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It’s been a few weeks, so I’m returning to this prompt again.  (Here’s part one and part two.)  Highly recommend the practice, especially if you’re going through a hard week or month or season.  Here’s my list:

Waking up with the sunrise.  A stack of packages sold during the long weekend.  An afternoon nap, just because.  A bluebird sitting on the fence post.  Listening to little boy giggles while they’re watching a movie.  Filling the trunk with donations.  Twenty new laying hens for the barnyard.  A drive alone with my husband, even if it was just to the dump, ha!

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ rest after a super busy, stressful, productive spring.  We made it!  I definitely needed a recovery week before the next big projects begin.

+ finding some unclaimed property after coming across this post from Six Figures Under.  It never hurts to check and we were thrilled to see our name on the list!

+ not paying full price for a high school literature curriculum.  I received a $10 coupon from Memoria Press last December and have held onto it ever since.  I wasn’t prepared to start buying next year’s books quite so early, but when I noticed that the coupon expired on 5/31 (and it was 5/31!) I snatched up the teacher and student guides.  Good deals seem to hard to come by these days, so this was exciting.

+ selling nine unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six pieces of clothing, two books and a pair of slippers.  After shipping and fees, I made $60.26!

Reading //

• On The Degrading Effects of Life Online: How social media makes us worse people from Jon Haidt and Freya India at After Babel // Thought provoking.

And actually, I’m losing hope for people taking accountability because all this has accelerated so much and so fast that we can’t seem to see what it’s doing to us, let alone make better choices. Having a camera roll full of thousands of selfies is now completely normal. So is checking how many likes your tweet has while someone is talking to you. So is swiping through human beings like you’re on Amazon. Most of us do things like this sometimes and we feel that it’s weird, we know it’s a bit bleak, but more and more people don’t seem to even see a problem. They spend five hours a week taking selfies and don’t see it as vanity. They talk about people’s follower counts like it’s a measure of worth without a thought of what’s becoming of them. They are so obsessed with their digital reputation they can’t see how they are degrading their real life one for it. They can point to all the ways social media is killing their mental health but never their humility. And so many of us delude ourselves that these platforms are harmless and light-hearted, all while we can feel them destroying us on the inside. All while we are becoming steadily more self-absorbed, in ways that play out in our real relationships and I think eat away at us and our respect for ourselves. Maybe that funny feeling we get from social media isn’t always anxiety. Maybe sometimes that feeling is shame.

• A Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream: Apple’s new ad and the limits of disembodied creativity from Nate Marshall at The Blue Scholar
• Beyond the practical: The value of “useless” knowledge from Daniel Esparza at Aleteia // “Philosophy is not a job skill, but a lens through which we can approach life’s big questions and appreciate the world around us with a deeper understanding. It’s a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, a reflection of our inherent human curiosity and desire to understand.”

New Additions to The List // 

A commenter from the Apple post above shared a booklist for the Philosophy of Technology course he created.  Added a handful to my ever-growing list!

• The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
• The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America by Leo Marx
• Technology Matters: Questions to Live With by David E. Nye
• Erewhon by Samuel Butler

Watching/Listening //

• Why Mental Health Is Getting Worse – Jonathan Haidt from Chris Williamson // I’m anxious to read Jon Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness now.
• Nuclear War Expert: 72 Minutes To Wipe Out 60% Of Humans, In The Hands Of 1 Person! – Annie Jacobsen from The Diary of a CEO // Absolutely terrifying.  I’ve read one of Jacobsen’s books before (Operation Paperclip) and will definitely be reading this newest one.

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It was a big, big week on the farm – the preparation and execution of our first broiler processing of the year!  Spread over two days, this was the culmination of twelve weeks of focused tending.  We worked hard, invited friends to help/learn the process and enjoyed the sweet satisfaction of a job well done.  I can never adequately express how farming has changed my life for the better, but this section from Wendell Berry’s essay, “A Defense of the Family Farm” shares a glimpse:

…By the dismemberment of work, by the degradation of our minds as workers, we are denied our highest calling, for, as Gill says, “every man is called to give love to the work of his hands.  Every man is called to be an artist.”  The small family farm is one of the last places – they are getting rarer every day – where men and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands.  It is one of the last places where the maker – and some farmers still do talk about “making the crops” – is responsible, from start to finish, for the thing made.  This certainly is a spiritual value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic one.  In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life, the goodness of food, both natural and cultural.  The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need.  (p.166-167)

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ cutting up old greeting cards.  I’ve been on a decluttering spree this month and I finally tackled my pile of cards.  I keep everything sent to me…and it’s getting a little unruly at this point, ha!  Anyway, I kept a few of my favorites (especially from my deceased grandmothers) but got rid of a ton.  I also cut down the fronts of some to make tags for gifts and/or reselling thank you notes.

+ a blooming peace lily!  I got this plant as a free gift from Fast Growing Trees years ago and have narrowly killed it multiple times.  This is the first time she’s bloomed and I’m so excited.

+ selling 25 unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: fifteen books, four pieces of clothing, four cloth napkins, a DVD, and a piece of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $101.27!

Reading //

•  this quote from my Abraham Lincoln biography, With Malice Toward None:

Yes, Lincoln warned, the spirit of the mob was abroad in the land; and once murderous passions were unleashed, mobs were apt to terrorize the entire country, burning innocent and guilty alike, until all the walls erected to defend the people were obliterated.  When that happened, when “the vicious portion of the population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last.” (p.47)

Mob thinking/mob rule/mob violence came up on more than occasion in my reading this week!  The more history I read, the more I see how human nature is the same throughout the ages.

• Toward a Politics of Beauty from John de Graaf at Front Porch Republic
• On the Texture of Things Past from Daxxton McGee at Circe Institute // “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.”
• Making the Long Haul, like a Tree from John Cuddeback at Life Craft
• Towards an Economy of Love from Patrick M. Fleming at Humanum // A review of Wendell Berry’s Home Economics. (I finally finished!)

