Leila Marie Lawler's Blog, page 23
July 11, 2020
{bits & pieces}
We had a little getaway in Maine — here is my darling youngest, Bridget, with one of my darling grandchildren!The giveaway of Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timelessness of the Traditional Latin Mass (affiliate link) by Peter Kwasniewski is closed!
If you won, and there are three of you, you will be receiving an email from us!
If you did not win, I urge you to buy the book, in whatever form you think best. (I know it’s a little pricey but the Kindle version would work fine.)
I would love to know what you think about it — about the analysis that it offers on the subject of Tradition and the changes the Mass has undergone in the past 50 or so years. If you are reading it now, feel free to comment here with any thoughts you may be having!
Also, please leave an Amazon review — even a short one! It makes a lot of difference in helping others to find the book when they are doing a search.
I confess that in the past, when I have offered my thoughts on worship, I have had to have a little mental reservation (or sometimes a big one), knowing that in so many places there is nothing approaching what we ought to have. If evangelization is one beggar telling another where to find bread, the message is made much more complicated if the baker is not on the job.
When I read Peter’s book, I had an overwhelming sense of fittingness in his explanations, offered with so much clarity. I found myself yearning for the stability and peace that only walking in old paths can bring. I think the yearning in itself is the first and necessary stage in obtaining from God what He wants to give us.
bits & pieces
A tour de force: Gunhild Carling singing Happy and playing 10 instruments (including, yes, jazz bagpipes) and tapdancing! FUN ALERT! (also clean — wacky, but clean!)
I so enjoyed this article on humor by Fr. Jerry Pokorsky: The tragedy of neglecting comedy.
Fr. Mankowski is always worth a read (even if you missed it almost a year ago!). Most of us don’t read Hebrew, Greek, or even Latin, so we are at the mercy of the translator. What are the criteria? What constitutes a good translation — of Scripture ? What do we get out of a translation? Sometimes too much…
“… there is a deeper point to be made. As long as our knowledge of the Bible is imperfect, much of our translation and exegesis must remain conjectural. Yet where the original phrasing is preserved in translation, the reader or homilist is at liberty to follow his own lights in recapturing its meaning, whereas the explanatory translations cut him off from other possibilities.”
I am also grateful to have been pointed to, and have already adopted as my unified theory of what is wrong with our age, “the heresy of explanation.” This compact diagnosis is from Robert Alter, author of the book under review.
If you are interested in Peter Kwasniewski’s book, and in the idea of restoration of Tradition in general, perhaps this film project would be something you’d want to look into: Mass of the Ages
from the archives
10 Reasons Not to Have Separate Finances — there are good reasons to share your worldly goods when you’re married. (Fun note: this post of mine is being translated into Croatian!)
A throwback to {pretty happy funny real} days, with spray-painting, sewing, and gardening amusements (which I still enjoy!)
Now more than ever, we are going to need our circle of trust and our pocket of friends. Here’s how to go about it if you don’t have it: The St. Gregory Pockets.
liturgical year
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
July 4, 2020
Reclaiming Tradition book giveaway! and bits & pieces
I urge you to read Peter Kwasniewski’s new book, Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timelessness of the Traditional Latin Mass. (affiliate link)
And I’m giving a copy away!
I have all my readers in mind for this book, whether you are already a lover of Tradition, or go to the Novus Ordo Mass, or are Protestant, or are Jewish, or don’t quite believe in anything but just like coming here anyway because you appreciate the collective memory… this book is for you.
Certainly, for Catholics, many sensed a disturbance during the shutdown. It seems that many of our bishops and clergy have suddenly forgotten this Gospel: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mt 10:28)
I keep getting messages that I’ve compressed into one, so you can get the idea (and perhaps you have thought these thoughts too):
Our parish had been moving in the direction of Latin at our Novus Ordo Masses, and more sacred music, but during the shutdown this trend has stalled or even reversed. We’re now required to receive Holy Communion in the hand. We are concerned about our children. What are they learning? Why has the Traditional Latin Mass church in the next state been offering the Sacraments but our priests are nowhere to be found? Will my children grow up in the faith? Will they remain Catholic?
Prof. Kwasniewski’s book comes at the right time. There is no way he could have known that many would be asking questions about how we worship — about how we express eternal truths — even more intently than ever before due to the pressure brought on by Covid, yet the answers he has been giving for years, collected here and presented systematically, satisfy them all thoroughly and with great clarity (and charity).
Prof. Kwasniewski, a theologian and writer, covers many aspects of Tradition, from the virtues of the Traditional Latin Mass itself to questions about active participation and provocatively, “Good and Bad Liturgical Parenting.”
For me, it’s all compelling, but the sections that inspire the most, that have the most potential to awaken a desire and the will to recover our true heritage, are about the importance of offering something sublime, time-tested, and challenging on every level to our children — something they can’t outgrow or come to find silly when compared to beliefs the world has to offer.
These are themes I stress here all the time: seeking out what is noble and timeless for the future generations. Why would we then offer them something weak, watered down, and constantly changing when it comes to worship? Or, as we have found in these past months, something that its leaders shockingly find easily dispensable?
To encourage you to read the book and get a copy for a loved one, I am offering one here to one winner of the giveaway — just leave a comment to enter!
bits & pieces
A cornerstone of my philosophy of education (and life in general) is Order and Wonder. I was happy to read this piece on the subject of wonder without dogma (order in belief).
