Mother Culturing: Second Quarter 2025

What we need is a habit of taking our minds out of what one is tempted to call “the domestic rag-bag” of perplexities, and giving it a good airing in something which keeps it “growing”… Is there, then, not need for more “Mother Culture”?

“MOTHER CULTURE” PARENTS’ REVIEW – VOLUME 3

Not they who soar, but they who plod
Their rugged way, unhelped, to God
Are heroes; they who higher fare,
And, flying, fan the upper air,
Miss all the toil that hugs the sod.
‘Tis they whose backs have felt the rod,
Whose feet have pressed the path unshod,
May smile upon defeated care,
Not they who soar.

High up there are no thorns to prod,
Nor boulders lurking ‘neath the clod
To turn the keenness of the share,
For flight is ever free and rare;
But heroes they the soil who’ve trod,
Not they who soar!

Not They Who Soar by Paul Laurence Dunbar

The halfway mark of the year comes more and more quickly with every trip around the sun, and here we are again!

Lots of happenings this quarter, which is our new norm. In April, B continued his weekly training to be a counselor at the annual summer horse camp we’ve attended since 2022. He attended all but one of the Friday night training sessions from March until the end of May every week at the ranch (I also stayed for many of the nights to help make pizzas for all the kids), and then he served as an assistant counselor for the youngest boys attending the camp for one week. This was a wonderful opportunity for him, and I was grateful to witness him growing and maturing in this role. Although it was challenging to get him down for the 3-hour training every Friday night, it was well worth it. He plans to do it again next year.

Also in April and into early May, we had some excitement in the yard when a mother rabbit decided to make a nest for her soon-to-be-born babies in one of our raised garden beds. We saw her digging it and then dragging dry grass over to line it, so we assumed birth was imminent, even though she covered the spot so well that we never would’ve known anything had been disturbed there if we hadn’t seen it ourselves. B set up one of our trailcams in the garden aimed at the spot, and a few nights later, sure enough, she gave birth. Unfortunately, the camera was angled wrong so we only saw the back of her during the birthing process, but over the next few days, we got to see her returning to the bed to dig up her babies and feed them. They were absolutely adorable.

Sadly, not long after they were born, we checked the camera one foggy morning to find it tipped over and evidence that something had disturbed the nest. I dug down just to see if any of them were still there, but found nothing except straw and fur. The kids and I had something we needed to attend that morning, so we left, but my husband walked around the yard and found one of the bodies of the babies with a single puncture wound, so we assumed they had all succumbed to nature.

A little while after we got home, I was looking out the window. The mama rabbit was still hanging around the yard which was kind of sad because we thought perhaps she was still “guarding” her babies (she had been chasing off magpies for a few days). As I was watching her, though, I suddenly saw a little movement in the grass near her, and there was an absolutely tiny baby rabbit exploring a grass patch (which was probably the equivalent of a forest to it). We watched it very carefully over the next few days, and it has been a resident of our yard ever since. It’s a miracle in a way that it survived at all, as we have many predators in our area.

My husband’s travel schedule remained full throughout the rest of April and into May, but in the last half of May, we were able to take a short road trip to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park for a few days. It was mostly cold, and we got some snow as we meandered through the various geysers, hot springs, paint pots, and bison, but it wasn’t too crowded, and we made good memories. My husband and I visited Yellowstone back before the kids were born, and it was neat to return and show them Old Faithful in particular.

In June, the horse camp week finally arrived, and we attended that in the mornings. That same week, were also able to spend a few of the afternoons with some very, very dear friends who moved to Colorado just two-and-a-half short years ago. In that time, we’ve gone on many hikes, attempted to do a little micro-coop together (with some success… :)), went camping, had a few sleepovers, and a lot of great conversations. I knew their time here was short even from the beginning as they were planning to move back east when the dad/husband of the family retired from his job, but I always hoped in the back of my mind that they’d end up staying. However, the week after the horse camp, we spent Friday at their house saying good-bye. It was very hard and very sad, and they will be very missed.

