Giveaway in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

To celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Ruth Tucker of Loreto Rosaries is offering this beautiful rosary and matching earrings. 

In order to be considered for the giveaway, visit Loreto Rosaries and look around. Come back here and tell us what you like. I'll announce the winner on July 16, Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The winner is Carmen, who said,

Our Lady of Lourdes rosary is my favorite. Lapis lazuli is the Chilean stone ...had never seen a rosary made with them. Absolutely beautiful!!! Might be ordering the bracelet! :)
Beautiful pieces Elizabeth. And learning that the family came from Puerto Rico gives it an extra special touch! :)

This Moment

Look who came home while they slept last night!

needle & thREAD

I'm finally hitting my groove with this costume thing. Dance costumes are outrageously expensive. So, when they arrive, one naturally expects something well-made from quality fabric. That's the first piece of education. They are never well made and the fabric is cheesy. The next piece is that there will always be mistakes in sizes. Then, there's the greatest piece: don't be afraid to improvise and rig it to make it work. 

This dance season has been quite the education for a fairly new seamstress who has been fighting perfectionism all her life:-). 

But I'm hitting my groove. I'm learning to cut and piece and make do. I'm also learning that not much can happen that sequins don't improve.

Reading has been light. I can't find my copy of Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment. It's here somewhere. I'm counting on it reappearing next week when I have some calm days for binge reading. Maybe I'll finish Kristin Lavransdatter , too.

In the meantime, I picked up Second Nature, Michael Pollan's new book. I'm a fan of Michael Pollan, so this one is the perfect to fit into my tidy threesome of Mother Culture books.

"There is no sadder sight in life than a mother, who has so used herself up in her children's childhood, that she has nothing to give them in their youth. When babyhood is over and school begins, how often children take to proving that their mother is wrong. Do you as often see a child proving to its father that he is wrong? I think not. For the father is growing far more often than the mother. He is gaining experience year by year, but she is standing still. Then, when her children come to that most difficult time between childhood and full development she is nonplussed; and, though she may do much for her children, she cannot do all she might, if she, as they, were growing!...

Is there not some need for 'mother culture'? But how is the state of things to be altered? So many mothers say, 'I simply have no time for myself!' 'I never read a book!' Or else, 'I don't think it is right to think of myself!' They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply ample justification.

Mother must have time to herself. And we must not say 'I cannot.' Can any of us say till we have tried, not for one week, but for one whole year, day after day, that we 'cannot' get one half-hour out of the twenty-four for 'Mother Culture?'--one half-hour in which we can read, think, or 'remember.'

The habit of reading is so easily lost; not so much, perhaps, the power of enjoying books as the actual power of reading at all. It is incredible how, after not being able to use the eyes for a time, the habit of reading fast has to be painfully regained...

The wisest woman I ever knew--the best wife, the best mother, the best mistress, the best friend--told me once, when I asked her how, with her weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, 'I always keep three books going--a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for!' That is the secret; always have something 'going' to grow by. If we mothers were all 'growing' there would be less going astray among our boys, less separation in mind from our girls...

A brisk walk will help. But, if we would do our best for our children, grow we must; and on our power of growth surely depends, not only our future happiness, but our future usefulness.

Is there, then, not need for more 'Mother Culture'?"  

~Charlotte Mason Volume III, no. 2 The Parents' Review

 

 

Do you have three books going? Would you like to have three books going? Which three?

Gathering my Thoughts

 

::noticing God's glory

Rain. Rain. Rain. The weeds are proliferating and everything else is rather soggy. I'm going to "unorganic" my roses this morning and bring in some big guns to take care of black mold and insects. I wasn't planning on eating the roses anyway...

::listening to 

Quiet. I got up at 4 AM for this privilege. Seriously, I so love to have the house to myself for a little quiet first thing in the morning.

::clothing myself in 

Right now, I'm wearing one of Mike's T-shirts and a pair of pajama bottoms. He's in Miami. I awoke to the news that the Heat pulled it off in OT last night. Awesome. Not really. Means he's due home later than sooner.

::talking with my children about these books

Still Shakespeare.

::thinking and thinking

about a family social media/screen time policy. I have it drafted. It's a bit wordy;-). Still pondering, but nearly ready.. 

