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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.

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I was skimming through my planner and noticed the phrase “Little Moments of Delight” jotted into one of the weekly margins.  Hmm…where did that come from?  What did I mean by that?  There was no further explanation, no context.  Out of the brain and out of my memory, I guess.  Regardless of why I wrote it, the little phrase definitely stuck with me as I went about my week, a type of seek-and-find prompt!  Here’s what I found:

Daffodil stems bursting through the ground.  “Puzzling” with my children.  The way the chickens run to me when I come into the barnyard.  Sunshine after rain.  Seeing my husband’s car pull into the driveway at the end of the day.  The pigs’ joy when they enter new pasture.  Watching the sunset.  Waking up to a notice that something has sold.  When the lights come back on after a five hour power outage.  The kids’ excitement as we plan our summer vacation.  Clean sheets.  A pile of new (to us) books in the mailbox.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ cleaning and decluttering and organizing the garage in preparation for chicks.  I was a woman on a mission and even went through a handful of bins and boxes that have sat in one spot for years!  One trip to the dump later and we have a good as new garage!  Highlight of the day: I found a bin full of my childhood yearbooks and sports memorabilia and the kids wanted a peek.  My two youngest were super impressed with my elementary/middle school softball trophies, ha!

+ having plenty of time to think through and prepare for a vacation this summer…or that’s what I’m telling myself anyway!  There are so many moving parts to leaving a farm and then I have to add in the fact that we haven’t gone on a big trip in years – do we even have enough luggage?!  Lots of lists and to-dos written this week.  I also started a challenge for myself to raise the extra money for a farm sitter.  (It’s going to cost more to leave the farm than it will be to go on the actual vacation!)  For months, I’ve been throwing things I’d like to resell in a bin and now’s the time to get listing!  My goal is to raise as close to the full amount we need as possible.  Current total for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: $90.61!

+ finding clothes for one son in the hand-me-down bins.  As the boys get older, my clothes “stash” starts to dwindle, but I did have a handful of nice things for him to wear.  A trip to the store is in order, but every little bit saved counts!

+ creating a fort from a ripped fitted sheet.  The sheet was finally beyond repair but I asked the little kids if they wanted to make a fort with it before it got tossed.  (Or possibly deconstructed for fabric.)  They played in that thing for days!

+ taking advantage of a member sale on ThredUp.  I found many great spring/summer pieces for my daughter and a few dresses for me.  (If you go through this link, you can get 45% off + free shipping on your first order and I’ll get a credit when it ships.  We both win!)

Reading //

• The Great Unsettling from Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule // I just discovered this Substack and am going through his body of work.  This was from the first essay:

‘Our age is so poisoned by lies’, wrote Weil, ‘that it converts everything it touches into a lie.’ Everything deeper, older and truer than the workings and values of the Machine has been, or is in the process of being, scoured away from us. We turned away from a mythic, rooted understanding of the world, and turned away from the divine, in order to look at ourselves reflected in the little black mirrors in our hands. Some people are quite happy with this, and have no time for Romantic Luddites like myself when we lament it. Even we Romantic Luddites are here on the Internet, lamenting. But some day soon we will all have to look up and begin to turn back again. I have a feeling that this process has already begun.

• Don’t Just Talk About Unplugging: Actually Unplug by Tsh at The Commonplace // “This is all I’m saying… Yes, tell others to unplug from The Machine. But make sure you do it, too. Don’t live and breathe your work here on Substack. Don’t care about growing your audience here to the sacrifice of the things that really, truly matter to you. Say what you feel compelled to say, and then get offline.”  Good advice for writers and readers alike.
• Database Indicates U.S. Food Supply Is 73 Percent Ultra-Processed from Foodtank // Yikes.  Be sure to check out the website they created too.

The findings shocked Giulia Menichetti, Senior Research Scientist at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, and senior author of the papers. “It surprised me how a considerable amount of highly processed food is mistakenly considered healthy because the public narrative still focuses on one nutrient at a time, instead of evaluating food as a whole,” Menichetti tells Food Tank.

• Tabitha’s family cell phone policy at Team Studer // It’s truly the wild west out there in technology-land and we’re all doing our best navigating this world for our kids.  Our cell phone policy is a bit different than hers, but I love hearing the different ways families are tackling this issue.  What’s the policy at your house?

Watching/Listening //

• OFF FOR LENT

Loving //

• Berry Medley Ricola // My turn with the sore throat this week.
• pulling out this Ravensburger puzzle to complete again // It’s called “Midnight at the Library.”  I love all of the little details.
• the story of St. Frances of Rome from Once Upon a Time Saints // I felt such consolation reading about her vocation of motherhood.
• A Letter for My Mom // I was so saddened to hear of Sarah’s death, but what an incredible legacy she left.  The memories her children have of her are so beautiful.

