Scenes from winter

During this winter of discontent, here are some scenes of winter wonder: 

Snow, snow and more snow around our house. Every day we have to shovel again because more snow has fallen during the night. Each morning and each evening, I check on our pond with 2 koi who are hopefully hibernating. I add pots of hot water around the filter and the bubbler to keep them from freezing. I don't know how the fish are going to make it. 

  

I tried to capture the glitter of the sun on the icy snow, but my camera/photo skills are not commensurate with the task.

   

Scenes from different days: An overlooked Christmas ornament and a snowman who since being made has been buried.

A couple weekends ago we went to Nashville to watch our daughter run at Vanderbilt. As a bonus, we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame to satisfy our middle schooler and visited with my cousin who is a Dominican sister and my college friend whose son was also running. 

  

Taylor Swift's outfits, a retrospective of Dolly Parton's career, and Elvis's gold Cadillac were highlights of the CMHF.

   

Oh! And some memorabilia from Hee-Haw!

On the way home we stopped to see my parents and family, and the next day we visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which was free in honor of Martin Luther King Day, with our granddaughter and our son and daughter-in-law. Nothing is sweeter right now than watching that baby discover the world. She is so adorable - curious and cute. 

 

 

The Clowes Pavilion has a light show. My grandparents often took me and my siblings to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now called Newfields, but the galleries have changed a lot. I don't recognize much of the museum but this Tiffany window from the Indpls Presbyterian Church in honor of Benjamin Harrison, the courtyard, and the little dark room that houses a Rembrandt self-portrait, are all still familiar. The Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture used to be outside but has been moved in because of weathering.

I always love an image of Charity being mauled by hungry children.

Chilling

 It's interesting that a word - chilling - can have such disparate meanings. Right now the wind chill is bone chilling, but my coffee is sitting on the counter chilling.  The kids had a snow day because the temperatures were chilling the snow and ice and creating hazardous driving conditions, so we sat around all day, just chilling, doing crafts, playing cards, watching old movies, reading new books. 

And what is happening in Minneapolis and other areas is blood chilling. 

I try not to be political here. My main motivation for writing is to remember - what we did, what I read, where we traveled.  So I will remember this about this month: the weather was brutally cold, and the news was dark.

I am glad to hear the neighbors say that the weather isn't usually this bad. Our first winter in South Bend apparently has brought more snow and colder temps for longer periods that it has in years. I'm trying to remember my own school days, and I do remember a couple huge snowstorms, the worst ironically in March, a blizzard that hit the east coast especially hard over Spring Break, shutting down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, preventing students from returning, causing accidents and outages. I also remember being prideful about running outside nearly every day, even though we did our workouts on a beautiful indoor track that is still one of the nicest in the region. I have barely walked outside this month, let alone run. (Of course, I barely run any more regardless of temperatures, but I got cortisone shots in my feet to help with arthritis (!Am I that old!) before Christmas just so I could run again, but at least I can get out of bed without feeling crippled anymore).  

I'm not sure of the total snowfall this season, but snow has piled up to the top of our little garden fence. It melts occasionally when the sun comes out, even the air temps haven't been over 30 in weeks.  Even when the meteorologists have not predicted snow, more snow falls. School has been cancelled twice and had multiple 2 hour delays. I feel sorry for the 1st and 2nd period teachers who keep having to push back their lesson plans. Each 2 hour delay causes another kink in the planning. My early morning college classes were actually cancelled yesterday because another 6 inches fell in the wee hours unexpectedly. Road crews were caught off-guard, and the frigid temps made salting ineffective.

Like the unpredictable weather, news of events around the country have continued to get worse. The violent acts of ICE officers have been horrifying.  Equally distressing is the lack of accountability.  The use of deadly force is unjustified in the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.  

