Leila Marie Lawler's Blog, page 30
December 22, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
Getting closer…
There was a rare tandem foray to the pharmacy earlier this week, the Chief and I; as I waited for him to get his prescription filled, I noticed that they had some giant nutcracker soldiers on clearance.
Sore temptation!
But I resisted… valiantly… maybe I could go back when they were 75% off but what if someone snagged them first? But do I really need giant nutcrackers??
I was telling them in the car on the way home from Mass, and they definitely had a skeptical look. What on earth would anyone do with a 2 ft. nutcracker guy??
But later that day, who should come home with it under his arm… what a great guy!
I am unreasonably happy about this!
My friend Shyla says that this is how collections start… one purchase at the drugstore after another… I don’t consider myself a nutcracker collector, but, well, I love him (and the other three on the mantel) so that’s that.
In other thrifting news, in the summer I was at an estate sale and found this little cloth for $2 (and the small blue-and-white cake stand at Marshalls, who could resist):
The table is staging ground for a few straggling cards awaiting their addresses, dried oranges ready to string, and a centerpiece that needs sprucing up, like literal bits of spruce to fill it out! Or maybe holly…
Little by little!
If you too have a marble mantel that is also curved, or some other difficult stocking-hanging challenge, you might be interested in this solution.
I had gotten a bunch of those metal stocking-hanging-brackets on deep clearance one year, but they really don’t work when deployed individually. They pop off and everything falls to the floor, dragging mantel decor with it.
I got the idea to find a long sturdy branch (pear-tree pruning! I keep it in the attic with the decorations because it’s really perfect) and use the brackets to hang that.
The rings are actually shower-curtain rings that are dark and elegant enough to work here — they open, which is important, because you don’t want to have to take off each and every stocking to rearrange or access your goodies. But they close in a convincing way.
Under the birdies and dried moss and burlap are a couple of pieces of duct tape, keeping everything stable.
On to our links!
Just before Advent started, I gave a talk at St. Catherine’s in Great Falls, VA. Some asked if it was recorded; it wasn’t, but I wrote it out, and it was published this past week in Crisis: The Home: Cradle of Order and Wonder.
Two Advent motets for you (it’s still Advent! Light that last candle tomorrow!):
We sang this one, Rejoice in the Lord Alway, last Sunday (a bit faster):
When I was a girl, I was totally oppressed by the piano exercises of Zoltán Kodály. I have an almost visceral reaction to his name, and it’s not a good one! But all is forgiven with this setting of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which we sing tomorrow:
Fr. Dwight Longernecker with some interesting points about the shepherds who heard the angels’ message in Bethlehem. (To be enlarged upon by these reflections of the infancy of Our Lord by Pope Benedict and this book, Salvation is from the Jews, by Roy Shoeman. These are affiliate links.)
Samuel Gregg on what Edmund Burke’s affirmation of natural law suggests to conservatives today.
In my opinion, a secondary school’s curriculum should include an introduction to Euclid’s Elements as its defining study. This is a problem for boot-strapping homeschoolers: who is going to teach this? I am hoping that my skeptical friend Mark Langley will chime in on this beautiful online interactive reproduction of a 19th-century edition of the first six books of the Elements. Will it help? I know we really need an actual teacher, but what if we are exiled where we can’t find one?
A review of A Year with Fr. Rutler, charming in itself.
A thoughtful meditation on the wisdom of the East, by Thomas More College president William Fahey, to bookmark as we round towards Epiphany.
Here are the cookies I’m currently making:
These Springerle, the recipe recommended by our friend Alice (who used to be Sukie’s roommate in college! You can subscribe to her scholarly reflections on liturgical matters through a medieval lens here). I do like it better than the recipe I’d used before. I have added a little bit of anise oil as well as the seed, and a little lemon oil as well. We find these cookies pretty addictive!
This shortbread, which I have not yet attempted to roll out/press in my molds. I made the gingerbread version but also added a bit of cocoa because why not.
And I have some babka rising (this year I doubled the recipe — it freezes beautifully so seems like the thing to do).
Habou has several doughs stashed away — I’ll have to ask her what kinds; and Bridget made our favorite sugar cookie dough, which we rolled out with the grandchildren/niece/nephews yesterday. I hope I have a chance to post some baking on Instagram!
From the archives:
In this post I talk about the O Antiphons and incorporating them into your family devotions (and writing curriculum). Maybe your children would like something beautiful to copy or color in this weekend while the cookies are baking? The resources for this are from the wonderful Jennifer Gregory Miller, who has worked over many years to collect so much of Catholic tradition for family richness.
If you scroll waaaay down in this post, you will find links to our family favorites in the Christmas cookie department.
And here’s where I chronicled making the babkas using three recipes.
Today we pray the 6th O Antiphon:
O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart;
O Keystone of the mighty arch of man:
Come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.
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December 15, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
We have three winners of the wonderful Roman Hurko CD*! If you won, you have an email from me! If you didn’t win, do take advantage of the generous offer from the composer to purchase the CD for $15 plus shipping/handling (vs. the regular price of $20 plus shipping/handling). Just mention in your email** that you are a reader, and for the coming week, the discount will be applied.
*The album is also available on iTunes for $9.99. There’s no way to offer a discount there, but that’s more affordable, although you don’t get the beautiful printed matter, including translation. You can also buy the tracks separately.
**To purchase the CD, email carocpw at gmail dot com, where you will be directed to pay with Paypal and receive an invoice. The physical address is
CARO Productions, LLC
Ansonia Station
P.O. Box 230151
New York, NY
10023
10% of the purchase price will be donated to a fund for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
We are doing what we do and only now winding up our renovations of the Chief’s office/library, which of course brings us right up to Christmas decorating/crafting/baking time (not having been content with crowding our Thanksgiving prep). Here is a sneak peek!
Bridget has done yeoman’s work in there! I am trying to come in as the closer, putting in last-minute touch-ups and figuring out the new normal with all the books and, well, stuff.
So I am writing this in haste, so I can get to the boxes in the attic while attending to the boxes in the living room!
Buy an old house, they said.
It will be fun to DIY it, they said.
