Leila Marie Lawler's Blog, page 35

Easy and good pot roast.

The recipe for this dish is at the end of the post! {A note for impatient sons-in-law who wonder why a blog post goes on and on before getting to the recipe… but if I put the recipe first, who would read all my important musings, I ask you?!?}

 

I’ve been “roasting pots” (as my husband calls making this dish) for a long, long time. I’ve done it the easy way, which is pretty good, and I’ve done it the good way, which doesn’t have to be difficult. I can do it.

 

This recipe is both easy and good, for those days when you just have to get the meat in the oven. But what makes it blog-worthy is the secret ingredient that gives a certain flavor that’s irresistible.

In fact, it’s the easiest and best recipe I’ve ever used, and as far as I know, it’s my very own! I came up with it when I was in a hurry and happened to have the inspirational secret ingredient on hand. I could be wrong about me inventing it because stewing beef is a pretty venerable activity with infinite permutations as to flavor profiles. But I don’t mind claiming this one.

Making slow-cooked meat is by definition pretty easy, once you know that you just have to cook it a long time at a low temperature. So the very easiest would be to “Irish up” the meat, by which I mean, don’t bother to brown it, as in Irish Stew.

But… it’s not as good as browning the meat first, even though doing so usually means getting the stove all spattery.

And there are wonderful recipes out there with many steps and ingredients, but they are not easy. The very best would be to “Julia Child” it, which involves disappearing down through a warren of recipes folded into recipes, and that’s even before you start cooking.

No, we want nice browned meat with a hearty gravy, cooked to the point of tender perfection. So without further ado, here’s the easy good way:

 

Those are all the ingredients, other than some flour or cornstarch to thicken your sauce at the end, and some beef broth if you have it — but it’s not necessary.

This is the secret ingredient:

 

It can be the whole roasted red peppers rather than these strips, and you can have done them yourself at some other point (obviously not while making this recipe, or that would not be too easy!). I try to remind myself to keep a jar handy in the pantry, because they are so tasty.

In this case, for the meat, I used a small brisket, because that’s what I had in my freezer at the time. I usually like making pot roast with the chuck. I know people might shy away from it because it has a lot of visible fat, but honestly that’s what makes it so delicious! If I can, I always buy a nice big chuck roast at a good price and stow it in the freezer. But brisket is nice in its own way too — the slices stay neat and the flavor is very good.

You are going to brown the meat in the oven in the pan it will cook in. Then you add the few ingredients, turn the heat down, and let it simmer. When it’s soft, it’s done! This takes a couple of hours — maybe a bit longer than you think. If you think you usually “ruin” pot roast — it’s probably not that you overcook it, but that you undercook it! Here’s a secret: when you braise meat, it does go through a stage where it is as tough as a boot. Keep powering through!

Yes, you could do this in the slow cooker. Mine won’t brown the meat, so it would mean using two vessels, so I opted to do it in the oven all the way. If yours will brown the meat first, or if you don’t mind the extra dirty pan, just pop everything into the slow cooker after you brown the meat in the oven, and after scraping all the good bits out of the pan. (The other issue is that making the gravy takes either another pot still or a long time in the slow cooker on high, so… oven it is.)

And yes, you could do this in the Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker). Just brown the meat in the pot, add the ingredients, and use your pot roast function. To make the gravy, put the pot back on sauté at the end while the meat is resting on the board. This will probably cut an hour off the cooking time.

It’s key to let braised meats rest in the juices before you thicken up your gravy and serve. You can fix your salad and set the table (that is, get the kids to set the table!) during this step. It is not a bad idea to make the pot roast early in the day so that it has time to rest.

 

 

Before we get to the actual recipe, I’ll say a word about the whole menu here. I had made something over polenta the night before, so in the spirit of “save a step” cooking, I made lots extra. I poured the polenta into a pan to cool and solidify after I served what we were having, so that gave me pieces to cut up and freeze — but first, I cut some of it into triangles and put them in a skillet. In the oven they go while I’m getting the salad ready (the bottoms are already oiled from having been in the pan). Of course, the pot roast could be served with mashed potatoes, pasta, or rice.

The point being that I didn’t make the starch from scratch here.

 

The salad is also a pulling together of odds and ends… half a cucumber, sliced up and sprinkled with salt and lemon while I get the other things out, a little sliced pepper, the very last of a jar of pickled dilly beans (like, 9 tiny beans or something, but here they just make a little crunchy note in the salad), and the last of a jar of pickled eggplant (the very last bit of it — note to self: Make way more pickled eggplant next year!).

All these little things go on a bed of lettuce with a little dressing on top (since some of those things each had its own dressing already) and make a nice sharp contrast to the meat. This type of composed salad uses just a little lettuce and makes your vegetable odds and ends really appealing, I think!

 

 

Some sourdough bread and we’re good to go!

Okay, on to the recipe!

Easy and Good Pot Roast, Like Mother, Like Daughter

A 3 lb chuck roast or brisket (at least — you can make this go very far by cutting it up and serving small pieces with lots of gravy over a big mound of mashed potatoes, but if you can get more meat into this cooking episode, do, and just increase the other ingredients accordingly, because it freezes well and can be another, similar meal, and then maybe soup if you play your cards right and don’t have too many teenage boys)

Red wine (hopefully you have at least a cup)

Roasted red peppers from a jar (or, as mentioned, that you have made yourself some other time) — these can be whole, in which case just roughly chop — use two large ones — or strips, use about a cup. This is the secret ingredient! Do not omit! (I mean, you certainly can, but the fabulousness will be left out, sadly)

2 tablespoons of tomato paste (about 1/2 the small can — use a small spatula to pop what’s left into one of those tiny containers, and then put it in the freezer for another day)

Beef stock if you have it, about a cup, but this is not necessary unless you want the sauce to be less tomatoey

Dried minced onion*, 2 tablespoons

Dried powdered garlic*, 2 teaspoons

Salt, about 1/2 teaspoon, more to season at the end

Pepper, a few grindings

Flour or cornstarch for thickening at the end

{To make this a more classic pot roast, use half the tomato paste and be sure to use beef broth. The way I have it here it’s more Italian and tastes great with the polenta. Yes, you could add some herbs if you like — bay leaf, parsley, a little thyme and rosemary. But it’s good, really good, even without, especially because these particular roasted peppers are seasoned already.}

Brown your roast in the oven at 425°. I suggest using a shallow roasting pan with a lid or even lasagna pan that you will put foil over afterwards — that’s how I did it the time before, when I used chuck; but you can use a dutch oven as I did here — it’s just that the roast will brown better in a shallower pan.

You can grease the pan lightly, salt the meat, and just pop it in the oven at that nice high temperature for about 15 minutes or until it’s really nice and browned. Don’t be shy, don’t worry.

While it’s browning, combine the other ingredients (except the flour or cornstarch) into a bowl so that you can get the tomato paste mixed with the wine. The peppers can be chunky.

When the meat is browned, take the pan or pot out of the oven. Scrape up any brown bits by pouring a little water over them and using a wooden spatula, then pour the ingredients in the bowl over and around the meat. Add water so that the liquid comes about halfway up the meat. Seal it up with the lid of the roasting pan or dutch oven, or cover well with aluminum foil.

Return to the oven, which you have turned down to 250°. Let the pot roast simmer there for at least two hours — probably more like three. You know your oven — if it runs high, turn it down. If after two hours the meat is not soft under the fork, turn your heat up to 300° and check again after 40 minutes. Even leaving it in there for longer is going to be fine.

When the meat is tender, take the pan out and let everything just sit and rest while you prepare your side dishes or up to a few hours.