Twenty of the best backyard games. Recover normal childhood!
“Carnegie medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean has castigated the books industry for dumbing down language in children’s literature, warning that a new focus on ‘accessible’ prose for younger readers will lead to ‘an underclass of citizens with a small but functional vocabulary: easy to manipulate and lacking in the means to reason their way out of subjugation’.”
The Harvard Commencement address : Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—A World Split Apart. A must read or in this case, listen.
The death rates for Covid are going way down. To stay healthy (or get better if you are sick), do go outside as much as possible to get your vitamin D levels up!
from the archives
Housewifely
Ask Auntie Leila: How can I be hospitable to my kids’ friends, foodwise?
Ask Auntie Leila: 10 Reasons Not to Have Separate Finances; or, Marriage is about Wholehearted Trust.
liturgical year
Independence Day — enjoy, and pray for our country! Maybe we can’t have a big party today, but do read the Declaration of Independence to your children!
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post Reclaiming Tradition book giveaway! and bits & pieces appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
June 20, 2020
Friendship in real life
A while ago I got an email from a sweet reader who, among other things, asked the following:
I was reading the comments to your post “Will Homeschooling Make Me Lose My Sanity” and it struck me how lonely everyone posting was, and how difficult it is to find like-minded friends. We are two weeks away from a cross-country move and will be leaving behind some wonderful friends. I am apprehensive of making new friends who share our traditional mass & homeschooling approach to life. Well, I thought:
Would Auntie Leila consider a FACEBOOK GROUP –not just a page for liking your blog–but a private group for members to discuss and post and most importantly, connect and meet each other?
Believe me, Auntie Leila understands this urge. But I have resisted and I’m going to continue to resist.
In fact, I am going to recommend that you leave any Facebook group that isn’t about how to do something you do in real life, like raise your chickens, use your Instant Pot, or follow steam locomotives (these are all groups I belong to, the last one just in case there is a good video I can show my grandchildren).
If it’s a group about anything that relates to your loneliness, pain, or suffering, chances are that it is ultimately not going to help you. These groups are taking your precious time, involving you in problems that you can do little to solve, and not making your problems go away. You aren’t building your community or your future in these groups.
In fact, from what I can see, these groups will cause you to question all the good things in your life — your marriage, your children, your home.
Would an LMLD group be different? No. The reason is that it would be online. You can effectively share ideas and news online, but you can’t effectively build a real community online.
Instead, use your online contacts to form real life connections and relationships in what I have called the St. Gregory Pockets!
I am no “influencer” guru — I suppose I could have monetized my “St. Gregory Pocket” idea and charged a bunch of money to enroll people in it. I could have created a multi-level marketing scheme using other bloggers to contribute and then share… we could have a conference once a year and sell lots of swag. Believe me, we LMLD ladies have the wherewithal to do some fancy graphics and so on.
But instead I just tried to put my experience into words to encourage you, while you are young, to make real-life friends that will not only discuss books with you and bring you meals when you have a baby or are sick (and of course you will do the same for them) — but who will form a community with children who will (all too soon!) grow to be your own children’s peers. I don’t have time to whip this up into a big movement and you don’t have time to join it.
I tried to keep it simple. Making your own “pocket” of like-minded friends is certainly not a new idea, but it is one that must be recovered with some positive action, precisely by those who feel lonely and friendless! (Although it would be good if some of you who feel that you’ve gotten a good community together would share the wealth and be generous to those on the periphery.)
So the St. Gregory Pocket idea is as far from the FB group as you can get. Ideally, you wouldn’t have time to talk online because you would be so busy hosting your own real friends and meeting them at the playground. You would encourage each other instead of risking real harm online (which is what happens on FB! I’ve seen it many a time — because you can’t see each other and comments are so easy to make)… and in the end, there’s always an alpha in the group to meddle and cause mischief (or several alphas who I describe as “mean girls” just like in seventh grade, and who wants to go back there).
Picture it this way — your kids running all around the yard or playground while you visit with your friends; not you on your phone while your kids sit alone.
No, we will not be having a Facebook group… I will post the posts below so you can ponder finding or making your St. Greg’s Pocket! Much better!
bits & pieces
If you haven’t had time to listen to Leila Miller talk about marriage and divorce, perhaps this written interview will fit the bill, and be easier to share with someone you know who needs it: An Honest Conversation about the Modern Family
For Father’s Day, give your man the gift of a good conference on Fatherhood! Monday, June 22, 7:30-9 pm ET.
To understand what is happening today, we must understand history — specifically, the history of Communism: Leninthink, by Gary Saul Morson:
The whole point of Leninism is that only a few people must understand what is going on. That was the key insight of his tract What Is to Be Done? When Leninism is significant, there will always be a spectrum going from those who really understand, to those who just practice the appropriate responses, to those who are entirely innocent.
Have you heard of this dad who posts on Youtube to tell young people how to do stuff? Amazing how it has struck a nerve. Let’s be the moms who let the dads pass on knowledge and the dads who do it. Let’s build the collective memory, not tear it down.
