Leila Marie Lawler's Blog, page 64

{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ Pork Stir Fry edition!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{The winner of $50 off a CatholicMarriagePrep.com course is Theresa (Haus Frau)! An email is wending its way to you. Please tell all your friends about this amazing course, and thanks so much to dear Mattie for offering a discount to a lucky reader!}

{pretty}

These little tomatoes are going into the dehydrator, and they will be so welcome in January!

{happy}

I am wicked proud of a) growing peppers and b) getting them all the way to red. Just hasn’t really happened to me before.

{funny}

I sort of think everything, pretty much, around here is funny. I have this sense that most of the things I do are ridiculous.

So maybe this isn’t that funny to you, but it’s MY funny so there you go.

I borrowed a bunch of little kids to pick some of my pears (they really only managed one tree — two more to go!). Some for their families and some for mine. But then we went away for a long weekend, and I really had to do something about the bushels of pears, or my kitchen was going to be overwhelmed with fruit flies. It’s tricky, because you pick pears unripe, but some are getting pretty darned ripe, and some are not at all ripe.

It’s a sorting process. Takes time. But I had to go. So I quick separated them into “misshapen and ripe” “misshapen and unripe” “shapely and ripe” and “shapely and unripe.”

And all the “misshapen but ripe” ones got cooked up real quick for pear sauce (which is like unto applesauce and very delish) and then put in the fridge for most of a week! And you know what, that was fine. It’s good to know that you can separate the various steps of this rather overwhelming process.

Pro-tips: a) get a Foley food mill (try to find one at a thrift store — the aluminum kind with the thicker handle is the best one) and liberate yourself from peeling and coring and b) cut each pear in half anyway to be sure that there are no bugs or other gross situations. Cut away any part you don’t want. Be ruthless. This is a big mess of pear product and you can afford to be in a “take-no-prisoners” mood.

{real}

I am {really} going to give you a {real} recipe for a change!

While we were with Nick and Natasha, Natasha made us a delicious pork stir-fry supper. It really did seem to have a high deliciousness-to-difficulty ratio, so I asked her for the recipe, which she kindly gave me and I here offer with my tweaks.

When Natasha made it, I rustled up some Eggplant Obsession to go with (with zucchini, peppers, and onions as well). That was an excellent side dish. Here at home, I served it with a quick slaw made of red cabbage, kale from the garden, and chopped up carrots tossed with a little ginger-garlic paste (more on that below), mayo, and lemon juice. We also had some fabulous little tomatoes that needed to be eaten. Great supper! And yes, so easy.

The recipe is from the Wall Street Journal: Hooni Kim’s Recipe for Pork and Tofu Stir-Fry With Scallions — so it’s behind a paywall, alas. But if you don’t subscribe, just know that I am well within reason to sort of nudge this in a Thai/other-Asian direction, since according to this article, Hooni Kim nudged it from Chinese to Korean. So Asian readers, don’t be mad.

Pork Stir-Fry, Like Mother, Like Daughter via the WSJ and dear Natasha

This recipe serves four. So definitely at least double it! Make a ton because it will freeze perfectly and isn’t the kind of stir-fry that relies on everything being super freshly cooked — the veggies are on the side.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used peanut)

1 pound ground pork

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (I do not recommend salting anything here — the miso is very salty!)

1½ tablespoons minced garlic*– see note!

1½ teaspoons minced ginger*– see note!

2 medium onions, finely diced (well, I diced because Natasha told me to dice and then I didn’t read the “finely” — I like to know my onion is in there anyway)

¼ cup doenjang (Korean miso) or Japanese white miso (bought Japanese non-white miso because wasn’t paying attention — and due to the saltiness, I think maybe starting with less is a good idea)

2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) (we have various kinds of red pepper paste hanging around because I just am not a hot pepper person and never EVER use them, so I used one I had — see photo — and only put a microscopic amount IN the dish, passing the jar at the table)

1 cup low-sodium chicken stock (I used pork stock, which yes, I have in the freezer along with every other kind of stock due to obsessive Save-a-Step cooking)

2 pounds silken tofu, broken into large pieces (Natasha used tofu – I used mushrooms, chopped)

1 bunch scallions, white and light green portions only, thinly sliced

a handful of Thai basil, chopped (this is my addition — adds a lovely fresh tang as you eat, I think)

Cooked white rice, for serving (Natasha made a short brown rice, I think, very good — I made short white rice, the nice sticky Japanese kind with the rose on the bag)

Heat the oil in a wok or large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add pork, leaving out the salt in the original recipe. Start to cook the pork, about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in garlic, ginger* — see note! and onions. Stir-fry until pork browns, about 4 minutes more.

3. Stir in doenjang [miso paste], gochujang [or just a dab of a hot pepper sauce of some kind, or the full amount if you are a spice-o-phile], and stock. Simmer until meat cooks through and stock thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir in tofu or mushrooms and simmer about 7 minutes. Adjust seasoning as needed, adding more miso if you were conservative at first, and probably no salt.

4. Garnish with scallions and Thai basil and serve over cooked white rice.

* Garlic and ginger! Instead of always chopping these separately for your Asian dishes, why not make a paste and keep it in the fridge? I’ve posted about this before re: this cole slaw recipe — a great trick that has you only do the work once in a while and gives you a seasoning that is more than the sum of its parts, as the flavors meld magically as they sit.

