The History of the Ancient World - Book 2 - Classics Spin!

The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer is a chunkster of a book, 777 pages and was my Classics Spin which challenged me to read it by January 31st.  I did it!

I enjoyed reading the book immensely though I must say that towards the end I grew weary of battle after battle after battle.  Basically history is about empire building which means lots of regicide, fratricide, patricide, lots of trickery and infighting and wall building and battle going, murder and mayhem, torture, slavery, famine and plague.  All so some guy can say he's king of some territory for a while before it gets taken from him when he's murdered or dies and a power struggle breaks out all over again.

However, Susan Wise Bauer writes very clearly with a subtle tongue in cheek sense of humor that keeps things moving briskly.  She pulls from archaeological findings and classic historians like Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, court records from Sumer, Assyria and Babylon, the Old Testament, Josephus, Plutarch, Livy and others too.  And what's really interesting is that she also includes China and India in this history, so it isn't just Western Civilization.  There were subtle differences in cultural attitudes that sprung up, influenced by religion and circumstances of each civilization and the dominant men who molded the cultures, but mostly it's about empire building and lots and lots of battling.

We meet all the greats:  Gilgamesh, Abraham, Hammurabi, Ramses, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius and Cyrus, Solon, Pericles, Romulus, Confucius, Siddhartha, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Constantine. There are some women in there too.

Many timelines are sprinkled throughout the book to compare what was happening in one area to what was happening in another.  Lots of maps too. Both the timelines and maps are very bare bones, I think to make them very clear, however, they were almost too bare bones and simple for me.   I could have used a little more context to help orient myself. 

Wise Bauer does like to spice things up with references to various sexual practices or foibles.  I guess it's part of history and keeps things interesting.  So now I know Alexander the Great's mother liked to sleep with snakes and this made Philip of Macedonia lose his desire for her.  (He kinda found that repulsive.) The author gives you little tidbits like that throughout; mostly pretty perverted and illustrating just how nutso and depraved many of the conquerors were.  Lots of castration going on in various places too.

I actually found a typo on p. 574.  In the very last line the verb should be 'send' not 'sent.'  I always feel smug when I find a typo like that!

I challenged myself to read all three of Wise Bauer's history volumes this year.  I've decided to divide the year up into fourths.  January, February and March are given over to Ancient history.  April, May and June will be given over to Medieval history, beginning with her book entitled The History of the Medieval World.  And then July, August and September will be given over to her Renaissance history book.  Each of the first three quarters of the year, I will also read other corresponding histories and historical novels.  The last quarter of the year, I will read whatever I want!  By that time I'll need a lot of light reading, I can tell!

I highly recommend this book if you want to read a concise, clear and rather wry comprehensive history of the Ancient World.  For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Housekeeping Notes - last two weeks

I forgot to post about housekeeping last week but I was really rocking it!  (For me, anyway!).  Still did pretty well this week too.

1)  First of all we got all the rest of the Christmas decorations down and put away (except afterwards I noticed the big red bow on our staircase - not sure how that escaped me!).

2)  Deep cleaned the master bathroom, vacuumed and dusted master bedroom.

3)  Vacuumed upstairs hall and staircase.

4) Kept up with laundry - even washed our king sized sheets.

5)  Cleaned out front hall marble top dresser drawers and organized them.

6) Did a bit of decluttering counters and have been vacuuming the family room and kitchen regularly on account of the dog.

7)  Kept up on dishes pretty well.

8)  Got trash, recycling and compost out two weeks in a row!  Woot!  Cleaned out fridge a bit too.

9)  Cleaned out my bookcase over my desk.  Put a lot of books in a to-be-given-away pile.

9)  Fairly good at making sure R has breakfast and made him lunch 3 out of 5 workdays. 

Our new favorite cheese!