The Bostock decision, handed down by the Supreme Court earlier this week, is a disaster. Find good analysis here — What Are the Adverse Consequences of Gorsuch’s Bostock Ruling?, here — Bostock, living a lie, and here — A Striking Display of Sophistry.
“The Christian life is a combat, a war without mercy.”
Build your home library now if you have not already started. (E-readers are convenient but no substitute for a real library.) The early not-so-distant-warnings of a cultural purge are upon us. Our LMLD Library Project will help.
liturgical year
The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
from the archives
St. Gregory Pockets: WHAT and WHERE they are (add yours!)
FAQs about St. Greg’s Pockets
The St. Greg’s reading list, for your consideration
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post Friendship in real life appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
June 13, 2020
bits & pieces
The time before the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (which coincides with the summer solstice) is garden-compelled! Getting things planted before the days start, ever so imperceptibly, to wane, is maybe in our blood. It is in mine right now. Must. Garden!
The weather has been pretty glorious, so I’ve been enjoying the outside work, especially since the whole family has been pitching in! Our peonies have started blooming and the sage already had to be cut back.
Rising some sandwich loaves while dashing out to plant something else…
There was a mouse in my pantry, due to some sort of work stoppage on the part of the outdoor cats…
This necessitated a complete cleaning and purging. (The ironing board is wet because my granddaughter has discovered the pleasure of ironing napkins!)
Taking care of the home has its seasons, contented and otherwise. Sometimes it can feel oppressive. At the end of winter, just before the coming of the hope of Spring, doing housework can seem pointless indeed.
Sometimes it’s a pleasure, especially when you have a little help and the sun shines its warming rays, with the promise of an evening cocktail to smooth the aching limbs!
In season or out, the home needs making. Without a home, the person has no context. Making the home is the true mission of the family!
Being creative, finding ways of doing things, learning and discovering, delving into the details that seem so mundane to those who are distracted — these are the consolations, rich indeed to anyone who is blessed enough to be given them.
On to our links!
bits & pieces
For Father’s Day! An online conference from the Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture: Rediscovering Fatherhood: An Online Conference To Inspire Fathers and Support Families — June 22, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Have you ever thought about how women got the vote? Do you take it for granted that women wanted the vote? Here is a contemporary essay on the subject — just food for thought.
A post full of resources for studying Joan of Arc, a saint for our times. And let me be clear: St. Joan is not a feminist saint — she is a saint for standing athwart the “institutional church” when it went astray, and that is why she ought to speak to us!
Marriage is how persons can build a just society and prosper. Fifty years ago, Senator Daniel Moynihan wrote an important “Report” on the state of marriage in the Black community. It’s well worth remembering. Many movements today expressly oppose this sacred institution (and I would advise that you look into the stated goals of any organization you reference positively).
A wonderful traditional Irish Step dance!
I am a child of the 60s. I lived through race riots and civil unrest. I grew up with angry Blacks and guilty Whites. I have seen how the difficulties of our country’s past and the uncertainties of our present have been exploited, over and over, by radicals and those who do not have the common good at heart. Please listen to this man. Try to listen all the way through. Keep in mind that he is a Black man talking (it seems) to other Blacks, but he addresses anyone who is tempted to succumb to what he calls “Ethnic Gnosticism,” meaning Critical Race Theory as it is packaged for the masses, for the mob.
minute 28 — hindering genuine relationships
minute 37 — “cult” of atonement, and the important message that “you will never be sorry enough” for those who are members of this cult.
minute 50 — God has given us a way to rectify these things, in His Word
Our state bee inspector, Ken, opens a hive and shows bees being born. He is a bee whisperer and always worth watching.
The innate immune system and vitamin D — and COVID.
Another homeschooling conference that looks promising.
A friend whose children do lovely brush drawings (including for their nature journals) has been using this YouTube channel to teach them: Bestowing the Brush. This first lesson is quite appealing.
A 3rd century mosaic, uncovered in an Italian vineyard.
David Clayton on how number can enhance beauty and symbolism.
Phil Lawler (my husband), looking at our towns: Why do Americans fear children?
Thanks to my mom, I have a nice stand of comfrey in the herb garden. I’ve been using it as a mulch — have you heard of this?
from the archives
An old post about how I organized the pantry to also be my little creative space. Things have changed a little, as they always do, but you can get the general idea.
Father’s day, beyond neckties and grill tools (not that we have anything against those!)
Three martyrs for marriage (June liturgy goals!)
liturgical living
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post bits & pieces appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
June 6, 2020
Math Goals with your bits & pieces
Can’t stop long… there’s the garden and a million things to do. Including finish the draft of my book!
But good comments about math in the last post. I will probably put my own math thoughts directly into the book. The main point will be that teaching children math is not as complicated as you think. As always, I try to give you criteria and an overview of the goals rather than minutiae, which I think are readily available elsewhere.
Numbers
The goal for the young child (before about 6th grade) is to arrive at full facility with operations.
To get there, he needs to know numbers.
This knowledge begins intuitively and can be conveyed (and elicited) by conversations and shared observations. “You give me those two and I will give you these three.” “You have ten; why don’t you give half to your brother.” “This flower has four petals; this one has five.” “Let’s fold this tissue paper so it has twelve points.”
Threeness and eightness and elevenness must be encountered and internalized. It seems to be built into human nature to “get” the numbers between one and five (interestingly, not zero). After that, things become a bit hazy.
