What I Wore Sunday and How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hope everyone is having a better weekend than we are.  On Friday night (of course these things always happen on Friday night), our hot water stopped working, the dishwasher stopped working and the kitchen sink won't drain...at all.  So, I have to wash our dishes in cold water and then empty the water out the side door.  Fun times, I tell you.  Can't wait until Monday when hopefully the property management people will get back to us and get someone out here to fix everything! 

Not to make this post all a downer, here is what I wore today. 

The shirt is from Spiegel (formerly knwon as Newport News)

The skirt is Old Navy.

Boots are from Amazon.

I love the sleek look of all black (except the boots) but for some reason I don't usually wear it.  This outfit probably could have been improved with some sort of belt or scarf, but I didn't think of that.

Elsa is being held so she doesn't destroy my little garden.  I planted lettuce and Swiss chard.  We transplanted containers of basil, lemon balm and chamomile that we had started indoors.  And I generously gave the girls 1/2 of a container to plant a "butterfly garden" which is was part of their Botany school project. 

I had extra potting mix and extra soil, so I filled up two cardboard boxes, wedged them in between those grow boxes and planted even more lettuce.  Yes...I really like lettuce.  I had read on the Internet that you can use sturdy cardboard to grow things, although obviously they only last one season.    So...we'll see how it goes.  I'm hoping that by the end of May we have a plethora of lettuce 

 

And, now for your weekly Chesterton.

Good reminder to keep our eyes on the heavenly goal!

Go see Mary for More Chesterton and FLAP for More Sunday Outfits. 

Chesterton, St. Patrick's Day and What I Wore Sunday

Thank you all so much for your super kind comments on last week's What I Wore Sunday post.  It was kinda a scary post for me to write, so I really appreciated all the support and kind words and encouragement!  You guys are the best!!!
 
Here's what I wore today!  It's getting to be the end of sweater and boots season, so I'm trying to wear them as much as possible.  I know everyone else is super eager for spring, but after living n FL for three years and never getting to wear sweaters or boots, I'm sorta enjoying it.  Plus, it's not super cold here...I feel for those of you who still have snow on the ground.

Yes Elsa is wearing a Patriots cheerleader dress during basketball season, even though my husbands hates the Patriots (he's a Manning guy) and I hate football.  You figure it out, because I can't. 

Now, for your (sorta) weekly Chesterton hosted by Sarah.  In honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I decided to go with this quote. 

 Ain't that the truth?  It's so easy *after* something happens to be all "oh, I saw that coming."  Anyone can do that. I do it all the time, and I'm not even Irish.  I used to pride myself on having pregdar.  As in pregnancy radar, as in whenever a friend announced that they were pregnant, I was all I knew it, before you said anything.   When in reality, I was just looking back at previous signs and thinking Oh, so that's why Sally Sue was munching on snacks in the middle of coop.  It must have been to ward off morning sickness. 

And, what about all those times the phone rings, and I'm all I know who that is, it's x person.  And, then when it is x person, I'm all ahha, I knew it, I must be psychic.  Conveniently I tend to forget all the times I'm sure the phone is x person and it's someone totally else.

Anyway...those are my not so deep thoughts on that Chesterton Quote.

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Chesterton and Chess

Another Saturday, another chess tournament!  Heidi tied for the first place trophy in her age group and Greta and John each won a medal.  They all had a great tournament and gained lots of rating points.

So, I decided to pick a Chesterton quote on Chess for Weekends with Chesterton.

Hmmmm.....interesting.

Chess playing has many advantages for kids...it teaches logic and advance planning and all sorts of useful skills;   Here's hoping that all the stories they write and art they draw and imaginative games they play will prevent anyone from going mad. <wink> 

(Linking up with Sarah for Weekends with Chesterton)

7 Posts in 7 days and Chesterton

Sorry guys, no What I Wore Sunday post this week.  I have fallen victim to the plague  the flu so what I am wearing is not picture worthy.   If you want an update on illness in our home...mommy and daddy are sick.  The older kids are much better...just lingering coughs/sniffles and Elsa has still managed to dodge the whole thing.  Greta had it worst, but she is doing much better today.  Ben and I are doing okay...we're not nearly as bad as the kids were, probably because we've been downing garlic like our house is surrounded by vampires.  Who needs Tamifu when you can eat garlic?