New Additions to The List // 

The focus seemed to be different ways of looking at war this week.

• On The Psychology Of Military Incompetence by Norman F. Dixon
• Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare by Paul Lockhart
• The Button Box: A Daughter’s Loving Memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton by Ruth Ellen Patton Totten

Watching/Listening //

• INFLUENCER INSANITY EP 6 | “Sharenting” – Oversharing parents will post ANYTHING for views from Hannah Alonzo // I’m not on social media anymore and was unaware of most of this.  I find it so sad.
• The Battle for Your Time: Exposing the Costs of Social Media from Dino Ambrosi’s TEDx Talk // Really important for teens and adults alike.

Loving //

• the brownie cookie recipe from 100 Cookies cookbook // I allowed myself a little treat after my daughter made them and they were delicious.

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The sky was gloomy and the rain poured this week.  My melancholic temperament quickly followed suit.  I felt discouraged about so many things – finances, strained relationships, the transfer of our beloved pastor to a new parish, my children’s behavior, bad news story after bad news story, chickens killed by that sneaky fox…it all felt so heavy.

But like always happens to me lately, a quote I read somewhere came to mind.  (I often jot down little things I read, even if they don’t seem applicable at the time.  They always seem to be useful later on down the road!)  I’m paraphrasing, but it basically said, “The stars always shine, even if humanity cannot see them.”  Even though we can’t see the stars during the day, they are still there, shining brightly.  What a comforting thought, right?  I think there’s symbolism with our good Lord there somewhere.

So we carry on!  Here’s hoping for a better week…and some sunshine would be great too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ going through our budget with a fine-toothed comb.  Time to stop feeling like we’re always on the defensive and get on the offensive!  I signed back into Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar (free!) budgeting program and love how easy it is to tweak the numbers.

+ decluttering with a new fervor!  I’ve done this before…when life feels crazy, I attempt ridiculous projects.  I’m calling this one the “Seven Year Clean.”  We will have lived in this house seven years this summer and it feels like the right time to go through every bin and drawer and closet.  This borders on absolute insanity and I’m definitely in the “it has to get worse before it gets better” stage, but I think it’s a good summer project if I can keep up the momentum.

+ figuring out the Rubix Cube puzzle!  My kids have been on a mission to solve it and after watching this video, my daughter finally did it!

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: eight pieces of clothing, one bag, one book and two piece of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $126.39!

Reading //

• Here’s How Much the Definition of Middle Class Has Changed in Every State from GO Banking Rates
• How the American middle class has changed in the past five decades from Pew Research Center (2022 numbers)
• What It Takes to Be Middle Class in America’s Largest Cities – 2023 Study from Smart Asset
• this quote from “Six Agricultural Fallacies” by Wendell Berry in Home Economics //

From an agricultural point of view, a better word than production is thrift.  It is a better word because it implies a fuller accounting.  A thrifty person is undoubtedly a productive one, but thriftiness also implies a proper consideration for the means of production.  To be thrifty is to take care of things; it is to thrive – that is, to be healthy by being a part of health.  One cannot be thrifty alone; one can only be thrifty insofar as one’s land, crops, animals, place, and community are thriving. (p.128)

New Additions to The List // 

• Face: One Square Foot of Skin by Justine Bateman // A reflection about society’s view on aging women and her author’s rejection of that thinking.
• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria A. Trapp

Watching/Listening //

• Leanne Morgan Comedy // She is a hoot.

Loving //

• this recipe for roasted chicken thighs // I changed up the seasoning a bit, but still delicious.

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We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things. – Charlotte Mason

I have no big “aha!” moments to share this week – just this one quote that I’ve been chewing on from Charlotte Mason.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ beginning a new spring cleaning challenge.  For whatever reason, I am feeling super motivated to deep clean and ruthlessly declutter all the things!  (More on this in tomorrow’s post.)

+ re-purposing old things into something new.  I shredded old paperwork to add to the compost pile.  I also got the tiny bit of candle wax out of a used jar using this tutorial.  Now it holds little monk fruit packets by the coffee maker!

+ the healthy return of all of the perennials in the garden.  Everything is back and more lush than ever!  It’s so encouraging to see the fruits of our hard work and money.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: three pieces of curriculum, six pieces of clothing, an unused skincare product, a hair scarf and a book.  After shipping and fees, I made $93.44!

Reading //

• Rectifying the Names: Is Conservation Liberal? from James Krueger at Front Porch Republic
• Navigating Abundance from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “Abundance is meant to satisfy us, is meant for our good and well being, and is a richly provided gift. Clearly our societal state of mind showcases we are not being satisfied or improved by the abundances we are confronted with. No — it is clear that what we are confronted with is not abundance, but extravagance and there is a vital distinction between the two terms.”
• this poem by Maurice Manning:

The Fog Town School of Thought

They should have taught us birds and trees
in school, they should have taught us beauty
and weaving bees and had a class
on listening and standing alone—
the children should have studied light
reflected from a spider web,
we should have learned the branches of streams
spread out like fingers or the veins
of a leaf—we should have learned the sky
is the tallest steeple, we should have known
a hill is a voice inside the sky—
O, we should have had our school
on top and stayed until the night
for the fog to bloom in the hollows and rise
like cotton spinning off a wheel—
we should have learned a dream—a child’s
and even still a man’s—is made
from fog and love, my word, you’d think
with the book in front of us we should
have learned how Fog Town got its name.

New Additions to The List // 

• Never No More by Maura Laverty
• Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
• Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy
• Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird // A recommendation from a reader – thanks, Catherine!

Loving //

• Grandma Donna’s thoughts and advice in her post, Be part of a memory // “How would a child feel if they came for a visit to your house? What would they see, smell, hear? Hopefully they will smell something simmering on the stove, hear only greetings, laughter, happy sounds because all electronics are turned off. The most important is do they feel love?”
• Blueberry mug cake // My kids found this recipe stashed in my “To Make Someday” notebook and decided to try it out.  A hit.
• my new Chom Chom roller // Another attempt to keep the obnoxious amount of dog hair at bay.

