Large Careers

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. ~G.K. Chesterton

(Thanks to the gals at ClassEd for reminding me of this gem!)

Conversation

Children do not converse.  They say things.  They ask, they tell, and they talk, but they know nothing of one of the great joys of life, conversation.  Then, along about twelve, give or take a year on either side, two young people sitting on their bicycles near a front porch on a summer evening begin to talk about others that they know, and conversation is discovered.  Some confuse conversation with talking, of course, and go on for the rest of their lives, never stopping, boring others with meaningless chatter and complaints.  But real conversation includes asking questions, and asking the right ones before it's too late.

      ~Charles Schulz

Nicholas Nickleby

I finished Nicholas Nickleby. I'm so glad Jenny told me to read it more as a fairy tale than as realistic fiction or I don't think I would have gotten through.

I love Dickens' way with words! Here are just a couple of quotes:

He was a tall man of middle-age with goggle eyes whereof one was a fixture, a rubicund nose, a cadaverous face, and a suit of clothes (if the term be allowable when they suited him not at all) much the worse for wear, very much too small, and placed upon such a short allowance of buttons that it was quite marvelous how he contrived to keep them on.

[L]et it be remembered that most men live in a world of their own, and that in that limited circle alone are they ambitious for distinction and applause. … Thus, cases of injustice, and oppression, and tyranny, and the most extravagant bigotry, are in constant occurrence among us every day. It is the custom to trumpet forth much wonder and astonishment at the chief actors therein setting at defiance so completely the opinion of the world; but there is no greater fallacy; it is precisely because they do consult the opinion of their own little world that such things take place at all, and strike the great world dumb with amazement.

Dickens is fun to read (for the most part), but I don't think I could stand a steady diet of him.  I wonder what it says about his view of the world that no one is redeemed?  The main characters are all purity or all evil.  The secondary characters are usually strange looking but have hearts of gold.

SDG!

Quotes

Conventionality is not morality.  Self-righteousness is not religion.  To attack the first is not to assail the last.  To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

