Rooting out weeds from a garden has two parts: pulling up the weeds that are growing on one hand and establishing the plants that you do want on the other. If we only ever pull at the weeds, we’ll be at it forever. Once that lettuce or those pumpkins or the dahlias get going, however,…
I’ve had a lot of posts coming up in my RSS feed about social media, most of them offering different takes on how bad it is. I have lots of Thoughts about social media, and I agree in general that it doesn’t do us a whole lot of good. I won’t digress, but here are…
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…
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…
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….
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…
“I, Amy Fischer, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that on becoming a British Citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law.” It’s an odd thing to swear allegiance to the British monarch as an American. Like most,…
Ambleside Online (the curriculum we follow) has posted their folk song choices for 2022-2023. They are good. It always feels a little funny to wrap up school the same week that a lot of things are launching in preparation for the next school year (and when a lot of people are coming to the end…