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We live in a breakneck speed world.  Keep up or you’ll be left far, far behind!  (And people will mock you for it too.)  I’ve been thinking about the juxtaposition between that intensity and a section from the preface of Wendell Berry’s Home Economics:

The essays in this book continue an attempt to construct an argument that I began twenty or so years ago.  The subject of the argument is the fact, and ultimately the faith, that things connect – that we are wholly dependent on a pattern, an all-inclusive form, that we partly understand.  The argument, therefore, is an effort to describe responsibility.

Such an argument is necessarily an essay – a trial or an attempt.  It risks error all the time; it is in error, inevitably, some of the time.  The idea that it could produce a verdict is absurd, as is the possibility that it could be concluded.  I am never completely happy with this project, and sometimes I am not happy with it at all.  I dislike its necessary incompleteness, and I am embarrassed by its ceaseless insinuation that it is a job for somebody better qualified.  I keep returning to it, I think, because the study of connections is an endless fascination, and because the understanding of connections seems to me an indispensable part of humanity’s self-defense.

The essays appear here in the order in which they were written, each having been formed under influence of the ones before.  The pattern of the argument, by now, appears to be a sort of irregular spiral; any subject that it has passed through it is likely to pass through again, sometimes saying the same thing in a different way in a different connection, sometimes changing or developing what was said before. (p.ix-x)

Basically, he’s saying that he’s been wrestling with the development of an argument, using essays written over many years to try to clarify/mold one idea.  Isn’t that such a lost art in our age?  To ruminate on an idea, spinning it around and around, looking at it from all angles.  To read and read some more, listening to other people’s opinions and then weighing that against our original ideas.  To fortify those original ideas or yield to a new and better one.  Does anyone still do that?

I think that process takes margin; it won’t compete with the noise of today’s world.  It has to happen in relative silence.  Do your best ideas or prayers or decision-making happen in the shower?  There’s probably a reason for that.

2024 has been the year that I’ve been striving to cultivate the practice of contemplation: turning off the flashy screens and music (even Gregorian chant or classical!) and just sitting in that silence.  No multi-tasking, no distractions, no numbing my worries or stress with the easier choice.  And it is HARD.  It 100% feels like an intentional rewiring of the brain.  But it is also good and life-giving.

A few things I’ve noticed so far:

+ I don’t have knee jerk reactions to the hot button issue of the day.  There’s always something happening in the world and so many people want immediate reactions.  Contemplation allows me to step back from all of the emotional hysteria, learn from all sides and form a rational opinion on my own.

+ Deep thinking, information retention, and focus are all like exercising: the more you practice, the easier it gets.  I’m definitely not in the “easy” stage, but getting closer.

+ The more you learn, the more you realize all you don’t know.  At least for me, this has kept me humble as I seek to understand things more and more.  I also believe that the more you contemplate what you read, the more you buck the idea of binary boxes – you don’t have to choose Team A over Team B!  So much of life is very nuanced and gray.  You don’t always have to pick one side.

+ I see my words on this blog in a new light.  The thoughts I write are a representation of my wrestling with a complex world.  They will always be evolving, fine-tuned over time or possibly completely abandoned.  And this grace should be given to anyone, even when we don’t agree!  Wrestling with a complex world is okay.  This is the human experience.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ the tender way my family cared for me as I healed from my foot debacle.  I wasn’t able to do anything for days and they all stepped up to help, even (lovingly) yelling at me when I tried to hobble around.

+ selling ten unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six books, three pieces of clothing and one curriculum guide.  After shipping and fees, I made $52.29!

Reading //

• Endangered Habitat: Why the soul needs silence from Stephanie Bennett at Plough // “Silence is disappearing. It’s disappearing because we’re being trained to hate it.”
• Why Children Need Lego Now More Than Ever from Joshua Gibbs at Circe Institute
• What Will Tech Mean to Gen Z Families? ​A Conversation with Ben Christenson from Hearth and Field
• Be Present from Katherine Johnson Matinko at The Analog Family // Related to this idea is a book I read years ago but still think about: You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy)
• “Two Economies” from Home Economics by Wendell Berry // This quote was thought-provoking:

One of the favorite words of the industrial economy is “control”: We want “to keep things under control”; we wish (or so we say) to “control” inflation and erosion; we have a discipline known as “crowd control”; we believe in “controlled growth” and “controlled development,” in “traffic control” and “self-control.”  But, because we are always setting out to control something that we refuse to limit, we have made control a permanent and a helpless enterprise.  If we will not limit causes, there can be no controlling of effects.  What is to be the fate of self-control in an economy that encourages and rewards unlimited selfishness? (p.68)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and His Adventures in the Wilderness by Darrin Lunde // I’m interested in learning more about Theodore Roosevelt and how much he loved the natural world.
• The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart by Noreena Hertz
• Behind the Dolphin Smile: A True Story that Will Touch the Hearts of Animal Lovers Everywhere by Richard O’Barry // I watched an interview with the author and am curious to learn more about his backstory.

Watching/Listening //

• the latest selection in the Learning to Look series from Fr. Hugh at St. Michael’s Abbey
• St. Joseph talk from Fr. Sebastian Walshe // A great explanation of Biblical typology.  So good.

Loving //

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library // A new find and what a gift to the world!  So much wisdom to learn…and for free.
• RIND “straw-peary” snacks // yum.

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Frugality drives creativity.  I recently read that phrase on a blog post and it resonated because it’s true!

