddie deBoer // A little crass, but interesting.  The comments were interesting too.  (And the whole conversation makes me think of one of my favorite books, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.)

I personally think that another influence lies in the bizarre modern ideology that insists that everything that people have always done is so much harder now, against all evidence. There’s this pervasive cultural attitude that everything is so. damn. hard. now, that human beings have never faced so much difficulty just getting by. This notion is bipartisan, though I do mostly associate it with left-of-center culture, which for the record is politically ruinous. The reality is that it isn’t, actually, uniquely hard to live now, and if you are lucky enough to live as a healthy person in the middle class or above in the United States, you enjoy a life that 99.99% of human beings in history would look on with incredible envy. Which is not to say that life isn’t hard; life is very hard, for big-picture reasons that I’ve laid out many times. It’s just that life was always hard. It’s hard to be a person. Our existence is a cosmic accident, our lives are outside of our own control, and we inevitably die, so of course life is hard. But it was always hard, and that which is hardest about being a human is that which never changes. There’s nothing special about now. It’s just that a lot of people have made the bizarre choice to promulgate an elite culture in which everyone complains all the time about how hard everything is, to socially deleterious effect. (And, for the record, the only real escape from the hardships of life is to find the dignity to bear them without showy complaint, which is the opposite of what everyone is doing.)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris L. West // Thanks for the recommendation, Melisa!
• John Fisher and Thomas More: Keeping Their Souls While Losing Their Heads by Robert J. Conrad Jr.
• A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg by John Guy

Watching/Listening //

• How to Make Architecture Great Again! Interview with Michael Diamant from Rewire the West // A really interesting conversation about classical vs. modern architecture.  I think I want to be a classical architect when I grow up.
• The Day Stockholm Became a Syndrome from Best Documentary // Fair warning: there is quite a bit of language, but I found it fascinating from a psychological standpoint.
• The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: An Interview with Dr. Jason Baxter from The Commonplace // I LOVED this.
• Session Three of Wit, Learning, and Virtue: The Legacy of Civil Servant, Thomas More course from Belmont Abbey College
• Inferno Cantos 13-18 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College // So good!

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There seems to be lots of discussion online lately around “trad wives.”  I’m not on social media and am out of the loop so I don’t know the full extent of the issue, but – as usual – my thoughts are probably outside those strongly drawn lines.  (I’ll beat this drum all day long: You don’t have to believe in binary thinking!  Resist the boxes!)  Here’s my big picture take: an educated woman, whether at work or at home, can only make the world a better place.

A career-oriented woman can be “educated” but not necessarily wise.  A homemaker can also lack this wisdom.  It’s a tragedy for both.  So what do we do?  We stop being defensive.  We stop taking other people’s choices/opinions personally.  We stop attacking the other side.  And then we get down to the arduous task of learning.

You don’t need a college degree to read.  In today’s day and age, the library is free and used books are super cheap.  The pursuit of wisdom is right at your fingertips if you desire it!  And in my opinion, the rewards are enormous.

A woman who reads understands more of the complexities of the world.
A woman who reads learns the history of the past so as not to repeat it in the present.
A woman who reads sits at the feet of great thinkers and molds her views accordingly.
A woman who reads can identify bias, propaganda and lies.
A woman who reads wrestles with current issues in a much deeper way.

To me, the argument between women who stay home and women who work is just silly. The bigger question for me is…do you read?

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ making our yearly batch of tallow from beef fat.  Another amazing example of making something from “trash.”

+ four new little piglets on the farm!  Our gilts will be ready for breeding in late fall, but we needed an intermediary set of pigs to raise in the meantime.  They are tiny and adorable and we can’t wait to find out their personalities.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for a new challenge that I’m calling the Car Loan Payoff Plan.  (Nobody likes to talk about it, so I will: I hate debt and it causes me a lot of stress.  With the success of the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund, I’m encouraged to keep going so that I can help remove some of this mental burden.)  Anyway, this week, I sold two pieces of clothing, eight books, an address book and a Disneyland autograph book from the 1990’s.  After shipping and fees, I made $219.24!

