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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it seemed appropriate to focus on gratitude this week.  I’ve been feeling pretty worn down and this practice definitely helped bring me back to center and fortified my resolve to keep going.  Anyway, I made a big list of things I was thankful for throughout the week and here are just a few:

The incredibly kind comments and encouraging words on my previous post.  Getting more sleep than I have in months.  How much my children enjoying cooking and baking.  Little buds appearing on my Christmas cactus (maybe it’s a Thanksgiving cactus now?).  Early morning fires in the fireplace.  When my husband surprises me by starting the coffeemaker before he leaves in the morning.  Hanging out and shooting the breeze with my kids.  A “boring” week without any big catastrophes!

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ celebrating my first high school graduate!  He really wanted to finish his senior year six months early, so I gave him the year’s worth of assignments and he got to work.  I’m so proud of his diligence and perseverance.  Since this is my first graduate, I had to figure out how to make it “official” and thankfully, there are many great options online.  I created an official-looking transcript through Fast Transcripts and ordered his diploma through Homeschool Diploma.

+ revamping some used gift tags.  My parents used beautiful tags for our gifts last year and I just couldn’t throw them away.  I covered the backs with some book paper (left over from last year’s junk journal – I’m a hoarder) and then used a Sharpie to write each family member’s name.  If they make it through the hullabaloo of Christmas morning, I’ll be able to use them again and again.

+ gaining some momentum with the Weather the Storm Challenge after a few lackluster weeks!  Money seems to be falling through our fingers with home/car repairs (and I’ve been doing quite a bit of Christmas shopping too!) so any way I can save a dollar or two feels like a huge win.  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy chocolate chips, applesauce, and coffee on sale
• used a $20 coupon that we earned from using our grocery store rewards card
• sold eggs to friends
• organized and inventoried the deep freezers
• used tissue paper that I saved from a recent ThredUp order to package a sale
• made chicken broth
• finished the last project in the kids’ abandoned Paint by Sticker book (so calming!  I loved it)
• designated two ratty sweaters as “pajama sweaters” to give them one more season of use
• decided against sending Christmas cards (the Christmas budget is a bit slim this year)
• made bread
• found a new with tags pair of sneakers for my son for half of the going price on ebay
• helped my husband with my boys’ haircuts
• made it to November 22nd before turning on the heat!  (that little heat wave earlier in the month sure helped)

+ selling six unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: two books, a single cloth napkin (I called it a “replacement”), a sweater, a pair of sneakers and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $27.05.

Reading //

• “My Father, I am Yours” from St. Francis de Sales at TAN Direction // “Have you fallen into the snares of trials? Regard not your misfortune; look only to God; He will have care of you. Cast thy solicitude on Him, and He will provide for thee. Why trouble yourself by sighing or pining about the accidents of this world, since you know not what you ought to wish for, and God will always wish what is best for you? Await, then, in repose of spirit, the effects of the divine good pleasure, and let it suffice for you, since it is always good; so Our Lord ordered St. Catherine of Siena, saying: ‘Think of Me, and I will think of thee.’”  I needed this reminder.
• If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You’re Not Paying Attention from L.M. Sacasas at The Convivial Society // “Enchantment is just the measure of the quality of our attention.”
• On Conquering White Whales: Stemming the Tide of Cultural Ignorance from Fleur Forsyth-Smith at Intellectual Takeout // “This battle for the hearts and minds of our students may begin in elementary schools, but it must first originate with us: the parents and the teachers. By immersing ourselves in the best that has ever been thought and said and written, we are able to stand on the shoulders of giants, for they have given us the platform from which we can propel ourselves out of ignorance into the lofty pursuit of truth.”
• How Risky Play Fights Childhood Anxiety from Lenore Skenazy at The Coddling of the American Mind Movie // “What if the ways in which we are parenting are making life harder on our kids and harder on us? What if by doing less, parents would foster better outcomes for children and parents alike?”
• Embracing Candlelight in Darker Days from Patricia Patnode at Theology of Home

New Additions to The List // 

• Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter by Don King
• Collected Poems by Ruth Pitter
• Aquinas’s Shorter Summa: Saint Thomas’s Own Concise Version of His Summa Theologica
• The Quiet Season: Remembering Country Winters by Jerry Apps

Loving //

• this thought-provoking part in The Letters Home post from Grandma Donna // “There is an addiction today and it is an addiction to instant. Everything ‘now’ is causing us to waste our life, and this is not why we are here on this earth.”

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

I renewed my blog for another year and then promptly ran out of things to say.

——-

Years ago, when I was still on social media, I remember an uprising of sorts where people were tired of seeing constant perfection.  That’s not reality, they cried!  So in response, accounts began showing “real life” – piles of dirty laundry, dishes in the sink, makeup-less faces, cluttered spaces…  And ironically, the internet was again unhappy with these “ugly” pictures.  If I wanted to see a pile of dirty dishes, I’ll look at my own, thankyouverymuch.  I’m on here to see the pretty pictures.  The internet is fickle.

It’s often the same way when people share hardship and trials.  In an attempt to be authentic (whatever that means), they share their life and the responses are typical.  For every supportive comment, there are a few passive-aggressive negative ones.  Suffering becomes a contest: I hear that that’s hard for you, but don’t you know there are starving children in Africa?  Your relative may be sick, but my relative is dead.  It’s a race to the bottom and the fickle internet strikes again.

——-

Last week, when everyone’s focus was on celebrating/lamenting the election, my attention was at home.  More difficult circumstances occurred and I sort-of unraveled.  2024 has been a hard year for a whole host of reasons, many that I’ve shared and many much too private to be displayed across the internet.  Because of that, I’m often a ball of contradictions.  I’m good and I’m definitely not good.  I’m happy but also sometimes so terribly sad.  I have a million things to be grateful for.  I have lost so much.

But how to share all of that?  There’s been radio silence because I needed extra time to decide how I wanted to proceed in this space.  I don’t know how to be anything other than myself, a ball of contradictions, a woman full of both joy and sorrow.  I’m not special in this regard; I think most people carry some level of heartbreak.  I also know you can only watch a dumpster fire for so long before you turn away.  Going forward, I hope to keep this space as a way to document my life’s mission: to seek out and fight for the good.  Please bear with me as I navigate how best to do that.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.  May the Peace of the Lord be always with you.  And hopefully me too.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ returning to a cross-stitch project after more than a year away.  Feels good to do something productive with my hands.

