It is a crisp, gray day here in the Northeast, and Matt’s voice returned enough that we were able to record a podcast. We talk about International Daughters Day, Tolkien, Jane Austen, the Enlightenment, Trump and Biden, what kind of government would be good, and also are interrupted by children and dogs. We conclude with a solemn reading from the Passion Bible. It’s probably not our best effort because we were wandering around in search of a topic, but it’s... Read more
It’s Great To Be Back It is a gloomy, rainy day here in the NorthEast and so we’ve woken up in the usual way to do a realio trulio actual podcast. We talk about all the wonderful time we’ve had off, about the Queen and the King, about the serious downfalls of Democracy, about the differences between our two oldest children, about trusting God, about reenchanting the world, and about how we’re definitely going to be back next week. Hope... Read more
Good Moaning, as they say. It is a rainy, gray day here in Bing–thank goodness. But even so, most unhappily we’re not going to be able to rejoice with a podcast, however much we wish we could. We have to rush around and start complicated preparations for Actual Ramen with all the stuff in it. My children are such jerks–they always pick celebratory food I’ve never tried to cook before. Raman, for me until this moment, is infallably accomplished by... Read more
It’s Friday! In case you hadn’t noticed. I’m going to redeem my failure to blog yesterday by rambling on about camping. One A lovely friend this week expressed astonishment at my intention to go camping not just for a few days, but for an entire week, or ten days, before the summer is out. Matt and I plan to escape all our worries and cares by schlepping out to the wilderness (ha ha ha), and then, perhaps, we’ll drag our... Read more
A visual representation of the souls of my children when they start lecturing me about my failings. I finally worked up the wherewithal to start looking at my pictures from our trip. Matt had the better idea of posting big chunks of them every Sunday and then going back offline, whereas I thought, foolishly, that I would come home and sort them and then post them systematically. I added “Post Pictures” to my “List Of All The Things I Will... Read more
Expanding the definition of Hotness, one blog post at a time. A lovely person sent this bit of hotness along to me this week. I jest, of course, the article is no manner of hot, despite its feverish intentions. Nevertheless, we should still consider the claim. Which is that whatever you thought “hotness” was before, you must set all that aside and prepare to have your mind blown: Ms. Estime is one of many who are expanding the definition of... Read more
It is a cool and rainy morning–a relief from the oppressive humidity of the last week–and so to celebrate we’ve done a reasonably lengthed podcast about the end of Roe, why it is meet and right so to celebrate, why it’s also good to repent of your sins, and how you can be kind to your children and still discipline them. It’s the usual, I think, and I hope it makes your Monday more impactful. I don’t have very many... Read more
I did not cook a trifle in Spain, but I cannot upload pictures for some reason, sob, so just pretend this is a ham sandwich or something. My mother has a rule that if you cook in a country, you can say that you’ve lived there, which means that we lived in Europe with rather a lot of gusto, because we did a lot of cooking. I still haven’t gone through my pictures, so maybe I’ll come back and add... Read more
Spent most of yesterday making a small mountain of food, all from an old book called Pies and Pastries—one of those lovely tomes ennobled by clear, bright, perfect pictures of various pies and dumplings and tarts. The oldest child (now 20) thought we should attempt various confections we never have time or inclination to try. Those included an apricot tart (too sweet, I think), plum dumplings, palmiers, puff pastry squares surmounted with bacon and mushroom, a quiche, and—to stretch me... Read more
It’s much easier to read if you prop some flowers on it. A clever online friend pointed out this week that it is totally fine to take a break from podcasting—and by implication blogging, I imagine—but the main thing is to let the loyal reader know, preferably in advance, that the break is forthcoming. ‘I’ll be offline next week,’ one might say, ‘but will be back with articles on the following subjects. See you then!’ This tried-and-true method has sometimes... Read more