Reading //

• Building People with Three-Dimensional Memory from Ruth and Peco Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // I LOVED this.
• Five Poems Every Catholic Should Memorize from Julian Kwasniewski at Tradition & Sanity // “The marvelous thing about poetry is that it allows us to get in on another’s moment of wonder; and then we have a little piece of his wonder to view the world through. Imagine each great poem you learn as if it is a sliver of stained glass: once your pocket is full of them, you have many lenses you can view the world through.”
• A People Without Culture: What the End of Reading Truly Means from Nadya Williams at Providence Magazine // “This loss of culture, both oral and written, has significant implications for how any human society, let alone a democracy, functions. How do you communicate with other flesh and blood people with neither the ability to read nor listen deeply? This is a civilization-destroying kind of crisis.”
• Want of Wonder: Seven Suggestions for Becoming More Childlike from Michael Warren Davis at Hearth and Field

New Additions to The List // 

• The Devil’s Advocate by Morris L. West
• How to Read Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture by Denis R. McNamara
• A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams by Michael Pollan

Watching/Listening //

• Schubert / Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485
• Inferno Cantos 1-12 of 100 Days of Dante from Baylor Honors College // I am enjoying this so much!
• Session Two of Wit, Learning, and Virtue: The Legacy of Civil Servant, Thomas More course from Belmont Abbey College

Loving //

• these cooling towels // So nice to wrap around your head or neck when working outside.  The heat has been unbearable lately!

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Beauty seems to be a theme I continue to dwell upon in 2024.  Lately, I’ve been thinking of this quote from a few weeks ago in terms of my home:

If the world is pretty, it tells man something about the world and his place in it; it confers a hopeful and reverent tone and demands that he do well to guard against decay, disorder, or pure industrialized pragmatism. However, if the world is ugly, it tells a man that he ought not even notice; he ought not bother to care; there’s nothing worth saving anyway. – On the Texture of Things Past from Daxxton McGee at Circe Institute

I’m still in the throes of a deep declutter, arguably the most ruthless pass through I’ve ever done, and have been pondering what my “end goal” should look like.  I’m not a minimalist, but I am looking for more than just a clutter-filled house with tons of items we don’t need.  I want a beautiful home, but not one defined by unrealistic influences (ie, the Internet, someone’s home that doesn’t have kids/a farm/dogs, etc).  All in all, I think I desire a home that is peaceful and ultimately inspires beauty.

But here’s the conundrum: we don’t have a ton of money for home projects and renovations and brand new furniture right now.  So can I make what I already have beautiful?  Fresh flowers on the table, books in every room, clean linens and family photographs…little bits of beauty-full things that don’t cost a thing.  I think it’s a worthy challenge.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ breaking out an extra Japanese beetle trap that I bought last year because…they’re baaaaack!  Fortunately, I think I installed the trap in time to avoid the total destruction of my apple trees.

+ the first potatoes of the season!  Delicious.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: five pieces of clothing, a book, a piece of homeschool curriculum, two purses and a set of train tracks.  After shipping and fees, I made $76.35 and have finally reached my goal!  Another huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Reading //

• Papa Pete’s Patriarchy from Dr. Kevin D. Roberts at First Things // “Piety is a weight. It is a sense of responsibility. It is knowing what we owe to others on account of what we have been given. It is gratitude for what we inherited. It is ‘the wise man’ who ‘knows himself as debtor’ and is ‘inspired by a deep sense of obligation,’ in the words of Bertrand de Jouvenel. It is what the Romans called pietas and considered chief of the virtues—the most essential to their republic.”
• The Poetics of Family Life from Davin Heckman at Front Porch Republic // “Billions of lowly people, each with a singular existence and intricately woven mind, lovingly created with a unique immortal soul, exist as a testimony to the tendency towards fecundity and freedom that is part of our world.”
• The Bookshelf: Gifts of Friendship from Matthew J. Franck at Public Discourse // I would love to start the tradition of “birthday books” with someone!
• Why Read Homer’s Iliad? from Cheryl Lowe at Memoria Press // “But the Iliad, we discover, is a book about the Civil War. It is a book about all wars, about the people and characters that you find in every war—and in every town—the wise, the foolish, the clever, the noble, the base, the ambitious, the old, and the young. It is about their pettiness, their heroism, their adventures, their sacrifices, and their sufferings. The Iliad is mostly about people, not war, and it gives us unforgettable and universal character types.”

