March 2020

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#15. EVVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER by Linda Holmes || ★★★☆☆ An easy chick-lit read. I don’t read much romance and appreciated that this one wasn’t too racy.

#16. GHOST: MY THIRTY YEARS AS AN FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo || ★★★☆☆
I love a good undercover memoir! This wasn’t as good as American Radical, but still interesting and entertaining. Heads up: it was a little crass at times and had lots of language.

#17. I LET YOU GO by Clare Mackintosh || ★★☆☆☆ Well, this thriller was a wild ride! It turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be, which was both a good and a bad thing. Definitely a page turner, but the main parts (death of a child by vehicular negligence, domestic abuse) were a little too icky for me.

#18. NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenreich || ★★☆☆☆

I really wanted to like this book about the difficulties of the working poor. Unfortunately, while there were some thought-provoking parts, I just couldn’t get past the author’s condescending tone. It felt like she would start to defend her coworkers, only to bash them in the next sentence.

#19. PRINCE CASPIAN by C.S. Lewis || ★★★☆☆ Our third read aloud from the Chronicles of Narnia series!

#20. DEAR EDWARD by Ann Napolitano || ★★★★☆ Thank you Shelly for sharing this book with me! I enjoyed this story of survival and grief and healing. It was melancholy in tone, but I didn’t find it depressing. Another reminder to treat everyone you meet with kindness because you never know the crosses they bear.
#21. MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite || ★★★☆☆ A short, unique story with dark humor.

#22. THE LATIN MASS EXPLAINED by Msgr. George J. Mooreman || ★★★★★

My sister-in-law gave me this book last year and while I’ve browsed through parts of it, this was the first time I read it cover to cover! WOW. So so good and gives me a whole new love for the Mass and the Eucharist.

#23. THE CHILDREN’S BLIZZARD by David Laskin || ★★★☆☆

It’s hard to find vocabulary for weather this cold. The senses become first sharp and then dulled. Objects etch themselves with hyperclarity on the dense air, but it’s hard to keep your eyes open to look at them steadily. When you first step outside from a heated space, the blast of 46-below-zero air clears the mind like a ringing slap. After a breath or two, ice builds up on the hairs lining your nasal passages and the clear film bathing your eyeballs thickens. If the wind is calm and if your body, head, and hands are covered, you feel preternaturally alert and focused. At first. A dozen paces from the door, your throat begins to feel raw, your lips dry and crack, tears sting the corners of your eyes. The cold becomes at once a knife and, paradoxically, a flame, cutting and scorching exposed skin. (20%)

This was a random pick from the library! It’s about a huge blizzard in 1888 that came out of nowhere and was absolutely devastating. The storm is sometimes called “The Children’s Blizzard” because of the numerous children that were killed on their way home from school. A sad but interesting part of history and I learned a lot about hypothermia and meteorology too.

#24. STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS by Michael O’Brien || ★★★☆☆
This is an epic story about one woman’s life in British Columbia and her search for truth and faith and love. The story is a slow burn, but I enjoyed it. There were a few parts that veered into magical realism and a few parts that I’m sure when straight over my head (clearly, I’m not as well educated!) but overall, a lot of beautiful writing and much to think about. 3.5 stars. (This was also my 1997 pick for the 20th Century Reading Challenge.)

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MY READING IN NUMBERS FOR 2020 Books Read: 24
Pages Read: 7,243 Fiction: 13 // Non-Fiction: 11 Kindle Books: 8 // Paper Books: 16 20th Century in Books Challenge: 23/100

Original 2020 books “to-read” total on Goodreads: 414 // Current “to-read” total: 415

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SECOND WEEK OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN Week two. We’re doing this.

The Governor of Virginia officially shut down all public and private schools for the remainder of the school year, so that also officially cancels almost all of the kids’ extra-curricular activities. D is especially bummed about his flag football season, but we’ve promised him regular games as a family in the meantime. Definitely not the same, but will hopefully take away some of the sting.

On Monday, we brainstormed ways we could work spiritually, intellectually, creatively and physically now that we suddenly have all this extra free time. Idleness is the Devil’s playground, as they say. We each made a few goals for the week – here were mine:

✘ 3 days of learning Latin on Duolingo (only completed 2/3)
✔ Read at least 10 pages of The Lost of Reading Nature’s Signs
✘ Take at least two 1 mile walks along the periphery of our property (I really need to prioritize this)
✔ Start a new religious book
✔ Start a physical scrapbook to document this time in our lives

We cannot seem to find yeast anywhere, so we started our sourdough starter again. King Arthur Flour ended up having some in stock online by the end of the week, so I grabbed that while I could. In other bread news, I’ve been a baking machine with sandwich loaves, muffins and banana breads. I’ve been thinking so much about previous generations of women who literally spent 75% of their days in the kitchen. If they could do it, so can I! Solidarity through the ages.