Farming/homesteading is such a great vehicle for that type of thinking.  We spend so much money on feed and infrastructure and trailers and buckets (so many five gallon buckets…) that when something starts to malfunction or break, we do all we can to fix it as cheaply as possible. A stubborn streak runs through us…we can fix it! We’re not spending another dime!  This thinking can be helpful for families not on the farm, though. A job loss, a reduction in income, an inflationary tightening of the belt – it all forces our hand in a certain direction and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Sometimes constraints are good for us.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking of some recent examples of our frugal creativity and here’s what I’ve come up with:

• We are always constructing and reconstructing pig shelters.  We pull apart the lumber of one and create something new with the same cuts.
• I’ve purchased truckloads of compost over the years and it is not cheap.  This year, I’m committed to building and tending to my own compost pile.  Now more “trash” (aka coffee grounds, egg shells, toilet paper rolls, dryer lint, etc) has a purpose.
• On a particularly windy day last month, one of our chicken tractors was thrown, busting one of the sides.  Instead of buying a new one ($$$), we fixed what we could with rope and it works fine.
• I recently started a new junk journal.  As I get back into the process, I’m realizing how much I enjoy this creative outlet, how much I enjoy the challenge of creating something beautiful from random bits and pieces of life.
• In order to avoid the grocery store and fast food, we whip up simple meals from ingredients we have in the house.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ bringing Max and Ruby to the butcher.  We are extremely proud because they are our first full circle “farrow to finish” operation.  We bred, birthed and raised these guys!  What an incredible experience – I can’t wait to do it again.

+ sharing with a new friend.  My husband recently met someone from church and their family generously shared a big mason jar of their famous homemade Caesar dressing with us.  Delicious!  When we returned the jar, we passed along a dozen eggs as a thank you.

+ making some ant bait from baking soda and powdered sugar.  We’re not ant-free in the kitchen yet, but I think it’s working.

+ selling fifteen unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six books, five pieces of clothing, and four pieces of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $118.16!  We’re almost to 45% of our goal.

Reading //

Lots of pondering on family in the modern age this week!

• Why We Call Them Fathers from Denise Trull at Theology of Home // “I have met many priests over my lifetime. They had many gifts between them. Some wrote beautiful sermons. Some were impressive and efficient stewards of their parishes. Some celebrated exquisite Masses and convinced me that the spiritual life was a poem we each speak to the Father. But it is always the priests who most exemplified fatherhood that have stayed so firmly in my memory. Those whose greatest talent was being a father to their people.”
• The Family Tree, Stripped from Andrew Yuengert at Front Porch Republic
• Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood? from CBC
• Multi-Generational Mothering from Siobhan Heekin-Canedy at Fairer Disputations // “Restructuring policy and culture to accommodate both women’s desire for motherhood and their presence in the workforce is a complex task. An important piece of this puzzle is capitalizing on the familial network of mutual aid that already exists. In other words, the answer isn’t ‘less family,’ it’s ‘more family.’”
• Every family needs a leader from Jim Dalrymple II // A really interesting look at “kinkeepers,” people who work to keep their families together.

New Additions to The List // 

• Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity by Adam A.J. DeVille // My rabbit trail started with an encyclical and ended with this book: an examination of the Roman Catholic papacy from an Orthodox perspective.
• Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald // Mentioned in Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am.  Sounds fascinating.
• The Holiness of Ordinary People by Madeleine Delbrêl // Spotted in the latest Ignatius Press book catalog.

Watching/Listening //

• Love What Lasts: An Interview with Joshua Gibbs from The Commonplace // I loved the distinction between the common, the uncommon and the mediocre.
• Joel Salatin on the Avian Influenza Outbreak from Beyond Labels Podcast Clips

Loving //

• Reading the Old Testament in the New: The Gospel of Matthew from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology // I’m on lesson five.
• Yours, Mine and Ours // We found this DVD with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda at the used bookstore and it’s been a big hit.

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

Going back to a simple prompt from a few weeks ago!  I sure needed it: gas prices around us jumped, our dog Samson puked on two of my rugs, we have ants in the kitchen and someone stole my credit card number and spent $3K on fraudulent plane tickets!

Here’s what I found this week:

Waking up to birdsong outside my bedroom window.  Finishing up a few school subjects for the year.  Healthy and diverse pasture for the broilers.  Being so, so close to an empty laundry room (for one day, anyway).  Blooms and new leaves on all of the fruit trees and bushes.  House finches in the front porch nest.  Another new driver in the house.  The smell of freshly mowed grass.  A trip to the used bookstore to add to my anti-library.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ making our groceries stretch!  My husband stopped by the grocery store one day and picked up five items for me – five! – and the total was $50.  My eyes almost bugged out of my head when I saw the receipt.  Time to be creative in the kitchen again.  This week, I made granola and bread.  I also organized the pantry and collected items together to make specific meals.  (That will help a lot on busy days.)

+ packing away my winter clothes and pulling out all of my spring/summer dresses.  I went through everything (both piles) and took out the things that were too worn or too big.  I have a few gaps in my wardrobe now, but I’ll make due with what I have until I can find some deals.

+ making a new junk journal completely with things I already own.  I’m hoping to use this one as a scrapbook and a way to stretch my creative muscles.

+ selling eight unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six pieces of clothing and two pieces of literature curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $93.38!

Reading //

• A Picture Worth a Thousand Words from Denise Trull at Theology of Home // “Holy cards just appeal to a real need for intimacy with God in our hearts. They are like getting to hold his hand or pressing His love to our cheek.” I loved this.
• The Cure to Our Social Breakdown from Seth D. Kaplan at First Things // “Embedded community is not only important to the future of our faiths, but also to the future of our country. Our growing social breakdown highlights this now more than ever.”  I wonder if this is a similar argument to The Benedict Option (which I have heard a lot about, but never read).
• For the Love of a Thing: Not Every Worthwhile Endeavor Is a Performance from Keith Lowery // Thought provoking.
• “Higher Education and Home Defense” from Home Economics by Wendell Berry // This essay was about a community in Indiana concerned about the construction of a nuclear plant nearby, but you could easily equate it to communities in northern Virginia and their fight against data centers.  Berry’s argument is that the highly educated professionals push their goals on a community because they have no attachment to the place.  They do not consider the area home.  They see themselves superior to the people who are naturally cautious about new advancements in their community.  I especially loved this paragraph about the true sense of education:

Education in the true sense, of course, is an enablement to serve – both the living human community in its natural household or neighborhood and the precious cultural possessions that the living community inherits or should inherit.  To educate is, literally, to “bring up,” to bring young people to a responsible maturity, to help them to be good caretakers of what they have been given, to help them to be charitable toward fellow creatures.  Such an education is obviously pleasant and useful to have; that a sizable number of humans should have it is probably also one of the necessities of human life in this world.  And if this education is to be used well, it is obvious that it must be used some where; it must be used where one lives, where one intends to continue to live; it must be brought home. (p.52)

• Places where you can peek into Heaven and how to find them from Fr. Michael Rennier at Aleteia

New Additions to The List // 

• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving // I stumbled on a Substack where the author shared his favorite quote from this book: “If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”
• The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country by Gary Paul Nabhan // Mentioned in Home Economics.
• A Natural History of the Hedgerow by John Wright // Another rabbit trail book due to Home Economics.
• The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan // A view on the Gaza crisis from a less hysteric/opinion-filled source.  Even though this was written in 2006, I heard this is a sad but good look at both sides of a very complicated history.

Watching/Listening //

• How to fill your journal pages! Easy first page ideas and what to write from Johanna Clough // A little inspiration as I begin a new journal.
• 7 (8?) Books to Read as a Postpartum Mom from The Commonplace // Good ideas even for the non-postpartum mom!

Loving //

• the marigold varieties I bought this year from Park Seed // I got the Whopper Orange, the Flamenco, and the Disco Mix.  I started them all under grow lights and they are beautiful.
• The 10 Year Reading Plan for the Great Books of the Western World // I found five of these old books at the used bookstore and am anxious to begin this plan.  Seems challenging!

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

Soooo….I went down a bit of a rabbit hole.  It started with this article which linked to this article, which shared this quote:

Taleb uses legendary Italian writer Umberto Eco’s uncommon relationship with books and reading as a parable of the most fruitful relationship with knowledge:

The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

Guys.  There’s a name for my piles of unread books!  It’s an anti-library!

I actually have a Storygraph account that I use to catalog all the books I’d like to revisit.  If I’m reading a book and it references another interesting one, it goes on the list.  If I read about a historical figure to my children for school and realize I know very little, I add a few books of my own to the list.  If I hear about how a classic novel or religious text influenced someone’s life, it goes on the list.  And on and on and on.  As of this writing, my list stands at almost 1600 books. (!!!)  Realistically, I will never finish all of those books in my lifetime.  But it stands as representation of my humanity, a constant reminder of the virtue of humility.  The more I know, the more I realize all I don’t know.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few of my latest additions to The List:

• The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski // Hillsdale College recently provided a free video series on the Inklings and I want to know more about this group!
• Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler // A title on a reading list that I’ve never heard of before.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful by Joseph Pearce // I heard about this from the Clear Creek Abbey bookstore.  The monks read this during refectory.
• Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America by David S. Reynolds // I just bought Uncle Tom’s Cabin and this looked like an interesting book to pick up after.
• Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi // A surprise find and something that connects with the video from The Commonplace below.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ a busy week on the farm!  We’re definitely hitting the crazy part of the growing season where there is so much to do and never enough time.  Our tasks were filled with moving animals around: pigs rotated on pasture, broiler chicks out of the garage and onto pasture, etc.  We held our noses and mucked out the chick area.  (My least favorite farm chore!)  We picked up twenty new hen chicks and got them all situated in the brooder.  We dug trenches and planted seed potatoes and I also hardened off marigolds and some tomatoes to plant next week.  It’s a little early, but the future temps look promising and I need to get them out from under the grow lights!

+ finding an outfit for a fundraising gala.  Between losing some weight and not going to fancy events…ever…I needed a new dress!  Thankfully, I found a beautiful dress and shoes, new without tags, for a deal on Poshmark.  I love the secondhand market.

+ turning off the heat for the season and playing my favorite game of the year: “How long can we go before turning on the A/C?”

+ selling eight unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: five pieces of clothing, a pair of sandals and two homeschool teacher guides.  After shipping and fees, I made $49.47!

Reading //

• A Guide to Booklegging: How (and why) to collect, preserve, and read the printed word from School of the Unconformed // The article that started all of this reflection!
• The Accidental Community from Heather Hawkins // This was so cool.  I would love to do this someday!
• The Philosophical Act of Wonder from Rachel Wooham at Circe Institute // “Recently, as I spiraled into motherly worries about my children’s spiritual development, it occurred to me that as long as they continue to call, ‘Look!’ something very good is taking place in their souls. This marveling is the harbinger of wisdom.”
• Home Economics by Wendell Berry and his 1982 essay, “Getting Along with Nature” // I’m reading this book slowly and have really been thinking about this paragraph on page 20:

To make this continuity between the natural and the human, we have only two sources of instruction: nature herself and our cultural tradition.  If we listen only to the apologists for the industrial economy, who respect neither nature nor culture, we get the idea that it is somehow our goodness that makes us so destructive: The air is unfit to breathe, the water is unfit to drink, the soil is washing away, the cities are violent and the countryside neglected, all because we are intelligent, enterprising, industrious, and generous, concerned only to feed the hungry and to “make a better future for our children.”  Respect for nature causes us to doubt this, and our cultural tradition confirms and illuminates our doubt: No good thing is destroyed by goodness; good things are destroyed by wickedness.  We may identify that insight as Biblical, but it is taken for granted by both the Greek and the Biblical lineages of our culture, from Homer and Moses to William Blake.  Since the start of the industrial revolution, there have been voices urging that this inheritance may be safely replaced by intelligence, information, energy, and money.  No idea, I believe, could be more dangerous.