Remove the meat from the pan to a cutting board. Slice it into chunks (if it’s chuck) or slices. Do I remove that fat? No… I love beef fat! I’m all “his wife could eat no lean!” all the way! I give leaner slices to those who aren’t fans.

 

Time to thicken your sauce. There will be a good quantity of rendered fat in the pan. If there is enough to scoop out with a spoon, then do that, but otherwise, leave it. Mash the peppers if necessary with a potato masher, the back of a spoon, or your handy immersion blender.

Make a slurry by mixing 1/2 a cup of cold water or beef broth with 3-4 tablespoons of flour or 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch until there are no lumps (a whisk is handy for this operation, or the immersion blender if you are already using it). Then mix this slurry into your boiling liquid and whisk/blend until it’s smooth and bubbly.

Thin it with a little water or broth if you need to — taste it and see how the texture and seasonings are. You don’t want it gummy but it needs to have body so that it doesn’t just run all over the plate, unless you want to serve it in a shallow bowl over your starch with your salad on a separate plate — that’s nice as well.

Then return your sliced meat into the gravy.

Voilà! Here it is again:

It honestly takes longer to explain it than to do it (other than the cooking; obviously this explanation didn’t take 3 hours!).

*In this post about plain cooking I sing the praises of these two ingredients: dried minced onion and dried garlic. I love slicing up an onion and mincing some garlic, but using the dried expedites this meal and adds intensity of flavor.

 

The post Easy and good pot roast. appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{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.)

Happy New Year! And happy Epiphany!

A few little shots of holiday doings…

We attended a lovely “community” wedding, by which I mean that the bride’s community — and ours — contributed in all sorts of ways to her vision of a day in which many, many people would come together as a real family to celebrate. It was great fun and most joyous. I couldn’t resist taking this shot of the side of salmon I brought:

That’s my biggest “caterer’s” platter! Those are big lemon slices! I had to time the cure, which meant that for a wedding on the 28th, the salmon had to go under the salt by Christmas. So I bought the filet a couple weeks before and froze it, plunking it in its pan on Christmas Eve to cure without even trying to thaw it!

It’s been so cold here (and I had so much food in my extra fridge) that I left it on the floor in the mudroom and it was just dandy! (The method for doing this is in this post. The black spice there is juniper, some of which I crushed up to add to the brine.)

We are drowning in cookies. Send help!

 

What with family and company and a lot of “visiting” crammed into a long week, and the wedding, and not sure of who would be around for New Year’s Eve, we exhaustedly forewent our huge party and did it up “koselig” with lots of “hygge” — and good thing too — it was so bitterly cold that I wouldn’t have wanted dozens of guests to be parking who knows where.

Not a good picture, please forgive me.

Here is what all is on that little table, clockwise from the top: Aged swiss and cranberry-studded cheddar, grapes, and pomegranate. Roasted broccoli and red onion. Cranberry and onion compote (for the ham). Spinach and artichoke dip (which always seems like it’s going to be trite until you have some and then oh my). White bean and pesto dip; liver paté (this time with curry, coriander, and cumin; prunes; and pomegranate molasses, which is just a reduction of pomegranate juice that’s very sweet and sour, you buy it in a bottle; red pepper hummus); ham, sourdough bread of deliciousness (I’ve been getting better at my starter, must post about that soon), butter. Crackers. Mulled wine, wine, cider…

For dessert we had cookies, fruitcake, and bûche de Noël. Champagne!

I had to laugh because I’ve been obsessed with the Smorgasbord thing (in part because the wedding was Swedish-themed, and also because Sukie has been doing this for Christmas for a while, since her husband is so often on call), so now that you can choose a hashtag to follow on Instagram, a lot of my feed has been just that. Photo after photo of cozy platters of goodness.

The other day I found myself scrolling and thinking, “Wow, this Smorgasbord idea is super viral right now!” Duh, yes, you set it up that way…

On to our links!

Evelyn Waugh’s Helena prays for the conversion of her son at Epiphany.


Manhood is Not Natural — Super important read. “A good man is the fountain, not the drain. The formation of such men is the first task of human civilization, and its largest threat when ignored.”


Obscure homeschool resource alert: A site with all sorts of information about Anglo-Saxon history and literature! Here is the poem The Wanderer, with its intriguing footnote: __line 92a: In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, in chapter six of The Two Towers, Aragorn sings a song of Rohan (itself a version of Anglo-Saxon England), beginning “Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?”. The song clearly comes from this section of The Wanderer. (A more strictly literal translation of “mago” would be “youth”, hence “Where is the horse gone? Where the young man?” — but since the horse and the youth appear in the same half-line, Tolkien’s rendering “rider” is very hard to resist.)__


A hilariously click-bait-y title for a rather arcane subject, but David Clayton writes about an ancient way of keeping a choir (and the priests!) on key in church: Using Drone Warfare in the Battlefield of Sacred Music. I agree with him that it’s far preferable to using an organ — and there’s a reason why. Organs are tempered instruments — their tuning is not exactly on pitch to compensate for the vibrations of the pipes. Whereas the human voice uses “just” tuning. So when instrumentals accompany the voice, the voice must compromise. It’s true that many do not sing with good pitch, so using the organ or piano keeps things on an even keel. This is where acoustics come in — a church with good acoustics can vastly help the singers actually hear themselves and each other, thus staying on pitch better. Anyway, the drone is a good way to solve this problem.


This is my last chance this year (maybe even beyond my last chance) to plug Epiphany: Counting Christmas: Celebrating the Twelfth Night. And don’t miss the embedded link to a beautiful piece: Christmas Traditions – Christmas With Charles Dickens, by Mamie Dickens, his daughter.


Martin Mosebach on the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.


This article posted by Patrick Madrid about Facebook when you’re married reminded me that actually, the issue is the groups where people complain about this or that and get bad, bad advice, whether it’s about their baby’s sleep or their spouse’s transgressions or what have you. When you have a problem, it’s on you to find someone trustworthy to discuss it with. You have to know that people as a group and in a group can’t help feeding discontent, and they also tend to be super ignorant. Stay out of groups that aren’t something like how to knit socks or whether your old wood stove is worth saving, to name two of my favorites, not that I spend much time even on those. Sharing your problems about your bees is one thing; sharing your problems about your husband is another, and leads to disaster. Good New Year’s resolution: Just say no to those groups, which are the opposite of support.


Do you ever worry that you will die a sinner, without a priest? That sounds strange to throw that out, I know. Do you ever worry that you will be with someone who is dying and not know what to say to them? Also a bit awkward, sorry… but here is a short audio version of a little booklet from St. Alphonsus Liguori on Perfect Contrition, which simply means repenting and being sorry for our sins — sorry because of God’s great love for us. We can help ourselves and help others if we are in the habit of talking to God about our sorrow and repentance — we can even get to Heaven this way, and get them to Heaven too! It’s in this post — do give it a listen. It’s very old-fashioned, but sometimes I think that in our effort to put everything in a contemporary mode we lose some of the simplicity and power of the old teachings. See what you think.

I love St. André, and of course it’s the Epiphany Sunday (lots of wiggle room on this celebration when the 6th falls on the weekend!).

From the archives:

Can your New Year’s resolutions take the reality test?


I’m sorry, it’s so stunningly cold here that Auntie Leila is just worried you aren’t dressed right and so has to keep reposting this post about it. It’s all “my kid is FINE in a t-shirt, you busybody” until the wind chill is well below zero.


