The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Just thought I'd share that I recently took the big, committal step to buying my daily planner for 2017. There I was, there it was, the price was right… and I even had my current planner in my purse, so I was able to take it out and compare the two and make sure this new one would serve my purposes. I decided it would.
The only downside is that it's a Sept. 16 – Dec. 17 calendar. Since I already have my planner in use through Dec. 16, it just means that those first few months will be wasted space in the new one. I would have preferred it to bump into 2018 a little on the other end.
But perhaps that'd be useful for you, if you haven't gotten started on a planner this year but intend to do so next year? Maybe you'll run into one of these as well and start warming up with these last few months of the year?
I got mine at T.J. Maxx. Pretty, right? We'll see how the white background holds up. You can see that my homemade grocery bag-covered one is a bit dog-eared after all these months of daily use!
Just a refresher — here's the post in which I walk through how I use my daily planner and how it has enabled me to make time for the things I love. I wrote that post while it was still in trial mode; I can tell you now that I haven't been consistent with it 100% of the time this year. But using it even most (if not all) of the time has made a big difference to me, enabling me to take on art commissions and find so many hours I didn't know I had for them! Well worth a few dollars on a planner and a little dedication.
On to this week's links!
- Interested in book design and production? You might enjoy this recap of the British Book Design and Production Awards. We are particularly intrigued by the big winner of the night, a commemorative release of Alice in Wonderland from the Folio Society.
- Speaking of British stuff: I haven't seen The Crown nor do I even know much about it, but my mom was interested in this article about how Real Doctors Acted out the Surgery Scene. From Auntie Leila: “are you watching The Crown? So many interesting little facts. How on earth can it be better to have an operation in a palace than in a hospital?? WHAT IF THEY FORGOT SOMETHING??”
- Occasionally, there's nothing I enjoy quite like an interesting read on management and leadership. It's fun for me to think about applying these sorts of ideas in a workplace or volunteer environment… and it's also interesting to think about how some of these ideas cross over into mothering. Radical Candor: the Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss. (NB: Language somewhat vulgar.) The author uses the example of being helped out of a speech tic by her boss (Sheryl Sandberg) being ruthlessly candid with her. Whenever I encounter someone with a truly obnoxious laugh, I can't help but think that that person's mother failed him/her by not laying down the law at some point and giving candid feedback from a place of love.
- On a more serious note, a call to revive the family Rosary from Fr. Pokorsky, who reflects on the mysteries of Fatima as we approach the 100th anniversary.
Liturgical Year:
- Today is a memorial for St. Josaphat and St. Martin I
From the Archives:
- Ask Auntie Leila: Weaning and solid foods for the health nursing baby
- Yarning along, natural child spacing, and why not to give cereal to your four-month old baby
- Ask Auntie Leila: No Really, how do you prepare for Thanksgiving? The MASTERPLAN, people!
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Sandi Frances says
Thanks so much for this and other helpful posts!
Perhaps I am not the only one that doesn’t think your paper cover looks too shabby….
Another word about calendars.
I look hard for the traditional ones (often hard to find) that start the week (or the month) on Sunday.
Monday-first is a subtle change, and made no doubt because the week and month look that way to those whose identity is bound by their working life rather than their heavenly end. (And of course it freed up more space by cramming Saturday and Sunday into one box at the end of the line.)
It is a Christian–maybe even Catholic (the Gregorian calendar being “our” invention)–distinction that Sunday is the first day of the week. Of course it is also the last day of the week, if you look at it as the day the God rested after creation, so if we want to keep our Monday-first calendars, that can be our answer. 🙂 (We need no answer of course–a working calendar is an individual thing, so we can have it/make it our way.)
But I like to have something I look at so frequently subtly reinforce the culture which both undergirds and flows from the Faith. I think Monday-first subtly reinforces the “Live to Work” culture over our Christian “Work to Live” culture. In reality, I need more encouragement to expand the importance of Sunday in my life, not less.