Next time you are at the store, get a few heads of garlic (or a jar of already peeled cloves) and a good big hunk of ginger. Throw the peeled cloves (1/2 cup or more) and the peeled ginger (ditto) into the food processor or finely mince by hand. Add a little salt and oil (do this right in the jar, if you are working by hand) and put this paste into a jar. Just keep it in the fridge — for this recipe, instead of 1 1/2 tablespoons of each, just add 3 tablespoons of the paste. It instantly “Asianizes” your dish, making those last-minute stir-fries a lot quicker than ever.

[image error] Loading InLinkz ...

A quilt for a little boy.

{There’s still time to enter our giveaway for the Marriage Prep course! Do check it out. Some couples are unable to get to their parish’s preparation, some don’t have any available to them, some — probably, dare I say, most/all — could use an in-depth supplement. Even if a couple are already married, they can learn so much from this course!}

We went on a long car ride to visit our Nick’s family, which has grown by another little lad. His baptism took place this past weekend, and I had to quick, finish up not one but two quilts, because I am soooo behind on quilts. So FX got one and so did little Patrick, who shall be referred to as PJ. A darling if ever there was one, and of course, in need of a quilt (I will show you that one another day).

(Of course you would love to hear more and see a picture or two, because you are all the best; we will see about that. Thank you for understanding that Auntie Leila must be discreet.)

Now I’m doing piles of you-know-very-well-what and getting things organized. (When asked what I am doing on any particular day, the answer will likely be, “Trying to get organized.”)

Since FX is now three, I thought something fun that will carry him through a few years would be called for, although I’m trying not to set myself up for making a quilt for each stage of each grandchild’s life, as that might turn out to be an unreachable goal. Might.

This car fabric caught my eye right away (not much to choose from at JoAnn’s, but this one is a winner, for sure). He loved talking about each individual car/truck/gas pump/scooter, and the quilt went right on his bed, which makes me so happy!

 

I love how this quilting with pearl (aka “perle”) cotton looks and also goes so quickly. I have talked about it before, and this post about quilting with an embroidery needle and pearl thread has the links that will help if you want to do it as well. I just tied the middle of each square because I didn’t want to interfere with the car/truck pattern.

And it turned out rather larger than anticipated (just about twin size, rather than the throw quilt I usually make), because, well, Auntie Leila can’t count up squares with any reliability…

 

 

I have only three baby quilts and two wedding quilts to go! What are the odds that the world will hold still while I make them??

{bits & pieces}

The regular “little of this, little of that” feature from Like Mother, Like Daughter!

 

I’ve been on a blueberry kick.

It started because The Artist went to help our friends Dan and Kelly move some furniture. When he came home, he brought me a piece of pie that Kelly had sent with him, and which he was touting as the best pie that he has ever had. (Fortunately for me, I’m not a big pie person in general, so I didn’t need to take offense at this. And he probably qualified the statement for me by saying it was his favorite fruit pie – and I have never made him a fruit pie, because I’m just not into the genre [I know, I know. You can put your eyebrows down now.]).

Well, I had the piece of this pie, and he was right. It was amazing, and obviously enhanced by the freshness of the blueberries. So blueberry picking was clearly in order.

A field trip was made to celebrate Finnabee’s birthday (and some – you guessed it – blueberry pie that evening), and then a follow-up trip was in order because we weren’t focused enough on the first trip and didn’t get a sufficient haul.

We headed off a third time, on a recent trip to MA, but that farm turned out to have no blueberries in season. I had already talked up this pie so much to my family that I felt I had to do something, so it was a peach pie that day. And… that was tasty; it was fine. But it wasn’t this blueberry pie.

For me, this is a game-changer, because it’s a chilled pie rather than baked. With a few exceptions, I’m just not a big fan of baked fruit. I like my fruit fresh. In this recipe, half the blueberries (or peaches, or what have you) are cooked down and then the other half are folded in, fresh. Then all are put into a pre-baked crust and topped with whipped cream. Brilliant! It’s not far from strawberry shortcake, one of my favorite desserts and the best summer treats possible.

 

This week’s links!

 

The recipe for our new favorite blueberry pie. Now that I’ve described it for you, I need to make it again soon. You can thank my friend Kelly! She told me that she reduced the sugar down to 1/2 cup when she made it.

 

Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies. I think we need a name for this genre (that is, the genre of writing in Ayn Rand’s voice), which seems to be taking off – and rightly so.

 

Speaking of children: Children’s Literature and the Spirited Element, from The Imaginative Conservative. Did you know that ages 8-10 are the ‘golden years’ of reading for most?

 

If you or someone you know is going to be reading any philosophy anytime soon, you/he/she will probably find this helpful: 10 Tips on How to Read Philosophy, guided by the principles from Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book (which I still need to read). Pass this article along to any college students you may know or be responsible for – I often wish that I had approached my own major in Philosophy a bit differently!

 

Are you up for something clever, thought-provoking, humorous, and deep? If so, here’s the full bit of G.K. Chesterton that was briefly referenced in the previous link: The Revival of Philosophy – Why?

“Some people fear that philosophy will bore or bewilder them; because they think it is not only a string of long words, but a tangle of complicated notions. These people miss the whole point of the modern situation…. The political and social relations are already hopelessly complicated. They are far more complicated than any page of medieval metaphysics; the only difference is that the medievalist could trace out the tangle and follow the complications; and the moderns cannot.”