I’ll be falling in my grave just a little behind time, with paint under my fingernails, trying to tidy up as I go…
On to our links!
A fun article about when to put up and take down your Christmas tree from the Drinking with the Saints crew — their advice/experience exactly mirrors ours! With four December birthdays in our household, I just couldn’t leave the decorating to the last minute; but with a die-hard Advent-observer in our midst (the Chief), I couldn’t do it early, either. We do our best! How about you?
A wake-up call from the gentle and reasonable Prof. Peter Kreeft: Those who follow militant Islam and LGBT ideology are willing to die for what they believe. Are Christians?
A glimpse of a different era in the White House, when black cooks ruled and made what sounds to me like absolutely delicious food. I love the name Zephyr, and this talented chef for LBJ turns out to have been perhaps more famous than for her cooking.
You know I love John Taylor Gatto! The incisive Stella Morabito writes a marvelous appreciation of Gatto, who passed away this week, along with a strong critique of our educational system. For a good shot in the arm to do what it takes to give your children freedom to think and to learn good things, do read.
Monday was Solzhenitsyn’s 100th birthday (shared by Habou, although she’s not that old yet!). I think that some have learned of the great man’s writing from Jordan Peterson, but you owe it to yourself to read this article (and Solzhenitsyn’s works themselves). Peterson gets Solzhenitsyn’s witness to truth but does not understand that it is his faith that motivates and enlightens the Russian thinker. (If you have never read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (affiliate link) you must — and your teenagers must too. A tour de force that embeds the idea deep in your soul that each person must make the choice to do what is right or suffer moral death.)
From the archives:
There’s still time to make plum pudding if you want to.
And/or chocolate babka.
A little pep talk in the midst of “Christmas parties” and Advent preparations that may or may not be going the way you envisioned.
Today is the commemoration of St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli — and don’t miss the lovely little essay on the linked page about the “three nativities”!
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
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December 11, 2018
Books for Christmas in the Library Project, with Amy Fahey
Titles: Various
Authors & Illustrators: Various
File Under: Children’s books, Picture books, Christmas giving
Age Group: All!
Behold, a post by my dear friend Amy Fahey, wife, mother, homeschooler, professor, writer, and keen observer of literary matters.
I always love talking about books with her. So I thought you would as well, especially for gifts as Christmas draws near.
By the way, Amy teaches at Thomas More College, where her husband, William Fahey, is president (and also teaches). As you read Amy’s delightful observations in her limpid prose here, keep in mind that she could be teaching your college student about literature and writing! Our Bridget treasures her years studying with Mrs. Dr. Fahey.
(Please note that all the Amazon links here are affiliate links — thanks!)
So without further ado, I give you Amy’s suggestions for:
Books for Children of Every Age
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
Emily Dickinson’s words remind us of a time when reading was a common delight of both children and adults. In our day—when scores of children know as much about books as they do about coursers and frigates—I find that many young mothers simply have not heard of the authors and books that I shared with my own children just a short decade or two ago.
What were once considered “timeless classics” (many of them were Caldecott or Newbery winners) have been banished from library shelves to make room for propaganda like Feminist Baby (a board book!) and C is for Consent (described on Amazon as the “perfect gift for baby showers, toddler birthdays, and preschoolers’ home libraries”).
And many libraries didn’t simply put the classic books up for sale in the basement; they dumped them in a recycling bin. Yes, they were quite literally destroyed, and now the remaining copies of many fetch a dear price in the used book corridors of the internet.
But that is a subject for another day, since I already feel my blood pressure rising.
Today, as we continue to prepare our hearts to receive the Christ Child, I intend to introduce you to some of the books that fed my own imagination as a young mother, and delighted my children with their charming or evocative illustrations and their memorable cadence of phrase (I still think “Kuplink. Kuplank. Kuplunk” every time I see blueberries).
If you have heard of some, many, or all of them, then I am buoyed with hope. If you have not, then I still have hope that you will take up one or two of them. There are 12 days of Christmas, so if you order even a used copy from Britain in the next few days, it should arrive on time to place under your tree—and share them with your children or grandchildren.
Some of these books have been reprinted by small presses, or are still in print with the original publishers. But many of them are only available in used copies. If you are part of a St. Gregory’s Pocket or a mom’s group, you may wish to coordinate your buying of used classics, since I have found that if even one copy is purchased, the prices of the others immediately rise, sometimes precipitously, because of the insidious algorithms of the internet.
My husband and I arrived in New England, where we now make our home, over a decade ago, with four children between the ages of ten months and ten. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the land that inspired N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Maxfield Parrish had fostered so many of the great children’s author-illustrators: Barbara Cooney, Robert McCloskey, Tasha Tudor, Virginia Lee Burton, Dahlov Ipcar (and, more recently, illustrators like Tomie De Paola, Jan Brett, Mary Azarian, and Beth Krommes, though I confess that although I find Jan Brett’s illustrations lovely, her text is often weak).
Since I don’t wish to tax your attention too greatly, I have restricted myself to only five suggestions.
Most of them are suggested authors rather than particular books, because so many of their books are so good, and you may have better luck finding one than another. And though you may be familiar with Robert McCloskey’s famous Make Way for Ducklings, you really should also have copies of Time of Wonder or Journey Cake, Ho! or Lentil or Burt Dow, Deep Water Man on your shelves.
But on to the list, which is of course necessarily, but painfully, partial. As far as age range, I guess I have in mind a child you could still hoist on your lap. But only yesterday my 9- and 12-year-old sons asked me to read a charming picture book, Robin Finds Christmas, by Molly Brett. If you don’t have this book, you should. It is a softcover published in 1961 by The Medici Society. In fact, if you find anything by The Medici Society, snatch it up. Their books are small but sturdy, with beautiful illustrations, all timeless, and published in Great Britain throughout the twentieth century.
Audrey Tarrant’s The Donkey of Nazareth is another Medici book I would love for you to share with children. And speaking of Christmas books featuring the donkey that bore Our Lady and her Divine Son (I do love the illustrations of its soft ears and large brown eyes), if you don’t have Margaret Helen Berger’s The Donkey’s Dream, you must get that too. It was recently still in print, but now, sadly, is only available in used copies.