Just to warn you, I'm going to be writing 7 Posts in 7 Days...or at least attempting some such nonsense.   Monday, February 24th-Sunday March 2nd. 

Just a little something for you to look forward to on this last week of Febrary. 

And, finally, I shall leave you with your weekly Chesterton quote. 

Anyone want to take a gander at what that means in the comments, please feel free to do so.  In my feverish state, I'm unable to come up with any coherent thoughts on it.   So, go see Sarah for more Chesterton. 

The Swing of the Pendulum (and what I wore Sunday).

• “The whole curse of the last century has been what is called the Swing of the Pendulum; that is, the idea that Man must go alternately from one extreme to the other. It is a shameful and even shocking fancy; it is the denial of the whole dignity of the mankind. When Man is alive he stands still. It is only when he is dead that he swings.” – The New House, Alarms and Discursions

Ain't that the truth?

How many of us struggle with moderation and temperance?  As individuals and as a society, we tend to swing between binging and abstaining. We either eat all the chocolate and chips or we forgo all sugar, carbs, meat, fat, grains and anything else that tastes good. We either let the dust bunnies pile up and the cheerios shrivel on the floor (or maybe that's just me?) or we clean like crazy, getting every last nook and cranny immaculate. We either get dressed to the nines, or we lounge about in yoga pants and t-shirts.   We work constantly, or we work not at all.  We watch all the TV or we watch none of the TV. We drink all the wine or we abstain completely. We spend excessively, or pinch pennies religiously.

Obviously, there are exceptions and some people are very good at moderation, but as humans, our general tendency is to bounce back and forth between excess and want, between everything or nothing, between black and white.   We do it in our parenting, we do it our churches, we do it in our families, we do it in our Lenten sacrifices and we do it in the way we view others.  Which may be the most tragic of all.  We see someone who looks a certain way or acts a certain way or talks a certain way and we assume we know them, we assume we know what they think and where they are coming from.   We assume the long skirt, chapel veil wearing Catholics are judging us for our uncovered hair and pants. We assume that the childless  strangers in the grocery store are looking askance at us over a pile of children.  We assume the childless Catholic couple, or the one with only 1 child must be contraceptive.  We assume these things, because we see things in the black and white.

Now obviously something are objectively, morally wrong, but many parenting practices or Catholic practices are simply a matter of preference.   Just because some one's favorite song is Gather Us In doesn't make them a liberal Catholic who believes in womyn priests (do I date admit, I like that song?)  Or, just because someone attend the Traditional Latin Mass, doesn't mean they think the Ordinary Mass is invalid.

Lent is coming up.  This Lent, I want to focus more on moderation.  In some ways it is easier to give something up completely than it is to use it in moderation.  It is easier to go all gung ho than to be prudently discern a more moderate path.  Is there any aspect of your life where you need to work on moderation?  Do you have any plans to do so this Lent?

{Linking up with Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things.  Oh, and hey, she's running a contest for the best Chesterton post this weekend.  Go there on Wednesday or Thursday and vote for me (if liked this post.  If you hated it, then go vote for someone else). But if you liked it, help me win a copy of the Father Brown Reader.  Please.

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And, because it's Sunday and I'm all or nothing, I can't let a Sunday go by without linking up with FLAP for WIWS. 

 The sweater is from ThredUp. And, hey, they're running a promotion, if you buy anything through my link you get a $15 to spend and so do I!  Cool, huh!  (Normally they give you $10, but they are running Feb promotion and giving away $15).

The skirt is thrifted.  The shirt, I think might actually be from the 70's from my aunt's closet.  Seriously. The tights are from Wal-Mart and the shoes, from Payless.