+ a valiant attempt to keep our boar alive.  We put Millie (a one-year-old gilt) into the same paddock with Fred and it was going well…until it went horribly wrong.  Somehow, in the span of 24 hours, Millie completely changed behavior and really beat him up.  He had deep cuts on his eyelid/snout and he fractured one leg so significantly that he couldn’t put any weight on it.  I spent a week in intense anxiety, vacillating about the best, most humane way of dealing with the situation.  Do we give him the opportunity to heal or is it so bad that we should be preparing to put him down?  In the end, we called a vet for a second opinion and she agreed with what we already knew: it was probably best to cull him.  I know he’s only a pig, but Fred was the last of my original four, my gentle giant and buddy.  There were also a lot of my hopes, dreams and plans rolled up into his life that I had to let go.  We’re all pretty devastated.

+ focusing the Weather the Storm Challenge on ways to not spend money.  This feels like a losing battle as the bills keep coming, but we grit our teeth and persevere.  I also:

• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta and sauce on sale)
• sold eggs to friends
• made english muffin bread and pita bread
• gave myself a hair trim
• cleaned/organized the refrigerator to see everything we have (even condiments/sauces) and made a plan to use them up
• unsubscribed from a bunch of marketing emails
• listed a few items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• used a gift card to order our annual Advent candle making kit (making it free!)

+ a positive update for the dining room floors.  Praise be to God, the contractor thinks he can match the color enough to just replace the ruined panels.  We still have to jump through hoops dealing with our home insurance but the end is hopefully in sight.

+ seven years of country living before we had a significant crash with a deer.  My son had a deer run into his car one night and we’re so grateful he is fine.  The damage looked mild but was actually more serious, so now we’re doing the dance with the body shop and our insurance to determine whether it’s salvageable or totaled.

+ selling twelve unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six pieces of clothing, a pajama set, a bathing suit, three books and a belt.  After shipping and fees, I made $78.42.  Even though my resale numbers haven’t been great lately, those little amounts (paired with any extra money we can take from paychecks) add up.  I started my tracker in July and four months later, we’ve paid off over 55% of the balance!  Less than $5k to go.

Reading //

• This Election Season, Don’t Let Politics Destroy Your Family from Jim Dalrymple II at Institute for Family Studies // “All of this is really just a long way of saying something simple: During this season of polarization, rifts within our families over politics are not inevitable. We can put family relationships above everything else. That doesn’t mean everyone has to agree all of the time. Indeed, the point is that we won’t always agree. But it does mean that people with divergent views on controversial issues—say, abortion or the war in Gaza—can still break bread together because the most important thing is their relationship with each other.”
• the book, Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause by Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS // I just finished the section on essential fatty acids and prostaglandins and will be incorporating Omega-3/EPA food sources/supplements into my diet immediately.  Some of the benefits include:
  • Fish oils containing EPA lower blood cholesterol and reduce the stickiness of blood platelets (lowering the risk of blood clots)
  • Prostaglandin E3 relaxes blood vessel walls, preventing arterial spasms and lowering blood pressure (may relieve migraine symptoms)
  • Skin, hair and nails benefit from GLA or EPA in combination with zinc and vitamin A (may see improvement in eczema, acne, psoriasis)
  • Omega fatty acids can help combat depression

New Additions to The List // 

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (Book 1 of 3 in a series on TR)
• Ascent of Mount Carmel by St. John of the Cross
• St Nicholas Owen by Tony Reynolds
• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Watching/Listening //

• How Sheep Can Help Save The Earth from Dylan Bures
• It’s Not Just Shein: Why Are ALL Your Clothes Worse Now? from More Perfect Union

Loving //

• this sweater from Quince // I got mine on ThredUp for $10, but the full price of $40 is still completely reasonable.  100% cotton and looks lovely on.  I’ve worn it multiple times.
• this short post called “Inside the Elderly There is Wonder” from Edwin Leap at Life and Limb:

If we could see all that our elderly have endured we would more easily understand why they are wrinkled and stooped, aching and slow. Life is a battle and they have survived long years of combat. It savaged their bodies. It challenged their minds. It broke their hearts.

But the memories, the skills, the knowledge, the love and wisdom inside those scarred and failing shells?

If we could see it all we would be blinded by such unimaginable light and deafened by the symphonies of their lives. And their untold stories would leave us wrecked, full of wonder, and hoping against hope that we could live so long and so well.

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

The farm projects are slowly finishing up for the year and that means more time to read!  I’m excited to resume my Mother Academia studies as they’ve largely been on the back burner as our crazy life unfolded this fall.  I recently heard the phrase, “To be a good teacher, you must also be a good student” and that really resonated with me.  I’ll be using that as my motto as I dive back into the books.  Here’s the beginning of my plans for this winter:

• AMERICAN HISTORY // I’m continuing on with my Civil War Era rabbit trail and hoping to make some significant progress!
  • With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen B. Oates
  • Faith and Fury: The Rise of Catholicism During the Civil War by Fr. Charles P. Connor
  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
• GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD // I started this list in April and have really enjoyed challenging myself to tackle books I normally would never have attempted.  These are three more selections from Year 1.
  • Shakespeare’s Hamlet
  • St. Augustine’s Confessions
  • Plato’s Republic
• UNMACHINED WORDS LIST // A new addition to the Mother Academia lineup!  Starting with books on the list that I already own.
  • Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
  • The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
  • 1984 by George Orwell

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ completing the first hurdle in the floor remediation.  The water mitigation company pulled out half of the dining room floors and installed dehumidifiers/fans for 72 hours.  It was so loud and sounded like we lived in a wind tunnel!  The next step is now to find a contractor to see the flooring and determine if it can be matched or if we need to replace the entire first floor.

+ a very weak showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  Truth be told, I was in survival mode as my husband was traveling for work and we had all of the repairs being done in the house!  Trying to embrace the ebb and flow of this project and not give up.  (Especially when we had another household item die this week…oy.)  This week, I:

• avoided the grocery store, only purchasing a handful of needed items
• made it another week without turning on the heat! (we actually had a bit of a heat wave)
• listed a few things on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• made pita bread

+ finishing up Clutterbug’s 30 Day Declutter Challenge.  This time around, I did something hard for me: I threw things away.  My previous decluttering challenges have generally involved items in good condition that I was able to pass along to others.  I hate waste but those holey/stained t-shirts and little bits of mostly-used up science kits were not being used.  I’m not doing myself any favors by keeping trash in the house!

+ selling two unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: one kids belt and one book.  After shipping and fees, I made $6.45.

