Week 27 (2021)
rootedness & accommodating housing, our need for art & flowers, encouraging regenerative agriculture
(Open in your browser — emails cut off at the end!)
to read: essays, articles
Your Community Is Like A Forest — L.M. Sacassas, Grace Olmstead, Granola — “Under the guise of freedom and liberation, the individual was unencumbered and disembedded. Ties to family, tradition, and community were gradually loosened, and the self was ostensibly freed to fashion itself at whim. The result, through much of the 20th century, was widespread angst about alienation, anxiety, and loneliness. The faceless person lost in the crowd became a recurring trope.”
Could You Move In Next Door?— Norman Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns — “The Problem: Our pattern of development in Delta—and most everywhere else in North America—hinders our ability to find appropriate forms of housing for us in the different stages of our lives within our community.”
Regenerative Agriculture — John Kempf, Plough — “Regenerative agricultural practices seek to improve plant health by restoring and maintaining natural soil biology and chemistry. Ohio Amish farmer John Kempf has emerged as a leading advocate, with a podcast, webinars, and a consulting firm, Advancing Eco Agriculture. Jeff King, who applies these principles to grow vegetables for his Bruderhof community in New York, interviewed him for Plough.”
On Unnecessarily Owning Art— Karen Stiller, Ekstasis — “And yet the pen and the brush and the paint and clay and the mandolin and the Word made flesh all tie together so pleasingly.
The Creator created all the creators who are creating—and that is all of us in some form, the cake-bakers and the garden-planters too—and then visited the creation in person, to make a lot of things abundantly clear. It is good to number art among the things we love.”
The Ordinary Beauty Of Flower Bouquets— Ali Kjergaard, Mere Orthodoxy — “Something alive is sitting there on my shelf, though I know its time is fleeting, my gaze is drawn to the spray of pink and green. I must enjoy it while it is there, simply offering me its loveliness.”
How To Design A Cutting Garden— Shelby Vittek, Modern Farmer — For growing inspiration, if you’re in need of it.
to read: books
Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct, Abigail Tucker — audio — Here is Abigail's husband singing it's praises, & a brief interview she had with the Institute for Family Studies.
Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer — Laura Wifler, Catalina Echeverri —Now that we have a toddler, I’m keeping my eyes open for more formative books to add to the collection. (Excited for this one, with preorder bonuses.)
to watch
God Wasn't Through With Us Yet x New Baby, New Gender Reveal — With The Perrys — The whole explainer/testimony was amazing. Love the part about legacy, about the generations the Lord wants to use — it’s bigger than our nuclear families as they exist now.
to listen: music
Repave — Volcano Choir
Lion's Den — Little Chief
to listen: audio
The Surprising Science Of Being A Mom — Fountains of Carrots, with Abigail Tucker — A fun chat about the book I finished this week.
The Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill — Mike Cosper — Continuing to follow along with these episodes, releasing on Tuesdays.
to cook
Simple burgers & blueberry crisp were favorites. But a bit more takeout than normal this week. (Jakob loves Long Island pizza, and Ezra loves miso soup?)
to celebrate
A message from a friend had me tender about our Columbia, Missouri community that watched us become the Baumeisters, welcome Ezra, & sent us off.
Anyways, some of the friends we made on Long Island moved away this week (hi Yamil & Gittel!) What a gift — for our kids, for us as a couple, for us as ladies & guys — during a pandemic that could have been much more lonely. We will miss these them, too.
We stayed up past the kids’ bedtimes & said goodbye during sunset at the beach. The beauty helps.
to remember, reflect
A Year Ago...
Ezra started out as project manager as we cleaned out our cars, and ended up in a Wes Anderson movie.
This Week...
Family FaceTimes have been getting wild, found a new park & new shoes, stayed out to see the sun setting at the same beach twice (if you have little kids, you know this is an experience you pay for the next day), pizza night with Vasti, season 3 of Better Call Saul, a marine buzz cut for Ezra, and the Fourth at the beach.
“You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth & clothed me with joy,
so that my soul may praise you & not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”
Psalm 30:11-12