Unplugged but Connected: a Rhode Island teacher reflects on the increasing pressure to streamline classrooms with the latest screen technologies, and how Catholic educators should respond.

 

If you haven’t been able to keep up with the latest Planned Parenthood scandal, this video gives a very quick introduction and overview. I recommend following The Federalist for commentary.

 

Have you entered to win the promotion on the CatholicMarriagePrep course? While wrapping up my {pretty, happy, real weddings} series, we’re offering $50 off of this course, which normally costs $175 (it’s a small, family-run business, so that discount is a big offer!). Consider what a great wedding gift it could be for an engaged or recently married couple, or for you and your new (or not so new!) marriage. Don’t forget to enter!



An extended From the Archives section this week!



Are you grappling with the question of whether to enroll your kids in sports this fall? Some guidance: Ask Auntie Leila: Should my kids play sports? and when?
Ask Auntie Leila: What’s up with soy? (This is an older post, so there is more recent research on this since 2009, of course. But it’s a helpful intro to the question.)
Before and After: Pippo’s High Chair.
Ask Auntie Leila: Dating Rules for Teenagers?
Sewing Chitchat.
The Secret of How to Braid Bread without lopsidedness!
Did you see that we now have a Popular Posts page?




~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 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.
Bridget’s Instagram.

 

 

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

There’s still time to enter our Marriage Prep giveaway for yourself or a friend!

{pretty}

I will never tire of these views. Every time we head up Mt. Scott (to be clear: you drive to the top. We would not make it there so often/ever if we had to hike!) I fall in love with this place. Would you have expected Southwest Oklahoma to look like this? I certainly didn’t expect Southwest Oklahoma to look like this. But here it is, in all its glory!

Selfie on top of mountain, with baby. (You can see the one she “ruined” on my Instagram feed.)

{happy}

Molly turned two on Sunday! She was a little intimidated by all the singing, and needed a little help with her candles. Help which her big brother was more than willing to provide.

After cake and ice cream, the kids and their two little friends who had joined us to celebrate played a few rounds of “pin the stinger on the bee,” which was a hit. (Molly loves bees. Toads too, but I couldn’t figure out what we’d pin on the toad. A fly, maybe?) Our other party activities were “throw around all the balloons” and “ride bikes and play baseball outside.” And, of course, “eat.”

Simple thrills.

The scene the next morning. Did I take pretty pictures during the party? Of course not. How do moms throw parties, hold babies, and take pictures? My hat goes off to them.

All those balloons were the extent of our party decorations, though, because when Aunt Natasha sends a fabulously cute balloon party dress to the birthday girl, you overcome your party-throwing lameness and get some matching balloons.

{funny}

My brother-in-law spent a few nights here on his way back down to college in Dallas. He generously offered to make breakfast the morning he left, and I turned around to find him attempting to fry six thick slices of bacon in the tiny pan I’d left on the (messy, sorry) stove after scrambling Pippo’s egg earlier in the morning. (According to him, you can’t always count on the availability of more than one pan in a 20-something single man’s apartment, but he also didn’t want to cheat anyone out of his fair share of bacon.)

I laughed, took a picture, got him a pan of reasonable size, and then enjoyed a delicious breakfast.

{real}

We’ve been plagued with sewer issues over the last few weeks, all the details of which I will not trouble you with, but suffice it to say that we were left in a precarious indoor-plumbing situation for several days at a time.

In our rural neighborhood, our sewer is handled by the homeowner’s association, and since the problem was in the main line, it was their responsibility. It was an interesting education on how these things can be handled at such a local level — one part experience, one part neighborliness, and one part Macgyver-like ingenuity.

And when they were all done (we are cautiously optimistic that the problem is resolved!) they hooked a fire hose up to the hydrant and flushed out all the pipes. Pretty exciting stuff!

[image error] Loading InLinkz ...

In which I reveal the dining room, without too many excuses but with some.

We juuuuust finished painting (and cleaning up) the dining room, but I know that the entire interwebs simply cannot wait for us to do one more thing before knowing how this amazing transformation has turned out (at least so far), and needs to exhale. So here you go!

It’s just that cleaning up takes much longer than you think it will, particularly when you keep chucking in things like fiddle camp. Do not expect every little thing to be finished up here.

(“We don’t, we know you.”)

(“Oh, good.”)

Also, do not forget this fabulous marriage prep course! Win $50 off for yourself or a dear one! What a great wedding gift! Promoted by Archbishop Chaput, accepted nearly everywhere, faithful and orthodox, and personal. Click this link and leave a comment!

Now, I am on record as being totally against blue and also gray on walls. However, I really, reeeallly needed a color in here. And the fact is that these old houses need a little (not a lot! not actually dark!) gray in the paint to keep the paint from looking harsh… and I needed a good background for the gold in the little oratory… and something for all the brown of the furniture and mustard yellow of the curtains to stand up to… so blue it is. (Paint info at the end.)

But it’s really a blue-green aqua kind of a color, and when the light is on (as it will be at night, when we are usually in here), the yellow from the bulbs and candles make this color look quite green, actually. A sort of sea-foamy green.

Bear with me while I babble…

I am having a hard time actually zeroing in on what this color is. If you like it, then it’s what you see. If you don’t like it, rest assured that it’s a quite different color from what you think! I mean, every hour and every angle makes it look different. I’m a bit stumped as to how to convey it to you through this computer.

