What to Do With Too Much Cheese

Following the Christmas holiday, I found that we had an inordinate amount of cheese. 

And we had six or more boxes of half eaten crackers. 

How did this happen? 

In fact, there are a number of reasons this came about including, but not limited to:

We were given a cheese ball. 

I also made a cheese ball before I knew we would be given one. 

Someone sent me home from our last day of homeschool co-op with two boxes of crackers. At the time, it seemed like a good idea to bring them home. 

But then our neighbors gave a generous box of assorted treats including some gourmet crackers (and sparkling cider), 

Someone in business gave Dwayne wine and a Boardarie charcuterie board, assorted brees, and even more crackers. 

We gave away some of the wine, but we still had a bottle. 

We took the cheese board and crackers to a Christmas party to share, but it wasn't really eaten, so we brought it home. 

Hence, all the cheeses and all the crackers and wine and sparkling cider. 

So I decided that's what we would have for dinner last night.

Adele helped me arrange the board and the table. 

We added fruits and nuts and olives and assorted leftovers like grilled chicken slices and goodies like raspberry bars that needed to be eaten. 

We played the card game "Debatable" while we ate. 

It was lively, festive, and memorable. 

And I didn't have to cook! 

Amen. 

My Reading in December

I finished my graduate school work at the beginning of December. 

While I was in school, I was always reading or rereading the books for my classes. 

And the books for my classes were quite challenging, so I devoted almost all my free time to understanding them.  

But now that I'm done with school, I can read whatever I want! 

It's glorious!  

This month alone, I've gotten so much reading done. 

I finally finished The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers. I had been reading and rereading that mystery for months at night before bed, trying to figure who did the murder before I finished the book. I think I read it three times before I allowed myself to read the last few chapters. 

You may be wondering if I guessed the murderer...

Not exactly.

But I did figure out all the people who had not done the murder, so that's something.  

(You'll have to read the book to understand more.)  

Then I listened to Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter and Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth. 

Then I read an entire book of Wendell Berry's poetry This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems in a little over one day. 

My appetite and enjoyment for poetry increases. George Herbert says, "a verse may find him, who a sermon flies," and I find this to be true of myself in this season of life. 

Honestly, I can read a devotional, and I am left cold. But if I pick up a book of poems, watch out! The Spirit rushes in and there will be tongues of flame flickering off my brow. 

Next, I listened to John Mark Comer's book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. 

And now, I've started reading The Country Diary of an Edwardian Woman by Edith Holden. I found this at our library's book sale. It's a facsimile of a woman's nature journal from 1906. She painted birds and herbs and flowers in wonderful detail with watercolor. She copied poetry. She kept a record of the weather and the sights she saw on her walks. It's a real treasure! 

I'm also reading through a little book of George Herbert's poems, but I haven't finished it. The verse I included above is in one of his poems called "The Church Porch." 

Almost all the books I read this month shared a similar theme. 

They all discussed the negative affects technology has had on humanity and the need to spend more time in quiet, rest, and humane activities like reading, making art, and taking a walk in nature. 

Christmas 2025

It was a beautiful Christmas. 

 

We went to the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. 

After church, we did our Advent readings and the girls opened new pajamas. 

On Christmas morning, I baked homemade cinnamon rolls. (We also had bacon, scrambled eggs, and fresh oranges, and coffee, of course.)

We had our final Advent readings and then opened gifts. 

Watching the girls open their gifts is one of my favorite things. 

For Christmas, I got an espresso machine! 

I've had to read the manual a few times to learn how to use it and then read it again to troubleshoot. There has been much trial and error over the past few days, and honestly, there has even been some exasperated exclamations, especially over the steam features. But everyone is loving this addition to our kitchen. 

One of the girls' gifts were headband headphones. Credit goes to my professor who told me about them. The girls love them! 

We've enjoyed some amazing meals over the past few days at home: 

pan fried steak and Brussel sprouts, 

cheese and chocolate fondu,  

salt and pepper crusted prime rib with sweet roasted potatoes, 

then leftover prime rib with soft fried eggs and crispy, buttery toast. 

Yum! 