8)  Pretty good about meals.  Had a couple of great successes.  First of all I have always wanted to learn how to cut up a whole chicken.  I only buy my chickens whole anymore right from my CSA.  So I thawed and then cut up the chicken!  I followed a tutorial from the New York Times cooking section I found on youtube.  Then I made Chicken Cacciatore which everyone loved!  Another hit meal was something I made up I called Taco Pie.  I browned 2 lbs of ground beef, added in onions, lots of seasoning (cumin, chili powder, garlic salt, salt and pepper) then I added in some drained black beans.  Topped it with this great new brand of goat cheese - both cheddar and jack.  Then I crumbled up the last of some old bags of tortilla chips and put that over the top.  Popped in the oven til the cheese was all melty.  Everyone loved it!  I also made some CAVA copycat red cabbage slaw which we were eating for days.  And I made my very yummy salmon patties last Friday. 

Alas, I ran out of steam and have nothing for tonight's dinner.  So I think everyone is on their own.

Better Angels Workshop

On Saturday I went to a Better Angels workshop in my town, hosted at the library.  It went from 1:30 to 4:00.  Better Angels is an organization dedicated to depolarizing America.  The demographics of the meeting were about 30 people, with about 7 being men.  Most were older women, I'd say 50 and up.  Better Angels has you put yourself into either the Red (conservative) or Blue (liberal) category for purposes of learning how to listening and dialogue respectfully.  Only 5 there claimed to be Red.  I was amazed what some of the women shared.  How family members were struggling and had become alienated from each other over politics.  One woman was fighting with her mother, another said she and her brother couldn't get along anymore.  I haven't had that experience, thankfully.

Anyway, the point of the workshop is to get you to understand how real dialogue works.  First you have to be a good listener.  Too often we have immediately hostile assumptions that shut down our listening as we struggle to think of how to respond or how to put the person in their place and prove them wrong.  You want the person to feel that you are listening respectfully.  The way to do this is to:

1)  Paraphrase back to them what they've said to make sure you've got it right.
2)  Go into the conversation with curiosity as your motivation, not winning a debate.   You want to know the person's perspective.  So ask questions of real understanding rather than loaded questions.
3)  Listen for underlying values and aspirations.   This made me think of what R always said.  People either want fairness or freedom.  It's whatever one values the most, that will change one's perspective on issues.


For speaking skills, we learned:

1)  Use I-statements
2)  Use the wording 'what I'm concerned with' or 'what troubles me' or 'what worried me' to preface your objection to something.
3)  Mention an area of agreement or similarity, if there is one.
4)  Before expressing disagreement, say some form of "I hear you" and summarize what you hear and then pause.  Then say What I want to say is. . . . and then say it.  When people feel they've been heard, they'll naturally let you talk. 
5)  If you feel strongly, say so matter of factly and explain what personal life experience leads you to that strong emotion.  This humanizes you to the other.  They may still not agree, but they'll not feel hostile.  They'll see why you might think differently.
6)  If things are getting emotional, it's ok to just agree to disagree.

Better Angels is focusing on getting people in real life to learn to engage each other respectfully and openly.  Learning how to dialogue means we can actually work together for compromise.

It was a really interesting learning experience.  I learned that I am really bad at role playing.  I was supposed to be a red, but the topics were gun control and immigration and I really swing left on those.  I couldn't keep it straight though so I kept using talking points that actually were blue!  LOL.  Fortunately, the guy who was helping me was part of Better Angels and not just a newbie attending.  And he was as purple as me.  We wound up just agreeing with each other!

So now I do think I'll join Better Angels officially.  There is a local alliance group very near me.  I am already set to attend their next meeting.  Better Angels is also streaming the State of the Union speech with commentary from the Better Angels folks. 

The Spirit of the Border - Book 1

Really bad cover art.