Oh dear, I’ve gone on chatting, without starting the list. I have never been one for self-discipline when it comes to books. . . .
1. John Goodall. I’ll begin with Goodall, because he produced only wordless picture books. That’s right, none of his books have words. Instead, the story is told through half-pages that flip to reveal subtle changes. You must tell the story, and if you’ve done a good job, the child will pick up the book and tell it to himself again and again and again.
Children of all ages love these books. My grown daughters can still pore over The Story of a Castle (which traces the historical fate of a castle from its Norman origins to modern times), while younger children love The Surprise Picnic or the two books about the mischievous mouse, Naughty Nancy (to my mortification, I have to warn you to be careful when you search for this book if you do not have a filter on your computer). Here is the cover of Goodall’s Creepy Castle:
My husband warned me to buy any books I don’t yet own by John Goodall before posting this, since if you begin to purchase them, I won’t be able to afford them. I confess I did just buy his An Edwardian Christmas but decided it was worth the risk to let you have first dibs at the others—that’s how much I want you to get these books. Save them from cultural annihilation!
2. Marjorie Flack: Angus and the Ducks, Angus and the Cat, Angus Lost. Of course I’m assuming you already know the naughty little duck Ping, but if you don’t, get that first before you get the Angus books. Angus is a mischievous Scottish terrier, and these picture books, in addition to capturing that inquisitive terrier pose, also have a simple storyline that at times borders on lyrical. Here is a passage from Angus and the Ducks:
Soon the DUCKS stopped by a stone watering trough under a mulberry tree.
Angus stopped, too. Each DUCK dipped a yellow bill in the clear cool water. Angus watched. Each DUCK took a long drink of the cool clear water. Still Angus watched. Each DUCK took another long drink of the cool clear water.
Then Angus said:
WOO-OO-OOF!!!
Away the DUCKS scuttled and
Angus lapped the cool clear water.
Birds sang in the mulberry tree.
The Sun made patterns
through the leaves
over the grass.
And here is a picture of Angus:
Do you now see why you must buy this book?
Don’t even bother looking for the lesser-known Angus and Topsy or Angus and Wag-Tail—if a stray library copy does occasionally make its way into the hands of a bookseller, the price is between $50 – $500. Yes, they’re all ex-library copies. But don’t get me started again. . .
3. Barbara Cooney. For some reason, I always think of Barbara Cooney when I see this glorious night nativity scene by Geertgen tot Sint Jans:
The broad foreheads, the simple, placid expressions—these seem to be one of the hallmarks of Cooney’s characters, too. Here are two illustrations, one from her classic retelling of Chaucer’s Chanticleer and the Fox and the other from her equally famous Miss Rumphius:
If you’re looking for something Christmas-themed, you can’t go wrong with Cooney’s illustrated version of Rumer Godden’s The Story of Holly and Ivy. She also illustrated an interesting Aztec version of the nativity story, Spirit Child.
Fortunately, most of her most famous works (The Ox-Cart Man, Hattie and the Wild Waves, Island Boy, plus the aforementioned ones) are still in print. I discovered in the course of writing this post that she also illustrated an edition of Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story, A White Heron. I just bought my used copy for $12.00 on abebooks.com; the cheapest one on Amazon was $30.00. So shop around!!
(Just a note for local readers of Auntie Leila’s blog, you should know that Cooney lived in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and the Lawrence Library is featured in Miss Rumphius. If you go through town, you’ll see the large white, gated home where she lived. )
4. Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, Ferdinand the Bull and Wee Gillis. You must have heard of Ferdinand, the bull who would rather smell flowers than fight:
He wouldn’t fight and be fierce no matter what they did. He just sat and smelled. And the Banderilleros were mad and the Picadores were madder and the Matador was so made he cried because he couldn’t show off with his cape and sword.
Here’s what the pompous matador looks like just before he cries:
(It doesn’t trouble, but rather amuses, me that Ferdinand was banned as subversive in both Spain and Nazi Germany because of its “pacifist” message.)
Our copy of Wee Gillis is inscribed to my husband by his mother, and was given to him when he was a little boy. It is one of my favorite children’s books, all in black-and-white drawings and perfectly capturing in both pictures and words the plight of a young Scottish boy caught between his relations in the highlands and those in the lowlands.
Munro Leaf was a bit of a “two hit wonder” when he collaborated with Lawson, but you would do well to stock your library with other works written or illustrated by Lawson like his tribute to ancestors, They Were Strong and Good. My children have also loved his chapter books for slightly older children like Rabbit Hill, Ben and Me, or Mr. Revere and I, or good books by others that he illustrated, like Adam of the Road and Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
5. Marguerite de Angeli. I confess my fondness for Margurite de Angeli grew exponentially when I found out that she was born and raised in my home state, Michigan.
Since 1981, the town library in Lapeer, Michigan had been named the Marguerite de Angeli Library, but sadly they stripped this award-winning author of that honor in 2007. Marguerite de Angeli wrote and illustrated books for a variety of ages, from her edition of Mother Goose rhymes for children, to her novels for older children like the The Door in the Wall and The Black Fox of Lorne (a story of tenth-century Scotland).
Her style of illustration has been compared to that of the better known Tasha Tudor. My favorite Marguerite de Angeli book is called Up the Hill, and takes us through a year in the life of a Polish immigrant girl, introducing us to her Easter and Christmas customs, and infused with her Catholic faith.
Her works about young, frequently immigrant, American children, whether Catholic, Quaker (Thee, Hannah), Amish (Henner’s Lydia), Swedish (Elin’s Amerika), German (Skippack School) or African-American (Bright April) are sensitive and heartwarming.
Some of her works have been reprinted, but those that have not (like Up the Hill) can be quite expensive in used editions. I frequently checked her works out of my local library less than a decade ago, but went in one day to find the entire collection gone. Upon inquiry, I was told by the children’s librarian that any book that had not been checked out in the last three years was on the chopping block. I protested that I had certainly checked them out within that time frame, as had at least two friends of mine.