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“I could never…”  I’ve heard that phrase so many times throughout my adult life.  “I could never have six kids.”  “I could never homeschool.”  “I could never move out to the middle of nowhere.”  “I could never give up my streaming services.”  “I could never run a homestead.”  Although most people have good intentions, I’ve always bristled at these statements because it’s implies that I’m something special, that I have some super power that’s different from everyone else.  Uh no.  You can do anything – even things you never imagined you’d do! – if you want it bad enough.

But I’m here to admit that I broke my own rule.  I’m eating crow.  I’m currently doing the one thing I publicly said I would never do: I’m eating carnivore…and I’m thriving.

The carnivore way of eating has been in our family since January 2023, when I stumbled upon a video from Jess at Roots & Refuge Farm.  In it, she described some of her health issues and how the carnivore diet was helping.  At this time, my poor husband was also dealing a handful of debilitating health issues.  When I mentioned the video to him, he jumped on board.  What did he have to lose?  Everything he had done thus far had not worked.

And he thrived.  He lost a ton of weight (70lbs!) but more importantly, his painful and debilitating gout is gone, he no longer needs to sleep with a CPAP machine, his seasonal allergies are minimal and his plethora of gut issues have resolved.  His blood work is almost in all perfect ranges.  He is in better shape now in his 40’s than he’s been his entire life.

I’ve always been insanely supportive and proud of my husband during this process, but have always said I could never do something so extreme.  You can laugh with me now…never say never.  Spurred on my own health issues, I’ve been eating about 95% carnivore (I’m not a purist because I like my Primal Kitchen sauces) since the end of January.  And surprises of all surprises, I’m a believer now.

Here are a few things I’ve learned so far:

1. Coming off of carbohydrates might be harder than sugar. // The old me loved carbs with a special love, so the detox period was HARD.  I was irritable and angry and just a terrible person to be around.  It’s wild to me how the body reacts…I can only imagine it was like coming off of drugs.  Worth it, but that was a hard week.
2. “Wheat belly” is real. // There are books about this, but I always thought that was about other people.  I’m from sturdy stock!  Gluten can’t bother me!  Now I’m not so sure.  I almost immediately lost the embarrassing belly bloat (I’ve been terrified that people would mistake the gut for being pregnant!) and am now wondering if some of my inflammation issues from last year are because of gluten.
3. I’m satiated and rarely feel like I’m starving. // This may be the wildest result of the list.  I have a good contrast: on January 1st, I started tracking my calories.  Not only was it mentally time-consuming, but I always felt like I was kinda/sorta hungry, but constantly balancing when and how I could stretch those calories.  Fast forward to today.  I generally eat two meals, certainly not low in calories, but enough that I never feel like I’m starving.  I’m not counting the hours until I can eat again.  I eat what sounds good and it is satiating and sustaining.  Absolutely mind-blowing.
4. My brain feels calm. // If you’ve read my ramblings for the past year, you’ve obviously seen that I’ve been struggling.  Putting on a brave face and never giving up, but struggling all the same.  I could weep in thanksgiving when I tell you that for the first time in a long time, my mental health is great.  My brain feels calm.  I’m not anxiety-ridden or depressed or overwhelmed to the point of desperation.  I don’t feel emotionally dead inside.  It’s an incredible gift to feel well.
5. I may continue a slightly modified version of this after Lent. // When I started, I told myself that I just had to get through Lent.  Easter was the finish line and then I could go back to eating like before.  Now I’m not so sure.  I do think I will indulge in a few treat days, but currently have every intention of continuing on for the foreseeable future.  I feel too great not to.

But enough about me.  People tend to get really defensive about the carnivore diet and that’s just silly to me.  You do you!  But one word of advice from me: never say never.  You may embark on something you never imagined…and it might change your world.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ purchasing a vacuum attachment on ebay.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my slight obsession here before, but I have a personal challenge to do everything in my power not to buy another vacuum cleaner for as long as possible.  So silly, but true!  We currently have the Bissell CleanView Pet Vacuum and I have taken it apart and fixed it multiple times since 2019.  Recently, I was frustrated with the amount of dog hair on the upholstery, but couldn’t find the “TurboEraser tool” to clean it up.  After looking all over the house to no avail, I decided to just buy the replacement piece on ebay.  Now the vacuum is complete again and lives another day!

+ listening to “Fast Car” on repeat.  My son has been learning to play Tracy Chapman’s song (or if you’re of a certain age, the Luke Combs version) on the guitar and the tune is following me everywhere.  I’m humming it first thing in the morning and it snakes its way into my dreams at night, ha!  Hopefully, he’ll move on to something different soon.

+ upgrading my cell phone after almost five years.  I am ridiculously proud of myself that I’ve held on so long!  The new challenge: can I keep this phone in good working condition until 2029?  We’ll see!  We also switched cell phone providers which means we’ll be saving about $65 a month.

+ using wood and metal sheeting scraps that we already have on hand to construct another pig shelter.  Max and Ruby are headed out to pasture!