This is a weird read for me.  I read Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey on my Kindle.  I've been struggling with insomnia, so I searched the Kindle trying to find a free book.  I wanted something that wasn't British, since I've recently reread so many Austens.  I like the Kindle for middle of the night reading because you don't have to turn on a light!  I picked this one for some reason.  A few years ago I read Zane Grey's most popular book, Riders of the Purple Sage, and was surprisingly impressed by it.  This book however, had so many uncomfortable elements to it, that while it was an interesting read, it wasn't a pleasant one.

The border referred to here is somewhere in the Ohio wilderness.  The book is set on the border between the colonies and the American Indian territory or maybe it was British territory.  The story is based on a massacre of Native Americans who were living with the Moravian Christian missionaries.  Apparently, many of the Delaware tribe had been converted.  However, there was such ongoing bloodshed between the pioneers and the natives, tensions ran so high at one point soldiers from the Pennsylvania militia went in and massacred all the converted Indians in the village, ironically named Village of Peace.  This actually happened and is called the Gnadenhutten massacre. 

Apparently, Zane Grey's ancestor was Jonathan Zane who figures in this story.  Grey really changed the story up from what actually happened though and makes it seem like some horrible renegade white men have riled up the unconverted Native Americans to want to kill the Christian ones. He has Williamson, the captain of the militia and responsible for the historical massacre, at the scene but refusing to help defend the Indians from slaughter.  So Grey really played around with the facts.

This book was published in 1906 so the characterization of the natives is really stereotypical and Grey uses lots of words we'd find offensive today, such as red man and paleface and savage, etc.  However, even though it really is steeped in superior white man vs savage red man, there is also respect for some of the Indians, if they have become Christian.  And even without being Christian there are some positive language about the nobility of the 'savage.'  The white men who go out into the wilderness are strong, toughened and ruthless.  But every interaction is bathed in steep awareness of the different races.  Honestly, in today's climate of intersectionality and hyper-awareness of what 'categories' everyone belongs to, all I could think was: the more things change the more they stay the same! 

There's a lot of brutality, scalping, stabbing, torturing, relentless pursuit, beautiful girls getting raped and murdered.  It's pretty gruesome towards the end of the book.

The plot centers on two brothers, identical twins.  One is a Moravian preacher and the other longs to live a free life of adventure in the wilderness.  They both love the same girl, the daughter of an older missionary.  Three different romantic relationships bud and bloom during the book.  Or four, if you count the one girl who is loved by both the brothers. 

Grey is a good writer; He's descriptive but stops short of being purple prose.  The people are a bit wooden and not quite as fleshed out and nuanced as some of the greater writers, but he one can see why Grey's style was so popular. 

It was an interesting read from a sociological perspective.  R who is currently on a reading jag about the progressives during the turn of the century/early 1900s was saying how awful they were.  They really did think they could perfect society through science.  Eugenics was part of that and the ever present American original sin of seeing everything racially was a potent ingredient.  It's such a shame humankind can't love one another better.  But, as I say, even in a book so replete with racially divided thinking, there were glimmers of humanity. 

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

My New Garden

Over a year ago, I decided I wanted a food forest for a yard.  I'd been reading about permaculture and regenerative agriculture and watching these homesteading channels where people are trying to use best practices to raise food for their families in an environmentally friendly way.  But I knew that I am too old, tired and inexperienced to ever start a project that big on my own.  Fortunately we can afford to hire gardeners and so we did. That was my Christmas present (and probably birthday too).  It's pricey but we got a contract with a permaculture garden company called Organic Edible Gardens.   It took a long time time (a year) before they got started.  I think it is a small company who does quality over quantity.  However, now that they are really creating the garden, I am pretty excited.  I got these photos just before the big snow.  I'm praying the plants will do ok.  I was worried about them being planted so late in the season.  We'll see how they do.

First the boring part.  At least to me.  Our front garden was suffering from severe neglect.  The liriope had overgrown under our Japanese maple tree and we could barely get to the bench that was under there.  R really didn't like sitting there anymore because he was afraid of ticks in the long grass.  So it was going unused.  Now they have planted a low growing ground cover under the tree and we've moved the bench out to what will become a little niche area.