Thanks for letting this crank throw in her two cents!
God bless!
Sandi
Deirdre says
Hi Sandi,
I don’t think you’re cranky for putting these thoughts forth! I definitely see where you’re coming from, and you make an interesting point.
The way that I think about keeping Sunday holy is to focus the whole week so that Sunday is the “end goal” — make sure the time during the week is used well so that things are in order and Sunday can be for rest. So with that in mind, a layout like this makes sense.
That being said, I do see how that puts Monday first in a sense. The truth is that Sunday is “the first and the eighth” day… so a calendar would have to be laid out in 8 day segments to really capture all of THAT…
I’m all for making all the little changes to help one’s life be ordered into the liturgical year. So I appreciate your thoughts. I know that there are Catholic calendars out there (like Michele Quigley’s Catholic Daily Planner: https://www.michelequigley.com/store/product/the-catholic-daily-planner/) that are going to be better about this kind of thing. Maybe someday that will be in my budget and I’ll go for that. For now I’m happy with what I have going on here. 🙂
Sandi Frances says
Yes, from God’s point of view and hopefully ours, Sunday is definitely the End!
And this is the end of Sunday….
God bless your next week!
Melissa D says
I always try to find Sunday-first calendars, too. But also — it’s a huge mental paradigm shift for me to go from a Sunday= first-day calendar to a weekly Monday=first day weekly calendar. My brain can’t do it. 🙂
Erica says
I use this really wonderful planner,
http://www.motheringsunshine.com/2016/07/the-ultimate-planner-aug-2016-sep-2017.html
It was originally created as a “school year” planner, but can now be purchased as a calendar year planner. It is created by a Catholic mom with all the feast days, holidays, etc. included, with lots of room for notes. I absolutely love it. This is the link for the calendar year one, if you wanted to see what it is like. http://www.lulu.com/shop/jenny-ryan/calendar-year-planner/paperback/product-22923573.html
Caitlin says
Thank you for not posting about the election!
Although actually, I would very much like to hear what the LMLD ladies are musing about on the subject. But… I also need to stop thinking about it for a while.
I loved the map!
Elizabeth says
Hahaha. Yes, I was actually very curious too and the silence on many blogs is telling, I think. I have been disappointed this week in the conservative Catholic online world – everything from blogs to facebook. The debates are as nasty as anywhere else and there seems to be a right and a wrong way to vote or think. I want to assume everyone uses their good conscience when voting, and doesn’t take their vote lightly. Many bloggers are role models for me and I’d love to hear a little more about how their vote (or non-vote) came about. When I read so many painfully neutral blogs in all this turmoil, I wonder how much freedom bloggers really have.
Dixie says
You can read Auntie Leila’s Twitter account. Among other things, she discusses political developments more frequently there.
Leila says
To Elizabeth — in addition to what Deirdre said, very well put — to speak to your “freedom of bloggers” thought: anyone can publish anything; I personally feel very free to say what’s on my mind.
I especially feel duty-bound to say the things that I think people don’t want me to say.
So, for instance, you will find on this blog a lot about (against) same-sex marriage and indoctrination of children into politically correct mind control; on abortion and contraception and the evil they do to the person and the family; about the importance of objective truth and the rejection of relativism. Hopefully, what we write is permeated with these principles and the political application can be extrapolated, including respect for differences of prudential judgment.
I get what you’re asking, and believe me, we are all passionately opinionated about politics (and I think we in our family all agree, though with inevitable differences as to how to carry out our thoughts, much of it having to do with the varied places we live).
It’s deeply dismaying to me how this particular election cycle has made it so that even good friends regard their vote as representative of a full-on stake in ultimate realities, to the point that lines of civility are crossed and conversation just can’t happen. It’s like trying to discuss something using semaphore or Morse Code, only with yelling. (This is not the case in our family or among our really close friends, but it has astonished me the extent to which it has happened in the next circle out.)
