It’s Saturday night and I’m finally able to sit down and finish this post. My week has been full and I’m sure yours has been the same with Christmas activities and such.

I still feel like I’m trying to catch up from the weeks of sickness in our home. I was almost there and then the Christmas season arrived along with a few other things and I didn’t quite make it over the proverbial hump. But I keep getting up every day and doing my best. That’s all we can do, even when we feel discouraged or tired. We do the next thing.

This Week’s Artwork

Today’s piece is An Interesting Read by Ernst Anders. It is oil on wood from 1911.

I featured Ernst Anders and shared his biography in Simple Living This Week No. 99.

Homemaking

I had not been to Meijer since early November so I was (morbidly) curious to see the prices this week when I went. Probably like most of you, there were a number of things on my list that did not come home with us. On the positive side, there were some excellent sales so I took advantage of those. Angus Ground Round (which I eat) was on sale in family packs for over half off at $3.50ish a pound. That is a fantastic price right now. I bought ten pounds and froze most of it as individual servings for myself. As a result of the shopping trip, I spent a bit more time in the kitchen this week dealing with what I bought. I’m not done processing everything, but will keep plugging away.

In particular, they had three pound bags of Fuji apples for ninety-nine cents so I bought a few to try dehydrating. I had planned on doing that after we went apple picking in late September, but then life happened and we just ate all the apples we picked. I pulled my dehydrator out today and hope to get some going tomorrow.

I am behind on Christmas things. Tomorrow I plan on ordering a bunch of Christmas presents and I’ll feel better about the situation once I get that taken care of. I miss the days of going to the mall and enjoying all the sites and sounds of Christmas. It’s simply not the same any more and I don’t feel like taking a good portion of a day to do something that probably won’t be much fun. The past few years have changed people so much and not for the better.

It’s truly sad to see how demoralized people have become. There is a sadness and heaviness that hangs over everything right now when out in public. I don’t know if it is only here where I live (Michigan) or if other people experience it in other places. Do you see it when you are out and about? I think there is a dark spiritual oppression that has come over many places in this country as evidenced by so much of what has been allowed to happen over the past few years.

Speaking of which… Can anyone recommend an area of a state that is similar to Michigan in weather/climate and not run by leftists? I can’t think of anywhere else to go. The states I can think of that would be somewhat similar are either in the same boat we are here or are even worse. I need four solid seasons including a real winter with real snow. Minimal heat and humidity for as short a period of time as possible. Reasonable homeschool laws. In reality, Michigan is really the perfect place for us. But long-term I sincerely wonder about the spiritual and physical wisdom of staying here. It’s so sad to say that about such a beautiful state.

Homeschooling

We had a good week of homeschooling. I don’t have anything super exciting to share. We spent time learning about Lithuania and Latvia this week as part of our Middle Ages unit. We’re finishing up Early Italian Renaissance in art history. We’re still working our way through the Psalms. We read Psalm 37 this week and Caroline remarked on how much it applied to today. We’re continuing our study of Christmas carols as part of music appreciation. Right now my goal is to be diligent and just do as much as we can each day and be thankful for what we accomplish.

Work

One of my priorities in the long-term is to develop an extensive collection of beautiful content that will inspire women in their home. This includes content I create both for the blog and in the shop. To that end, I am publishing beautiful classic poems in posts and making available a printable version in the shop. I’m using them with Caroline in our homeschool and hope others will enjoy them as well. I have so many already selected and have published the following so far:

• “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns (post, printable)
• “Thanksgiving” by Henry Coyle (post, printable)
• “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost (post, printable)
• “Little White Snowdrop” by Amanda Turner (post, printable)
• “Our Heroes” by Phoebe Carey (post, printable)
• “To A Butterfly” by William Wordsworth (post, printable)

I finally published Let’s Learn About Christmas In Sweden – Unit Study after a number of years of trying to get it done. I also created Christmas In Sweden Worksheets & Activities as well as Christmas In Sweden Writing Pages. I’m very happy with the way it all turned out. I know I published them too late in the season to be of great help this year, but hopefully for next Christmas.

What is going on in your home right now? I hope you’ll say hello in the comments!