It is hard not to feel like there is a vast conspiracy afoot (here is one Berkeley protest I would have joined: Protesters rally, check out books to make clear concerns over weeding at Berkeley Central Library.
But I don’t want to succumb to sadness, when really, there are so many good books still available, and so many interested readers like you, waiting to introduce them to children.
I’d like to tell you about so, so many others: Edward Ardizzone’s Tim books, Maj Lindman’s Ricka, Flicka, Dicka and Snipp, Snapp, Snurr series, or Lucy Fitch Perkins’ very politically incorrect but charming Twins series [I wrote about this series here — LML], Valenti Angelo’s delightful story of an Italian Catholic boyhood, Nino, the playful wordless books by Japanese illustrator Mitsumasa Anno, the fairies and gnomes of Swedish illustrator Elsa Beskow.
But probably it would be best if you started exploring some of the books suggested above and see where the search leads you.
The reality is that I didn’t know about any of these books as a young mother. I was graced to have friends, older mothers (like my mother-in-law), and seasoned children’s librarians make suggestions along the way.
In more recent years, though, the “customers who bought this also bought….” section of Amazon has displaced the library shelf as a virtual place to bump into books you may not have known about.
Tragic, is it not, that we can no longer peruse a library bookshelf in the hopes of discovering new frigates and prancing coursers for our children? But we can console ourselves with the possibility of introducing these works anew to the “rising generation,” to foster in them a sense of wonder and delight in God’s marvelous creation.
As Edmund Burke once wisely said, “To love the little platoon we belong to . . . is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.”
What better way to cultivate this love than sharing enchanting stories and pictures with your “little platoon” this Christmas?
Amy Fahey spoke at the most recent Catholic Literature Conference of the Russell Kirk Center, on The Moral Imagination; she often can be found speaking at the IHM homeschooling conferences. She and William have five highly educated children.
For other book suggestions, search all the LMLD Library posts, especially this one for your older, voracious reader. I also have ideas for Christmas gift books in this post about learning to write. (All Amazon links are affiliate links, thanks!)
What is the Like Mother, Like Daughter Library Project?
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December 8, 2018
Sacred Music Giveaway! and more!! {bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
We have winners for the three Around the Year with the von Trapp Family books! If we emailed you, it’s you!
Here is a code for 30% off your purchase of the book at Sophia Institute Press — this code is good for this coming week! USE THE CODE Trapp30 — this is for LMLD readers only!
Great news! I have another giveaway for you!
Do you have a lover of sacred music on your gift list? Someone who really appreciates the chant tradition of the Slavic Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches?
We are offering three winners a beautiful CD, the Vespers and Requiem/Panachyda, that truly moved me when I received a copy. It’s two compositions (both in Ukrainianized Church Slavonic) by Roman Hurko.
If his name sounds familiar, I had shared a piece of his (not from this album) when we were discussing a chapter of The Spirit of the Liturgy by Cardinal Ratzinger. A chorale directed by my friend Paul Jernberg performed the Liturgy (affiliate link) from which that piece is taken, sang it at a benefit concert, and some of us got to meet the composer in person — his wife, Carmen, too!
They are wonderful warm and down to earth. I loved meeting them. You can read more about his work here.
This album we are giving away contains Hurko’s Vespers and his Requiem for the victims of Chernobyl (ten percent of the proceeds of the sale of the CD go to a victims’ fund.). The choir is otherworldly, with a masterly delicacy and force, and the music is transcendent. True, the Requiem is intense, as befits the subject matter, but the composer’s close loyalty to the traditional form rescues it from over-emotionalism. His work all has the necessary austerity (by which is meant restraint in the area of sentiment) that Romano Guardini insists marks true liturgy and sacred art.
Here is the Blessed is the Man from the Vespers:
If you would like a chance to win one of three copies of this CD, please enter a comment below — and share this post with your friends!
We will choose a winner next week and offer a discount for any CDs you’d like to purchase at that point. The music is also available on iTunes of course. Do check out Hurko’s offerings — they are all fantastic.
I really do just want you to know about this composer and his music — I hope you will find someone to give his work to!
Now, on to our links!
Pam Barnhill has a wise post about not sabotaging your day with “morning quiet time” that robs you of sleep.
Some thoughts on electronic devices for prayer. I find that in the car when we’re together, it’s helpful to pray an Hour from my phone; it’s not quite right in church or chapel, though.
An excellent overview of the particular manifestation of the Catholic liturgical renewal in devotions in the home, as experienced in the 50s and driven primarily by women, although of course their husbands must have supported their doings. Although the efforts of these energetic and faithful mothers and nuns were largely derailed in the culture at large by the faux-folk “revival” and liturgical innovation (as opposed to renewal) of the post-conciliar generation, an underground network of families kept their efforts alive. I personally know many people who painstakingly made photocopies of the very Around the Year with the von Trapp Family book that we highlighted here in our giveaway last week, when it was out of print and so rare! Mary Reed Newland’s books were important to me when my children were young; a friend introduced me to her early on. I would say that the one piece that was missing was the idea of the little oratory, perhaps because it was so much a part of traditional family life that it escaped mention; yet it was lost… and with it, family life connected to the Liturgical Year. From the article:
“If we are tempted to romanticize [or, I suggest, mock, as so many do] the robust Catholicism of the 1950s, we would do well to ask ourselves a question. Why were the problems these women confronted, and the solutions they offered, so amazingly applicable to our own era, where we now face a desolated, perverse cultural wasteland and Religio Depopulata? It is certainly because they were able to see, even in that outwardly healthy Church, the fatal seeds that were already undermining its foundations.”
An amazing story of a Thanksgiving miracle.
The search for the composer of the most touching Christmas carol, Silent Night.
Do you know someone whose marriage is in trouble? Share this excellent article with them: What kids really want for Christmas.
In praise of an ordinary Christian’s hidden virtues.
My friend Amy Fahey on Sigrid Undset’s devotion to saints.
Who’s a burden? You are! I am! Let’s not get rid of the burdens: Good post from Kelly Mantoan.