Reading //

• Build a Songbird Compass: Agency, Communion, and Tech by Peco and Ruth Gaskovski at Pilgrims in the Machine // Thought provoking.  I saved their reflection questions.
• North Platte Canteen: Where The Heartland Opened Its Heart In WWII from NPR // We learned about this in history this week and it warmed my heart.  I love seeing all of the photographs.

Watching/Listening //

• OFF FOR LENT

Loving //

• these Minecraft cutouts // My littlest is really into Minecraft right now and has had so much fun making these 3D models of the characters.
• Avlea Folk Embroidery // These kits are so gorgeous.  I’d love to make a table runner some day.
• Cold Calm // In heavy use around here as we battle little colds and sore throats.
• these Money Saving Envelope Binders // After a great conversation about saving, I purchased two of these for my oldest teenagers.  They loved them!  There are multiple ways you can use the binder and they include examples to get you started.

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

I don’t have any profound reflections this week…it’s been a week of great joys (a solution to my health issues!  the passing of an important exam for my oldest!) and great frustrations (identity theft!).  I’m sure I’ll have something to say next week but for now, I’ll share a quotation that was appropriate for this Lenten season from The Imitation of Christ:

Do not despair, brother, of making spiritual progress; there is still time and the hour has not yet passed.  Why do you postpone making your resolutions day after day?  Come now, and begin this very moment and say to yourself: “Now is the time to do it, now is the time to fight; now is the right time to amend my life.”  When you are afflicted and troubled, that is the time for merit.  You must pass through fire and water before you arrive at redemption. (p.32-33)

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ solving a piece of the hives/angioedema puzzle.  Right now, the working theory is that something unknown caused a inflammatory reaction in my body, creating the hives.  (Was it the extremely cold temperatures during the polar vortex?  Something I ate?  Stress?  Who knows.)  That overreacting histamine response created a significant allergy to cat dander (!!) which caused the skin around my eyes to swell.  The whole thing flabbergasts me!  Sadly, Pete the cat has been banished to the (very comfortable) basement for the foreseeable future so I can take a break from his dander/saliva.  I’m feeling much better already.

+ starting tomato and marigold seeds under the grow lights.  It was so nice to already have all the needed supplies (trays and grow lights, even seed starting mix) and not have to spend any money.

+ receiving so many wonderful things from my parents.  They are downsizing, going through their belongings and sharing the extras with us.  We received a dining table and chairs (which will be great for one of my kids to take when they move out someday), a Monopoly game, art supplies, clothes and more.  Such a gift to be on the receiving end of such generosity.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

+ selling three unneeded items: two dresses and a video game.  After shipping and fees, I made $38.08!

Reading //

• Military chaplains served the ones who served from Aleteia
• These three things from Grandma Donna // “No matter how young or old or slow we are, we can make a difference if we start with baby steps and keep going. We may not get to running or even walking, but baby steps will still get us there.”
• Homer’s The Iliad and the Odyssey // I’m almost positive we never read The Iliad in high school literature class because I remember absolutely nothing about it.  Thankfully, I borrowed the kids’ graphic novel to help me keep all the characters straight!

Watching/Listening //

• OFF FOR LENT

Loving //

• Parmesan Crisps // the closest thing to a chip I can eat!  Not great enough to binge on, but I appreciate the change in texture.
• Blank Flipbooks // I bought this as an Easter basket gift, but decided to give it to my son early.  Can’t wait to see what he comes up with.
• Eczema Moisturizing Body Cream // I purchased this right as my symptoms started clearing, but found it really did help with the itching.

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

Have you ever heard a homily/sermon/talk that felt like it was spoken just for you?  We had a visiting priest say Mass for us on Sexagesima Sunday and his homily felt specifically for me.  But let’s back up.

The past month or so has been a roller coaster experience of hives and facial swelling.  The worst would mostly disappear only to come back out of nowhere again.  So frustrating and discouraging.  I’ve been like a dog with a bone, a mad woman researching everything I can find for possible solutions to make it go away permanently.  On some level, it’s been a great educational deep dive (thinking positively here!) but on others, it’s been incredibly draining and just one more thing on my already full plate.

Back to the homily.  The visiting priest’s homily was about the virtue of patience.  He said that we often think of patience as that thing we need to do when we’re stuck in traffic or our children are being crazy.  All true, but it’s so much more.  Patience is also a sister virtue to fortitude.  Seen in this way, patience enables someone to endure his/her sufferings without sadness or resentment.  The person is then able to conform their will with God’s and even accept the hardships with a kind of spiritual joy.

The perfect lesson at the perfect time when I was struggling so badly!  Like all virtues, this one requires some effort to pursue, but I’m on the right path.  Deo gratias.

