No news on the kitchen doings.
Confidential to those in the comments* warning of going over to all open shelving: “unfitted kitchen” does not necessarily mean all open shelving, and I personally don’t want everything I have to be on display. The design is more about furniture-like storage than uniform cabinetry.
*for some reason I cannot figure out, I can only respond to comments on my own blog — I cannot just leave a comment! I wish my technical support would deal with this!
But remember (and look at the photos!), I have had some open shelves for all these years (it was Rosie who suggested leaving some doors off of the cabinets after she painted them; it would never have occurred to me!).
I have not really had any more than usual trouble with greasy items, and I do clean the open and closed shelves at the same basic rate (probably not enough on either account!). So I have lived with it already. I do want to keep and expand on the open shelving. But certainly not all, that would be stressful. I for one cannot be one of those ladies who keeps all her dry goods in uniform containers!
I think a lot has to do with where you live, don’t you?
We had our first light frost and I brought in some annuals and herbs to nurse through the winter. As I have said before, I’m not an indoor plant lady, and so far I have not found any real love in my heart for regular indoor plants, which I don’t relish changing because do I really need something else to spend my money on?
But it does make sense to me to try to overwinter the potted plants I love outside — at least a few of them — and maybe even make cuttings from them in the spring. I do have little southern light so it’s a real challenge for me! But I did okay last year so I will try again, and add herbs this year.
Thanks for all the nursing help in the last post! My young friend is staunchly marching along (in the most comfy, pillowed, resting way possible) with the breastfeeding challenges. She is reading every comment and appreciating all the advice! It’s so wonderful that you are all so generous.
Auntie Leila says, after seeing one too many clip of a distracted child (whom no one may really identify as distracted, so she feels compelled to weigh in here):
Does your child, boy or girl, continually push hair out of his or her face? Give your boys a haircut. Brush and braid or otherwise secure your girls’ hair.
It takes energy to learn, to grow, to think, to be! Let’s not waste that energy pushing our hair out of our eyes (yes this goes for adults too — do you constantly push one lock of hair out of the way or fiddle with your bangs? let’s deal with it).
It’s for their good, so yes, you can insist on it. Children being obedient in little things like submitting to a haircut and standing still to be brushed and braided and hair-clipped helps them to be obedient later in much more difficult matters, also for their own good. Learning self control is much easier when you are 8, trust me. And teaching self control to an 8-year-old is much easier too.
Bonus: you will have more patience with and look more kindly upon a groomed child than with a scruffy, unkempt one whose eyes you can’t even really see, so give yourself a little help in that area by remediating this issue.
The Halloween wars continue…
Having finessed the “dressing up as bad imaginary characters” issue (which I have no problem with on a certain very mild level but that’s a discussion for another time), I guess some Catholics are questioning whether dressing as saints for All Saints is “cultural appropriation” (whatever that is — I wonder if these same gringos have “taco Tuesday” but I digress).
This is not the only argument for abandonment of common sense, of course, as I see news of objections to using farm animals in live Christmas nativities (insert eye roll), but I notice that they all share in one result, which is the ratcheting up of dreariness, not least in the general atmosphere of suspicion of neighbor.
Another query for you:
My husband needs a web designer for his Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture site. If you go there you will see that it looks pretty nice but has some issues. He’s flat-out with some other projects and would appreciate someone just knowing what to do and magically (but with due recompense) fixing it (after consultation of course, he doesn’t expect anyone to read his mind). You can message me privately at the email provided on the sidebar if you have a real lead (I figure that finding the email is a good first test of competence!).
bits & pieces
- Kenneth Williams on accents — very funny!
- If you are on Twitter, follow this Pattern Language account.
- Tony Esolen’s substack has good resources for poetry and song, and my friend Erin particularly enjoyed and sent me this one on the naming of cats and dogs.
- Erin’s son recited the poem Who Would True Valour See (their homeschooling group has a poetry day — does yours? A great incentive for memorization and public speaking!) and she likes this setting, to the tune of Monksgate, for singing it; seems a little tricky to me but I bet with practice, everyone could master it!
- My son, Joseph, who writes on economics and is an editor at the Washington Examiner, recommends this article on crypto as the one to read. Which I haven’t yet. But will.
- I hope to do a podcast about “chastity ministry” next week, but in the meantime, I just encourage you to read this thorough and insightful document, which includes a careful expression of the inviolability of parents’ duties and rights: The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality
from the archives
- I incorporated that human sexuality document in my own article about sex education (including in the Church), later also a chapter in my book The Summa Domestica.
- Now the semester is in full swing. Choices have been made in the optimism and energy of the beginning of fall. Now is a good time to assess how it’s going. Our kids are stressed out.
liturgical living
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My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available now from Sophia Press! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
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