We had quite a bit of rain this week, but worked on our garden plot on the dry days. Maybe dry is the wrong word…because hello, mud everywhere. (Shoes, clothes, the dog, my floors…everything is covered in mud.) The big boys worked so hard digging up the sod and laying down the landscape fabric. It’s so exciting to see my plans actually coming to life!

Things that have kept us busy: puzzles, card games and Scrabble.

I’ve been battling insomnia for almost three weeks now and finally hit a wall on Thursday night. I closed my eyes at 8:30 and was OUT for more than nine hours. The next morning, I felt like a new woman! Sleep – so, so important. (Duh.)

Questions Mark and I keep asking as we see so many people and small businesses in our community suffer during this time is, What can we do? How can we help our neighbor when we’re not supposed to be anywhere near them? We’re constantly brainstorming, but here’s what we did this week:

We made it a point to say thank you to our mail carriers who are working so hard so we can stay at home. I imagine that it must feel like a December holiday rush all over again for them.
We mailed postcards to grandparents.
We continued drawing pictures for the local assisted living facility and I hope to have enough to mail next week.

A new series for 2020: if I record 20 things every week, I’ll have over 1,000 items by December 31. That’s a lot to be grateful for. two sales on ebay
having my family all under one roof how dedicated M’s jiu jitsu instructors are to their students, even when quarantined working all together outside that Mark chopped down one of our dead trees safely the progress we’ve made on our garden plot watching the daffodils that we planted last fall grow and start to bloom

brother piggy back rides

our mail carriers who work so hard for us our UPS man, “Mr. Bear” our police officers who are keeping us safe the small businesses in our community, who are being so creative in order to stay afloat spontaneous library book choices that teach me something new the amount of Masses that are live streaming on the Internet every day our kitchen, which is in constant use my bread machine, also in constant use making snail mail for family with Sophia small pockets of time all by myself

deep breaths in fresh air

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST WEEK OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

My life right now feels like a surreal mix of ordinary and definitely not ordinary. It looks like things will be cancelled or shut down until at least Easter at this point, so I spent much of the week figuring out our new normal. I recently heard on a podcast that our children need “non-anxious leadership” in times like these and I’m trying to take that to heart. (Easier said than done!) The quote from C.S. Lewis that I copied on last week’s 2020 Gratitude post really helped me form a “plan” to just keep living my ordinary days in the most intentional way I can. We can do this.

Because I was so distracted this week, our schoolwork was light. We spent a lot of time outdoors and had unseasonably warm weather for the first day of spring. Fresh air has been good for all of us. One day, the big boys and I dug up the remaining boxwood shrubs in our front flower beds and transplanted them in the backyard. It was a big job and we were covered in dirt by the end, but it felt good to work outside. A good stress reliever too!

On one particularly hard day when the older boys were constantly fighting, I calmly told them that they could continue to say mean things to each other ONLY if they said it in some sort of accent. It’s really hard to be mad and keep a straight face when you’re yelling, “Shut up, stupid!” in a (bad) British accent. They quickly cracked up and the stressful moment was averted.

Mark braved heading into town and managed to pick up a few more groceries and toilet paper. We also ordered soil for our garden online and they had it ready for him to pickup at the store.

We quickly got back in the bread making game when our store-bought bread ran out on day three. I made french bread and two different white loaves.

On Friday, I cut my thumb deeply on some broken glass. It bled like crazy and I actually had to use a metal chip clip to help it to stop. Thank goodness for BandAids and a husband who has basic first aid knowledge.

I don’t ever play games on my phone, but this week I needed a mind-numbing distraction that wasn’t social media. Two lifesavers: Nonogram and Wordscapes.

Mark ordered takeout at a local restaurant while he was out running errands. We can’t do that often (sooo expensive for our big family) but I’m glad he thought of them first.
We started drawing pictures and will be mailing them to our local assisted living facility next week. The elderly are on strict lockdown too and we hope the nurses can pass along our messages to the residents.