Reading //

• The Walking Rebellion: Restoring the Mind at Three Miles an Hour from Ruth and Peco Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // “There might not be any natural remedy in the world as protective as walking against the deadening impact of our sedentary, chair-bound, screen-mesmerized lives. Walking is the original form of scrolling. Yet it doesn’t lead us down online rabbit holes, but past real rabbit holes. It keeps us grounded, literally by keeping our feet on the ground. It keeps us softly fascinated by ever-changing scenery. Walking is calming, head-clearing, and social and even spiritual when we do it together. If walking were a food, it would be a celebrated superfood packed with nutrients that feed our mind, body, relationships, and contact with nature—and it would cost nothing.”
• A New Preparedness Class from Patsi at A Working Pantry // “If you’re looking for a reasonable and sensible class geared towards women helping women learn how to live in and prepare for uncertain times as well as emergency type situations, then this class is for you. If you’re looking for a ‘dooms day, end of the world rush out and buy anything and everything you can find to ward off the zoombies’ kind of class then this class is not for you.”
• It’s Time to Declutter And Reduce Your Sensory Overload from Jennifer Guttman Psy.D. at Psychology Today // “In a study conducted by UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families researchers examined 32 California families and found that clutter had a strong impact on their mood and self-esteem. They determined there is a link between high cortisol levels in women and a cluttered household. The same was not true of men.”
• The Clutter Culture from Jack Feuer at UCLA Magazine // This stuff fascinates me.

New Additions to The List // 

• No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 by T. J. Jackson Lears
• The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hackett Fischer
• Survivals and New Arrivals: Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church by Hilaire Belloc

Watching/Listening //

• A precision approach to end Alzheimer’s Disease | Dale Bredesen | TEDxManhattanBeach // Fascinating.  I need to pick up his book, The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.
• A Day in the Life of a Catholic Priest from the Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Loving //

• this quote from Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison:

It has occurred to me that I am only doing what every housewife did as a matter of course only a generation or two ago.  She always preserved food for the coming year as it came into season and bulk-purchased staples such as sugar and vinegar.  Our grandmothers did this not because they were paranoid, isolated survivalists, but rather because they had learned from experience that blizzards, crop failures, and epidemics happened.  The prudent, prepared household prevailed.  (p.13)

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

If you’re of a certain age, I’m sure you remember the part in the Disney movie Alladin where the main character, floating above the ground on a magic carpet, puts out his hand to Jasmine and asks the question, Do you trust me?  Forgive my childish connection, but I’ve often thought of that scene as a metaphor of God’s relationship with me. Alladin’s next line is also important to this idea: Then jump!

God has been asking me to jump quite a bit this year.  (My husband and I often joke that our particular set of suffering is best described as “death by a thousand cuts” – handfuls of little annoyances that compound on each other.)  I’m not particularly good at dealing with the entirety of these things, but I do know one thing to be true: God is good. He works all things for good. I only have to trust Him.

When I look into the future, I am frightened, but why plunge into the future? Only the present moment is precious to me, as the future may never enter my soul at all. It is no longer in my power, to change, correct or add to the past; For neither sages nor prophets could do that. And so, what the past has embraced I must entrust to God. O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire. I desire to use you as best I can. And although I am weak and small, You grant me the grace of Your omnipotence. And so, trusting in Your mercy, I walk through life like a little child, offering You each day this heart burning with love for Your greater glory.
― The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina: Divine Mercy in My Soul, p.4

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ watching my favorite tree finally turning colors!  Do you have a favorite tree?  Mine is a maple and is usually the last tree on our property to change colors.  The deep red leaves are so, so beautiful and I’m enjoying every minute before the wind blows them away.

+ a decent showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  I’m even more motivated to persevere in this project because we received a double whammy: our property taxes increased (thus increasing our mortgage payment) while at the same time our health insurance also increased, taking money out of my husband’s paycheck!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy grapes, yogurt and barbecue sauce on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta sauce & macaroni and cheese)
• sold eggs to friends
• made pita bread (recipe below)
• mended a small hole in my son’s church pants
• turned my son’s beloved long-sleeved shirt with a hole in the elbow into a short sleeve
• invested in 50 pounds of flour (we buy a ton of flour so after doing the calculations, this would save me – even with the high shipping cost – $6)
• found food grade buckets that we already owned to store that flour
• listed a few things on ebay/Poshmark

+ new floors?  Because we can’t seem to catch a break, we discovered that a significant amount of water had somehow leaked into our dining room hardwood floors and was warping the panels.  It got so bad that the wood would make popping noises like fireworks!  Anyway, a mitigation company came out to see the damage and she said that if they can’t fix the issue through their dehumidifying process, we’ll have to work with our insurance to have all of the hardwoods replaced.  (Most of the first floor is continual hardwood flooring, so this is quite the project.)  Always something!

+ selling eleven unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six books, four pieces of clothing and a purse.  After shipping and fees, I made $54.69.

Reading //

• The Vulnerability and Fleetingness of Beauty from Hadden Turner at Over the Field // “The bulldozer of efficiency is a machine after all. We can just turn it off. We are able to say, ‘thus far and no further’. What this requires is learning again to cherish and delight in beauty, to yearn after it, to value it more than efficiency, profit, and ease, and feel the pain and tragedy when we lose it. We need to understand and appreciate that beauty ‘fufils something in us that other things cannot, and enriches our lives in all kinds of unexpected and vital ways’. We need to remind ourselves that when beauty is noticed, it can be loved.”
• Against the tide: some thoughts on navigating the modern world from Carole Hudson // “This idea of death by comfort has been a motivator for me. It helps me to tackle a difficult book, look up words I don’t know or am not sure of, memorise scripture, get up and move around, practice my guitar, or write a long letter instead of sending a quick email. These are small things but they are diffusive acts that seep into other areas of our lives.”
• Keeping Sacred Time from Elizabeth Oldfield at Comment // “We have outsourced our formation largely to our passive consumption of culture, been too relaxed about how powerfully social liturgies—more subtle and more regular than our actual liturgies—shape our hearts and our habits. I’m more and more convinced that the way we structure our time—collectively, not only individually—is the key factor in our discipleship. The only way we can be formed to stay loyal to the logic of a different kingdom is to focus as much repeated, intentional attention on its stories and rituals and songs as we do on our phones, our televisions, and our shopping centres.”
• Wonder of Wonders from Stephen P. White at The Catholic Thing // “Such wonder, the unaffected wonder of a child who marvels at the world and the one who made it, cannot but gush into a flood of gratitude. In our most child-like moments, all sensible distinctions between gratitude, humility, trust, and praise melt away and we are left basking in the presence of someone who loves us. Wonder may be the beginning of philosophy; it is also a powerful entry into the prayer of contemplation.”