And we've slowed down: reading, napping, crocheting, building new Lego sets and playing several rounds of various boardgames including chess, Catan, Seven Wonders, and Poetry for Neanderthals. 

I love these days leading up to Christmas, and Christmas itself, and then the days after Christmas. It's been lovely to slow down and be together, spending time just enjoying life in no hurry. 

Sourdough Cont.

Norah's home for Christmas. 

So I made two loaves this time. 

She's been gone to college for the length of sourdough exploits. 

When she bit into a slice, she mumbled through a mouth full of bread, "This is mag-nif-fi-cent." 

Family Read-Alouds

Ever since Norah went to college, the quality of our family read aloud time has suffered. None of us can read aloud as well as she can though we try. Now she’s home again to read to us.

A Fitting Happiness

I just finished reading and thinking and writing on Plato's Republic for graduate school. 

In it, Socrates speaks of the true shepherd, the true guardian, the true king, etc. 

The true shepherd considers the nature of sheep and fits himself to the tasks that are required for sheep to thrive. 

So in a way, even though a shepherd is a master of sheep, a true shepherd is also a servant to sheep.

This is because a true shepherd must submit to all the realities that the task presents to him if he wishes to be to the real thing and to do the real job of shepherding. 

Contrast the true shepherd with, say, a money-making "shepherd" who reduces his work with his sheep to a money-making venture and only raises sheep to fatten them for market. 

That kind of "shepherd" probably won't do half the work a true shepherd is compelled to do. 

A true shepherd is obviously still making his livelihood off his sheep, but his profit is secondary to his primary purpose, which is caring for sheep in truth. 

And then Socrates goes on to assert that a true shepherd or guardian or king, etc. experiences a particular happiness bound up with the job they are doing. 

And a true shepherd's happiness is tied up in the how well he is shepherding and how well his sheep are doing under his care. 

His happiness is natural to his job, fitting for his job, and limited by the reality of his job within the real world. 

A shepherd doesn't get to experience the happiness of a guardian or a king.

The guardian and king would experience a different happiness. 

But if they were true guardians and kings, they also have to be servants to their task, doing what is best for the creatures or people under their care. 

Socrates's talk of this fitting happiness struck me like a bell, and it has resonated all through the Christmas season. 

Perhaps this is the reason some people never seem to be happy.

Maybe they are looking for an inappropriate or disproportionate happiness to the one nature is offering them.

Maybe they want a different happiness than the one their particular life and work can provide. 

Maybe they have never become true to the work they are doing, so therefore, they don't get to experience the fulfillment nature provides from that job well done. 

Perhaps this is also explains somewhat why those who are truly happy get to experience happiness. 

Natural happiness is always, only, ever experienced as a limited, particular, fitting happiness based in our specific reality. 

And as I have thought about the true shepherd, I find that the same thing that goes for shepherds goes for mothers. 

As a mother, I am master of my home. 

But in a real way, being a true mother means I am actually a servant to my home, bound to do what my particular family needs to thrive in reality. 

And part of my job as master and keeper of my home in this particular season is to make Christmas happen. 

At this point, I've done with all the decorating. 

I've finished the shopping and gift wrapping, so many hours of gift-wrapping.

I am planning some special cooking and baking, but that can wait. 

For now, I have some margin to my feet up and enjoy leisure and take some time to reflect on my tasks this time of year. 

And I reflect that Christmas is a lot of work for a mother. 

Each tradition, however small, represents time and energy, and it all adds up to so much labor.  

I don't think my family could possibly know how much goes into it all, because they aren't the ones responsible for doing it all. 

But they still notice it all, and it helps that they appreciate when all the little things they look forward to are done again this year just like the years before. 

So this year, as I was working, working, working at Christmas, I was just as aware as ever that Christmas is "all up to me."

But I did not feel the weight of that like I have in years past. 

I did not feel any resentment like I have in years past.  

This year, Socrates has been on my mind in the midst of all my Christmas labor.

His explanation of the true shepherd has given me some insight into the burden I am carrying to make Christmas happen. 

Therefore, this year, all the labor has felt more like a fitting privilege that goes with the reality of my motherhood more than some unnatural burden. 

In many ways, as a mom, I am the culture-maker and culture-keeper of our home. 