Anyway, here are some BEFORES:

It was a sort of stone-colored white with a darker stone-gray trim. I liked the trim a lot, actually. And I’m all for white, I really am. I like light and I like to think that textiles and artwork are where you will put your color infusions.

However, the tallness of the ceilings and the sudden need I had for color made me do this.

The view from the kitchen, which is how you are normally coming into this room, as we rarely if ever use our front door (which would bring you through the living room like regular people):

Now, at the start of this post I gave the disclaimer that it’s not quite done yet. Of course. I realize that many people decorate by having a complete vision and then boom! Decorating occurs!

But that is not my way. (Can you tell?) On my deathbed I will be wondering if we should maybe do something different…

So I am not sure about how the quite colonial-style chandelier works in this decidedly 19th century house, but it will take a while for me to figure out something I like better.

And here I think we could use some sconces or other things to add to this wall (the door to the kitchen is just to the left):

Further disclaimer: The booze is alcoholic beverages are all over because the cabinet in which they are normally stored is being repaired and may not work anyway.

And on this wall below had been an arrangement of some of my favorite of Habou’s paintings, but now I’m thinking they could go in the living room and here might be a good spot for family photos, which I have been trying to find a place for that would A) be bright enough for viewing (vs. for instance the hallways which have vast expanses of walls but dim light and no windows) and B) you could get close enough for viewing (vs. for instance above the piano in the living room where there is a vast expanse of wall but the piano — baby grand, you know, wide — would prevent you from getting close).

Just when you think the color is quite green, it goes all robin’s-egg:

More babble:

~Bridget did 90% of the work in here. She was my design consultant and she worked super hard to do the prep, which is the burden of the painting of old houses. I’m always all agog when people airily comment that they casually painted a room, just like that. Around here, that does not happen.

Painting is traumatic!

Painting is the least of it!

Thus, she understandably did not quite estimate the time it would take. She underestimated. But as she was determined, despite my warnings, I let her go for it. I knew we’d be in for some chaos but hey. She prepped all week before the camp started, and then painted in the mornings and at night after each session with all those charming but intense children.

~Yes, the floors are striped. To the best of my knowledge, the original floors were all wide pine, and remain so in most of the rooms. An owner around 1917 put this one in — the level is a floor’s height above the living room one — probably to cover damage. I don’t know why it’s striped — maybe he had barely enough of each wood for half a floor? I love it!

Again, BEFORE:

In this post I talk about getting the hutch between the windows, and that was when we moved the black shelf to where this painting is, below:

AFTER:

(My 89-cents-each thrifted vintage tea set may or may not have been my inspiration for the color!)

On Instagram I posted all these test patches, but the first one we tried was this:

It’s Olympic “Tranquillity.”

But I knew it would be too dark for a room we’d be in at night.

In the end, we went with me doing my usual, which is rashly mixing, approximately-exactly, to get what I really want, painting that on some random piece of wood, and taking it to Lowe’s while still wet (the guy literally dried it with his dryer before scanning it!).

Thus, the paint color is “Tranquillity Plus Two Parts White.”

It’s the one on the far right in this IG, painted over the Tranquillity, next to the molding. Looks white, right? This is the label in case you must have exactly this color:

I think you could hand them this pic on your phone to scan, don’t you?

The trim is Valspar “Shoreline Haze,” in satin. It is quite close to what was there before, making it possible to escape with only one coat on the exhaustingly high crown molding. Plus, I love it with the blue.

There you have it! What do you think? Isn’t Bridget the best?!? And now she’s selfishly going back to school, leaving me to not get any painting done on my own. Hmph.

{bits & pieces} ~ Marriage Prep Giveaway!

 The regular “little of this, little of that” feature from Like Mother, Like Daughter!

Today we are promoting a wonderful marriage prep course! It would be wonderful for any couple, no matter whether you are just engaged or have been married for years. It would make a great gift for loved ones.

I met Mattie in Denver when I was speaking there. She told me about the beautiful apostolate founded by her family for the purpose of establishing healthy marriages. She says, “Looking for a personal, one-on-one mentoring for your marriage preparation? Something convenient, deep, anchored in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body but tailored to YOU and your relationship?” And indeed, I have looked into this program and that description is just what you get.

Details at the end of this post.

Things are hotting up in the garden. Those pears are only a fraction of what I have out there. I never spray or do anything to the trees, so I have to pick through and do my best with them, but I think this year they are very good, for all the neglect they suffer! If you know what I should do to have a more sightly harvest (especially about pruning!) tell me in the comments!

This week’s links:

Your quick sports video of the week: Mainly just because I think that putting the trash can lid on his head is a Lawler male move. I looks fairly clean so I can be okay with that. Not really. But you know.


Do you know about Marie Kondo and the de-cluttering craze that is sweeping (haha) the universe? Well, you can google that and then come read this spoof. Who am I to mock an effective declutterer. But you have to admit this is funny.


We are all about teaching your children chant, and this post (and the one it links to on Reddit) will help. Great suggestions.


We hope you have read every one of Deirdre’s posts about wedding planning. The last one, The Secret to Happy Wedding Planning, is especially helpful in focusing the engaged couple on what is really happening in their lives with this important step. We encourage you to spread the whole series (linked in the last one) far and wide to those you know who may be embarking on this wedding journey. And our giveaway today is particularly appropriate — we know that you will benefit from CatholicMarriagePrep!

Now onto our giveaway!

Well, we aren’t strictly “giving away” this course, but CatholicMarriagePrep is offering $50 off their $175 course.