We adults take this grasp of number for granted, but it does take time. Intuition needs a boost from outside, especially as the child goes beyond the number five. Seeing larger numbers in groups made up of one, two, three, four, and five helps. Your child needs to relate to numbers on a visceral level before he can tackle operations.
A child needs to learn numbers and their operations the way he learns to ride a bike — without thinking about it. He just must. If you are having trouble with your 7th grader, it’s because he doesn’t ride the math bike, he wobbles and is afraid of falling. There is no remedy but to stop everything and get those facts down.
But I need to tell you something: There are a lot of ways to skin this cat. One way is drills. Another is games. To this day, I divide a pot of tomato seedlings or count the up to seven eggs I get from my hens the way I divided jacks as a fifth grader, when I was crouching out on the school porch with my best friends (our school had wide wooden porches where we could play on a rainy or hot day). That is, in groups of three and four, or what have you. (Did you play jacks? It’s a game that has it all for internalizing number groups that add to ten, while developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.)
Operations
If your third grader plays Parcheesi all day (a deadly boring game, come to find out as an adult; it’s really just good for facility with numbers up to twelve, so get another child to play with him), then you’re good. Done and done. And of course there is a veritable panoply of creative and enchanting math games out there. A simple online search will yield a surfeit.
I once overcame one child’s subtraction resistance by assigning an older child to play blackjack with him for a week in lieu of his usual math lesson (but not hers, poor thing). Problem solved. Truly — he went from answering the question of what 12 – 8 equals with “zero” — so vexing! why must they torture us this way — to complete facility with addition and subtraction. Assigning a card game seemed preferable to tossing him out a handy window.
There is no reason to shed any tears over this process; but the process must be undergone. If your child is “hating” math and you are dragging him kicking and screaming every day, stop everything and just give him games to play that require him to add and subtract, and later to multiply and divide. TRUST ME. It’s all about knowing. the. facts. Who cares how you get there. If calculating batting averages teaches your son how to find the average, why spend a lot of money on a curriculum for that purpose?
Algebra
The older child, having mastered the facts and operations (which lead up to short division aka fractions, which enables him to work easily with converting units later in algebra, especially in chemistry), must do algebra.
This brings up the eternal Saxon question. Saxon was developed for a specific purpose: To help children not lose skills ahead of the SAT. By rotating through the skills as they build incrementally, this is achieved, not necessarily in the most elegant way. (Saxon is not good for the earlier, pre-6th-grade stage, which demands repetition, not rotation. Once you can subtract, you can subtract. I really advise you to use an older “lesson and drill” type text as the foundation of your curriculum.) Without a dedicated math teacher for algebra, Saxon will work. It’s not the greatest, but it will do, especially if you take it lightly and add Kahn Academy.
Algebra is the logic of mathematics, akin to expressing thoughts in language. (If you do the two subjects together, language grammar including sentence diagramming and algebra, your child’s mind will be patterned to think about things systematically instead of only intuitively.)
The older, more traditional textbooks are better, though. When I was a girl, you did the “odds” and often skipped the A and B sections of the problem set entirely (maybe a few at the end to be sure), going straight to the C, if you were able to do the examples and warm-ups perfectly. The answers were in the back of the book and you just plowed ahead if you could. The tests were the proof that you learned the lesson. Many teachers only collected tests, but went through the lessons the day after they were done.
Geometry
The final piece of math education in secondary school is geometry. If possible, the child should be introduced to Euclid. Yes, working through his Propositions would be ideal. However, Jacobs will do. Something along these lines is essential, and the Saxon method of throwing occasional geometry problems in the mix cannot substitute for a concentrated year spent delving into axioms, propositions, and proofs.
Everyone says they want their children to do what they call “Critical Thinking,” but they start at the wrong end. I cringe when I hear it. They let children meander all over in elementary school and then expect them to get a crash course as a senior.
It’s fashionable in such curricula to offer some current opinion and then have the students work through it critically, but how are they supposed to do that? You need a foundation, especially in knowing when you have or have not proven something. And for that you need Euclid. Which means you need everything that came before… like I said.
Geometry is visual algebra, algebra requires math facts. See how it builds up?
Calculus is a language for science. It’s not a sort of “bigger abstract mental hurdle” for someone who has gotten through the other subjects, to be done apart from its object, which is science (physics). I encourage you to read Arthur Robinson to understand this if you don’t get it.
The main point, though, is that your job as a homeschooler is to guide your child through math facts to algebra and geometry. The rest he can do later if he needs it for the science he is interested in.
It’s doable, so don’t worry
Somewhere John Taylor Gatto says that the student can learn a particular skill he needs in six weeks. If you were paying attention in school, you will remember that the first 6 weeks of every year were spent in review, and the last 6 weeks were spent making sure everyone was up to speed. We never got to the end of any textbook!
If your child suddenly realizes he needs to go to engineering school, he can find out their requirements and remedy any gaps or lacks — and he’ll have the motivation to do it, unlike when he’s moping around in your kitchen not getting why you force him to do math. So don’t worry.