• The Power Of Doing It Yourself from April Jaure at Hearth & Field // “In my reality, learning to craft these simple, but crucial items taught me to be attuned to the present moment, which is to say that it taught me to be present to my own life. I had been so accustomed to living life in my head, I’m sad to say that if it weren’t for motherhood and the necessity of acquiring some practical skills, I think I could have lived my whole life without being truly present for any of it.”

Watching/Listening //

• How to Get an Oxford English Education for Free from Benjamin McEvoy // Barring the crass first line, this was a great video.
• How a nearly blind schoolteacher invented the comic medium from matttt // A recommendation from one of my sons.  Very interesting!
• Contemplation in Mother Academia (Or, You Need to Be Bored) from The Commonplace

Loving //

• All the electrolytes! // One possible side effect of carnivore is muscle cramping and it’s generally due to mineral and electrolyte imbalances.  I haven’t really had any issues, but to avoid this possibility, I try to have an electrolyte drink daily.  We have a variety of brands in the house, from LMNT (pretty good, but I only use 1/3 to 1/2 a packet at a time) to Nuun (my favorite, but actually has little of the important stuff) to Jocko Hydrate (my husband’s favorite).
• this quote from Henry Ward Beecher:

A little library, growing every year, is an honorable part of man’s history.  It is man’s duty to have books.  A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.  Be certain that your house is adequately and properly furnished – with books rather than furniture.  Both if you can, but books at any rate.

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

I recently finished Grace Olmstead’s book, Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We’ve Left Behind, and while it wasn’t a 5-star read, it has made me think about what it means to belong to a place.  I am the daughter of a military officer. In my eighteen years of childhood, I lived in five states (some multiple times, but in different cities) and ten different houses. When people ask me where I’m from, I always awkwardly hesitate, then reply, “I grew up in a military family. I guess I’m from everywhere and nowhere.”

I think that statement is why I’m so attracted to the idea of old-fashioned community and putting down roots. Growing up the way I did, the only roots I knew were my grandmothers and extended relatives, hours and hours away.  I was always so jealous of the comfortable way they knew their neighbors, their favorite businesses.  I was always in awe of the way my grandmother would read the obituaries, telling me entire family trees and stories about how she knew the deceased.  What is that like?  To have history with a single place?  To know it and its people inside and out?

I want to place deep roots into this farm and this community.  I want to plant trees for future generations to enjoy.  I want to support my fellow farmers.  I want to offer our products, time and talents to those that need them.  In a world that increasingly feels like a concrete jungle of isolated individuals, this often feels like a lost cause.  But I’m stubborn and I want to try.  Like Hadden Turner said, “If I don’t care for my local area who else will? There are millions of people looking to care for the globe, but few to care for the places that are right in front of them.”

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ SPRING BREAK.  I had a ton of work to do outside, but the rainy weather forced me inside to rest instead.  An unexpected blessing.

+ going off carnivore for the first time in 60ish days.  I’ll keep this brief because nobody cares, but here are my observances: Fresh fruit was super sweet and I felt nothing negative.  I ate a tiny bit of Easter candy, could feel the sugar surging through my body and immediately felt terrible.  On another day, I had a fresh biscuit and while it didn’t make me sick, it sat in my stomach differently than when I eat carnivore.  So going forward, I’m steering far away from white sugar, will occasionally have bread products and will have to be careful not to eat my weight in fruit, ha!

+ decluttering like a crazy woman.  I started by simplifying my dresser drawers, asking all the questions: Is it too big?  too old?  never worn?  I moved on to my closet and even completely organized all of my resale packing materials while I was in there – I no longer look like a hoarder and a fire hazard!

+ planning the end of this school year and looking ahead to the next.  What a weird space to be in as we start phasing out students and working through the last time of each grade with the youngest.  I’ll never have another first grader!  So bittersweet.

+ reaching 100 days on my “50 pages a day” reading streak on Storygraph!

+ selling nine unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: seven pieces of clothing, a pair of sandals and a book.  After shipping and fees, I made $88.10!

Reading //

• Where You Are Is Where You Are from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // SO good and inspiring.

You are not responsible for the whole world — far from it. But you are responsible for the local places in front of you: the local people who you relate to, the unique buildings, art, and beauty that you enjoy every day, and the local environments and habitats that surround the place you dwell. Where you are is where you are — and what you are responsible for. This is a burden heavy enough for us. This is a burden that matches our limitations. This is a burden that we can faithfully discharge. And this is a burden that will present us with a lifetime of opportunities for doing good.

• The Conservative Case for Remote Work from Public Discourse
• Keep Your Money Close from Jane Clark Scharl at Plough // “What am I giving up when I hand my money over to Amazon in exchange for fast delivery and a wide range of mediocre goods? And why do I feel a stab of guilt when I hit that ‘buy now’ button, even when the purchase is a responsible one, meaning it is built into my budget and is something my family needs?”  There’s a great list of alternative ideas at the end of the article too.
• On the Importance of Place from Dale M. Coulter at First Things

Watching/Listening //

• Christ the Logos: An Interview with Andrew Kern from The Commonplace // A beautiful and inspiring conversation.
• Easter at Ephesus sung by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles // These are Sr. Wilhelmina’s sisters.  My husband says that their beautiful voices put him right to sleep, ha!

Loving //

• How My Grandma Taught Me to Live in the Light of Resurrection from Stacey Huneck at Radiant Magazine //  “As a young girl, my faith had the fortune of taking root in this fertile soil through the witness of my grandmother.”  So beautiful.  I hope to be that grandmother someday.  (Just like mine!)
• From Slave to Priest: The Inspirational Story of Father Augustine Tolton by Caroline Hemesath, OSF // Really, really enjoying this book.  After reading about Augustine’s efforts to catechize the local children, I stopped to ponder the lovely section below.  Our actions matter!

“Oh no, Father, they can’t read,” replied Augustine.  “They have never been to school, and their parents haven’t either.  The children will learn by watching and listening.”

