Education

Education is our path to true humanity and wisdom. By this I do not mean simply what goes on in school and university--which all too often turns out to be a path in another direction entirely away from both humanity and reason. I mean the broader process that engages us all through life. To be alive is to be a learner. Much of the learning we do takes place at home, in the family, or after we leave both home and college and begin the struggle to survive in the wider world. Increasingly, in a society shaped by technology that is continually changing, we need to learn a new skill: how to keep learning. We must be flexible and adaptable enough to survive in any circumstances. Even more important than flexibility is a virtuous character and set of guiding principles that will enable us to keep track of goodness amid the moral and social chaos that surrounds us.

~Stratford Caldecott, Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education

Diagnoses and Cures

I'm reading a novel and got to a place that has stopped me cold.  I'm not going to name the novel or the author because I really don't think it's that great and don't want to recommend it, but an exchange between a couple of characters is yet another example of a trend I've been noticing the last six months or so and if I don't write about it, I won't be able to finish the book.  It's an okay right-before-I-turn-the-lights-out-to-go-to-sleep read, in other words, I'm not finding it completely unpleasant, but I also don't care enough about the characters that I simply must read another chapter.

One character says to another:

'You have to make allowance.  […]  She's got eight kids and a husband who spends even more time in the Mucky Duck [the local pub] than Seamus Galvin.  What we need is some decent kind of contraception … like this pill thingy.'

Those of you who know me know that I have a basic problem with the very idea of contraception, but that's not what I'm going to focus on {shocker!}.

Read it again.  This poor mom's problem is diagnosed pretty well.  Her husband isn't acting like either a husband or a father.  But look at the logical hiccup when we come to the proposed cure - more contraception and fewer kids.  Maybe this mom and her children would be better served if the local community took a two by four to her husband's head and insisted that he man-up and care for his family instead of running away from his responsibilities.  Would she really be better off with two kids and a husband who abdicated his role as husband and father?  And which kids shouldn't she have had?

I saw the same thing in Atlas Shrugged.  Ayn Rand identified certain societal problems with laser-like accuracy, but her solutions were empty and unworkable, as substantial as a cobweb.  I see the same thing going on in Washington, Phoenix, and our local city council chambers.

We must think clearly about both problems and solutions.  If we don't consider deeply and follow a problem all the way to the root, our efforts to help will merely make the situation worse.

SDG!

Furniture Arranging Philosophy

Since my dear daughter asked, here it is.

I'd rather that my livingroom furniture be arranged to promote conversation and intimacy than to have everything focused on the television set.  I like things somewhat balanced, too.  And I appreciate being able to see my baseboards occasionally (otherwise the room feels cluttered - can you hear my daughter laughing as she reads this?).  

Before Christmas, I came home from our history/humanities discussion group to find the furniture had been rearranged to make room for the Christmas tree {shock!}.  The chairs, couch, and settle were arranged in a way that made conversation difficult and uncomfortable.  One had to strain to see others' faces and seating was pretty spread out.  I felt unsettled when we'd try to have any kind of conversation, but the television and the tree were visible from every seat.

We recently rearranged things and I like it so much better.  Every seat looks at another seat and faces are easy to see.  We're having much better economics and logic discussions and I'm getting the urge to read another book out loud to the kidlings.  We shift the settle when we watch a movie, but that means we must be more intentional about switching the television on, so that's a benefit.  (Not that we watch a lot of broadcast television (hardly any actually), but we were tending to turn on the Roku box too often.)

SDG!

My Grocery Shopping Philosophy

A philosophy for grocery shopping?  Well, yeah, I think we should have a philosophy for everything - grocery shopping, furniture arranging, the way we dress - everything (whoever said caring for the home was a mindless job certainly had no idea).  

So, here's my grocery shopping philosophy.  [drum roll, please; cue the choir] 

Purchase ingredients.

Whew!  I'm glad I got that off my chest!

I'd rather have my pantry stocked with flour, oil, cocoa, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda and powder and my fridge with butter, milk, cream, eggs, and yeast than with lots of packaged mixes.  With those ingredients, I can make brownies or crépes (sweet or savory) or yellow cake with chocolate frosting or sugar cookies or pancakes or tortillas or bread or crackers or biscuits or baguettes (my newest baking challenge) or pie crust or English muffins or crumpets; you get the idea and I'm getting hungry.  Making sure that I'm stocked up with the basics gives me much more flexibility than purchasing mixes.  I can go with the flow much more easily.

