The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
The mills of decoration grind slowly.
Today I will try to make sense of these (and other) shelves in my new laundry room/lavatory, and that clutter.
Wish me luck.
Our links today:
- Timothy P. O'Malley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, writes a curiously compelling little piece about why chant in worship is good for children.
- Fr. Schall, musing on libraries.
The most sobering, yet consoling, passage about books, and hence libraries that contain and classify them, is that found at the end of John’s Gospel: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”
- Last time, I posted (without commentary) a piece by Peter Hitchens on the new, non-Cold War Russia he thinks he detects. Here is a rebuttal: Frontline Realism.
- You know me, Mrs. You-should-read-a-papal-document: I'm going to post about sex education shortly. You might start reading this excellent document to get ready.
- I haven't seen Inside Out, though I want to soon. But this critique is too good to pass over or even leave for later. It's just a good expression of what the mind is, against the materialist premise that what's inside us are merely a collection of emotions or, ultimately, random atoms colliding.
- Butter vs. shortening in your pie crust making, via King Arthur Flour. A nice little demonstration.
From the archives:
- My own little tutorial on pie crusts. I say, just find the lard (to add to your butter). Shortening makes my stomach hurt.
- Here's a random post (I've been going through my posts) that probably will never make it out of the archives, but is sort of fun and has those two little observations of mine about getting things done.
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Ransom.
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Mrs. B. says
Don’t get me started on the oddities of English!! Trying to teach spelling to my kids, as a non-native speaker, is a feat: what kind of language has as many exceptions to a rule as well-behaved words that do follow that rule? Why do we say “blind” with a long “i” sound instead of short? Why do we have “high” as an adjective, but “height” as a noun? Of course there IS “highness”, but I guess I shouldn’t try to tell other people that my highness is 5-6… The first page of an English grammar and spelling book should have an inscription on top: “Abandon all hope of consistency all ye who enter here”!
Donna L. says
Hello Auntie Leila, and thank you for linking to your “doings” archive…I would not have found it so soon!
I, too, asked help from an professional about how to trim my fruit trees–he may as well been speaking Greek–as I grew up on a farm where cutting any parts of any trees was considered “murder” of a sort~
Pears sound delightful! We cannot grow them well here, but I do have apples. Several different types, unknown to me, that we have slowly figured out according to ripeness, cooking versus eating etc….
A blessed Autumn to you and yours~
Carol Kennedy says
Today is also the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, a big one for the Ordinariate, since the Cathedral of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is dedicated to her.
Happy Feasts of Our Lady!!
Carol Kennedy says
Oh, and on “Inside Out” my kids watched it at a friends house and it gave at least one of them nightmares (my kids are not little–9-11-13 at the time)–not sure why since I didn’t see it, but I suspect it has something to do with the girl being separated from her parents for part of the movie—why do movies for kids need to be so dramatic. It is one thing in a book, but in a movie kids abandoned, in danger, treated cruelly are all so much more traumatic to the child viewing it.
I thought the article was really interesting, though I don’t think I can just consider Pixar films like giving my kid a cupcake. Maybe a cupcake accompanied by a nutrition lesson—seems like some of these movies would be fun ways to teach about various philosophical viewpoints in the prevailing culture with older children.
Anamaria says
Thanks for the links! To add to the “doings” link: you can do more than you think in ten minutes! This has been very helpful to me trying to keep my house in order with a teething baby and a toddler- I can clean the bathroom sink in a few minutes respite while they are playing, the toilet later, etc. (Especially important in my small house where some chores wake them from naps!)
Also, where do/how do you get lard?
Dixie says
10 minutes — yes! I am still learning as a housekeeper. But today I decided to just walk around for a few minutes with a wet rag. A whole lot of things got wiped — walls, baseboards, railings, windowsills, etc.!! Success!
Leila says
Dixie, here’s a post I wrote about that! 🙂
http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/06/surfing-your-day/
Dixie says
I love it! “Surfing!”
Leila says
Lard is sold in my stores with the oils and shortenings. It’s packaged a bit like butter and is somewhat processed for shelf life 🙁
A Hispanic market might have it fresh. Ask the butcher in your store!
Anamaria says
Thanks! I will venture to a Hispanic market soon. Aldi is usually my store- so, no butcher 🙂
Leila says
It’s called manteca in Spanish 🙂
Kristi says
I am very glad to hear you’ll be talking about sex ed. soon. Our kids are 7 and almost 10. We talk regularly about love, including marital love, but not about sex (though everyone knows to look away from the scantily clad), and I’m wondering where we should go from here.
gina switzer says
Good luck on the laundry shelves!