“Watching and listening,” repeated Father Richardt.  “What do you mean?”

“Well, Father,” explained the youth, “the children must hear us say the prayers and the catechism and watch us do things like going to church and see how Mass is celebrated and how we do things in church.  They must watch us receive Holy Communion and go to confession.  They have to hear the priest read the Epistle and Gospels and listen to the sermons and instructions.  That is the way they will learn.  That is the way I learned.”  Augustine recalled the many times he had “celebrated Mass” for his alley playmates and how they had participated as Mass servers, choir, congregation, and communicants.  (A true Montessorian!) – p.97

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

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, we entered into the holiest days of the Church Year, the days in which we celebrate the completion of the mission for which our Lord Jesus was sent into the world: His suffering, dying and rising from the dead for our eternal salvation. So singular is this time for us that we call “Holy Week” the days from Palm Sunday to the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. Of all the weeks of the Church Year, during which God faithfully pours forth His grace upon us, we refer to one week only as Holy Week, because the source of all grace is found in the events which took place during this week. (by Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, from here)

Alleluia alleluia!  Christ is risen, Christ is truly risen!  When this post is published, it will be Easter Monday, so the Holy Week readings and things down below will be unhelpful until next year.  Mediating on Our Lord’s death is always a fruitful practice, so maybe you could use them after Paschaltide?

Contemplating with Art // 

Reading //

• Holy Thursday Meditation on the Blessed Eucharist from Fr. Michael Mueller // “’Who’ asks St. John Chrysostom, ‘will give us of His flesh that we may be filled?’ (Job 31:31). This Christ has done, allowing Himself not only to be seen, but to be touched too, and to be eaten, so that our teeth pierce His Flesh, and all are filled with His love.”
• Stations of the Cross by Saint Francis of Assisi
• Discourse 16. Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion from Cardinal John Henry Newman // Long but really good.
• Sermon for Good Friday on the Passion of Christ from St. Francis de Sales // “He could have redeemed us in a thousand other ways than that of His Son’s death. But He did not will to do so, for what may have been sufficient for our salvation was not sufficient for His love; and to show us how much He loved us, this divine Son died the cruelest and most ignominious of deaths, that of the Cross.”
• The Charcoal Fire, a poem by Fr. Timothy J. Draper

Watching/Listening //

• the Learning to Look series from Fr. Hugh at St. Michael’s Abbey // Short little nuggets of beauty and wisdom.  Makes me want to pull How Catholic Art Saved the Faith: The Triumph of Beauty and Truth in Counter-Reformation Art by Elizabeth Lev off of my TBR shelf.
• Tenebrae with St. Michael’s Abbey // “The liturgy of Tenebrae (Latin for “darkness”), which dates back to the ninth century, is a special expression of Matins and Lauds unique to Holy Week. The psalms chanted during Tenebrae ground Our Lord’s Passion in the context of Salvation History.”  There were livestreams to watch on each day of the Triduum.  Beautiful.

Loving //

• The Life of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles // “Sister Wilhelmina understood that true holiness consists not in niceness or pleasant feelings but in a battle of wills; she was determined, at all costs, to surrender her strong will to an even stronger one: the will of God.”

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

We pray these words so often, they almost become meaningless: “Give us this day our daily bread…”  But what does that really mean, our daily bread?  What trust does that require?

It reminds me of the passage in Exodus 16 about manna.  The Israelites were able to gather as much as they needed during the day, but were not supposed to keep any left over until morning.  When some people disobeyed and tried anyway, the manna became “wormy and stank.”  What trust that must have required to be confident that God would provide for them each morning!

Just like the Israelites, my natural inclination is to want today’s manna…and a little bit extra, just in case.  Life, on the other hand, continues to test me!  “Adulting” is full of highs and lows…my husband and I often joke that the best visual of being an adult is the opening scene in Up where the couple saves and saves, only to have to hammer open the piggy bank and start again.

BUT.  If I stop to look, I can see God’s hand working in our finances.  A few recent examples: My husband received a surprise bonus at work, just as we brought his car in for an inspection and discovered it needed $$$ in brake repairs.  Because of that, we were able to get the work done quickly and without going into debt.  My teenage son needed new tires on his car and was offered gig work out of the blue that paid a bit more than the full amount he needed.  He now can drive safely without having to decimate his savings account.  As for me, I had an awesome reselling week, even getting a large order for nine books!  (Thank you so much, Ellen!)  These are more Ebenezers!

I’m more and more convinced that if you give Him room to work, He will surprise you in the best ways.  What a loving and generous God we serve.  Wishing you a blessed and fruitful Holy Week.  See you on Easter Monday!  xo

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ passing around illness as big families tend to do.  Thankfully, I’ve yet to get it and the kids seemed to recover fairly quickly.

+ putting in the sweat equity around the farm and feeling back in my element.  (Last year, I was white-knuckling my way through chores and projects and seriously doubting if this life was for me.  I now see that I was just unwell.)  This week, I planned out pasture rotations for the pigs and even nursed my boar, Fred, back to health after we caught him limping.  Ache Away to the rescue again!

+ making banana bread from overripe bananas.  That rarely happens in this house so it was quite the treat!

+ finishing up the Easter baskets.  Gone are the days of bubbles and sidewalk chalk; now I’m filling them with protein powder and sandals and books.  This growing up business sure is bittersweet.

+ WIND.  The gusts have been insane!  Thankfully, it hasn’t been as bad as two years ago, but we’ve still had damage to our fencing and even had one of our chicken tractors thrown and broken.  Always something…

+ selling 17 unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: eleven books, a pair of shoes, a dress, a skirt, a nightgown, a jacket and a shirt.  After shipping and fees, I made $107.39!