(In fact, culture-making and keeping might actually be the essential work of motherhood.) 

So the Christmas traditions are mine to steward as part of the work of being a true mom.  

So I have given myself over to the task and all it actually has been requiring of me in reality, and naturally, it gives me back the particular happiness that true a mother has in this season.  

That happiness that I will experience as they open the perfect present for them and cry out, "Oh, Mom! Thank you!" or that happiness when they bite into their favorite cookies: 

it is a fitting and a real happiness that goes hand in hand with my life's work. 

It's all I can reasonably ask for, and it's fitting, and I do find it deeply satisfying, indeed. 

I have not sought a different happiness than the one I have been given. 

The happiness of a mother at Christmas is mine, truly. 

And this because the work of a mother at Christmas has been mine in truth.  

First Big Snow of Winter 2025

We had our first big snow. 

And after more than twenty years here in the north, as I look outside or walk in the woods or drive by the pond, etc., I have to admit.

Winters are my favorite now. 

There's something about them that suits me and matches the quiet of my heart. 

Homeschool Community

For every picture I take of my girls with their friends, there's a group of moms behind the camera. 

And those women are my best friends. 

I'm grateful that I know and love the women who are raising my kids' best friends. 

And I'm grateful I get to know and love my kids' friends.

We all, kids and grown ups, get together and banter and laugh. 

And then we split into groups of grown ups and teens and banter and laugh with people in our age group. 

And then we come back together and banter and laugh.  

And then we all go home with our own kids and we banter and laugh in the car on the way home. 

I don't know how it is for women raising girls in a regular school setting. 

Do you get to know the parents of the kids your kids are friends with?

In a homeschool setting, we get to build an amazing community of interwoven generations and conversations and laughter. 

And memories. 

For every picture like this, I remember standing shoulder to shoulder with my dearest friends. 

Peace

Our peace lily, given to us by a friend when Dwayne's dad died, is blooming right now. 

It's loveliest in the morning sun. 

It reminds me of Dwayne's dad and my own.

Both have passed. 

Both put their faith is Christ and asked Him to save their souls.

So I have hope that I'll see them again, and that maybe, too, they can see me, and they know I am doing well and thinking of them when I see my peace lily in the morning sun.  

 

Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

Dwayne's boss gives the best gifts. 

He sends grapefruits and oranges from Florida every December. 

We all cheer! 

He also gives delicious chocolates. 

This year, around other chocolate goodness, he gave us a box of Bridgewater Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans.

These are the most delicious candy I've ever tasted. 

My new favorite candy- hands down! 

Advent 2025

We've had this Advent tradition since our oldest was an infant. 

When the girls were all very little, it was easy to read every night. 

But in previous years, with the number of evening activities we were all involved in, it was difficult to read every single night. 

This year has been delightfully different and we have been able to read every evening before bed. 

What does our tradition include?

We read an advent book that tells the Christmas story straight from the Bible with new doors that open each night. 

And we have ornaments that have an Old Testament prophecy about Jesus on one side and New Testament fulfillment on the other side. So we look those up in the Bible and read them then hang the ornament each night. 

I just finished my final essay for my final class for my Masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education from Belmont Abbey. The books on my essay’s bibliography are shown here. These are not all the books on the syllabus. This last class was on the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy. With many proofs from these texts, I demonstrated that the experience of story in the human soul is essentially the same experience as reality in the human soul, which makes stories as powerful and formative and serious as we all know they are from experience. 

Stories have been the heart of our homeschool. They have formed our souls, especially those we have read more than once. And in the case of the Gospel, a story has saved our lives and changed us forever. So I can’t think of a better way to end this intellectual journey than to be able prove to myself rationally what I have known poetically all along. 

After reading my essay aloud to my family and discussing it, Dwayne tells me he is glad I can cook again now that I’m done and tells the girls, “Get ready for vegetables!” To this, Avril expresses real relief and thankfulness, “Oh good! I can’t remember the last time I had a carrot!” To his credit, Dwayne has been the one cooking for several days to give me time to work, but he would agree he cooks like a bachelor who is trying to bulk. 

