Wildflowers and Marbles

Refreshing the Morning Basket

2012-03-07T16:09:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago, I posted about our Morning Basket and how much we enjoyed our together work which we keep in this family basket. I thought I'd share again about our Morning Basket. It seems to grow and change with our family and our family needs as they differ from year to year, so I hoped to show how the Morning Basket might change for your growing family over the years, as well as the ways it has stayed the same.

Initially, I conceived the idea of having one point in the day (morning) that we could get some shared work done. With growing children, I longed for a common point from which the day could spring, a point which was beyond grade levels and resisted defining in those standard this-book-is-only-for-this-grade way. In a family with multiple ages and grades, a home educating mom will often look for ways to steward time in efficient ways so that the day runs smoothly. The Morning Basket became my answer to efficiency while also addressing a need I had to combine some subjects across ages. It has long functioned as our common beginning, and is a delight for us.

In a Charlotte Mason education, a variety of subjects are provided. This ensures a varied and rich feast of ideas as part of their education. Part of the challenge of arranging a Charlotte Mason day (and beyond that a term or year) is in providing the feast of ideas in ways that are manageable and inviting without being overwhelming. Add multiple children and a span of ages and this challenge of providing a rich variety begins to strongly suggest that you combine a few subjects, allowing the different ages to plumb the subject to different depths. The Morning Basket is an answer for our family in providing a nourishing variety of living ideas and experiences, with each child taking and enjoying the feast to the extent they are able. It is rich for all.

Our Morning Basket could really stand alone, rich and full of history, art, music, liturgical and faith reading, virtue and character education, culture, and natural history. Perhaps the Morning Basket could be considered the rich appetizer, whetting the appetite for the feast of living books and ideas to come in the day! Sometimes (not always, you wouldn't want to make a habit out of this), if an appetizer is rich enough, you can make a meal out of it and it can sustain you for a time, can't it? Which means, if the day is full of outside the home activities, or contains an unavoidable interruption, the Morning Basket can stand alone for our day if needed. Isn't that a consoling thought? One hour of richness that lives in the morning hours. It's simple, collected and varied enough to provide quite a rich feast of ideas throughout the week....just from the Morning Basket of work.

:: The Practical Stuff ::

I have learned that I like keeping a simple chart (I print on photo paper/cardstock) of the weekly plans for the Morning Basket. No need to hunt down a list of what we're doing each day - I keep this handy chart tucked in the back of the Morning Basket. Can you see the light blue top of it peeking up over the books in that picture above? Below is what the little chart detailing our Morning Basket looks like:

(You can view or download a copy of the Morning Basket chart here.)

In the morning, I simply remove my little chart and assemble the books from the basket that we'll be reading from for the morning.

It couldn't be simpler!

:: Morning Basket Resources ::

Shall we talk about some of the resources in this term's Morning Basket? I'm really excited to share some of them with you because they are such treasures!

~ Nurturing Character Formation, Faith and Growth in Virtues ~

Morning Exercises for All the Year by Joseph Sindelar - (You can find a free copy for your ebook here.) This is one of my favorite treasure-finds for this year! The book is arranged one day at a time for the entire school year. Each day contains a little poem or thought/quote that exemplifies a virtue or noble habit being fostered for the day. Following that are any significant historical anniversaries. Some days, there are excerpts or stories that illustrate the historical figure whose anniversary (of his/her birthday) is that day, and that also exemplifies the virtue being introduced for the day. The daily selections are short and sweet, but I am hooked! They're perfect for starting the day in the Morning Basket!
Going His Way by Father Gerald Brennan - this is one of the original Angel Food books which remains out of print (originally Volume III). I found it in a thrift store a year ago and quickly grabbed it!
Conferences to Children on Practical Virtue by Father Abbe Vetre - I am sure I must have mentioned this little gem here before. Have I? This is an old title, written directly to the child but not at all in a dumbed down, silly way. Recently reprinted, I have been reading through it very slowly with my children for a bit now. It is full of practical and spiritual direction for children to assist them in growing in virtue.
Courage Stories Every Child Should Know collected by Helen Ferris, illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli - I discovered this book quite by accident. We were enjoying Marguerite de Angeli books at the time and I was looking around and found this book that she illustrated. When I saw that Helen Ferris (Treasured Poems Old and New) edited it, I was hooked! It's full of fantastic stories that my children really enjoy! And of course they each convey courage in its most noble forms!

Lives From Plutarch adapted by John McFarland and Pleasant and Audrey Graves - I'm relatively new to reading Plutarch; it's something I've only recently (the last two years) added to our lineup. Could it really be all that I asked myself? Reading PLUTARCH???? I have to tell you, he's quite enjoyable, and the stories are completely understandable. Don't read Plutarch with the purpose of acquiring Greek and Roman history (though you will certainly become acquainted with some culture through his writing). Do read Plutarch to enjoy the little mini-biographies that convey a sense of character through actions. Prepare for rich discussions. (Note: there are many versions of Plutarch available for reading with children. My absolute favorite for lovely typeset, quality paper and a very good adaptation is Hillside Education's version. We also have all of Plutarch's Lives as contained in The Great Books of the Western World.)

~ Natural History ~

The Living Year: A Naturalist Explores the World Outside Your Door by Richard Headstrom - This is a wonderful book to read aloud throughout the seasons. The book has 12 chapters, one for each month. Mr. Hedstrom writes in an engaging way as he explains about various insects, birds, animals, plants and flowers and their habitats. I particularly enjoy the wonder he invites.

Nature Friend Magazine - an old friend of ours arriving in our mailbox faithfully every month for the last 9 years, this is our favorite natural history magazine for all ages.
Nature Walk time - do you always find this time elusive? Does the idea of a regular nature walk sound great, but it never seems to show up with regularity in your days and weeks? Pin it somewhere! It works great in our Morning Basket time, and giving a full measure of time to it means the children aren't rushed - they are inquisitive and relaxed as they enjoy the time out of doors, bringing in treasures to sketch and investigate. Your best location for a nature walk are the gardens and outdoor spaces right around your home. Make this simple! You don't have to get in a car and go anywhere - just put on jackets and go outside!

Photo credit: Sweet Pea :)

~ The Arts: Music ~

The nitty-gritty-how-to-of-it-all:

As noted on our Morning Basket plans: read from a living book introducing the life of a composer. There are many good choices for this, some I'll recommend below. The child adds the composer to his book of centuries. Throughout the term we listen to recommended pieces and works from the composer during our quiet work times. We often choose works that are recommended or mentioned in our living book reading.

Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History and Culture by Professor Carol Reynolds - I was looking for a music history course for my high schooler when a friend (thank you, Maria!) recommended this amazing course, and we're eager to start it. (You can read an enormous number of details as well as viewing and downloading samples from website.) When I played the sample video for myself, all my children came from different parts of the house, completely engaged and excited, asking for more. I was sold when I saw it, too, especially after scrutinizing the content. Fantastic! We're going to begin viewing and enjoying the course as a family immediately, carrying it over into next year for two terms and then picking up Professor Carol's Exploring America's Musical Heritage lecture/DVD series from there. I'm particularly excited about this series, and how it weaves culture, history, art, poetry, even some sciences into the lectures. Far from being static, the lectures are dynamic and engaging - a superior living lecture series!

Here are some of our favorite resources for specific composer study:

Minute Sketches of Great Composers by Eva Hansl and Helen Kauffman is a favorite resource of mine (not pictured), and is an excellent book for giving a brief and very child-friendly overview of the most popular composers.
The Gift of Music: Great Composers and their Influence by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson is another excellent resource I highly recommend. The historical and biographical information is sound and quite detailed. I really enjoy reading this as part of the introduction to the composer. Of particular help to us are the end of chapter recommendations, especially the recommended listening list which is our standard when we build our composer repertoire for the term.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great by Elbert Hubbard (you can find the entire 14 volume set free for your ereader through Project Gutenberg, or free for your Kindle at Amazon) - Some of you may have heard of this set before; they're suggested in Ambleside's curriculum as a resource for reading about artists in upper years. If you use this series, or you're considering it, and you'd like a copy of the index that references all the mini-biographies included in this series click here. I like having one in my home education notebook to use for planning.

In 1894, Elbert Hubbard began his series, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. Once a month, for 14 years, he wrote a new "little journey". There are 180 of these mini biographies of those men and women who, "transformed the thought of their time, changed the course of the empire, and marked the destiny of civilization." The collection of mini-biographies were published in 1928, by Elbert Hubbard's son, Bert. Hubbard describes himself as an anarchist and a socialist, so some care should be taken with respect to some of these biographies.

I came across Hubbard's 14 volume set over the summer, and have skimmed a few biographies, but I'm only just beginning to make use of the mini-biographies. Perhaps I can review it again more thoroughly at a later time. I do find Hubbard's engaging and descriptive style to be quite captivating and give a wonderful mental picture of an artist's life, and their culture. For this term, Hubbard's books contain selections for all three men we're studying (though we may not read from Hubbard as our primary source on each artist).

~ The Arts: Picture Study and Artist ~

The nitty-gritty-how-to-of-it-all:

We try to read from the life of an artist, again from living books, becoming familiar with their life. We add an artist to the Book of Centuries (along with the poet and composer - did I mention that?). Each week, I choose one of that artist's work and print it out for picture study. You can usually find a good selection of art prints to print on your home computer at the web gallery of art.

Picture Study:

Give the art print/picture to the children to study. Try to do this at a quiet time, or at least a time with as few distractions as possible.
Encourage the children to bring their full attention to a painting, paying attention to colors, shapes. Often an artist will hide something unexpected in a corner or in the background - look for all the details in the painting.
Allow the children to study the picture for a few minutes. No talking or sharing together during this time.
After about 5 minutes, take the picture from the children and ask them to narrate, or tell, what they remember from the painting. No interrupting. Children take turns adding observations.
Look at the picture again to see if any other details are noticed. We do this together. Be sure to correctly identify the name of the painting as part of the discussion.
Using a resource like Signs and Symbols in Christian Art by George Ferguson, look up any objects that you found in the picture, especially if you're studying sacred art. Often plants and flowers have a particular meaning, as do the placement of gardens, etc.
Encourage imitation of the style of the artist during the week. Allow the children opportunities to express themselves creatively.
Study one painting a week. Display the painting in a prominent place after picture study.

For this term we are studying Jean Francois Millet. Our resource for reading and studying Millet this term:

Jean Francois Millet: A Collection of 15 Pictures and a Portrait of the Painter with Introduction and Interpretation by Estelle Hurll (free ebook available here) - this book offers some excellent context and understanding for some of Millet's more famous paintings. I like to read from this after the children study a picture and give their narration of it.

~ The Arts: Poetry ~

The nitty-gritty-how-to-of-it-all:

As noted on our Morning Basket plans: We read from the life of a poet, again from living books, becoming familiar with the poet's life, his inspiration, the times and culture from which he writes. We choose unabridged works of poetry and read his poetry, choosing a couple of poems to memorize each term.

Prose and Poetry for Appreciation edited by Ansorge, Lucas, McCoy, Tower (copyright, 1942) - I found this little gem in our local thrift store for a quarter and took a chance on it, and boy have I been delighted! This is a fantastic book that could stand alone as a poetry appreciation course for any student 8th grade+. There are a few other titles in the series that I'd like to collect. The book is divided into sections or themes (Action and Adventure, Nature, Men and Women, Work and Service, Make Believe) and under each section a poet or author is chosen. A significant portion of an author's work is excerpted, or sometimes a full piece is given, and following are questions and reflections about the piece. If you know me, you know I'm NOT a fan of reading comprehension type questions, preferring narrations of a work, but the questions following these selections are quite good and can prompt some good discussions with an older student. Some of the follow-up reflections include some very interesting context for the piece presented.

Edited After the Original Post: A very dear friend of mine wrote to let me know that the Prose and Poetry series actually has a Catholic version. The covers look similar, but the editors are different. The Catholic series editing team includes Julian Maline, S.J. and William McGucken, published by Harcourt, Brace and Ward. There are similar titles as far as I can tell, too. You can find them searching in a few different ways. (The following links will be to Amazon, but I'm sure you could also find them at other used book vendors.)

The Oxford Book of English Verse and Norton Anthology of Poetry are two good collections of poetry to have on your shelf, and for younger children I still use my old friend, Favorite Poems Old and New edited by Helen Ferris. I have found another useful general poetry book that I really like: The Family Book of Best Loved Poems, edited by David George, copyright 1952.

In addition to our more general poetry books, we always choose a particular poet's works to study for a term and over the years have collected some gems, like Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese and The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery. For this post, I'll give you our current term's poet resources:

Walt Whitman -

I reviewed Walt Whitman: Words for America for you here.
Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman edited by Jonathan Levin is a picture book which includes a good overall biography of the poet at the beginning of the book (covering the first 5 pages). On the following pages, poems are reproduced (some abbreviated of necessity) and some of the words are defined at the bottom of the pages. Occasionally, a poem's context is explained at the top of the page. (It's a nice book, but if I could only choose one picture book, it would be Walt Whitman: Words for America)
Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America edition) - this is a good and complete collection of Whitman's poetry.

:: Tea Time Reading ::

An addition to our Morning Basket isn't really in our Morning Basket at all, it is our Tea Time reading, but it helps me to consider this and organize it as part of our shared and common time. At this point I have two younger children and two older children. Part of the very natural evolution of our Morning Basket time has been to read aloud more mature books to my older children. I began reading lives of the saints to them during an afternoon teatime and from there the time presented itself as full of more possibility. I really haven't done a good job of keeping up with our tea time reading lately so it was helpful to consider it afresh for this new term of work. These selections change each term, and it may be helpful to know that tea isn't always consumed with tea time reading (oh dear! is that scandalous?). Well, picturesque visuals of our family drinking tea and reading aside, tea time may consist of lemonade or milk and usually some small snack....or none at all, but always, always a cafe'-au-lait for me! :)

Liturgical Reading is chosen to coordinate with the liturgical year, and usually one of the lives of the saints.
Because the country is now remembering the Civil War as part of the Sesquicentennial, I find that this is a good place to incorporate some excellent living books on the Civil War. Right now, we're reading Hands of Mercy: The Story of Sister-Nurses in the Civil War by Norah Smaridge, copyright 1960.

Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices by Theoni Pappas - This is a fun little book that is really intended to be read aloud and recited by two people! Hence the name! If you have an older student (or two) for whom math is not a relished subject, you need to introduce this little book! It's a lot of fun for us!

Each child reads one of Shakespeare's plays on their own, as independent reading, but this term we're starting Marchette Chute's novel, Shakespeare of London, together. I really do want to incorporate more Shakespeare readings as part of our Tea time reading (where we each take a part and read aloud). We may start off reading aloud from Marchette Chute's Stories From Shakespeare just to refresh ourselves on a play. And as an aside, doesn't Shakespeare's Flowers by Jessica Kerr look interesting? I found a used copy to highlight some of our Botanical studies and cross-connect to Shakespeare! Gotta love it when books are that efficient!

This term (our 3rd and last of the year....who can believe it?), I wanted to carve out a little area for visual displays for our Morning Basket studies. I wanted to hang a portrait of the three artists we are studying for the term, and I also wanted a place to display the picture (art print) we're studying for the week. It was an easy little vignette to set up, and I quite like the uncluttered feel of it. It communicates exactly what I wanted it to in very simple terms!

I change the focus of the Morning Basket each term as we investigate a different composer, artist and poet. This term we're studying Walt Whitman as our poet, Jean-Francois Millet as our artist, and Richard Wagner as our composer. I printed a simple picture of each of the men, adding their names and date of birth/death so the children could see the men as they become familiar with them (I added the text to the photos in iphoto in case you're wondering - I don't have a fancy editing program). To the right of Millet, you'll see his piece of art we're studying as part of picture study for the week. Each week, there is a new art print and this week we're studying Spring. How appropriate!

:: ::

After completing our Morning Basket work, the children are ready to move on to the rest of the rich feast of books that awaits them in their day! We usually spend from 30 minutes to an hour working and reading from the Morning Basket each day.

Well, I think I can safely say that it takes us less time to complete our Morning Basket work than it probably took you to read this long post ABOUT the Morning Basket! :) I hope revisiting the Morning Basket was enjoyable and do let me know if you do something like the Morning Basket in your home, and if you have a neat resource to share, please do!! I'm always keeping my eyes open!

Walt Whitman :: Words For America

2012-02-29T14:39:00.000-06:00

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, from "Song of Myself"

There are perhaps other books, even other picture books, to use in introducing American poet, Walt Whitman to your children, but I'm not sure any can come close to the deeply rich account of his life as given through the words and illustrations in Walt Whitman: Words For America. It will, at once, touch your heart, as well as rekindle memories of historical events that you perhaps had not at first connected with Whitman, such as his deep involvement in the Civil War.

This picture book may best be enjoyed in two sittings since its coverage of Walt Whitman's life is full, but it is not dry or dull in the least. Beginning with the introduction to Whitman's love of words, the book moves through some of those things which Whitman found inspiring. I particularly enjoyed the description of how he collected a few sheets of paper, securing them with a ribbon, to make his own tiny little notebooks.

Working as a printer, Whitman began to write poetry, but unlike the current poetry of his day, his poetry was free, unmetered and boundless in scope and imagination. He wrote of his beautiful America: open, spacious and robust, and he wrote of himself (Song of Myself, Leaves of Grass) and the ordinary heroes he saw within that sweeping country.

In the second half of the book, Whitman's own story intersects with one of the most gripping American stories, that of the Civil War. And it intersects in a way that is quite personal, beginning with his frantic search for his younger brother, a soldier for the Union army who was wounded. After a heartfelt reunion with his brother, Whitman found himself anchored to those men who were wounded and dying in hospitals during the Civil War. His compassion and care of those wounded knew no boundaries; he tended them all regardless of their color, rank, or their Union or Confederate alliance.

With each life lost, Walt mourned. Unable to leave those fallen soldiers that were dying, Walt often chose to stay by their side late into the night just so they would not have to die alone. A letter written to the Haskell family after Walt sat with their mortally wounded son, Erastus, as he died, conveys the depth of his heart when it came to these dying men:

...I write to you this letter, because I would do something at least in his memory...He is one of the thousands of our unknown American young men in the ranks about whom there is no record or fame, no fuss made about their dying so unknown, but I find in them the real precious and royal ones of this land...

During the Civil War, Walt Whitman worked and lived in Washington D.C., and often passed by President Abraham Lincoln who was out riding in the mornings. The war weighed heavily on both of these men, and it seems that Walt could see in the president's eyes the depth in which it affected him. He saw "Lincoln as a captain, guiding his ship through troubled waters, and wrote in his notebook:

'...his face and manner...are inexpressibly sweet...I love the President personally.'"

Five days after the end of the Civil War, Walt was stunned to hear of President Lincoln's assassination. Hearkening back to his memories of the war, the tumult, the suffering, and the burdened but resolute heart of the man who would lead the country through those dark days, Walt penned one of his most haunting and memorable poems offering his own tribute to Lincoln:

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

I found this picture book to be most touching as well as realistic as it conveyed the historical events of Walt Whitman's life. The book includes a smattering of his poetry, but if you are at all familiar with Whitman's poetry you know it's very long, so some of the poetry included are excerpts.

The author's writing is engaging and deeply stirring, an excellent match for Brian Selznick's extraordinary and evocative illustrations. So deeply touching! You will not be able to read this book without entering in, in a sense, to some of the dark pain of the Civil War, the families that suffered, the compassion that was offered, as well as the joys and lightness Whitman felt as he embraced the openness, the vast rolling expanses of this country, penning them, line after line, in his poetry.

Walt Whitman is the poet we are studying as part of our third term of work and I found this book as I was searching for books to read in introducing the poetry of Walt Whitman. What a treasure! If you choose to continue studying Whitman and his poetry, I recommend the book we're using, Whitman: Poetry and Prose, edited by Justin Kaplan, the Library of America edition. The Library of America edition is the most comprehensive edition of Whitman's vast poetry collection, containing both versions of Leaves of Grass that Whitman penned as well as his other books of poetry, including Drum-Taps, his collection of Civil War poetry.

...I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love.

If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles...

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, from "Song of Myself"

For the Young Lady at the Bend in the Road

2012-02-08T19:22:00.000-06:00

“…my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend…”
Anne of Green Gables, chapter 38

For my daughter's 8th grade year, I undertook a booklist with a different vision, one which had as its heart a feminine spirit. This is that book list which for my daughter and I, represents a year full of cherished memories and delightful acquaintances.

Using the Anne of Green Gables books as its inspiration, this study provides for a young lady (of middle school/early high school) a booklist of direction and inspiration in developing in the many feminine virtues and domestic skills, so often belittled or eschewed in our current culture. Toward this end, the booklist offers literature from the Victorian and Edwardian period that accompanies Anne most naturally: friends such as Jo and Beth from Little Women, and the poetry of Ms. Montgomery herself, which is such a strong and utterly delightful support in this study. Following Anne through the books and through the year, my daughter found a quiet and very comfortable companion for "the bend in the road." As Anne matures, her rich and ebullient life provide much for mother and daughter to discuss; it is a time to be cherished, and if you have not read these books yet dear reader, it is time to introduce yourself along with your daughter.

As the booklist naturally evolved, subjects connected themselves quite naturally so that this particular year looked more like a unit study if you are familiar with that style of learning. The literature, the history, even the Botany which emphasized naturalists from the period, all spring from the same lovely time in which Anne found herself singing off those pages as Ms. Montgomery penned her.

In addition to books, many wonderful movies and programs are listed as a suggestion to be enjoyed alongside this plan (and it is understood that families will exercise prudence in choosing to view any movie listed).

As part of this study, an emphasis on developing virtues, each represented by a different flower, is presented using The Catholic Girls Guide by Father Lasance. Additionally, reading from the lives of saints representative of the virtues discussed in Father's book is listed. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Bible are provided to further guide virtue development as well as apologetics of particular teachings pertaining to the virtues being studied.

The year and booklist seemed to ask quietly to be contained as flowers do, in a lovely way, fitting a young lady. So, I organized it into baskets (and as you know, I do love baskets!) named for the flowers that Father Lasance offers as representatives of the virtues discussed in The Catholic Girl’s Guide. Since I've been asked several times lately for these plans, I decided I'd post them here for you to see, enjoy, and perhaps they'll inspire a year of delight for your young lady.

Book List for the Bend in the Road - Year 1

Sunflower Basket
Ivy Basket
Peony Basket
Rose Basket

....and because the science, which focused on Botany for this year, is such a particular delight, I've decided to post those plans in a separate format in case you'd like to use them:

Botany & Natural History plans (suitable for a high school program)
Botany & Natural History booklist and resource list

With this booklist, I hope I've drawn out the best and loveliest from this period which might be suitable, even inspiring for a young lady, intentionally choosing to point out the good and beautiful while sharing Anne with my daughter as a companion throughout the year.

I hope you and your daughters will enjoy this study and that time spent at the "bend in the road" as my daughter and I have. It has been two years since we completed this booklist and began to journey and look beyond that fascinating bend together, and we cherish our memories of the year. I pray that in sharing it with you, it is as much a blessing as it has been for us.

Take the Challenge :: Go Clean Out a Drawer

2012-01-27T10:43:00.001-06:00

I challenged myself to do one small thing: clean out my desk drawer. I have one very useful desk drawer with my desk, and it had become a conglomeration of a mixed number of useless items layered in and amongst needed tools. So....I emptied the drawer, sorted items, added back only what was needed, and challenged myself to organize with ONLY those little bins, boxes and tools I could find around my home, and put the drawer back together. Much better!

I thought I'd share a few pictures....because a small thing like cleaning out a desk drawer can really be inspiring! And it really does contain some of my favorite tools!

Post-it Notes. What can I say? I use them everywhere! In planning, to leave myself notes on my planner, as book tabs. Post-it notes have endless uses! Here are a few of my favorite Post-it notes:

Scroll Shape - I love these, and I've been using them everywhere. These are the post-it's you see pictured in the foreground of the above picture.
Label Pads
Sticky Notes on Grid Paper
Tab labels - blue and green, coral and yellow
File Tabs
Page Markers - goodness, I use these everywhere!
Not a note, and not in my desk drawer...but ever so handy (and pretty) - the Post-It Pocket

Alright, before someone calls the Post-It Note intervention hotline, let's move on. :)

Book Darts - these were a gift one year and I really like using them. They are especially useful in marking pages and catalogs that I might want to tuck into a bag or purse because of their diminutive profile.
Corner-rounder Punch - mine is an old Creative Memories Punch and is hard to punch. I really like the leverage and ease of use of the Martha Stewart punch.
Victorian Clips - VERY heavy duty clips and the little hole on the back allows me to hang them on a nail or hook to hold a large group of papers. They're more useful around here than I would have ever thought!

Bulldog clips - favorite multi-purpose clip (mine are x-acto, #2)
Rubber bands and rulers - both indispensable
Assorted thin masking tape in various colors and widths. I've had these for years. We use them for everything....including lines of demarcation on tables:

This is a good top down view of my desk drawer - LEFT SIDE:

And RIGHT SIDE:

Stapler, hole punch, staple remover
Little round container of random junk that ALWAYS seems to float in my drawer and now has a place to land.
Various tapes (acid free transparent and double sided are always in my drawer)
Highlighters
Calculator
Bone folder
And those little brass items (5 of them) between the "random stuff" bowl and the staple remover....those are holy card holders!

I use them to display a holy card on our feast table or my desk. Very handy to have, and I picked them up at a Catholic book store years ago and have never been able to find them since. If you know where to find holy card holders - please link in the comments!!!! {Edited to add a link to the holy card holder! Thanks to a reader of mine, Lori, for seeing them and linking to them in the comments. They're $1.00 for a holder at Leaflet Missal.}

Now.....don't laugh.....

Individually wrapped alcohol wipe squares. Just plain 'ol alcohol wipes. You can pick these up very inexpensively the next time you're at the market - they're tucked away in the pharmacy section. These are quite possibly the handiest tool to have in the home! I keep a box in a drawer in my kitchen, several tucked in a small bag in my purse, and always have a stocked box in my learning room! An alcohol wipe will do the following and more:

Clean pencil and pen marks off of virtually any surface
Clean crayon marks
If you get to it fast enough, it will remove Sharpie marker from a surface...but you have to be fast. I'm just sayin'.
Remove sticky residue - my sworn enemy
Disinfect and clean a glass microscope slide
Clean your laptop keyboard, kindle keypad, any keyboard/pad....and especially that little trackpad where icky-fruit-snack-fingers have been cruising.
Clean a hand lens/magnifying glass
Clean the backside of a dusty CD or DVD
Remove residue from a dry erase board (only in a small place with the little alcohol square, but a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a paper towel will clean your dry erase board to sparkling-fresh-newness!)
Cleaning the residue and gunk left on scissor blades thus rendering them ineffective, blunt and frustrating - just {carefully!!!} wipe with an alcohol wipe and voila!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my clean desk drawer! I used non-slip shelf liner to line my drawer, and it is such a help in keeping things from sliding around!!! I found a stash of it with my husband's garage tools. Isn't he generous with me? :) I wish it were a prettier color besides....black. Mental note: I must speak to my husband about prettier color choices in his garage! Where is the turquoise? The coral? Heck, I'd be happy with white! But, I did challenge myself to use what I had - so....black it is. :)

This little clean-up and re-org took me a grand total of 30 minutes from dump to closing the drawer! I'm challenging you! Pick one drawer today and go clean it out and re-organize it! Use only those things around your home to help you organize. It's a little thing, completely do-able, and very refreshing!

