Substack Re-Boot

All the things I have been doing other than writing on Substack

Yesterday, I received a friendly reminder email from Substack: it has been four months since I last posted. They were kind enough to include a hot tip that readers are more likely to read if I actually write something. My best-laid plans of writing here bi-monthly did not come to pass - within a couple of months of launching Mud and Sapphires, I was offered the irresistible opportunity to write a bi-monthly column for classical educators at Circe Institute. (Check out my favorite post here: The Reader's Regress - Loving Books and Wine in a Finite World.) Unfortunately, I did not have the margin this past school year to write here as much as I had planned.

Household Happenings

Aside from writing, it seems that a decade of living has been squeezed into the last 365 days. As I continued to grieve my father’s death, we had a major transition as my husband began a new job after a stressful search process. I added a third student to my homeschool roster as my daughter began kindergarten, which has been… an adjustment. She is rather more interested in her imaginative world of warrior raccoons than, say, learning to read.

For my middle child, I have had to impose “fire restrictions.” This has not stopped his inventive mind. He is in the process of designing: a mast and sail to attach to a child’s kayak, a pulley system that he can use to zipline down a mountain, and a cardboard boat that can be detonated. Recently, I found him leaning against the porch railing, chin in his hands. After inquiring if something was on his mind, my nine-year-old philosopher said, “I’m just thinking about The Origin of Species.”

Shortly, I will have my first middle schooler. It took him no time to observe how much I delighted in a “Gosh, Mom!” so he is now depriving me of this joy out of contrariness. He has a boyish look about his face that will soon fade, but occasionally, I catch a glimpse of the same silly grin that I have seen since he first began to smile.

The noise in the house is deafening, but I am keenly aware of this fleeting phase of parenting, a golden age when everyone can use the potty alone and (theoretically) clean up after themselves, and no one is in the full throes of hormones yet. They have all become obsessed with the Redwall series, and after countless audiobook sessions, I will often hear one of them yell to one other, “Come back here, you cheeky little blighter!”

Water damage to our home this spring has led to a remodeling project, the new hobby I didn’t want. I have so many more interesting things to do than contemplating how rounded I want the edges of the bathroom vanity countertop to be. Amid chasing down contractors and insurance adjusters, at long last, I have officially finished my Great Books master’s coursework. I crawled to the finish line of this hard-earned milestone. Still to come is an ambitious Capstone Project, but with increased day-to-day flexibility I will have more time to write here. As I say to my children, it is a plan not a promise.

Around the Web

Those who follow current events in global Anglicanism are aware that in February the Archbishop of Canterbury formally decided to bless same-sex couples. During GAFCON IV, the Global Anglican Future Conference, I waited apprehensively to see how the larger Anglican communion would respond corporately to the Church of England. While I was grateful for the strength of the Kigali Commitment, something about it did not sit well with me. In the First Things article, “Is the Anglican ‘Reset’ Truly Anglican?”, Hans Boersma et al brilliantly articulate my concerns about the Scripture/tradition balance and the future of Anglicanism. They write:

The divine Scriptures are indeed the ultimate authority for matters of doctrine. The Church has no authority to define dogma that the Scriptures do not already contain or to admit heretical teachings that contradict them. But a strict sola scriptura hermeneutic, which fails to recognize the Bible’s origin in the ancient Church and its authoritative interpretation by the Church fathers and creeds, opens the way to a liberal method in which every reader serves as his own authority.

You can read the full article here.

Currently Reading/Re-reading

• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

• Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers

• Evangelical is Not Enough by Thomas Howard

• The Cloud of Unknowing (anonymous)

• The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

Coming Soon…

Stay tuned for a post on summer reading, thoughts on Thomas Howard’s Evangelical is Not Enough, and a consideration of whether authenticity is a virtue.