Quick health update: At the time of this publishing, some of the issues have subsided, praise God!  I am still on a carnivore(ish) diet, feeling great and am much more positive about this way of eating.  (I did LOTS of complaining as I adjusted!)  I just had an indoor/outdoor allergy test done to see if I can pinpoint the origin of the issue and avoid another flare.  Currently waiting on the results.  Adventure to be continued…

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ the tender way my children looked after me when I was feeling crummy.  Anti-histamine medicine makes me terribly tired and they were so sweet encouraging me to take a nap.  I could hear them through my bedroom door, telling the littler ones to be quiet and helping out so they wouldn’t wake me up.

+ pulling vegetables from the freezer to give to the livestock.  My winter pantry challenge quickly fell apart due to my health fiasco, but I’m back on course!  This time, I thawed a bunch of green beans and peas to give to the chickens, ducks and pigs.  A big hit!  They’ve been dying to eat something green.  I also took a frozen chicken carcass I had saved and made bone broth.  Making dents in the deep freezer, little by little!

+ beginning seed start prep for the new growing season.  Here we go!

+ giving my wooden spoons new life with olive oil.  They were looking quite sad and dried out, but a quick swipe and they look much better.  (I let them dry on a towel overnight.)

+ selling two unneeded items: a holster and a book.  After shipping and fees, I made $100.59!

Reading //

• Make Haste Slowly or Festina Lente by Christopher Perrin at Renewing Classical Education // “But festina lente does not merely focus on avoiding waste; it focuses on doing things well from the start, it focuses on mastering what is important in proper sequence.”
• When Teaching Children History, Embrace Imagination by Dr. Dixie Dillon Lane at Hearth and Field // Great encouragement.  I liked this quote:

Our children need to know the factual nuts and bolts of history before they reach adult levels of interpretation. But they also need to develop a conceptual sense of history to go hand-in-hand with this classical foundation so that when they engage with historical facts and arguments as they grow older, they will have the ability to make something of them rather than just swallow them whole at the hands of a manipulator. Neither facts nor imagination alone can lead to the kind of maturity that our kids will one day need to exhibit in both the private and the public spheres of modern life.

Watching/Listening //

• Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent by St. Michael’s Abbey // Inspiring!
• Self Lymph Drainage Massage // This felt a little ridiculous until I tried it…and it worked!  I’m learning all kinds of things on this adventure to wellness.
• Going Deep in History Made this Protestant Scholar Catholic (w/ Joshua Charles) // This interview came up randomly in my Youtube recommendations.  Over an hour long but so interesting.
• Woman of the Household course from Life-Craft //  Module 2 was focused on Woman as Wife.  So good.

Loving //

• Primal Kitchen’s buffalo ranch dressing // keeping my meals tasty!
• St. Michael’s Abbey’s “virtual retreat” for Lent // I am really enjoying the daily reflections, prayers, and readings.
• this quote from Saint Alphonsus Liguori:
  

  Those whose hearts are enlarged by confidence in God run swiftly on the path of perfection. They not only run, they fly; because, having placed all their hope in the Lord, they are no longer weak as they once were. They become strong with the strength of God, which is given to all who put their trust in Him.

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

There’s a house a short way from us that has recently constructed a large rock tower at the front of their property.  I have no idea if the family had a purpose behind it or if they just thought it looked cool.  But it reminded me of a little story in the Bible and I’ve been reflecting on it all week.  The verse is 1 Samuel 7:12: “Then Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘So far the LORD has helped us.'”  That stone became a physical representation of God’s faithfulness to them.  It would be something to return to and reflect upon when times felt tough, a way to remind them that yes, God is always with them.

This week, my daughter and I unearthed a moving box shoved way back in the coat closet.  Inside held a handful of the 12″x12″ scrapbooks I created when my oldest kids were small.  And what a trip down memory lane!  So many little memories that seemed insignificant to document then, so many little pieces of ephemera that were arguably just trash.  What a precious collection to have now.

Those scrapbooks are my Ebenezers.  My new junk journals are my Ebenezers.  Shoot, this blog, started way back in 2011, has been another little way to count my Ebenezers.  They all document the physical representations of God’s faithfulness to me and my family, even if I don’t see it in the moment.  What a gift.

The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy. – Psalm 126:3

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ starting a carnivore(ish) elimination diet on 1/26.  When I broke out in hives and angioedema and it didn’t go away, I knew I would have to do something drastic to feel better.  (I’ve had a whole host of random issues pop up in the past year and this was my breaking point.)  I started by removing all sugar and processed food for a few days, then removed all fruits/vegetables and grains.  I had a few days of the “keto flu” and during the thick of it, I told my husband that natural childbirth was easier than this kind of detoxing!  Thankfully, I’m out of the worst of that!  I’m not out of the woods yet and am still dealing with some flareups, but am hopeful that I’m on the right path.  I’m committed to eating this way at least until Easter before reintroducing things back into my diet.  Consuming only animal products is very different for me, but I’ll do anything at this point to feel well.  And bonus: I get to try some new sauces to change things up!