Hey...I'm close to coming up on a year of What i Wore Sunday.  Look for an anniversary post from me soon..all about why I continue to link up and how taking pictures of myself every week has been a great exercise for me.

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Sex, Love and Marriage (Weekends with Chesterton and WIWS)

Since Friday is Valentine's Day and all

Sex:

Too true, G.K., too true.  I think that pretty much sums up just about everything I want to teach my kids about sex. 

Love:

Mice are about the most unlovable thing I can think of.  Next to rats of course, but I couldn't put a picture of a rat here without having a panic attack every time I look at it. 

My kids all know that I have an intense hatred towards rodents....especially rodents that have the nerve to invade my house. 

So, these types of conversations are par for the course around here.

Greta:  Mom, would you still love John if he was a mouse?

Me: Huh?

John:  Yeah, would you still love me if I was a mouse?

Me:  Well, you couldn't be a mouse and still be my child. People only have people kids.

Heidi: Well, Stuart Little was mouse that had people parents. 

Me: Yes I would still love you if you were a mouse.  I'd have to have a little box to keep you in and keep you safe.  And, you would be much cheaper to feed, because mice only eat crumbs and seeds and stuff.  Oh, and we probably wouldn't be able to have William (our cat) if you were a mouse. 

Oddly enough, when I was pregnant with Elsa, I did have a nightmare that I gave birth to a mouse and we had to decide if we should keep it or give it anyway.   Thankfully, that is one nightmare that did not come true. 

And Marriage:

This quote is from David Copperfield, an essay Chesterton Wrote on Dickens, 1911. 

This is interesting.  For once, I'm not sure I totally agree with Mr. Chesterton.  Or, maybe it's David Copperfield I don't agree with.  Anyway, perpetual crisis seems a bit harsh. Occasionally, we do have a few (very few) non-crisis moments around here.  Just a few. 

Go see Sarah for more Chesterton. 

Since it is Sunday

Here is what I wore today (linking up with FLAP).

The shirt was an awesome 99 cent deal from the thrift store. For once I am wearing a shirt with a pattern on it. The vast majority of my clothes are solid colors, I'm not a huge fan of patterns, but I was inspired to branch out a bit.

The skirt is Talbots but super old

The boots are from Amazon.

And I froze outside taking those pictures without a coat.  The things I do for blogging.

Chesterton on Marriage

In honor of my upcoming Proposal Day -February 6th (see Ben, I DID remember), I thought I would pick a nice G.K. Chesterton quote on marriage.

Plus, I asked Heidi, who had studied G.K. Chesterton a bit in her Little Flowers group, which quote I should pick, and she told me this lovely quote.

Which never ceases to make me laugh.

And, we can all use a little more laughter in our lives, right. 

How do you like this throwback picture...taken the night before our wedding?

Not to say that marriage is like war or anything.

But. G.K. does also say that. 

Well, marriage should last until death...and there are aspects of it that duel-like, as any married person will tell you. 

Follow my advice and you'll be more likely to have a happily ever after duel, which will also no doubt be quite adventuresome.  In war, you never know what is going to happen.  The same could definitely be said for marriage.  

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Just because it's Sunday, here is what I wore...an action shot of me walking or something.  But ya gotta love the windswept hair 

And a still one. 

Linking up with Sarah and Fine Linen and Purple. 

Come Home

There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.
The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place. 
                                                                                       -G. K. Chesterton

I don't have a home.  Not really.  I mean I have floors and a roof over my head and walls that surround me to keep out the cold, but it's not a home.  It's just a house. I don't own these walls or this floor. We most likely won't be living here even a year from now. 

In the last 13 years, I've lived in six different states.  Six states in thirteen years is a lot.  It's a long and rambling story of why we've moved around so much, but suffice it to say, I'm tired. I'm tired of moving.  I'm tired of making new friends and leaving friends.  I just want to to settle down, to stay someplace forever.  Most of the places we have lived, we thought it would be our forever home.  But, it didn't work out that way...life has a way of not working out the way you want it. 

