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Weekly update - July 24, 26

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This won't be a terribly eventful post as life has been pretty calm lately. Last week when we were driving to church we came across a helicopter sitting on top of a truck looking as though it was being refueled. It was a very odd sight.  Coming home we heard a helicopter and realized it was crop dusting instead of the small plane we're used to seeing. Suddenly it all made sense... both why we saw a helicopter in what felt to be a very random area and what they were doing with it. It wasn't refueling, but filling the tanks to spray the crops. Basil likes to sit in sinks. The other day as I was coming in from the barn I heard a weird scrambling sound behind the chicken coop. I was worried it was some sort of predator so went to check it out. No, not a predator, but a hen who had been hiding from the sun under an old towel that had been left out. When I disturbed her she poked her head out from under the towel.  When it was so smoky here a week ago, P. shared this picture from...
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Newspapers

A few days ago I finished The Pelican Brief by John Grisham. I had picked it up because I heard someone mention it as being a book she reread every so often because she enjoyed it. I had never read anything by Grisham, so it seemed like a good summer pick.  It was okay. I finished it and the second half felt engaging enough that I finished it quickly, but I'm not sure it's aged well. Social mores change and the whole 50+ year old male law professor having the affair with the 24 year old female law student felt icky. It pretty much ruined the book for me. It was published in 1992, which meant it was probably written about the same time I was just out of college. I am fully aware that there were teacher student relationships, but while it didn't quite reach the point of being scandalous, it was also not quite right, either. And for the author to be male and writing about it... Just ick.  There was something else that struck me when I had finished the book. Much of the plot in...
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Ducks in the pond

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I don't know why I've been so tired the past two evenings, but I have no energy to write anything of substance. Maybe I need to find a different time to write blog posts. Or maybe I really am just tired. Either way, for tonight you get to enjoy a picture of some of our ducks in the pond. 
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Fiber Monday - Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

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Back in May, when my pattern drafting class ended for the summer, I had just finished drafting a peasant blouse for myself. And the pattern then sat around for a couple of months waiting for me to do something with it. Last week I finally cut it out and took my time sewing it up. (I enjoy sewing so much more if I can really take my time with it.) Today I finished the buttons and buttonholes on the cuffs, which was the last thing needed.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out and with how it fits. I made it out of an old 100% cotton sheet that had ripped and was too far gone to be repaired. As a result, it is incredibly soft, like a very old favorite shirt but without the breaking in period. Here it is: The buttons came from my rather extensive button stash. About that button stash as well as other sewing notions I have on hand. Many of them have been salvaged. Here's an example. This is a pair of J.'s shorts that had become so worn out that they just needed to be thrown a...
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A sermon on my favorite topics of connection, creativity, and play

I am very close to finishing the book, "Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives" by Daisy Fancourt. I also need to share a few quotes with you because they touch on some of my very favorite topics: Connection, creating, and play. "We humans are an inherently social species. Throughout our evolutionary history, we have relied on others for our survival -- so much so that if we find ourselves socially isolated (and therefore vulnerable), we are biologically primed to reconnect with others. Our brains and bodies flood us with hormones, distress signals, intrusive thoughts, and feelings of depression until we take the hint and reconnect. If we ignore these urges or can't find social contact, we put ourselves at substantially heightened risk of every adverse mental illness, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, frailty, and mortality. One of the most interesting evolutionary theories for the arts I've come across is that they evolved to help us become m...
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Another hurdle down

This morning J., R., and I headed down to the county courthouse to appear in court. The reason? We were request that J. and I be given guardianship of R. It sounds more eventful than it was. There was no one else in the courtroom to have their case heard, so we were called forward immediately. The judge asked some questions so he could fill out his paperwork and then we were asked to wait for copies of the official decree to be made for us. That's it. The only vaguely interesting part was that the judge recognized us from when we obtained H.'s guardianship. The whole thing took no more than fifteen minutes. Having done this twice now, it always feels a bit anticlimactic; as if there should be something more to it. It's not really something to celebrate because it means that the young adult in question is never going to experience being an independent adult. But it also feels like a relief that this particular legal hurdle has been conquered. It's a weird in-between kind...
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8 things to know about large families

There have been a spate of books about trad wife influencers that have been published recently. I read them, though I'm not sure I should because I find myself being incredibly annoyed even if I am enjoying the overall story. Earlier this year I read Yesteryear and this week's iteration is Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza.  In the most cursory way, the trad wife influencer characters are very similar to each other, but the course of each book is vastly different. In both books this character has multiple children, homeschools, and bakes their own bread while sharing details their life with the wider world. In its barest outline it feels as though it hits a bit close to the bone. I've already written about why I am not (and never have been) a " trad wife ", so I won't go into that here. What has been causing me to grind my teeth a bit in this most recent book is the author's take on large families. Large families being six children or more. So to get ...
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