“Read and re-read. Re-reading we always find a new book.” ~C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories, “On Stories” (1947) I have always been a big fan of re-reading. While most good books can support many readings, certain excellent books almost seem to require multiple readings before the reader can claim to really understand…
Author: Sara Masarik
Curators of things Good, True, and Beautiful
The Princess and the Goblin
In The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald treats us to a rich imaginative adventure. Like Bilbo Baggins, however, we must be a bit uncomfortable to get the most out of it. This little tale is incredibly sophisticated, and to understand it best we must become little children again.
Apple Recipes
In this article, I wrote about why we can apples. I have had some friends ask me which recipes we use and how we do it. I am a self-taught canner. I am not an expert. I am just a modern mom who is trying to connect with old-fashioned good sense. That said, I will…
Applesauce Needs Sugar
Several years ago, I heard about an obscure and out-of-print old treasure: Applesauce Needs Sugar. Sadly, the book is old enough and obscure enough that it took months for me to get an interlibrary loan copy. When it did arrive, I had no time to read it and had to return it. For nearly two…
Tiny Jars of Apples
It is apple season here in Wisconsin. We live in a place with very harsh winters, late springs, and cold falls. In our city, the “snow/cold day” school cancellation policy doesn’t activate until -35F° (with windchill). My respect for the pioneers and settlers who tamed this bitterly cold wilderness is boundless. My admiration for their…
Little Britches #5: Fields of Home
In my review of the fourth book in Ralph Moody’s Little Britches series, Mary Emma and Company, I said goodbye to young Ralph. That book closed the chapter on Ralph’s childhood. Fields of Home chronicles Ralph’s debut into young manhood. No longer a child but not yet a man, this chapter of Ralph’s life extends…
Sabbath Schedule
A few months ago I wrote an article about our obedience to the spiritual principle of Sabbath-keeping. Since then, I have received a number of requests for an explanation of what a normal Sabbath looks like for us. Because I appreciate being able to peek into the lives of others, I am happy to share…
Hospitality Recharge
In this article I wrote about Sally Clarkson’s A Life Giving Home and a beautiful weekend of hospitality when we were hosting our Gourmet group. In that article I explained that we anticipated the weekend with a gentle approach to our preparations and a sharing of the work. No matter how wonderful our call to hospitality is,…
My Life Giving Home
Last winter I read Sally Clarkson’s newest book, The Life Giving Home, and experienced a sense of support and calling that profoundly deepened a calling that I was already wrestling with. More than a year ago, my husband and I were called into a difficult and disorienting life-changing situation. Our natural introverted tendency is to…
Little Britches #4: Mary Emma and Company
Mentoring is a critical theme woven throughout the first half of the Little Britches series. Despite the incredible hardships that his family endures, Ralph Moody is very clear that God always looked out for them and rewarded their faithfulness in interesting ways. In new places and new circumstances, God not only provided the work requisite…
Contact
“I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed. I think this search does not lead to a complacent satisfaction that we know the answer, nor an arrogant sense that the answer is before us and we need…
The World of Ben-Hur
“To the people of his hometown, Jesus was always a carpenter, the son of a carpenter, a man who worked with saws and planes. We have some of the same problems, except in reverse. We’ve always known Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. We can’t see him as an ordinary craftsman who made…
GK Chesterton: Architect of Spears
In my Potato Peel Pie book club we are reading a little Chesterton every week. And by “little,” I mean one essay every Sunday from In Defense of Sanity. Each week we read and reflect on one short essay or article from G. K. Chesterton and play with the ideas he articulates. Some of the…
The First Olympics
In June of 1894, Pierre de Coubertin and his newly organized International Olympic Committee unanimously voted to schedule the first Olympics of the modern era to open in April of 1896 in Athens, Greece. Over the next two years, 13 countries would assemble teams of athletes to represent their nation in this peaceful international assembly…
A Town Like Alice
War is a barbaric, dehumanizing and destructive force that rips families apart and tears nations to shreds. Like a wildfire, it has no mercy and it is indiscriminate in its destruction. Also like a wildfire, however, it can be a catalyzing force for new growth and potential. Neville Shute’s A Town Like Alice is a…