If I still haven’t convinced you about how lovely the Roman Hurko sacred music CD will be, you can listen to the Requiem here — then leave a comment on this post for a chance to win this CD:
From the archives:
Nursing your baby — sitting with me at the kitchen table, cup of tea in hand.
Common sense when your children are sick.
Today is the Immaculate Conception! (If you are on Facebook, you can read this little post I wrote last year about this day.)
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November 30, 2018
“Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family” Giveaway with your {bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
*I updated this post with one more link — to a lovely page of Advent hymns! So do look below if you are returning…
I’m so excited to be able to offer three of our readers a copy of the classic Maria Von Trapp book, Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family! Details on entering the giveaway are below.
There are a few books that have really influenced those of us in my generation who were building from the ground up as far as family liturgical traditions. Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family is definitely one; Take Joy by Tasha Tudor and Mary Reed Newland’s The Year and Our Children are two others. The Tudor book is still out of print — I snatch up any copies I might find at book sales and give them as wedding/shower gifts; fortunately, Sophia had reprinted Newland’s book last year and now we have the Von Trapp book!*
*As we wax enthusiastic for all things liturgical living, I will remind you to take what you love and leave what makes you feel stressed. There are years ahead of you to add traditions; you don’t have to do it all at once. Remember, these authors had a lot of collective memory to work with, and Maria in particular was stepping into a family that was already formed in the deep traditions of Austria, with servants to facilitate it all. The most important things, in my opinion, are those I have written about here: a little oratory in your home, and during Advent, the candle wreath and the calendar, lived with a simplicity in the season of quiet expectation and humble preparation. I only say this because I know you — and myself — so well! Be peaceful!
So of course I had to offer the Von Trapp book to you! (When the giveaway ends next week there will be a code for you to buy it at 30% off from Sophia, because they are the best.)
You can read a sample chapter here; and here is a little trailer if you are totally unfamiliar with dear Maria.
I’m also honored that Sophia Institute Press is offering a nice package deal for the Von Trapp book and my book, The Little Oratory together. So if you are wanting them both, do check out their page.
Just leave a comment here if you would like to be entered into the giveaway for the Von Trapp book, which will close next week, probably on Thursday. Please share our blog with a friend! Three readers will win a copy!
On to our links!
Rosie sent me this link to a lovely blog and this post from dear Amanda: An Advent carol for each day! Many have asked me for an Advent list and I posted some favorites here. Amanda’s post is super helpful for learning hymns with the family, especially if you don’t have a piano or read music. If it seems like too much, just listen to them before Sunday and choose one or two to learn. That’s fine! You have your whole life ahead of you!
As you well know, for I have often told you so, I have done not one but two readings of books about the liturgy: The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini and the book by the same name of Joseph Ratzinger. You might be interested in an encyclical that magisterially summarizes the aims of the liturgical renewal that began in the early years of the last century, Mediator Dei by Pius XII. Here is an excellent discussion of that document: Mediator Dei—70 Years Later, Its Groundbreaking Legacy Lives on. I would add a few more points, but it’s a good start to reading this amazing treasure on worship, devotion, and prayer.
You might enjoy this little trailer for Mr. Mehan’s Amazing Mythical Mammals (M5). This book will make a great Christmas gift, don’t forget! (It’s illustrated by my illustrious illustrating son-in-law, John Folley!)
In defense of wasting time.
Multiplying the gift of life. The importance of family and children to man’s happiness.
Persuasive cartography.
Divorce ruins children’s happiness. If you know someone thinking of divorcing, have them read this article and if possible, Leila Miller’s book, Primal Loss. (affiliate link)
My friend Mark Langley writes, It’s Never too Late to Become Liberally Educated.
While you are not looking, faith is being airbrushed out of history.
From the archives:
Here is my roundup of the Advent posts on the blog.
Don’t forget to check the archives of the Library Project for book gift-giving ideas. Here’s a post about beauty.
Today* is the feast of glorious St. Andrew! Begin your St. Andrew novena today!
*Maybe this is why this post published today — my confusion was a compound one, but this way we really are starting today, his actual feast day!
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November 17, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
Thinking about how to remember the process for finishing the hem I had blithely committed to on this little sweater I was making but could not find a tutorial for, I wished for a video of my own. I know myself well — I would go through the entire learning curve every time, without some sort of visual reminder.
Behold, my five-year-old granddaughter made it happen! She did a great job, I think! Does it make any sense to you at all? Ah well, at least my own memory will be jogged! If you want to see, here’s 41 seconds of the method:
I recently saw a tribute to a lovely lady given by her grown children. They posted her photo with the caption that said something like, “Dear Mother, you gave up a career [can’t remember if they specified] and success to devote yourself to us; we love you.”
I was very moved by this, and looking at her beautiful face, I thought to myself, I wonder if she sees it that way — that she gave up something, that it was a sacrifice.
I do think that a young woman might think of it that way.
Of course, every choice involves, in a sense, rejecting and sacrificing every other choice — always provided that the other choices are real, of course. It at least means rejecting some goods. For instance, as Chesterton points out, when we marry one person, we are by definition rejecting all the others — assuming that they would have us!
But in any case, if this lady is anything like me and my friends who have traveled this route to the other side, I can imagine her chuckling gently to herself as she wipes away a grateful tear (for every mother’s only desire is to be appreciated by her children) and quietly remarking, “But it’s what I wanted to do, and it turned out better than I ever imagined. What on earth would I have wanted with anything else! And besides [she might have thought, considering her long marriage and her happy home, even in the midst of suffering] there was much, much more to it — even than you, my dears!”
This is what I imagine her thinking. I know that’s a wild thought, but there it is.
On to our links!
Where does virtue come from, asks Russell Kirk: an overview. It’s not enough to think about goodness; somehow we must acquire it.
There is an exhibition of Pieter Bruegel’s works at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. I would love to see it and almost certainly will not (barring a miracle), but reading about it makes me happy. About a series made for Bruegel’s friend’s dining room, the author of the article says: “Their precise purpose and meaning, like much of Bruegel’s work, remains enigmatic but it seems likely that they were intended to spark discussion at a ‘convivium’ — a gathering of intellectuals. Among the topics disputed might have been what lessons can be taken from the great cycle of life on display and perhaps whether the simple country life was preferable to that of Jongelink and his guests.” The book that goes along with the exhibition, while obviously a distant substitute, is available as well for pre-order.