Really: I have one child who told me in 8th grade that he didn’t want to do any more math (having completed his second algebra year). I agreed. Subsequently, he learned calculus in a high school physics class. Another son vowed never to take another math class after high school; naturally he studied calculus in college. It’s not all up to you! Just give them the tools to learn and they will do the rest.
bits & pieces
Read more John Taylor Gatto.
I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this article before. It concerns the philosophy behind David Clayton’s establishment of The Way of Beauty at Thomas More College. His ideas will be fruitful for anyone contemplating a life of learning. The article begins on p. 16 of the PDF.
David Warren on the misguided tendency to appease. What he says expresses my attitude exactly. Here on the blog I am focused on helping you establish your peaceful corner of life and love. Some are surprised and shocked even when they check in with me elsewhere (Facebook and Twitter) and find that I, as Warren recommends, pull no punches. I just want to say that there is a way to live that is both committed to beauty and uncompromising in opposition to evil. Softness in one’s positive life does not require softness in one’s dealings with aggressors. That is my apologia in a nutshell: that I am attempting it.
If you have never read Vaclav Havel’s speech The Power of the Powerless, please, I beg you, read it now. It’s not long. Please invite your friends over (you can sit on the deck) and read it with them and discuss it. And then you will understand, at least, why I don’t put on a happy face when confronted with ideology and why I won’t post a black square or a gay rainbow, not even to be nice, not even to show how much I love my fellow man.
I talked about family life with some friendly folks at Great & Main: have a listen! The topic was the heroic meaning of parenthood.
2,000-year-old rooms found by Western Wall
Pentecost is a glorious season — are you looking for a lovely and contemplative activity for your children? Our friends at Liturgy of the Home have made another liturgical calendar. Do check it out.
My friend Peter Kwasniewski writes about St. Paul’s prescription in the first letter to the Corinthians for liturgical renewal.
I am looking forward to seeing what Sally Thomas does with her new blog, Abandon Hopefully. (Make sure you read all the way down to the explanation of the name!) Years ago I wanted to post her essay on Swallows and Amazons, Not Duffers, Won’t Drown, here, but it was behind a paywall at that time. I even wrote to First Things to point out to them the benefits to their publication for allowing access through this blog, to no avail! But later I was able to do it. Just my kind of thing.
Architecture and Russell Kirk: Servitude and Boredom. I would add: something has to be done about building codes.
from the archives
Summer in the homeschool (spoiler: enjoy your summer! An old-fashioned summer is a treasure trove of memory)
Surf your day instead of the internet.
liturgical year
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post Math Goals with your bits & pieces appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
May 23, 2020
Homeschooling help here! along with your bits & pieces
Welcome new readers! Perhaps you are searching for information about homeschooling, given the disruption caused by the pandemic!
Here you will find a welcoming place and I hope, peace for your journey.
At Like Mother, Like Daughter we aim at encouragement to become competent at homemaking so that education can be accomplished — with “reasonable humble beauty,” not “staged perfection.” (Hence the plastic bucket in the foreground of that photo, and all the fences to keep the chickens out of the seedlings!)
This blog was started by my daughter, Rosie; I somewhat took it over (with her permission) because I enjoy it and to try to answer questions that people asked and still ask me all the time about homeschooling. (Before they got very busy with their little ones, the daughters also joined in here.)
Unlike most bloggers I found when I started, I was further along on the path of parenthood. I had already seen my older kids off to college and beyond. I could assess what had been beneficial in their education and what hadn’t — including my own shortcomings and the ways that our family could have done things better.
We homeschooled all but one of our seven children (the eldest, who had other opportunities). I had my ideals and my dreams. Reality falls short of the perfection we have in mind for ourselves, but fortunately, all that depends on us is that we try; that we care enough to give our best effort. God will do the rest.
I have tried to convey the things I learned so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We talk a lot about the collective memory, mainly in the context of how it has been lost, sadly. When you get serious about educating your own children (which is really your primary duty as a parent) you realize how much goes into doing it and how little you know.
I had to figure a lot of things out totally on my own (and remember, no internet). I blog because my thought is that maybe you can benefit from what I learned.
I also try to convey what I wish I had done. But always with a sense of realism and what I hope comes across to you, dear reader, as affirmation when the process seems difficult and not something you feel much equipped to do.
Since I am working on the book that will put everything here in order (I hope!), I haven’t been posting as much as I used to — mainly a weekly round-up of links preceded by a few thoughts or even just a picture or two. The links are always meant to stimulate the intellect and imagination — your own and your children’s.
If you look up at the menu bar, search the categories on the sidebar, and browse through the archives, I think you will find the help you need to educate your children in the context of a home established in Order and Wonder.
By the way, as I’m working on the book, I realize that in the more than 10 years I’ve been posting, with so much about reading, writing, history, science, and all, I’ve never really written about teaching math! Do you have questions about that? Ask away!
I made this cake again, for the Ascension, so I updated my chocolate cake post with this better picture!bits & pieces
(If you sign up with your email, you will receive this round-up of links every week (mostly) in your inbox! Or just check back with us… )
For a strong introduction to classical education: Thomas Mirus has a podcast with Andrew Kern of the CIRCE Institute: Ep. 74—What Is Classical Christian Education?—Andrew Kern (At the very end Thomas asks questions and Andrew gives great and very inspiring answers — do listen.)