Happy drawer tidying! :)

Toward the Sciences: Considering the Lilies and Setting Their Feet In a Very Large Room

2012-01-25T14:26:00.000-06:00

I'm often asked, "How do you DO science in your home? Especially in the early years? What do you use?" I can certainly tell you what we enjoy, and give you some ideas, but it may not be the tidy, wrapped-in-a-bow package you're looking for.

"The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach. Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the 'common information' they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education. In the meantime, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air." (Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1, p. 63)

Science in our home is very natural, both in topic and approach.

We read,

wonder,

observe,

ask questions,
and explore.

That's our syllabus! That's our scope and sequence! From the early years through high school. {Although the sciences in high school do begin to take on more depth, we continue to approach it in much the same way - reading, wondering, exploring. If you're interested, you can take a look at our high school Biology notes on our blog.}

Oh dear! I hear your panic-filled thoughts:

Is that enough? {Yes}

Do they learn anything? {Oh my, yes!}

How do you know what to cover? {I set their feet in a very large room - all of God's magnificent creation.}

Let's sit down with a cup of tea and chat about nature study: share resources, follow us for a day through our science time, and share some ideas for beginning gently and simply.

Resources:

May I suggest a few resources for you? These resources are my go-to resources for inspiration and information, and will provide a great understanding of Charlotte Mason's ideas for the importance of nature study {and really, the value of nature study cannot be understated} which lays a rich and varied foundation for investigating the sciences in later years. Perhaps something here would be something for you to consider:

Hours in the Out-of-Doors by Charlotte Mason, compiled by Simply Charlotte Mason - This book is really just a collection of quotes that are applicable to Nature Study, but what Simply Charlotte Mason has done is spare you the difficulty of looking all of these up in her 6 volumes. The quotes are grouped according to topic, and really are an excellent vision of nature study, and its importance in undergirding the sciences.
Science Scope by Kathryn Stout - While I wouldn't say this resource is necessary, it certainly is a great help for the homeschooling mom that would like help in recording science topics covered, and science topics that need to be covered. The book is easy to understand, simple and straightforward, and covers all the topics of the branches of science, noting the appropriate age/grade for covering a particular topic. It's one of those books that I really like because you can put it to use the minute you open the cover - you won't have to read for two hours to get a sense of the book! What I like about the book is that it assumes that topics will be covered again and again, much as one does in a home education setting, with each recurring introduction of a topic going a little deeper than before. Provided in the back of the book is a very easy-to-use checklist chart for keeping track of subjects that have been introduced. I make a copy of the chart for each of my children and keep it in my home education notebook under each of their tabs. Then, every few weeks, I go through the chart and check the topics the child has read about. It's a really good way to record topic coverage for each child in science.

Eve Anderson's Teacher Training Tools {Nature Study edition} - This is a DVD which can be purchased alone or as part of a 3 volume set. {The 3 volume set also includes Picture Study and Narration.} These DVD's, which offer Eve Anderson's insight, are immensely helpful if you are implementing a Charlotte Mason education in your home.
Reader's Digest: North American Wildlife (pictured below in this post) - If I needed a field guide and had limited space and just needed one, basic, good book to get started, this would be it. It covers animals, plants, insects, wildflowers, trees. The images are wonderful, quality detailed illustrations, and there is just enough information to learn a little about the object you may be looking up. {Note: there is an updated version of this book, but the updated version is the same as the edition I linked to, save a different dustcover. Save yourself a little money and purchase the older edition, used!}
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - This is a standard in Charlotte Mason homes, and it's easy to see why. It just contains so much information about the natural world! Different homes probably use this in different ways, and there may be some of you that really wouldn't find this useful in your home so consider it carefully. {Images are black and white} I'm mentioning it because it has been on our shelf from the beginning and we often look things up in it. We use it as a reference book mostly, and really enjoy the poetry that is often included with objects. Be sure to check out the Handbook of Nature Study blog - what a treasure of ideas and helps for approaching nature study.
Nature Friend Magazine - We've had a subscription to this magazine for 9 years. That about says it all, doesn't it? Whether you homeschool or not, do consider this magazine. You and your children will delight in reading it together, sans advertisements. If you have older children (10+), consider the optional study guides that come with the magazine. I don't think the study guides are useful for littler ones, who do enjoy the articles and reading from Nature Friend, but they're fantastic for older children!

Here are a few posts I've written chatting about our favorite living science:

The Way Things Work: Boy Meets Machine - still one of our favorite science years ever!

Learning About Ducks....and Discovering Smithsonian's Backyard

Elementary Living Science Resource - the Glenn Blough books illustrated by Jeanne Bendick (favorites! We're reading through this series this year for 2nd grade science and are delighting in the books and ideas to explore!)

A Day in the Life:
Would you like to see a day of science unfold? There was nothing extraordinary about this day - it played out very naturally. The only thing "planned" was to read 2 - 4 pages in our current science living book, Wait For the Sunshine.

After reading about the underside of a leaf, Peanut wanted to see the little openings on the bottom of a leaf. He wondered if he'd be able to see them. It's winter here....so we're a little short on fresh, green leaves. I got out our basket of nature treasures which always contains a few leaves the children have collected and we flipped one over and took a look.

And he saw them! There they were! Just like our picture book said! It was a thrilling discovery, and he made it all by himself! We read about it, and he wondered aloud, asked a question, and then we explored. And there it was! Connection! All his to claim!

It didn't take long for my science passionate kid to pick up on the fact that we were looking at things with our little pocket microscopes so he sauntered into the kitchen, too. Both boys were so thrilled with the mysterious small world they could see through their microscopes, they started pulling random objects out of the nature basket to inspect.

Like this Aristolochia Swallowtail butterfly we found in our garden last summer. The detail and pigment of his wings was extraordinary to see through our pocket microscope.

Pictured under our butterfly {above} is the Readers Digest North American Wildlife book I mentioned to you above in the resource suggestions. I wanted you to be able to see an example of the detailed illustrations. This is the book we used to identify our butterfly.

And the boys really enjoyed looking at the structure of this object under their mini-microscope. This is a Praying Mantis egg sac - an oothecas. Each fall, the female praying mantis secretes this papery substance in a bell shape on a twig somewhere and inside it she deposits hundreds of little praying mantis eggs. In the spring, they hatch and dangle down in long strands. We can find these all over our gardens and woods. If you spot one, liberate the twig that is holding the oothecas from its bush and bring the twig somewhere near a window you watch regularly. If you watch closely in the spring, as the days begin to warm, one day you may see hundreds and hundreds of little mantis hatching! It's an amazing sight. DO NOT bring the oothecas in your house if you find one.....lest you have hundreds and hundreds of baby mantis hatching in your home!

A quick word about our pocket microscopes: we have two Carson MicroBrite Pocket Microscopes (also available at my favorite store: Lee Valley). These are very inexpensive little tools, but so worthwhile in your nature study stash!

The pocket microscopes were a Christmas gift to the kids, and are used frequently here. They are sturdy little scopes, easy to hold and operate, and give an amazing visual quality image! No blurriness or frustration because you can't see something clearly. They're quite small and take up hardly any real estate on a shelf, or in a bag if you're taking them out in the field. This little tool is fantastic! There is a small light in the scope that illuminates the object for better viewing, and the scope even allows you to fine tune the focus. If your science budget is tight, and you'd like a microscope, but can't choose, and can't really afford one....spend $10 on this little item! You'll be able to magnify between 20x-40x, which is really quite amazing and perfect for young naturalists! The pocket microscope comes with a handy little stand {which also doubles as a foundation for viewing a slide} so that they can sit on your nature study shelf to be at the ready when an object is in need of closer inspection.

Taking a Nature Walk:

Really, my friends....you do not have to be a botanist or a trained naturalist to enjoy a nature walk. {But you will become a naturalist if you walk in the out-of-doors enough!} Don't overthink this! Just let yourself be a child again, look at nature as a child - with wonder! Walk outside....in your own yard, around your own gardens. Enjoy the delights of God's awesome creation. Ask questions and let them linger without answers if necessary (this really is ok!). Observe...really look at that little creature, or the way that plant twists up from the ground. Learn to look for answers in a few good resources on your shelves. Here are a few simple ideas to get started:

{and just to show you that you don't need a professional camera....I give you the ever-portable option....the phone. All of the following pictures were taken with my iphone!}

Try to walk once a week

Walk primarily in your yard, neighborhood, gardens, or woods. Many people think they need to go on a full fledged hike to call it a "nature walk". Not so! Your humble flower beds will provide an abundance for you to study! Take occasional hikes to special places, but enjoy the ordinary spaces around your home!
Get to know the seasons! Adopt a tree or even a bush, and make seasonal visits to it. Sketch it. Observe the seasonal changes.

Create an inviting yard and garden that wildlife will want to visit. A wonderful book for learning more about this is Bill Merilees' Attracting Backyard Wildlife: A Guide For Nature Lovers.
Don't become encumbered in deciding what to bring, or how to carry it all....just bring water, and your camera, and enjoy.

Give yourself permission to walk without an agenda! You don't need a lesson plan or outline for this. Just go outside! Challenge yourself to see something unusual, something new. A treasure!
Get to know your birds!

In considering the lilies, we model the skills needed to observe, ask questions, experiment, understand, and explore in more formal ways in the sciences. We set their feet in a very large room....

"We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. 'Thou has set my feet in a large room,'(Psalm 31:8) should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul." (Charlotte Mason, Volume 3, p. 170)

Of Duties and Routines: A Chore System

2012-01-21T21:41:00.003-06:00

Click on image to enlarge

After the joys of living Christmas and Epiphany, our home is beginning to get back to some ordinary routine. I love feasting, I do. And I love the ordinary, too. I do! Now is a really good time to sit down and invest some thought in how the home is working, and as a part of that, our chore routine. I finished up our family's new 2012 chore chart for posting on the fridge, and I thought I'd share it with you along with a few ideas that might help you brainstorm your own.

Is there anything more satisfying than thinking about the home: the running of it, the chores and duties, and breaking things down so that each person (big and little) in the home takes a share of the work? And then...putting it on paper?! Ahhhhh! Clearly written out explanations! One central point for checking in! It's a family system that keeps us all working together, and sharing in the duties of our ordinary days!

Each year since our oldest child was old enough to help out (which has been since she was a toddler), I have carefully considered little jobs around the home and posted a chore chart. The chore chart has grown and changed as our family has grown and changed. Each year, we revisit the chore chart, rethinking it in light of our growing children and with an eye toward providing them opportunities to grow in skills and responsibilities in the home.

Some domestic arts have been enjoyable to delve into in more detailed ways with my daughter, just as more manly, hands-on, outdoor chores are being learned and completed by my oldest son now, but the regular stuff, the day-to-day stuff, we keep on a chore chart.

After some years of training our children in home-keeping responsibilities our home has provided the ideal training ground for them to learn to work, to meet expectations, and to be prepared to take care of their own homes. (Please do not mistake *being prepared* to mean that the children delight in dishes or relish window washing!!!) Children can work and they SHOULD work! We do our children such a dis-service if we do not teach them the value of hard work and provide them opportunities to learn a good work ethic! The best place for nurturing that work ethic, and not coincidentally, the most ideal place for learning basic home running skills is IN THE HOME! Children can do much in helping to manage the home! Even little people!

Do you have a chore system that works well in your home? I'm amazed at the variety of chore systems there are out there, and I think it wonderful that as a family, we can choose styles and formats that fit our family, the ages of our children. Ours doesn't start as anything remarkable - my husband and I just consider our children, and our home, and pencil in tasks on small pieces of paper that we think each child can accomplish and post it....and then live it for a week or two. Then, after we've worked out the kinks and trained each child on new jobs, it's time to format it, print, and post it.

Would you like some ideas and pointers for coming up with your own chore system? Whether you like charts, lists, pockets, calendars and rewards, or laminated chore cards - whatever your preferred format, a good chore system begins in the same way:

Sit down and think about your home, how it works, the little and big jobs you must do each week to keep it running.
Get a notepad and pencil and sit down with a glass of wine one evening and make a list of all the jobs that need to be done on a weekly basis in your home! Everyone has toys to pick up and floors to sweep, but think beyond that - what kind of jobs might be unique to you and your family? List everything, and don't forget to list some small jobs!
Now go through your list and put your child's initials next to each job they would be capable of doing.
Examine your list. Are there some children that really don't have many jobs? Rethink jobs around the home with those children and their age and abilities in mind. Do you need some ideas and tools for putting little people to work?

We have a Dirt Devil hand vacuum cleaner and it sees a lot of action during the week. Hand vacuums are great tools in the hands of any child over 3! Have them vacuum under the kitchen table after meals, or up and down your stairs.
Little people are great at matching and sorting shoes, and every family I know has a plethora of shoes!
Swiffer dusters are fantastic in the hands of little people! These dusters are good at grabbing dust so you don't have to worry about the children spreading dust around.
Simple, unscented baby wipes are one of my favorite cleaning tools, and they certainly have applications and uses outside of that cute little baby tushy! Keep your cleaning bins stocked with several packages and wipe floors, kitchen chairs, inexpensive furniture, tables, windowsills, and many other surfaces.
Sort laundry. Yes. They can.
Fold washcloths and towels.
Unload dishwasher. At least the plastic stuff, or the silverware.
Tidy bookshelves - straightening books on the shelf that have been removed during the week.
And definitely have them work alongside you or older siblings so they can always be learning bigger chores!