The princess issue is becoming dire. This Wall Street Journal article (well worth asking a subscriber to share with you) reveals the lack of respect for the collective memory held by purveyors of entertainment for children. They are willing to jettison universal archetypes and typology for their own political ends, and they have total devotion to ideals that have not been tested — or being tested, have been found wanting; yet they themselves hardly model virtue. It troubles me that many families leave their children’s imaginations wholly to Disney for formation, especially as political correctness becomes more entrenched. As we enter the season of gifts, all I can say here is, beware.
Queering Science: Mark Regnerus, someone whose reputation and career were savaged by the activist mob, examines the case of Brown University public health professor Lisa Littman’s study documenting the reality of a type of experience: the rapid onset of gender dysphoria (ROGD) in adolescents. I do not quite agree with him that this sort of suppression hasn’t occurred before, albeit not with the mob intensity we see now; but certainly studies about the effects of divorce on children — even adults — are suppressed in favor of sparing the feelings of the couples. Still, his observations about the sudden demise of the scientific method stand.
As you know from our little disclaimer, below, we don’t usually recommend a whole site, but here’s one; this page in particular might be helpful to be more informed on sexual issues.
What is chant? Why do I go on and on about it? A good article from Peter Kwasniewski on the subject, with some recordings. The main thing to know about chant is that it has a sacred quality that no other form of music has, in part because of its unique sense of breathing and of freeing, in an austere way, the breath, in transcendent vocal expression.
There’s also this:
It’s well worth the 12 minutes it takes to listen to this podcast about how students are indoctrinated into PC thinking the minute they get to college, before classes even start. Emanating from a centralized program that works with publishers’ profit motive, The First-Year Experience is an entire packaged event used by over 90% of schools today in the US and expanding to foreign markets. If you are considering sending your kid to most any college, you need to have this information.
The Cathedral of the Plains — read this article to understand why it is we can’t have nice things (churches, that is) — we have no idea of sacrifice. “If the church [funded and built by simple farmers living at subsistence levels] had to be replaced today,” said Father Hammel, who was assistant pastor of the church from 1923 to 1925, “it would cost two-and-a-half billion dollars.”
The theme of orphan literature needs a lot of exploration. Fr. Dwight Longenecker looks at The Path of the Orphan Hero.
If you will be nearby, come to this talk! I’d love to meet you!
From the archives:
How to prepare for Thanksgiving, Auntie Leila style.
Five things that are worse than being in debt.
Ask Auntie Leila: 10 Reasons Not to Have Separate Finances; or, Marriage is about Wholehearted Trust.
Happy feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary!
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November 10, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
Currently, chez nous:
I do recommend having lots of kids so they can grow up to juggle their actual jobs with re-painting your house.
But, so many books…
Let’s not think about it — let’s have a cup of tea and read instead!
Will you be in the area (Greater Boston/Southern NH) Monday? Join the Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture for a fantastic conference on the Lessons from the Carnage of the 20th Century with Robert Royal, Amy Fahey, and Dan Mahony. This conference will held at the beautiful Mercy Hall of Thomas More College. Monday evening, Nov. 12, events throughout the day. Tickets are free but space is limited so do sign up! We’d love to see you!
Thomas Becket’s bloody tunic returns to Canterbury 850 years after he died
Original “more intense” Lamb of God revealed in Ghent altarpiece. I find this fascinating; if we think of art as the radiance of truth (which it is, or ought to be), then we can ponder the change in theology that accompanies a “restoration” that tones down the central symbol, the Lamb. The original intent of the medieval painter, it is discovered, was to express the startling Presence of Jesus Christ. Subsequent hands neutralized this immediacy — yet I have no doubt that the restorers, like most modernists, consider themselves superior in outlook to any medieval Christian (the very word “medieval” conjures up a certain patronizing attitude, but we are trying to challenge that!). It just struck me when I read this article that we always need to question what C. S. Lewis called our “chronological snobbery” and remember that we too inhabit time and as such, just as bound by its limitations.
Our friend Jana sent links to a fun blog that channels a lot of what we think about decorating around here. I enjoyed reading a bit about the “unkitchen” (which is also a Pattern Language idea) and some inspiration for a “modest starter home” — but I really related to this lament about the sad dearth of good handsome sturdy and not absurd club or arm chairs. Truly. I am bereft of these just right chairs. There is a huge library-chair–shaped hole (two actually) in my heart. (The truth is that I could find the chairs I like, but don’t have $4000 handy to spend on them, waaahhh).
Jana also sent us a link to the newly updated Carl Schmitt website. Schmitt (her grandfather-in-law) was a noted American painter whose insights enliven the conversation about art and beauty.
Have a college-bound student? Do check out Thomas More College’s Faith and Reason Essay contest for scholarship information. Feel free to email me if you have questions about the school.
Sad read, but necessary: Got a Kid? Want a Kid? Buy, Sell or Trade. I have come to see that the idea of the family with its mother, father, and children — and the normal sufferings too — is not the stable default reality we thought it was, natural law notwithstanding. No, turns out that it’s so fragile that if you give an inch, you slide a mile down into a moral pit. This means only one thing: we have to strive with all our might to fight for goodness, because the darkness is overtaking it.
I’ve talked a lot about modernism and the detachment from objective reality, leading to a rise of will to power (see for instance my guided readings of the two Spirits of the Liturgy). This longer read is another way of looking at the problem: A False Paradigm.
The “Best Bluegrass Clog Dancing Video Ever Made” — but what I really hope you notice is just the fun being had. All ages together, real people playing real music, the carpet pulled back, everyone dancing a dance that has a form, however simple and rustic it may be. As you watch, think about the “dances” you were likely to have known as a young person, the weddings you’re likely to have attended recently, and the dreary, deafening “fun” in store for your own children if we don’t do something about it. You don’t need your consciousness altered via strobe lights or mind-numbingly amplified noise; you just need some folks with the instruments they’ve been playing all their lives and someone’s living room. It doesn’t have to be bluegrass, either; any folk tradition will do, and some are fancier than others, but watch the video to see what the elements are that contribute to this sort of family and community fun — see if you can figure out ways to bring it into your life! If you already have, we’d love to hear in the comments about what you do.