In the end of June, C attended the Little House on the Prairie-themed camp that various girls in the homeschool groups we’ve been a part of over the years have offered since 2018. This was a bittersweet year as we were able to introduce one of our new friends to this little camp that both of my kids have enjoyed, but it was the last year either of my kids will be attending as C will be too old next year. These years are so fleeting.

The rest of the summer will include a little trip for me along with the other CMER planning team members on a retreat of our own to the mountains. I’m looking forward to spending time with these wonderful women who have become such good friends to me over the last nine years. I’ll also be digging further into school planning next year, continuing hikes with our local homeschool group, and maybe trying to get some leisure reading of my own done. I’m thinking we’ll start school up again in mid-August, which doesn’t give me a whole lot of time to fit all of this in!

And now on to this quarter….

Read (or Finished Reading)

For Me

The Art of Lent: A Painting A Day From Ash Wednesday To Easter by Sr. Wendy Beckett. I’ve heard good things about the Advent book in this series of painting-a-day books, so I decided to go through this over Lent. I really wanted to like it (or even love it!), and I did add a few book darts here and there. But I didn’t agree with her interpretations of many of the paintings and felt some of them were a little forced in relation to the weekly themes. I still love Sr. Wendy, though!

Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship by Jonathan Gibson. A very good friend gifted this to me because it had been a blessing to her, and I enjoy exploring different liturgical practices. The book is beautiful, and I saved many of the prayers to use in the liturgical time I’ve crafted for myself.

Why Literature Still Matters by Jason M. Baxter. This was a quick read that offered excellent points and was told in an engaging way.

Images of Faith: Devotional Edition, Reflections Inspired by Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffman Rockness. Another friend gifted this to me a while ago, and I added it to my morning liturgy sometime last year. I really enjoyed learning more about Lilias Trotter as she was not an artist/missionary I knew much about before reading this. I think Rockness offered some good thoughts and it was an inspiring read.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. My friend, Kiel, picked this for the moms in our weekly hiking group to read. I’ve been meaning to read Trollope for a while, so this was a good opportunity to give him a try. It was a slow start, but he did a great job of giving each of the characters their own unique personalities, and I enjoyed the ending.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. This was going to be a pre-read for B as it’s listed as an AmblesideOnline Year 8 free read. I ended up deciding not to hand it to him, but it was an enjoyable read for me.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Another mom in our hiking group picked this one for us to read when we finished Barchester Towers. It’s not a book I would have picked on my own, but the story was very engaging, and the audiobook version was especially so. Very sad, but also very well-written.

For (or With) the Kids

The Dragon and the Stone by Kathryn L. Butler. Read aloud to the kids at night. They enjoyed it!

For School

(I’ll write more about most of these in my end-of-year recap posts for school later this month.)

Utopia by Thomas More.

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.

Whatever Happened to Justice? by Richard J. Maybury.

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl.

Jungle Pilot: The Story of Nate Saint, Martyred Missionary to Ecuador by Russell T. Hitt.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. (This is a pre-read for next year, so I’ll write more about it in next year’s recap post.)

Currently

I’m currently reading The Nature of Rest: What the Bible and Creation Teach Us About Sabbath Living, The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece (for the Art Book Reading Challenge); Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23 (for my journey through the fruit of the spirit during my Morning Liturgy); The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (pre-read for Year 9!); and Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (another pre-read for Year 9!).

With B I am reading The Two Towers, and with C I am reading The Great Good Thing.

Reading Challenges Progress

Made

The last three months have just been a whirlwind of busyness, so other than trying to simply cook meals every day, I haven’t made much this quarter. We did get our garden started, but my herbs aren’t doing all that well in the Colorado heat. My son planted several things that don’t require pollination to produce (eg, lettuce, kale, radishes, potatoes, etc.) in our raised bed gardens, and he put row covers over them to protect them from grasshoppers which decimated pretty much everything we planted last year (including two fruit trees). The covered plants have mostly thrived (we had some butterhead lettuce one evening with supper!), so I’m pondering how I can do the same with my herbs. My son did lay out an irrigation system for all the plants, which has really helped in at least keeping them alive, but the direct sunlight all day plus the arid climate really keep them from thriving. We’ll probably keep experimenting through the summer.

The garlic I planted last October is just about ready to harvest, though, so that’s something!

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More next quarter!