Thursday, September 3, 2015

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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13 comments:

  1. Love Chesterton too, and I hear you about the clean house! Enjoy the respite.

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  2. Literal LOL @ "We Shall Overcomb."

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  3. Thanks for posting the link to Archbishop Chaput's address! I hadn't read it until now, and WOWZA! I love how he just calls everyone to task. Such a cool guy. The whole immigration thing is something I have definitely been getting more of a perspective on since moving to Oklahoma recently, because there are a LOT of immigrants, at least that I have seen. Some legal, and some probably/definitely illegal. And while I am not a fan of illegal immigration, being surrounded by these people puts actual faces, souls, and names to the immigration issue. Eh, it's a hard issue. But like Chaput said, we gotta keep remember the family.

    I have been hoping, praying, and trying to convince myself that all the Trump hype is just that-hype. When I first heard he was running, I thought, "Wait, what? All I know about him is that he's rich. Is he cut out for President?" The more I've been learning since then, the more my concerns have grown. God's taking care of us, and I'm sure He's got everything under control-we have plenty of time for people to regain their sanity before the elections haha :)

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  4. Thank you for graciously stepping in to host SQT this week!

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  5. Please, please, please...can you write about being a homeschooled child one day? I only know of two adults who were homeschooled and neither had a good experience (though they aren't anti-homeschool). I guess it would help me to know what's good/what's bad from the student's perspective but it would also help me to know that I'm not screwing my kids up!

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  6. I want to ask, "What's it like living so far from civilization," but it sounds like this is the only way you've ever known and probably it would be difficult for you to answer that question, yes? ;) But really...how often do you have to make that 100 mile trip with real reason (I would think Costco is reason enough but if all your food is grown on site then maybe not!)? This is intriguing!

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  7. I am soooo slow on the uptake that I just discovered in the lines above that you live on your parents' cattle ranch. I knew you loved on a ranch but I never saw you write about farming and whatnot. Mystery solved!

    And "omnipresence of the insignificant" is so masterfully appropriate it sheds light on my daily existential experience.

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  8. Thank you for hosting! Suddenly I want a clean house, but it seems like a lot of trouble... :)

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  9. You wanna hear something even more scary than the Don running?? I saw on Twitter that Kanye West is talking on running in 2020, God help America...PS great podcast at ATT!!

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  10. A clean house feels amazing. Even just spending ten minutes of cleaning up and making the bed can make a world of difference. Thanks for hosting 7QT's this week!

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  11. If it makes you feel any better about not being able to look away from the US presidential election, the Huffington Post is covering Trump's campaign in the entertainment section instead of on their politics page. Apparently, they are so irritated by how he is messing with politics here that they cannot take his candidacy seriously.

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  12. Stephen Colbert reading Flannery O'Connor?? What is this and why did I not know it existed??? Thank you so much.

    Also that's awesome that you were homeschooled ... I was too, k-12. :-) Often friends assume that I'm therefore a homeschooling expert, but I still feel pretty clueless. The only thing I know about anything is that it'll all be okay one way or another. :-) Second generation homeschooling for the win!

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