Deep Clean: Pantry

I've had time to do some extra cleaning this month, so last week Hannah and I gave her room a deep clean and I also did the pantry.  It had been quite awhile since I had tackled the pantry, and it really needed it.  I was pleased that there were only a couple expired items that needed to be thrown away.  I'm diligent about keeping things in rotation and it's paid off.  I really hate to throw food away.  I may as well just put money straight into the trash.  In addition, the more I've come to realize how hard it is for people in some parts of the world to obtain adequate food, the harder I try to reduce my family's food waste. 

I didn't think to take before pictures, but here's an after:

The walls really are bright yellow.  I may paint them someday, but honestly, I don't care that much.  I got the wire shelves at Aldi and they've been very handy.  I moved all the canning jars and supplies to the (gigantic) storeroom, which let me move some things that had been on the floor to the top shelf (including the big pots and carboy Dave uses for brewing).  The pantry makes me happy now!

A Creative Life

 "Mrs Willet can tackle a hundred jobs, without having been specifically taught any of them.  She can salt pork or beef, make jams, jellies, wines, chutneys and pickles; she can bake pies--with all manner of pastries--cakes, tarts and her own bread, which is particularly delicious.  She makes rugs, curtains, and her own clothes.  She can help a neighbour in childbirth and--at the other end of life's span--compose a corpse's limbs for decent burial.  She is as good a gardener as her husband, can distemper a room, mend a fuse, and sings in the choir.

She is, in fact, typical of most countrywomen, and with them she shares that self-reliance which is the heritage of those who have had to face tackling daily jobs of varied kinds.

Mrs Willet is small and pale and yet she is 'always on the go,' as she herself will tell you.  The fact that she can do so many things, and takes enormous pride in doing them well, is, I think the secret of this apparently inexhaustible energy.  There are so many different activities to engage her, that when she tires of one, there is another to which she can turn and get refreshment.  From turning her heavy old mangle in the wash-house, she will come in and sit down to stitch a new skirt.  She will prepare a stew, and while it simmers on the hob, filling the little house with its fragrance, she will practise her part in Mr Annett's new anthem, ready for the next church festival.  And--this perhaps is the most important thing--she sees a satisfying result from her labours.  The clothes blow on the line, the skirt is folded and put away in the drawer ready for next Sunday; Mr Willet will come in 'sharp-set' and praise her bubbling stew; and, with any luck, Mr Annett will congratulate her on her grasp of that difficult passage just before the basses come in.

It is a creative life.  There is something worth while to show for energy expended which engenders the desire to accomplish more.  Small wonder that the Mrs Willets of this world are happy, and deserve to be so."

Village Diary by Miss Read

The Twelfth Day of Christmas . . .

. . . was actually yesterday, and I missed it.  But I did pretty well with my pledge to post everyday during the Christmas season, don't you think?

Let's wrap up the list of what I read in 2017, shall we? 

The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin--A sweet though sentimental children's story about a an invalid named Carol who was born on Christmas Day.  Caution for the tenderhearted: it has a sad ending.

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne--More adventures of Winnie the Pooh and friends.  I love the gentle wit of these stories!  They come as close to perfection in the world of children't literature as anything I know.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott--I had forgotten how moralistic this novel is.  There is lots of do-gooding and self-improvement in order to attain heaven, but there is still much to like here.  Beth seems too good to be real and a bit card-boardy, but the other three sisters are realistically drawn and quite likeable.  An enjoyable read that took me back to my childhood.

North and Sound by Elizabeth Gaskell--Long and meandering and twice as long as it needed to be.  I found I didn't like Margaret much and had little patience with her mother.  I hadn't read this before, but I had watched the BBC adaptation, which is quite true to the book (and which I liked better).

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell--I enjoyed this a lot more than North and South.  Well written and constructed.  The BBC adaptation is also true to the book.