It was a year ago that Crisis published my article about the three liturgical changes we need now. In theory, these articles just float down the river and are forgotten, but until the changes are made, I’ll keep thinking this is just what I want to say, right now.


These days when a pot of soup or a bubbling casserole would hit the spot, it might be helpful to revisit the idea of stocking your freezer — not with pre-made meals, an idea that doesn’t appeal to me much, but with the prep work all done for meals for you to put together with little effort.

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

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).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
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.

Merry Christmas! {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.)

 

 

Maybe in the next week or so you will have a little time to check out the few links I have here.

Is it not so wonderful that we have an Octave of Christmas (a real version of that proverbial “month of Sundays”!) and Twelve Days of Christmas and the Christmas Season! Plenty of time to bask in it all and enjoy the fruits of all our preparations and visiting with friends!

 

And also send out Christmas cards… ahem.

 

Tonight, when some more of our family will have arrived, we will decorate the tree.

Bridget and I have had a lovely week of relatively calm time to get things ready. I still find myself wondering why, if I’m going to freeze my babkas etc, did I not make them in early December. But, hey ho.

 

 

(Not pictured: a freezer full of breads, pie crusts (for that tourtière I linked to last week!) and more cookie dough that Habou will attend to today!)

 

 

I pray that you have a happy Christmas time! God bless you all!

Some links for you:

A really long piece about the Blessed Virgin, via Anglo-Saxon O Antiphon poetry. We need to be studying what the Church has always taught about her (and continues to teach in the Liturgy) because our contemporary commentators often have a hold of the wrong end of the stick.

“The idea of Mary as the ‘gate to heaven’ (porta caeli), and the ‘ladder to heaven’ (scala caeli) are both metaphors with an ancient history, but to modern ears they can be surprising.”

Because we are caught in the therapeutic mode of our modern culture, we tend to reduce transcendent realities to projections of the self, ironically destroying, in the process, the very road (or door! or gate!) to freedom and truth. Yes, the intimate relatability of Mary can help our spiritual life, but if that is the only lens through which we ever view her, we are missing out on the bigger picture.

Misunderstanding Mary leads us to misunderstand Christmas. We make the mistake of thinking that the Liturgical Year is a mere commemoration, rather than a living contact with the past. We begin to believe that Christmas is something we outgrow; that the childlike wonder that loses itself in simple adoration before the crèche is an unworthy response. We start to see Christianity itself as a sort of elevated social program and ourselves as mature operators whose meaning can only be found on the plane of activism. But the soul of the apostolate is deep contemplation and utter prostration before the Other, the unreachable God who became Man, but not man as God King — at least not until he was first the helpless Babe, yes, in a manger. I loved this article by Elizabeth Anderson, The Wisdom in Wonder: Children at Christmas Time — a good antidote to the self-affirmation of approaching Christmas as yet another opportunity to preach the social gospel.


I never knew how to do Christmas Eve. This article about the Polish wigilia tradtion is inspiring; it’s not that we have to do every little thing according to one country’s customs, but using the main ideas and reflections as a template could be very helpful for those who are struggling with no traditions at all to fall back on!


For no particular reason at all — just some decorating eye candy (and maybe inspiration for the coming new year? Even just that adorable orphan teacup-turned-scoop in the glass bin on the counter?): Pantry in Progress from Homespun Living.

From the archives:

If you are getting overwhelmed with how overwhelmed your children are about to be, consider holding back some of the treats to bring out during the Twelve Days of Christmas: My plan for making Christmas less, not more, stressed.


Plan some low-key visiting with friends and family next week or the week after: Deirdre’s easy Hot Cocoa Party is a great way to do it.

Merry Christmas!

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

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).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

 

The post Merry Christmas! {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

What I Read in 2017

 

I am so glad I kept a commonplace book this year! Because now I can easily reference it to give you a quick rundown of what I read in 2017, just in case you’re curious (I know, I know — you’ve been holding your breath waiting on this list).

Likewise I am grateful for my St. Gregory’s Pocket, in which I’m part of a lively book club (we call it “the PocketBook Club”) that keeps my reading habit up! I always look forward to getting together with my local, like-minded ladies to discuss a good (or bad!) read!

Without further ado and without much eloquence and in no particular order (other than being roughly the order in which I happened upon these titles): everything I read from this past year! (This list does not include spiritual reading.) Some of the best books are far down the list, so keep reading! Maybe you’ll find a gem for that last-minute gift you were looking for!

 

 

Title: Toujours, Provence

Author: Peter Mayle

Gist: A sequel to A Year in Provence, this book is a light memoir of the experience of living in this beautiful, colorful place written by a guy who has funny stories to tell but – even more – is good at telling stories. It’s just fun. I read it over the holidays last year and it was just the right amount of mental effort and just the right dose of sunshine into the darkest days of the year.

Why did I read it? I had scored it from the ‘for free’ shelf at my library. I needed a dose of France and this is what the doctor ordered.

Would I recommend it? If you need a chuckle, and since it’s more doable than a Provençal vacation, I say go for it. NB: some bits a little off-color.

 

Title: The Jeweler’s Shop

Author: Carol Wojtyla (aka St. John Paul The Great)

Gist: A poetic play about marriage and the various quiet, internal tensions between men and women. A quick read but one that is difficult to digest; it reminded me of one of the ancient Greek plays (complete with chorus element). Lots of interesting imagery and food for thought.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I recommend reading it along with a good companion for discussion or a group.

 

Title: Casti Connubii (Chaste Marriage or Christian Marriage)

Author: Pope Pius XI

Gist: This encyclical (letter) is the Church’s teaching on marriage. You should probably check out my mom’s series or read her ebook on this rather than have me try to provide a “gist!” The version of the encyclical linked here has an excellent foreword by Fr. Vincent McNabb.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Embarrassingly, I didn’t expect to learn much new material from this (I know, I know). On the contrary! I found it extremely encouraging, challenging, and emboldening when thinking about my mission with my husband and, indeed, what this whole life is about. It’s intense stuff and very inspiring!

 

Title: Silence

Author: Shusaku Endo

Gist: A novel (based on true events) about the dark plight of missionaries and converts during the Catholic persecution in medieval Japan.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? I’m on the fence. It was a great read and it led to fascinating and lively discussion (we had some serious disagreements about it in our book club!). It’s very thought provoking. But I fear that it might glamorize apostasy. Honestly, I’d have to read another translation before I could decide to get entirely behind it; there were some subtle, dark things that I think may have been a result of language choices in the version I read. (For what it’s worth, I have no desire to see the movie as I definitely do not trust Scorcese’s interpretation of the matter and there were horrifying images that I don’t need to see on screen.)

 

Title: Karen

Author: Marie Killilea

Gist: Killilea recounts the experience of discovering that her baby girl, Karen, has a physical handicap and then the whole process of getting a proper diagnosis (cerebral palsy — a condition barely known at the time) and fighting for her every step of her childhood. Also a kind of autobiography of the Killilea family, which was a lively and crazy bunch! Humorous and hopeful.

Why did I read it? I was at my mom’s house while I was waiting for Chickapea to arrive and I wanted to re-read it.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I especially recommend it to anyone who has a child with special needs, as I imagine it’d be very encouraging and helpfully relatable.

 

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Gist: A memoir of a summer/short seasons of life; a mystery about the spooky house next door; a courtroom drama; a vignette of small-town Southern life; an examination of racial relations and questions of justice and virtue.

Why did I read it? It was small enough to hold in one hand during my early post-partum days and it was there on the shelf. I had never read it before and I knew it needed to happen!

Would I recommend it? Emphatically. If you haven’t already, make it a priority. Excellent story in every way.