Why read Boethius? (I finished re-reading The Consolation of Philosophy this past fall. You will find no better guide to discovering what is worthy in life than this book; it will save you from pursuing the wrong “excellences” as people mistakenly call them.) (I could have done without the Pope Francis reference at the end, full disclosure.)
“Lewis thought that an old book like The Consolation could serve as a balm to the myopia of the modern mind. Old books are the “clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds,” he rhapsodically wrote. We read old books not to provoke some kind of antiquarian fetish for the past. Nor do we read them to conjure nostalgia to assuage our discontent with the present.”
“This Book of Hours, referred to as the Black Hours, is one of a small handful of manuscripts written and illuminated on vellum that is stained or painted black. The result is quite arresting.”
At the passing of Rolf Hochhuth, author of a play deriding Pius XII as an antisemite, I thought I would link to this fascinating and in-depth interview with Roy Schoeman on this subject. Roy is a convert from Judaism and the author of the book Salvation is from the Jews (affiliate link) — he is also a friend of ours and someone we greatly admire:
“The current spate of calumnies against the Church, and Pius XII, are clearly revisionist history, frequently coming from fallen-away “Catholics” out to negate, I’m tempted to say destroy, the Catholic Church. So I think that anti-Semitism serves as an extremely useful cover for enemies of the Church to attack Catholic Faith and morals and practices and Doctrine; and to sully the reputation of the Church.”
Long ago (before I had children, 40 years ago), I realized that sex ed in schools was such a problem that one simply could not cooperate with the system at all. I realize, however, that some parents are still in the process of being convinced. Cathy Ruse has worked on this issue for a long time. Read what she has to say: Sex Education in Public Schools: Sexualization of Children and LGBT Indoctrination.
Still didn’t get to the “good” Education/Homeschool Summit, the conference that counters the destructive Harvard one? It’s here.
from the archives
What do I mean by “order and wonder”?
How do you say my name? Why Auntie Leila?
You’ll need a vision to homeschool.
Books are necessary — you’ll need a library.
liturgical year
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
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May 16, 2020
A little chatty, and bits & pieces
Scenes from yesterday:
Five “baguettes” (click to see my post, Baguettes and How to Fake Them because these are perfectly satisfactory and real baguettes defeat me). There were six but we ate one before I could take the photo. It was light on the inside with nice holes (oh, sorry, forgot to take a pic of that) and a thin but crispy crust.
A tip (because I’ve been baking bread for just about 40 years the learning doesn’t stop): Add a little grated potato if you have a baked one lying around (grate it all and put the rest in little ziplocs in the fridge for next time; no one wants an old baked potato but this will transform your bread. Or save your water from making mashed.)
Also, my latest tweak is to add a little “scalded flour” (AKA tangzhong). The idea is simple: Pour boiling water over some of the flour (in this case, 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup water), whisking. Add cooler water until you can mix it in your dough, or let it cool and mix in.
Just keep in mind the amounts of flour and water so you can maintain the proportions of your dough. (So remember that you have, say, 2 cups of water in your tangzhong after adding some to cool it, and only add another cup if your recipe calls for 3 cups of water… I guess, because I annoyingly never have a recipe but just do it by feel — at most I weigh the ingredients but get distracted as the dough is mixing and end up doing my own thing. For this I apologize.)
Words cannot express what leaving the door open means right now. Pandemic + cold rainy weather has been tough. Cold and chill, bless the Lord. Dew and rain, bless the Lord!* But ah… sunshine…
I have begun hardening off some plants that I started from seed. (Well, I did give into temptation with those little numbers on the steps when I was at the Tractor Supply getting feed.)
Some of my poor little Amish Paste tomatoes that had been doing so nicely up in the bathroom got super shocked when I transplanted them, so if you’re zooming in on this photo, I freely admit that there are some pathetic-looking plants there — they may not make it. I feel like a bad mom, so guilty. My poor little darlings…
bits & pieces
My husband, in his role as director of the Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture, hosted a conference about educational freedom. Its purpose was to establish principles for understanding who gets to call the shots on children and their formation. Speakers included Princeton’s Robert George, McGill’s Douglas Farrow, New Hampshire’s Education Commissioner (and homeschooler!) Frank Edelblut, Harvard alumna and homeschooler/author Kerry McDonald, MFI’s Andrew Beckwith… a great lineup. You can watch it all or you can watch parts. Do check in and let us know what you thought!
“People start to pay attention to family culture when things go wrong” — insightful comment from the podcast Great & Main did with Deirdre on the subject of The Art of Home Culture. Do give a listen! Deirdre waxed eloquent on the virtues of home*making*.
*The Song of the Three Holy Youths is where those verses above are from, in case you didn’t recognize it. (Here are the words.)
My friend Mark Langley wrote this little piece that I found oddly compelling. Clarence, Get Me Back! I Want to Live Again!
Mute Witnesses by Elizabeth A. Mitchell:
“It is Christ who speaks through our silent witness. The only thing we should fear is ceding power to Tyrants by accepting their redefinition of the rules of witness and martyrdom.”
The Mowing of a Field — an essay by Hilaire Belloc — with some good advice for how to strike a bargain, and some thoughts about Time and Death. This is the sort of essay, by the way, that you should read with your high schooler — challenge him to unpack (as the professors like to say) the denser parts. Encourage him even to write it out, longhand; doing so will do more for helping him to learn to write an essay than telling him how to do it.
from the archives:
I have a lot of posts about nursing the baby. This one is from Suzanne about nursing a toddler.