CatholicMarriagePrep was founded by Christian and Christine Meert in 2004 at the request of Archbishop Charles Chaput. The online marriage prep classes were first created to help couples from the slopes of the Rockies who could not attend in person classes and has flourish from email exchanges to a very personal high-tech marriage preparation class recognized worldwide.

This preparation is perfect for those who either can’t make their diocesan marriage prep or don’t have a truly authentically Catholic preparation program available to them. It can supplement the sometimes inadequate preparation couples receive from their church. And it would be helpful to those who are already married but didn’t receive preparation that really grounded them in the reality of married life.

CatholicMarriagePrep brings the truth and beauty of Theology of the Body (Christian anthropology)  to engaged (and even already married) couples.

Theology of the Body helps us to better understand the vocation of marriage, making visible its invisible reality.

CatholicMarriagePrep is the only one-on-one, mentor led, online Theology of the Body program accepted worldwide and available in English, Spanish and French. And even at $175, it’s one of the most affordable and enduring items you will buy for your wedding!

To enter to win the discount on this course, please simply leave a comment below! Remember, you can win it and give it as a gift to a young couple you know who would benefit from authentic teaching from Scripture and Tradition on true married love.

Happy Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! A crazy Catholic invention, or a lovely feast celebrated from earliest memory and firmly based in Scripture? Click and find out ;)

~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 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.
Bridget’s Instagram.

{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ fiddle camp edition!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty and happy}

Other than the dining room, more on which later, the pictures I have on my camera are from fiddle camp last week. And that is lots of fun to show you, so here we go.

Do you have this kind of “camp” in your community? In ours we have drama camps, Gilbert & Sullivan camps (music plus drama!), and fiddle camp. My kids have gone to these camps and taken their turns running them. Our Will even ran a baseball camp, because he really wanted the homeschoolers to know about baseball! It was his personal mission.

For fiddle camp, Bridget’s students gather for five afternoons for one week, and her friend Rose helps her teach them fiddle and also a couple of Scottish country dances.

The children have studied fiddle with Bridget for a few years, but then she went to college, so they caught up this summer as much as they could.

Doing a camp really gives the children an opportunity to work intensely on their skills and encourage each other to reach ever new heights in fiddle expertise.

During the week, of course there have to be breaks.

I cleverly bought squirt guns and a kiddie pool half-price at the store, and you know, a kiddie pool is just a surprising amount of fun for a small amount of water!

I used to stress out about having such an event at my house. Even though I have a big kid-friendly house and yard, I thought it wasn’t good enough — that you need a real pool, or a lake, or an ocean, or some sort of actual body of water (this is my fixation — can’t really explain it).

Not to mention having a yard free of weeds, picture-perfect gardens, some sort of fancy swingset at least… I had a serious case of “not-good-enough-itis,” in short. This comes of reading too many magazines or, if you are like this but probably younger, visiting too many fancy sites online.

I have since relaxed.

These particular very imaginative children instantly organized games of tag and epic relay races. They all played together — all the ages. And they also learned quite a number of tunes and steps.

At the end of the week, the kids practice all afternoon and then the families (with all the siblings too) arrive late enough for the dads to join the fun. It’s a potluck supper and a show!

{funny}

(I don’t have pictures, but another fun and funny part of the camp is a dance that includes everyone — grownups too — on the lawn. An important part of the festivities!)

During the camp, the children take off their shoes instantaneously upon arrival, which is why you see that they are all barefoot while performing.

“Discalced fiddlers,” as one Dad named them.

And Roxie couldn’t really leave the stage, front and center. “I’m a fiddler too. What.”

{real}

“You started painting the dining room right before fiddle camp?” asked my friend Mary Elizabeth… not adding, “And our visit?”

Yes, this is how relaxed I’ve become.

When your daughter offers to paint the dining room the week before, you just say yes, knowing how it will be! Camp, out-of-town visitors, and all! (Next week I will show you the “afters”! It was worth it!)

I just want to say: If you stick with your friends, raising your children together, encouraging them to share their talents with you and sharing in your turn —  and not worrying about how perfect your life may or may not be, you will see… a culture will grow up right around you. That is my only reason for showing you any of this: Just to encourage you to start now if you haven’t and keep on if you have.

Oh, and did I mention a sickly green sky/tornado warning and hail? During the second day of camp and smack in the middle of our friends’ visit!

Yes, picture all those kids crowded into the kitchen, but not in that dining room!








[image error] Loading InLinkz ...

Encouragement for the Stressed-Out Bride, or, the Secret to Happy Wedding Planning

At a certain point when I was planning my wedding, it hit me: the wedding magazines are not talking to me.

As I fleshed out this thought, I realized that there were two visions competing for my wedding day. And, dear bride, these two visions are competing for yours as well.

~~ Before I go any further: To celebrate the end of this series, we will feature  a unique personal, online marriage preparation package from Catholic Marriage Prep —  and offer a promotion in this week’s {bits & pieces}. Check in on Saturday to read about it and for your chance to benefit! ~~

Back to the post:

On the one hand, we have the Industry Vision. This way of thinking about and approaching the wedding day did not exist a few generations ago, because – among several other factors – the Wedding Industry didn’t exist at that time. It is a particular burden for our generation and the people who accompany us on our journey to the aisle.