 

Title: What to Expect when No One’s Expecting

Author: Johnathan V. Last

Gist: A sociological/economic take on our current infertility problem in the US and in all of the developed world. A definitive response to claims that we are overpopulating the world. In fact, we are in a demographic winter and Last explains what the fallout will be as well as how we got here. Very stats-heavy.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? It’s useful material to correct mistakes about overpopulation. It’s a thorough and frequently amusing read (although his humor is very dry and even oddly placed, given the gravity of what he’s discussing). However, it did bother me that he wanted to be hopeful while also accepting certain evils as givens.

 

Title: My Side of the Mountain

Author: Jean Craighead George

Gist: I wrote about this book in the LMLD Library Project!

Why did I read it? Another library freebie that was available for one-hand reading while nursing.

Would I recommend it? Indeed (as I explain in my previous post)!

 

Title: Death Comes for the Archbishop

Author: Willa Cather

Gist: A series of touching vignettes about life a particular time and place in the Church’s history: the missionary work in New Mexico and surrounding areas of the New World. I was astounded to learn that Cather is not Catholic; her intimacy with Catholic religion and culture is amazing to witness from an “outsider.”

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but don’t expect a novel. I was expecting one and was therefore disappointed. To me, this is just a different form.

 

Title: The Little Prince 

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Gist: A funny little philosophical essay in the form of a children’s story. The Little Prince’s adventures lead him to meet different types on different planets: a king, a businessman (concerned with counting the stars but not enjoying them), a drunkard… musings on the state of “grown-ups.”

Why did I read it? Just one of those books I felt I should get around to. But now I need to read it in the original French!

Would I recommend it? Yes, but I admit that I didn’t fully grasp it. I need to read it again and discuss it with someone! It’s such a quirky little book… a mix of meditations on life and death…and children’s literature? But delightful!

 

Title:  A Separate Peace

Author: John Knowles

Gist: A novel about two young men at the Devon prep school (set in NH!) during WWII. A physiological drama with questions of friendship and identity.

Why did I read it? Another freebie from the library shelf and another one-handed nursing read.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. I thought it was beautifully written and thought-provoking. But others near and dear to me are on a range of dislike-to-hate… There is perhaps a cowardly message embedded in this (which somehow didn’t strike me while I was reading).

 

Title:  The Last Hurrah

Author: Edwin O’Connor

Gist: A semi-biographical (according to my dad) novel about the end of the golden era of identity politics in an unidentified city (Boston). Incredibly written — unlike any other book I’ve ever read. The detail is exacting: every thought, situation, action, and interaction churned over in every character’s head — and yet the pace doesn’t let up. The dialogue is delightful and every character jumps off the page. Definitely eye-opening about how people function in politics!

Why did I read it? Another freebie from my library giveaway shelf. When I saw the title, I remembered it as one of my dad’s favorite novels.

Would I recommend it? Yes! The Artist is just finishing it now, too, and he says it’s definitely in his top five favorite novels!

 

Title:  Rules of  Civility

Author: Amor Towles

Gist: A story set in New York City during the golden days of jazz and martinis and high life with jewels and flapper dresses… but low on content. Starts out with a lot of promise and fun (which of the boardinghouse girls will get the well-heeled guy? what other adventures are in store?) but quickly unravels into an aimless non-story.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club (and it was universally disapproved).

Would I recommend it? Definitely not. I won’t even link to it. The story went nowhere, the characters (all selfish) were flat, and it was trashy.

 

Title: The Temperament God Gave You

Author: Art and Laraine Bennett

Gist: A book about self-knowledge based on the ancient understanding of the four temperaments: Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic. Helps you understand yourself and then your relationships with others as well, including spouse and children. My mom wrote about this book (and others she recommends for marriage) in this Library Project post. (Next we need to read The Temperament God Gave Your Spouse!)

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Highly! It’s so much fun to read and think about and so much fun to discuss with others. Warning: once you read it, you will look at everything and everyone through this lens!

 

Title: Home Business Tax Deductions: Keep what you Earn

Author: from the NOLO group

Gist: The title says it all! Not the most exciting read of the year.

Why did I read it? Because I was doing homework on launching our (The Artist’s and my) LLC. Good times!

Would I recommend it? As a matter of fact, yes — if you are in small business in any form, it’s a good resource!

 

Title:  The Lord of the World

Author: Robert Hugh Benson

Gist: A dystopian novel that is totally Catholic in philosophy, tone, and belief. Amazing book: an exciting page-turner set in present day but written one hundred years ago. Not only was this a fantastic story (it reads like watching an action movie) and gave me lots to think about and reflect upon, but it was also an insight into prayer life and mysticism. My friend pointed out that Benson predicted that a laissez-faire relativism wouldn’t be the dominant view we grapple with today, but rather a distorted morality that aims to replace true morality and sets people at odds with one another to the point of death. My impression is that Benson was a visionary!

Why did I read it?  For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Yes!

 

Title: Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior is Changing Everything

Author: Robert R. Reilly

Gist: Reilly first examines homosexuality from a number of angles (philosophy, ethics, law, biology) and then explains how the agenda has been worked out through the institutions (the field of science, family, education, the Boy Scouts, the military, and the government). It’s a tough read, but it is airtight: you could boil it down to symbolic logic, Reilly goes so rigorously through every aspect of every argument. He even reflects on his personal experience as a professional actor.

From the book:

If life is sacred, then the means of generating it must also be sacred. If generation is intrinsic to the Nature of sex, then sex possesses immense significance. It is not a toy, or simply an amusement, or an item for sale. It is profoundly oriented to creation — creation emanating from within. It has a telos. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse said, “The human person is meant for love, and the human body cries out to be fruitful.” As stated earlier, the fruit is the incarnation of love. If generation is artificially separated from it, sex lapses into insignificance and triviality. This denial leads to its desecration and is contemptuous of what human beings are meant to be.

Why did I read it? It’s one I’ve been meaning to finish for a while now, having borrowed it from my parents.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but I caution that you need to be in the proper mindset. It’s would be hard to read if you identify as gay, are struggling with same-sex attraction, or are thinking of your loved one who falls into one of those categories. Reilly doesn’t sugarcoat anything or make extensive prefaces nor apologies for his statements. It requires a dispassionate reader who is prepared to face the facts (which are sometimes shocking) and follow premises to their conclusions. If you can do this, I actually beg you to read this extremely thorough and important work.

 

Title: Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

Author: Matthew B. Crawford

Gist: A political theorist and think-tank leader-gone motorcycle mechanic muses on various issues related to work, and to some extent education and other aspects of life.

Why did I read it? For my PocketBook Club.

Would I recommend it? Not universally, but some would definitely find it interesting. I was frustrated with his tone at times, with an apparent lack of editing (my did he go on about bike parts sometimes!), and with a general sense of disorganization in the book. That being said, it was a fun cross-section of philosophy and shop talk which could be valuable to some readers.

 

Title: Letters from Father Christmas

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Gist: A collection of letters from the 30s and 40s which Tolkien sent to his children — “from” Father Christmas. Adorable little tales of what’s going on in the North Pole (usually mishaps with the sidekick Polar Bear) and occasional notes from Ilbereth the elf and appearances from other little cast members.

Why did I read it? Because my friend sent it as a St. Nicholas Day gift for my family and it was the perfect little light read during my Advent!

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! I can’t believe I never knew of it till now! It’s a treasure!

 

Other books still in process:

John Adams by David McCullough (I will be reading this forever. Not because it’s dull — not at all! — it’s just big and heavy and too easy to put aside in favor of other books!); The Way of Beauty by David Clayton (I got SO into this that I needed to take notes while reading, which means I’m not going to finish reading it until I find a time when I can sit with it with my notebook beside me!).