So, why is this a money saver?  Well, even though I've rarely seen a coupon for a dozen eggs or a gallon of milk, ingredients still end up being cheaper than mixes.  They're also healthier.  And if you find a screamin' deal  (let me know, okay?), most can be stored without refrigeration (storage costs need to be figured in, too).  Just as it's easier to de-clutter the kitchen with multi-use tools rather than lots of space-hogging, single-use gadgets, it's easier to declutter the pantry with multi-use ingredients rather than lots of single-use packaged mixes.

Using teriyaki sauce as an example: I could purchase a bottle of teriyaki sauce.  It wouldn't take up that much space.  But it's teriyaki sauce and that's all it can ever be.  Yes, I can use it in a meat marinade (recipe coming soon) or in stir fry, but there isn't much else I can do with it.  However, if I have brown sugar, garlic (something like this), fresh minced ginger, and soy sauce on hand, well, life just got much tastier.  I can use the brown sugar for granola, on yogurt, for cinnamon/raisin bread, bread pudding, pancakes, rum sauce, etc.  (Is there anything brown sugar can't be used in?)  I can add a bit of ginger to chicken soup, cookies, bread, pudding, tea for an upset tummy, etc.  Garlic goes in just about anything and we use it all the time.  Soy sauce goes well in marinades, soups, veggies, noodles, and rice.  I can still have teriyaki anytime I want to make it, but I have lots of other options, too, because I bought separate ingredients.

Now, it's not like I didn't have the ingredients for teriyaki on hand before, well, except for the ginger - that's a new thing in my fridge (I've never been much of a fan of dried ginger and the jar in my pantry is at least 25 years old, but the fresh stuff is heavenly), but by not purchasing a bottle of teriyaki, I'm saving space.  You could argue that I simply traded a bottle of teriyaki for a jar of ginger, but I can do so much more with ginger than I could with teriyaki, that I still think I've come out ahead.  But really, how much space does a bottle of teriyaki sauce take up?  Not much, but that's where having a full-blown philosophy comes in.  If I do this over and over again, searching out recipes that use basic ingredients that I have on hand for bottles, jars, or boxes of things I might otherwise buy, the savings in both space and money begin to multiply.

I'm still looking for recipes for my husband's favorite bar-be-que sauce, our favorite bourbon chicken from the greasy spoon at the mall, and orange chicken.  Alton Brown piqued my interest in making my own mustard.  I've already conquered Drew's favorite honey-mustard salad dressing, mayonnaise, hummus, and raspberry vinaigrette (all absurdly easy).  We've found fairly simple homemade ice cream and smoothie recipes.  I don't know if I'll ever find a replacement for ketchup, onion soup mix, or for canned cream of chicken soup (used in several dishes that are family favorites), but those cans, bottles, and boxes can be used in more than one dish, so I'm philosophically okay with them, at least for now.  (I have tried a replacement for the cream of chicken soup, but it wasn't worth the time it took to cook and it wasn't really a good substitute for the concentrated soup in the can - the texture was all wrong.)

SDG!

Vocational Reading: General & Marriage

I originally set up a list of 'vocational' books that have had an influence on me through the last 20 years, but the list ended up being absolutely huge.  I decided that it might be better if I divided the list out by topic. Some of these may be considered 'controversial', and you may not agree with everything written on every page, but that's okay. They've all had a rôle in shaping me. I hope to add to these lists as time goes by.

Womanhood in general:

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

Discipline: The Glad Surrender, by Elisabeth Elliot
Feminine Appeal, by Carolyn Mahaney
Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
The Way Home: Beyond Feminism and Back to Reality, by Mary Pride
Missing From Action, by Weldon Hardenbrook (primarily for and about men, but his discussion of the industrial revolution's effects on the family and the subsequent rebellion of feminists against something that was much different than biblical womanhood is spot on and eye-opening.)

Marriage:

When Sinners Say 'I Do', by Dave Harvey
Love That Lasts, by Gary and Betsy Ricucci
On Marriage and Family Life, by Saint John Chrysostom (haven't read this yet, but it's sitting in my Amazon cart and the author comes highly recommended ;-D)

NB: if you decide to purchase any of these books, please put it in your Amazon cart directly from the link given. If you go to another page and come back to the item, it will no longer have my associate's code linked to your purchase. I've been an Amazon associate for a couple of years (meaning I receive a small percentage of every purchase of items I've linked to) and have yet to receive anything.

