This girl, y’all. If I had the energy she has in her little finger, my house would be so sparkling clean.
It’s been awhile since I shared a little Carrots fam update on the blog, so here. we. go.
I figured we might as well get some homeschool in because it’s too dang hot to play outside when you’re not in the pool. So I’ve been reading aloud from a Greek mythology book and The Jungle Book (in preparation for going to see the movie at the dollar movie!). Benjamin’s been doing Life of Fred math and I’ve been going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Miss Lucy. Gwen is just along for the ride.
Last weekend we went to Austin for a day trip.
These nerds found some Star Wars art.
And Lucy discovered her undying love for La Croix.
Then we had the VERY great pleasure of house sitting for some friends. When you live on a farm with no flushing toilets, house sitting is THE LIFE.
We snuggled their puppy dogs, ate all their cereal, and flushed all their toilets. It was basically like vacation at Downton Abbey.
Summer is flying by! I always have a long list of writing projects I want to tackle over the summer, but they never get completed. Not when there’s tomatoes to pick and swim lessons to go to.
Gwen has been honing her fly-swatting skills. She is greatly feared by all farm insects.
And don’t forget! TODAY is the very last day to grab your FREE Caldrea goodies from Grove Collaborative.
Trust me when I say these scents are amazing. And Grove has my heart. So don’t forget to check out all the details before midnight!
Links:
On Episode 49 of the Fountains of Carrots podcast, Christy and I chatted about Nurturing Your Marriage While Making Tough Decisions.
I joined Rosalie on the This Catholic Life podcast last week. We had a really fun talk!
The Rise of the New Catholic Traditionalists: Devin Rose
I thought this was a really interesting and charitable piece. While we are NOT anti-Novus Ordo by any stretch of the imagination, we have a great love for TLM. You’d think that our kids would not be enthusiastic about attending Mass in Latin (especially since it’s longer than the masses they were used to in Florida!), but they love it and prefer it. This piece was interesting in explaining why millennials seem to be gravitating toward more traditional liturgy.
Castile Funeral at Cathedral a Sign of Mercy: Catholic Spirit
St. Kateri Tekakwiitha and the Care of Creation: Cari Donaldson for Catholic Exchange
Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible and Entitlement: Katherine Grimm Bowers (A review of a modern re-telling of Pride & Prejudice)
On Alton Sterling and why I will always film police interactions with people of color: Kristen Howerton
“If the anger around Alton Sterling’s death is confusing to you, it’s time to listen. It’s time to research. It’s time to face the cold, hard facts about racial bias and police brutality. No one is saying that all police are racists. But they were living in the context of systemic racism . . . in a country that socializes us to be afraid of black men. Whether we like it or not, society conditions our impulses. We can try to counteract the systemic racism we’re living in, and many of us do, but research indicates that racial bias infiltrates our first response, before logic takes over. Please read the psychological studies below to understand more. We are all susceptible to this kind of bias, and that bias is life-threatening for my kids, and the kids of people you know. And nothing will be fixed until we acknowledge that it’s there.”
I have thoughts. So many thoughts on the police brutality and the racial strife we’ve been seeing in our country. I’m not going to share them all here today, but I do beg you to please, please listen. Please don’t hold on so tight to the narrative you are comfortable with at the expense of seeing the systemic racism that is so apparent in our country. I don’t process current events quickly, but I hope to write more eventually. <3
Lots of love,
Haley
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That article about Philando Castile’s funeral made me tear up (although it’s sad to me that some people are criticizing it being held in a Catholic church?). This is a really great article on why the system isn’t working for police, either: http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/policing-isnt-working-for-cops-either/
Also, after reading your blog (and some others) I sometimes think I’d like to homeschool when I have kids… but I used to work with kids and I’m pretty sure the emergent reader stage stuff took years off of my life. Exciting to see kids start to read of course, but also… rough. Reallllly rough. It’s almost impressive how many minutes can be spent sounding out the words “hat” and “cat” lol.
I think if I were teaching a classroom of emergent readers I would lose my mind, but just one at a time isn’t bad at all. And we take real easy and go slowly when it’s something the young reader is interested in. We’ve been doing this book on and off for a year with Lucy because she was interested but didn’t seem quite ready so we kept taking breaks. Now she’s really on a roll!
Charlotte, I’m so thankful you posted that link! I’ve been looking for something like that and wow, it just hit the nail on the head.
I learned to read with that book, and used it to teach my kids, too! Only we all stopped once we were actually reading and read books instead, lol.
Totally! Benjamin started reading books when we were about 2/3 of the way through but for some reason he really liked the snuggle time doing the lessons together so we finished it anyway 😉
I’ve so often thought that if I could just channel my kids energy, I could get so much done around here. I put child-size cleaning implements on their wish lists and they got them for birthdays this year. I won’t go into how that worked out, except to say that my house is NOT cleaning and I’ve learned about all the ways a tiny dustpan can be used as a weapon. LOL. And we’re doing 100 Lessons, too and I’m pretty impressed by how well it’s working for us. How do you like Life of Fred? I’ve been looking at it and it seems like it might be a good fit for us, I’d love to get your opinion.
I like Life of Fred a lot. I don’t think we could do JUST Life of Fred but it’s great supplementally and for over the summer 🙂
Thank you for posting about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile! I’m a convert with a lot of Protestant friends who care deeply about racial justice and I’ve been despairing a little trying to find Catholics who care about it! I’m praying and looking for a way to engage some of my white mom friends at our parish, to maybe read articles together and try to talk about race, even though it feels so taboo and hard to approach. Anyway, thanks! I really enjoy your blog. ?
So this is a random and unsolicited invitation, but y’all should move to southern Louisiana and homestead/homeschool/Traditional-Mass it up with us in Sunset. (And we shall fill it with poetry, as befits its golden-hued name!) My husband and two other men started a Classical Catholic homeschool academy (http://www.stjohnofthecrossacademy.com/about-sjca.html) and we’re all moving out to the country to start what is essentially a Catholic community for our families 🙂 We could use some good neighbors! (Here’s where I imagine you’re probably hearing creepy, stalker-ish laughter in your head, and I apologize most sincerely for that. It cannot be helped.)