A new path that goes all the way around to the back porch has been put in. 

The part of the garden that was on the further side of the path in the front yard has been extended.

You can see the extension here.  The original part was lined with laurels that were dying.

If you around the back past the bench, you come to our new fence and gate with new path.  This part looks completely different.  This is where I start to get really excited. 

I think this will look so pretty when everything is in bloom!

Once inside the gate you have new plantings on the neighbor's side and on the dining room wall side.  These planting include a lot of neat things like pineapple guavas and fig trees and pomegranates! 

So many things have been planted, I have to keep going to look up what is where!

These are raised beds.  I've got 5!  These are for annual veggie planting.

I am really excited about this.  Trying to figure out what I will grow.

Right by the porch there are lots of cherry trees and blueberry bushes planted.  

Here you see the path, plantings to the left and right and a rain water barrel.

In the side yard near our fort, which is outside the backyard fence but still our property, we planted apple and almond trees.  

You can't really tell much from this picture.  The whole area will be more fully developed in phase 2 of our garden planning.

I started a garden journal and I'm trying to write as much info as I can about each plant, referring often to the big map the gardeners made for us.  

What I am really nervous about is wasting food.  So I'm trying to come up with simple ways of preserving.  I think I will primarily freeze a lot of food that I can't eat or cook with right away.  I also am going to be giving away food to people, if they want it.  I also am thinking if I wind up having way more than I can preserve or give away to family and friends, I will give some to the St. Vincent De Paul Society.  Strike that!  I think I will tithe 10% of the garden to St. Vincent De Paul or whatever groups takes fresh produce.

I'm going to be a grandmother!

I don't think I am supposed to go public, like public on facebook public, but I had to announce this somewhere or burst. 

I've known for a few weeks and even got to go with H. for tor the sonogram.  The plan is I'm going to be the nanny when H has to go back to work.  Due date is August 6th.  H wanted to wait until she could tell granddad and she did today.  Granddad is going to be a great granddad!  He was thrilled when he finally understood.  H gave him a plaque that said "Only the best granddads get to be great granddads!"  And next to this was a frame where she put a copy of the sonogram.  And granddad thought it was a photo of an ear.  LOL.  It did look a little like that. 

The sonogram was thrilling.  Baby measured 8 weeks, 6 days and his heart was beating strongly and he was moving around!  He looked like a little bean to me.  H is about 10 weeks along now. 

I'm praying all the time for this little one.  Since P comes from a family of two boys and his brother has two sons, H is convinced it's a boy.  Looking forward to being a grandmom, though it really does have a you-are-old ring to it! 

With B and S hopefully going off to college next year, I guess I won't have such an empty nest.  I'll have a grandbaby and of course, God willing, V and D will still be living here as well. 

A lot of changes coming up!

Housekeeping Notes - 1/12/19

On Monday I managed to deliver some of the appliances I cleared out to Habitat for Humanity.  I still have a couple more to get rid of plus I am stymied about what to do with the broken ones.  I'm never gonna get them repaired, am I?  I don't know who to go to!  But I hate the idea of putting them in a landfill.  Ideally, I would put them some place where I'd remember and then I would persevere in finding a place to give them to.  But the reality of this actually happening due to my own sloppy brain, is close to nil.  So I remain stymied.

We managed to take down the Christmas tree on Epiphany but not the rest of the Christmas decorations.  I'd like to do that tomorrow on Sunday afternoon.

I did manage to do laundry, keep clean cloth napkins on the table, make lunch and breakfast for R every day except on Thursday when I had a bad migraine and also on Friday he forgot to take his lunch so I ate it.  I managed to cook dinner every day except Thursday as well.  I was wiped out and the only thing I did all day was to hang out on the internet and then get off for a while to rest my eyes and then get on again.  It was a lost day.  The thing about dinners is they were hit and miss with most of my family.  I never know who is going to be eating dinner on any given night.  Makes it hard to cook for people.