Now that you have a nice list of chores and jobs that can be done, time to divide them up amongst the children. Pencil a simple list with your children's names and the chores and jobs you expect of them. Post it. Let it be messy, simple, penciled, non-descript. That's fine!
Live your simple little penciled ideas out for a week. Work with your children to train them. Show them how to do a job, how to put tools away. Have a place for their tools.
Pencil some changes on your chart through the week. Shift jobs, rethink what you've assigned. As you live it, you'll find a few things that you can improve. Now's the time.
At this point, you've got a pretty workable plan! Choose your format. Here's where I can't help you. :) Choose a format that seems workable for your family! We prefer a chart and we use it as a check-in point. We train from it and the kids learn it within a couple of weeks. It remains posted for reference. There are a variety of different chore systems out there so look around and decide which format works best for your family! There was recently a really good discussion on chores and chore systems on the 4Real Message Boards.
Remember, you're going to want to re-think this chore chart in just a few months. Don't make it so pretty, so full of bells and whistles that you won't be able to throw it out in a few months....because that's exactly what you'll need to do! Your children are going to grow, your home needs are going to change, and your chore chart will need to be able to grow and reflect changes. Keep it simple! While it's good to invest some time and thought in your system, don't allow it to become so big and formatted and flourished that it has taken too much time and is impractical in the living out.
Lather, rinse, repeat in 6 months to a year.

A little note about our chore chart system and its particulars:

We prefer a single page chart format. It's easy for us to reference and can live in a common area of the home so everyone can see it.
I print our chore chart in a font that my youngest reader can read (Futura).
We don't do checkmarks or tokens or other motivational tools.
We do give our older children a little weekly allowance for cheerful (no complaining or grumbling), complete, well-executed chores for the week. We do not pay for work that was completed with grumbling or not completed on time. It's a good way for us to reward good work ethic, the valuable contribution to the running of the home, and for the children to begin to earn money and manage their own money, which we believe very strongly in!
The children's names have been removed from this published version, but would normally be on the chart to designate who does what.
In our home, for this particular chore chart (and for the first time), we chose to break out our kitchen and animal duties on a weekly basis, and allow one older child to focus on one set for the week. They trade jobs (either animal or kitchen) weekly. We designate which of the older children has a set of duties for a week by using a simple button magnet and covering a child's name if they are NOT in charge of those duties for the week (you can see in the blue row above the duty descriptions that there is a place where two names are listed - one of them is covered each week, and the child's name that is left uncovered is responsible for the chores listed below.) I hope I didn't make that sound more complicated than it is!
The little people chores don't change. Learning their chores is done best when there is consistency provided in the home routine. And though it isn't explicitly stated on the chart, the two smaller children shadow the older children in many of the chores. This is a perfect way for them to learn.
Though not listed in detail, nor pinned to a certain time of the day, we do list a Quick Tidy on our chore chart and it is the pivot about which our livable, comfortable and reasonably tidy home turns. A daily quick tidy keeps spaces livable so that we can manage our home a little at a time rather than our home (and the stuff in it) managing us. Oh my, I do need to write a detailed post on our Quick Tidy, but it isn't rocket science, folks! Spend 15 minutes every day tidying your main living spaces. You and the children. 15 minutes! Now seriously, we've all got 15 minutes to give best effort in whisking things to their places. See how doable that is? We try to tidy twice daily in our home - before lessons begin in the morning, and before Dad gets home - but one tidy a day will do! This post gives some detail on the quick tidy (this is a Q & A post, scroll down to the last question).
Email me if you'd like a pdf or a Pages for mac file of the chore chart I posted.

One last idea for you: provide the right tools for the job! We use inexpensive dishwashing tubs to contain tools and each child has their own tub. We fill the child's tub with a package of unscented baby wipes, Swiffer dusters for younger children, Murphy's Oil Soap dusting wipes for older children, toilet cleaning tools, clean rags, small trash bags, bottles of liquid soap.

Goodness, I sure hope you are enjoying this time of getting back to ordinary routine and order after the joys and delights of feasting through the holy season of Christmas and Epiphany! As you look toward the ordinary routine, I pray your efforts to manage and order your home, as well as providing your children purposeful and helpful jobs, are blessed!

Christmas Prayers

2011-12-27T23:30:00.000-06:00

Wishing your family a blessed and joyful Christmas!

Advent Ideas - Part III

2011-11-28T17:53:00.000-06:00

This is a continuation of a series of Advent ideas (see part I and part II). These thoughts are from my brother, Chris, published on one of his blogs in 2009. Please pray for the repose of his soul as you read.

I'm posting this under the patronage of St. Joseph, who with great quiet, obedience, love and humility, undertook the final preparations for the Word Made Flesh that very first Advent. St. Joseph, pray for us.

Mixing it all together...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Advent ideas III (mixing bowls and taste tests)

December 7, 2009 by nobis77

Advent is a rich time of year, especially for catholics. Previous articles in this series were geared towards helping you conceive elements of this richness as ingredients of a genuine “soul-food”, and prepare to “cook” something with it all. But Sometimes all the possibilities are more daunting than anything else. This article may help you quickly get some test batches put together and out where you can sample and home in on the best.

Hopefully you’ve skipped ahead, finished something savory, and are already drawing life from it..

..but if you find yourself stumped you can help me make a mess with:

Daily routines
Advent calendars
Scriptural meditation time
Journey to Bethlehem
Maps

and

Spiritual self-Gifts

… JMJ…

1. Grab your list of choice ideas, a sketchbook or some paper.. whatever you find aids your brainstorming most surround yourself with as much festal richness as you can gather, and start dreaming and doodling…

Ask yourself:

What would be the ideal version of all these ideas?.. A version that I’d most love to find, finished and ready to go?…
What would it look like?… What would working with it do?… What particular things would it have?…
What solutions have I seen in the secular world to similar problems?…

Carry this thought train around with you for a day or two..

(For my ideas my version of the above looks like..)

Daily routine – I guess by this I mean whatever most helps compose and frame the day, I’m a morning person, and have always loved desktop goodies like day-planners, calendars, and other levengeresque type items. Aids that you enjoy both starting your day with and returning to again and again. Polished touchstones..

Advent calendars – What if instead of the usual chintzy (albeit lovable) chronological-candy-dispenser you had daily access to your own wall of heavenly post-office boxes, each one with a love-letter inside.. carved into marble.. inset with silver.. framed in gold.. punctuated with jewels.. and just for you..

Scriptural meditation time – Lets face it, some verses you’ve seen or heard enough that you actually think you know-all-about them.. but then you see it in a slightly different light or hear it with a slightly different context or emphasis, and, whether incensed intrigued or inspired, if your not careful, you might wind up thinking about it off an on all day:
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..”
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..”
- “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us..

Some things have this “power”, but it’s rare, and probably more of something you pray and ask for of God as a gift than something you presume you can cultivate or hunt and gather..

Maps - Not everybody finds a good map inspiring. I do. Not one that’s befouled with here-one-moment something-else-the-next political placenames, but one that shows God’s artistry in carving the earth with sun wind and rain.. with each locale it’s absolutely unique gift of “place-ness”. Such maps I find are perfect mental pegboards to hang otherwise dry (but important) spiritual or intellectual things on to keep them out of the oblivion of being mere factoids.

Spiritual Self-gifts- To return to the divine bottom line.. Advent is not about parties or giving and receiving baubles or the sugar-frosted quasi-sacramentalism of religioussecular tradition, except to the extent that they help us become a living gift to the God who loved us enough to give himself. What’s odd is that this time of year they can help do this. How much more (hopefully, and prayerfully) can intentionally built traditions, humbly and prayerfully hallowed and designed do.

…..

2. Take your “ideals” and mix into them some mediums you most love to see, build-with, and use..

.. Around this point a part of the creative process that uses abstract and mysterious faculties begins to predominate.

An outsider’s instructions, and even your own reasoning should start to fade into the background for awhile (though they should reapear later and begin to interweave again.)

For what it’s worth, this is what seems to “work” most consistently for me at this stage..

Flash cards - If your stuck and get tempted to just keep plowing ahead with your active mind, don’t. Get the best, the very distilled cores of all your ideas written out on small papers or index cards, say a prayer and let go. Clip them together and start carrying them into various contexts..

Rich materials – I’m the type of artist who always faces writers block, so I usually keep some bits of construction materials around to help in the development of ideas. When stumped sometimes just seeing these blank-slate samples in different lights and next to my ideas helps alot..

Other’s work – I also keep a select few catalogs around for the same reason. It always helps to see what other’s have done that’s similar in some way to what your trying to do..

..Finally, never underestimate the power of music to help the creative process along (or corrupt and destroy it). Pre-eminently in J.R.R Tolkien’s, C.S. Lewis’ and many other creation legends the entire cosmos came into being bathed-in and by the use-of song. Make of that what you will, but rest assured, when your heart isn’t singing, the creative part of your soul isn’t moving.

Also, I have a couple of cd’s and artists that almost never fail to help at this, and their not the one’s I would have guessed back at the begining so keep your eyes, ears, heart, and mind open till you find your muse.

…..

3. Make some mini batches, sample them and start homing in on what tastes best..

This is difficult to keep generic, I’ll just tell you what my batches were, and how they’ve developed..

Google earth assisted, web served, daily meditations at your computer – As I said earlier, I love maps, and in other bible studies I’ve most gotten most from “seeing” as much as possible of the surroundings and situation of the persons in the passsage. What if I could move around along the theoretical route of Mary and Joseph, seeing and traversing the hills of Judea with them.

Unfortunately, though the idea has potential this medium isn’t ready just yet (or maybe it’s just my mastery of it all). All initial work inevitably and quickly led to frustration and distraction. The terrain is that of a modern politcal landscape and the mechanics and learning curve it’s method of navigation uses dominated all attempted creative and spiritual efforts.

However the potential is still there to carry the core of this idea much further: perhaps a custom image of Israel-as-it-was could be brought into G’earth; perhaps the terrain elevation data could be exported to a more fluid modeling program like Google’s sketchup and eventually a web project could serve up daily batches of terrain and meditation to move and pray through..

Physical model of Holy-land – an analog version of the above that also has much to recommend it, I think. But again the work of building could dominate for too much time.

Although.. If you’ve got kids and some playdoh or one of the many wonderful recipes for such handy. What could be more fun than a little daily ritual of moving a pushpin Holy family along the plains and valleys, what a neat bible study aid.. “ah there’s Jerusalem!” .. “They just passed by where David slew Goliath!..” “Look there’s the river Jordan!”

Detailed topographic map and meditation aids to draw on – While being frustrated by google’s “..earth” I started looking into online topgraphic imagery, hoping to import it into Sketchup and atleast begin the long work of making a usable model of the holy land.. While putting together the big contour-lined image it occurred that the most fluid non-distracting polishable version of this devotion would have a web-project (blog) serving up daily/weekly printouts with the period’s topography map, and some meditation aids, like so..

* * * * * *

Thank you for allowing me to share these treasured ideas from my brother. I've tried to end this in so many different ways, all of them coming up short. So, I'll end this series exactly how he would:

Non nobis.

Advent Ideas - Part II

2011-11-27T17:03:00.000-06:00

This is a continuation of a series of Advent ideas (see part I here). These thoughts are from my brother, Chris, published on one of his blogs in 2009. Please pray for the repose of his soul as you read.

I'm posting this under the patronage of St. Joseph, who with great quiet, obedience, love and humility, undertook the final preparations for the Word Made Flesh that very first Advent. St. Joseph, pray for us.

Taking a turn through the Sacramental riches offered to us, we begin to prepare for the Feast...

(Tomorrow, mixing...)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Advent ideas II (kitchen countertop)

December 4, 2009 by nobis77

Hopefully the preceeding article got you going with some ideas. Ideally you’ve skipped ahead and are working on something of your own. If not feel free to “cook” with me for a bit over the next few days and weeks. It may turn out to be a disapointing flop (atleast as a first version), but maybe it’ll get the ball rolling, your creative juices going, and your sacramental mouth watering..

… JMJ …

… Stocking the pantry..

At some point all ideas need to start making it into a real form in the real world, and usually the sooner the better. So the first thing I did was grab whichever program I had handiest that could type, format, print, and save.. My email program in this case. I then pulled a little window over the grocery store post and jotted down each idea that seemed to resonate. Like so..

These ideas I call my advent pantry. I probably won’t limit myself to them, but I can be pretty sure there’s something there that I’m supposed to be starting-from and building-with. Sure enough, something’s coalescing..

Daily routine.. Advent calendar.. Journey to Bethlehem.. Maps.. Mangers..

Spilling out onto the countertop..

Daily routine..

Starting each day of advent off with scriptural immersion and prayer is a great advent idea… Trouble is, it tends to stay a great idea and never get any further.

Advent calendar..

A huge childhood delight during advent is the advent calendar. They can take many forms, but the essential part is the routine of a daily prize leading up to Christmas day. The prize could be getting to hang a new ornament out on the tree, a new figure for the nativity scene, or even just a small bit of candy. It doesn’t take much to get the mini ritual established.

Journey to Bethlehem..

Often forgotten (anyways I never remembered) during advent is the homelessness of the Holy Family during this time.. Nazareth was about 80 miles of dangerous, dirty travel from Bethlehem where St. Joseph was compelled to go for the census.. Mary was near 8 months pregnant at the time.. That journey probably took about the same length of time as advent now does..

..enough rich mental imagery to last a few weeks if some kind of prize can be found to frame and go with it..

Maps..

Travel in ancient Judea is not like driving through Kansas. We can say this and think it, but what really helps is to see it.. If you’re St. Joseph do you take the path of quiet and solitude while picking out a way among boulders and hill country or do you take the easier path of the jostling cursing groups traveling along the thief-infested trade-routes?

Mangers..

With the benefit of 2000 years hindsight we know almost exactly where the Holy family was going.. they didn’t. That bears some thought. What’s a young couple usually doing as they approach the birth of their little one? Mom and Dad are cleaning, arranging, and outfitting a mere residence to make it into an actual home. St. Joseph and Our Lady couldn’t do this for Jesus. Perhaps we can. Spiritual gifts anyway..

Opening containers and mingling aromas

All ideas can look good on paper, especially at the broad-strokes details-sketchy stage, and it really beats staring at pixels. The next step is getting these crisp ideas onto something you can fill-in, doodle-on, cut-up, mix-together and stare-at..

Advent Ideas - Part I

2011-11-26T16:05:00.001-06:00

I'm going to share with you some thoughts I am pondering, and some thoughts that are inspiring me this Advent. These thoughts are from my brother, Chris, published on one of his blogs in 2009. Please pray for the repose of his soul as you read. This is part one in a series of three posts Chris wrote on the topic of Advent. I'll share the subsequent posts over the next few days.