A new series for 2020: if I record 20 things every week, I’ll have over 1,000 items by December 31. That’s a lot to be grateful for. dinners all together around the table the ability for Mark to work from home our emergency closet, which is still well stocked (except for TP, but we learned our lesson!) watching how much the kids love Lucy a time to really focus on our domestic church
an encouraging video from our former pastor daily recitation of the Rosary nature walks after breakfast dreaming with the kids about hammocks and treehouses starting schoolwork after lunch, just to change things up art supplies out and being used the calming effect of cleaning how far we can stretch one pork shoulder waking up to bird calls celebrating St. Joseph’s feast day with cake

that the postal service is still up and running

messaging with family to check in
doctors and nurses and people who bravely still show up to work each day this writing from C.S. Lewis, which is perfect for these uncertain times:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.” In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty. This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

_________________________________ P.S. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or struggling during this crazy time, I would be honored to pray for you and send you a little sunshine in your mailbox. You can add your information here.

Month #6 for my 1,000 Item Declutter Challenge! Here are the ground rules:

Only spend 10 minutes at one time and only in one specific area.
Monday through Wednesday, seek out items that we no longer need and make a pile. Then Thursday through Saturday, make a plan for how to deal with them. (This has worked so well and avoided that dreaded box of “what should I do with these?” items.)
Possible places to find new homes for items: Ebay/Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, Trash Nothing website or the local Buy Nothing Facebook group and as a last resort, Goodwill

I feel a responsibility for the things I have and want to be intentional with how I dispose of them. Questions I asked myself: If it’s here, what purpose does it serve? Can I use it up? Can I enjoy it vs. keeping it tucked away in drawers and boxes? And if not, can I let it go to someone who may need it more?

At the end of last month, my decluttering grand total was only at a little over 300 items and I was feeling frustrated. This challenge is going to take forever! After a little whining, I realized that this may not be an entirely bad thing. As I go through our things, tucked away in cabinets and drawers, I’m finding treasures I totally forgot we owned. Dishes are being used, art supplies are making art, lotions are keeping hands smooth, “nicer” clothing is being worn just because. What good are possessions if they only serve to look organized and worthy of Pinterest?

This month, I decided to tackle one of the bigger projects that I’ve been avoiding: the kids’ clothing. Organizing what we have, making notes of what we need and giving away everything extra – it’s a HUGE job! I’m not finished, but did make a big dent and that feels good.

WHAT I DECLUTTERED THIS MONTH

10 books.
One pack of essential oil bottle cap labels and 6 essential oils. I’ve been waffling about these silly essential oils for months, but I’m just not going to use them. Gave them to my brother.
One essential oil diffuser. Gave this to my brother too.
46 pieces of Sophie’s outgrown clothing. I posted two big lots of her spring/summer clothing from the last two years and they were spoken for in a matter of hours. One woman was collecting the clothes for a family who had just had a house fire…can you imagine? I’m so happy that I could take a tiny weight off of that family’s shoulders.
78 pieces of P’s outgrown clothing. This was one of the bigger projects I’ve been avoiding because…it’s hard. My baby is growing up! I kept a few favorite pieces, but posted lots of all the rest on Trash Nothing.
One dress. Sold on ebay.
One purse.
One dress up vest.
One pair of sneakers.
4 holsters. Sold for Mark on ebay.
One bag of shredded paper. Junk mail and other personal paperwork that needs to be shredded counts as clutter too! I’m counting each full container (which is the equivalent of a plastic grocery store bag) as one item. Added to my compost pile!
One stuffed animal.
One magazine, 2 workbooks and one old math book. Into the recycling bin.
One pack of mini essential oil “sharing” bottles.
11 various pieces of clothing. Off to Goodwill. These are pieces in good condition, but don’t have much resale value and weren’t substantial enough to warrant a post on Trash Nothing.

Items decluttered this month: 168
Money made this month: $86.51 Total items decluttered so far: 503 (more than halfway there!) Total money made so far: $556.40

P.S. To “count,” the item had to physically leave my house. So while I have listed a handful of things online, those aren’t counted until they have sold.

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I’m linking up again with Top Ten Tuesday and today’s prompt is to share my spring TBR. I grabbed a handful of books from my nightstand and was a little too excited to discover that most of the spines were in shades of blue and green – how perfect for the season! Here are ten books that I hope to read in the next few months:

1 // Strangers and Sojourners by Michael D. O’Brien

I just started this huge novel (it’s almost 600 pages!) and am enjoying the saga so far. I read O’Brien’s Father Elijah back in 2016 and really enjoyed it, so I’m hoping this story will be just as good.

2 // Characters of the Passion by Fulton J. Sheen
I love Bishop Fulton Sheen’s writing (this post is about his book that I read for Lent last year) and think this little book will be perfect for Holy Week.

3 // Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield This novel is a little out of my comfort zone since I don’t read a lot of magical realism. I totally picked it for the beautiful cover, ha!