Today is the feast of St. Leo the Great. Tomorrow is Martinmas! In this post you will find links for two hymns for you for that day.
From the archives:
If you are wondering, here are the guided readings: the Guardini Spirit of the Liturgy is linked here; the Ratzinger one here.
Maybe now that the time has changed back, you would like to get on a good schedule: How to get up on time for people who don’t like the morning.
An early distant warning/heads up: Advent is surely on its way. Maybe this year change the madness with this one sure secret, along with observing Advent: Celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. I show you how to make room for the season of preparation, how to make the day itself peaceful, and how to extend the joy in a way that doesn’t drain you utterly (just a little! but that’s only to be expected, I think!)
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November 3, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
No matter how supernatural and detached I try to be, I can’t help resisting the passage of summer and the coming of fall. It is hard for me to remain sanguine as the days get shorter.
Especially this year, where the temps were high for so long, wow, it was hard to let go. But finally I did, and the truth is that after the first frost, I do find that I can pull in from all the outside activity, turn my mind to cozying things up in the house, and accept that next year is another year.
We will try to plant garlic soon (if it will stop raining). Huge mistake last year letting that go. Repairing the raised beds, cleaning up the yard, tucking in the bees… there are still things to do out there, but now we are quieting down.
November is the month to remember those who have gone before us. In the little oratory, I have placed the cards we’ve gathered at funerals and wakes on the mantelpiece. Some of these went on after a long life; others were taken so soon. We pray for their souls, as we have hope that those we leave behind here, someday, will remember us and pray for our souls as well.
If you are wondering about how to have a place of prayer and beauty in your home (one that reflects your family with its particular preferences and ways), five years ago I co-authored a book just for that!
It’s called The Little Oratory and if you haven’t read it yet, do take a peek to see what you think. We didn’t base it on our own devotional practices, but on the Liturgy and on very traditional ways for the family to be connected to it.
In the book we make the case that to pray, we will be greatly helped to have a little place in our home that radiates the reality of our faith. When we have the desire to pray, we are already praying. This is what the spiritual masters, the saints, God’s friends, have always taught.
Thus, when our eye is drawn to a place where there is a sacred image, a place of simple, humble beauty in our home, we have already begun to pray — and so have our children.
Little by little, as we go through the Liturgical Year with the entire Church in her universal prayer, God draws us closer to him. The prayer place, table, corner, or oratory helps us. (The book is also a “kit” for starting your own oratory or icon corner, if you like — there are beautifully printed icons in the back ready to be detached and framed, and we give detailed information about how to go about doing it all.)
I will be talking about the importance — the indispensability — of this Christian way of life in the home, in union with the life of the Church, this month in Great Falls, Virginia, on November 29th. I hope you can join me!
On to our links:
In other news, my husband’s book is out. Last year he published* Lost Shepherd; this year he was compelled by his position as the veteran observer of the scandals in the Church to write a book that gives the deep background to the new revelations regarding then-Cardinal McCarrick and the testimonies of Archbishop Viganò.
Although we can probably all agree that the cover of this book is rather intense, you will find that in Smoke of Satan Phil is able to calmly and thoroughly present the facts without descending into un-sourced speculation and destructive conspiracy mongering. The bishops will meet in another week; this is the book you need to understand what is going on.
*Actually the book was written a year ago but published this March. That was actually a frustration. We are really pleased with this publisher, who made the commitment to come out with the book as soon as it was finished, and held up the bargain admirably.
I’m a tad obsessed with old Sears houses, bought from kits and shipped by rail.
The question of censorship is a fascinating one — standards vs. civility, history vs. right and wrong. Now that we are experiencing the removal of monuments and statues, it’s worth thinking through what the criteria are. One Statue Worthy of Destruction?
John Taylor Gatto died this past week. Many readers here know I consider him an inspiration to homeschoolers: John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018): Remembering America’s Most Courageous Teacher.
Once you become conscience of the scourge of sentimentalism, you realize how corrupting it is. Samuel Gregg on the idolatry of feelings. I have been noticing how often homilists speak of a “blockage” to God’s grace or love, rather than a sin. Therapeutic language right there!
I didn’t have a chance to see the Gosnell movie, but here is a review that is written by a journalist who was at the trial: Eyewitness: My Perspective on the Gosnell Movie.
I’ve been noticing a rise of interest among Christians in Nietzsche, which makes sense, but in one very important way (that his philosophy is incompatible with Christianity) it is troubling. Understanding Nietzsche (well, getting started), will be important, because the “entire modern and post-modern obsession with power comes from Nietzsche, whether those who espouse theories of power (in terms of race, class, or gender) realize this or not.” A Primer for Conservatives on Friedrich Nietzsche.
A life in culture: Lionel Trilling.
Three Saints and the Art of Anamorphosis.
The Bookish Life — a reflection on reading by Joseph Epstein.
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
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October 25, 2018
Roasted tomatillo salsa
I say I don’t love Mexican (or Tex-Mex) food because I don’t love spicy, peppery food, but I do love it. You know? I think that I won’t want any, but then I cry through the whole meal — I end up wanting all of it and craving more! The struggle is so real…
I’ve been to very good authentic and inauthentic Mexican restaurants, so I think I know what I want in a salsa — but apologies to those of you who actually know what you are doing. I know how it feels to have an ignorant person give you their version of something you are super familiar with. Auntie Leila would not wish to be accused of cultural appropriation, especially if poorly done.
On the other hand, it hurts me to buy jars of salsa! I’m so cheap! It’s so expensive!
In my defense, I did look up a bunch of highly rated recipes and, aside from the lack of fresh cilantro, which I don’t have on hand but can add when I get some, tried my best not to offend with my bumbling attempts.