I'm posting this under the patronage of St. Joseph, who with great quiet, obedience, love and humility, undertook the final preparations for the Word Made Flesh that very first Advent. St. Joseph, pray for us.

The first Sunday of Advent for 2011 begins tomorrow. As you ponder your Advent preparations, perhaps consider taking a turn through the Sacramental grocery store...

(Tomorrow, we move to the kitchen countertop and begin our preparations in earnest)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Advent ideas I (Sacramental grocery store)

November 23, 2009 by nobis77

Pt I of a series of unabashedly over-metaphorical posts .. stock up on a few ideas and cook up something eternally new.

… JMJ …

Something about this idiom seems silly I admit, but there’s too many good neglected possibilities out there to just keep trying the same thing the same ways. To become a part of your life you must invest something, some kind of creative self-donation. The easiest and most powerful way of doing this when there are a lot of options is to toss ideas together and look for sparks, but I’m mixing my metaphors.. maybe a tossed sacramental salad..hmm..

Anyway consider this page to be your local sacramental grocery store. Open up a favorite text editor, word processor, calendar or planner and browse down the “aisles” selecting items to drop into your “cart”. If something’s out of stock or spoiled contact the stockboy below.

Aisle 1: Staples

Silence
Openness
Attentiveness
Scripture
Prayer
Natural world
Church teaching
Year round traditions

Aisle 2: Seasonal (Advent + Christmas season traditions)

Fasting (and feasting)
Almsgiving
Visitation
Advent Candles
Advent Calendar
Nativity Scenes
- small
- medium
- large
- cumulative/dynamic
Jesse Tree
The Joyful mysteries of the Rosary
The journey of the Holy Family
The journey of the Wise men
Galilee, Judea, and Bethlehem
Family Gatherings

Aisle 3: $aucepans (means, methods and real goods to buy, build, and incarnate with) and Spices (new, unlikely, and rare things)

Daily routine
Desktops
Table tops
Rooms
Walls
Niches
Corners
Windows
Porches
Yards
Feast tables
Refrigerators
Calendars
Day planners
Computers
Maps
Boxes
Baskets
Buckets
Cardboard
Kraft paper
Wrapping paper
Stationary
Christmas cards
Index cards
Holy cards
Candles
Lights
Music
Ribbon
Religious catalogs
Magazine clippings
Web clippings
Paint
Play doh
Building blocks
Photo albums

~ Non Nobis ~

A Cranberry Day

2011-11-22T18:04:00.001-06:00

We love cranberries and I can see we're not the only ones! We declared today a cranberry day today, and it was a delight from start to finish! I thought I'd share our cranberry fun since it was so simple and delicious and is easy to do with a day!

We enjoyed Dawn's recommendation of the Reading Rainbow episode on Giving Thanks which includes a neat explanation of cranberry farming. We started the day with this episode and it really set the tone for our cranberry day. And we learned why those little air pockets in the center of the cranberry are so important.

Next, a trip to the market where we picked up several bags of delicious, farm fresh cranberries! These fresh cranberries freeze well, so be sure to pick up several bags while you're at the market! They're only out a couple of times a year.

We bought Habelman Bros. cranberries at the market today - we love supporting family farmers! After getting home, we spent some time reading about the Habelman family. This family has been farming cranberries since 1907! Just look at the neat cranberry crafts they recommend on their site. You'll also note the importance of the humble cranberry to the Indians, and how the Pilgrims began to value this tart berry, thus ensuring the cranberry's place on our Thanksgiving tables.

Then, we curled up together and savored a favorite - Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. My kids just love reading about dear, old Mr. Whiskers and his sincere, gruff manner. He is endearing! And of course, Grandmother's famous cranberry bread had our curiosity piqued!

We gathered ingredients and used our fresh cranberries to make:

Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread

(Note: this recipe has been modified from the original to suit our taste. You'll have to get the book if you want to see the original recipe!)

2 cups sifted all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup maple sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter

1 egg, beaten

3/4 - 1 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mix is crumbly. Add egg and orange juice and mix until dough is moist. Fold in chopped cranberries (we just threw ours into my food processor and pulsed a few times and this worked well.) Spoon into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for about an hour. Check for doneness with toothpick inserted in center - if it comes out clean, it's done! Remove from the loaf pan and cool on a wire rack.

The bread was delicious and we have plans to make more for Thanksgiving! Absolutely everyone in the family enjoyed it!

In addition to making Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread, I threw together some cranberries and sugar for a quick homemade cranberry sauce to have with our chicken for dinner tonight (with an eye toward taste testing it for a certain upcoming cranberry-licious holiday)! YUM!!! I used Susan Branch's recipe which is in her Autumn From the Heart of the Home cookbook, but you can also find it here (scroll down for the Christmas Cranberries). (She also shared it in her latest issue of Willard, her free e-newsletter which she recently emailed out. You really ought to subscribe to that just for the delightful and inspiring pictures and thoughts shared!) I'm thinking of making more of the homemade cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving because it was wonderful tonight, and I thought it would be yummy if I threw in a little clove, cinnamon, orange peel and allspice! And, if I'm stretched for time, I'll just throw in a teaspoon of Citrus Spice Cider Mate! ;)

It was a delicious cranberry filled day! If you're interested in rounding out some cranberry fun with a little Thanksgiving reading, among several other Thanksgiving picture books we enjoy, I really like It's Time for Thanksgiving by Elizabeth Secrist and Janette Woolsey. It's a delightful collection of history, stories, poetry, games and recipes for Thanksgiving.

I pray you all have a blessed Thanksgiving with your families!

~ Thanks be to God for all His blessings ~

Picture Book Delight :: Dan's Angel :: Picture Study

2011-11-14T14:06:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, the kids and I went home to my Mom's house for a short fall break visit. It was delightful as always: playing in the leaves, visiting with Mom and Dad, watching movies, and just being in that neat old farmhouse where there is so much scope for the imagination.

As we were visiting, Mom walked up with a copy of this book and gave it to me. (And here is the mark of the heart of a home educator - never mind the fact that Mom's youngest, my sister, graduated home school/high school some 14 years ago - Mom is always on the lookout for a fantastic book!) She had heard that this was a neat picture book for studying art, and picked up a used copy for us. :) I know. We're lucky!

Dan's Angel by Alexander Sturgis sets up in a way sure to hook almost every single young child, boys especially - Dan likes being a detective. Right there, you've got 'em! Dan takes his detective skills into an art museum and the first piece of art he sees is Fra Angelico's, The Annunciation (the particular piece shown is the Cortona Altarpiece in Musea Diocesano, Fra Angelico painted many versions of the Annunciation), and upon looking for a moment at the painting, Dan is astonished when the archangel Gabriel begins to visit with him, giving a few simple clues to understand the painting. Dan and the archangel Gabriel continue through the museum and together they enjoy a total of 12 paintings, exercising their detective skills along the way as they discover interesting things about each painting. Dan learns to read the story of the paintings through the symbols the artist chose to use.

The text is engaging and all my kids really enjoyed this book immensely! Dan's observations seem boyish and accessible, not too forced like a picture book...trying to be educational...still trying to be a picture book. His observations invite the reader to look closely to see if they can find what Dan sees: the helmet, the peacock, the hidden wheel under St. Catherine's dress. The artwork is reproduced in photographic quality as a focal point on the page with the outer perimeter of the pages illustrated by Lauren Child. These perimeter scenes are sometimes quite amusing such as when the archangel Gabriel hops on Dan's skateboard. Lauren Child's whimsical, crazy style is sometimes quite a juxtaposition to the old master's artwork portrayed. The art portrayed spans from old masters from the 14th and 15th century up through 1950 modern art.

{Note to parents: There are no completely nude images in the art portrayed, but there are a couple of art figures with very little clothing on, or only a drape. I thought the author did a good job moving the eye and thoughts away from that and directing it in other areas so that you're searching for a helmet or a warrior's tools. But do be aware.}

I thought I'd link the art contained and discussed in Dan's Angel in case you'd like to extend the picture book time and study each piece separately. Simply print from the links:

Cortona Altarpiece with The Annunciation by Fra Angelico
Belshazzar's Feast by Rembrandt
Perseus Frees Andromeda by Piero Di Cosimo
The Marquesa de Pontejos by Francisco De Goya
Soap Bubbles by Jean-Simeon Chardin
Venus and Mars by Sandro Botticelli
Madonna and Child with Saints in the enclosed Garden by a follower of Robert Campin
The Judgment of Paris by Claude Lorrain
Devi Battles Buffalo Demon Mahisha (I can't locate this image online)
Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh
Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso
Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) by Jackson Pollock

I highly recommend this picture book for its appeal, narrative, and explanations of art symbolism in simple and understandable ways to little people. Every child from 3 to 14 enjoyed it here.

{If you have an older child and would enjoy learning more about symbolism in art, I HIGHLY recommend George Ferguson's Signs and Symbols in Christian Art!!)

Toward Living Advent and Christmas :: 2011

2011-11-11T20:20:00.001-06:00

I have been working hard to get all my plans and ideas on paper for Advent this year. Have you been considering your Advent plans? Will it be a simple, quiet season of preparation for you and your family, or will you try to incorporate some meaningful ideas for living the season of Advent? (Both are right answers, by the way!)

I have a very busy First week of Advent which is really motivating me to get my ducks in a row ahead of time this year! Advent wreath out - check! Advent candles ordered - check! Advent books out and arranged in baskets - check! Consider how our family will take time to live the holy season of preparing during Advent - check!

Last year I shared my document detailing Advent history as well as our plans for living Advent and Christmas with you! It was something I really enjoyed putting together and really helped me keep my head on straight; Advent is so liturgically rich! So, a couple of weeks ago, I got out my plans from last year and my calendar and planner and pencils and pens and marked and rearranged the old plans, and added and updated so that we can now enjoy the 2011 Advent plans and I'd love to share them with you!

Toward Living Advent and Christmas (2011) - pdf

Toward Living Advent and Christmas (2011) - word document

(**NOTE** a significant amount of formatting will be lost in the word document; I built the document using Pages for mac and then exported it to word. Please feel free to use this document as a beginning for your own Advent plans.)

EMAIL ME for the Pages for mac file of Towards Living Advent and Christmas

Thank you! You are welcome to use, edit or share this document for your own personal family use, but you may not sell or distribute multiple copies (without permission).

There are some definite updates to our Advent plans this year: new books and a new focus on an old French folktale, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, The Juggler of Notre Dame. This very old and beautifully Catholic tale recounts the story of a poor juggler named Barnabus who, seeking shelter and home in a monastery, finds he has nothing to offer Our Lady and the Christ Child on the Holy night of the Nativity, save his small and unnoticed talent of juggling. He offers the best of himself through his humble talent as he juggles his heart's best before a statue of Our Lady and the Christ Child in the monastery chapel. As the Abbot approaches him to reprimand him for juggling in the chapel, a miracle takes place! I won't spoil any more of the story as you really need to read these treasured adaptations for yourself and with your children!

The Medieval French tale, The Little Juggler, has a rich history of its own from the french poetry of the 12th century Benedictine Monk, Gautier de Coincy, through Anatole France's adaptation, and an opera based on the tale written by Jules Massenet. Many adaptations have sprung from these sources, and I'm delighted to list them on our Advent plans this year. A few are absolute treasures, such as Barbara Cooney's adaptation, The Little Juggler. I cannot mention the worthwhile findings on this dear French tale without mentioning this helpful conversation discussing The Little Juggler at 4Real which I've enjoyed and learned so much from!

These Advent plans have been considered with our family in mind, but I love sharing in the hopes it might be a help to another family. I do remember when we were just starting to build our Advent collection. I dearly treasured shared ideas and booklists as they helped me grow into our own family ways and traditions, and along the way I got to know so many delightful authors and illustrators as friends.

And of course...this post would not be complete without the disclaimer: the plans are a guide. We do what we can, read what we enjoy, live out as much as we can to prepare our hearts for His coming! We do no more and no less than that!

I thought it would be helpful for those of you just interested in the books on the plans to see a list of them here so I've linked them all for you, and hope this might be a useful resource!

Resources

The following are the resources I used to compile Toward Living Advent and Christmas. All of them (except The Christmas Book) are out of print so their availability may fluctuate:

The Christmas Book by Father Francis Weiser (reprinted by Neumann Press)
The Holyday Book by Father Francis Weiser
Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs by Father Francis Weiser
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Elsa Chaney
Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp
Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger
Crusade: the Story of the Bible Retold for Children by the Maryknoll Sisters

The Little Juggler of Notre Dame

The Little Juggler (OOP) by Barbara Cooney -- my favorite version of this story!!
The Juggler of Notre Dame (OOP) by Mary Fidelis Todd
The Clown of God by Tomie de Paola
The Book of Virtue for Young People by William Bennett (contains a translation of Anatole France's version of the story)
The Juggler of Our Lady: A Medieval Legend by R.O. Blechman (best for teens/older children for its humor and slightly irreverent retelling)
The Little Juggler by Marcy Ramsey (modern pop-up edition)
Our Lady's Juggler: An Antique Legend as Retold for the Air by Alexander Woollcott (this version is long out of print, and hard to find, but you can find a copy of it in an old WWII edition of a Reader's Digest Compilation (October, 1941)
The Little Juggler and Other French Tales Retold by Violet Moore Higgins
The Juggler of Notre Dame by Ruth Sawyer (found in her book, The Way of the Storyteller)
An Adaptation of the Story of Our Lady's Juggler by Thomas McCabe (This one is a gem: the illustrations are simple, yet captivating, and the adaptation is really quite beautiful. It's difficult to find since this book never made it into mass production. It was written and published privately in 1951 by the author, for his friend, the illustrator, Raymond Lufkin.)
Story Library of the Saints by Joan Windham - both of these saints are connected to the story of The Little Juggler.