On Wed I made it to Adoration and on Friday I made it to the 12:10 Mass.  Yippee for me.

I do think that the January blues and the fact that I've reduced caffeine have made me very gloomy and discontented.  Gotta fight that.

Friday I managed to pick up the family room and give it a good vacuum.  V has helped intermittently with the kitchen.  B has helped a bit, S not at all. 

Today I will pick up some more.  Granddad is coming over for lunch. 

Also spent a lot of time writing up B's transcript and dealing with the common application as well as specific things for schools who don't take the common app.  That's a headache in itself.

I got to p 413 in my 777 page book I have to finish reading by 1/31.

The gardeners have done so much work in the yard.  They've planted most of the plants and they've put in new paths.  They put up a temporary fence so part of the back yard can be a dog run and the other part is safe from the dog's digging.  I'm really getting excited about it!

We also booked a beachhouse in Sandbridge VA for summer.  I thought last year's Outer Banks trip would be the last for a while, but everybody is clamoring for another trip.  Unfortunately Will and Christina will probably be on their honeymoon then.  They aren't going right after their wedding 5/4.  They are waiting until summer and then going to hike some of the Camino de Santiago as a pilgrimage.  Isn't that cool????  Actually, it will probably be hot!

Speaking of weather, there is a strong possibility it will snow tonight.  I hope so.  That will be pretty.  Maybe we should go to the vigil Mass today.

Zero Waste and Clothing

I went to a talk given last night at a local parish by their Care for Our Common Home ministry.  I learned some shocking things.  Some of which I knew but had sort of forgotten.  In my area which is truly a 1% bubble with huge high end shopping malls and where 'retail therapy' is quite en vogue, fast fashion has taken over everything.  Here's some of what I learned last night:

• The fashion industry is the second largest polluter after the oil industry.
• We have a global wide glut in clothing.
• 70% of the world wears the developed world's cast offs.
• Many developing countries have stopped taking our second hand clothing though because there is already a glut, most of the fast fashion clothing is too junky even for recycling and it also hurts their own clothing industry.  A local merchant or manufacturer who wants to start their own clothing business can't because they can't compete against free clothes being given away by us.
• Synthetic clothing is polluting our waters big time!
• The clothing industry is also involved in bad labor practices including forced labor and dangerous conditions for mostly women and children.

What to do about it:

1)  Buy second hand clothes - I've been doing this for about a year now.  There is a great thrift store near us.  

2)  Buy natural fiber clothing - skip anything polyester - spandex is the worst and it is in all these yoga pants/leggings, athletic wear, etc.  

3)  If you are washing synthetic clothing either gently hand wash or wash in washing machine less frequently on the gentle cycle so you don't wear off the fibers so quickly.

4)  Patagonia brand has a 'Guppy bag' that helps with catching fibers in the washing machine.  This company which was a pioneer in the man-made fibers in active wear clothing that are now polluting the waters, apparently is trying to undo it's damage by coming up with something called a 'guppy bag'  This is questionable to me for several reasons.  1)  The bag itself is made of plastic!  2)  Patagonia doesn't seem to be pushing this bag much in countries that buy the most of its products 3) Patagonia is a well known supporter of abortion (which always irks the heck out of me).  So I haven't gotten the guppy bag yet.  I don't understand why I can't just use some other type of bag to wash these synthetic clothes in just as well.  I'll have to look further into this.

5)  If you have to buy something new and not second hand, research the company you are buying it from.   Buy from a company that has the best environmental and labor practices you can, at the price you can afford.  It is better to buy fewer clothes that are better made.   One speaker last night said she used the resource The Good Trade as her guide.  I just did a fair trade search for sock for Christmas.  As stocking stuffers I gave everyone organic cotton socks from Bombas.  I also just purchased a new nightgown (my pajamas are woefully tattered right now.  It's ridiculous!)  from a company called Sorella Organics.   However, somehow it didn't strike me that it was an Australian company.  So that was dumb.  And it's taking forever to get here too.  I'm in dire need!  I guess I could shop second hand. . .  I also recently bought an upcycled from water bottles, American made rain coat.  It was pricey but I am hoping it is the last raincoat I ever purchase!

