Episode 18: How to be a reader (when life is “too full” for reading)

Join us today as we talk about all things homesteading and small farming with Jordyn LaFon!

Jordyn shared with us her family’s story as they got started with farming, as well as some of the highs and lows of learning on the job when it comes to homesteading.

Shownote links and books

• Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs
• Carl Trueman, Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self
• Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food (especially the essay  “Sanitation and the small farm”)
• Charles Dowding — No-till gardening (Instagram)
• Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World

Join us as we discuss homemaking, productivity, and motherhood with Mystie Winckler of Simply Convivial. 

It’s tempting to look for a “fix it quick scheme” or to get out of sorts with our home-making when it is a challenge. But with the right attitude we can look for ways to model a grateful and convivial life with and for our children. We talk about some first steps to getting organized as well as the importance of having an ideal but not making attaining that ideal an immediate expectation or a prerequisite for happiness. 

Links: 

• Simply Convivial
• Simply convivial: Pep Talks for Homemakers & Homeschoolers Podcast
• Scholé Sisters Podcast
• Book: The Convivial Homeschool: Gospel Encouragement for Keeping Your Sanity While Living and Learning Alongside Your Kids by Mystie Winckler

On today’s episode I had the privilege of interviewing Rebekah Merkle, author of Eve in Exile and the documentary of the same name. Her work challenges cultural feminism as we know it and is an encouragement to Christian women to let the Bible define what femininity is. Check out the documentary on the Canon Plus app, and you can find the book at canonpress.com and Amazon. To enjoy more podcasts from Bekah, check out the What Have You podcast.

In episode 18 I’m joined by Courtney Handermann and Anna van den Broek as we discuss strategies for making reading a priority when life is busy. Our discussion includes tips for starting a book group as a way to help us keep up reading momentum. Podcasts like The Literary Life, Close Reads Podcast, and Stories are Soul Food provide inspiration for new titles and encouragement to continue with old favorites. We name drop some favorite book titles, and if you want inspiration for others you can check out Muse and Hearth episode 6 “Reading Lists”.

We were excited to welcome author Christine Cohen to the podcast. We discussed topics related to her books The Winter King and Sinking City . We asked her what she looks for in a good heroine, why it’s ok for her characters to suffer hardship in a story, and talked about her own omnivorous tastes in reading. Thank you for joining us Christine!

Links: 

• The Winter King, by Christine Cohen
• The Sinking City, by Christine Cohen
• Christine Cohen's Author Page on Facebook

Welcome to Muse and Hearth, a podcast for Christian women, cultivating mind, heart, and home. I’m Lydia Foucachon and I’m so pleased to be joined today by my pastor’s lovely wife Nancy Wilson! She is a mother, grandma of a whole passel of grandkids, author, and podcaster, as well as a former literature teacher at Logos School. As she put it, chief cook & bottle washer. Nancy thanks so much for speaking with us today. 

We’ll be discussing “back to school” for the Christian woman’s heart. A chance to collect ourselves from whatever summer season of life we have just been in and reset the bar of daily faithfulness. 

Nancy reminds us that we really want to be making a habit of a reset on things like Bible reading, prayer, keeping short accounts, contentment, control of the tongue on a daily basis.

 Resources and Books:

• Nancy Wilson’s Femina Podcast: Weekly episodes on biblical womanhood
• Bible Reading Challenge, thousands of women reading “on the same page” worldwide
• Learning Contentment, by Nancy Wilson
• All Thing for Good, by Thomas Watson
• The Art of Divine Contentment, by Thomas Watson
• The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jeremiah Burroughs
• The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit, by Matthew Henry
• Handbook to Prayer: Praying Scripture Back to God, by Kenneth Boa

In this episode, Lydia Foucachon is joined by Christiana Hale, author of Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. Listen in as they discuss common preconceived notions about the Ransom Trilogy and how to approach it for the first time, Lewis's primary purpose in writing the trilogy, as well as his approach to the medieval cosmology. 

Links: 

• Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy - Roman Roads Press book link. 
• Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy - Amazon: Audiobook, Kindle, and Book.
• The Ransom Trilogy (or The Space Trilogy) by C. S. Lewis
• Planet Narnia by Dr. Michael Ward
• Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis 

Welcome to Season 2! Lydia and Valerie took a few weeks off to let Valerie settle in with her newest little one, and are excited for a new round of conversations about cultivating our minds and homes. We’re wrapping up our series on the theology of hospitality and beginning a new series on one of the more practical aspects of hospitality, as well as of daily life: food and drink. Today’s episode is all about cookbooks! A brief history of cookbooks, the changing uses of cookbooks in a digital age, and the cookbooks that helped us learn to cook.

Cookbooks discussed on the show:

• The Joy of Cooking
• Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 
• Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
• Fat Salt Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
• Smitten Kitchen Everyday: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
• Jerusalem: A Cookbook
• Simple: A Cookbook
• The Flavor Bible
  
  
  

In this episode, we discuss Tim Chester’s overview of food and feasting in the Bible. A Meal With Jesus emphasizes the importance of our daily ritual of eating (and the weekly eating of the Lord’s Supper as the body of Christ). We discuss the strength of eating together in the context of hospitality and sharing the Gospel as well as the overall encouragement that the tasks surrounding food-gathering, -preparation, -serving, and then the inherent tidying up have a vital importance in God’s economy. 

Links: 

• A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table, by Tim Chester
• Food for thought: Resurrecting the art of eating, by Robert Farrar Capon
• Bed and Board: Plain Talk About Marriage, by Robert Farrar Capon
• Femina Podcast, by Nancy Wilson

In time for Advent and Christmastide gift giving, we took a brief hiatus from our hospitality topic to talk about children’s books! We got so excited to share about our favorite titles and authors that we ran out of time! We’re planning a part two at some point, but this will be enough to hopefully add a title or two to your lists, and we’d LOVE to hear from you what titles we should add to OUR lists!

Book Links:  

• The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Virginia Lee Burton
• One Morning in Maine, Robert McCloskey
• The Mitten, Jan Brett
• Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year, edited by Fiona Waters
• Saint George and the Dragon, Margaret Hodges
• The Church History ABCs: Augustine and 25 other Heroes of the Faith, Stephen J Nichols and Ned Bustard
• I Believe: The Nicene Creed, illustrated by Pauline Baynes
• Favorite Parables from the Bible: Stories Jesus Told, Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen
• Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale, Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft
• The Twelve Days of Christmas, Laurel Long