Barnabas of Compiegne
St. Hermann Joseph

Advent and Christmas Booklist

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham (3 volume set)
Little Lives of the Great Saints by John O'Kane Murray
Christmas and the Saints (OOP) by Hertha Pauli
Heroines of Christ edited by Joseph Huslein
Saints for Young People - Volume 1 (Jan-June) by the Daughters of St. Paul
Saints for Young People - Volume 2 (July - Dec) by the Daughters of St. Paul
Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
Our Lady's Feasts (OOP) by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy
The Animals Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum (Little Golden Book)
Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Christmas on the Farm by Bob Artley
The First Christmas Tree: A Legend of Long Ago by David and Helen Haidle
The Way to Bethlehem by Inos Biffi
The Donkey's Dream by Barbara Helen Berger
The Christmas Story by Jane Werner (Little Golden Book)
The Huron Carol by Francis Tyrell (St. John de Brebeuf)
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
My Christmas Book by Lee Mero
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden
The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
The Three Gifts of Christmas by Jennie Bishop
Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey by Robert Byrd
Marta and the Manger Straw by Virginia Kroll
The Christmas Knight by Jane Louise Curry
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Jan Brett
The Trees Kneel at Christmas by Maud Hart Lovelace
I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge
The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff
Joy to the World: Christmas Legends by Ruth Sawyer

Specific reading for Saints during Advent and Christmas:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Advent ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

St. Andrew

The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer
Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham

St. Edmund Campion

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham

St. Francis Xavier

Little Lives of the Great Saints by John O'Kane Murray

St. Barbara

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham

St. Nicholas

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
The Twenty Miracles of St. Nicholas by Bernarda Bryson
Saint Nicholas by Julie Stegmeyer
The Real Santa Claus by Marianna Mayer
Wonderworker: The True Story of How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus by Vincent Yzermans
The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan
Christmas and the Saints (OOP) by Hertha Pauli

The Immaculate Conception

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Our Lady's Feasts (OOP) by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy

St. Juan Diego

The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe by C. Lourdes Walsh

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola

St. Lucy

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Hanna's Christmas (OOP) by Melissa Peterson (Wiley)
Lucia, Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
Lucia, Child of Light by Florence Ekstrand
Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story by Janet Shaw
Heroines of Christ edited by Joseph Huslein

Las Posadas

Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida
The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie de Paola

St. Thomas the Apostle

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer

St. Francis Xavier Cabrini

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Christmas ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Nativity of Our Lord

Silent Night: The Song and Its Story by Margaret Hodges
The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Tasha Tudor
The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Jan Brett
The Nativity by Ruth Sanderson
The True Meaning of Christmas by Fulton Sheen
Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters

St. Stephen

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
Good King Wenceslaus by Geraldine McCaughrean (...Good King Wenceslaus looked out, on the Feast of Stephen...)
Good King Wenceslaus illustrated by Jamichael Henterly

St. John

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Little Lives of the Great Saints by John O'Kane Murray

The Holy Innocents

Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters

St. David, King

Story Library of the Saints (OOP) by Joan Windham
Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters

St. Catherine Laboure

Heroines of Christ edited by Joseph Huslein

Circumcision of Our Lord ~ Mary, Mother of God

Mary, Mother of Jesus by Mary Joslin and Alison Wisenfeld
Mary, Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola

Most Holy Name of Jesus

Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp
The Ballad of Matthew's Begats by Andrew Peterson

St. Genevieve

Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

A Story of Mother Elizabeth Seton by Brother Ernest

Epiphany

Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
The Gifts of the Magi by Carolyn Vaughn
The Last Straw by Frederick H. Thury
The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke

Feast of the Holy Family

Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Children (OOP) by the Maryknoll Sisters
Our Lady's Feasts (OOP) by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy

* * *

I owe a debt of gratitude to Jennifer Gregory Miller at Family in Feast and Feria for her knowledge of liturgical books that she has shared over the years! I especially enjoyed Jenn's Alphabet Advent from which I learned of many new and wonderful picture books to incorporate!

* * *

I pray that as you consider your family's plans for Advent, you find time to be still and know, time to live the quiet, penitential season of Advent with your family, following in the path of our brothers and sisters, the saints. May our time spent preparing our hearts for Him this Advent be rewarded most joyfully on Christmas morning!

Audrey Assad :: Heart

2011-11-11T18:08:00.001-06:00

Audrey has a new single released and available on itunes - SPARROW. It's a delight as all of Audrey's music is! Her new album, HEART, is set to release February 14, 2012.

If you don't have The House You're Building yet, now is the time! Her Live from SoHo album includes some new songs as well.

Have you met Audrey yet? An upward rising Catholic singer and songwriter, her voice is captivating and her thoughtful lyrics give voice to inward thoughts in ways that are surprising, comforting, uplifting and consoling. She expresses her gift uniquely: melodies and lyrics are piercing in their sincerity, and comforting in their recognition of common suffering. There is an echo one feels within their soul when listening to Audrey's thoughtful and moving lyrics. The arrangements range from melancholic to truly inspiring and upbeat. Genuinely lovely.

Putting the Child In the Way :: The Art Center

2011-11-11T08:27:00.001-06:00

After posting about my oilcloth projects, I'm eager to share with you a new setup we have for our art center.

Charlotte Mason speaks of Masterly Inactivity and what she says has always struck me:

"We ought to do so much for our children, and are able to do so much for them, that we begin to think everything rests with us and that we should never intermit for a moment our conscious action on the young minds and hearts about us. Our endeavours become fussy and restless. We are too much with our children, 'late and soon.' We try to dominate them too much, even when we fail to govern, and we are unable to perceive that wise and purposeful letting alone is the best part of education."

"...once we receive an idea, it will work itself out, in thought and act, without much after-effort on our part" School Education, Volume 3, p. 27-28

That part is important - that wise and purposeful letting alone! There is no need to provide artificial or forced lessons in exploring, investigating, observing, creating. The child will do all these things on his own when inspired after reading good and worthy books! This thought shared in Volume I provides the impetus for my approach to setting out art supplies in the manner you see.

"Nature will look after him and give him promptings of desire to know many things; and somebody must tell as he wants to know; and to do many things, and somebody should be handy just to put him in the way" Home Education, Volume 1, p. 192

This is my job! I try to put the children in the way of tools and resources so that they can investigate, explore and create. This art center is simply an answer to that job of mine.

If you remember (or you may not...in which case: fair warning! This is a long post I'm going to link you to and is very picture heavy!) we have for a very long time kept our art supplies out and accessible on the shelves in our learning room. I have long believed that when art supplies are lovely and are displayed or offered in an inviting way, the children will go to them and use them. {And by the way, when art supplies are lovely and are displayed and offered in an inviting way, THE CHILDREN WILL GO TO THEM AND USE THEM.} And I've seen the fruits of this over the years!

Three things happened here over the summer:

I wanted the shelf space for books.
I needed the art supplies to be more accessible to all members of our family (little and big).
I had a wooden tv cabinet that was solid, sturdy, unused, that Rob and I DID NOT want to lug up to the attic and that I was sure had a REAL purpose somewhere in my learning room...if only I could figure out what it was!

I decided it would make a very nice art center and hoped it wouldn't scream "I'm a tv cabinet" to everyone that walked past it. It might though. :)

We keep our favorite art pencils, watercolor pencils, markers and watercolor pens on the top of the cabinet.

Here are the art supplies you see pictured:

**Oil pastels

**Fibracolor fine tip markers with stand

**Rexel Derwent Watercolor pencils

**Prang color pencils (in fact Prang's entire selection is inexpensive and good quality)

**Lyra color pencils

**Prismacolor watercolor pencils

**Prismacolor sketch pencils

**Prismacolor dual tip markers
**Pip-squeaks Crayola markers
**Pip-squeaks Crayola color pencils

**Collection of paints:

**Lyra watercolor set

**Grumbacher watercolors

**Prang watercolors

**Crayola no-drip watercolor

**Paintbrush collection

**Waterbrush pens:

**Niji Waterbrush pens - small, medium, large, flat, also available as a set from Dick Blick

**Aquaflow Waterbrush set - this is an inexpensive set and is perfect for my littles!

A short word about waterbrush pens: We love them! They're fantastic because they contain the water necessary for watercoloring within the barrel. My oldest daughter really enjoys them. They're so perfect for nature walk watercolors completed in the field. I always give credit to Kimberlee's post, The Joy of Watercolors, because that's where I learned about these waterbrush pens and we've enjoyed them so much ever since she told us about them!

:: These were inspired by the Hawkinson books linked below ::

Art books:

**Botanical Illustration in Watercolor by Eleanor Wunderlich

**Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie

**Collect, Print and Paint from Nature by John Hawkinson - favorite!

**More to Collect and Paint from Nature by John Hawkinson - favorite!

**Barron's Art Handbook - Watercolor

**Learn to Draw Nature in the Style of the Edwardian Lady by Liz Hankins

DVD Instructionals:

**Beginning Watercolor Journaling with Christina Lopp and Gay Kraeger

**Eve Anderson's Teacher Training Tools DVDs (Nature Study contains dry brush method)

In the drawers of the tv-cabinet-turned-art-center we keep a variety of art materials like felt, glues, acrylic paints, extra tape, wooden miniature shapes, pipecleaners, popsicle sticks (seriously...you really can make anything out of wooden popsicle sticks! This is the one art supply I always keep stocked).

One thing that has worked out so much better for us is using the art center to display our Metropolitan Museum of Art page-a-day calendar. The children see it and comment on the art much more often. Which brings me to my little fine print warning: not all art on the calendar is appropriate for little eyes! There are some nudes and a few other images I don't display. Different families have different comfort levels on this and whether or not they want to handle it...so I'm just mentioning for your consideration! It doesn't happen frequently so I just remove art I don't want observed and put it on the backside of the calendar.

The art center has worked out well for us!

As you can see, my littlest's table backs up to the other side of the art center....

....where she loves to grab her supplies and work!

{by the way, this post is a mish-mash of pictures taken today and pictures taken this summer when I originally set the art center up! And that explains why Doodlebug is wearing a summer dress in the above picture. She's not wearing a summer dress today, I assure you!}

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now, before I go, I want to address a question I know you're all asking. It comes from a comment I had from the oilcloth project post. Sarah writes:

And I assume that keeping the children's art supplies out works well for you? I love how they look in the mason jars! But I would be afraid that they wouldn't put them back and keep them sorted ... We are having troubles with that in other parts of our home (toys!), and I really am struggling with how to keep them available ... but neat (and easy for them to clean up).

It does work out well for us, Sarah. If you have little, littles (just starting to toddle) you might not want art supplies within arms reach of them, in which case, do consider another way of setting supplies out! Our former manner of making art supplies available on shelves worked well for us when the Doodlebug was toddling. They were out of her reach, but older children could see them and reach them.

Now, as for sorting and putting things away, like the art supplies you see set out - that is a habit to cultivate with the children. It is one which affords me a great deal of leeway in the way I set things about in the home. When something comes out, I make it a point to assist the children in remembering to put the item(s) away when they're done. It takes an investment of time and effort on my part, but after a few days of gentle reminders, they know where things go and how to return them and tidy. It's a habit of tidying. Which brings me to a couple of other tools you might find useful, Sarah:

A post on the Quick Tidy that we do daily and keeps my/our sanity intact. Everything has a place and everything in its place is so much more workable if you quick tidy for 10 minutes daily.
A post on Toys: My Thoughts on Choosing, Managing, and Ordering Toys in the Home

Hope you enjoyed this little post on our Art Center. It really is all about putting the children in the way of beautiful, worthy objects which assist them in exploring the ideas they encounter within the covers of their worthy books.

Do spend some time reading through Erin's fantastic post on her art center! And the conversation at 4Real discussing an art center as an easy way to unleash creativity in your home.

Working With Oilcloth :: Projects

2011-11-08T11:25:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post this oilcloth project for some time! Erin's post, Re-discovering Our Creativity, and her corresponding thread at 4Real that discuss simple and easy ways to unleash creativity have motivated me to get these pictures up here so I can show you my simple oilcloth projects and by way of showing you those, show you our new art center!

Everything began with this old tv stand. No one has televisions that sit on top of large pieces of furniture anymore, tvs have become slim, and thus many of these old tv cabinets are cast aside. This one was free. We bought some furniture off Craigslist and the family just threw in this old tv cabinet!

It's a sturdy piece of furniture, from the Broyhill Fontana line. Solid pine and not a piece of pressboard on it....except on the ugly backside of the cabinet....

I really wanted to use this cabinet in our learning room for our art supplies, but our limited wallspace is already spoken for. It would have to float in the room. But, what to do about the ugly backside??? OILCLOTH!

I found a few good quality oilcloth pieces to try. I have a few UK companies that supply oilcloth that I like:

Norfolk Textiles

Cath Kidston USA

The Tablecloth Co. (ebay shop)

The Fabric Factory (ebay shop)

Le Pin Parasol - beautiful Provencal fabrics which are then coated with a laminate (custom sizes are their specialty and their customer service is EXCELLENT!)

I like the PVC coated cotton oilcloths which are popular and sold in the UK for my projects, though typical oilcloth, known as "Mexican oilcloth", definitely has some uses! You can see a good example of it here, hanging on my sewing desk in brown toile!

Sew, Mama Sew has a good explanation of the difference in today's "oilcloth", which is entirely different from the true oilcloth of yesteryear (which was coated in linseed oil).

What you find in the US is usually Mexican oilcloth and is a vinyl coated over a cotton mesh base (the mesh base allows the vinyl to penetrate so that the end result is a top and bottom that both have a plastic coated feel). It isn't as thick as PVC or vinyl coated cotton, or at least, it doesn't *feel* as thick to me. Overall, the laminated, or coated cotton has a more fabric feel and drape, and as a result seems more substantial.