Praise and glory be to God. He is the great good from which all lesser goods come to us. My heart is full. My soul is formed. To quote Taylor very loosely, I’m feeling at home with the best of the things that exist, because I have taken their substance into the parlor of my soul.

Crossfit

We've been going to Crossfit for private training sessions twice a week consistently for months. 

In a few months, we'll switch to a regular membership and attend the afternoon classes. 

None of my kids are sporty, so this is their PE. 

And the girls love lifting heavy weights! Of course they do. It's awesome! 

It's been a dream of mine for over ten years to have my family lifting weights together. 

But, after years of Lyme disease, inactivity, depression, and weight gain, it certainly looks different (and feels different) than it would have if we had been able to start this when I was really healthy. 

But I'm still thankful to God that it's finally happening. 

I'm thankful to God I'm finally healthy enough to begin exercising again. 

Arcus

Arcus brings a ton of joy to our lives. 

Like a dash of pepper adds spice to a pot of soup, he adds an element of chaos to our mostly very orderly home.

It's a special blessing to have a buddy fly up on your shoulder and keep you company as you go about your day.

Turkey and Noodle Soup (With Thanksgiving Leftovers)

I used our Thanksgiving turkey bones to make stock. 

Then I used that homemade stock and our leftover turkey slices in this recipe. 

Ingredients:

Olive oil 

4 cups of turkey stock

2-3 cups of leftover turkey pieces, sliced

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1/2 bag of large egg noodles

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat your pot on medium heat. 

Pour in olive oil and onions and celery. Cook until veggies are softened. 

Add turkey stock, salt, pepper, and fresh, chopped parsley. (You could also add the salt, pepper, and parsley at the end.) 

Add carrots and cooked turkey chunks and let the soup simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes. 

Then add egg noodles and let them cook another six to eight minutes. 

Turn off the heat and the soup sit for about five minutes to cool a little before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Sourdough Continued

 

I've made two loaves of sourdough this week, and I'm planning to make another this weekend.

I've started scouring my dough with a design. 

I do not like my current bread lame with a long handle, so much so, that I prefer to take the razor off it and hold the razor between my fingers to scour. 

So I've ordered a small lame with a retractable razor to use for scoring instead. I look forward to using that once it comes in the mail. 

The Perfect Boulden Beef Stew

I've been trying different beef stew recipes for decades. I finally created one that is perfect for my family's tastes. 

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Approx. 1/8- 1/4 cup dry red wine

1/8-1/4 cup Arrowroot powder

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

Two large carrots, peeled and chopped

1-2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into smaller pieces and sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking

Four medium Russet potatoes or two large, cleaned, partially peeled, and chopped

Approx. 4 cups beef broth

Kosher salt and fresh cracker pepper to taste

Two tablespoons dried thyme

1/4 cup frozen peas

Directions:

Heat a pot on medium heat and add a generous amount of olive oil to the bottom. 

I like to use an enameled pot, so I can see the star develop on the bottom of the pot as the beef sears. 

Sear the beef pieces. Let them cook as long as necessary to get rid of all water. Turn them as often as necessary. Allow them to get a bit charred, and the oil and beef bits on the bottom of the pan to char, but not burn. 

Pour 1/8-1/4 cup of wine in. let it sizzle and stir the beef around to releasing the char from the bottom of the pan. This will flavor your stock. 

Add your chopped onions and allow them to cook for a few minutes, stirring as necessary.

Sprinkle in the 1/8-1/4 cup of arrowroot powder and stir everything together. 

Now add your broth, carrots, potatoes, salt, pepper, and dried thyme. 

Cover and simmer on low until the carrots are soft when poked with a fork. 

Turn off the heat and add the frozen peas and stir. 

Allow the soup to sit for several minutes uncovered before serving, so the peas thaw and the soup isn't too hot. 

Enjoy! 

 

Leisure Time Not Screen Time

When we take time off school during the holiday, we do not allow the girls to fill that leisure time with screens. 

No games. No movies, etc. 

This has been the case all along. 

And since what we say goes, the girls don't fuss. 

But with all the leisure time, the girls are often bored enough to be interested in doing real things. 

Case in point: Over the holiday break, Adele finished a miniature garden house. 

This sits between the books on her bookshelf. 

It's magical!