Last month I had a chance to chat with Cherelle German about spreading the feast Charlotte-Mason-style in my homeschool. I know it’s very typical to say that it was a blast and a super fun conversation, but I genuinely enjoyed our conversation and it was a joy to spend some time with her. Cherelle has…
In an effort to be more thoughtful and reflective about what I’m reading, here is a round-up from the past week or so. (I do love a good round up!) Links to books use my Abebooks referral link – buy second hand! Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport I read this not long after it first…
We finished our first week of school after a very long break. It always feels like a marathon, getting back into the routine, and this time even more so: we’re going eight weeks without a break instead of the usual six, due to a family visit. It’s a term of new things: adding in Latin…
We learn in Advent to stay in the present, that only the present well lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life. Life is not meant to be escaped, we learn, as the liturgical year moves from season to season, from feast to feast. It is meant to be penetrated, to be plumbed…
I enjoyed Alan Jacob’s recent thoughts on focal practices. A lot of thought went into our hearth when we moved into our home. It’s a 1970s house and was a relic of the time period when we moved in. We have a shallow, wide chimney breast which, at the time, had a gas fire that…
My Christmas books (the ones I have received and the ones I have read…minus the Agatha Christies) have centered both on habits and on the liturgical calendar. I hadn’t made the connection between habits – which I typically consider to be daily, or at least frequent, and automatic – and the liturgical calendar, which is…
Following on from my year in review post, here are some thoughts on the year ahead. I write this tentatively. I very often find that I can talk a lot about my plans, but my execution is lackluster, and I’m at risk of simply not being a very trustworthy person. All of this, therefore, is…
One of the big changes I made this year was to start writing the type of blog I like to read (more below), and I love to read year in review/year ahead type posts. So in that spirit, here are some thoughts on how the past year has gone, with a focus on this blog….
However imperfectly I observe Advent, there is still a build up in these last few days before the Big One. A sense of anticipation and a long list of things that need to be done. I’m waiting for our groceries, and anticipating an afternoon in the kitchen, hoping that the boys will do the tidying…
Jake Meador on engaging with an anxious, easily triggered generation: …be intellectually serious. Read widely and read well. Allow yourself to be corrected by what you read. Change your mind about something. Have friends who will argue with you. Acquiring that intellectual grounding will be fun, in itself, but it will also equip you to…