We don’t want that here. It’s exhausting, as you know from the merest glance at Facebook. We want the conversation to continue. As Deirdre says, we try to give our readers the background formation as we see it.
Elizabeth says
Thank you for both your thoughtful responses. After I typed the above, I did visit twitter and saw that indeed you don’t mind giving your opinion :). And I understand that twitter is a much more suitable medium for responding to the political storm out there.
Auntie Leila, more than anything else (housekeeping and what have you) your writing has opened my eyes for the political correct mind control that is going on and I am very grateful for that. It’s getting much worse here in Europe. We are generally a few years behind on the US, but in an online world, we are now catching up faster than ever. I find this one of the most complicated matters to respond to, as a member of society, especially out in public.
My comment came from a search for a grounded, Catholic response to the post election turmoil and I wasn’t finding it in my usual places. I fully understand LMLD wants to stay a cozy and comfortable place to visit.
Janet says
Re indoctrination: It’s LGBT awareness month at the public high school which is my workplace. The halls are plastered with pictures of famous people who were supposedly gay. Sorry for the tangential comment, but I am so sad that it has come to this. Not sure if people who don’t get inside high schools are even aware of this.
DeirdreLMLD says
Caitlin and Elizabeth,
We like to keep LMLD a comfortable, cozy place to come visit. We are pretty forward and clear about our beliefs, so we generally figure you can infer where we’re at politically (without going into it a lot and making this corner of the internet strife-filled). It’s also a little complicated in that there are four of us, and each one of us may not be able to represent all the others as far as nuances of political opinion.
What could we say (without going into it for ages and getting all of us all stressed out all over again)? We think that it was a mess and that the fallout is messy and that we’re just reminded to put our trust in the Lord of Ages… and that we’d have to sit down with you at the kitchen table to hash it all out over tea (or something more bracing).
Caitlin says
I hope my comment didn’t come across as a criticism! Cozy and comfortable is just what I come here for 🙂 It was indeed refreshing. And I have been very edified by your “background” articles! I only meant to mention that you ladies always manage to find such interesting and orthodox perspective pieces that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise.
Janet: yeesh. I believe it though…
Joy says
We are loving The Crown at our house. That was such an interesting article about the surgery. I’ve been dipping into history books non-stop to check some of the details. Fantastic series and chock full of history.
Melinda Loustalot says
I very much identified on your comments regarding management and leadership and how they may help form our mothering life. .I worked for a wonderful company when my oldest 2 were small and before my final 2 were born and its lessons in organization and personal service very much spilled over into my “mom life.” I’ve had discussions about it with my sole daughter and she very much imagines bringing these ideas into her married life when she takes the step this next spring.
Janet says
While I found the discussion of radical candor intriguing, and agree that some management principles can produce useful insights for mothers, it is crucial to remember that the family is not a business. Bosses can fire, promote or give outsize rewards to favored employees. Also, we all understand that we shouldn’t take criticism from a boss personally and that some people just might not be a good fit for some positions. From a mother it’s always personal, and no child should ever feel he’s not a good fit for his family. It takes great discernment to know which things a child can and should change. For example, some of our children might have less than ideal posture or figures, even if we point out what is wrong. Sometimes it’s based on less than ideal bone structure, or some other physical cause that cannot be changed. Some might grow up with annoying laughs. It could be because the mother never pointed out that it was annoying. Sometimes a professional speech therapist might be needed. Sometimes things just have to be accepted. Maybe the person is a bit on the autistic spectrum and the annoying laugh is a huge improvement on what was there before. When everything turns out as we wish, it is easy to assume less ideal outcomes in others would have been easy to avoid.
DeirdreLMLD says
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree, Janet! Both about the importance of keeping distinctions between workplace and homelife and also about the fact that some characteristics need to be accepted.
I just bring up that example because I know that my mom did me a huge life favor by not tolerating my annoying laugh when I was going through a phase. 🙂