And this was a guest post — you need it, because you are wondering what your boy is going to read next! Books Every Boy Should Hazard
liturgical year
Several saints today, including the ever-appealing St. Brendan.
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
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May 9, 2020
bits & pieces
Yesterday my granddaughter collected a lot of violets and today we are ignoring snowflakes in the air — we made it into violet jelly.
Yes, it will be nice on a little thin bit of toast, but I am looking forward to a violet jelly cocktail!
I definitely could have sourced jars with non-clashing lids, but there you have it… I used this recipe.
Now I want to make dandelion jelly!
bits & pieces
A reflection on children’s books, good and bad
Inspiration for a highly decorated interior — we got nothin else to do but paint our ceilings now
Like Mother Like Daughter.
May 2, 2020
bits & pieces
We’ve had a good number of cakes recently due to Easter and birthdays — including a lavish trifle, flourless chocolate cake, a Victoria sponge, one other one that I’m not remembering, a sophisticated and lemony one from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking book, (affiliate link) and then for Deirdre’s birthday, the requested Birthday Cake for All Occasions.
I was also making the birthday supper, going to the endodontist, taking my mom for a test at the hospital (how busy we are in this shut-down!) — so I didn’t get any truly stellar pictures. We just sang Happy Birthday and dove in!
How about a few mediocre ones…
I want to tell you a variation from my tried-and-true “Sacher-torte” treatment (apricot jam in the middle, simple ganache glaze on top — so quick, so elegant).
The cake is really just so nice — I don’t know if I can adequately convey the serious moistness of it, the lovely crumb, the satisfying chocolate-y-ness…
I will say that it’s best made with (peanut) oil. I know I said in that post that I don’t use vegetable oils, but I make an exception for peanut oil in certain things, and this is one of them. (The recipe is here.)
My new variation is to make the whipped ganache from the Gateau Paris-Brest, a dessert I used to make for Easter but the truth is that there are so many wonderful cakes and desserts and so many bakers around here that these old standards don’t get much of a work-out anymore.
Anyway, that ganache is also much more bang for your dessert buck — simply just bring to the boil 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, take off the heat, and add 8 oz. of high-quality chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60%), whisking until melted.
Let the mixture cool — but don’t let it get cold. I had made it the night before and stuck it in the fridge, and then it was too cold, so then I had to warm it up over a bowl of warm water, and then it was too warm, and so on… it needs to be just… cool.
At that point it will whip up in your mixer to be a kind of delectable chocolate whipped cream. If it’s not too cold (sigh) you can spread it on your layers and it’s just… perfect.
bits & pieces
By now I’m sure you’ve seen this stunningly ignorant, chillingly aggressive piece on “a presumptive ban on homeschooling” from Harvard Magazine, leading up to a “homeschooling summit.” The thinking it represents is a threat to families everywhere, not only to homeschoolers.
Lots of good responses all over — here (“I was 5 years old, and we lived in a trailer park in rural Central Florida”), here (five key points that challenge the article’s primary claim that the alleged “risks for children—and society—in homeschooling” necessitate a “presumptive ban on the practice”), and here (“Strangely enough, the article left out the fact that nearly two-thirds of US students aren’t proficient in reading”), just for starters.
Yesterday there was a conference hosted by Cevin Solig of the The Disinformation Campaign Against Homeschooling. I think that link will work, that provided a lot of information to refute the article and what it stands for.
My husband’s initiative, the Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture, is hosting what promises to be an important conference on May 13 to address the question “Who Owns Your Children?: Home Education in an Authoritarian Age”
This conference is not only to oppose the Harvard Law School one, “Homeschooling Summit: Problems, Politics, and Prospects for Reform,” (which has actually been canceled!) — but to provide positive understanding going forward. Please sign up to receive mailings and to be sure you can register to hear Robert George, Douglas Farrow, Andrew Beckwith, Kerry McDonald, Frank Edelblut (NH Commissioner of Education — himself a homeschooler!), Jamie Gass, and others.
They will expose the elites at Harvard Law and elsewhere who want to regulate homeschooling out of existence — but they will also provide the religious understanding, Constitutional framework, and natural law arguments for the primacy of the family and the role of the state in education.
This conference will go far beyond simply rebutting Elizabeth Bartholet’s groundless assertions. Please share the information with your fellow homeschoolers and groups. The Harvard conference may have been canceled, but the urge to control parents and usurp their rights over their children is going forward.
This video is hilarious (you kind of have to know how demanding being an altar server for the Traditional Latin Mass is, but once you know that, a quarantine workout makes sense!):
Leo Tolstoy’s Children’s Stories Will Devastate Your Children and Make You Want to Die
Witty upending of the logical consequences of slavish acceptance of policy: When a Bishop Mandates ‘Social Distancing’ for Brides and Grooms
Surrogacy and IVF are wrong. Whenever I see news of some gay celebrity “having a baby” my heart breaks for the child, deprived for good of his mother, whose identity is erased. Michael Brendan Dougherty reminded me of this excellent article he wrote some time ago, that poignantly reveals how our laws change our view of the child from person to commodity. (By the way, this relates to the usurpation of parental rights in the area of education as well, see links above.)