~Charlotte Brontë

~~~~~

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about [arithmetic], and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?  How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?  No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.

~G.K. Chesterton

Kitchen Books

'Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship It is of great importance to the morale.'
~Elsa Schiaparelli

Drew finished painting the kitchen/dining room this weekend and he installed about 75% of the chair rail. It looks lovely! (pictures coming soon...)

I have a large hutch, which holds my china, nice wine glasses, special plates and trays, a few statues and one of my china tea pots, and lots of those odds and ends that make life beautiful, but that aren't all needed everyday.

I have a smaller hutch that I use for, what else? Books!

We emptied both hutches so we could pull them away from the walls to paint. I've got the big hutch put back together (and rearranged), and am working on the smaller one. I have several categories of books in the kitchen, some of which are about to find a new home, but I thought I'd list some of my favorite books in each.

'Where the guests at a gathering are well-acquainted, they eat 20% more than they otherwise would.'
~Edgar Watson Howe

Cooking

The Professional Chef: This is the text book of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Ours is the 7th edition from 2002. It covers just about anything you can think of, with detailed instructions and pictures of each step. This is the book for those who want to learn the techniques of great chefs.

Herbs & Spices: The Cook's Reference, a DK book: Like all DK books, the photography in this one is superb - two-page spreads of any and every herb and spice you can think of and many you can't. It includes the history of each spice, recipes, foods it goes well with, buying and storing tips, etc. It inspires me every time I browse through it - a bookish food muse.

Culinary Artistry, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page: This isn't so much a cookbook, but a book about food. It includes a few recipes, but is really more about the creativity of composing your own recipes and dishes. Much of the book's value comes from the lists of foods that go well together. This is another of my bookish food muses.

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: From the folks who bring us 'Cook's Illustrated Magazine'. I love this book not just for the tried and tested recipes, but also for the plentiful tips in each chapter. I must admit that as much as I love the recipes in 'Cook's Illustrated', I am as fascinated by the articles describing how each recipe was developed and the science behind the different techniques and methods.

I'm Just Here For the Food, Version 2.0, by Alton Brown: His down-to-earth style and clear explanations make this a gem! Also includes lots of sciency bits about how food works.

Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living , par Robert Arbor: Not so much a cookbook as a memoir of Arbor's childhood in France. The recipes are simple, yet elegant. I firmly believe that we Americans eat much too much pre-prepared food, with too many chemicals and additives; I call it 'pseudo-food'. Arbor (another bookish kitchen muse) inspires me to approach food from a different direction and perspective; slower and more thoughtful, yet delicious and family-centered.

'From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting…On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.'
~E.B. White

Baking

Dessert Circus at Home: Fun, Fanciful, And Easy To Make Desserts, by Jacques Torres: Yum! I've only made a few of these amazing desserts, but really want to make time to bake more with the kids and this will be one of my sources for the sweet stuff! The only thing is some of his ingredients are a tad hard to find. But that's what online shopping is for!

Williams Sonoma Kids Baking, by Abigail Johnson: I forgot I had this until I pulled it off the shelf last Friday. It's going to be shelved in an easily accessible place for use with the little ones.

The American Boulangerie, by Pascal Rigo: Subtitled French Pastries and Breads for the Home Kitchen, this is one I really knead to get back into. I used to make all our own bread. But the family got too big for me to keep up. I don't know that I want to go back to doing all our baking myself, but I do love to bake bread. Lots of comfort food here.

'In living, and moving and having something of our being in a home culture, even with its all-too-human fuss and bother, if we but smuggle in something of the simple cargo--sturdy, comfortable furniture, fresh food, home cooked meals, good wine, one set of fine china for special meals, paintings and ancestral portraits on the wall, an old upright piano, acoustic guitar, any non-electric instrument, a time set apart to read aloud before prayers and bedtime--if we but make a welcome hearth for the songs of the Muses, we too will know that even on this earth, now and again, a courage will visit among us in those comforting, beautiful reflections of the permanent things, quite surprising yet strangely familiar for us who are passing to and fro in these playful shadows, and we will begin to see as Odysseus recognized, "something very much like perfection.'
~James S. Taylor

SDG!

Mercy and the Local Church

That spirit of mercy that was in Christ should move his servants to be content to abase themselves for the good of the meanest. … Christ came down from heaven and emptied himself of majesty in tender love to souls. Shall we not come down from our high conceits to do any poor soul good? Shall man be proud after God has been humble?

…And likewise those [Christians] are failing that, by overmuch austerity, drive back troubled souls from having comfort by them, for, as a result of this, many smother their temptations, and burn inwardly, because they have none into whose bosom they may vent their grief and ease their souls.

Reminded me of this, which I wrote on the chapter title page:

…we do pray for mercy,
and that same prayer doth teach us all to render
the deeds of mercy.
~Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

SDG!

Puritan Reading Challenge Update

My copy of The Bruised Reed is on its way, but hasn't arrived yet, so I started A Lifting up for the Downcast. I've been underlining much, but wanted to post this quote from chapter (sermon) two.

So long as man has encouragement elsewhere, he does not encourage himself in the Lord his God. This being man's nature, and God having a design of love upon His own children, He permits a damp and discouragement to pass upon all their comforts: their peace to be interrupted, their hearts disquieted, and their souls discouraged, that so they may encourage themselves in God alone.

SDG!

Arts and Architecture

My first issue of The Intercollegiate Review arrived today. The quote on the back was an excerpt from Russel Kirk's essay "The Architecture of Servitude and Boredom".

Let us leave historical determinism to the Marxists and other ideologues. The courses of nations depend upon the energy and the talents of particular individuals--and upon Providence, always inscrutable. It remains true even in this mass age of ours that individual genius and courage--or at least, the imagination and boldnesss of a handful of men and women--may leaven the lump of dullness and apathy, all across the land. From causes which at present no one guesses, conceivably there may come about a reinvigoration of urban planning and architecture.... The architectural and artistic charlatan, leagued with the spoilsman and the bureaucrat, may be thrust aside, abruptly, by a new breed of architects and artists endowed with the moral imagination. Given faith and hope, it is yet imaginable that we may draw upon the architectural well of the past to bring into being an architecture strong and humane.
~~~~~
And, not from the Review, but quoted in the Gileskirk lecture we discussed today, from the quill of John Adams:

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.

SDG!

A Frowning Providence

I finished Behind a Frowning Providence last night. This little gem is full of comfort and wisdom from the Puritans as well as author John J. Murray, including several poetic excerpts. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes.

---

The most wise, righteous and gracious God doth often-times leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their own hearts, that they may be humbled; and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.


The Westminster Confession of Faith

I walked a mile with pleasure,

She chatted all the way,

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow

And ne’er a word said she,

But oh the things I learned from her,

When sorrow walked with me.


unattributed

Every work of Christ towards His people carries something more great and precious in the bosom of it than we are capable at the time of understanding.


Ralph Erskine

The vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction and then the wine of glory is poured in.


Thomas Watson

Prayer Answered by Crosses

I asked the Lord, that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace, 

Might more of his salvation know, 

And seek more earnestly his face.

'Twas he who taught me thus to pray, 

And he, I trust has answered prayer; 

But it has been in such a way, 

As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favoured hour, 

At once he'd answer my request: 

And by his love's constraining power, 

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel 

The hidden evils of my heart; 

And let the angry powers of hell 

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with his own hand he seemed 

Intent to aggravate my woe; 

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried; 

Wilt thou pursue this worm to death? 
“
‘Tis in this way," the Lord replied,

"I answer prayer for grace and faith.