New Additions to The List // 

• Marxism: Philosophy and Economics by Thomas Sowell
• Knight of the Holy Ghost: A Short History of G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist
• One Man in: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Soldier Who Fought Off a Massive Terrorist Attack in Kenya by Chris Craighead

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I checked five more days off the list and decluttered 56 items.  Totals so far: 20/30 days completed and 275 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• this pita bread recipe:

PITA BREAD

6 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. honey

Let the yeast dissolve in warm water.  Stir the honey in the water and yeast mixture.  Then slowly add salt and flour.  Stir until it becomes tough to mix.

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface.

Knead for about 10 minutes.  Then place the dough in a buttered bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp dishtowel.

Let dough rise for two hours or until doubled in size.

After punching down the dough, shape into 10 balls.

Let them rest for 15 minutes, then shape into 6″-7″ round shapes, like a mini pizza crust.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes on the lowest oven rack.

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

Another week of contemplation as I primed and repaired and painted the living room walls.  It’s been pretty heavy in our neck of the woods: we had my husband’s basal cell carcinoma surgery, the news of a leukemia diagnosis for an acquaintance’s wife (a mother of four) and a concerning spot/possible cancer for another friend.  Life is so fragile and can change in an instant.

Naturally, these things make me reflect on the last four things and the direction of my life.  I’ve talked about this in various ways ad nauseum on this blog, but the latest phrase I’ve been repeating is this: I want to imitate great things.  Imitation is the best form of flattery, right?  But who to imitate?  Certainly, it’s not the popular social media influencers or famous celebrities or millionaires or politicians.  This is who I want to emulate:

My grandmothers.  Neighbors who take care of each other.  The great thinkers throughout the ages.  The saints who kept the faith during challenging times.  The people who do things instead of just talking about them.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ spending all of my spare moments on the living room walls.  The room has been in disarray for weeks and with this sudden cold snap, we’ve been dying to have our first fire of the season.  I worked and worked and managed to complete half of the room to completion.  (I ran out of paint, so the rest is on hold until I can get to Home Depot.)  Typical insanity around here, but this is the life!

+ another decent week for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  It doesn’t seem very significant when we’re spending $100 for a dozen straw bales and $630 to get our propane tank filled 30%, but…we carry on!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy potatoes, cheese and honey on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (toothpaste and deodorant)
• sold eggs to friends
• made bread, tortillas and granola
• avoided turning on the heat, even though the morning temperatures were quite chilly
• made chicken broth from carcasses I had in the freezer
• repurposed greeting cards into mini thank you notes for my resale packages
• listed a few things on Pango/Poshmark/ebay
• reused an Old Navy return bag to mail an ebay sale

+ decluttering like a fool!  Since my “baby” is turning eight this year, the youngest three kids helped me make decisions regarding what toys to keep and what can go.  A much overdue project!  I tucked away some of our favorites for my grandchildren someday: wooden blocks, train tracks, Magnatiles, Little People sets and Matchbox cars.

+ selling nine unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: seven pieces of clothing, one book and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $63.39!

Reading //

• Motherhood as an Intellectual Vocation from Shannon Donald at Nota Bene // “Indeed, the first and ongoing intellectual task of the mother is to identify the particular knowledge that she requires to fulfill her duties—now and in the future—and the best means, timing, and strategy she can use to learn what she currently does not know. The answer will be different for every mother, and it will be ever-changing for the same mother. No one else can do this work for her. It is hers alone, to accept or neglect.”
• Home Libraries Will Save Civilization from Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic // “When books are everywhere, they distract us with their presence in a good way—they demand to be read, shaping the people around them in small but meaningful ways, moment by moment, page by page. They send us on rabbit trails to find yet more books on related topics, to ask friends for recommendations, and sometimes just to sit quietly and reflect, overcome with an emotion sparked by an author who has been dead for centuries but one that expresses the state of our soul in this moment.”
• The Search for Stillness in a Mad, Mad World from Peco at School of the Unconformed // A nice companion piece to read after finishing The Power of Silence by Cardinal Sarah last week.
• presence & repair from Rachel at five acres four generations // “Right now, to combat perfectionism and burnout and despair, I try to hold two things at the front of my mind: presence and repair. In the end, those are the things that matter most. It’s not the amount of Little Bear my toddler watches when I’m sleep deprived: it’s the way I still sit with him and snuggle him, or make sure we have one-on-one creative time later. It’s not the number of times I lose my temper: it’s the way I apologize and ask forgiveness when I do.”  So wise.  I loved this.

New Additions to The List // 

• Our Lady of Fatima by William T. Walsh

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I checked seven days off the list and decluttered 78 items.  Totals so far: 15/30 days completed and 219 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• Mastermind // The kids pulled out this game and whew, it’s a brain bender!  They are better strategists than I am.

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

I turned the big 4-0 this week.  I met this milestone not with dread, but with a sense of awe and immense gratitude.  How quickly I reached this point!  What a gift to have been alive for four decades.  What an incredible life I’ve lived so far.

You know me, I’m a ponderer.  I reflect on the past and look ahead to the future.  The question I kept thinking about this week was: what do I want my next decade to look like?

The next ten years should be a significant time of change.  By the end of this new decade, I will be close to becoming an empty nester.  Most of my children will be out carving their place in the world.  My hair could be completely gray.  I might be a grandmother!  As I reflect on the next ten years, I know I’m at a critical junction: what I do and how I take care of myself in this decade will greatly influence how I age in the (hopefully many!) decades to come.  So here are my priorities as I enter into my 40s:

• Eat in a way that makes me thrive. //  I know what that looks like and how my body reacts when I stick with it.  Time to stick with it.
• Take care of my oral health. //  If I want to keep my teeth as an octogenarian, I probably should focus on taking good care of them now.  I’m seeing some gum recession that I would like to mitigate and am curious to try this dentist’s recommendation.
• Prep for perimenopause/menopause. // This is a big change and I want to lessen the worst symptoms as best as I can.  Lots of research to be done in this area.
• Deal with stress. //  My constant nemesis.  Always learning, always trying to improve.  My lifespan depends on me getting this in check.
• Continue in personal education. //  The past few years of Mother Academia have changed my life!  If my reading has taught me anything so far, it’s that man is the same throughout the ages.  Without virtue, we follow our base desires and we act like animals.  Life is a battle!  I want to read and read and read, learning from history, acknowledging perennial truths, and continually challenging myself to be better.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ taking a mini fall break.  We’ve had a fairly typical autumn so far, but the temperatures are quickly taking a chilly turn and we’re scrambling to finish a bunch of farm projects ASAP!  I decided to put a few “Teacher Farm-service” days on the calendar so I could work on the list.  The kids helped with a bunch of the heavy lifting – so grateful for strong teenage boys!  I put in at least six hours each day and boy, did I sleep well each night, ha!