I don't even have a hometown anymore. I no longer have family living in the place I grew up, so going back home isn't likely.  We're just pilgrims on a journey...making friends and leaving friends everywhere we go. 

But, we do have one forever home.  

Rome Sweet Home

No matter where we go or what we do, we are thankful to always be at home in the Catholic faith.  

 Catholics Come Home

Whether you've always been home, or whether you've walked round the whole world....you can come home.  You can come into the faith, you can come to the sacraments, you can receive forgiveness.  Everyone needs forgiveness.  You can go to Confession.  Confession is good the soul. 

No matter how you got wherever you are, you can come home. 

And, since it is Sunday, here is what I wore today.

The sweater is from ThredUp (if you sign up, you get a $10 credit!)

The shirt and skirt are old and thrifted

Tights are Wal-Mart

Boots are Qupid. 

Linking up with Sarah for weekend with Chesterton and Fine Linen and Purple for What I wore Sunday.

Mirrors and Glass: Weekends with Chesterton and WIWS

Also, she (Cinderella) had a glass slipper; and it cannot be a coincidence that glass is so common a substance in folk-lore. This princess lives in a glass castle, that princess on a glass hill; this one sees all things in a mirror; they may all live in glass houses if they will not throw stones. For this thin glitter of glass everywhere is the expression of the fact that the happiness is bright but brittle, like the substance most easily smashed by a housemaid or a cat. And this fairy-tale sentiment also sank into me and became my sentiment towards the whole world. I felt and feel that life itself is as bright as the diamond, but as brittle as the window-pane; and when the heavens were compared to the terrible crystal I can remember a shudder. I was afraid that God would drop the cosmos with a crash.     The Ethics of Elfland., Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton 

Link to entire chapter.

This is why I love reading G.K. Chesterton.  I never really thought about the significance of glass in fairy-tales...but imagery of glass and mirrors seems to pop up over and over again.   I love how he talks about how life and happiness is bright and beautiful, yet fragile and brittle and can be gone in an instant. So true, so very, very true.

And yet...there is hope.

For, if we read on.

Remember, however, that to be breakable is not the same as to be perishable. Strike a glass, and it will not endure an instant; simply do not strike it, and it will endure a thousand years. Such, it seemed, was the joy of man, either in elfland or on earth; the happiness depended on not doing something which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why you should not do

It seems to me that so many times, sin, brings us unhappiness, yet it is not immediately obvious why we should not do that very thing that we so want to do.  Of course, lots of other things bring unhappiness as well...but doing what we should not do, almost certainly does.

And, that is the extent of my Chestertonian thought for the day.

Linking up with Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things and Fine Linen and Purple for What I Wore Sunday.

Sweater:  not sure...maybe Wal-Mart
Pants: old and thrifted
Shoes: sorry...can't see them.

This is what I wore to Mass this afternoon.  I skipped this morning when everyone else went because that toddler in the mirror up there is sick.  We'll see if I make it all the way to this afternoon without getting puked on again.

Weekends with Chesterton: Hope (and WIWS)

A lot of bloggers are talking about a word of the year.  At first, I was thinking my word would be trust and patience....but to be honest I hadn't really prayed about it, that was just the first thing that came into my mind.

Then, I decided to actually pray about it and the word hope sprang to mind (one would think that would have occurred to me before...but nooooo) so Wishy-Washy Bentrup is going to try to focus on hope this year. 

"Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate."- G. K. Chesterton.

"In the struggle for existence, it is only on those who hang on for ten minutes after all is hopeless that hope begins to dawn." -G. K. Chesterton

"Hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."- Sayid on Lost. (sorry, couldn't resist throwing that in there). 

I often feel that if I could just be cheerful and not worry I could handle anything.   I'm more worried about the fear and anxiety surrounding something like cancer than of the actual physical pain that would be involved.  