New Additions to The List // 

• The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol.2 by Michel de Certeau
• Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
• Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood by Lisa Damour

Watching/Listening //

• Session One of Wit, Learning, and Virtue: The Legacy of Civil Servant, Thomas More course from Belmont Abbey College
• 100 Days of Dante: Join the World’s Largest Dante Reading Group by Baylor Honors College // So excited to start this next.

Loving //

• our new watering system for the pigs! // We had a major heatwave this week so perfect timing.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of enemies.  I’ve been reading the current news stories about skirmishes and wars around the world.  I’ve also been reading about past conflicts in history and the lasting repercussions of war on a person’s psyche.  I’ve touched on the “culture wars” and the many factions that seem to keep society separated from each other.

I’m still wrestling with all of this information, but the overarching theme seems to be that we are encouraged to dehumanize people who disagree with us.  Social media and the news and even politicians push us to pick one side – you’re either Team A or Team B!  We’re pitted against each other, we look at people with hatred and disgust, we hold people to a standard higher than we do ourselves.  And sadly, the less you see the humanity of a person, the easier it is to devalue them or even wish their death.  What is happening to us as a society?  As a culture?

I believe that we are more than a sound bite, more than a 280-character tweet, more than one photo with a tiny caption. We are all people struggling to make sense of a complex world. Our backgrounds and experiences are vast and varied and we often come to different conclusions. That is okay! That is the human experience. You are not an automaton, you are not a machine, you don’t have to agree with everyone else!  We don’t have to be enemies. I’m fighting that societal pressure and I hope you will too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ air-drying laundry (still!) as we continue to figure out the dryer issue.  I did purchase a second drying rack because the laundry piles were getting huge.

+ securing a dog boarder for our vacation!  We found her through Rover and had a meet-and-greet with her and the dogs.  She was so warm and welcoming and the dogs were right at home at her house – even Samson, who hates all strangers!  This is a huge weight lifted from my shoulders; I know they’ll be in great hands while we’re gone.

+ big, healthy hydrangea bushes!  Two years ago, I envisioned a line of hydrangeas around our front porch but could only afford the tiny, potted bareroots.  With patience comes great reward!  They are growing so well and are just gorgeous.

+ a young buck who seems to like hanging out in our backyard near the chicken run.  My youngest has named him Ezra.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: eight books, a DVD and a sweater.  After shipping and fees, I made $25.40.  I’m hitting a bit of a reselling wall (I’ve been listing steadily since late February!) so I took a bit of a break.  Even so, this was an exciting week because I’m getting so, so close to my financial goal.  Really hoping to cross that threshold soon!

Reading //

• this quote from Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais:

It is not my place to speak in this setting.  Even if it was, there is no point in telling these men that I do not condone violence.  I have always believed, and still do, that violence begets more violence.  We are relics of a bygone era, those of us who support passive resistance.  The younger ones do not believe that the meek shall inherit the earth.  They insist the struggle must be an armed one because the only way to overthrow the white minority who keep the black majority in chains is with force.