For this project, I used one of my FAVORITE TOOLS: the staplegun. Load it with staples and you're ready to roll! (**NOTE** When using a staplegun, ALWAYS put a lot of weight on the gun when you staple or your staples won't penetrate the wood entirely. I staple with one hand and lean on the gun with the other hand. If you make a mistake, grab your needlenose pliers, pull out the wonky staple, and try again!)

Cut your oilcloth and leave about 1 - 2 inches of extra material on each side.

Since I knew the top would be most visible, I folded and creased the wrong-side-of-the-fabric just under the top lip of wood and stapled the underside of the oilcloth right next to the lip of wood so that when it was folded back over itself the top staples would be hidden. Start stapling IN THE MIDDLE and work your way out from the middle, alternating sides as you staple, re-creasing, following the crease and pulling firmly so that the oilcloth will lay nice and flat when you are done stapling.

See how nice that looks when the oilcloth is folded back on itself? And you can't see those top staples!

For the sides, just find the edge of your furniture. It helps to have an extra pair of hands for this part! With your fingers, tuck as neatly as you can down the side. Pull tightly and staple as you go. (This is an art, not a science....so don't be paralyzed and not do this because you think you'll make a mistake!! I used pliers and pulled out several staples when I messed up on this project! It's super forgiving!) Work your way down the side, and keep pulling the oilcloth firmly as you go. If you have extra helpers have someone sit on the opposite side...the one you're NOT stapling right now...and keep that side pulled taut.

Note the wrinkles on the bottom right side of my work - WHO CARES! I say fold, tuck, and KEEP STAPLING! :)

Work the sides and the bottom the same way - tuck extra under, pull down firmly so there are no wrinkles, and staple.

Viola!!! Ugly backside of tv cabinet/soon-to-be-art-center covered in cheery red polka dot oilcloth!

But, I wasn't done!

Time to cover the little wooden table! A certain someone spilled silver and army green model paint on the top of our little wooden table when he sat down to paint his B52 at the little person table {ahem....we will not discuss my thoughts on THAT particular maneuver! Back to making lemons out of lemonade}.

Little tables are SUPER EASY to cover! Just flip them over and follow the edge of the table to cut your oilcloth, again leaving an inch or two overhang.

Follow the same procedure for stapling the oilcloth to the underside of the table:

Find the middle of a side and start stapling in the middle.
Go to the opposite side, give a firm pull to stretch wrinkles out, and staple in the middle of that side.
Do this until all four sides have a staple in the middle, always giving a firm pull to stretch wrinkles.
From the middle staple, work your way out from each side, alternating left and right, and don't forget to pull firmly to remove wrinkles.
When you get to the corners, channel your inner gift-wrapper and tuck, fold, staple.
If you make a mistake, use your needle nose pliers and pull out the offending staple and try again!

Simple!

And now the table-covering is secure and won't come off. And it's very wipeable! We finished this project over the summer and since then we've wiped markers, paint and oil pastels off the little table. Model paints have been banished to another part of the house! ;)

Since the old tv cabinet became our new art center, I backed the little person table right up to it in the room and they both float out in the center of the room. This works out great for my littlest, who loves art projects and really enjoys having the art supplies right next to her! My littlest fella (almost 7) can often be found sitting opposite her and working.

It's a great space!

And, while I'm on the topic, might I recommend the little Pip-Squeaks color pencils from Crayola for little hands? We are loving them! And DON'T throw away that silly little pencil sharpener that comes with them - that thing works GREAT!

I was on a stapling roll the day I did all of this, and even covered the little table we use with our play kitchen. It had seen some wear and a cheery blue floral oilcloth was exactly the pick-me-up this little table needed!

How great is that?! I loved working with oilcloth! It's forgivable when you're working with the staple gun! And it's durable and wipeable as you're living with it, which makes it an ideal candidate for covering just about ANYTHING in a home-educating-lived-in-house! And...it comes in so many pretty choices which satisfies my inner need for pretty!

I'll follow up this post tomorrow with another post on our new tv cabinet turned art center!

See you then!

Big Sale at Hillside Education

2011-11-06T19:32:00.001-06:00

Hillside Education is having a big sale! Sit down with a warm cup of something delightful and go shop! I must tell you, there is not much on this fantastic site that doesn't already live on my shelves! Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to receiving some new things!

May I recommend a few of my favorites?

Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks - this is an absolutely delightful book! I love reading it aloud to my little people! This book is full of sweet, old fashioned stories that you'll delight in sharing! To make this book especially appealing and useful, the stories are arranged and compiled in a week-by-week arrangement following the months of the school year - September through June. I love the examples of good character and strong work ethic throughout.
Grammarland - oh my! This is a favorite book! My friend Erin recommended it to me some time ago, and it's a GEM! Makes a fantastic read aloud! Learning grammar and parts of speech has never been so enjoyable!
Ships Boy With Magellan - My son read this last year (5th grade) and was simply riveted! This is a fantastic example of living history through quality writing. A true worthy book!
Lives From Plutarch - there are many good revisions of Plutarch for children, but this is one of my favorites.

Happy shopping everyone!

An Award

2011-10-21T06:45:00.000-05:00

A dear friend wrote me to tell me she had given me an award through her blog. How kind! She awards me the Liebster Blog Award. I'm a little stunned and so grateful - it's such a kind consideration! Especially considering the high regard in which I hold her own blog, which is simply a fantastic journal of family life and home education. Her taste in books is EXCELLENT, and I so enjoy peeking in to see how her entire family pitches in to build their family home! Thank you, Erin, for considering this blog for an award!

Here are the rules of receiving the Liebster Blog:

The Liebster Blog Award started in Germany and was intended to drive traffic to hidden gems (blogs with approx 300 followers or less). The rules that come along with the award are simple:
1) Show your thanks to the blogger that gave you the award by linking back to them.
2) Reveal your top pick by leaving a comment on their blog.
3) Post the award on your blog.
4) Enjoy the love of some of the most supportive people on the Internet

So, now the fun part comes when I get to pass along this award to another blogger! I'm awarding one of my new favorites; a blog that I delight in reading:

Grace in Loving Chaos - Jenny writes and shares of her home education journey in a lovely way. Her thoughts, understanding and fresh take on Charlotte Mason are inspiring to me! Her blog is a gem because the way in which she shares is at once accessible and inspiring! Go visit Jenny!

A Sunny Space to Exercise the Imagination and Create

2011-10-18T09:58:00.002-05:00

"Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things." G.K. Chesterton

Perhaps it has been too long since I really set time and space aside for the purpose of creating. I suppose as a part of living out a practical vocation, one can become so much a part of living out the practical and pragmatic that one simply begins to overlook the need to not spend every ounce of time working. To give ample time to rest and leisure. To refresh. To create. I found within this realization a great void for me: the lack of purposeful time to imagine, renew, create, consider, make, re-make.

"So God created man in His own image." Genesis 1:27

Made in the image of our Creator man cannot help but seek to create. This need to create is a part of the essence and makeup of man in such a way that no philosophy can squelch or redefine it. It is when we destroy, strip and tear down that we become less like Him. In creating - in creating anything as an expression of the imagination - we become in small ways more and more as God created us to be, an image of Himself, the Creator.

There is a rich and varied potential within the expression of creating something new - some knit, others take amazing and expressive photographs, while others sketch or paint. I set out to create a little sewing corner, and as I did so it grew (not the space so much as the idea.) And so the corner became a space full of small niches which each hold a place in the order of imagination. It defies a specific name - like just a sewing corner, or just a sketch area. It simply is a sunny space for creating. And I must say, I could not have planned or considered that it could be so lovely in my own eyes, so inviting a space for me. So, come in and sit with me in my little space for a bit!

My little space is cobbled together, mostly from collections of things I already had, and I certainly did not have a big budget to carve out this little space. A budget and ones own space is a constraint much as a frame is to a piece of art. To quote Chesterton again, "Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame." It would be wrong to get hung up and trip over the frame, over the limitations in budget and space. But they do act as lovely points for us, challenging us to create within them, within the frame.

My sunny space for creating is carved out of what I consider to be a delicious waste of space (enter the practical side of me) in my bedroom. Oh how I have wistfully considered how I might use this space elsewhere...in my laundry room....or in the learning room...or in the kitchen. But no, the builder of our home chose to create a master bedroom the size of a gymnasium. I'm not kidding either. It is a glorious and gluttonous waste of space - but there it is. The bedroom area itself is quite large already, and attached to it (as part of one big room) is a sort of sitting room. The large space has been nice since babies stay in our room with us for their first two years, but even with my work table and additions, there is still plenty of room to accommodate another little one (should that be in God's plan!). Only in the last couple of years (after living in our home for 9 years now!!) have we started to furnish this space. Almost everything in this space was either found through Craigslist, a flea market, or a thrift store.

So...let's take a turn about this part of the room, shall we?

Tucked between two big, sunny windows is my modest little work table. When I say modest, I do mean it! It's a plastic folding table...in the order of portable functions, Bar-B-Q cook-offs and lunchrooms.

See. Ugly, nondescript, plastic folding table underneath there. And in the center of the table is a big melted spot from this past spring (2011) when we had the tornado outbreak and were out of power for a week and this little table functioned wonderfully as part of my outside kitchen, holding my little propane camp cooktop. Apparently, the underside of the camp cooktop gets hot (ya think?) and...it melted a spot on my table. sigh. Not very pretty. SO......

I found a little etsy shop that makes custom sized oilcloth tablecloths, and decided to order one that fits the little folding work table for when it is employed in more feminine, creative pursuits (thusly covering the big-ugly-gray-melty-hole-in-the-middle-plastic-of-it-all table) in exactly the size I needed. And in the loveliest brown toile that is so pretty and yet so perfectly functional for a creating space! Goodness, I am so pleased, and now that I have it I can see how easy it would be to make and I'm considering sewing a similar cover for my other larger folding plastic table which works as a cutting/crafting table (and lives under my bed).

Everyone needs something inspiring and lovely to look at. Above my work table I decided to decorate by hanging some vintage sewing patterns. I took the patterns out of the paper envelopes and stashed them in ziploc bags with the rest of my patterns. (Interested in collecting vintage patterns? Check out your Granny's attic, Mom's stash, flea markets, thrift stores, or etsy shops.)

I bought some really inexpensive acrylic 8 x 10 box frames and then made a folded paper box to fit inside the acrylic frame using 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. (I just measured, folded, scored, and cut notches out of the paper so that it would fit in an inverted way inside the acrylic box...forming a sort of matting background for the vintage patterns.) I just used acid free tape to secure the pattern to the center of the scrapbook paper, placed the acrylic frame on top of it all, and then grouped them on the wall.

You could use a collection of thrifted frames from the thrift store for this project (paint them all a pretty uniform color - I think that would be so pretty!) but I looked for several weeks and couldn't find anything but retro plastic 80's nonsense...so I went with the acrylic box frames. Pretty.

Below my framed vintage pattern art, I have an old shelf which I found sitting under my bed. It's so shallow it's really only useful for displaying pictures....but....I found it works great to hold little 4 oz jelly jars which are fantastic for collecting little groups of things like sewing notions.

I just love that darling jade green thimble. Isn't it pretty sitting there?

At the other end of the shallow little ledge shelf (you'll have to scroll back up to one of the first pics which shows the entire wall - you'll see the vase of scissors on the far left of the ledge shelf), I placed a favorite white vase. It's a vintage vase that my Mom gave me for a birthday gift one year and it's just so pretty! It's perfect for holding my favorite scissors! Isn't a pretty vase a useful thing? They can contain so many collections besides flowers!

Remember my treasured spools of velvet and grosgrain ribbon? I used to have them hanging in the learning room, which is not an altogether strange place for them to live considering how much time I spend there! But, it made sense to bring them in here.

I just put a cup hook at either end of the shallow little ledge shelf and used another cup hook and a pair of pliers (to make the cup hook into an eye hook) which was screwed into the ends of a dowel rod. I added some useful " "S" hooks to my dowel rod to hold other needed tools (like a tape measure). If you do not have a cache of cup hooks and S hooks in a cupboard or drawer somewhere, you really should. Really.

Here you can see my little sewing machine. Humble as it is, it has been a workhorse for me. It is not a fantastic or professional machine by any stretch of the imagination; rather, it's just a simple and hardworking Kenmore sewing machine. Rob bought it for me shortly after we had our oldest daughter (I didn't even know how to sew at that time, by the way! I just knew I really wanted to!) and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My Kenmore sewing machine performs only the basics, but it does them well, never flinching (ok, maybe it flinches just a little) when I ask it to sew through denim or thick canvas or even thicker sherpa fleece (Oh, how I imagine my poor machine must groan when I feed the thick material through it time after time. It really isn't meant to sew such materials, but it does so with a little patience and coaxing on my part.) My machine offers basic stitches and a free arm which is an absolute necessity in my book.

Looking down my work table off to the left is my little organizing area. A landing zone for a little bit of fabric and the other tools and supplies one uses in imaginative and creative pursuits...

The shelf units are the only two purchases I made for my space. I bought them from Target when they went on sale - pictured are (2) 8 cube ClosetMaid organizers in a dark brown espresso. At the time, they were $40 each. They fit my little wall perfectly. I keep (some) fabric, ribbons, sketch books, all the pretty materials from my stationery basket, a delightful collection of buttons, favorite botany books on flowers, and other special treasures.

There is a happy mix of practical...

....and pretty here.

Words could not hope to express how treasured some of these items are to me. Above is a collection of pretty papers and calligraphy inks with a glass pen that my brother gave me. He was a talented and imaginative creator and builder, and loved to encourage my sister and I toward pursuits that were expressions of our own creativity. This is just the place for such items - to inspire, to find opportunities for use, and to remind me of Chris in ways that make me smile, both interiorly and exteriorly.

A few favorite books - Flora's Lexicon, Gardener's Latin, 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names, (not pictured:) The Ways of Flowers (Victoria magazine), The Country Diary Book of Flowers. All bring beauty to my little space and a touch of my favorite thing. Atop my books is a little glass vase with a bit of lace my Granny made. I treasure the creative talents my Granny had; they act as an inspiration to me. There are touches of her all over this space. Another reason to smile.