+ a weak showing for the Weather the Storm Challenge.  I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged with the whole thing and my priorities were with the farm anyway.  Maybe a little distance from the project, if only for a week, is a good thing?   Anyway, this week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy apples, croissants, and Primal Kitchen mayo on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (soups)
• planted seed potatoes from my spring batch to grow/eat over the winter
• got the kids to look at their things for anything to declutter/sell (I list for them and they keep the money when sold)
• listed a few items on Poshmark/ebay

+ finding mold.  Our basement generally tends to be quite damp and all of the rain we received last week didn’t help things.  Even with the dehumidifier running, I could smell something off.  After a little investigation, we found mold growing in one section: on cushions, luggage, an old couch…it was a mess and we had to throw out a lot.  Digging deep here to find the good, but I guess I’m thankful for an excuse to declutter the basement.

+ selling five unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: two books, a pair of snow pants, a fleece pullover and a video game for my son.  After shipping and fees, I made $44.15.

Reading //

• Rehumanizing the Humanities from James Hankins at First Things // “People who want to learn just need a knowledgeable teacher to orient them to the books they want to read and help stir their enthusiasm. They want the framework of a course to help impose some discipline on themselves, and they want congenial companions with the same interests who like to talk about literature and philosophy. Teachers just want students who love books and want to talk about them, and enough income to supply themselves with tea and cakes. You can have effective education, it turns out, with very little fuss and expense.”
• Why “The Great Music” Is as Important as “The Great Books” from Peter Kwasniewski at The Imaginative Conservative // “Although one cannot train the ear in a day, a week, a month, or even a year, a beginning must nevertheless be made in developing the skill of what we might call ‘attentive listening to beautiful sound that is inherently worth listening to.’ “
• So, a Chatbot Did Your Homework from Jacob Riyeff at Plough // This is a really important conversation.  If education is nothing but an “information-processing exercise to get a degree”, what’s the point?
• Candy! Candy everywhere! And a case for the Ascetic Economy from J.E. Petersen at Dispatches from Outer Space

New Additions to The List // 

• Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health and How We Can Get It Back by Catherine Shanahan
• Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future by Thomas M. Kostigen

Watching/Listening //

• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I got a bit behind this week, but did check three days off the list and decluttered 56 items.  Totals so far: 8/30 days completed and 141 total items to sell, throw out or donate!

Loving //

• this fleece vest // Mine is a hand-me-down (thanks, Mom!) and I’ve been wearing it almost everyday when I’m outside working.
• slow cooker pot roast // ‘Tis the season!  The perfect dinner for chilly evenings.

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 one more time!  (Here’s part one, part two, part three, and part four.)  This week, I’ve exhausted myself thinking about all the things: hurricane recovery things, teenager things, dyslexia things, financial things, farm things, homemaker things, preparedness things, etc etc etc.  My brain is full and my days are packed to the brim.  I crash hard at night and am up at an (obscenely!) early hour to begin again.  It’s a lot, but I’m keeping my eyes focused on all things good and constantly repeating my mantra, “One step at a time.  One day at a time.”  Somehow, despite all of my overthinking and planning and worrying, the good Lord gives me exactly the amount of energy I need to complete that day’s work.  What a blessing.  Deo gracias.

Anyway!  Here is this week’s “Little Moments of Delight” list:

Early morning silence.  Seeing the sun again after a week of rainy and cloudy days.  Watching yellow leaves fall like rain in the breeze.  New interest in our farm products.  An unexpected phone call from my mom.  The opportunity to help (in a small way) to fill a truckload of goods headed to the people of North Carolina.  Finding a possible solution to patch our walls in the living room.  Finally get paint on one of those walls!  Seeing how much my littlest boys love drawing.  My hands in the dirt again after a week away from the garden.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ finishing up the documentation of everything that came in and out of my home in the month of September.  The results were surprising!  Not counting food and junk mail that immediately went in the trash, I ended up with a final count of 157 items in and 105 items out, making a net total of 52 additional items in the house.  This was a birthday month for two of my children and I also stocked up on egg cartons, but I was still surprised at the final amount!  I did sell 38 items, but I think going forward, I’ll have to be intentional about continual decluttering to keep that net number low.

+ another Weather the Storm Challenge update.  I’m sure at this point my lists are redundant and boring, but I appreciate compiling them because it feels like I’ve accomplished something when it feels like nothing. This week, I:

• avoided the grocery store, only purchasing a handful of needed items
• used this post as inspiration to make breakfast sandwiches for the freezer (using bagels I got for buy one, get one free)
• used a King Arthur flour coupon I received in the mail ($1.50 off!)
• sold eggs and chicken to friends
• made homemade bacon from sidemeat from our pigs using our meat slicer (delicious!)
• went through the winter coats and snow gear, removing outgrown pieces and making a to-buy list
• purchased snow pants for a son on Poshmark: brand new with tags, retails for $60 and I paid $13!
• found a belt for the same son in the hand-me-down bins
• listed a few items on Poshmark/ebay
• made bread
• wrapped my brushes in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge in between paint sessions to keep them from drying out

+ starting to pick up little things for Christmas.  A few finds so far: I picked these multicolor gel pens for my daughter.  I’ll either put them in her stocking or pair them with a few packs of greeting cards, stickers and stamps for a snail mail-themed gift.  I also picked up this Anne of Green Gables cookbook for her, which I know she’ll love!  Lastly, I found Bubble Factory soap bars (I purchased the shaving soap set, which seems to be sold out already) to tuck in my biggest sons’ stockings.  I’m a big fan of giving the kids “fancier” but still practical gifts.

+ selling five unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: three shirts and two books.  After shipping and fees, I made $12.85.  I’m seeing a significant slow down in sales lately, which is a bummer.