Some highlights of my reading with Finnabee:

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder; Babe, the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith; Pippi Longstocking and Pippi Longstocking and the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.

Visit our Library Project posts for more ideas. This post has a lot of nice books for children as well.

 

What were your favorite reads in 2017?

{This post contains affiliate links. A small amount goes to us when you purchase from Amazon. Thanks!}

 

The post What I Read in 2017 appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

Restoring the culture with Twelfth Night festivities ~ {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 write in haste and I’m sure you read in haste!

I do have a few links and I wanted to offer you a thought about celebrating Christmas as a season — so often we are at a loss because, while we may wish to “live differently” as dear Pope Benedict put it, speaking of those who have hope, we don’t always know how.

My friends have amazing ideas and also are blessed with an “education in the past” to help them restore the way of living that we are seeking, little by little*.

So today I thought I’d share (with her permission of course), what my friend Jennifer wrote to me last year (with my encouragement because normally she wouldn’t go on and on this way) about her Twelfth Night celebration with so many friends who are also on the journey. Maybe it will inspire you to keep the season alive!

 

Last evening was a stellar success! I so wish you and Phil could have joined us. Our effort to stage two of the Wakefield Mystery Plays in our home worked beautifully. “The First Shepherd’s Play” (abridged, by me) starred Geoffrey, Scott, and Benny. Like “The Visitation of the Magi” (Joe, Lucas, and Eamon) , the play features three gift-giving characters: an old-ish one, a middle-aged one, and a young one. Everyone played their part with zeal (particularly John Paul as the Christ Child, or Puck! – it was a little hard to tell the difference!).

We ate, and ate, and ate. After the appetizers (generously supplied by our guests), the first segment of the Shepherd’s Play, and a sung grace, we went to tables High and Low and were served: Shredded Lamb with mint and pomegranate, Pork Pie, Roast Turkey, Spiced Medlar Jelly, Leek and mushroom “hedgehogs”, olives, goat cheese, fig cake, salmagundi (a salad with bitter greens, preserved lemon, apple and fried onion), and bread trenchers (the kids ate from these without plates or cutlery).

Then after “The Visitation of the Magi”, and more singing, we had the annual, ceremonial lighting of the Christmas Pudding, which always gets made on “stirring-up Sunday” in November and never has weird, candied fruit in it. We’ve made it for 20 years and no one has ever tried it and said they didn’t like it. [My tutorial is here and there is certainly still time to make it!] However, it is particularly boozy, perhaps due to its weekly brandy “feeding.” [I just pour brandy over mine and forget it!]

This was when we had the Revels of Christmas (with the party blowers instead of Christmas crackers. So much more fun!). There were also rum balls, cheese-cake from Junior’s in NYC, homemade cookies of several varieties, and white port. (Oh, how exhausting it is to think of!, but how wonderful). [No one person did all of this — it’s the whole community who contribute! If it’s just you, keep it simple with one or two favorite things, at least for this year!]

Then, everyone did stay until the “wee hours”: the younger children made up a play, the older children played music together (they had to politely ask the grown-ups to leave the dining room so that they could use the instruments), the adults visited about all the good books we’ve been reading over the Christmas holiday, and promised to exchange them the next time we met (which was this morning! And we did have an exchange of books.)

I have gone on and on…

But this is what you mean about building family, and culture. What a treasure. What a joy. It seems that “The Twelfth Night” will become (next to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist) the other great feast that we can offer. I can scarcely get enough of it, and can’t wait until next year.

Now, it’s true that her house, while not huge, is perhaps uniquely set up to have revels of this sort (something to think about when we’re house shopping or building, but that’s another post). And she’s not a new mom — these doings are the fruits of many years’ worth of attempts, big and small, and thoughts and prayers and discussions.

Never mind! Do what you can with what you have! A small start this year will be the seed of a wonderful restoration of culture by the time your children are old enough to be thinking of their own family celebrations.

See what you can do!

*The various Mystery Plays (about the Mysteries of Salvation History — Creation, Fall, Incarnation, Redemption, Second Coming, Heaven — not like “whodunit”!) are medieval plays that varied from region to region and presented to the general populace religious truths in whimsical, humorous, and festive ways. I don’t have time to go into them now, but do pursue the links! I am convinced that the real “new evangelization” needs to involve Guilds and big wooden wagons rather than workbooks and programs, but gotta run!

Some links for you!

In non-Christmas (far from it) news, here is an important article by a pediatrician on the new mass mania/evil sweeping our society, transgender “treatment” — a must read.


Those great Christmas Carol books that I offered last week are now available for bulk purchase by popular demand and me asking! Do note that the version you can buy in bulk will have a normal, not coil, binding. But as long as there is one that lies flat for the pianist, I think we can manage!


An American presepio — and a little history of the elaborate crèches that are such a part of Christmas devotions.


Our age has grown too old for simple Christmas devotions. We insist on being activists and can’t see anymore the value of stopping and resting. We don’t have the capacity for wonder — if we aren’t “accomplishing” something “important” we are convinced that we are wasting time. What’s a little Christmas crèche to the likes of us! Well, here’s a Christmas meditation for you from one of my very favorite theologians, John Saward. He helps us to contemplate the littleness of the very greatest mind the world has ever seen, St. Thomas Aquinas — a giant who was more than willing to be as a little child before The Child, the Incarnate Babe in Bethlehem.

This meat pie (aka French-Canadian Tourtiere) may have to be on my menu, replacing my sturdy but not elegant one. So pretty!


10 Christmas stories every father should read to his children.


On building the culture and on the kind of education that fits our human nature: Don’t miss this excellent review of an excellent book: Russell Hittenger on John Senior and the Restoration of Reality.


Have you heard of the “Hillbilly Thomists” — Dominican Friars who play fun bluegrass? Check out their new album! Maybe this is the last-minute Christmas gift you’ve been looking for!

From the archives: I wrote about celebrating all twelve days of Christmas — having a Twelfth Night party like Jennifer’s could definitely be the highlight of the festivities!

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

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).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

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A rare Christmas CD ~ a 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.)

 

Another giveaway! For TWO winners! {The winners of the two books are posted down below!}

Here is one for the ages: A fantastic Christmas CD like no other. This will take a little explanation, but have a listen to this snippet – it will only take a minute!

 

 

What we have here is the world premiere recording of a late-Sarum-Rite-era English Mass by William Rasar, called Lux Fulgebit.

Charles Weaver (assistant director of music, also sings bass in the schola, husband of one of the sopranos heard here!) dug up evidence of this  16th-century Mass Christe Jesu by William Rasar, and edited it from the original part-books (available to view online—what a time to be alive, when the most obscure treasures can be found at a click).

This Mass setting is a hidden gem of the highest quality. The recording does it justice. It’s sung by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary’s in Norwalk, CT, a professional choir that provides the sacred music (not performances!) at the Extraordinary Form Mass there. The voices are a joy to listen to.

The CD is a complete Mass (the vanishingly rare Christmas Mass at Dawn* with its own beautiful Propers about the first light after the darkness of Advent). The pastor chants the lessons and prayers, and there are even bells and silence in between the Sanctus and Benedictus, to chilling (in a holy way) effect.

If I went on and on about this CD and how amazing it is, this post would be ridiculously long. You can read about it on the church’s website.

Update: You can hear the full Credo here and the Agnus Dei here.