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." -Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   

 I spend a lot of energy worrying about being worried.   Right now, my worries focus on our future.  While my husband has a job now, it's not permanent and it's not in the field he wants to be in.  We are praying super hard that he finds a lawyer job in the right place.   And, we don't know where that place will be or where we will end up.   Which is a place we've been in many times before, but it's still a frightening place to be.  We want nothing more than to settle down, get involved in a community, make friends and stay in one forever place.  We don't know where that place will be.  Will it be here or there or anywhere? There are important decisions to be made and time is zooming forward at an alarming speed.

So, I need to focus on hope...on maintaining good cheer and having hope that everything will work out.   I need to focus on continuing to pray for our needs while not letting fear of the unknown take over my mental state,

  As I was typing this, lo and behold, what should show up in my Facebook feed but this photo.  If this doesn't imply hope, what does?

Everyone is on Facebook these days...even St. Jude.  This photo is from his page.  

Now, go see Sarah for more Chesterton wisdom. 

And, since it's Sunday, I'll also link up with FLAP so you can all see what I wore today.

The sweater and the skirt are thrifted.  

Same ole' boots and same ole' tights as every week.  

Happy Feast of the Baptism of our Lord!

On Doing Stuff Badly: Weekends with Chesterton

Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things is hosting a great link-up discussing quotes and thoughts from G.K. Chesterton.   Reading more Chesteron is one of my goals that I've never actualized, so this link-up is the perfect opportunity.  I'm always looking for new fodder for my blog and reading and writing more about Chesterston seems like a great way to do so.

Today's quote is one of his more common ones, and one I've actually quoted before.

Chesterton wrote this in his book, What's Wrong with the World, which was published in 1910. 

If you read this link, you will see that Chesteron was mainly referring to hobbies and the rearing of the children.  Not that the rearing of children should be done "badly" but that it should be done by amateurs, that is by unpaid people who do it out of love (ie. parents). 

We live in a world where more and more things are being left to specialists. Everyone is expected to be very good at one thing (their career) and leave everything else to the experts.  We hire teachers to teach and bakers to decorate cakes and house cleaners to clean and photographers to take pictures and farmers to grow food and factories to process it.  There is no such thing as the "jack of all trades".   The art of "knowing how to do stuff" is lost.  People think that they shouldn't sew, or bake or build something if they can't do it perfectly. 

But there is value is doing something yourself...even if it's done badly.  I am terrible at sewing and at cake decorating (see above picture) and explaining fractions and teaching reading.  Yet, I still do all those things (okay, so I rarely sew) because they are all things worth doing and I don't think they are necessarily things better done by professionals.  I'm sure that cake up there would have been an actual train cake instead of a train wreck of a cake had a professional decorated it...but even in it's amateurish state it still tasted great and the birthday boy loved it. 

We live in a Pinterest world....where we are led to believe that real moms throw perfectly decorated birthday parties with perfectly themed refreshments and party favors and crafts and activities and everything fits a perfect theme. The centerpiece looks like a kitten and there is a perfectly adorable kitten cake and there are kitten crafts and kitten party favors and the napkins are folded like a kitten and by the end of the party, everyone is all kittened out.  You know what....kids have just as much fun at birthday parties with a homemade cake decorated with sprinkles, a bowl of chips, a bunch of juice boxes and a big yard to run around in. 

How many people don't throw parties or invite friends over because they are afraid they can't do it perfectly, because their house is too small or their furniture doesn't match or they think they can't cook.  But, you know what, I'm sure a lot of people would rather share a bad meal with friends than dine alone.   I'm sure a lot of kids would be thrilled to attend a party, even if it's not Pinterest perfect.

Things like being hospitable and raising kids and cooking dinner and making cakes are all things that have value...and they are all worth doing, even if at times, we have to do them badly.   So this year, I'm going to make more of an effort to do those things that are worth doing (like inviting friends over and throwing parties and baking cakes) even if I have to do it badly. 

And, since it's Sunday, I'll show you another thing worth doing badly.  Dressing up for Mass. 

Here's what I wore today.  It's probably not the best outfit and it's far from perfect, but here it is.

Sweater: ThredUp

Tank: given to me

Skirt: given to me

Boots: Wal-Mart

Glasses: Zenni

See FLAP for more Sunday Outfits.