I wanted something both roasted and fresh, so I followed my heart. I think I succeeded — this salsa has a deep but also very bright flavor. I’m a spice wimp, but to me it has a bit of heat that lingers (you will roll your eyes, but you can tweak it). The Chief says that its spice is “different” and comes on towards the end of the bite.
I’m writing down what I did here because next year I want to plant tomatillos and cilantro so I can make my own salsa and can great batches of it. I have had cilantro in the herb garden (down in my veggie garden, not by the porch) in the past — it reseeds itself well, but I disturbed the soil it was in and now I have to start over. But I’ve never grown tomatillos.
I will know how much to increase the recipe so we can have it all year, I hope!
SALSA, Like Mother, Like Daughter
(It’s not spicy because, it’s me — use more jalapeños for more kick. You can also add a small amount of minced chipotle for another kind of heat. I am happy using the pickled kind because I have no interest in handling fresh hot peppers! Too wimpy!)
4 tomatillos
5 or so large tomatoes or 15 or so small Roma-type ones, which is what I had from the late garden here
1 small yellow or red pepper
1 small green pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
8 slices pickled jalapeño pepper (these come in a jar and vary in heat — I have no idea how hot these were — I never willingly eat them)
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon and lime juice
1/4 cup tomato juice/puree
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander
(Optional — I didn’t think of this until later — about a teaspoon of minced chipotle, of the kind that comes in a small can as far as I am concerned. Usually I take a tiny amount of this dangerous substance and put the rest in the freezer.)
Everything needs to be chopped into salsa-size bits (I like it somewhat chunky, but if doing this by hand, that means smaller pieces than you think — but don’t make it into an undifferentiated mush)
Reserve half the tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, and half the onion for the fresh part of the salsa.
For the roasted part: Take the tomatillos, half of the tomatoes, the peppers (including pickled peppers), half of the onion, and one garlic clove and roast under the broiler. The liquid should cook off and the veggies should begin to brown a bit.
Transfer all that to a bowl. Add the other, raw ingredients (I really mashed the other clove of garlic). You can add the minced chipotle if you are using it, at this point. Mix well and taste. If it’s good, process as directed (this means you have to look it up, and I will next year, God willing! This batch will stay in the fridge until we gobble it up — the avocados are ripening as we speak!)
Here’s this year’s little batch-let. Not even processing it, just going ahead and eating!
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October 20, 2018
{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
I made salsa yesterday with the last of my garden produce and some store-bought tomatillos. Even though I’m no salsa expert, I will post my recipe here sometime next week, because I want to remember it when I plant tomatillos next year. It’s crazy to be buying salsa! I could be making it!
(I know there are air bubbles in these jars — I’m not canning them, because this is all I got. Must. Plant. Tomatillos.)
On to our links!
Yesterday was the birthday of two men — Russell Kirk, who would have been 100, and my husband, who is a bit younger than that. One evening long ago, as we were enjoying dinner together, it emerged that Russell’s wife, Annette, and I also share a birthday, May 17th. If you know anything about Russell Kirk, you know that besides being a learned observer and mover of culture and politics, he delighted in and spun many a ghost story, reveling in those strange realities we don’t see. It’s amusing to me to think that Russell was more than 20 years older than Annette and Phil is ten years older than I — the October/May relationship is well represented between us. This birthday coincidence with its metaphorical aptness seems very Kirkian to me! Read appreciations of Russell Kirk here and here.
Remember in The Hobbit when Thorin tells Bilbo to “hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a screech owl”?
“You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if all is perfectly safe and canny,” said Thorin to the hobbit. “Now scuttle off, and come back quick, if all is well. If not, come back if you can! It you can’t, hoot twice like a barn-owl and once like a screech-owl, and we will do what we can.”
Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he could not hoot even once like any kind of owl any more than fly like a bat.
Somehow this passage has always felt familiar to me, as if Tolkien were simply retailing a common thing one says, although I couldn’t possibly say where else I had read it. Is it a thing? Or did he really make it up? I don’t know. But do you know how to do it? Here are the calls of five common owls; here is a fun blog post about whether Thorin was pulling Bilbo’s leg.
A look into what the implications are of changing birth certificates to reflect a person’s “transgender” status. I would simply add that if the government has the power to do any such fundamental changing of a vital record of identity, it has the power to do many other things we haven’t quite thought through.
If you are a resident of Massachusetts, please please educated yourself about the upcoming referendum on the Bathroom Bill, which seeks to keep the 2016 law allowing any man identifying as a woman to have access to women’s facilities. Everyone is for it until they are informed that it is a law now on the books that allows any man, including any sex offender, to enter any women’s facility for any reason, as long as he identifies as a woman, even if he doesn’t always do so. If you, a woman or man who felt unsafe (say you are a dad whose young daughter needs to use the restroom at a restaurant), called the police, YOU would be liable to up to $50,000 in fines or jail time. Vote NO on 3.
Modelling manhood.
I love reading about P. G. Wodehouse’s writing: God & Bertie Wooster.
If you follow us on Facebook, you will have seen that I posted about the update I had to make to a post here, warning parents about the unacceptable themes in the new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book. A ridiculous pile-up ensued, with a trolling mob coming after me to demand that I recant of this sin against PC. Yes, it looked like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was going to be the hill I was going to die on, because of course I am not about to submit to bullying. I did have to take one post down just so that unsuspecting commenters didn’t get pursued; the second one took me two days to defend from being overrun by angry, rude, and even pornographic spamming. What is this phenomenon? It doesn’t really have a word… it’s… a Thing. Until we can name it, we can’t defend ourselves from it.
If your children go to public school, they will definitely be subjected to celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, gay activist. It will certainly be all over the media. Might as well find out what the true story is.
From the archives:
Martinmas is coming…
As is the colder weather. Too long, didn’t read: This is not so much about sweaters as about other layers to prevent chills going up their little torsos: get them undershirts and tuck them in (you can usually find undershirts at Target; Amazon carries them too). Mitts and hats. Leggings alone don’t cut it. Don’t miss the follow-up post.
Today is the memorial of St. John of the Cross. Enjoy!
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The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.