I won't say more about what is happening in Minneapolis, other than to say that it has been difficult to focus on daily chores when national news is so chilling. What is curious to me is the kind of mental gymnastics that must occur to justify the support of president who continues to violate principles that uphold human dignity.  There are some who think that the show of force is necessary to control the disorder, but isn't the disorder a reaction to the use of force? When President Trump was elected a second time, although I thought it was pretty clear he was someone who would do and say anything to advance his own power and wealth, I could understand people voting for him because they disagreed with Democrats' policies and found their candidates objectionable and because Trump passed pro-life policies and appointed judges who supported pro-life policies in his first term. But as the year has gone on, the actions of the current administration have become more outrageous, and I find it harder to understand the continued support for a president who uses government power to punish political enemies, to manipulate markets, to alienate foreign allies, to hide his personal crimes, to destroy historic buildings, to sell public lands, to enable technology sector overreach, to profit from his position and seek to enrich himself and his collaborators by annexing other countries, and worst, to violate human dignity in all kinds of ways.

In the public sphere, every statement and every action is able to be argued, even video evidence. Nothing seems to be obvious or common sense. In teaching a public speaking class, I have become more and more attentive to the use of language to reveal and to deceive. The first book of Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric defines happiness and its constituent parts and lists things that bring about happiness - it seems to have nothing to do with the craft of public speaking. Aristotle also considers what is worthy of praise and lists actions considered noble and fine. He makes it clear that the good, happiness, is the goal of all rhetoric even though there may be different means of reaching that goal. I point this out to my students - we all want what is "good." We all want peace and security. We all want to live in a country where we can worship and speak freely. We all would prefer harmony to discord.  Often, political rhetoric has a negative connotation because it is used to label, if not to batter, political opponents. Rather than consider actions and ethics, people support a party and look the other way when their party does something that seems unprincipled. 

But does it not seem that core principles have been trampled? Actions that would have caused outrage if perpetrated by the opposing party seem to go overlooked now. When is the line crossed when the ends do not justify the means? 

I know that many supported the current administration because the policies and actions of the Biden administration violated some very important principles. But aren't there equally important principles being violated now? Is a third way possible? 

I don't know what the solution is - a third party isn't going to happen any time soon. But are there enough people frustrated by the battle to rise above the division in our political discourse and seek alternative paths?  The inflammatory rhetoric has led to inflamed actions.  And though tempers are hot, the news is chilling.  

Reading in Review

 Oh dear, this was a sad year for reading. I only read 31 books. I think I might have forgotten to list some, but the truth is that my reading was sorely limited this year, partly because of teaching full time in the spring, partly because of moving, partly because my attention and will are weak, and I watched more movies and scrolled through more media. Should I give myself grace for having weakened in my consumption of good literature? Or should I be honest about my failing and charge myself with the task of applying more self-discipline next year? 

Granted, I dedicated a lot of time to teaching, grading, and planning. Much of my reading was for school, either researching for class, or prepping to teach. My list includes rereads like The Outsiders and The Diary of Anne Frank and Night, which I will miss reading. They deserve regular rereading.  

In addition to the books on rhetoric and public speaking on my list, I also did quite a bit of reading online about teaching these subjects. I spent a lot of time on the American Rhetoric website reading classic speeches, as well as googling around for other good examples of the use and abuse of rhetoric. I read a bit about logic and fallacies.  (But I also spent much too much time on Facebook marketplace reading ads - an interesting study in rhetoric in itself. In the language of the amateur marketer.)

Now that we don't have such a comfortable place for watching tv (our new couch in the basement is not nearly as cushy), I suspect our tv watching will decrease. And I no longer need to scroll Zillow as I did much of the spring nor Facebook marketplace as I did much of the summer and fall nor shop for presents as I did much of December.  So I will have more time to read!

What were the highlights of my reading year?