If you have someone on your gift roster who loves sacred music, early music, and choral music, this is a Must Have! If you can’t wait for the giveaway to end, you can order it here (the proceeds go to the church’s sacred music program) and get 20% off with the code LMLD — $16 instead of $20! This code will be good through Christmas Day. You can also order the MP3 on Amazon and on ITunes (giftable on both sites).

Leave a comment to be entered! I will also post on Instagram, so be sure to go over there and enter a comment there as well, tagging a friend! I’ll choose one winner here and one there!

*Christmas is a feast that has three distinct Masses, each with its own Propers, or changeable parts of the Mass reflecting the particular emphasis that Holy Mother Church wishes to give the faithful at that moment. John Saward, author of the breathtaking book Cradle of Redeeming Love, says,

In the tradition of mystical exegesis of the liturgy, another kind of threefold birth, corresponding to the three Masses of Christmas, is attributed to Christ; “the one eternal, from the heart of the Father [Mass at Midnight]; the second fleshly, from the womb of the Virgin [Mass at Dawn]; the third spiritual, by which He is born in the minds of those who are converted to Him or re-born in Him. [Mass at Morning]”

Isn’t that awesome and so beautiful and inspiring?

Now on to our links:

In “tidying up and letting you know”:

The winners of the two books, Leila Miller’s Primal Loss and Fr. Jacques Philippe’s Searching for and Maintaining Peace, are Lisa Trahan, Kari, and Betsy. An email will be coming your way shortly!

 

For those of you who didn’t win, Leila Miller is generously offering a discount on a signed copy of the book! Just email her at primalloss@gmail.com. The price will be $15! If you want to order from Amazon (where it’s on Kindle as well), it’s here (this is an affiliate link, thank you!).

 

The Fr. Philippe book, Searching for and Maintaining Peace, is available here, and I highly recommend it for everyone from your favorite young  (anyone in high school would benefit greatly from it) to elderly person. It’s a small volume and would make an excellent stocking stuffer.

 

If you are within shouting distance of Clinton, Massachusetts next Sunday, December 17 (look at a map — you may be!), do, do come to a concert of Adventine organ works at St. John Guardian of Our Lady at 5pm. David J. Hughes, one of our country’s foremost organists and church musicians (and music director at St. Mary’s in Norwalk, CT, where he directs the Schola whose album we are offering in today’s giveaway!) will offer an hour-long recital of organ works by Tallis, Bach, Tournemire, and Distler, with improvisations on submitted themes. He will be joined by Marc DeMille, who will sing Gregorian chant as well. Marc is the music director at St. John’s and a well known and cherished Early Music performer in the Boston area. Freewill offering at the door! I hope to see you there!

A miscellany:

Why would a young woman become a nun? A great interview with Jade Banks, soon entering the Discalced Carmalites.

 

Is Persuasion Jane Austen’s greatest novel? I’m willing to listen!

 

Need to repair a wet book? Here is a video on how to do it. (I would have preferred just an article with pictures, and definitely turn the sound off because the “music” is super annoying, but the visuals are helpful.)

 

Is Canon Law (the law in the Catholic Church) a set of human rules or is it divinely inspired? Canonist Ed Peters looks at a case. 

 

I thought this article and video about the Japanese custom of repairing cracked pottery with gold and silver can easily be applied to so many aspects of life and spirit.

From the archives:

Don’t forget the Advent and Christmas music we recommended in this post, as well as the Lux Fulgebit CD we are featuring here! I’m going to add to that list a CD on a much less sublime level, much beloved in our family just because I literally picked it up from a rack at the grocery store some Advent lost in the mists long ago, and we all know that “tradition” is “what we listened to when we were little”: Reba MacEntire’s Merry Christmas to You, don’t judge me/my kids.

We also love Chanticleer Sing We Christmas and Anonymous 4 The Cherry Tree. Elizabeth Mitchell’s The Sounding Joy has that simple traditional sound for the littles. If your childhood was in the 60s, like mine was, Peter Paul and Mary are a must — but for anyone, their rendition of Children, Go Where I Send Thee is just awesome.

Advent is the beginning of Wonder. It’s not too late to begin again. 

 

If you scroll and scroll in this post, you will come to my list of family cookie favorites with links to recipes. They truly are the best! Well, we love them!

 

Today is the feast of Juan Diego — an amazing story of childlike faith!

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

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).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

The post A rare Christmas CD ~ a giveaway with your {bits & pieces}! appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

Another giveaway! Two books that might bring healing.

The winners of Saturday’s giveaway are Rebekah H. for the Carol book and Ash A. for the Kitchen Rosary! Congratulations! You know it is you when you get my email!

If you didn’t win, do just buy the Christmas Carol book ASAP, because it will take a wee bit of time to get it to you. The price is right, isn’t it? Good enough to be able to get more than one for the family. Ask Grandma for them! And the proceeds of the Kitchen Rosary benefit the wonderful new foundation of the Notre Dame Priory. Our dear friend Fr. Mark is entering this monastery in January, and I know it will be a very great gift to the whole universal church to have these monks praying and offering the Liturgy! If you love the Kitchen Rosary, please purchase one for someone on your list, to help these awesome young men!}

 

Today I have a giveaway of two important books for finding peace and healing.

I know that we want to give certain kinds of things at Christmastime. Warm, fuzzy, happy things!

So maybe this idea is a little odd. Tell me what you think.

Here’s the thing. Many people in our society today are hurting and unable truly to commit to life together — because they were wounded by their parents’ divorce. Do you know someone like that? Are you someone like that? Recently as I’ve been giving talks in various places, I’ve had conversations with young women who are seeking healing in this area, for themselves or for others, and these conversations have made me think that this book will really help people find peace in their marriage.

My friend Leila Miller collected the words of seventy adult children of divorce. (Yes, we have the same name! But hers is “Layla” and mine is “Lyla” although I answer to Layla too! I didn’t write this book!)

I’m not going to say that her book, Primal Loss: The Now-Adult Children of Divorce Speak, is an easy read. It’s not. But I will say that it will bring healing — the healing of knowing why one’s heart is broken.

I endorsed this book (you will see my blurb on the back cover) because, as I read it, I realized that all these people, collectively, managed to put into words what one person cannot, and what no researcher or observer can articulate. The sheer aggregation of the many, many small statements about the divorce of the respondents’ parents creates an undeniable whole — a sort of big package of truth about what divorce does to the children.

I have always said that you simply can’t ask a child what he thinks about his parents’ divorce. There is too much at stake! For the child to admit that he has received a blow he may not recover from is too frightening. And in almost every case, the child feels he has to protect his parents who are obviously no longer in control of their own lives — if only for his own preservation, for, the child has no autonomy. Without his parents, he will be exposed to nameless danger.

No, you must wait until the child has grown. Then you may — may! — be able to find out what happened to his inner life when his world fell apart.

This is what Leila Miller has done — she has let the now-adult “child” speak.

If you are a counselor or friend; if your parents or your spouse’s parents divorced; if you or a friend are considering divorce — you simply must read this book. It will be hard, but in the end it will bring peaceable fruit. It will help you heal, or help you help others to heal, or stop you (or your friend) in your tracks before you hurt your children.

The other book is for the way forward — to recover peace and to keep it.

Searching for and Maintaining Peace is a little spiritual book that can bring about tremendous peace in your life. Having upset you with Leila’s book, I feel obligated to offer this one as well!

Fr. Jacques Philippe quietly leads you on a gentle journey with his own words and those of the saints, showing that God wants us to be peaceful and gives us the means to obtain peace. He is an immensely deep and peaceful priest with a facility for bringing the spiritual masters right to us in our need.

