{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.)
The peonies are blooming — what a gift! Their scent is heavenly.
I am still “procrastibaking” (link below) — sourdough has its ups and downs, have to keep working at it!
I’ve decided to leave a strip of buckwheat in the middle of each bed. That way the beds can be tidy (well, tidy for me) and the veggies will benefit from their additions of nutrients to the soil, their weed-proofness, and their attraction of beneficial insects. That’s the theory, anyway! We’ll see!
I planted hops culled from a neighbor’s vine. The idea is that the hops will grow up that trellis and do two things: make a bit of an obstacle for any bees trying to fly towards the driveway (although so far they seem not to do that) and offer Phil wherewithal for his brewing. We’ve been wanting to plant hops for a long time now, but I couldn’t find a place for them and I was super resistant to paying for them, since by all accounts they grow like weeds! Finally I just went onto my Next Door network and asked. Sure enough, a generous fellow offered.
On to our links!
In the Department of Musings on (Self)Education, I was aware of my son Joseph’s plan to read intensively in one subject for a span of time/number of books, but I hadn’t realized that he had written a post about it. Maybe one of your students would enjoy this approach!
The Chief liked this one from Tony Esolen about What Mothers Cannot Give to Their Sons. It is a good one.
A map of literal translations of countries’ names.
Procrastibaking — sourdough is particularly suitable for this activity.
I think most of us can’t even when we hear that a child has been slapped with a fine for having a lemonade stand. My own kids raked it in with their stands, especially when we lived across the street from a high school. One bus driver made students buy a cup of lemonade from them before they could get on his bus! It’s fun to read that Country Time is offering to pay fines and fees for kids’ lemonade stands!
I have mentioned Sonia Singh and her Tree Change Dolls before. I keep thinking about why I love what she does so very much. The other day when I was scrolling through her Instagram feed I thought about how the dolls reflect something we see in our children. It’s not just that their innocence is under attack, with real forces of darkness trying to invade their minds with corrupting ideas. It’s that their faces actually reflect their stresses. Sonia’s dolls (which she thrifts or finds rather than buying) arrive with expressions of worldliness that could be masks — and sadly, we see these same expressions in real children. Some child actresses are like this (and we can track the changes all too well, since they are recorded for us). I remember one girl striking me as the perfect, perky, all-American lass, so fresh-faced and sweet. Just a few years later, while she was still young, she was ravaged. It showed in her face. I remember my husband pointing out to me that you can see what school often does to children in their eyes. They begin so bright-eyed and eager, and somewhere in the third grade or so, some light goes out.
Sonia works her magic to reveal a soft and healthy light in the dolls’ faces. They become innocent under her brush. To me, she is offering not just refurbished playthings but a real image and even an object lesson in the “two possibilities” that our children might be faced with, so easily…
A beautiful reflection from Sohrab Ahmari on saying the Rosary with his dying grandmother.
In London, a chapel is restored and made a jewel of a shrine.
The war on bathroom privacy (and the two sexes).
“Only dogmas can assure us that what we were promised “from the beginning” remains possible in this impossible world.” Fr. Schall on the dark days for dogma.
I have mentioned my respect for Roger Scruton here before. If you are not familiar with him, he is a philosopher of sorts who writes and speaks about beauty, tradition, and other permanent things. I don’t always agree with everything he says, but very often, I find that he has a way of saying what needs to be said. Here, he argues that we need stigmas (I would call them something on a scale from taboos to standards) because without them, all we have is the law, and the law only deals with what has happened, without really preventing things that hurt people. Bring Back Stigma.
Today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! She is the mother Jesus gave us while he was hanging on the cross, and she has a mother’s heart.
From the archives:
This post has my recommendations for books about marriage, including what types of books not to read.
Some feasts are coming up that may require some planning and forethought (e.g. what cocktails will you serve!): Three Martyrs for Marriage.
And here is our very best effort to help with Father’s Day gift ideas!
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