Check Your Privilege, the giveaway ends tomorrow, and The Quotidian Liturgy
Check Your Privilege
Much is said these days about checking your privilege. What is most interesting to me about this trendy yet always amorphous phrase is the definition of the word privilege. Since we live in a world where little attempt is made to define anything, it remains up to the stalwarts to push back and create meaning.
Here is how I would define privilege, as it relates specifically to children. Note that many of these things are so controversial that this post may very well be flagged as hate speech.
giving children a stable, loving home with married parents
looking them in the eye, smiling, and hugging them
giving them slow childhoods, full of free time
giving them an abundance of outdoors and books rather than screen time
creating a home where siblings work together, play together, learn together, and repent together
teaching them the powerful nature of habits
from the earliest ages, giving them work, work, and more work to do, to instill a sense of value, contribution, and identity as part of the family unit
giving them a home filled to the brim with beautiful music, books, and artwork
reading aloud to them…until they are married
praying with and for them
Let’s note that all 10 of these elements of privilege are FREE and thus doable in some way, shape, or form by everyone. No mention of expensive technologies. Each of these elements also create privilege no matter the parental background, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity. Finally, true privilege is something to be admired and emulated - not something to be mocked, attacked, and outlawed. What type of person could not want a society with privileged families (as defined above) as the bedrock? Only a huckster…of which there are many in positions of power these days.
The Lavender Quill Giveaway ends tomorrow!
As I wrote about in my last newsletter, I will personally be paying my 17-year-old daughter to furnish two families who read this newsletter with a monthly mini-magazine filled with delight! You can still enter the giveaway until tomorrow (or better yet, just go subscribe right now for the May issue):
Email/Text/Message 5 moms who will want to know about this amazing new mini—Madeleine-magazine, because they take the stewarding of their children’s souls seriously.
Email me [allison [at] truthbeautygoodness.net] with the Subject Line: The Lavender Quill Giveaway, with a quick line to tell me you have done your part in spreading the word to 5 families. (This will be the honor system!)
On May 20th, I will randomly select 2 winners who will then be signed up to receive a year of complimentary subscriptions to The Lavender Quill. Just to be clear: this isn’t Madeleine giving away free copies; this is me paying for the subscription because that’s how much I believe in this endeavor. Winners will be notified by May 21st.
Reading
This section is purely for the fellow bibliophiles who are always inquiring about the treasures currently on the nightstand.
Husband: Napoleon: A Life, Andrew Roberts
Me: Michael O’Halloran, Gene Stratton-Porter
17-year-old daughter: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy
15-year-old daughter: Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
13-year-old son: The Purloined Boy, C.R. Wiley
9-year-old daughter: Meet Caroline, an American Girl book
Family (aka Daddy) Read-aloud: Watership Down by Richard Adams - this one has been slow going due to his traveling schedule for work
Listening
The best 3 podcast episodes from this week:
The Theology Pugcast – Will the Real Intellectual Conservative Intellectuals Please Stand Up?
Homeschool Made Simple – The Enchanted Hour
Secrets of Statecraft – Peter Robinson on the Art of Writing Ronald Reagan’s Speeches
Attending: bone broth
Last year, I began drinking bone broth on a daily basis. Now, I don’t love the taste of bone broth, but the nutrients and added protein are what I need. I enjoy the various FOND broths sold in glass jars, but they are prohibitively expensive. So for the last several months I have purchased the Kirkland Brand (Costco) organic sippable bone broth. I heap Maldon or Pink Himalayan sea salt on it, stir, and drink one cup every morning after my toast and eggs. Yes, I realize many people make their own bone broth and I do admire that, but have never added it to my must-do-it-from-scratch routine.
Cooking
This is hands-down my favorite blueberry crumb cake in all of human existence. Ever since the recipe was published (in 2014!), I have made it all year long - with fresh blueberries in season or frozen blueberries the rest of the year. It is the perfect dessert, snack, or brunch item.
Until next time: read, sip, talk to your children, go outside, and be merry!
Allison