Reading //

• Passiontide and Holy Week from Dom Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year // “After having proposed the forty-days’ fast of Jesus in the desert to the meditation of the faithful during the first four weeks of Lent, the holy Church gives the two weeks which still remain before Easter to the commemoration of the Passion. She would not have her children come to that great day of the immolation of the Lamb, without having prepared for it by compassionating with Him in the sufferings He endured in their stead.”
• Blanched Sun, Blinded Man from Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule // Continuing on in his series.
• Clean the Clutter from Grandma Donna // “After we finish with Madge’s house I will be thinning out things here at home. What I have learned is, clean the house and clean the clutter. Move whatever we need to move to clean around it, behind it, under, top and clean the items before putting it back.”  Great motivation as I think about spring cleaning!
• Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We’ve Left Behind by Grace Olmstead // As of this writing, I’m about halfway through.  A lot of great quotes, including this one:

Rootedness and perennial belonging often make sense to us on a scientific, ecological level.  We know (or are at least realizing) what the soil needs for biological health and flourishing.  But there seems to be a widespread belief in our society that these principles do not apply to people: that we are different, that our minds and souls are, in fact, better suited to wandering and restlessness than to faithful belonging, the choice to stick.

Watching/Listening //

• OFF FOR LENT

Loving //

• these free rosary coloring pages // They are apparently based off of their book, Catechism of the Seven Sacraments (in Lego!)  Definitely going on our wishlist.
• my new carbon monoxide detector // I’m a little paranoid about carbon monoxide and gas leaks, so my volunteer firefighter son helped me purchase a tool that will determine if there’s a problem.  Next up to buy for my safety arsenal: this gas leak detector.
• the idea of a Power Down // Although we’d probably only be able to try it for a long weekend, I love what she says about the benefits:

“That sounds like a whole lot of work, Becca. Why bother?!!”
Well, because once you experience this sort of quiet focus on your real life, I think you’ll be hooked. To focus solely on your kids, uninterrupted, is a precious joy. To focus solely on your spouse, without others vying for their attention (or yours) is an immediately-felt gift. The conversations have time to linger, the most important things rise to the surface and the time-wasters quickly look ridiculous. You begin to wonder, “what am I exchanging here—quality time in my real life versus quantity time in this life of screens?” The homemaking and farming and manual labor become the most fulfilling work and it really does fill you up, bringing purpose to your people, and vision for your clan.

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

Last week was tough financially.  There’s nothing sympathy-seeking or whiny in that statement; we are no different than so many other families.  I’m generally good at stretching our single income to fill all of the different parts of life – bills, long-term goals, kids needs, the farm – but man…it’s getting trickier and trickier to make it all work.

Anyway, I recalled a line I heard somewhere (you know how I collect quotes from anywhere and everywhere!) that can be best paraphrased as this: “When times are tough financially, you make it up with relationships.”  I believe this statement was spoken in terms of the Great Depression era.  Instead of wallowing in hardship, many families, while knowing on some level that they were poor, still chose to fill their home with love and laughter and generosity.  And it didn’t take a lot of money (or any!) to make it happen.

Isn’t that such a good reminder?  In our home, we can still have a home-cooked meal around the table together.  We can work on the same puzzle we’ve made a dozen times.  We can laugh at “inside jokes” that nobody else would understand.  We can do our farm chores and commiserate on the animals’ antics.  We can share a good book, go for hike, and open our home to friends and family.  These little things are not insignificant.  At the end of the day, we belong to each other – our relationships are what matter most anyway.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ giving myself a little hair trim.  I just snipped off the dead ends but it definitely looks better.

+ potting up my tomatoes and marigold seedlings.  I had an awesome germination rate this year so I’m considering selling off the extras!

+ whipping up a batch of granola so the kids would eat up two containers of plain Greek yogurt.

+ receiving 179 (175 + 4 extras) baby chicks in the mail after a hand-wringing few days.  Our chicks come from Pennsylvania and usually arrive within 24 hours, easy peasy.  This time, they were shipped Tuesday afternoon, made it to Virginia by Wednesday morning…and just sat at the distribution center.  Thankfully, we heard from the post office first thing on Thursday morning and picked them up right away.  And miracle of all miracles, not a single one had died!

+ cleaning up my strawberry beds and transplanting a bunch of runners into a brand new section.  If everything goes well, we should have double the strawberry output this spring.  (My kids will be thrilled!)

+ selling 13 unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: three books, two jeans, three shirts, two keychains, two dresses and a pair of sandals.  After shipping and fees, I made $89.10!

Reading //

• The Table Where I Belonged by Pete Kauffman at Plough //

There are situations in any kind of thankful life that take the shape of a gift that must be accepted, with its corresponding demands. We are offered the gift, but even as we do so we release our self-image of the self-made man, the individualist, who blazes his own way in the world and has gotten here by asserting his rights. When you have received a gift, you have someone to thank, and the process of thankfulness implies a debt. This debt cannot be paid with money; the only acceptable currency is a piece of yourself. You give a part of yourself to your neighbor and now you belong to him, and he to you. You have a stake in his life.

• The Dream of the Rood from Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule // Continuing on in his series.

The Enlightenment may have failed, but it taught modern Western people something useful: how to interrogate power, and identify illegitimate authority. But while I learned this early, it was much later that I learned something else, dimly and slowly, through my study of history, mythology and, well, people: that every culture, whether it knows it or not, is built around a sacred order. It does not, of course, need to be a Christian order. It could be Islamic, Hindu or Daoist. It could be based around the veneration of ancestors or the worship of Odin. But there is a throne at the heart of every culture, and whoever sits on it will be the force you take your instruction from.

Watching/Listening //

• OFF FOR LENT

Loving //

• the greeting cards at Bloomwolf Studio // I stocked up on some birthday cards and there were quite a few cute choices.
• Bea’s birth story // Is there anything better than a birth story?!  And she is absolutely precious to boot.
• this recipe for English Muffin Bread // Trying to save some money anywhere we can, so homemade bread is back!  This one is always a hit with the kids.
• my bedtime read, Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator // So bizarre and charming and funny all in one.