::pondering prayerfully

“As an antidote to time-wasting and sometimes even alienating indulgence in superficial media programs,” the document proposed that the students should be “guided to the love and practice of reading, study, silence, and meditation. They should be encouraged, and be provided with the necessary conditions for community dialogue and prayer. This will serve to remedy the isolation and self-absorption caused by the unidirectional communication of the mass media . . .”  [emphasis mine]

as quoted in this great article sent to me yesterday by Elizabeth Williams.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

So, about that email thing. I somehow stuck all my email in the trash. I can't restore it unless I restore one message at a time. There are now 19,951 conversations in the trash. Ever since I last wrote about email (oh, 3 weeks ago?), I've been retrieving email from the trash. Dumping the whole inbox might have been a good idea for someone else, but for me, not so good. I've been pulling important mail (for me and for Mike) like crazy. The clock is ticking; that mail will be permanently deleted 30 days from when I trashed it. So, there you go, I somehow managed to take my email mismanagement anxiety and make it so much worse.

::creating by hand

Somehow, the costumes for the Tiny Toes little girls came in in a GIANT size. This week, I set up in the studio with my sewing machine, took a deep breath (or two or three), and cut those sparkly lovelies down to size. Then I stitched them back together. They're so cute! Only 5 more to go...

::learning lessons in

Eating well. I just finished Heather's 30 Day Vegan. I was surprised by the things I learned. I very much benefitted from the workshop. I especially enjoyed essays by Renee Tougas (looks like her site is down today). At the outset of the Whole Food Kitchen workshop I took last winter, I commented to a friend that I was skeptical because it seemed like the goal was to move in the direction of veganism. And, I said, that wasn't a good option for me because how in the world can you be a vegan without wheat or corn? Turns out Renee's family eats a plant-based diet without wheat or corn. Imagine that?! Plant-based. No wheat. No corn. No sugar. I'm learning lessons in what works for me.

::encouraging learning 

Yes, we are doing school all summer. We absolutely are. I'm no longer in the running for favorite neighborhood mom.

::begging prayers

for teenagers: mine, yours, and those they befriend. It's really challenging to be a teenager these days. They need us to cover them in a mantle of prayer and to beg showers of grace on their behalf.

::keeping house

We're working on it;-)! The reality is that this is recital week. I'm trying mightily to make sure we don't get behind in housekeeping, but I'm not making great forward strides either.

::crafting in the kitchen 

We did a big brunch for Father's Day:

• Strata with asparagus, manchego, and prosciutto
• Mixed berries smothered with berry puree and served with a Greek yogurt/lemon curd sauce
• Homemade Belgian waffles with toppings
• Muffins

The dads were happy. I lived on berries for 48 hours after Father's Day because I definitely wayyyy overbought. Not a bad problem to have.

::loving the moments

when I see him standing, waiting for me at Arrivals at Dulles Airport. Counting the hours.

::giving thanks 

for you. I'm so grateful you come back and find me here, despite my sometimes erratic publishing schedule.

living the liturgy

This is not some earthshaking revelation, just a simple truth: the most effective way to live the liturgy is to go to Mass as often as possible. It’s all there, available every day. You don’t need a craft closet. You don’t need a grocery shopping list. You don’t even need much advanced planning. You just need to show up. And a priest who gives relevant homilies is plus, too.

::planning for the week ahead

Let's see...We have rehearsals this week for this weekend's spring recitals. We have training this week to get ready for Nick's team to go to the Regional tournament, following his State Cup win (thereby extending soccer season by a month). Turns out Stephen lost his State Cup game. Three days later, he tried out for the team which beat him (and which is the closest team to us geographically). He made that team and now he's training in advance of their trip to Regionals (thereby extedning his soccer season by a month, even though he's not eligible to actually play in the Regional tournament.) Christian and I will take a trip to James Madison University for an IEP sort of meeting. Mike will depart with the boys for the Regional tournament in Rhode Island.

And, by late next week, I will revel in at least three calendar days with absolutely nothing written on them.

I will.

Memories Captured on an iPhone last weekend:

Sarah performed for the first time ever last weekend -- a Circus Tea at the Ritz-Carlton. She had so much fun, she just didn't want to take off her stage makeup. She and her biggest fan fell fast asleep within seconds of arriving home Saturday afternoon. Takes a lot out of a girl to be a dancing clown!

Father's Day Brunch:

Intentional Summer: Exult in Monotony

I was looking forward to a kicked back, lazy summer. Then, I started penciling in the "to-dos" on the calendar. The next few months look much busier than I imagined they would! It's just a numbers thing. We've hit the season of life where every child has something to do and those "one things" add up. 

Still, there's much to be said for the benefits of relaxing in the summer heat. And there's much to be said for embracing the change of seasons to implement a new rhythm or revive some old favorites that have somehow slipped away.

Please read the rest here. I'll be back this afternoon to chat about favorite rhythms.