Some of My Favorite Things – November 2024
I’d like to borrow a page out of one of my favorite blogger (Andrea Dekker)’s “book” and start sharing some of the things that have brought me joy or inspired me lately.
One of the reasons I thought this was a neat post idea is because I figured that if something helped me or added value to my life, then I might as well share it in case it can help someone else. Another reason is it’s a relatively easy prompt that can add potentially valuable content to a blog I don’t keep super active :), and thus let me “breathe some life” into it more often.
Because I haven’t done a post like this before, I can’t tell you what to expect from this one: Andrea likes to keep her monthly Favorites posts focused on a particular season and on her family’s goings-on that month. I’d like to do that too, although this one may have things from past months that I’ve also liked, to hopefully help inspire you and find/learn/enjoy something new.
Without further ado, my favorite things this month lately:
The election
I admit I had been feeling a bit anxious about it for the past few weeks, thinking the Democrats were going to cheat.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, see Trump leading as we went to bed, and then wake up to him having lost after a “miraculous” discovery of tons of ballots in favor of Harris.
I was cautiously optimistic and hopeful as the evening progressed and more and more states got called for Trump. But my optimism began a little before then, through witnessing all the support and endorsements Trump garnered from sane Liberals, all the deranged things Biden said to (un)knowingly derail Harris’s campaign, and all the mistakes Harris HQ kept making and the lies they kept trying to propagate.
I was so elated when I checked the Electoral Votes tally first thing that morning!
It’s a relief that more people than not DO care about the economy, immigration, and keeping voting for citizens… than about climate change, abortion, and ways to advance woke-ism.
The end of identity politics is near and I’m here for it.
If you voted for Harris, watch this:
Otherwise, if you voted for Trump, THANK YOU!
[ETA] As a writer whose posts I enjoy wrote recently:
the left absolutely deserved this astonishingly strong rebuke at the ballot box. Let’s take a moment to survey their crushing loss.
President-elect Trump won a 312 electoral vote landslide, the largest electoral college victory in nearly 40 years. He is on track to win the popular vote for the first time in 20 years. He transformed American politics, realigning it around the interests and concerns of normal everyday Americans.
Despite moderating the GOP platform significantly, the election seemed to prove, yet again, that the United States is a decidedly center-right country. The cities may be blue, but even they notably trended in Trump’s direction. It’s fascinating to see it in places like Chicago, New York City, and even in San Francisco. That is simply stunning. Meanwhile, the suburbs and rural areas largely lurched to the right.
The holidays
Something magical happens when you become a parent.
Well, truthfully, a LOT of magical things happen when you become a parent, and one of them is experiencing the holidays through your kids’ eyes.
This doesn’t happen instantaneously, of course.
Give it a few years before they’re more aware of changing patterns in their surroundings, family traditions, and others’ behaviors, and suddenly you can begin telling them stories that they’ll enjoy repeating back again and again.
Now you start looking forward to things because you can’t wait to see their reaction. Halloween, Santa and/or Baby Jesus, the Advent Calendar and Christmas inflatables, Christmas trees and neighbors’ Christmas displays… they all transport you to a time when it was YOUR first time witnessing them (because it’s your kids’ first time now) and it’s all so magical.
And yes, we start listening to Christmas music and decorating on Nov 1.
The cold
I don’t like the cold: never have and don’t think it’ll ever top my list of favorite things. But ever since the holidays have become more relevant and eventful in our family with littles, and the cold signifies the (unofficial) start of the holidays, the declining temperatures have become more special to me. I may not love them (yet), but I can at least look forward to them because I know what comes next.
Along those lines, I’ve been in the USA for 22+ years and I’m still not used to the snow and I don’t think it belongs outside of the months of December. I didn’t grow up with white Christmases but now that they’ve been the norm for a couple of decades, I’ve grown fond of them.
These podcasts
If you’re looking for new shows to listen to, give these a listen (and drop your favorites in the comments)! Every month I’ll list a few in these section so that you can go back to my previous recommendations and find more that way. You may also follow the tag Favorite Podcasts to check them out.
- The Dr. John Delony Show: A Ramsey personality, Dr. Delony tackles some of the wildest dilemmas I’ve heard on a call-in show. He lacks the crassness that makes Dr. Laura predictable yet entertaining, but his honesty and thoroughness (having only two-three calls per episode) make his solutions actionable to most, and it feels like you’re talking to someone who has YOUR best interests at heart.
- The Durenda Wilson Podcast: Mrs. Wilson is a mom of eight kids (all adults now), incl. five boys, grandmother, and author of several books for homeschooling families. Her lessons help her audience follow their home education paths in a way that nurtures their families and follows God’s will.
- Wise Traditions: Launched by the Weston A. Price Foundation, this show introduces listeners to ways of implementing ancestral diets and better health habits. It calls into question everything “Big Food” and “Big Pharma” have been claiming for decades, and can, in the process, help significantly improve your and your family’s lifestyle.
May you and your family have a blessed rest of November and a peaceful Thanksgiving.