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace--I missed all the Betsy-Tacy stories during my childhood and my daughters' childhoods.  I had not heard of them when I was a girl, and the library didn't have them when I was raising my daughters, and though I wanted to read them aloud, I never was able too.  It's perfect for girls who have just taken off in reading and want chapter books about other girls. 

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk--This is what I wish people thought of when they used the term "conservative."  So much of what passes for conservatism today really isn't.  This was hard and took a long time, but it was helpful to trace the lines of conservative thought from its early days. 

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher--Another fun girl book with a good message about not underestimating the abilities of children.  It's not preachy, though.  Fisher brought the Montessori method of education to America, and this book is said to incorporate some of Montessori's methods.  I don't know much about this particular philosophy of education, but a lot of what was portrayed in the book made good common sense to me.  Kids won't notice the message, though.  They'll just enjoy the story.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--Another re-read and what's left to say about this book?  Always fun, though this last installment of the series has some serious themes and losses (as do some of the others, come to think of it).  It's good to see the threads of the series come together and the loose end tied up. I will always be a Harry Potter fan.

So there you have it!  My 2017 reading line-up.  I hope you all had a blessed Christmas season and have an equally blessed Epiphany!

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

Elizabeth Shippen Green

More from my 2017 reading list~~

Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery--Two more childhood favorites and always so much fun!  When I was growing up, we had a set of the first three in the series and I thought that's all there were.  I devoured them over and over again until they fell apart.  Imagine my joy when I discovered as a young bride that there were five more!  This series taught me so much about beauty, especially finding it in the ordinary, and I will be forever grateful.  I will probably re-read one or two more this year.

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming of Age Crisis and How to Re-build a Culture of Self-reliance by Ben Sasse--Dave and I listened to this book on a trip last spring.  Overall I liked the book a lot and thought Sasse, who is a US senator from Nebraska, diagnosed the much talked-about problems with millennials pretty well.  He also offered a lot of solutions, many which I liked and others which I thought were pretty unrealistic, at least for many families.  It was great food for conservation on our road trip. 

All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot--Also re-reads and so very enjoyable.  I listened to these, narrated by Christopher Timothy, who played James Herriot in the equally enjoyable TV series.  Such a wonderful glimpse into another time, place, and way of life.

Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin--I picked this up for a dollar at a library sale, thinking anything with that title was bound to something I'd like.  Weeellll, it was just okay.  The author goes through month by month telling her readers how she made changes to her home life that she thought would increase her happiness.  It was so specific, though, that I didn't find it had much applicability to my life.  I confess I got bored and skimmed the last half.

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson--I read this near the beginning of the year and I don't remember much about it.  Take that for what you will . . .

Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy--This is early Hardy and his plot and characters are not as well developed as his later novels.  I adore Hardy, despite his depressing endings.  He understands human nature and writes astonishingly beautiful prose, but don't start with this one.  Start with Far from the Madding Crowd, which actually has a semi-happy ending.

The Ninth and Tenth Days of Christmas

I blew it.  I didn't get a post up yesterday.  So today I will just pick up where I left off and tell some more about my 2017 reading.

Murder on the Orient Express, Murder at the Vicarage, and A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie--I wanted to read Orient Express ahead of the movie release.  I had never read it!  But I never did get to the movie, though there is always Netflix or Amazon.  The book was so enjoyable that I decided to enjoy a couple more Christie mysteries, this time with Miss Marple.  Poirot gets on my nerves after awhile, but Miss Marple never grows tiresome.  I enjoy classic mysteries and Christie's Judeo-Christian morality and inventive plots never fail to please.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson--This had been recommended so many times that I finally took the plunge and read it.  It left me scratching my head, though.  It is beautifully and poetically written with the prose flowing as smoothly hot fudge over vanilla ice cream, but I just didn't get it.  Enlighten me if you can!

Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right by Ken Stern--The author really missed the boat.  I had high hopes for this book, but it was a disappointment.  Stern interacted with Republicans as if he were observing exotic animals in the zoo and never truly entered their lives or mindsets.  I think he thinks he did, but he didn't.  Now Stern can pat himself on the back for coming out of his ivory tower and mingling with the lower orders, but I doubt it did him much real good.  I will give him credit for trying, which is more than a lot of progressives have done.

Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder--Ever since I was a little girl reading these stories I loved have them.  In fact, because of these books I love pioneer stories in general.  Then my husband and I read the series several times to both our girls, and now we have embarked on the series again with our granddaughters.  When they spend the night with us we read several chapters before bed and they love it.  These are classic children's stories about westward expansion and settling the American West.  I am sure they have fallen out of favor due to their portrayal of settler/Indian relations, traditional family structures, and Christian values, but that's a shame.  There a few things that make me uncomfortable too, but they give an opportunity to have good conversations.  The benefits of the books far outweigh the few problems.

Paradise Lost by John Milton--I had never read this and knew I needed to, and I'm glad I did.  I confess, though, that I struggle with poetry, especially long poems.  I am too impatient for it and I see this as a flaw in my character.  I did gain some theological insight, however, and found parts of it profound.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit--A family in crisis is saved through the intelligence and creativity of the children, just like in Nesbit's best known work, The Railway Children. I love that about these two books.  Nesbit must have had a sincere respect for children and their abilities.  I appreciate the way the children work together and help each other out, yet they are real children with all the typical follies and foibles of childhood.  Enjoyable story, enjoyable read!

The Eighth Day of Christmas

More from my 2017 reading list~

Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture by Anthony Esolen--The best book I read this year!  Dr. Esolen's insights into diagnoses of what is ailing American culture are keen.  He cuts through politics right into the heart of what's happening in American right now.  This book is no Trump apologetic, either.  Dr. Esolen isn't concerned politics; his concern is what is happening to us as a country spiritually, emotionally, relationally, sociologically, and psychologically.  I had the great privilege to attend a conference last April in which Dr. Esolen was the plenary speaker.  (Dave and I even sat with him at lunch one day!  And he signed my books!)  I had already read Out of the Ashes so knew what to expect.  But I didn't expect him to recite long swathes of poetry by heart, often in the voice of a favorite actor.  Dr. Esolen is my favorite cultural analyst and this is his best book yet.

Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child by Anthony Esolen--The companion volume to Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, a brilliant treatment of childhood in contemporary America.   The former picks the thread of the latter.  Well worth reading and pondering!

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher--A lot has been written and said about the Benedict Option, much of it wrong.  Before passing judgment, you must read what Dreher himself says about this idea of his.  Clue: it's not about withdrawing from the world.  Instead, it's about engaging the world from a close-knit Christian community.  A lot of Dreher has say makes sense, but I didn't find this book as insightful as Out of the Ashes, nor as inspiring.  For me, reading Dreher is like being bludgeoned about the head repeatedly while reading Esolen is more like listening to Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech.  Still, Dreher has good things to say and I recommend his book.

Consider the Fork:  A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson--I really enjoy culinary and domestic history.  This was a fun, interesting book that deals with cooking and eating and all the attendant paraphernalia that accompanies them.  Wilson digs as far back as she can to take her readers from eating with fingers all the way up to food processors.  I bet you didn't know it was possible to wax at length about potato peelers and spatulas!

Bleak House by Charles Dickens--Re-read. Possibly my favorite Dickens novel.  (Contenders are A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield.)  Anthony Esolen (yes, him again :) ) calls Esther Dickens' finest heroine, and I agree. The 2005? series with Gillian Anderson is very well done and quite true to the book, but be sure to read the book if you haven't.  For an audio version, you can't top Simon Vance as a narrator, in my opinion.

When Dave and I were in London this summer, we visited the Dickens Museum, which is housed in the only house still remaining in which Dickens lived.  Here are a few highlights~

Dickens' writing desk.  He wrote some of his novels at
this desk, including Great Expectations.

The elegant dining room in the Dickens house

The reading desk Dickens had designed and built specifically for the dramatic public
readings he gave of his works.  He toured extensively, including in America.  He is said to
have been very good at portraying his characters.