Reading //

• A Child’s List of Prerequisite Reading for Tolkien from Dominika at Gathering Light // This is an awesome list – I’ve got a cart full of her recommendations now!
• Why Are Babies Most Cradled on the Left Side? from Carrie Gress at Theology of Home // This is interesting!
• How to Be An L. M. Montgomery Heroine in a 21st-Century World from Elsie at Tea and Ink Society
• How the Amish are saving the disappearing art form of wood-working from Alexandra Fasulo at House of Green // I loved this.
• What We Lose With Our Attention Spans from Walker Larson at Intellectual Takeout // “But for contemplation, we need focus. We need quiet. We need an absence of distractions. So if it’s true that our attention spans are being degraded, we may risk losing something even more precious than productivity: We may risk losing that which is distinctly human, that which makes us us: our ability to understand and know things at a profound level, which is a corollary to our ability to love deeply and meaningfully.”
• We Need Moral Direction from Freya India at GIRLS // “I’m not saying that living by strong moral values makes every decision easy. But it gives guidance. It helps the constant doubt and confusion. From what I can see, a major part of anxiety today is feeling like we can’t trust ourselves to make the right decisions. We rely on all these experts—influencers, therapists, dating coaches—to tell us what to do. And the more we turn to them the less we trust ourselves.”
• The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise by Cardinal Robert Sarah // One quote:

Without silence, we are deprived of mystery, reduced to fear, sadness, and solitude.  It is time to rediscover silence!  The mystery of God, his incomprehensibility, is the source of joy for every Christian.  Every day we rejoice to contemplate an unfathomable God, whose mystery will never be exhausted.  The eternity of heaven itself will be the joy, ever new, of entering more profoundly into the divine mystery without ever exhausting it. (p.126)

New Additions to The List // 

• Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women’s Voices from the Gulag by Monika Zgustová
• Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway
• You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life by Gene Logsdon

Watching/Listening //

• How Do Your Expenses Compare to the Average American Budget? from Under the Median
• 30 Day Declutter Challenge 2024 from Clutterbug // I’m not completing these in order, but I did check five days off the list and got rid of 85 items!
• UNBELIEVABLE DESTRUCTION: Hurricane Helene destroys our Farm from Justin Rhodes // This video brought me close to weeping.  While I have experienced only a fraction of the devastation, I know exactly how it feels to watch your hard work/money get pulverized by nature in an instant.  So, so heartbreaking.

Loving //

• these printable postcards from Kody Stewart // I think I need to order this for my daughter and I to paint!
• this shelf-stable dry milk // A recent preparatory purchase as I think about what gaps we have in our supplies.

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 days, I’ve been online, watching the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene.  So many people have lost everything and millions will be without electricity for weeks.  It’s so sad and heartbreaking.  In times like these, I can’t help but think that just because we have abundant technology at our fingertips doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn “the old ways” too.  If this situation were to happen to us, would we know how to survive without our daily luxuries?

I once heard someone explain that if a skill is never taught, a society will completely forget how to do that skill within three generations.  And this doesn’t have to apply to nineteenth century habits…it could simply be remembering how people lived in the 1940’s (like Grandma Donna likes to practice)!  This is a silly but poignant example: we have a backup camera on our car, but do we remember how to reverse without it?

Below is my working list of skills I’d like to learn, strengthen or pass on to my children.  What would be on yours?

• how to identify wild plants (which are poisonous and which are edible?)
• how to identify scat (important to know what kind of wild animal you’re dealing with!)
• basic carpentry and home repair
• reading a paper map
• sewing and mending clothing
• simple car repair
• how to grow food and then use or save that food intentionally (canning, drying, etc)
• writing and reading in cursive

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ a week of RAIN.  We were thankfully too far north to feel the worst effects of the hurricane, but it’s still been a lot to handle.  No flooding, but there is mush and mud everywhere.

+ completing the last broiler processing of the season.  Due to weather and scheduling conflicts, we decided to get it done all in one day (vs. our usual two) and took up the offer from a farmer friend to use his covered shelter and machines.  (This was huge because we usually process in our backyard and it’s just a mess right now – see above!)  It took a bit of logistical planning to bring over our birds and supplies, but we got it done!  175 birds makes for a long day, but I’m so thankful for a sunny day, my hard-working family and a full chicken freezer.

+ trying a three week on/one week off grocery shopping experiment.  I’ve been consistently going over my weekly budget (despite my best intentions!) so hoping this will help.  We’ll still need milk and possibly produce, but I’m hoping I can make our pantry stretch during that fourth week.

+ another week plodding along with the Weather the Storm Challenge.  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy apples, yogurt and tortillas on sale
• purchased five items to put back for winter (pasta and pizza sauce)
• made vanilla granola to eat with the yogurt above
• sold eggs to friends
• cooked dried pinto beans and used those to make refried beans
• paid two bills by check to avoid the online convenience fees
• made english muffin bread twice
• restocked my “bag to hold all the bags” to remind myself to use them
• made beef stew using my homemade beef broth and various veggies in the fridge
• made elderberry syrup and froze into ice cubes (time to strengthen my immune system again)

+ selling four unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: one shirt, a scarf and two books.  After shipping and fees, I made $7.46!  Reselling went on the back burner, so a really slow week.

Reading //

• The Flavors of Faux History: Preparing for the Collapse of Knowledge from Peco and Ruth Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed // Another thoughtful post from the Gaskovskis and another book list to chip away at!
• A Reflection on the Virtue of Perseverance from Rev. M. McDonnell at Saint Benedict Center // Great examples here.  I liked this story:

Timour, the celebrated Tartar warrior, after a series of the most brilliant victories, was at length conquered and made captive. Though confined in a prison, whose massive walls and thick iron bars discouraged every attempt to escape, he still strove at each chink and crevice to find some way of escape. At length weary and dispirited, he sat down in a corner of his gloomy prison and almost gave himself up to despair. While brooding over his sorrows, an ant with a piece of wood twice as large as itself attracted his attention; the insect seemed determined to ascend the perpendicular face of the wall and made several attempts to affect it. But after reaching a little elevation it came to the jutting angle of a stone and fell backward to the floor. But again, again and again the attempt was renewed; the prisoner watched the struggles of the insect, and in the interest he forgot his own condition. The ant persevered and at the sixteenth trial surmounted the obstacle. Timour sprang to his feet, exclaiming: “I will never despair, perseverance conquers!”

• How We Built A-Frame Chicken Tractors To Protect Our Hens from Green Willow Homestead // Always planning and preparing for next year.

New Additions to The List // 

• The Natural World of Winnie-The-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood by Kathryn Aalto
• Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant (the first in an eleven-book series)
• A Bitter Truth (Bess Crawford #3) by Charles Todd

Watching/Listening //

• MASSIVE Meal Prep for a Senior! A New Mix & Match Menu to Stock Her Freezer with Easy Meals! from Dollar Tree Dinners // This got me thinking about ways I could stock my fridge and freezers too.
• Fr. Tom Shepanzyk | The Effects of Communism from Christendom College // Excellent.
• How To Reverse a Cavity at Home | Cure Tooth Decay from Dr. Ellie Phillips // This video randomly appeared on my Youtube recommendations…very interesting.

