Seven Quick Takes vol. 128 - I'm Hosting This Week!

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Welcome, everybody!
As you can see you're not in Kelly's hood anymore but I'm thrilled you're here!

 I can hardly believe that I'm hosting the illustrious Seven Quick Takes today -- I've been joining SQT for years and have apparently done this 127 times before so I at least have some experience to call upon since Kelly called me into action. Thanks for stopping by my little piece of the inter webs!

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My children -- who don't believe in looking at cameras.

For those of you who are checking in for the first time I'm the stay at home mom to 5 little-ish people whom we homeschool up here in northern Canada. I'm a lifelong Catholic who was also homeschooled for almost the entirety of my schooling career so I've got a bit of experience when it comes to spending time at home, hanging out with crazy kids all day, and not worrying getting everything done on a "lesson plan" -- all of which are things that are kind of the hardest parts of actually homeschooling. This year three of my kids are going to be learning and although things are often crazy with two younger toddlers running around the house with wild abandon while we try to learn phonics, we're giving it another kick at the can starting Tuesday.

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We also sorta live in the middle of nowhere. Which is a big part of why we homeschool, and a large part of what makes me want to blog and write at all. We're about 16 miles from the nearest town of 1000 people, and 100 miles from the nearest city with a Starbucks and a Costco. And while I'd like to be uber-trendy and claim we "homestead", we really live on my parents cattle ranch and reap all the rewards of their organic raised beef, pigs, and chickens. So far it's worked out well in that I don't have to clean out a barn full of hens all winter, but my kids still get to chase chickens everyday. 

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I'm a huge G.K. Chesterton fan and am usually reading something of his at any given time and this week I read this quote that I found so right on the money:

"One of the chief nuisances of our time is a swarm of little things, in the form of little thoughts...the buzz of dull flippancy...the omnipresence of the insignificant."
(Illustrated London News, Oct. 22, 1932)

"Dull flippancy" can describe so much of what takes up our time on social media. We're so caught up in the swarm of little trending topics that we completely miss the world changing headlines like the destruction of ancient temples by barbarian terrorists or the deaths of innocent refugees. And I know I say that as someone part of the problem, but I wish it was easier to not get so caught up in our time of omnipresent insignificance. I can't believe G.K stated this so well over 80 years ago.

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Since I'm Canadian I don't really have to deal with the absurdity that is the US presidential election, and yet I just can't turn away! Every day I am still shocked that actual human beings think Donald Trump can be President. I mean, it's crazy that someone can make Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a statesman of Winston Churchill proportions, but there you go! Now I'm not saying Canadian politicians are brilliant, well adjusted, qualified, and/or interesting people, but...Donald Trump! Reading Archbishop Chaput's statement this week was a breathe of fresh, common sensical air.




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This is what my life has come to everybody: My boys went on a "boy camping trip" with my husband for a couple days, while my oldest daughter went to the city to stay with her aunt, which left me with just Nora our 2 year old for the day and a night. And do you know the first thing I did? I cleaned the house, washed the floors, and cleaned windows just so that I could enjoy the most time I possibly could with a clean house. And I am soaking it up let me tell you! Did I wake up suddenly 100 years old that I get so much pleasure/excitement out of a clean house? Apparently so. But it feels glorious I tell you....glorious!




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My happiness in my clean-for-more-than-ten-minutes-home became complete when I listened to Stephen Colbert's reading of Flannery O'Connor's story "The Enduring Chill." He reads this story so marvellously. His southern accent is, of course, perfect and his renderings of the characters are spot-on. Not to mention it is such a humorous story with the usual Flannery signature powerful ending. Really amazing.



Thanks so much for stopping by today while Kelly enjoys her road trip - I look forward to reading your posts and finding great new blogs! Happy long weekend!

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