Loved the post on the Oddities of English. My dad was a stickler for proper grammar but he had an Irish wit. We had to memorize this poem as kids. It was in an old book in those days but today I found it on the internet. Sorry for not citing sources. If anyone knows, I’d love to know the source.
Linguistic humor, The English lesson
We’ll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
If I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be named kese?
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose;
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the craziest language you ever did see.
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Or dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose,
Just look them up, and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was five,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five!
Mrs. B. says
Wonderful! I’ll read it to my kids! It reminds me that once my husband told me there was a comedian named Gallagher who used to mock the absurdities of the English language. I’ve never seen it but perhaps I should try to find a video of it.
Anna M says
Thanks for the link to that critique of Inside Out. I enjoyed the movie (although it made me cry–it seems to make moms cry, perhaps because of of the poignancy of the transition from childhood to adulthood?), but I was struck by Mr. Wiley’s point that in the world of the story, emotions are what make us human.
I wonder if this view is behind some of the particular craziness so popular right now–that is, the reluctance of parents to guide their kids. Parents seem to think that quite young children should choose their own diets, friends, entertainment, and even gender. Does this reluctance come from a sense that if emotions are a human being’s guiding force, we ought to heed the emotions of our children and let them thereby guide themselves? Interesting thought.
Ann says
Thank you so much for directing your readers to the papal document about human sexuality. I have been discouraged of late hearing so much news about the awful sexual education programs being implemented by different Catholic dioceses. Apparently some dioceses are even telling parents that they can not opt their children out of these classes even if they find the material objectionable. What has happened to the fundamental Catholic teaching that parents are the primary educators of their children? The truths stated in “The truth and meaning of human sexuality” should be at the forefront of any Catholic teaching about human sexuality.
Anamaria says
Also, I just read the piece on Russia. I certainly think it has some points worth considering for foreign relations. However, as is common place among conservatives, the author seems to think there is this clear-cut distinction between empires and nation-states. Unless the nation-state is Monaco or 15th century Venice (etc), I just don’t think history and peoples and languages are that clear. Is Italy an empire or a nation-state? Is Italian even one language, when pre- unification (and possibly just pre- television) the people from the south could not understand the people from the north? Russia itself was originally an empire- which parts are in the so-called “nation-state,” and which are unjustly conquered? Siberia? Sochi? What about the U.S.?
I do believe in a people’s self-determination but I am bothered when the nuances of this are not explored. There are Russians in Ukraine that have lived there for a very long time. I am no apologist for expansionist policies but history, “people groups,” and political borders are messier than maps.
Caitlin says
Exactly. Even the distinction of who is “Russian” vs “Ukrainian” is not always clear cut, I mean for people who actually live there. Many identify as both, or would until recently.
I also feel like the term “self determination” is applied very selectively. It’s what both sides want for themselves; it’s just called different things depending on who is fighting for it.
Katie says
If I may humbly request a tutorial on your pie dough. I have a standard recipe with a twist from my grandmother, and while it never fails to produce a flaky crust, it takes me 45 minutes to roll out a crust. I have started to resort to store bought crusts since I just didn’t have the time this summer. I think I should try a different recipe because somehow my sister-in-law rolls out a crust in under 15 minutes, but just haven’t tried it. You mention your dough be flaky and frustrating to deal with, so I was hoping perhaps my technique is just lacking. Thank you.
Caitlin says
A wonderful collection as always! Even as an Orthodox Christian I enjoy reading the papal documents and commentary. Bookmarking all and especially looking forward to this and the article on Insode Out.
(Btw, Our liturgy, as mentioned in the chant article, is entirely chanted. My eighteen month old can him along, and sometimes tries to sing… Mostly he says Alleluia, no matter what the choir is saying. 🙂 It’s beautiful! From the mouths of babes., You have ordained perfect praise…)
Caitlin says
“Can sing along,” sorry. Sigh for typing on phones.
Andrea says
I always enjoy your post and the links you share. When I read the link for Our Lady of Ransom I saw a reference to St. Eulalia. That is my grandmother’s name. She goes by Lily. I always thought Eulalia was a strange Spanish name but never gave it much thought. I don’t know if she was named after this Saint or not but I shared the link with my mom. Maybe when she visits grandma she can share the story. Thanks!