Now, I suppose I really shouldn't share with you this little bit of jarring electronic ugliness which I worked so hard to hide, but I know we've all got to deal with cords and electric boxes and bits that do important things. My, but how they are a visual juxtaposition against vintage white gloves and lace though! Still, sometimes it is abundantly clear that the only place these necessary tools can live and function (because the DSL modem must be plugged into the phone jack which lives behind my shelves) is in the midst of your carefully considered prettiness. sigh. What's a girl to do? I'll tell you what - drape them with something....pretty! (Scroll back up a few pictures and see if you can spot the DSL modem hiding behind the white gloves.....crafty, no?)

More vintage prettiness: Handicraft For Girls (a simply delightful and very useful book - free for your ereader here and look it over chapter-by-chapter here.), a smallish collection of Granny's buttons, old thread...

...and lace that was on my mom's wedding dress as well as on my wedding dress. I hope one day it will somehow be incorporated into my girls' wedding dresses.

Favorite glass jar containing ribbons, the lid to which was rendered useless after someone (ahem) consistently mis-threaded it, forever warping the lid, and thus rendering the jar useless for holding things like sugar and flour. The jar finds a new purpose as a container for all my ribbons.

And there you have it! A sunny and inspiring space for creating. Whatever limitations your spaces and budget may afford, whatever the frame is around your ability to create, I pray you will find space and time to create. Lovely spaces. Inventive uses of objects. Inspiring images and tools. A place set aside in which to image God, and create.

A Little Note: I cannot post this without mentioning a favorite book of mine on the topic - The Christian Imagination: G.K. Chesterton on the Arts. If you're looking for some inspiration and solid reasons to begin exercising the imagination, this would be an excellent place to start.

Small and Ordinary ~ Notes

2011-09-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

It's an utterly lovely early fall morning here. Aren't these kinds of mornings inspiring? Good thing - I have lots to do! I decided to start journaling a few morning notes here. Just ordinary stuff. Nothing truly remarkable. Some things journaled here I work hard for, and some I find joy in because of the smallness of the moment. But, all of them are a joy to share. Truthfully, I miss my Daybook posts. I think they added a little color and vibrancy, and a fuller dimension. I haven't felt like doing one in a long time...but this morning, I'm inspired. I haven't really worked out a format yet, so I'll just go with what inspires me in the moment, and maybe it will stick. I have my warm cup of coffee, and for the moment, it is blissfully quiet.

~ Menus and Kitchen Work ~

I've been sitting down with my recipe basket this morning to work out menus for the week. I'm really beginning to get back to a sense of working with a good menu and getting back in the kitchen to make meals for my family. It isn't always easy, but it does feel good.

Last week I made one of our favorites, Chicago Style Pan Pizza, using a simple pizza dough recipe straight from my Zojirushi bread maker. Goodness, that's a time savings! Then we just layer with all sorts of good stuff: pizza sauce, sausage, onions, olives, pineapple, and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 min, and you're done! Satisfying and super easy!

This week, it's taco salad, and I'm trying something new, Layered Turkey and Stuffing Bake with some cranberry sauce and probably some roasted asparagus. And Fish with Dijon Sauce for Friday (I haven't tried this recipe yet, but it's been in my recipe basket for a couple of years. sigh. Do you have recipes like that....that you keep but haven't made? I'm resolved to try a few new things!). And of course, it's football season, so Saturdays are perfect for grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and Rob is a master griller! I love how he adds a little pat of butter, squished deep into the hamburger patty before they grill!! And, he has tasked me with finding some ground pork to add to his burgers next week to give them a little more flavor depth. Ah! Fall!

~ Making Home ~

I have been hard at work in my home these last few months. We were due for a serious and thoughtful overhaul of spaces here! I've been purging bags of stuff as I go, and have thus far purged countless bags (I so love reading about the # of bags y'all send away, but I've never been good at keeping up with the number...you'll just have to take my word for it - a thrilling number of bags of stuff have left this home!).

I've finished my bedroom (ah! bliss!), creating a little crafting and sewing corner which is absolutely beckoning and inviting! And most recently, we emptied our entire walk-in pantry, painted it, and then re-organized it! This task, far above others, has worked to help me with menus! I know what I've got in there again!!!! If you're feeling a little uninspired in the menu department, might I suggest a little pantry re-org to lift your spirits and give you a good sense of the pantry staples you have? Considering how to place them, so that goods are at hand when needed, is another help!

This week, I'm afraid I must focus on the not-so-glamorous. {{sigh}} Ironing. I've put it off far too long. And then, I hope to accomplish the fall clothes switcheroo in the boys' closet. The girls' switcheroo is DONE!

~ Education is a Life ~

We are wrapping up our first term of work! Next week, we'll work on end of term examinations, and some wrap up work. It has been a good start to our year, and the children have really enjoyed some great books so far! Perhaps that is a post unto itself!

~ Wonders of Nature ~

How could I not include a few notes on what's going on out of doors? It's one of my favorite places!

My little gardens bring me such quiet joy right now. Last week I started a few vinca cuttings in what I lovingly refer to as "the Bermuda Triangle", so dubbed after my sister and mom helped me weed a forest of Bermuda grass rooted in the garden bed. It is an awful corner for weeding. I'm hoping my little vinca will take root and multiply and choke out the Bermuda weeds by next spring. If I can get them rooted (and I think I have successfully rooted 3 cuttings), I'll tuck them in with some mulch in a few weeks. I hope to finish some early fall pruning soon and....I need to get to my little deck garden, which is completely over-run with invasive, awful, terrible, lamentable Bermuda grass due to total neglect on my part.

~ Something Small ~

There is always something small to reflect on and be thankful for. A moment, an image, a thought, a task, a snuggle...that gives me focus, that anchors my heart in the present through the gift of the small. I sometimes think how, outside the walls and grounds of my little domestic monastery, life swirls and fosters the large, the big, the fancy, the loud. But joy is most often found in the small moments. And I think in our homes, we're often beset by the big tasks, the ones that require so much of our time, time which must be managed in between our other duties. Jobs like painting and re-organizing, which are good, but can be so ominous that they hang over our to-do list like a little black rain cloud. So, a small task which can be completed in a few minutes is a joy for me.

This week, I did something small. I took a little pack of post-it notes and added little tabs to all my Cooks Illustrated magazines (which I love!). It took me 10 minutes to do, and now I can see at a glance all my resource reviews, which I refer to often, tabbed. Small. Useful.

What are you doing in the kitchen these days? Got any menu facelifts to share with me? How about around your home - how are you embracing the ordinary parts of your home that reflect the joy of time you put into it? And something small? Did you give yourself permission to do something small, finding joy in it? Do share! Hope you're all having a lovely day!

Toward the Terribly Practical: Boot Storage

2011-09-21T17:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Autumn Embertide everyone! Autumn is a most delightful time of year for us! Windy days, falling leaves, brisk temperatures, surprising treasure-filled walks, gardens tucking in....and rain...and mud. Well, ok...here in North Alabama, not mud, but red clay. Fall brings such delights, and that means it's time to set out the fall boots.

Anyone that has children knows that when it comes to removing outside shoes before coming indoors, children (and husbands...who am I kidding?) usually drop shoes right where they are standing, resulting in a mass of collected shoe material immediately outside the back door. And, for the most part, that's what happens here. I have, with no small effort, ~~demanded, threatened, cajoled,~~ convinced the children (and aforementioned husband) to drop their outside shoes and boots in a laundry basket by the back door. A little person has, as his weekly job, to order and tidy the boot basket. But...remember these adorable Christmas puppies?

A-DOR-ABLE!!!

Yeah. Well, they're not little any more. At 10 months old, they weigh in around 80 lbs each now...and they eat...everything. Including shoes. Delicious. Scrumptious. Mouth-watering. Savory. Right-at-their-noses-piled-high-as-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet-in-the-shoe-basket...........dramatic sigh.......SHOES!!!!

They're fantastic pups! And great watch dogs. They're super smart and adore the children, whom the dogs believe to be givers-of-treats and leavers-of-shoes.

Nutmeg is on the left, and Ginger is on the right. (In case you're wondering, their Mom was a pure bred Yellow Labrador, and their Dad was a pure bred German Shepherd. Makes for a great family dog!)

So, the time came to brainstorm outside shoes, fall boots, and precious (yet large-ish) puppies with a voracious appetite for....anything that fits in their mouth. I asked Rob to build me a boot rack for the wall right outside the back door. Something like this which I found online:

wellyracks.com

The boot rack I envisioned would need to:

securely hang on the wall
support our voluminous collection of outside boots and shoes
be out of reach of the large dogs
be easily accessible to the small kids
be at hand when you walk out the back door
and be ridiculously inexpensive!!

I challenged Rob to complete this project for under $30....because that's what I had left in my little weekly stash of cash. He laughed, but in the end, he loves a good challenge! Here's what he came up with, and I think you'll be amazed at the cost. I'm so pleased with the results!

We used (1) 8 ft. length of 1 x 4 which Rob cut into 3 sections which fit our space. He mounted the 1 x 4 to the wall using deck screws (you'll need to mount your 1 x 4 in studs if you don't want the weight of the boots....or the kids hanging on them...to pull your boot rack down - you'll want a studfinder if you don't have one). (By the way, do you know the amazing versatility of the deck screw? Leave us a stack of scrap wood and a box of deck screws and we can build almost anything! But, I digress!)

Rob, with his constrained budget, chose (20) 6 1/4" heavy duty lag bolts because they were super strong and inexpensive!

The bolts are only threaded on the bottom inch. Drill a pilot hole in the appropriate size after determining the best spacing for your boots and footwear.

We have a bottom row with bolts that are spaced more closely than the top two rows. This accommodates shoes and boots.

The larger boots fit right between the lag bolts.

On the bottom section, Rob spaced the lag bolts closer and found that the little kid boots fit better with the upper calf of the boot fitting directly over the bolt.

Like this:

How helpful! Would you like to know the total cost?

1 - 8 foot section of 1 x 4 -- $4.00
20 - 6 1/4 lag bolts at 91 cents each -- $18.20
Not counting a box of deck screws in our total because those things are like toilet paper here - we're NEVER without 'em! But a box of them would run you about $10 bucks.

TOTAL FOR THIS PROJECT: $22.20

Hope your autumn days are lovely and your boots are always covered with mud!

Elementary Living Science Resource

2011-09-13T14:28:00.000-05:00

I'm so thrilled to let you all know about this series of books authored by Mr. Glenn O. Blough and delightfully illustrated by Jeanne Bendick! They are all out of print now, but they were very easy for me to find and purchase used very inexpensively. They may still be in your library system, so do check!

I discovered one of the books quite by accident and it didn't take me long to realize that it was a treasure. Inspecting the book closely I came across a list of other books by Mr. Blough and set out to add to our collection. I've been adding and collecting this series and finding them to be utterly fascinating and engaging...and so have the children! The illustrations are informative, delightful and detailed and the writing is simple and engaging while still conveying a fantastic amount of scientific information! What a treasure!

Discovering Plants

Each of these books is what I would consider a picture book, but they are not a one-time-sitting picture book, the reading of them stretches out over a longer period of time quite naturally. They're something between a picture book and chapter book - a pic-chap-book? In any case, they work wonderfully when read a few pages at a time, a little each day, over a few weeks.

Who Lives In This Meadow: A Story of Animal Life

Fair warning: this book would be overwhelming and you'd lose so much of the treasured information if you plowed through them too quickly! You'll want to have time to digest, to quietly consider, to observe in your own setting, to complete the inspiring and simple projects. Which is why a few of them (3-4) would be perfect for an entire year worth of elementary science!

Bird Watchers and Bird Feeders

These books engage and capture everyone in my home from 6th grade down to the 3 year old (who is so adorable as she perfectly repeats the life cycle of a butterfly!!), and truthfully, even the 10th grader finds them fascinating! That's a living book, folks! Having said that, they live on my 2nd grader's lesson plans, and they are really perfect for this age, I think. I'd say that they are most well-suited to students from 2nd - 5th grade.

Soon After September: The Story of Living Things in Winter

You could certainly read these alongside any other nature or science living books, and there are a wealth of picture books that could be read in one sitting which would be lovely complements to this series.

Not Only For Ducks: The Story of Rain

Here are the books in this series that are authored by Mr. Glenn Blough and illustrated by Jeanne Bendick:

Seasons:

Animals:

Plants:

Discovering Plants
Lookout For the Forest: A Conservation Story
The Tree On the Road to Turntown (life cycle of an Oak tree)
Christmas Trees and How They Grow

Insects:

Discovering Insects

Rain (plants, animals, ponds, roots)

Not Only For Ducks: The Story of Rain

with pictures by Gustav Schrotter:

Discovering Dinosaurs

illustrated with photographs:

When You Go To the Zoo

Hope you enjoy getting to know these treasures as much as we have!

Wildflowers and Marbles

Refreshing the Morning Basket

Walt Whitman :: Words For America

For the Young Lady at the Bend in the Road

Take the Challenge :: Go Clean Out a Drawer

Toward the Sciences: Considering the Lilies and Setting Their Feet In a Very Large Room

Of Duties and Routines: A Chore System

Christmas Prayers

Advent Ideas - Part III

Advent Ideas - Part II

Advent ideas II (kitchen countertop)

… JMJ …

Advent Ideas - Part I

Advent ideas I (Sacramental grocery store)

A Cranberry Day

Picture Book Delight :: Dan's Angel :: Picture Study

Toward Living Advent and Christmas :: 2011

Audrey Assad :: Heart

Putting the Child *In the Way* :: The Art Center

Working With Oilcloth :: Projects

Big Sale at Hillside Education

An Award

A Sunny Space to Exercise the Imagination and Create

Small and Ordinary ~ Notes

Toward the Terribly Practical: Boot Storage

Elementary Living Science Resource

Putting the Child In the Way :: The Art Center