+ getting Samson and Pete (our Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix and our cat) both neutered on the same day.  The local vets quoted astronomical rates that were completely out of our budget, but we thankfully found a more affordable option with a clinic 30 minutes away.  In and out the same day and both did great!  Pete was pretty loopy for awhile there; they apparently give cats three days worth of pain meds up front!  Sammy is stuck in a cone for 10-14 days and he looks pathetic and hilarious.

+ selling four unneeded items: three books and a kids’ knit hat.  After shipping and fees, I made $13.71!

Reading //

• Septuagesima from Dom Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year // A favorite priest of mine compared these three weeks to the NFL’s pre-season.  We have to get our head in the game now so we can have a fruitful Lent.

Now, the feast of Easter must be prepared for by forty days of recollectedness and penance. Those forty days are one of the principal seasons of the liturgical year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting in the hearts of her children the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a season of grace should produce its work in our souls—the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the holy time of Lent. She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with ashes.

• Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara // Getting back to this book after a long break.  It’s a hard read!  This passage made me sad:

The stretch of road from Lubumbashi to Likasi passes through a broad expanse of open terrain and rolling hills…All is shaded in copper and rust…Redbrick huts reach deep into the bush.  Women cook cassava by open fires.  Toddlers make friends of dirt.  Teenage girls line up at the nearest well with yellow plastic containers to fill their supply of water for the day.  Spires of silver smoke rise from deep within the forest where men burn trees to make charcoal, their only source of heat and light.  This land that is home to the world’s largest reserves of an element crucial to the manufacture of the most dominant form of rechargeable energy in the world still awaits the arrival of electricity. (p.72)

• The Wool Brigades of World War I, When Knitting Was a Patriotic Duty // The kids and I learned about this in history.  I dug a little deeper and loved all of the old photographs in this article.

Watching/Listening //

• Peaceful Guitar: The Italian Collection // This week’s background music while I did computer work.
• Come Thou Fount (Official Music Video) from Celtic Worship // A hymn based on the verse in 1 Samuel above.  I liked this version.
• Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Continuing on with lesson five and Salve Regina.

Loving //

• Woman of the Household course from Life-Craft // Thank you so much for the recommendation, Melisa!  I completed Module 1 and am really enjoying it so far.
• Freddy the Detective, our new read aloud for school // It’s supposedly #3 in a series, but we were okay jumping right in.
• Bread cheese // This is technically a no-no for me (I don’t feel great afterward) but so, so good when cut into strips and air fried.  Tastes like a mozzarella stick!

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

My reading this week has been full of fantastical adventures and places.  I’ve been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a read aloud for school and The Hobbit on my own at night.  It’s no surprise that Lewis and Tolkien were friends because both books teach such similar lessons, especially in the virtue of courage.

I loved this description of courage from Catholic News Agency:

Courage means being able to overcome fear in order to pursue the greater good. This is not the same as being fearless; quite the contrary, the fearless person can never be truly brave. This is because fear is based on love for something, and a desire not to lose it. But if a person does not love the thing he risks, does not value it, then where is the merit in risking it? A suicidal maniac, for example, is not brave because he risks his life for anything; he is stupid for not recognizing the value of his life, and for so casually placing his life in danger.

A brave man experiences fear because he loves the thing he is risking, and so he is afraid to lose it. No one fears the loss of something he does not love and value. Yet what makes a person able to be brave is that he values the thing he is pursuing more than the thing he is risking. Courage means the willingness to sacrifice something lesser for something greater.

Doesn’t that perfectly describe the main characters in these two books?  This part in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was so good and true: “Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick.  But that made no difference to what he had to do.” (p.131)  I’m so glad that my children (and me too!) can read these books and see heroic courage in this real and relatable way.

C.S. Lewis once said, “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.”  After this week, I’m even more inspired to find literature that fits that description.  Below are a handful of books/series that have been influential in my children’s lives and I’d love to hear your family’s favorites too!

• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga) by Andrew Peterson
• Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
• lives of the saints – my son recently enjoyed reading about Saint Edmond Campion

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ dealing with a terrible, out-of-the-blue allergic reaction.  Late last week, I woke up to hives and angioedema (facial swelling) around my eyes.  It was uncomfortable, but not really concerning…until it wouldn’t go away.  I eventually went on antihistamines to calm everything down, but those came with their own set of side effects: nausea, drowsiness and general blech.  A week later and I’m still not 100%.  I’m digging deep to make this into a positive example of abundance, but I’m grateful for my body’s ability to tell me something’s wrong and for the gift of self-deprecating humor.  If you don’t laugh, you cry, right?!

+ printing photos for a good, old-fashioned photo album!  One of the bingo prompts this month was to “print out some photos” and this was just the motivation I needed.  When my oldest kids were small, I was really into scrapbooking.  For the middle kids, I made professionally printed photo books.  But for my sweet littlest boys?  The majority of their photos are still stuck on my phone!  I’ve agonized over how to remedy this, but ultimately decided that done is better than perfect.  I picked up an album and have started printing photos on my Canon Selphy.  So excited to have this project started.