I am glad I finished The Hunchback of Notre Dame, although I did not enjoy it very much. It was long and wordy, although I appreciated some of the descriptive parts and wish I had read it before our trip to Paris this summer. The characters were flat and static. Very little, if any character development - except to descend further into darkness, as Claude Frollo and his brother Jehan and the soldier Phoebus did. Esmeralda seemed to grow more stupid in her love for Phoebus. Gringoire became more of a caricature. And Esmeralda's mother seemed more insane that wracked by grief. No one seemed to have any interior life or sense of faith. Although the hunchback was the most sympathetic character, and he seemed to have the most virtue of any of the characters, Hugo made his virtue seemed almost more unintentional, like a blind loyalty or innate passion.  But I'm glad I stuck with it as a piece of literary history, and I feel some sense of accomplishment for finishing this classic, even though I found all of the characters disappointing, and none seem to be redeemed by the end of the novel.  Hugo's outlook seems to be similar to Thomas Hobbes' "life is nasty, brutish, and short." While the book was billed as an encomium to the Cathedral de Notre Dame, it made the cathedral seem a dark and foreboding place that hid misdeeds by the misguided and eventually corrupt/evil curate Frollo and a prison more than a place of refuge for Esmeralda and the hunchback. 

One book I enjoyed that was new to me was Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag. This also was a book club pick, and I liked this one better than some of my fellow readers, although I did feel exasperated with the blindness of some of the characters. I always enjoy a story about the hard lives of pioneers on the prairie, though, and this one seemed to be a very true to life account of the harsh aspects of that time and place.  I reread Persuasion for this book club also- can't go wrong with Jane Austen! My brother, who is into online auctions now, bid on a set of 3 Jane Austen editions from the late 1800s- the ended up selling for around $700, so he didn't win the auction, but it shows the love her books deserve. 

My reading of young adult books has also trailed off, although my reading for class the first half of the year, which seems a lifetime ago now, was primarily middle grade fiction. I miss reading aloud with my daughter, a habit we dropped when we moved. She was tiring of listening to Anne Shirley novels, but I would be happy to pick them up again. Perhaps another resolution! I'm sure she'd love if we returned to that habit. We didn't keep the comfy folding papasan chair that I used to sit in to read, but now she has her sister's full bed, so there's plenty of room to cuddle up on a cold winter's eve. I just need to prioritize the practice. I did finish listening to The Hobbit in the car with her, as she was reading it for her 6th grade class, and I always enjoy the dramatized version, which we found on Internet Archive. 

Although my spiritual reading was primarily reflection pieces - I spent a lot of time finding prayers for the season for my class - I did do some reading related to our travels. I read Christy Wilkin's book about Lourdes, but perhaps my favorite spiritual reading was Plough magazine. I included these issues as books because I read each issue, 4 per year, cover to cover. The essays range from historical to theological to cultural and issues include art and poetry and a biography of a holy person. Although published by the Bruderhof, many of the writers are Catholics.  The Winter theme was Beauty and Work was the theme for the fall. It's the one print periodical I'm still subscribing to right now. 

I skimmed through a number of books on rhetoric before starting teaching this fall, and I did actually enjoy my close read of Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric. It is concerned as much with the nature of being human and being moved by emotions, motivated by virtue, and attracted to beauty, as with "rules" rhetoric and logic. Although some sections get bogged down in lists and definitions, it includes a number of observations about human nature that provide for good class discussions, such as what is happiness and what things inspire it? And what are the characteristics of a good life which are worthy of being deliberated? Justice and the characteristics of a government ruled by law are also topics of interest. A lot packed into a short book, and a reminder of how public speaking and writing form the character of our nation.  Although much public discourse is colored by incivility and ad hominem attacks and other fallacies of logic, learning about rhetoric perhaps can resolve some of that divisiveness as ideas are shared and thoughtfully debated.  One of the first books I finished for 2026 is John Duffy's Provocations of Virtue, which considers the rhetoric classroom as a learning lab for practicing ethics through discussion, debate, and learning to communicate ethically. It gave me a lot to think about at the opening of the semester.

