I hope you are starting your starter!
In my last newsletter, I tried to lay out all the steps to make a no-discard starter, very easily. I'm posting today to update on a few things!
I have corrected some steps since publishing, so please refresh if you just have a tab open!
I entered a few things in our local, very popular fair and won three ribbons, including first place for my sourdough loaf!
I confess I was not sanguine, as the other entries looked mighty good!
I also decided to put the steps for the starter one-by-one on a new Substack publication that I'm calling The School for Housewives.
I am hoping this new site can be for those who are already convinced about learning to keep a home being a worthy goal and just want to know how to do it. So it will be short and sweet, hopefully delivering a housewifely thought or direction each day of the week to subscribers' inboxes, starting with breadmaking but eventually including all things homemaking.
Here on LMLD of course we will keep up our chitchat about everything!
The School will also be good for girls, I'm thinking. So if you have some girls and young women who would love to have a tutorial delivered to them often on how to do some aspect of housekeeping, please help them sign up! It will also be very easy to print out, as the posts won't be long. (Maybe I can make each one into a PDF… and I also have plans for an audio, if not video, version). Let me know your thoughts on all that!
My plan is to have a chat over there that is for subscribers only — it will be focused on the practical aspects of whatever we are discussing — sourdough starter for a good long time! I have made the subscription as low as Substack will allow me to, and certainly one could subscribe for one month and then unsubscribe. I think $5 is reasonable to get some in-depth info on whatever is going on with the topic at hand!
For now it's all free and of course I'll continue to answer questions in the comments here and over there. I think, though, that the chat can be more in-depth.
I just wanted to be sure you aren't looking at an older version of the steps! Keep refreshing because I'm sure I'll be able to correct and make more clear all the steps as I post them over at the Substack!
Also — I didn't post links on Saturday, so I didn't have a chance to give you the link to the talks at the Women's Tradition Conference in Littleton CO from a couple of weeks ago. Here it is!
Restore Tradition 2024 Speakers
I especially recommend the one from Peter Kwasniewski — he and I focused on beauty and I actually think our talks went well together. I hope you will like mine too! All the talks were great.
Did you also know that the Chief and I have a podcast? Look below for all the ways you can follow and support us:
Here is my affiliate link to my Amazon page — the only affiliate thing that goes on here on LMLD, which is why the page loads quickly and you don’t have to keep closing pop-ups etc! Thank you for opening it and shopping if you are so minded — as some have asked me. If not, don’t worry one bit!
My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them has moved over to Substack! — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing! The old one is still up if you want to look at the comments on past posts. It will take me a while to get things organized, but you'll be patient, I know!
There you will find the weekly podcast done by Phil and me, called On the Home Front. Do let us know what you think!
Visit me at The School for Housewives and recommend it to your young friends!
My podcast, The Home Truths Society, can be found on the Restoration of Christian Culture website (and you can find it where you listen to such things) — be sure to check out the other offerings there!
Stay abreast of the posts here at LMLD, when they happen:
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We share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram, Rosie’s Instagram, Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.
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The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest
How exciting! And congratulations on your well-earned ribbons! It took me a long time to realize that there were no ads and pop ups on your website– I knew that it felt like an uncommonly safe, comfortable, peaceful website, but it wasn’t until fairly recently that I figured out why that was. Thank you for letting it be that haven in an otherwise over-stimulating, unpredictable interweb, even though it means less revenue for you. Can’t wait to listen to your talk!
Thank you!
Honestly, I don’t even care that much about revenue. I honestly can’t even imagine that one makes that much money from ads, if one factors in the learning curve/amount of time needed to manage it all.
But I know that subjects like making sourdough will result in a lot of comments, and I think if people have to pay, even a small amount, it will keep things focused.
I guess as I thought about it, I thought it would be good to have others set a value on my time. That way, those who really need the info will get it and there won’t be as much distraction.
But it may not work that way, so we’ll see. I am not the sort of person who won’t answer a question! But it does take time to manage it all.
And yes, keeping things calm and not frantic with pop-ups and so on is the main goal!! So thanks for noticing 🥰
The School for Housewives is a great idea! I am a young adult who is trying to learn all she can about keeping a home so that if God so chooses to give me one of my own, I will be able to keep it for His glory! I am very excited about this part of my education, even though it is hard to keep up faith in finding a good husband nowadays, sadly. Well, God is in control, and that is all that matters.
Yes, hang in there — and learning to keep the home is a wonderful plan!
My husband is actually a regular listener of The Home Front. I listened to the first talk and enjoyed it but in general I’m not very good about listening to podcasts.
Congratulations on the blue ribbon for your sourdough! I used to only make one loaf of bread at a time, but I’ve been trying to be more intentional about doubling my recipes. We’re expecting baby #5 any day (prayers appreciated!) so I’ve been trying to get get some extra loaves and bagels in the freezer.
Your garden looks like it’s doing well. We’ve had some crazy weather this summer so our output seems to be less than in previous years. The plants don’t know what to do when we go back and forth between mild 70 degree days and then hot days in the 90s.
I look forward to trying to listen to your talk and Dr. K’s as well. I should have ample time to sit and listen once baby is here. 🙂
I’m excited about your new Substack, Leila! And congratulations on the ribbons!
Thank you!
I just listened to your talk—thank you for sharing here! It was wonderful and has given me a lot to contemplate, especially as I just weaned my toddler and have another baby on the way in a few months.
I knew that so much had been lost in our culture with the lack of nursing mothers, but I had never considered the spiritual implications. It was obvious that the baby misses out on so much, and the mother too, but the wider society needs that image/icon. I will be pondering this for a long time!
Ah, I was wondering what the distinction between the blog and the substack is! I hope your ideas for vigorous, focused conversation over there pan out!t
If you are hoping to gain readers who are not yet housewives, I wonder if “School for Domesticity” or something more along those lines might be better? I would have read that as a single 25 year old, but not a “School for Housewives” –I wasn’t one and had no prospects of becoming one on the horizon! Just a suggestion. Reasons can vary– latent feminism, the prick of pain at preparing for something you desperately want but think might not happen, just an obliviousness that a “School for Housewives” might have something for you– but I think you might appeal to more single young women with a different name.