The Industry Vision sees your wedding day as the one day that everything has to be perfect and novel – or you will not be happy. It dictates that your wedding day has to be exceptional; exceptionally fun or exceptionally elegant or exceptionally clever and crafty or exceptionally expensive or exceptionally creative or, preferably, all of the above.

If your gown is not a dream, if you don’t get Pinterest’s prescribed 100 Must-Take Photos, if your makeup isn’t done professionally, you’re not going to be happy.

If you don’t have an amazing menu for dinner or a signature cocktail or a particularly catchy wedding hashtag for social media tagging, you’re not going to be happy.

Your friends are coming from all over and they’ve already attended a few other weddings recently, so yours had better deliver. Your party had better be entertaining, full of nostalgia-inducing moments, and topped off with exceptionally awesome favors for your guests.

This is your one-and-only Big Day, meaning you’d better be happy or else.

And yet that very vision itself compromises your chances of feeling happy! The pressure… it tends to be a buzz-kill.

Where does this pressure come from? Consider the different habits of many of today’s marrying couples compared to those from previous generations. A normal couple today does not, by their courtship and their choices, anticipate a wedding day as a day of coming-together. In many cases, a wedding day comes after a home has already been set up and a daily routine established between the man and the woman. In many cases, the wedding does not even represent a significant break in the rhythm of life – let alone a complete shift in way of life – as the couple may work Monday-Friday, get married over the weekend, and return to work the next Monday without any appreciable outward or inward changes.

The question of beginning a family is presumed to be a matter entirely separate from the wedding event.

The Industry steps in to help the couple battle threatening ennui. But ennui is exchanged for frantic stress. Boutiques, Wedding Expos, Planners conspire to build excitement into the scenario, all with an accompanying price tag. “You need a bigger diamond.” “You need a better dress (plus diet).” “Add the videographer and photo booth on to the professional photographer, and we’ll work on finding some more bells and whistles.”

The built-in reasons for this day to be a Big Day are forgotten and so they are replaced by big purchases and big decisions and big stress and Bridezillas.

Or, if the couple has an instinct to resist this particular trend, the day just changes into something else: a college buddies’ reunion, perhaps; or an occasion for the couple to take some friends on a the destination vacation they’ve always wanted.

But then, after they’ve thrown their big party, they return to their regular life and are at risk of thinking that their vows weren’t such a big deal after all and wondering why they spent all that money at that arbitrary juncture.

He has a point. Not that I want to detract from Mary’s gorgeous wedding styling – and if you actually know this episode, you’ll know that they do get it right in some ways.

A key moment of realization for me was when I read the following advice in a bridal magazine:

“Abstain for two weeks before your wedding day so that you have something to look forward to on the big night.”

Well, that is a far cry from the romance that I, along with countless other girls and young women, had always associated with a wedding! This kind of directive acknowledges and confirms that the current way of doing things certainly takes a lot of the fun and – ahem – excitement away from what wedding inherently is.

On the other hand, we have the Covenant Vision.

The Covenant Vision sees your wedding day as the beginning of a new life and a new family, which is momentous and deserving of celebration. Like your grandparents or great-grandparents, you are excited about the wedding itself (the “getting wed” part); about the marriage itself. Your wedding day is the day that you will begin your life with your beloved… your wedding night already has plenty of excitement and anticipation built in, party or no party. At that time, you will begin the fearful task of establishing a completely new union, the potential of which has eternal ramifications.

You will finally be together all the time with the person you’ve been longing to be with, the person you love, who complements you and supports you. You will have new challenges to face and discoveries to make as you learn how to live together and adapt to each other. A new mission will unfold for you and you will open yourself and surrender yourself to the possibility of co-creating and bringing forth new life. You’ll be building something.

Your desire for this life together provides ample momentum to keep you looking forward to your wedding day with joy.

In light of the importance and joy of this event, you want others to witness for you, to recognize what it is that you’re undertaking, and celebrate it with you.

So we have the traditional wedding feast, customized to your particular tastes and circumstances and enhanced by whatever unique features you and your community contribute. If your loved ones grasp this vision as well, they will be happy whether or not your celebration is particularly innovative or entertaining. They will rejoice with you and for you. Putting together a day like this can be fun.

 I had my issues and stresses as a bride. But overall, I enjoyed wedding planning. Photo credit: Ashley Landgraf

Now, there is no guarantee that your wedding planning will be stress-free, trouble-free, or expense-free (which is to say, free). A wedding is a big event, usually in several senses, and every big event brings with it some amount of stress and trouble. And a certain amount of expense is appropriate for the celebration of such a great event, so this is not to be taken as a reprimand against spending. But, with the proper perspective, you will be able to keep stress in check, and at least you’ll be spending your energy on important things rather than irrelevant details.

This is my encouragement for you brides out there:

If you are planning a wedding, just remember that the world has a very different vision from your vision for your marriage and therefore for your wedding day itself. The world sends you one message, but, in your heart of hearts, you have a different idea — even if you occasionally trip into the rat race (I know I did!).

The secret: acknowledge these two visions, embrace the Covenant Vision for yourself, and then shake off all the pressures of the other.

Simply put: If you know what your marriage is all about, you are not the intended audience for the standard wedding magazine. (So feel free to throw your copy across the room.) It’s too much to grapple with the excitement inherent to the Covenant Vision and take on all the stressors of the Industry Vision!