+ cleaning the coffee maker.  Less germs and better tasting coffee!

+ selling two unneeded items: a book and a shirt.  After shipping and fees, I made $5.04.  Total profit for the month so far: $213.79.

Reading //

• Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit by Corey Olsen // It’s like a literature course in a book!  I really enjoyed pairing it chapter by chapter with the novel.
• The Carnivore Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health by Returning to our Ancestral Diet by Paul Saladino, MD // I’m seriously considering a strict elimination diet to get the to root cause of my issues.

Watching/Listening //

• Winter Survival Food: French Onion Soup by Townsends // This was so cool.
• Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Continuing on with lesson four and Jesu Dulcis Memoria.
• Episode 2: Death in the Morning of the 1970s documentary series, Connections by James Burke // You really see the technological “connections” throughout history in this one!

Loving //

• the idea behind Iliad Athletics
• Gorilla Grip adhesives // I bought another pack for my front door rug and they worked like a charm!
• stepping inside the Sistine Chapel (virtually)

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

On Monday, we woke to the first snowfall of the season.  As soon as the sun started peeking through the trees, we were up and at ’em with morning chores and shoveling out our long driveway.  The world was so quiet.  It was so incredibly beautiful.

Since 2020, I have filled my head with a lot of negative things: arguments from all sides about all the things, war and rumors of war, just general bad news.  It’s taken me awhile to realize that this behavior is not sustainable.  Our souls crave the good, the true and the beautiful.  We cannot ingest a steady stream of negativity and expect it not to affect our everyday life.  So in 2024, I am fighting to include as much beauty into my day as I can muster: life giving books, time outside in nature, and spending time with my husband and kids.  For every minute of real world “ick,” I want to counter that with another minute of something soul-filling and good.

The soul craves beauty and I am passionately focused on seeking it.  (I think this weekly blog post will be helpful in this endeavor!)

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ having all hands on deck to keep the animals fed, watered and warm.  We aren’t used to this kind of cold here in Virginia!

+ starting a new compost pile.  Compost is an important part of the garden and since I need so much, it can get expensive fast.  I hope to make a little dent in that by starting a pile of my own.  This week, I scavenged around and found some toilet paper rolls, a few kitchen scraps and egg shells.

+ renewing a new mission I started last year that l call “Seeking Beauty on a Budget.”  I want to fill my home with beautiful things, some purchased and some I make myself.  This week’s addition: we went to our local used bookstore and I found two gorgeous volumes of the Harvard Classics series for $3.99 a piece!  There are fifty books in the series and I’m going to see if I can slowly collect them over time.

+ working on winter emergency car kits for my husband and my teenage son.  I put everything in inexpensive backpacks that will live in their trunks.  Hopefully they will never need them, but better safe than sorry.  Items below in bold are the ones I’ve checked off the list so far:

• booster cables (need one more)
• flashlights and extra batteries
• blanket
• local map
• hats, gloves, socks
• snacks and water
• can of fix a flat
• ice scraper
• reflective vest
• tissues, chapstick and toilet paper
• hand warmers
• first aid kit (need one more)
• lug wrench (need one more)

+ selling five unneeded items: two tops, two books and a new pack of boxers that were the wrong size and I never returned.  After shipping and fees, I made $35.28!

Reading //

• What Are You Sacrificing to the Algorithm? by The Examine // Thought provoking.  I liked this paragraph about a reader of his who has a special kind of art project:

This ongoing project (as of the writing of her piece in 2022) is a sort of analog resistance, an act of anti-algorithmic art that’s quiet, non-monetized, and connective. It’s a human endeavor, one that doesn’t rise and fall on the whims of a sponsor, tech company, or subscriber base. It’s not likely to end up in a gallery, not likely to be as widely known as Wyeth’s Soaring. But does that make it less important? No. I might argue it’s more important given our current cultural context. Why? Because it’s an intentional act of human creation in opposition to a world driven by the machines.

• What Happens When a Community Works Together by The Rabbit Room // So inspired by this.
• It’s Time to Dismantle the Technopoly by Cal Newport for the New Yorker //

This emerging resistance to the technopoly mind-set doesn’t fall neatly onto a spectrum with techno-optimism at one end and techno-skepticism at the other. Instead, it occupies an orthogonal dimension we might call techno-selectionism. This is a perspective that accepts the idea that innovations can significantly improve our lives but also holds that we can build new things without having to accept every popular invention as inevitable. Techno-selectionists believe that we should continue to encourage and reward people who experiment with what comes next. But they also know that some experiments end up causing more bad than good.