Now it's time for me to get back to planning for this semester.  The recognition that my reading was severely diminished this year is a wake up call to dedicate myself more to intellectual discipline - turning off the phone and picking up the book. Of course, the goal isn't a number, but a growth in knowledge, understanding, curiosity, empathy, commitment, imagination, faith, motivation, etc. May the books I read be more than just a competition to best myself. Here's to turning more pages, but also turning over more ideas, in 2026!

From the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Hopes for the New Year

 Happy New Year, everyone!

Nearly two weeks into 2026, and I just learn that Wendell Berry has a new novel out - since October! Joy! How was this not on the top of my Christmas list? How did I miss this?  It's backordered now, but I've reserved a copy. 

Let me tell you, I have been disconnected from news that matters to me for some time. Unfortunately, I hear too much disturbing news on the national and local front, but I haven't kept up with news in arts and culture, or rather, that small niche of arts and culture that appeals to me. 

One of my new year's resolutions is to seek more reliable sources of information for my news of the world and the good, creative people in it - and to avoid social media and its commentators. Although there are real reasons for outrage over the travesty that is American politics, engaging - or even just observing - the outrage on social media is unhealthy, even if outrage is the appropriate response. Of course, social media is a big part of the problem. Although I signed up as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, it has now become a morass of clickbait and advertising, both of which are often false or misleading. 

Additionally, random scrolling has lessened my reading - not just my reading time, but my attention span. I'm just like a teenager! (Other than my gray hair, wrinkles, and saggy body . . .)

Woe! I am often a hypocrite! I tell my students to read real news, but I myself have fallen out of the practice since we moved.  Sadly, this is largely because I let my subscription to the WSJ lapse.  My kids tired of me telling them about something I read in the WSJ.   I don't know if the WSJ would have highlighted a new Wendell Berry book, although they should have. 

What I really miss is going to the library and seeing what's on the "What's New" shelf and picking up the new book review magazines to browse.  So perhaps another resolution - more trips to the library - or at least read more real books.

The library is not far from our house - less than 10 minutes. But my first two visits were not especially pleasant. The layout is rather broken up and not welcoming - the stairs are hidden, the reading rooms are all tucked away in corners, the division of genres is not intuitive - meaning I don't know where the books I typically like (fiction, theology, children's lit, lit crit, books of interest) are.  Also, there are a lot of people who haven't bathed recently using the reading chairs as nap spots. I didn't feel like I could let my 11 year old out of my sight. 

I haven't been back since late summer. Thus, I haven't been keeping up on what's new, although much of it is dregs.

However, thanks to blogs, I now know there is a new Catlett family novel out. I used my Bookshop credit to purchase it, because Wendell Berry would appreciate avoiding Amazon, and avoiding Amazon is another resolution.  This helps with my bigger goal of shopping less in general. We still need some things for the house - the basement and the sunroom remain sparsely furnished, but after Christmas, I need a break from shopping. I finally made all of my returns - almost every time buying something new, unfortunately. The cure is to not go into the shops at all. 

In addition to resolutions to shop less and to read real books and real news more, I'm of course telling myself to eat less, exercise more, worry less, sleep more, write more, pray more, and connect with family and friends more. 

I just need more hours in the day and more will power! Or more grace...

I know I make the same resolutions every year, and I know that I rarely keep them - or I wouldn't have to recommit. I don't even need to look back at last year's resolutions, as I used to sometimes do, because they are always about the same. Nonetheless, I will continue to appreciate the habit of using this time of year to do an examination of conscience for the year - which reminds me that I also need to get to confession. I meant to go the other day, but the line was too long! This was an issue in Texas, too. A good thing for the church, a bad thing for my soul.

So here's to starting over and trying again to be the person we are called to be! And oh, happy failures that remind us of our need to be redeemed! And to the hope that springs anew even in the bleak midwinter that by grace we will someday have that glory.

Christmas Memories

 It's a chilly January morning, nearly the Feast of the Epiphany.  School started today. We just returned from visiting the in-laws in Oklahoma City during the previous week and visiting with college friends and Texas friends (who were in Michigan) over the weekend. The holidays are nearing their end, but we are still celebrating. 