For many months I simply read this book, a little a day, and then turned it over and started again! Maybe you know someone who could be helped by this book.

For a chance to win both of these books (yes, the winners each get BOTH books!), leave a comment here on the blog.

I will pick three winners and the giveaway will close on Saturday when I will have another giveaway!!

 

The post Another giveaway! Two books that might bring healing. appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

A giveaway – two! – 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.)

 

Today I bring you two giveaways along with fun and fabulous links! These items are timely for Christmas and I know you will love them. Just leave a comment to tell me which one you would like — I’m giving away one of each.

First, get excited about this Collection of Christmas Carols! (It’s here as well, on Amazon *edited to say, but get the other one from Lulu, because being able to lay it flat on the piano is a great plus*.) Ben Bloomfield has collected and published in a handy coil binder form a great collection of Advent and Christmas carols. Accomplished composer and music director Samuel Schmitt says, “A wonderful collection – excellent selection and arrangements.” (He also said something about the music being beautifully engraved — I’m getting this from Ben’s brother Will’s Facebook post — and I don’t know what that means so I’m leaving it out. It’s not on a stone tablet or anything… ) The carols and chants are all arranged for singing in parts.

We all need this, people! We desperately need to revive all the carols, with all their verses, and all their parts, STAT. If I hear one more funky (or standard, for that matter) version of Let It Snow or Santa Baby or let’s be honest, Jingle Bells, curse them, I am going out of my everlasting mind — and I don’t even hardly go shopping! — and meanwhile, all the poetic expression of the deepest truths of our faith set to the most lovely tunes ever heard are being lost. It used to be that every child in America sang these traditional carols from before he could toddle along to the neighborhood wassail. No longer.

Let’s fix that in our very own homes! By getting this book!* You can certainly view it here — undoubtedly you could print it out and bind it yourself. However, I would wager that would cost you more than its price, which is quite reasonable. Love, love, love it.

*It takes a few days to print and then to ship, so that’s why I’m giving you this early distant warning!

Second, have you ever seen a Rosary abacus sort of thing like this before?

It’s a great idea, isn’t it? If you are praying while you are doing something that doesn’t allow you to hold your rosary beads, or if you need to step away and will lose your place, this sliding bead arrangement comes to the rescue. You can prop it up with the prop thingie in the back, or hang it with the hanging… thingie (do they have technical terms??). A child could keep track for you as well.

Best of all, buying these supports a new monastic foundation in Tasmania. We have become aware of the Notre Dame Priory through a dear friend who keeps us updated on this important initiative for the Church. You can read all about it here and here. The important thing to know is that these men are devoted to the Liturgy and to the Benedictine life — just what we need, no matter how far away, geographically, it seems to be. (Maybe it’s close to some of you?)

“Our most important prayer is the solemn celebration of the Sacred Liturgy with the Holy Mass and Divine Office eight times a day, source and summit of the life of the Church. Our first and most important work — enshrining the apostolic and missionary dimension of our life in the tradition of such great Benedictine figures as St Augustine of Canterbury, St Boniface, Archbishop Bede Polding, Bishop Rosendo Salvado — is to provide silent and guided retreats, both in the future monastery precincts and in other venues where silence can be maintained, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, an invaluable aid for the conversion of souls and their ongoing progress in reaching sanctity.”

The Kitchen Rosary is made by a benefactor who donates everything, so every penny goes to the Priory! Wouldn’t this make a beautiful gift for someone on your list?

 

Just leave a comment telling me which of these you would hope to win (or if you don’t care which), and we will draw at some point in the middle of the week.

 

On to our links!

A long and thought-provoking read on the “three necessary societies” — yes, it’s true that the challenges to our life together here on earth have changed, but that’s the beauty of principles, isn’t it — they don’t change.


David Clayton is working on Pontifex, an online university for the promotion of Catholic culture. I like this article about the sacred art in Durham Cathedral, in the St. Alban’s tradition. As always, David’s interest is not merely academic — he is encouraging us to incorporate traditional forms in our own perception and execution (if we execute) of art.


The National Gallery director on religious art, family singalongs, and the Marian painting that survived the Puritans. A little cultural curriculum is tucked in this article!


An amazing medieval village in Greece.


Walker Percy and the Politics of Deranged Times.


I always find Christopher Caldwell incisive, and here he is both whimsical and serious, remembering what writing a paper check was like and wondering if it was really all bad: “You get lured through the door of innovation with the option of doing things a new way, and while you’re figuring out whether you like it, the door through which you entered slams shut.”  Privilege Your Check.


Love these old photos of mothers breastfeeding their babies.


Here is a really charming and short video that envisions a portion of the first violin score for the fourth movement of Ferdinand Ries’ Second Symphony as a rollercoaster! (Click over to our site to view if you don’t see the video below.)

 

 

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The week that’s not Advent

{Do you like my new rug? I love it. Downside (as I tried to indicate on my very first IG story ever, but failed due to technical inadequacy): no small toys will be detectable, which sounds fine until you step on one!*}

So this week is a little breather that doesn’t happen very often — a week between Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent! (Of course, the sense of time-luxury gets snatched away when Christmas comes the day after the Fourth Sunday of Advent, but sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof and all that!)

It’s possible that I first became fully aware of getting ready for Advent in just such a year: an anomalous one like this one, where the first Sunday of Advent does not come right on the heels of Thanksgiving.

And it’s possible that this timing gave my not-fully-liturgically-formed mind a false sense of security. Because later it was quite a shock to realize that the more usual procedure is to be putting out the Advent wreath (and finding out you don’t have Advent candles!) while boiling down the turkey bones. Which is a lot of dealing with reality for the likes of me.

But let’s take advantage of this year’s little respite to plan just a bit for the next three weeks! If, that is, you are like me and things always catch you off guard. If you are up on it all, just move on along!

On my shopping list will be the ingredients for Plum Pudding. The collect for this past Sunday was

Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

As Evelyn Vitz recounts in her lovely book A Continual Feast, British Christians heeded the words “Stir up” that begin this prayer by stirring up their Christmas dessert! Yes, with its heavy soaking of brandy, this pudding will be safely tucked away for your festivities at the end of the month! (The link above is my tutorial — do check it out!)

Since we’re shopping, pick up Advent candles!


In our book, The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home, we write that the seasons of Advent and Lent are particularly suited for beginning again in the liturgical life. We do have regrets that we didn’t observe our devotions in the past, and certainly, we parents look at our children and wonder how to begin at all.

The good news is that the First Sunday of Advent is the ideal time to introduce prayer in your home, beyond what you may be doing now. To the children, nothing seems more natural than the preparations we begin for Christmas — and that is Advent! As we set out our Advent wreath and little calendar, they eagerly await the songs and prayers that go along with them.

So if you’ve been feeling a little inadequate, take heart! Nothing more is required of you than that you live your Advent in a childlike way, along with your children.

The “curriculum,” so to speak, for educating our children in the faith is exactly this: to observe the liturgical seasons and to allow the prayers and devotions of each one guide us to know Christ and his Church better.

You will notice that even the feast days of the saints that enter into our Advent life support and sustain the vision we are working towards, of the coming of Our Lord in the flesh at the Nativity! It’s so beautiful.

Think of how St. Nicholas (the 6th) brings his love of children; the Immaculate Conception, that great Solemnity, offers us a chance to dwell on the Mother of God — this is her time, you know. It’s the time in which the whole preparation of Creation for the coming of the Lord is brought to a point, the one woman who will give her Yes. Think of St. Lucy, whose very name brings in the hint of the light of sanctity that keeps us on the way out of the darkness to the Light.