“And rather than the state “recognizing” an antecedent and natural institution of the family whose claims trump those of the state, it will have to take the new commercial understanding of parentage into its hand as it usurps the power to assign legal parentage regardless of biology. The intent of the contracting parties now trumps nature.”
For those following the development of a COVID vaccine, an important clarification on what a British bioethicist actually said about whether a person of good will can accept one derived from aborted fetal cells.
One of the best essays I have read on how the state should respond to lockdown policies. “My protest does not concern the medical assessment of the COVID-19 virus and its propagation. It concerns the public policies designed to confront this problem.”
from the archives
The Bossiness Cure — and really, do check out all the discipline posts. Just remember that discipline is something learned over their whole childhood. It doesn’t have to be perfect today (and it won’t be). Aim high, but don’t worry about shortfalls.
Seems timely: To Be Happy at Home
liturgical year
The feast of the great St. Athanasius, bishop and doctor
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post bits & pieces appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
April 25, 2020
A doll quilt with your {bits & pieces}
Quick note: Congrats to the three winners of the giveaway of Leila Miller’s new book, Impossible Marriages Redeemed! (affiliate link)
If you are not one of the winners and you need this book to save your own marriage or that of a loved one, but truly can’t pay for it (times are hard, we know), Leila is graciously offering to send you a free PDF of it! If you can buy it, do. If you cannot, just email her at Leila (at) leilamiller (dot) net. She will send it to you!
Doll quilt: A story
My granddaughter, Rosie’s Nora, seemed to be in need of doll bedding. (Muttered to me over her head as I received clear “I want a rag doll like the one you made Josie” messages — “We have a lot of D-O-L-L-S, how about bedding.”)
Say no more.
Now, perhaps this particular design — in the center — seems a little odd to you.
Let me explain.
Because clearly this — THIS — is what is important now; we literally have nothing else to do but talk about my design decision here on this… doll quilt.
So, I pulled out my scraps — my little, tiny, itsy bitsy scraps — and started thinking… playing… looking at truly minuscule little bits… wondering what sort of strange syndrome it is that causes someone to save such things…
And then I re-discovered these:
What are these?
They are three patches left over from the little baby quilt I made Rosie when she was a little girl (not a baby — I was and am a very slow quilter, and I didn’t get the idea to make quilts for my children at all until my eldest was about 5).
So yes, these are three small patches that are about 30 years old. To be fair to me, your Honor, I know my client is bonkers, but look at this workmanship:
This was back when I pieced by hand using tiny stitches and minute seam allowances (no doubt because I had made some mistake in cutting).
So I kept them. Wouldn’t it be fun to use them in her daughter’s doll quilt? But how? Three squares? (Thanks a lot, me of three decades ago… )
I arranged those resulting triangles into the strips, which was truly the best I could think of to use them in a pleasing fashion.
I had also saved bias binding leftover from other quilts… bias binding is a chore to make! I wasn’t going to just throw it away!
So there you have it. And now those patches are no longer in my scrap bag!
bits & pieces
The title of this piece isn’t a swear — it’s a description: Happy Canada Day, Bastards. The argument is essential for us to understand if we are going to meet the coming challenge, which is focused on the enemies of the family using their current advantage in law.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard of or read the Harvard Magazine article condemning homeschooling as borderline abusive and anti-democratic (misogynist too, naturally). I like this rebuttal, which I think gets at the heart of the real issue. Here is the article about the upcoming Harvard conference at the Home School Legal Defense Association site.
If you are doing traditional cursive handwriting with your children, here is a nice set of free practice exercises using prayers.
To become men, boys need to leave childhood behind.
Recreating medieval blue ink.
Fun games kids can play with a penny.
Many of us are able to go into a church empty of a congregation — but filled with the Real Presence — to pray. Maybe now is a good time to understand the importance of adoration in the spiritual life and the spiritual renewal. I recommend this institute of priests — their site is beautiful. I did hear Fr. Davidson preach once and it was life-changing in the most quiet, peaceful way possible. Do watch his videos if you can.
At the end of every {bits & pieces} I have a list of links for you to follow us with (by?). Just wanted to say point out two time-sensitive things:
https://www.instagram.com/daedalshop/Bridget has been posting on her IG account a good number of fiddle tunes with the hashtag covidceilidh! Enjoy!
And Deirdre and The Artist have a great giveaway going on of books they’ve illustrated — go to Deirdre’s account for details!
from the archives
Not too deep in the archives (from this week, actually), but you might have missed the less usual weekday posting from me: How to keep your family from being destroyed
Did you tuck ham away in the freezer after Easter? Here is our favorite way to use it: Ham and Cheese and Spinach Pie
liturgical year
It’s the feast of St. Mark! And also a Major Rogation Day.
follow us everywhere!
Stay abreast of the posts when they happen:
I just share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
If you want politics, rants, and takes on what is going on in the Church:
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow — my posts are public — sometimes I share articles here that don’t make it into {bits & pieces})
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest. Bridget’s Pinterest.
And the others on IG: Rosie’s Instagram. Sukie’s Instagram. Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.Habou’s Instagram.
The post A doll quilt with your {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
