I finally finished, last week, Josef Pieper’s Leisure, The Basis of Culture. It took me about as long to get through those 175 pages as it did to get through 700 of Ancient History. Part of the blame for that is that I paused to read up on gardening and composting. And, also, I get [...]
Archive for February, 2012
Leisure, the Basis of Culture
Posted in 2012 Book List on February 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Urban gardens and urban compost
Posted in 2012 Book List, City Life on February 23, 2012 | 4 Comments »
I’m taking awhile to get through my next official “Book List” book because I’ve taken some time this month to read Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening and also Mary Apelhof’s Worms Eat my Garbage. You can read a bit more about our adventures in urban vermicomposting over on the kids blog but the [...]
Thinking about Lent
Posted in Living the Liturgy on February 20, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I am very happy to say for, I think, the first time in my life, that I am looking forward to Lent this year. I won’t swear to the fact that it’s the first time I’ve said that, but it’s certainly the first time I can remember thinking it. Even when I wasn’t a practicing [...]
Zeal and Fervor
Posted in Spiritual Life on February 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been thinking more about “fervor” since finishing my reading on St. Dominic last week. My husband and I are always trying to sort out our life. It seems, at times, to be one long series of transitions without time to ever settle into a boring, predictable routine. This is, in part, objectively true. The [...]
What are the jokers really trying to say?
Posted in Uncategorized on February 15, 2012 | 4 Comments »
If you have more than three kids I’m sure you have been on the receiving end of all the tired one-liners that we hear all the time, ”Don’t you know what causes that?” ”You guys should get a tv!” And so on. I sort of wish I was one of those snappy people who cold [...]
The problem with Valentine’s Day
Posted in Uncategorized on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I find Valentine’s Day to be a pretty high pressure holiday. At least with Christmas, if I want to keep things minimal I can claim that I’m, “focusing more on really living the liturgy this year.” Not so with Valentine’s Day. ”Living the liturgy” today means celebrating Sts. Cyril and Methodius. And, really, it’s too [...]
2012 Book List: In the Image of St. Dominic
Posted in 2012 Book List, Uncategorized, tagged 2012 Book List on February 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
This is not one of the two books I said I would post about next but I am usually reading at least two books at once since I try to have one going for “spiritual reading.” Regular spiritual reading is a habit I have long tried–and often failed–to cultivate. I have generally pegged my spiritual [...]
Two years of hibernation
Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I’m not really sure what happened in the last two years. I mean, I know perfectly well what happened: we moved twice and had a baby, among other things. But is isn’t obvious to me why that resulted in my not posting here. It’s not that I didn’t want to. I often had drafts of [...]
More on the components of education
Posted in Education on February 10, 2012 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been mulling over my last post trying to sort out just what I was getting at and thought a bit about Charlotte Mason’s definition of education. She believed, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” I’m a big fan of Charlotte Mason. When I was first researching home education philosophies I found [...]
Education, Discipline, and Training
Posted in Education on February 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »
This weekend’s Wall Street Journal arrived with the tantalizing headline, “Why French Parents are Superior.” It’s been the source of a fair amount of buzz if my limited Facebook friend list and Google Reader sample is any indication. Though it’s 929 comments (as of this writing) are nothing compared to the almost 9000 last year’s, [...]