Coming up next: lists about Motherhood, Home Education, and Housewifery

SDG!

Usefulness?

I've been thinking more about my post regarding the way I've been approaching kitchen maintenance lately.  As I continued to mull it over, I began to think it helpful to look at this in terms of usefulness; I want my kitchen to be useful.  But as I looked at it more, I began to see some rocks in that path.  I don't want to descend into hard-hearted utilitarianism and pragmatism, which measure everything by usefulness and therefore shut out beauty, goodness, and joy.  I continued to turn this over in my mind and I realized that it's not specifically about usefulness, rather it's about fruitfulness.

The world tends to look at life in economic terms, telling us that we are wasting our lives uselessly staying at home instead of making a contribution. The world focuses on usefulness. The world's schools train for usefulness.  The world measures people's worth by their usefulness.  The biblical response is fruitfulness. It's not about the economy, stupid. It's about so much more!

A kitchen that has every tool and lots of space to work in, but is stark in its efficiency is useful, but not so enticing.  A kitchen that is painted cheerfully, with pictures on the walls, curtains in the window, pretty utensils and crockery, music playing in the background is much more cosy.  The beauty nourishes the cook's heart as the cook works to nourish her family.

Besides efficiency, cleanliness, and orderliness, there are other, intangible aspects of keeping our homes that we mustn't lose sight of.  If I take an hour to complete work that could take me half that time, but I'm sharing a heart-to-heart talk with my daughter as we work, then that's a good and fruitful use of that time.  If my boys toil in the garden and get all kinds of work done, yet are at odds with one another when they're done, that's neither good nor fruitful.

Fruitfulness speaks to getting the work done, absolutely, but it also speaks to joyful relationships, spiritual riches, mended hearts, and encouraged souls.  If we remember this, the world's criticism will fade away as we make homes for our families, our friends, and even strangers.  

SDG!

Blogging and Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

My friend Carol blogged about why she blogs and asked her blogging readers to tackle the same question. She had some great thoughts about it and got me thinking.

1) Blogging helps me think more clearly. As I work to get my ideas into a form that others can understand, I refine them.

2) I need the practice writing.

3) I aim to be an intelligent, hopeful, joyous voice standing for biblical womanhood and all it encompasses: submission to my husband, joyfully teaching my children, working with creativity to make a comfortable home from which my family can serve the Lord and others. There are so many strident voices denouncing anything less than paid work and overreaching ambition in wives and mothers that there needs to be someone speaking the truth. I may not be a loud voice, but many small voices might have an influence.

4) Not only do I hope to speak truth in a hostile culture, but I hope to be an example to younger women and an encouragement to women my age and older. I don't read many blogs, but the few that I do read regularly encourage and sharpen me. It would be a privilege if my writing did the same for others.

5)  I hope to leave a written record of my thoughts for my children, a legacy for future generations.

---

In light of these reasons for writing, I'd like to recommend another book.

I recently re-listened to CJ Mahaney, Jeff Purswell, and Josh Harris discussing 'A Pastor and His Reading'. While I'm not a pastor, there was much food for thought there. One realization I came to is that, as a wife, mother, and home educator by calling, I should regularly include books about these callings in my reading diet (more in later posts about some of the other observations I've drawn from this whole series of podcasts).

Then a friend recommended this gem:

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

I nipped over to Amazon.com and was pleasantly surprised when my package arrived the next day.  (Amazon's two-day shipping is great!)

As I read it, I was refreshed in my vision of making a home and all that it means.  This isn't a list of practices and techniques, but a theological and philosophical defense of, well, keeping house.  Margaret Kim Peterson reduces keeping house down to Christ's commands to provide food, clothing, and shelter in his name.  However, while she reduces and simplifies the scope of keeping house to these three areas, she doesn't reduce their importance; she makes them larger. 

She also turned to Psalm 104.  As I read the excerpt through tears, I saw the Creator of the universe keeping his creation, putting it in order, providing for life and comfort -tasks that we see as drudgery and mundanity, yet the Lord himself does these things.

I came away from each chapter with a new appreciation of the work I've been called to. I've also realized that there are ways of thinking and talking about them that need to change. By the Lord's grace, I'm making these changes and I think that will be helpful in maintaining this new focus (more about that in later posts, too).

Not only was the content enlivening and inspiring, but the writing itself has an appealing, lyrical quality.  It was a joy to read and re-read.

SDG!