But what quality of freedom will it be if it is won with blood?  And after that?  Once our rage has boiled and we have taken the life force of our enemies, have we not become the very people we have fought against, the ones who use violence against us?  If we ever taste victory, will our fighters lower their fists and live in peace or will they always be looking for the next conflict?  I despair that we are all becoming murderers, white and black alike, and that we will never be able to wipe this blood from our hands.  I pray that I am wrong. (p.96)

• Cocktails, Commitments, and Crafting Conversation from Ben Christenson at Hearth and Field // “Sherry Turkle describes the ‘rule of three’ in modern group socializing: so long as at least three people have their heads up, people feel license to check their phone and temporarily drop out. The resulting conversation is disjointed and shallow, limping along but unable to achieve any complexity or depth. It’s a ‘tragedy of the conversations,’ if you will. No one feels responsible, so everyone seeks their own pleasure while the shared conversation suffers.”  His ideas to encourage conversation without phones is great.
• The Contemplative Reader from Leigh Lowe at Memoria Press // “Contemplation is a bridge that leads from knowledge (comprehension) to wisdom and helps us use what we have learned to pursue virtue and avoid vice.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan
• The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia by Orlando Figes

Watching/Listening //

• 8 Books You Should Read To Save Society – Before It’s Too Late… from Rob Pirie – The Cause //  I definitely want to participate in the close reading of this series.

Loving //

• this indoor plug-in fly trap // Started as a Home Depot impulse buy, but now I’m in love!  So helpful to combat the flies and other bugs that manage to get into this farmhouse.
• Sudoku // Trying to keep this brain of mine sharp.  You can even play online.
• “Learn all you can about various subjects because it can make for a very interesting life. It is like being on an everyday adventure that makes us want to know more.” // Wise advice from Grandma Donna.

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The decluttering adventure continues.  This week, I discovered a computer print-out from 2009!  The blog post described “Granny Day,” a day set aside each year to live life like Granny did.  At the end of the post, the author shared The Granny Creed and I’ll rewrite it here:

Make food for the soul with love in your hands; traverse daily to the well and draw from the living waters of creativity; from a generous heart give something away.  Rise early, stay late; call or write to one held dear, whether far or near.  Work until it’s done.  See to the needs of those around you, but never lose sight of your own.  Live each day with reverence and joy.

The timing of this little discovery was a little uncanny because the week took a very Granny-like turn!  Our dryer – only a year old – started making terrible grinding sounds so I was left to air-drying clothing all over the house while we tried to diagnose the problem.  I made a loaf of homemade bread in the bread machine almost every day.  I woke up with the sun, worked the garden and moved the animals before it got too hot.  It was a good, life-giving week.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ finishing up the Four Weeks to a More Organized Home challenge but forgetting to photograph the process!  Oh well.

+ returning to carnivore(ish) eating after a month of treats.  I enjoyed many of my old favorites, but I quickly went back to emotional/stress eating, my skin looks terrible (like I’m back in high school!) and my stomach issues have come back.  I know I can’t sustain any of those things, so back to the strict diet I go.

+ finding wild berries growing over our property fence.  I think they’re blackberries?

+ selling seven unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: a stylus pen, two books, a homeschool curriculum, and three pieces of clothing.  After shipping and fees, I made $65.50!

Reading //

• Grandmother’s Wisdom from Andrew Skabelund at Front Porch Republic
• Housework from Mary Townsend at The Hedgehog Review // “To clean the thing is to care for the thing; to clean well is neither giving it a flick that leaves the edges obscured in dirt, nor scrubbing the thing away into nothing. All of this work raises up the house out of the confusion of its strands back into one single thing, the bulwark, the thing that makes the rest possible, both leaving and coming back; the sort of place where you could consider resting your head. Housekeeping doesn’t just enable us to dwell; housekeeping is dwelling, and also it is thought.”
• Paper Routes: Working Hard & Humanely from Paul Schweigl at Hearth and Field // “I think what I am really hoping for is that the lad’s first job will teach him everything that my paper routes taught me. Work ought to help reveal the dignity of the worker, while enmeshing him in a community where he can learn to be a stronger but also more compassionate man.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt by Daniel Barbarisi
• American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers by Nancy Jo Sales

Loving //

• a new bread machine recipe // I omit the sugar and the kids don’t seem to notice.