In this season we will learn the art of celebrating in the midst of austere preparation. Just before Christmas are the last of this year’s Ember Days. Maybe now give a thought (and a conversation with your spouse) about how you will approach the inevitable parties that crop up. There is a way to enjoy each other’s company without totally abdicating our “yearning and longing” mode of preparation!

Want to know a secret? Advent has its own beautiful carols! Of course we can sing Christmas carols as well (we have to learn all the verses, after all, and get ready for concerts and such!) — and it’s wise to sort of order them from less to more outrageously joyful so as to pace ourselves. The great news is that there is an amazing repertoire of Advent hymns and carols that used to be quite well known — and should be again. Each one is a little mini-catechism on Salvation History and the Incarnation. You can find many of them in my favorite book, Take Joy by Tasha Tudor. Sadly this book is no longer in print, but you can find copies at book sales occasionally!

Some Advent albums for you:

Advent at Ephesus (Benedictines Of Mary, Queen Of Apostles)

Puer Natus Est (Stile Antico)

Praetorius: Advent and Christmas Music (Bremer Barock Consort)

Advent Carols from St. John’s (Choir of St. John’s College)

From Darkness to Light: The Salisbury Advent Service (This one is very much an Advent “lessons and carols” recording from the actual church service, so not a “concert.”)

Here are all my Advent posts from the past, linked in this Advent post. So if you are just not sure, I think I will have some answers for you! Take a look around!

(The links above are Amazon affiliate links! Thanks for shopping with us!)

Now I think I’ll go rummage in my boxes and figure out what I need to get my own Advent going. The main thing is to live along with the Church as she takes us through this season to the Nativity. When we live our Advent, simply and peacefully, our children will naturally come along the journey with us!

 

*Here’s the Ebay store I got the rug from is called rughouse.

This is not an affiliate link — I just want you to know that I was very pleased with my all-wool rug for less than the price of a not very nice synthetic one!

The post The week that’s not Advent appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

Some Tips for Keeping up the Core and MuTu Black Friday Sale!

You know that I’m a fan of the MuTu System for healing Diastasis Recti and other physical issues related to childbearing. You can see my full review of the System here. This weekend, MuTu is 33% off — sale lasts through Cyber Monday! Thank you so much for using any of my links here on the blog – they are affiliate links and that little bit helps me out a lot!

A lot of readers bought the System back in July when it was discounted. I’m curious to know whether you’ve gotten started on it! Has it helped you? I hope so!

Click here to take advantage of the 33% discount! It’ll be the last sale of the year! Make sure you use the code BF33!

 

Where I’m at these days with MuTu: 

When Chickapea was about one month old, I saw a physical therapist to address pelvic pain. She gave me an exam and told me that my DR gap was four fingers wide (small mama/big baby problems I guess!). She suggested a plan by which I go in to see her twice a week for who knows how many weeks and that I start doing such and such exercises and stretches… Well, going to see her twice a week was just not going to happen without a tremendous life shift and expense for me (even though seeing her would have been covered through our cost-sharing ministry, just getting to her for those appointments when I have three little kids was an extremely daunting prospect!).

So I decided I would jump back onto MuTu right away and check in with her if the pain persisted.

Quite simply, within a few weeks of doing MuTu faithfully, my pain was gone.

About six weeks later, my gap was down to two fingers. (I also quickly shed my baby weight.)

Nowadays it’s even less, sometimes less than one finger gap — depends on the day, honestly, and how well I’ve been able to keep up with all my exercises! The past few months have been extremely busy and I haven’t been able to do much beyond my daily core exercises (in other words, I haven’t gotten the intensive exercises in lately, and I miss them!).

[In the past few months I’ve realized that I’m also struggling with some gut health issues that are working against me in getting my core all the way back in shape. I’m trying to sort that out and I think that that will be a huge help to me in totally realigning my Transverse Abdominal muscles.]

 

In the meantime, I’m learning once again how important alignment is. All day long, all the time, I have to be working on these habits. Sitting on my ‘sit bones.’ Engaging my core before I stand up out of a comfy chair after nursing. Holding my big baby in such a way that my back is straight, I’m not tucking my pelvis in, and I’m using my arms to hold him up (not draping him on myself and leaning into bad positions).

One big lesson I’ve taken away from this time through the 12 week program is to put my weight through my heels. So when I’m at the counter, washing dishes, at the sink, standing at the park — even when I’m sitting — I have to think “heels, heels, heels.” Take your weight off of the balls of your feet, press into the ground through your heels (and I’m talking about being in bare feet or flat shoes!), unlock your knees, un-tuck your pelvis, take a deep breath, roll your shoulders down, and pick your chin up. You’ll feel better, taller, and more svelte right away! (Did you do that just now? Don’t you feel better?)

 

Another key learning for me: I don’t like the MuTu soundtrack. I find it very uninspiring and a bit dull. It took me this long to figure out that, when I watch the videos, I can turn the volume all the way down and turn some music up! Especially now that I know the videos well so I’m not really missing out on her spoken instructions. (This is probably obvious to most people, but I’m late to the party.) While I don’t always look forward to turning on the workout video, sometimes I will really look forward to a chance to listen to some of my music — something that’ll make my workout an actually fun time. Sometimes I’ll dance a little between exercise sets. It’s a major mood lift!

 

Some of you have asked about how much time it takes. If you’re going to do it right, plan on at least 15 minutes a day devoted to your core exercises; and one daily walk. A few weeks into the program, you’ll build up to an additional half and hour every few days for an intensive workout. You may have to take some time to adjust your eating habits as well, but that’s just a matter of some strategizing about meal planning and grocery shopping — once you figure those things out, it’ll just be part of your routine. (MuTu provides some food guidance!)

I find that it works best for me to get my core workout in first thing in the morning (that’s the 15 min one) before the kids are out of bed so that it’s out of the way. It also helps me to align properly all day long. That being said, if you only have time midday when your kids are napping, it is a lovely pick-me-up! And getting it in before bed is better than nothing at all.

If you have any cushion at all in your schedule, it is worth giving up a TV show or time online or some other non-essential thing in order to make space for this.

 

Whenever I have time for the full program, I feel energized, strong, and upright. Wendy uses the word, ‘vital’ to describe how she wants MuTu Mamas to feel, and I think it’s a very apt term! This helps me feel vital, even if things aren’t perfect. I want to be vital enough to keep up with my kids and hopefully give them lots of siblings! I’m also grateful for MuTu because, although my tummy isn’t totally healed, it has given me a very strong pelvic floor and I have no issues in that regard.

My friends who have gotten into MuTu have all told me that they love it. It works. I can attest to the fact that it is not an overnight fix, but it is a flexible approach that will get results if you follow through. I can’t often leave the house for a run (and running might not even be advisable when you’re healing your core and pelvic floor), but I can set aside 20-30 minutes to getting moving in my living room!

And for anyone reading this who doesn’t have babies yet: I encourage you to do this or some other program that will strengthen your core! Hindsight is 20/20 — if I’d have known that this would be my challenge now, I would have been on top of my core workouts back in the day! And even if having babies was a while ago, according to Wendy, it’s never too late to heal your Diastasis Recti.

Now of course, you know me and you know that I am all about thriftiness! So I only want you to buy this if you really need it and will actually use it. If you’d like to comment below or send me an email to ask further questions, feel free! I’ll be honest. Again, thank you so much for using my links here when you purchase!

Any tips from other mamas using MuTu? Did you buy the program in July?

The post Some Tips for Keeping up the Core and MuTu Black Friday Sale! appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.