6)  As for washing, apparently front loaders are easier on fabric than top loaders.  I've got a top loader so I can't change that anytime soon.  I do reduce the spin speed to medium.  Not sure if that does anything.

7)  One area I really need to improve upon is clothes drying.  I need to get a good drying rack.  Here's a selection.  I've heard that the winged design holds the most clothes.  I could fit it in my deep tub in my bathroom.  I use the tub hardly ever!  I could easily dry clothes in it.  Of course lots of people dry their clothes on lines outside, but R thinks this is too hillbilly or something for our area.  He's sort of nouveau riche about some things.  Anyway, with all the rain we get around here plus allergies plus our new puppy who would try to attack any fluttering clothes plus my laziness about such things, I don't think an outdoor line would work for us anyway.

Some good developments in the industry:

• People are looking for ways to recycle clothing.  Insulation and packaging materials are beginning to be made from recycled clothing.
• Some companies are starting new buy back programs, where they'll take your old clothes from you.  Eileen Fisher is a fashion brand that was touted last night as being more socially and environmentally conscientious.  
• the whole minimalist movement, the Marie Kondo movement, the zero waste movement, and ongoing environmentalist movements are all having an impact, slow but sure, on changing industry practices.  So we have to keep up the pressure.

Menu for the weekdays

Menus for week:

Sunday
We got Persian take out- it was the Feast of the Epiphany!

Monday (yesterday)
B:  eggs
L:  CAVA
D:  slow cooker pork roast with apples and onions in apple cider, roasted butternut squash and green salad

Tuesday:
B:  sausage and fruit
L:  leftovers (R got salad with cheese and prosciutto)
D:  gf pasta with garlic and herb goat cheese and bacon, salad, peaches

Wednesday
B:  eggs
L:  leftovers (R ham roll ups)
D:  roast chicken or some kind of chicken dish with rice and veggies

Thursday
B:  eggs
L:  chicken salad for all
D:  tacos, raw veggies with guac

Friday (meatless)
B:  oatmeal
L:  tuna salad or peanut butter with fruit
D:  Salmon Caesar salad and stuffed baked potatoes

Books for January 2019

I don't seem to have any novels on the horizon right now.  I'm in a non-fiction mode.

I am going to start rereading The Grace of Enough for the Catholics for Zero Waste facebook group starting 1/9.

I am also trying to get through Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World.  This is a chunkster.  I have to finish it by 1/31 for the Classics Spin challenge.

I am still slowly. slowly reading The Light of Christ in the mornings for meditation.

I am also trying to read in Latin every morning for ten minutes.  I am reading out of Thirty Six Latin Stories.  These are simply retelling of Ancient Greek/Roman myths.

I am also reading the Mass prayers in Latin from the St. Isaac Jogues missal (which is a gorgeous book!)

The Ancient History Book is taking all my time so far.  It's 777 pages and I've not quite hit p. 300 yet.

Housekeeping Notes 1/5/19

Oh gosh.  Not doing well on the housekeeping front!

We did, however, clean out the garage last Saturday.  So it looks much better.  It still needs deeper cleaning and organization, but it is not the pit it was.  R took a lot of stuff to the dump and to Habitat for Humanity.

