{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Earlier this summer, the Manchester Pocket took a trip into the Lakes region to visit this lovely spot, a “natural playscape” at the edge of a woods. About ten ladies came and spent time, over the course of the day, with many more children, and we all breathed some fresh air.

This awesome tree house was the most structural structure there. Other than this, an excellent wooden play kitchen (including metal pots and pans floating around, in which kids were able to make pine needle-and-bark stew), and a wooden teepee, the actual playground was minimally built up. Otherwise, there were just a lot of spots set aside for kids to do their own building and dragging around of big sticks and assembling of rock piles, and one excellent bench swing that could accommodate about 8 kids piled on top of each other (we tested this).

Hilariously, when we first arrived (and none of us knew exactly what to expect), one of the bigger kids asked, frankly, “We drove an hour for this?“

Most of them stood around for a good bit at first, and we had to just shake them off by saying, “go play! Just go play!” Sure enough, a few hours later they were all entirely engrossed and had developed some elaborate game involving teams and a fort within a fort, etc…

Have you connected with your local St. Greg’s Pocket yet? If you don’t have one yet, could you start one? Take it from me, it is so worth it!

Are you meeting up with other ladies and forming a Pocket? If so, please remember to snap a photo of your group sometime and send it in — we would LOVE to hear from you and share your story here on the blog!

This week’s links!

Faith, culture, all that good stuff:

Want to be surprised by how the Medieval era provides a model for modern medicine? Read Rediscovering the Ideal Healthcare Plan. Religious orders make a difference. We’d think so differently about hospitals — and schools — if they were again run by those vowed to religious life.


As we began to study (then) Cardinal Ratzinger’s The Spirit of the Liturgy, we could not have foreseen the explosive effect of Cardinal Sarah’s words at the Sacra Liturgia conference regarding the ad orientem (towards the East) posture at Mass — priest and people facing the same direction. You can read the whole speech here.


A good reflection on the events in Dallas and “the line that runs through every human heart” from my parents’ friend John Zmirak.


Now is a good time to assess the use of trendy technologies, especially the latest one that represents a massive shift: Pokémon Go isn’t a fad. It’s a beginning. Look, people used to “escape” from reality by reading a book. And even that can develop into a bad habit. But we need to be very wary about a different kind of escape that, unlike a book, doesn’t pause for us when we put it down — the fast-paced, web-connected, transient nature of it is just fundamentally much more addictive.

Education:

Fun and useful cooling system using plastic bottles. The kids could study some good principles of physics and cool things off at the same time.


This professor at Rutgers Law School is banning laptops from his classroom come the fall. Make sure that your rising college student is equipped to take hand-written notes in the lecture hall this fall, whatever the policies at his particular university!

Miscellany:

Craving Leo Tolstoy’s favorite dessert? I thought you were! Turns out it’s Anke Pie. (I love that, in Russian fashion, this recipe measures a quantity of water as “a shot.”)


How Stephen Colbert met his wife. If you have ~6 minutes to spare for a sweet, well-told story.

 

Liturgical year:

Today we remember St. Bridget of Sweden, royal mother of eight (including St. Catherine of Sweden), patron saint of widows, later a nun and foundress… Read more about her here!

 

From the Archives:

Ask Auntie Leila: Raising our Kids together Now that They’re Older

 

 

~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.

 

Save

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