4 // A Year Without a Purchase: One Family’s Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting by Scott Dannemiller

I’m always looking for things to inspire and fuel my quest for simplicity and frugality and I hope this memoir will do just that.

5 // Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

This will be a re-read for me – it’s been on my mind since reading Ordinary Grace last month!

6 // There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk

I put this one on my 100 Little Things list and I’m anxious to finally dive in. This book comes highly recommended!

7 // The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach I don’t remember how I acquired this personal finance book, but I’m curious enough to see what it’s all about. The reviews on Goodreads seem all over the place…we’ll see where I fall.

8 // Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman by Mary Mann Hamilton

I looooove pioneer novels. Reading about their hard work and struggles inspires me and really helps me put my suffering in perspective. I can’t wait to read this true story.

9 // The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups by Leonard Sax, MD I’m not a huge fan of most parenting books, but this one came recommended by a few different people, so I’m giving it a shot.

10 // The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

I’ve been slowly making my way through this one and it is so interesting! Lots and lots to learn. Have you read any of these? What did you think? What’s on your nightstand to read this spring? At the end of February, I was writing in all of our activities on the calendar for March and whining that our days are just too full: we rarely get to all sit down for dinner together and we hardly have an evening to just hang out at home. Careful what you pray for! After managing to keep ourselves healthy all winter, we all somehow caught Influenza A and it would not go away for a solid two weeks. And now with coronavirus becoming a real problem, schools and church activities and extra-curriculars are all cancelled. Suddenly, I’m staring at two weeks (or more!) of wide open days at home. In a time of great uncertainty, I’m choosing to see this as a gift.

Also: because of that pesky flu, the first two weeks of March were a complete wash and I got none of my intentions list accomplished. Hoping to play catch-up on those annnnd I added a bunch more because I can’t help myself.

INTENTIONS FOR THE END OF MARCH

have the kids involved in making dinner each night
get back to my 20th Century in Literature Challenge and read two books that fit
buy and lay down landscape fabric
purchase everything needed for “Mel’s Mix” and fill the raised beds
start buying things for Easter baskets
mail back ThredUp bag
buy new sandals for Sophie
gather supplies to make a framed chalkboard (100LT #17)
try a new bread recipe
give the little boys haircuts
March 2020 Giving donation to the local food bank
try to propagate my Christmas cactus again

If you’re reading in a blog reader, be sure to click over to see what I checked off the list!

continue a new routine of making bread daily
find a few new ways to reduce our food budget (not exactly how I envisioned it, but having the flu really helps the budget – no one ate anything but toast for days!)
say the Stations of the Cross with the kids
attend a holy hour
~~work on building raised beds~~ (Mark surprised me by knocking this out last weekend)
start looking at compost options
get dead trees removed by the driveway
reorganize all of my Poshmark inventory
create a better hand-me-down clothing system (reuse old plastic totes if possible)
get photos printed for a special project
deal with Sophie’s duvet
get an estimate for Sophie’s bathroom
~~start a phenology wheel~~ (I wanted to use this project as a way to intentionally notice nature changing around me and it’s working! so fun)
read at least 20 pages of The Art of Learning Nature’s Signs

A new series for 2020: if I record 20 things every week, I’ll have over 1,000 items by December 31. That’s a lot to be grateful for. Affiliate links ahead! warm days that feel like spring that the mechanic was able to patch our tire after finding a nail in it that most of the kids are feeling better after a week of the flu M’s slow recovery after seemingly falling ill twice cough medicine that helps him sleep
how hard Mark works for our family catching up on laundry and chores watching P swing on his belly little bits of green popping up around the property the time and effort that J and S put into their game board projects

how much P loves Do-A-Dot markers

lists upon lists of exciting spring projects and to-dos

frozen pizza

finding brand new sneakers for Sophie for less than $20 short sleeves and bare feet
finishing another adventure in Narnia loaves of banana bread complicated train track configurations reading in bed at the end of the day

surviving Daylight Savings Week

A new series for 2020! If I record 20 things every week, I’ll have over 1,000 items by December 31. That’s a lot to be grateful for. warm, sunny days to play outside passing along outgrown clothes to people who need them “cooking class” with Sophie pumpkin muffins with a hot cup of coffee seed packets arriving in the mail have the school year finish line in sight (8 weeks to go!) a few days of doing absolutely nothing (thank you Influenza A for spreading through the whole family) Mark’s understanding employer how the healthy kids took care of the sick ones lots of time to read and blog a rare afternoon of absolute silence (everyone was asleep or reading) that the feverish part of the illness passed through us quickly a breeze through open windows, if only for an hour sunsets that look like a watercolor painting that the big boys are (hopefully) on the mend enough to attend their competition and tryouts this weekend

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If you’ve read here for any length of time, you know that I am a passionate supporter of keeping snail mail alive! This is a monthly series that I hope will inspire you to start putting thoughts on paper. There’s nothing like finding a handwritten note among the piles of bills and junk mail.