Watching/Listening //

• Happy Bach // I had this on in the background as I did my computer work this week.
• Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Continuing on with lesson three and Ave Verum.
• Episode 1: The Trigger Effect of the 1970s documentary series, Connections by James Burke // This was a recommendation and I liked it!  Excited to watch more.

Loving //

• reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the kids again
• this cursive workbook

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

I recently fell down a Youtube rabbit hole where multiple, seemingly unrelated videos expressed their difficulties with life outside of technology.  One Booktube creator now has crippling social anxiety and couldn’t even attend his father’s birthday party because he didn’t know the people on the invitation list.  Another creator shared her troubles in the classroom, reflecting on the current teaching advice to change instructional methods every five minutes in order to keep the kids’ attention.  And on and on.  I watched these videos with such a sadness in my heart.  What is happening to us as a society?

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had a stubborn streak and preferred to dance to the beat of my own drum.  That tendency was tempered a bit as I advanced in grades because well, kids are mean and “blending in” tends to be the best survival tactic.  But as I grow older, that little stubborn streak has returned.  I don’t want to become an automaton, a slave to technology.  I don’t want that for my kids either.  I want to experience the real world even if it’s inconvenient or messy or awkward.  I want to see technology as a tool, not something I cannot live without.  So I resist.  Gently.

Some small examples from the past few years: We don’t have any streaming services and buy secondhand DVDs instead.  We gave up Amazon Prime.  We have one television and it lives in the basement.  We don’t participate in any social media.  I haven’t replaced my cell phone in five years.  We grow our own food even though it’s a ton of work and way more expensive than just buying at the store.  We loathe debt and often pay for items with cash.  We read widely and often.

These examples seem small and insignificant, but are they?  Nothing is insignificant if they order us toward Truth.

Wendell Berry’s poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, provides the encouragement to keep going, to seek small ways to keep our humanity, both in body and in spirit.  You should read the entire poem, but I especially loved this part:

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.

I think my life’s mission will be finding new things that just won’t compute.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ RAIN!  While winter rain is kind of miserable, I’m grateful for its arrival.  Last year’s drought was so terrible and I know our pastures and gardens are in dire need of the moisture.

+ committing to a vitamin routine (thanks, Little Things Bingo!) after waffling back and forth in December.  I’m not a doctor so do your own research – blah, blah, blah – but I’m currently taking a multivitamin, a probiotic, supplemental vitamin D, and fish oil every day.  I add in vitamin C, quercetin and zinc when I feel myself getting sick.  And bonus: I made myself a “poor man’s pill box” using a plastic tackle box and scrapbook stickers we already owned!

+ checking off another bingo prompt: make a new soup.  I made a tomato bisque with homemade chicken broth and a can of tomatoes from the pantry.

+ getting prepped for a new growing season.  I fortunately still have a large seed collection and only needed to purchase a few seed packets (tomatoes and flowers), onion starts and seed potatoes.  I also ordered our first batch of broiler chicks for arrival in early March.

+ trying winter sowing in milk jugs for the first time.  I used this tutorial and started lavender, foxgloves and brussels sprouts.  (I’ll be adding more as we drink through more milk.)  The process was super easy and I’m really excited to see if this will work!

+ making pizza sauce with cherry tomatoes I froze back in the fall.  We made homemade pizza for dinner one night and then used up the rest for pizza dip later in the week.  A pantry/freezer challenge win.

+ purchasing a brand new piano book for my daughter and a like-new Iliad & Odyssey for me on Pango Books for $17.  By not purchasing from Amazon, I saved $20 and supported another seller.  Win/win.

+ selling eleven unneeded items: five books and six of my son’s video games (I sell on his behalf and he gets the money).  After shipping and fees, I made $107.14!

Reading //

• Simple Acts of Sanity: A Seed Catalogue from School of the Unconformed // Includes a great list of ideas for gentle defiance
• In Praise of Repair Culture from Plough // A response to throwaway culture!  I loved this little paragraph about the author’s grandfather:

Grampa, who had grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm during the Great Depression, shared his generation’s hallmark frugality. He couldn’t stand seeing anything usable or fixable thrown away, from leftover food to old books, which he restored in one of his other workshops, a bindery. (Not coincidentally, he also shared his generation’s penchant for packrat collecting.) But his repair work wasn’t primarily about saving money. The value of a thing wasn’t measured by its replacement price but rather by the use to which it could be put, and by the labor of those who had made it or previously repaired it.

• Why I Traded My Smartphone for an Ax from The Free Press // A teenager’s perspective on technology.
• The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster // A science fiction short story from 1909 that eerily rings true today.  Excellent.  I copied a ton of quotes, but here’s just one:

“You talk as if a god had made that Machine,” cried the other.  “I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy.  Men made it, do not forget that.  Great men, but men.  The Machine is much, but it is not everything.  I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you.  I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you.” (p.8-9)

Watching/Listening //

• Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Continuing on with lesson two and Ave Maria.
• Self-Care for Homeschool Moms by the The Commonplace // Wise advice for all moms, not just for those who homeschool.
• Vintage Winter Music playlist // Thanks for reminder about this, Melisa!