It's been a minute since I blogged - November closed out our college football season of hospitality, much to the dismay of the Notre Dame football fans in our household. (The team was left out of college football playoffs because of some political machinations by the board to allow in more SEC teams. Even I was angered by the slight Notre Dame received by the CFP board.  Our righteous indignation was tempered only by the outpouring of sympathy the team received - although plenty of people who love to hate Notre Dame football were willing to throw salt in the wounds.) 

Although our social calendar no longer revolves around the football schedule, we had a busy December with Christmas celebrations, including a black tie gala at the art museum, probably the highlight, and several other parties. Our own party had to be rescheduled when a last minute trip to Jerusalem came up for my husband. Although he only had 3 days in the Holy City, 2 of which were taken up by meetings, because of the political situation and the season, there were no crowds or lines to enter the holy sites, and he was able to visit the most notable ones - the Church of the Nativity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the wailing wall. He has promised to take me there the next time he has to go.  

The beginning of December was consumed by end of the year planning and grading, shopping, and travel planning.  Every year I think I am going to be a more efficient grader and just whiz through grades, but it always takes longer than I think, even though this year I was grading speeches and much shorter final essays - which students wrote in class in blue books because AI is ubiquitous. Even if you don't want to use it, it is built into so many applications now. 

I also resolved last year to be a better shopper and just buy the gifts the kids want without wasting time shopping all around. I did that for a couple of things before falling prey to the "I can find a better price elsewhere" mindset. Then I scrolled for hours before running out and buying random gifts instead of the one prized thing.  The gifts were given, and many subsequently were stacked up to be returned.  

But that's getting ahead of the story. The Christmas celebration began with a first birthday party - "One for the books."  My daughter-in-law did such a cute job decorating for a picture book themed party - there were a very hungry caterpillar balloon arch and lots of snacks from Eric Carle's classic, a Chicka chicka boom boom tree where we wrote guest messages, a table with a station for drawing wild things and another station for looking up phases of the moon on our own birthdays.  Books were stacked on the table as decor.  And cookies as a take home gift were set out under a little sign with a picture of Max and an "I"ll eat you up I love you so" message.  Everything was thoughtfully planned. The birthday girl may have been slightly oblivious, but she loved all of the attention after an initial moment of befuddlement when she woke up from a nap to find a  houseful of family and friends waiting to give her birthday hugs. Her favorite gifts were her cute chair from her mom and dad and her little gold shoes from us. She loves shoes! But of course the highlight of the party was just watching her smile and be loved by all her adoring aunts and uncles.

From the bday party we headed to my parents' farm for an early Christmas with my siblings and most of the cousins.  We had a delicious supper of Guinness beef stew, homemade bread, and plenty of laughs. My mom loves to shop at Goodwill, so she gave all of the young people bags of random things she had found over the last few months, but the real gift was a generous check. (Note to self for next year - pick up some fun stocking stuffers, write some checks, and enjoy the time together.)

My one successful gift was waiting for the kids when we all returned to our home in the north - I finally bought everyone matching pajamas, even the baby, even the dog. My husband was not thrilled about this, and I'm sorry to say I did not get a great photo of the whole lot of us. The kids all posed on the stairs, but you can't really see all the pj's.  We should have set one up in front of the tree, but in the hullabaloo, that didn't ever get staged. 

A random mess-up photo, but no one wants their face on the blog anymore.

Those were handed out on Monday evening - a late St. Nick day gift.  For two days we had all the kids home. On Tuesday we went to the farmers' market (not a crowded day), picked up dinner prep items at the Italian market and the meat and cheese shop, and made an Italian feast. The kids gave their secret Santa gifts which were really very thoughtful and generous.  The next day we went ice skating and had a steak flight for dinner so the kids could taste test different types of steak. We ate really well all week.