How many times have I heard a harried bride, when asked how her wedding planning is going, sigh and say, “I’m done with all this – I just want to be married.” Hold on to your vision. When friends or family members or wedding vendors try to push you in another direction, just recall that you’re different and remember what you’re embarking upon and look forward to that.

Don’t let yourself be guided by the Industry Vision, which is, in fact, myopic in the extreme.

Generations of my friend Laura’s family married in the same church. Photo credit: David Stephen Kalonick

If you’re not satisfied with how you’ve been envisioning things up to this point, take courage. You can start fresh at any time. Depending on your situation, it may be a few little changes. Or it may be a big, life-changing decision: living together before marriage is the biggest, immediate obstacle that you would have to overcome with a radical change; next, some honest discussions with your fiance about what it will mean to become one flesh and open to life as a married couple.

Any change that you can make now, while you plan for your wedding, to prepare yourself for what marriage really is, will make you happier in the long run and more joyful as a bride. And I think that you will find that, the more prepared you are for a covenant, the more your loved ones will rejoice on your wedding day — because they will instinctively know that you are doing something great and good, whether or not your day is perfect by Industry standards.

Some things may be beyond your control (e.g., who your family is, what your budget is, your health or your schedule), but this at least you can enjoy: your marriage will be life-changing, it will be beautiful and powerful, and it starts on your wedding day.

 

And that wraps up {pretty, happy, real weddings}! Don’t forget to tune in this Saturday for an awesome {p,h,r wedding} promotion!

Thank you for reading!

Previously in this series:

Timeline of the Indispensable Bridesmaid

Google Docs Bride: the Virtual Guest List

The Wholesome, Good-Times Reception

How to get the Wedding Reception you Really Want

How To: Cut Back on the 5 Big Costs of Weddings

10 Practical Tips for a Calm Wedding Morning

{bits & pieces}

 The regular “little of this, little of that” feature from Like Mother, Like Daughter!

Bridget’s just finished up Fiddle Camp week here, so after last night’s gala performance and pot-luck dinner out in the yard, we’re a bit slow to get started this morning. What fun we had with great kids running around and learning new tunes and dances for days! I highly recommend this way of spending some of your summer! I will give you more snapshots next week, perhaps.

Important note: If you have written Asking Auntie Leila, and I have not responded, and it’s been more than two weeks, please re-send your email. I’m sorry — sometimes, despite my best efforts at keeping the many emails sorted, they do get marked as read and then, poof, they’re gone.

Today’s links!

For you sports fans, and because this just wasn’t loading on my phone yesterday for Bridget and the Chief, a 3 run home run accomplished in a way you may never see again... “this man, this Renaud Lefort of Montreal’s Les 4 Chevaliers [softball team], this hero, dared to dream.”


As you know (especially if you read The Little Oratory — “Mom, you talk a lot about shelves in this book” — Sukie), I love shelves. I think you will be inspired by dear Ginny’s make-do attitude in this post about fixing up her storage in the kitchen (but don’t feel you must start with cutting down a tree, like she does, bless her heart! Love it.)


Because of Eric Metaxas’ book (which I have read) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the one we usually advert to these days when we are looking for a model of how to oppose “settled law” and rapidly deteriorating practices in our society, and certainly there is much food for thought in his life and witness. I submit to you this short essay by Joanna Bogle: Bishop Clemens von Galen for a model of what a strong man and cleric can do in the face of evil. “Bishop von Galen’s approach was to hold firm to every local tradition and to circumvent every attempt to abandon old ways or cancel long-held celebrations.” “Blunt, forthright language—backed by facts—meant that the bishop was a formidable opponent for the Nazis.”


I don’t think I’ve posted this before (and I did look), but it’s so worth it. Fr. Schall has been on a roll recently, and this essay is a must read: On the Boys in the Boat. I’ll be getting this book, but most of all I just loved Father’s take: “What kind of strange doctrine do we have here? A boy needs a mother, his mother?”


St. Louis has a new seminary rector, Fr. James Mason. A while ago he wrote this piece about “The Forgotten Vice in Seminary Formation,” which the Chief forwarded to me, remembering a post of mine on Facebook in which I recommended that our seminarians go to boot camp. This suggestion wasn’t completely understood by some commenters, who thought I was saying that priests ought to be military officers. Nope, just go to boot camp. Or perhaps a service trip to a needy country? Well, fine idea, but still, boot camp. Seven weeks of slogging through mud, lacking sleep, long runs, tough climbs. They can even fail at it and get kicked out at week six-and-a-half. They just have to do it, because our seminarians need to become priests with whom the fathers of families are comfortable speaking and interacting. They need to be men. 


Men and women are different. I loved this article, “Superheroes, just for each other,” about what this man brought to his marriage, and what his wife did to direct his manliness.


Sometimes I wonder if this new generation knows the fights that were fought before them. This remembrance of Robert Conquest might pique your interest in the old battles. They are still relevant.


You may not realize how deeply minds have to be changed to accomplish progressive goals such as transgender acceptance. Read this Rod Dreher post, reprinting a longish email from a medical student on how brains are washed in medical school.


Not sure how to describe this article to you, but it’s quite amusing in a nerdy way, and illustrates how bad ideas spread: John B. Shannon exposes a made-up book by Aristotle in a language he (Aristotle) didn’t speak proclaiming on a matter of economics that he (Aristotle) did not profess — all found in the Journal of Clinical Oncology!