Loving //

• Ghirardelli White Chocolate Caramel // An impulse buy from last week’s birthday shopping spree.  A yummy treat.
• this idea for homemade vanilla extract // Now to find a source for vanilla beans!

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

I knew it would happen eventually.  I’ve been burning that proverbial candle at both ends for awhile now and I finally hit the wall mid-week.  Thankfully, a two-day forced rest helped immensely and I was able to rally enough to celebrate birthdays by the weekend.

All that to say, I had planned to write about my thoughts from an article I read titled, “What Pope John Paul II can teach us about moving beyond fear” this week.  Being sick, that never came to fruition but I hope you’ll still read it and find encouragement like I did.

I plead with you–never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid. – JPII

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ celebrating birthdays!  I have two children whose birthdays are five days apart and they wanted to celebrate together.  My husband and I took them on a “shopping spree” to a few stores and they found a handful of great treasures.  We finished up with lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then had cheesecake at home.  A great day.

+ continued diligence with my Weather the Storm Challenge.  I felt a little discouraged as this work feels somewhat inconsequential, but I know it’s building the virtues of perseverance and patience…so we keep going!  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy peaches, applesauce and shampoo on sale
• purchased five canned goods to put back for winter (diced tomatoes – also on sale)
• made cinnamon applesauce muffins using some of that applesauce above
• sold eggs to friends
• started air drying about a third of our laundry loads (which should save a tiny bit on our electricity bill)
• used a spatula to get the last bit of peanut butter out of the jar
• made english muffin bread twice
• picked tomatoes from my dying plants to throw to the chickens
• accepted two packs of fresh slider buns from my son’s work (delicious and free!)
• made more chicken broth, using up the last of the celery/carrots/onion in the fridge
• purchased next year’s birthday wrapping paper on clearance

+ selling fifteen unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: six books, five pieces of clothing and four dyslexia workbooks.  After shipping and fees, I made $149.31!

Reading //

• “Screen Sober” from Meredith Hinds at Still Today // “That said, ‘it is lawful to amuse yourself…’ but what are the limits? Discerning that means contemplating the difference between ‘doing the thing’ and ‘caring for it.’ And a helpful question to me in that line of thought is: are the stories I’m watching getting in the way of the stories I want to live?“
• Finding The Seam: How Small Farmers Can Thrive from Lenny Wells at Front Porch Republic // “But one can still be a farmer and care for the land without relying solely on the business of farming to support a family. In fact, most of them do. As of 2022, around 84% of farm households have off-farm income. Some would call what I’ve described above as a hobby farmer. I don’t. The fact of the matter is that if the average person wants to farm nowadays, they need an off-farm income.”
• The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America by T.H. Watkins // Really interesting so far.  One quote:

If the politicians and the pundits felt confused, others felt betrayed.  Perhaps the most fully deceived were those hostages to a middle-class dream gone bad – salesmen, promoters, businessmen, brokers, boosters, middle-management executives, Rotarians, Lions, Toastmasters.  They had all played by the rules, had joined enthusiastically in the great game of consumerism and limitless potential.  Now there was nothing to sell, nothing to boost, nothing to dream on.  “The kind of readjustment they are called upon to make is heroic,” Episcopal Bishop John Paul Jones observed in the pages of the Survey Graphic in 1933.  “Vast multitudes of them have lost financial security forever.  In bewilderment and bitterness they will seek a sign of hope, and no sign will be given.  Some will give up and end it all, but a great majority will go on living some kind of broken and frustrated lives.” (p.54)

New Additions to The List // 

• The Overstory by Richard Powers

Watching/Listening //

• How to Declutter your ENTIRE Home in 30 Days! from Clutterbug // Thinking about jumping in on this challenge soon.
• I tried “Swedish Death Cleaning” and it CHANGED EVERYTHING! from That Awkward Mom

Loving //

• this homeopathic cold medicine // My go-to when I’m going downhill.
• this Vitamin C tea // A new product in my wellness arsenal – I liked it a lot!
• the Megan Follows version of Anne of Green Gables // I bought this for my daughter and she loves it as much as I do.  SO good.

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

Our home looks like a construction site right now.  As time allows, we’ve been working as a family to remove the wall texture in the living room and it’s been quite the project!  Furniture has been crammed into the middle of the room, lamps and artwork are hanging out in other spaces and watch your step!  Step stools and trash bags and putty knives of all sizes are everywhere.  We’ve done this kind of slow and steady work with the farm and even though we’re living in organized chaos, it is so fun and satisfying to have the same experience inside.

Doing the renovation ourselves brings me back to 2008ish and that period of the Great Recession.  I was a newly married, young mother of very young children.  As a family just starting out on one income, we didn’t have much money and I was so inspired by the surge of DIY projects and money-saving ideas on the internet.  Sadly, as the economy recovered, a rise in fast consumerism occurred and those do-it-yourself tutorials seemed to fade out of popularity.  And what a shame!  There’s something about doing diligent work yourself, learning new skills and trying new things, that just can’t be compared!  And that feeling of pride in a job well done?  Priceless.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ continuing on with the Weather the Storm Challenge.  (As a reminder, the goals of this challenge are to reduce debt, add to our food storage and save money.)  The biggest change I’m seeing may not be the vast amounts of money I’m saving (I wish!) but the confidence it is creating.  I’m constantly thinking of new things to try, new ways to stretch what we have.  It’s intoxicating and exciting!  Anyway, this week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy grapes, tuna, and panko on sale
• used a coupon to try a new tikka masala sauce kit for free! (I saved $5.50)
• purchased five canned goods to put back for winter (mixed vegetables for chicken pot pies)
• sold eggs and chicken to friends
• made beef bone broth for the first time
• froze that broth into Souper Cubes (to stockpile for beef stew and french onion soup)
• found a sweatshirt for my son in the hand-me-down bins
• used up a free laundry detergent sample
• made english muffin bread
• learned from my son how to cut up a whole chicken into parts (he works at a farm and is a pro)
• made chicken broth from those carcasses (I’m on a roll!)
• listed a few items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango

+ selling eleven unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: seven books, one textbook and three pieces of clothing.  After shipping and fees, I made $91.35!

