The first day of the last month of true winter around here. This is always the month when I start getting antsy.
The first day of the last month of true winter around here. This is always the month when I start getting antsy.
“A Farm Winter, with Jerry Apps” What a wonderful storyteller! Well worth your time. I hadn’t heard of him before but turns out he’s a known Wisconsin treasure. His books can be found here.
Despite being a good speller, I can never, never, never remember how to spell Cincinnati. Cincinatti. Ciinncciinnaattii. Sensenattea.
When I’m looking through the library catalogue for books on the Amish, it’s very annoying to have to filter through all the bonnet rippers .
According to Steven Nolt in A History of the Amish, the split between the tradition-minded Old Order Amish and the change-minded Amish Mennonites happened around 1865, though gradually and not due to any single event. Among the Amish Mennonites there was a bishop named Henry Egly who had a powerful conversion experience during an illness in the 1840s. Whether the influence of American evangelicalism and revivalism on him came before or after this experience is not clear from the text.
We no longer have a teenager in the house. Happy 20th birthday, Darcy!
Sometimes you have neighbors who help clear the whole neighborhood of snow. Sometimes you have people-who-live-in-the-neighborhood who clear a path from their front door to their car.
Matt Stansberry asks, “What does success look like in this situation?” For me, one measure will be that I do not close my heart to the suffering around me in a vain attempt at self-preservation. I will neither bathe myself in it, nor turn away from it. I will keep pursuing the hard path of love.
A bit of hope. Our kids will be better prepared to build something better after these next few awful years have passed.
Thinking about the fact that when Beatrix started at her current school in 6th grade, a few months into school Covid happened. Now, a few months into her senior year, this siege is happening.
These kids are going to be prepared for anything.
A lot of places are closed today, including the credit union’s branches. I’ll be working remotely. Temperatures will be in the single digits F. So much snow. Bless all those folks working to clear roads and get everyone back up and running.