This Week’s Miscellany: Vol. 168 (Big News, Our Easter Best, Farm Dogs, and Reads)

Welcome to This Week’s Miscellany, the occasional round up of Carrots family updates, photo dumps, books I’m reading, links I loved, and big news. 

It’s Eastertide! We survived another Easter Vigil with three kids. It gets a little easier every year and it’s totally worth the effort because of how much they love it. Even though it’s three hours. I mean, it starts with a giant fire and candles so that’s a big crowd pleaser with the 8 and under crowd. Then if they can make it through an hour of Scripture readings then the baptisms and confirmations of all the new Catholics are pretty thrilling, too. And I think they can just feel the excitement in the air. All three kids managed to not burn themselves with candles and Gwen only bumped her chin on the pew once. Win!

I was 100% in love with everyone’s Easter outfit, but let’s get real. Benjamin’s the real fashion king this year.

Oh, and Daniel also exists and looked mighty dapper.

After going to bed at midnight after the Vigil, the kids woke up at 6am because THAT MAKES SENSE *insert all the screaming emoji*. They were all in a great mood for Easter Sunday and nobody cried about how much candy they could eat from their Easter baskets <–lie. At lunchtime we headed over to a friend’s house to eat food, jump on the trampoline, and have an Easter egg hunt. We went to bed early. Overall, I’d call it a big success.

Oh, and I’m now obsessed with peg dolls. Imma paint ’em all!

On My Bookshelf:

Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

I finished Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl and I’m currently reading An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden.

Then this lovely arrived in my mailbox, so I’m reading it, too. It’s beautiful. I’ve been anxiously awaiting it’s release every since I heard Tsh was writing a book about her family’s trip around the world. I loved her last book, Notes from a Blue Bike but this one is going to be my favorite I can already tell. The writing is breathtaking and it will make you want to pack your bags and start adventuring.

Your Farm Cute Attack:

The farm got a new puppy. She’s not a pet, she’s a working farm dog. Her name is “Dog.” I’ve been advised that I’m not allowed to snuggle her because she’s got a JOB to do and shouldn’t be treated like a pet but this is obviously killing me because LOOK AT HER PRECIOUS FACE. She’s already taking her guarding the goats and sheep role very seriously.

My folks are in town so we’re showing them the sights and my house is cleaner than it’s even been before because when your mom is coming you remember that you have baseboards and that grownups dust their baseboards and therefore you should consider taking action in this regard. Speaking of the house, I took the obsessive cleaning opportunity to take pics of the house so I could offer a house tour in a “secret post” to my email subscribers this Wednesday. So if you want to join the list, just sign up here.

This is not my house. (Ha!) But isn’t this an incredible room? It’s my favorite spot at Baylor, my alma mater, in the Armstrong Browning Library and we took my folks to see it yesterday. The rumor is that the room inspired the ballroom in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I’m not 100% sure it’s true, but I’m choosing to believe it.

Podcasts:

This interview with Laura Fanucci of Mothering Spirit is one of my top five favorite episodes we’ve ever recorded. Laura’s story is absolutely amazing and I know you’ll love listening. And did you catch our book club episode about The Blue Castle? It was so FUN.

And if you love Flannery O’Connor or would like to get to know her better, you will ADORE this fascinating podcast episode from Circe Institute with my favorite college professor, Dr. Ralph Wood.

Links:

ICYMI: How A Lump in My Breast Gave Me a Very Memento Mori Lent: Carrots for Michaelmas (I shared straight from my heart in this one.)

How the Catholic Worker Showed Me What It Means to Be Catholic: Shannon Evans for America Magazine

A Journey in Ink: U.S. Catholic

At Home in Middle-Earth: Becoming Strongholds of Goodness: Tea with Tolkien

Netflix Should Not Pervert ‘Anne of Green Gables” to Make It More Realistic: The Federalist

Gardening as Medicine for Millennials, And the Rest of Us: John Cuddeback for The Catholic Gentleman

Big News:

The 2017 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle Sale starts THIS Wednesday! My newly expanded 42 page ebook, Making Big Life Changes Together: Pursuing Your Dreams as a Couple is included this year.

I’m not allowed to share the details of what other ebooks and ecourses are in this year’s bundle until the sale starts and I’m just BURSTING because they are fantastic. And just wait til you see the bonuses! As a participating author, I got to order mine early and so I’ve been getting great happy mail for the past few days and I can’t wait to share. There’s 106 resources for 97% off, so stay tuned! In fact, to be sure you don’t miss it, go ahead and sign up to be notified when the sale goes live.

Come Party with Me!

To celebrate bundle week, I’m going to throw a Facebook Party for the Carrots community!

Did you see that? Lily Jade? I’ve had my eye on one of those bags for ages and I’m thrilled to be giving away such an awesome prize! If you’ve never been to a Carrots FB party, they are truly a blast. We chat in our jammies and drink tea (or wine) while connecting and discussing great topics. So definitely put this on your calendar! You can RSVP here.

Hope to see you there!

Lots of love,

Haley