Reading //

• How Many People do we Need in Our Lives? from Edwin Leap at Life and Limb // “We all need connection. We need our own clans. Our own groups. Our own churches or synagogues, mosques or temples. We need deep relationship. These things can go a long way towards helping and comforting the lonely. They can make hard times better, hopelessness hopeful. They can protect against danger, hunger, disease and abuse by simply showing up and standing by those who are frail and powerless.”
• No, you cannot have it all from Jim Dalrymple at Nuclear Meltdown // “…you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be a self-centered individualist right up until the moment you need people. By that time the trade-off is made, the deal is done.”
• The Mother’s Gauntlet from Lane Scott at The American Mind // “One might object to the idea that homemaking requires an almost superhuman amount of self-governance. After all, isn’t it mostly about keeping the kids alive, fed, and your home kind of running on a basic level? That can’t be that hard. Yet it is precisely because the standards imposed externally are so low that the job can be so unsatisfying. The stay-at-home mom unconsciously applies her own standard, above and outside of the rest of society. Despite any protestations to the contrary, she knows her job demands more than subsistence. Her household has set aside the life of an entire adult, and all the income and aspirations she could have chased, so that she can raise the children. That sacrifice demands a thriving family, not a family that simply survives. The stakes are unbelievably high.”  Interesting thoughts here.
• Forming Human Persons in a Digital Age from Shannon Donald at Nota Bene // “I sometimes wish I could roll back the clock and do things differently. I like to think I would have kept digital technology out of my children’s lives for much longer, and that I would have endeavored sooner to break free from my own digital chains. But we can only ever learn and move forward, striving to become a little more human every day.”
• ‘Art Will Touch Lives’: An Aging Farmer Adds a New Dimension to his Ministry from Max Heine at Front Porch Republic // What a fascinating person.
• the comments under Grandma Donna’s The Bumpy Budget post // I sometimes feel like I have more in common with older retirees than I do my own generation.  They tend to avoid debt and are more content to live within their means without all of the unnecessary luxuries.  To read about their struggles in this economy both buoys me (we’re not alone!) and leaves me so, so sad.  God help us all.

New Additions to The List // 

• Coming Up for Air by George Orwell
• Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
• None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

Watching/Listening //

• Millennial Stone Cleaner // I’ve been enjoying this Youtube channel.  This is the first video in a series where he restores and conserves an abandoned cemetery in Des Moines.

Loving //

• You Can Draw in 30 Days // My daughter is going through this book in school and really likes it.
• these “Save By Numbers” savings challenges // I just printed out the Donut Sloth.  If I can complete it, I’ll have saved $2,778!

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

The painting above is a little blurry and the exact details are unclear (is that a woman?  is she in a cemetery?), but I felt the emotions evoked deep in my soul this week.  It’s that “fall on your face in front of Our Lord” exhaustion where you’ve clawed your way to the weekend!  Anyway, it is done, we survived and God’s mercies are new every morning.

I’ve been slowly reading The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise by Cardinal Robert Sarah and this piece of advice seemed timely for me:

The silence of everyday life is an indispensable condition for living with others.  Without the capacity for silence, man is incapable of hearing, loving, and understanding the people around him.  Charity is born of silence.  It proceeds from a silent heart that is able to hear, to listen, and to welcome.  Silence is a condition for otherness and a necessity if one is to understand himself.  Without silence, there is neither rest nor serenity nor interior life.  Silence is friendship and love, interior harmony and peace.  Silence and peace have one and the same heartbeat. (p.32-33)

Here’s to finding little pockets of silence in the midst of this loud and messy life.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ working together (multiple times) to get a silly pig back into her paddock.  I swear…with every turn of the season, pigs always decide to get a wild hair and run amok around the property!

+ learning a tip for keeping sweaters looking great.  I wish I had saved the Youtube video, but the woman basically shared how any sweater made with acrylic or nylon or polyester will quickly look worn out.  She said your best bet would be to look for 100% cotton or wool because they hold their shape longer and are less likely to pill or show wash wear.  Two of the three sweaters that I just purchased on ThredUp were 100% cotton, so I’m anxious to see if this tip holds true this winter.

+ completing more small tasks for the Weather the Storm Challenge and feeling more motivated than ever.  When we were getting gas one afternoon, we overheard the gas station owner warn that we could see another $1-$1.50/gal increase by the end of the year.  This would be pretty devastating financially for us (as we live in the country and my husband has quite a work commute) so I’m already thinking of ways to get ahead now in case the owner’s prediction comes true.  This week, I:

• used the weekly grocery store ad to buy peaches, blueberries and russet potatoes on sale
• purchased five canned goods to put back for winter (diced tomatoes and soup)
• sold eggs to friends
• counted up and wrapped change to deposit at the bank
• fixed a small crack in my dustpan with duct tape
• listed a few items on ebay/Poshmark/Pango
• cooked two whole birds for dinner and then used the carcasses to make broth
• froze that broth into Souper Cubes (creating a stockpile for winter soups and stews!)
• added food scraps and toilet paper rolls to the compost pile
• turned off the A/C and opened the windows

+ getting paint on the back hallway walls.  After a ridiculous amount of research, I decided to go with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White for the trim and Ballet White for the walls.  I had them color matched at Home Depot and spent most of Saturday getting to work.  The walls themselves aren’t perfect and I already know I need to re-sand a few places and repaint, but…progress!

+ selling seven unneeded items for the Car Loan Payoff Plan: seven books.  After shipping and fees, I made $15.84.  A slow week.

Reading //

• How to begin a letter-writing habit from Shannon Hood at Of Permanent Things // “We are drowning in electronic communication–much of it is meaningless, and very little of it is of lasting value. None of it is tangible. I write letters because they embody all of the best aspects of communication. Letters are meaningful, intimate, private, tangible, and worth holding on to.”
• It Pays To Be Cheap from Addison Del Mastro at The Deleted Scenes // Food for thought and the comments are great too.
• The Prophets of Technocracy from Dr. Ben Reinhard at Hearth and Field // “I suspect that the difficulties encountered by educators can be replicated, with small modifications, in every profession and every state of life: rejecting, as far as we are able, the empty glamours of the technocratic age, asks more of us than we might suppose. It does not mean returning simply to the status quo ante of 2019, or 2010, or 1993, but a radical re-examination of what it means to be fully human. In pursuit of this, every moment, every action, every thought clawed back from the reign of the Machines is something to celebrate; every moment yielded to them should be an occasion of regret, if not outright repentance.”

New Additions to The List // 

• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

Watching/Listening //

• Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos from Frontline PBS // An eerie documentary to watch as I read The Every by Dave Eggers.
• Lectures 1-3 of George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons on The Great Courses // Did you know George Orwell is actually a pseudonym?

Loving //

• D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths // I’m reading this with my little boys and we are all really enjoying the crazy stories.
• this english muffin bread recipe // Makes two loaves and holds up to sandwich making.  I always omit the sugar and you can’t taste a difference.

P.S. Something seems to be wrong with my posts being delivered to email inboxes.  I’m looking into the situation and may have to find a new program.  So sorry for the inconvenience.