Loving //

• the cat’s cradle book we got my daughter for Christmas // She and I are having so much fun!
• Rosemary’s 2024 reading plans // Because of her list, I want to jump into the Book of Centuries Challenge from the Literary Life Podcast!
• these power failure alarms for our deep freezers // We appreciate the peace of mind that we won’t accidentally lose all of our meat.

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

There’s something about the beginning of a new year that steers us toward the virtue of hope, don’t you think?  New calendars, fresh resolutions, and a garden resting before an abundant growing season all lend themselves to this feeling of infinite possibility.  Sadly, many of us also quickly fall to despair as sickness, long forgotten goals and just the drudgery of everyday life appear.  Life is messy – the world is messy! – and things quickly don’t go to plan.

This reminds me of one of my favorite stories in the Bible, a short little passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

He got into a boat and his disciples followed him.  Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.  They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”  Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.  The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?” – Matthew 8:23-27

I read this passage over and over because oh man!  I am the disciple in that boat, sloshing around and unable to get my bearings.  I’m focused on the storm and those waves hitting one after another.  I’m coming up with Plans A, B & C…and forgetting about the One who is in the storm with me.  Thankfully, His one simple answer rights me back to center, “Why are you afraid?”  And once again, I’m rooted in the hope that Our Lord has overcome all things and His love conquers all darkness and despair.  Where hope leads, peace follows, even in the midst of the storm.

Pope St. John Paul II once implored, “I plead with you. Never ever give up on hope. Never doubt, never tire, and never be discouraged. Be not afraid! There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already carried for us and does not bear with us now. Be not afraid!”  What a statement.  May I never forget the beauty of hope.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ keeping most of the decorations up until Epiphany.  We fully embraced Christmastide this year!

+ a new way to budget using this printable from The Busy Budgeter.  My husband and I changed the top categories to better fit our needs and are excited to see if we can “game-ify” our expenditures.  Really hoping to find a few extra pennies to put toward our financial goals.

+ jumping in with the Three Rivers Homestead pantry challenge.  I watched the video on 12/30 (so very little prep time before starting on 1/1!) but I’m going to do my best regardless.  My goal is to eat down our chicken freezer as well as a lot of the produce I preserved this summer.  We’ll buy dairy products and fresh fruit at the store, but will try to make do with what we have in the pantry.

+ unsubscribing from many promotional emails.  Less inbox clutter and more peace in staying the frugal course.

+ writing thank-you notes with greeting cards I already owned.  (They were unsold inventory from the BWF Shop days!)  I still love the illustrations and am happy to finally have a reason to get them out of my house.

+ using old Advent candles for some angelic light while I wash dishes.

+ constructing a little junk journal for January.  I used Christmas money to buy a few scrapbook papers and the rest of the materials were things I already had at home.  Can’t wait to fill it with memories this month.

+ selling nine unneeded items: three wall hooks, four books, a boys dress shirt and a small jewelry dish.  After shipping and fees, I made $66.33!

Reading //

• Planting Our Flag in the Real World: Parents Take the Postman Pledge from Front Porch Republic // One group’s endeavor to pull back on the lure of technology.  Where we’re not at the point where we want to remove all smartphones from our home, I did like that the pledge mentions the action is “an attempt to recover goods that can be so easily ignored, forgotten, or lost.”  Beautiful and doable even with a more moderate approach.  Good advice from the interview:

Q: How can we work against the grain of our culture and many of our communities on this issue, without adding to the clamor and division?
A: I think that the answer to this is rather simple. Be hospitable. Precisely because your family is working on habits of attention and presence, exercise them by welcoming people into your home. Do real things together. Celebrate. Take delight in the world—together. Don’t feel compelled to broadcast your views about the dangers of technology. Let your life speak, but be prepared to give an account of why you’re living the way you are. And do all of this in a spirit of humility—knowing that we are all susceptible to the pull of the screen and a myriad of distractions—and do it with gratitude for the good world we have been given by a God who is goodness and love itself.

• Reflecting upon the quiet heroism of winter mornings from Aleteia // “All around me, if I stop to pay attention, I notice my family, friends, and neighbors making daily sacrifices, great and small, for the sake of those they love.”
• two new-to-me reference books for the homesteading shelf: The Doable Off-Grid Homestead and Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens

Watching/Listening //

• Are Smartphones Making Us Modern Gnostics? from The Commonplace // Very thought provoking.
• Floriani Sacred Music Chant School // Starting at lesson one – I learned how to chant Ave Maris Stella!

Loving //

• my 2023 favorite Christmas carol, Adeste Fideles, in all its forms!
• my new piano book
• a new notebook to be used as a commonplace/note-taking book for my 2024 Mother Academia work (I’m also using these circle stickers to differentiate what quotes come from where)