Today, I attempted to clean out some kitchen cabinets.  I discovered many old jars and tins I was saving for some reason, old ice cube trays, the lids to both tupperware stuff and random dishes that have no match, some old vases, my broken crockpot (missing a lid too), my broken blender, not one but two food processors.  I think one might be broken and the other one I got for Christmas a few years ago, put away in the cabinet and promptly forgot about it!  I have to sort through them and figure out if I have the necessary parts and if the one actually works or not.  I'll give away one.  An automatic can opener that I haven't used in years and I think wasn't working so well anyway, our old breakfast sandwich maker which we loved until S decided he didn't like way it cooked eggs and then we went gluten free and gf English muffins are an abomination.  So we just don't use it anymore.  I also uncovered the wheat mill that I used about 2x, the ice cream maker we used maybe 4x ever, the milkshake maker sans it's matching cup, old grill pieces that went with our old panini maker (which I think I got rid of?  I don't know where it is.)

What I mean to keep in the cabinet by the sink - this is for most used items:

My salad spinner - I use this at least 1x a week if not more
My rice cooker - ditto
My slow cooker - also ditto
My new Magic bullet blender - for making smoothies - B likes these but hasn't been able to make them since the blender broke.  I just bought this one on sale.
Josh's new sous vide
On the shelf - some of my lesser used platters

Cabinet further from sink:
One of the food processors
The Instant Pot - Honestly, I hardly use it.  But I should try more!
The Milkshake Maker - It's R's.  I hope we can find the missing cup or get a replacement
The Air Popper - this was a cute gift from R's parents years ago.  It's noisy but it's cute.  Looks like a Popcorn vendor's stand.

Staying where they are:
My waffle iron lives in the upper cabinet by my oven.  It's heavy and that puts it right across from the island where we use it.
The Kitchen Aid mixer stand - that's on the bottom shelf of the same cabinet by oven.  It's also heavy and when we use it, we always use it on the island right there.

If I were being really strict, I'd get rid of the Instant Pot and the Air Popper.  I like making popcorn on the stove with coconut oil.

Tomorrow is Epiphany so we'll take down the Christmas tree and pack up all the decoration.  I am going make a nice dinner though with dessert to celebrate.

New Year's Resolutions 2019

My word for this year is DISCIPLE.  A disciple needs DISCIPLINE.

1)  First discipline is to wean myself off caffeine.  I live for caffeine but I think it is causing me issues (both sleep and stomach), so I need to take a break from it to see if I am right. This will be my little mortification for 2019.  I hope to slowly wean myself off it until Lent starts where I will completely avoid it and then hopefully will continue that avoidance for the rest of the year.  My plan is to go from 4 scoops of caff. coffee to 3 caff and 1 decaf for the first week.  Then, switch to a 2:2 ratio, then a 3 decaf: 1 caff, and finally to only decaf.  Decaf coffee does still have some caffeine in it, so I may try to switch to herbal teas or decaff tea (which, unlike coffee, gets completely decaffeinated in the process).  If I get a migraine though, I reserve the right to use caffeine in a medicinal way!

2)  Housekeeping help.  I feel this semester and summer are the last times when I can instill some common sense discipline into my two youngest kids.  Both are planning to go away to college next fall.  I have spoiled them mightily in terms of helping out around the house.  So, I am going to ask them to step up to the plate when it comes to housekeeping such as helping to clean the kitchen each night, helping with cooking, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming, that kind of thing.  I was better at this with my older three kids.  But S proved daunting in this regard and I kind of gave up after that.  But to deny kids the capacity to take care of themselves and their belongings really debilitates them.  Every time you do some little or big thing to keep order in your life, it helps you feel competent.  And also it helps with seeing the consequences of your actions.  If you live in a way that you go about strewing a trail of mess behind you, it bleeds over into other things.  You don't build a habit of conscientiousness and so you are more forgetful about school assignments and little responsibilities like filling the gas tank or getting the car inspected or remembering to turn off lights when you leave the room or returning library books back on time (or reasonably close to back on time!).  If you have a vivid sense that there are daily aspects you have to take care for, you build being conscientious.  Conscientious people are competent, considerate and happier because they don't have quite so many little nagging loose ends to grapple with all the time.

