February Reads & Friday Links
Weeds and flowers blooming in our front garden.
“It’s March on Sunday. Can you believe that? February shouldn’t be classed as a real month, it just pops in for a quick cup of tea and a moan about the weather and then it’s back out the door again before you can even offer it a biscuit.” – Very British Problems Rob Temple
I read this quote yesterday and had a good chuckle. Feels so surprisingly accurate. This month has flown. We have been in the throes of house projects – big, disruptive house projects – so I feel like the month has not been productive for me in the ways I would have planned.
Nevertheless, we persist.
A beautiful nearly finished moment in our chaotic house. We took out an unusable fireplace cavity, had all the very old upstairs carpets replaced with a beautiful faux wood flooring, and painted the old spare room a beautiful light pink to become our older daughter’s space very soon. Cannot wait to finish this room for her.
FEBRUARY READS
Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
The month was so full, I am still reading several books and this is the only one I finished within the month. I read this probably 20 years ago in university days and loved it. For some reason it kept coming to mind last autumn and we hunted down a lovely copy of it in Cambridge for my birthday.
I honestly remembered nearly nothing about it while I was reading it. And I loved it again. But it is a weird love. It disrupted my thinking, shook some of my ponderings, and has me still chewing on lots of thoughts about it.
This is C.S. Lewis’ version of the story of Cupid and Psyche. If you don’t know the original myth, neither did I. Maybe it is all the more beautiful because I only know Lewis’ take. It is written from the perspective of Psyche’s oldest sister Orual. It is actually written as if it is Orual is writing it down to remember what actually happened. It is a confusing, winding journey of ancient cultures, religious traditions, questioning and encountering the gods, and coming face to face with our perceptions and motivations about life. It is the kind of book that isn’t about God at all, but is actually completely about God! That likely doesn’t make sense, but it is in understanding and navigating this ancient and barbarian culture and how they relate to and comprehend the gods and their own existence that you find yourself contemplating and attempting to analyze your own worldview and faith and understanding of the real world around you. I am not ever going to be the best at reviewing or sharing about the Greek myths as my knowledge is immensely limited, but I loved this book. I wrestled with it… wrestled with Orual and ultimately myself. It is always in Lewis’ fiction works that I have to put in the greatest work at not just merely enjoying his storytelling, which I immensely do, but in allowing what it unearths in me to have some time in my head. I need to sit with it, contemplate it, be moved and changed by it. I have to reveal my own face, even to my myself, before I can be the slightest bit honest in facing the world and the God who made it.
Another pretty picture of our new upstairs floors. We still have much work to do – the kitchen is literally being completely recreated as I sit writing, the stairs are bare wood to be refinished, and the girls rooms are cleared with only boxes and their beds waiting to be redesigned into their own unique spaces. But I can come up and look at the lovely new floors and remind myself it all comes in time.
Things I Bookmarked
Ash Wednesday: A Heart Grief-Rent by Lanier Ivester – We were away last week for Ash Wednesday, and our church here in Hay doesn’t not do a service for it. I’ve struggled with the timing of it to really embrace the start of Lent and have been catching up a good bit this week with readings and thinking about getting into the right head space for this season on the calendar. Thankful for articles like this from Lanier. I first encountered Lanier’s writing in my Christmas reads with her book about Advent and Christmastide. Lovely to read her reflections on Ash Wednesday as well. Two thoughts I come back to:
“Am I doing this right? Ought I to feel more penitent? Oh, Lord, remember that I am dust.
It’s true, we are dust, our earthly lives as evanescent as the flowers of the field. But such beloved dust, dust so dear that the God of the universe allowed it to bear his image and sent his Son to redeem it.”
Live a Quiet Life and Work With Your Hands by Julie Kilcur – What a lovely and thoughtful article. We adore All Creatures as a family and this was just the sweetest dive into the show and encouragement to slow down and reorder daily life. We’re a bit behind in watching it, and this gives me renewed determination to enjoy another episode together!
Books With Illustrations You’ll Want To Live Inside by Lucy Fuggle – I adore this post. Most of the books I knew, but there was 1 or 2 I need to go hunt down.
Rare and Original Watercolor Illustrations of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ Go Up for Auction – You probably won’t care about this one unless you are a children’s book nerd like me. But I found this fascinating and exciting. What lovely illustrations! And the fact they were living in a family’s home without pomp or circumstance. So fun.
The UK’s Eccentric Book-Loving ‘Kingdom’ – Came across this article from ‘22 about our little town and enjoyed reading it. I knew most of it already and even know some of the people interviewed, but it is always fun to read the history of the town.
Living the Liturgical Year with The Chronicles of Narnia – I just found this article really interesting. Maria takes a look at reading the 7 books of The Chronicles of Narnia and links them with a time in the Liturgical Year. Now, my girls listen to the audiobooks of these year round so I am constantly hearing and reliving parts of each book at various times; but I love the thoughtfulness of Maria’s planning to link a particular book with a particular moment in the Church calendar and find the connections there. So fun.
How to Sit Down: Navigating Creative Resistance by Kate Gaston – And finally, an article I really needed to read. Kate Gaston’s writing continues to get me. And that’s all I’ll say because I need to take her advice and get back to work.
The fun February postbox topper.
THINGS I LISTENED TO
All of My Days by Ellie Holcomb – This has been on my music rotation for the past month and I just keep coming back to it. I’ve never really listened to Ellie’s music before, but this one has me hooked.
Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack – Josh Nadeau had a song from this in one of his stories a few weeks back and I had forgotten how much I adore this album. I listened to it obsessively back in art school and the thousands of painting hours I put in. I haven’t seen Cowboy Bebop (the series, not the film) since those university days, but the music is just stellar. I put it on for the first revisit a couple weeks ago and it threw me right back into a great creative groove while I was brainstorming some sketches.
It’s Gonna Be Alright by Sara Groves – This favorite song from a favorite album has been coming up fairly repetitively while I try to stay flexible and calm through all the house projects and busyness.
THINGS I MADE
The biggest things I made this month were for our Opening Ceremony Olympics party at our friends’!
Fruit flags
My friend, Helen, and I combined our efforts in making the Olympic rings in pizzas.
And I had a blast in making cakes in 3 country’s flags. The best gluten free chocolate cake I’ve ever made actually.
I also made several quick coloring sheets for our 11 year old while we were away for half-term break last week. They were fast, she adored them, and they have me thinking a lot about what’s fun and freeing to make…
THINGS I FOUND
A little different than my usual found sharings, but I’m hoping to consolidate those into my next post about London. While away though, I came across this post from Ashlee Gadd and it just struck me.
Ashlee Gadd
Parenting in this era is really hard. I don’t diminish what previous generations have faced, but I do think there is a real truth here about how very hard it has gotten in this time of history. I really appreciated this post from Ashlee. Felt given space to pause and acknowledge the hard.
That’s it for today. I’m hoping to write up a post for Monday about our half-term trip to London and all the things we found pottering around the city while Mark worked. Until then, I’ll be making more noodle bowls, salads, and probably eating take-out while we wait for everything to placed and hooked up in the kitchen. Have a great weekend! 💚