"These inward trials I employ, 

"From self and pride to set thee free; 

"And break thy schemes of earthly joy, 

"That thou may’st seek thy all in me."

John Newton

God Moves in a Mysterious Way

“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

John 13:7

God Moves in a Mysterious Way
by William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.

A Bitter Bud

We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. 


C.S. Lewis

We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, “Blessed are they that mourn.” 


C.S. Lewis

---

I’m sorry for the long absence. I took some time off for Christmas and then January hit, and hit hard.

Our family, both nuclear and extended, has been walking through difficult times. We each have a long and painful path ahead.

In the past, I would have prayed for the Lord to move me through this valley as quickly as possible, impatiently running full bore to reach the end. But as I survey our current landscape, I begin to see that I would have been crushed had the pain come all at once. At times it felt as if I would be, but his grace is sufficient and has meted the grief out slowly over time. His desire is not to crush, but to purify and make us into the glorious image of his Son. His motive is not punishment, but love - he wants us to learn more deeply that he is our only hope.

---

Jehovah-Rophi. I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee

(Exodus 15:26)
by William Cowper

Heal us, Emmanuel! here we are, 

Waiting to feel Thy touch: 

Deep-wounded souls to Thee repair

And, Saviour, we are such.

Our faith is feeble, we confess, 

We faintly trust Thy word; 

But wilt Thou pity us the less? 

Be that far from Thee, Lord!

Remember him who once applied, 

With trembling, for relief; 

"Lord, I believe," with tears he cried, 

"Oh, help my unbelief!"

She too, who touch'd Thee in the press, 

And healing virtue stole, 

Was answer'd, "Daughter, go in peace, 

Thy faith hath made thee whole."

Conceal'd amid the gathering throng, 

She would have shunn'd Thy view;

And if her faith was firm and strong, 

Had strong misgivings too.

Like her, with hopes and fears we come, 

To touch Thee, if we may; 

Oh! send us not despairing home, 

Send none unheal'd away!



Quote Time

From The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul, Chapter 2, pp. 28-30:

If ever there was a man of integrity, it was Isaiah be Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a holy God. In that single moment, all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed--morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. ...

...He saw the holiness of God. For the first time in his life Isaiah really understood who God was. At the same instant, for the first time Isaiah really understood who Isaiah was. ...

...His was pure moral anguish, the kind that rips out the heart of a man and tears his soul to pieces. Guilt, guilt, guilt. Relentless guilt screamed from his every pore.


The holy God is also a God of grace. He refused to allow His servant to continue on his belly without comfort. He took immediate steps to cleanse the man and restore his soul.

(pp. 32-33):

Two important things must be noted in Isaiah’s reply [‘Here am I. Send me.’]. The first is that he was not Humpty-Dumpty. In the nursery rhyme, the fall of Mr. Dumpty is tragic because no one in the entire kingdom had the power to put him together again. Yet he was no more fragile than Isaiah. Isaiah was shattered into as many pieces as any fallen egg. But God put him together again. ...


The second important thing we learn from this event is that God’s work of grace on Isaiah’s soul did not annihilate his personal identity. ... Isaiah could still speak in terms of ‘I’. He still had an identity. He still had a personality. Far from God seeking to destroy the ‘self,’ as many distortions of Christianity would claim, God redeems the self. ... Isaiah’s personality was overhauled but not annihilated. He was still Isaiah ben Amoz when he left the temple. He was the same person, but his mouth was clean.

Jayber Says...

I finished Jayber Crow on Monday. In celebration, I thought I’d post a few of my favorite quotes, currently residing in my commonplace book (a red Clairefontaine journal that loves fountain pen inks) written in Noodler’s bulletproof Iraqi Indigo ink (a permanent, soft, sort of greyish/violetish-blue - very easy on the eyes and a Pendemonium exclusive) with a Lamy blue AL Star fine-point fountain pen.

It was impossible to hurry there, and so I settled myself into patience.

~~~~~

I became a sort of garden fanatic and I am not over it yet. You can take a few seed peas, dry and dead, and sow them in a little furrow, and they will sprout into a row of pea vines and bear more peas - it may not be a miracle, but that is a matter of opinion.

~~~~~

After the Depression and the war and the years of work that they were now beginning to think of as slow and too hard, the country people were trying to get away from demanding circumstances. … We couldn’t quite see at the time, or didn’t want to know, that it was the demanding circumstances that had kept us together.

~~~~~

They did not approve of government approval.

~~~~~

“God loves Port William as it is,” I thought. “Why else should He want it to be better than it is?”

~~~~~

…as I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think.