The internet is exploding with good articles about the new conversation about abortion. Here are just a few I will bring to your attention this week. Follow me (and the others of course) on Facebook and Twitter (links at the end of this post) if you want constant, relentless updates!

Watch the summary videos exposing Planned Parenthood (they are summaries, but of course you can watch the full versions as well, which you wouldn’t be able to if they were trying to lie).


Phil briefly explains why Planned Parenthood cannot do without its abortion business.


He’s responding to this excellent and thorough article by Ross Douthat that shreds any defense one could have of Planned Parenthood — particularly the lie that contraception reduces abortion rates.


Why is it that “women’s health care” means abortion and contraception? That’s dumb. Women need regular health care like everyone else, at a modest rate not requiring vast amounts of federal funding — if you remove the whole “control fertility” aspect. What about this? Midwives can be a perfect solution for child-bearing women’s health care.

Happy Feast of St. Dominic! Go preach against some heretics and pray the Rosary! And have an extra scoop of ice cream!

~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 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.
Bridget’s Instagram.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

 

{pretty, happy}

I really love it when my cooking groove is on. Grilling definitely helps. Somehow, the simplest thing is a lot more fun when it’s grilled — and you can eat what you’ve grilled outside!

It also doesn’t hurt to have a few things to get from the garden, although I have to say, this has been the slowest year ever. I really have to figure out some way to beat Mother Nature at this snow-and-ice gig she has going on. It’s August and we are only now juuuuuust starting to have some reliance on garden produce, which is somewhat pathetic.

For this particular supper, I had bought four kosher chickens in my favorite mode, that is, “manager’s special.” I’ve been pulling them out of the freezer one by one, but if more people had been around, I probably would have just cooked them all up, as they are petite.

With the addition of some really tasty Italian sausage, potatoes, and onions, it made a nice meal that served us for several nights. (I added water in the pan periodically to keep the potatoes and onions from burning.) Grilling it all was, as I say, adding some fantastic to the whole operation.

Since I have a gas grill but like the smoky flavor of wood, I wrap sticks from the yard up in tin foil, after “marinating” them in water for about 15 minutes (or using wet wood after the rain!) and put the packet right on the burner caps if caps is their name. It smokes up nicely and my food tastes like it’s been cooked outdoors for real.

This is important, because while I love the convenience of a gas grill, it’s a bit disappointing when the food tastes just like you cooked it in the oven but just looks, well, dirtier.

I also just wish that I had a lot more surface area, but since I don’t, I sometimes stack the pans to get it all done. (I grilled with the cover down for this particular meal.)

The eggplant, green beans, green pepper, mint, and basil are from the garden. I made them according to recipes in Jerusalem: A Cookbook, thoughtfully provided for me by my brother-in-law, just because he knew I’d be inspired by it.*

I think I did pretty well! I did not (of course) follow the green bean salad recipe (“Mixed bean salad”) fully, as it calls for some herbs I don’t have (and one I don’t like — tarragon, ugh). But mint and basil are preferable to me anyway, so that’s what I used. I had everything else on hand, so I went for it. So tasty!

 

The basic recipe for this salad is to boil the amount of beans you like to serve 4-6 people (10 oz according to the cookbook but as these are from the garden you can hardly weigh them — you know how much you usually make) until just tender and refresh under cool water. Set aside.

Roast or grill two red (or one red and one green) peppers (and I added onion) until just cooked.

Add to beans.

Saute about 6 tablespoons rinsed and dried capers, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced, and a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander in a saucepan in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. When the garlic is just golden, add to the beans.

Toss about 4 green onions, sliced, and a cup of mixed mint, parsley, and basil, coarsely chopped. Sprinkle with lemon juice and a little lemon zest. Let it sit for a while to mellow all the flavors together. Don’t add salt until you taste it — capers are salty, especially if you space on the “rinsing and draining”!

 

The eggplants are split and grilled with a spread described in the book — very simple, actually. My eggplants are so small at this point that it was almost not worth it. Almost, but not quite! Tasty! The recipe is called “Chermoula eggplant with bulgur & yogurt” — but I left out the bulgur and its yummy-looking additions, because I was already getting a bit complicated with this “simple weeknight supper.”

Basically you cross-hatch the flesh and spread olive oil mixed with some spices and chopped garlic over the top. Then you roast or grill (I grilled, obvi).

On the plate I served it with yogurt mixed with a little feta cheese.

{real}

Besides grilling and getting excited about suddenly having made a really tasty dinner, we have had some Weather.

Hail just isn’t something that happens often here, nor are tornadoes! So yesterday was quite the adventure in crazy weather for us! Fortunately nothing was damaged and we made it through, but the sky certainly looked ominous.

We had friends visiting from Missouri who are perhaps more tornado-aware than we are. “Do you have a cellar?” Well, yes. But we really, REALLY don’t want to go down into our dirt and stone cellar unless absolutely necessary!

*Full disclosure about this cookbook, and maybe I’ve said this before: I think it’s fun, with really inspiring pictures (until there is a recipe or two that you would love pictures of and instead there’s just an undoubtedly photogenic something that is not the dish, and then that’s frustrating). The methodology is odd. I’m not sure that I understand where the ideas for the dishes are coming from. Some are quite random. Tarragon is not an herb that I would ever associate with Middle Eastern cooking, for instance. Many of the recipes seem over-complicated. But then it will surprise me with some really great ideas and information. So my head spins with this cookbook but I keep pulling it out!

[image error] Loading InLinkz ...