3)  Healthy habits - I used to have to do stretching exercises every morning (I still do some) just because I woke up feeling so stiff and sore.  I'd lie in bed all night with my body aching.  I still get twinges now and then but it is no where near like it used to be.  Why?  I believe, even though it is slow and subtle, the fact that I stopped eating gluten and went on this anti-inflammatory diet, has made all the difference.  Not only did I lose a few pounds but my underlying feeling of well-being got a boost.  I'm not perfect.  I still grapple with low energy and headaches, but I do not have the constant chronic stiffness and achiness I had before for many, many years.  That's something!  That's why I am going to get R on this diet as well.  I have committed myself to making 3 meals a day for him.  My focus is going to be food, food, food for 2019.  Skipper has been a blessing for me too.  I walk a lot more than I used to.  And I feel its benefits.  I go out and enjoy nature.  I watch the sunrise and hear the first bird calls.  I wander up and down the paths and streets of our neighborhood every day.  I hope to increase everybody's physical activity this year in some way.  Getting B to walk the dog every afternoon is so good for her.  Making sure she's going on hikes and swing dances is also good for her.  She hasn't been involved in theater this year so she's not going to rehearsals where she's practicing dances.  She spends way too much time lying on her bed complaining of feeling ill.  She needs an enjoyable but a steady, slow increase in physical activity.

4)  Prayer Life.  This should be first probably!  I hope to be more disciplined in terms of regular prayer.

• Pray/read each morning, pretty good at this; could always be better
• Follow the liturgical year,  ditto
• Go to a daily Mass once a week (probably Fridays), use to be great at this but have fallen away.
• Go to Holy Hour once a week (probably Wednesdays), I did this occasionally this year and it was wonderful when I did, but I also got lazy about it.  Have a bit of a spiritual battle in my inner self going on over this.
• Go to confession 1st Saturday of the month.  This last one is a biggie.  I used to try to go to confession once a season, but now I really only remember to go two or three times a year.  So I am going to attempt once a month.  But I HATE going to confession.  I feel I don't confess well,  I have to work myself out of a mental block with it every.single.time.

5)  Attitude! I hope to pursue my duties and my hobbies with gratitude and gusto!  Attitude is everything.   This includes cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, watching D, reading, learning to garden, taking care of my pets, my online life of the facebook groups Catholics for Zero Waste and Catholic Relaxed Homeschoolers.  I am planning to leave the latter group upon B's graduation.  I already feel myself pulled away from it.  My involvement with my parish in terms of helping the homeless ministries and the Care for our Common Home ministry and of course the Latin study group I started this past September.  And I just need to be present to my family more.  I think I've fallen into bad habits.  I need to reduce time on the internet as well.  I think that will help with attitude a lot.

The Grace of Enough - Book 52

DING, DING, DING!  I made it to 52 Books in 52 Weeks!  Ta da!!!!

The Grace of Enough; Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture by Haley Stewart is a wonderfully wise, breezily written, but truly inspirational book. I really am a bit jealous of her, though.  I have had the same sort of thoughts, floating around, unripened and vague, in my own head for decades, but just now at age 58 are they really coming together.  And here is this young women so full of wisdom and insight.  I wish I had been as smart as she is when I was her age.

If you want a how to on living a more intentional, Christlike life in the middle of a consumeristic, materialistic, aggressively secular culture, read this book.  One reason why I like watching homesteading videos is because I love the fact that people are able to turn their back on the rat race, slow down, work hard, use their brain, brawn, time and talent to provide a home for their families.  A home that is home-centered and not just a house with lots of appliances, toys and stuff.  A home that creates, nourishes, and produces and is founded on love and intentionality.

I am going to reread this book for my Catholics for Zero Waste group on facebook. I'm looking forward to reading it slowly and really taking it all in, assessing where I am now and how I can move forward.

This was a good book to end this year with and it will be a good book to begin the new year with as well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!