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Do you have a kind and patient dentist? This is a great time to share how much you appreciate them!
A few cards created by small businesses:

MARCH 14 // NATIONAL PI DAY What better day to celebrate with your nerdy math friends than Pi Day? If you’re feeling extra creative, maybe make a pie to go with your card!

A few cards created by small businesses:

Pi Scientific Love Card by Ink & Fred
Pi Day Card by MathGuy1618

MARCH 17 // ST. PATRICK’S DAY Saint Patrick’s Day is in honor of one of my favorite saints! It is also a day for celebrating Irish heritage and tradition. Even if you’re not Irish, you can still get into the fun: how about sending the luck of the Irish to a friend with a few scratch tickets and a penny?

A few cards created by small businesses:

MARCH 19 // FIRST DAY OF SPRING
Even though this day may not always look like spring, we can still get excited for what’s to come. I am planning to mail wildflower seed packets to some family and friends.
A few cards created by small businesses:

MARCH 31 // NATIONAL CRAYON DAY
To finish off the month, how about something special for kids? Mail the little buddies in your life a brand new coloring book and a pack of crayons for National Crayon Day. Is there anything better in life than a fresh pack of sharpened crayons? Fun fact: Crayola makes over 3 billion crayons every year.

Happy Wednesday! Looking back at February with my five today:

A QUOTE ON GRATITUDE

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS

+ Celebrated Mark and our dog Lucy’s birthdays! + The weather this month seemed to be full of cold rain followed by a few days of warm sunshine that had me itching for spring. + I decided to take a break from reselling as a side gig. I still need to sell off my current inventory and will continue to sell our unwanted items as I declutter, but will no longer be seeking out product for now. My biggest complaint about Poshmark is the amount of time it requires for you to be on your phone and I was starting to resent it! A lot of peace and mental clarity came from this decision, so I know it’s the right thing to do. + Regular bread making resumed. + Lots of guitar playing in the house! M bought himself an electric guitar and is learning so much. + Mark made dietary changes to help with some digestive issues and is feeling a lot better.

+ Lent begins!

Chicken Fried Rice. This recipe satisfied our craving for Chinese takeout. We served it with eggrolls from the freezer.
Pretzel Bread. My favorite bread of the month! Because the bread machine does all of the mixing and rising, the hands-on time is only minutes.
Cinnamon Applesauce Muffins. Thank you to my dear friend Tabitha for this one. I had D makes these on his own and he’s made them about six times! The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, but we’ve reduced that to almost 1/4 without any complaints.

2020 GOALS UPDATE

✔ I want to spend time with God everyday. I’m still working through the Bible (as of Feb 29, I was on day 234/365) and haven’t missed a day. I also watched the first six segments of The Wild Goose series on the Holy Spirit. I’m really enjoying them and recommend it. It gave me a lot of clarity as I struggled through the roots of my latest bout of stress/anxiety.

✔ I want to keep on, keepin’ on with our debt freedom journey. We used most of our tax refund to pay a big chunk off of our car loan. The end is near!

✔ I want to hand write 52 pieces of mail. I didn’t have anywhere near the numbers I pulled in January, but I’m still on track! I sent out 5 pieces. (Here is the post.) Current total = 24 pieces

✔ I want to write 150 blog posts. I hit a mini writing slump at the beginning of the month, but still managed to post 14 times. Current total = 34

✔ I want to read 52 books. I read 6 books. (Here is the post.) Current total = 14

✘ I want to take the first steps for postpartum doula certification. Still nothing.

✔ I want to create a family culture of generosity. Another successful month with our 20/20 Giving:

February’s $20 Donation // We learned about a holy priest who has recently been diagnosed with ALS. We donated to help him with expenses that are not covered by insurance and for the eventual need of assistance as the disease progresses.
February’s 20 Minutes of Time and Talent // leading a men’s group at church, altar serving, baking cookies for the first Lenten Supper, helping out at a children’s retreat

FEBRUARY 2020 IN NUMBERS

I thought it would be fun (and eye-opening) to keep track of how many loads of laundry I do in a month. In the 29 days of February, I washed 49 loads. INSANE.