Our oldest and his family headed home to do Christmas Eve and Christmas day at their house, but my parents came up that afternoon. We attended the Christmas Eve Mass at the basilica which was beautiful and solemn.  It was so crowded we had to sit behind the altar, but we still felt like a part of the celebration. 

After Mass was the traditional toast and some snacky bites, but everyone was tired so they went to bed relatively early - meaning by 1 am. Meanwhile, I was awake several more hours, sorting and wrapping a few things, and fretting over how to make sure the piles were all even. Most of the presents I put in bags. Another resolution - do that part earlier!  It was a short night.  

Even though the kids slept in, they were up before my parents arrived to watch them open a couple presents and to join us for brunch, which was basic breakfast food; just plenty of it. I did not step up my game this year to make any breakfast cakes, as we had lots of cookies and pies left over and the neighbor sent over homemade cinnamon rolls. What a treat! 

After brunch, the weather was mild enough that we could take a stroll around the lakes, which the dog loved. We lit candles at the Grotto and prayed by the outdoor nativity. Then it was back for another big meal for dinner - beef tenderloin, the favorite of the steak flight (which was just small bites for everyone). Christmas evening we all piled up in the basement to watch Christmas movies, a chill evening after a big eating day. 

Although we still need comfy chairs for the basement and a game table - ping pong, pool, or just a table for board games, which we played a lot at my in-laws, - the gathering spaces in our new house worked fairly well for our large group. The living room was crowded but not cramped. The kitchen was full but not overflowing. Everyone found a spot to lounge for the movie (although I have decided our new couch is not as comfortable as I would like - it isn't deep, so it's hard to curl up on). I wanted to light a fire, but my husband wants to get the chimney cleaned first, and a fire might have made the basement too warm.

The Boston contingent headed back east right after Christmas, while we reset to head to OKC.  Our youngest son ended up getting the opportunity for a special work trip and wasn't able to go with us, but we were all happy for his opportunity to travel.  In between the full first week with all the kids and then the second part of the week with the trip to see the in-laws, this seemed an especially long Christmas break -perhaps because we had the two full weeks with Christmas and New Year's near the end of the week. 

Travels to OKC were nearly interrupted by a winter storm - we had snow before Christmas and snow after Christmas, but no snow on Christmas.  We barely made our connection, but because we were flying through Dallas, we could have rented a car, so stress was minimal.  Which is good because now that we live in the land of winter, we will have to deal with inevitable travel delays - or not travel. 

The time in OKC was similarly marked by lots of laughter and good food. This year we stayed at a hotel while our oldest and his family stayed at my in-laws.  Two of my husband's brothers and their families, including his brother who lives in Germany, and one of his sisters also gathered on New Year's Eve to ring in 2026. We moved the "party" back to the hotel and found a conference room where we could sit and talk until we moved to a window to watch the fireworks downtown. The conversations were long and deep and the laughter hearty. My sister and I agreed that the best part was the laughter that may have smoothed some rough edges between the brothers. Differing political views may have created some distance between members of the family, but this holiday week was a good reminder that human relationships can accommodate differences. 

In between laughing together and then feasting on the traditional white meal - pork, sauerkraut, knepp and mashed potatoes (plus green beans) - we were warmed with full stomachs and full hearts. It's always a little hard to return home after a vacation with people you love, but we capped off the week with quick jaunts to Chicago and Marshall, Michigan, where we met up with friends for end of the holiday visits over lunch - more opportunities to strengthen long relationships. 

A great quote on the beams at Schulers, the restaurant where we met up with friends in Marshall, MI. Reminded me of our Coronado house with inspirational quotes on the beams...

Much to be thankful for this holiday season, although it seems awfully quiet this week as our youngest heads back to school and the two college kids still here are sorting their things and working on some projects they wanted to do. Classes start next week for me, so I still have a week to prep - thank goodness - and some time to reflect and reset. I've got some things to work on in the new year -intentions coming soon. But this post is a work of gratitude - a look back at the many blessings that grace this life. 

 

lots of shoes = a full house = lots of love