Nativity Fast Week 2- Hope

I forgot Iddy Biddy has a camera! Turns out she takes as many pictures as Mommy.
After sorting through hundreds of pics of her best friend and doll Jo Jo i found quite a few cute ones from this week:)

We particularly enjoyed the book about St. Catherine by Dionysios Egle-Ekaterine Potamitis and it tied in well with our Old Testament Block Biddy is working through.

We looked online at pictures of the St. Catherine monastery on Sinai and the burning bush of Moses.

The girls made some tissue paper burning bushes and we hung our Moses ornament on our Jesse tree wreath. (no pics of those:( )

And to be totally honest, we have been watching lots of OT veggie tale videos instead of doing main lessons because mommy is down hard with the flu :(

The kids find these hysterical and enjoy finding the differences in the stories compared to their bible book.

Light one candle...

Several people have asked me about the song I mentioned, the one we use to light our candles.
I was hesitant to post the written lyrics due to copyright issues but over at In the Heart of my Home



Elizabeth has poted a cute link of her beautiful dc singing it.
Do check it out.

We use the tune and add two additonal verses ending up with:

1. Faith
2. Hope
3. Love

4. Peace

5. Mercy

6. Joy

Still no camera but after our quiet first week angels began appearing around our candles and in the empty space where our manger scene will be. This 3rd week rocks and minerals and the manger will appear.

November Snapshots...

I really miss my camera! Here are a few random November snapshots.

First Snow!

We rarely get snow in Coffeeland. The last time was over 2 years ago, before Valentine was born. He didn't know what to think of it at first but after bundling up he happily dived right in. The big kids were screamingly excited before we went outside and didn't take long to dissolve into tears and then fighting and then were tucked back in bed to warm up and calm down- sigh- too much excitement , not enough proper snow clothes to go around. Valentine remained quietly fascinated by the whole experience. With warm soup for lunch and a clothes fresh from dryer we will give it a go again this afternoon.





BTW guess what happens when your camera hits the cement at 20 degrees? :( At least my memory card was salvageable.

Nativity Fast week one.

When we first became Orthodox one of the things that I thought of was "how am i going to fill up two extra weeks of advent?" Which tells you a lot about me:) It is a good thing we all got sick!

This year having a tiny bit more perspective and a some good advice we decided not to fill up that time, we have used our first week of the Nativity to take a big slow breath after a busy fall.

We have been doing so much -schooling and crafting and cleaning , bazillions of appointments and events through out the fall and it has been a joyous relief to simple be together: praying, singing by candle light and sitting on the couch reading (its been an embarrassingly long time since we last did that!).

Hope it was a blessed week for you too.

At the cemetery...

As Orthodox Christians there are many days set aside to remember the dead but our family's Roman Catholic roots show in early November. We no longer celebrate Nov. 2 liturgically as All Souls day but we do continue to visit the cemetery every year around this time as always. People are often surprised and even upset that I take my young children to the cemetery but they go eagerly and joyfully every time, when there are tears they are as Biddy often says in a wobbly voice "bittersweet". Our trip was postponed by colds and storms this year but was all the more anticipated.

The kids race to "our" grave.

The grave site was a gift in an tiny old cemetery set mostly aside for families who have lost children in utero or at birth.
The stone was made by a lady who had also experienced 3 miscarriages. It has the names and dates of our little ones : Jesse, Karol, and E.D.

Blue Eyes leaves a kiss for "our babies in heaven".

We had some visitors on this trip they were very brave and came with in a few feet of us.

We always search around for the oldest stone we can find and say a prayer, this time we found this tiny grave, definitely "bittersweet".

Please Pray for Kyrie...

Well today Kyrie is not so happy,

Many of you know her from

http://aresohappy.squarespace.com/

While in Hawaii this week she fell and broke her ankle badly and with baby bear on the way its difficult to find relief from the pain...i know she would appreciate all your prayers and well wishes.

My what big feet you have!

A Tribute...

After meeting and receiving a blessing from Metropolitan Jonah, Blue Eyes spent the ride home singing:

LA LA LAAA

The Met-ro-pol-i-tan caaame

The Met-ro-pol -i-tan is niiiiice

The Met-ro-pol -i-tan is funnny

The Met-ro-pol -i-tan said "I LOVE YOU!"

I like The Met-ro-pol -it-an.

(can you hear the tone :)

That about summed up the entire visit, it was a long and amazing visit.

Blue Eyes is never one to stand on ceremony, after receiving her blessing from the Metropolitan she marched right over to Bishop Benjamin to show off her newly painted toenails- mommy was a bit embarrassed , but not as embarrassed as when she was over heard explaining to the patient Bishop what happens when you sneeze pony beads out of your nose!

They are truly kind and loving men and I was blessed by our time with them.

Blue eyes is still humming her "new song".

Natvity Fast -sneek peek...

Every year our advent wreath is a little different but we always create one.

The one tradition we followed as kids was the Advent wreath even if we observed no other religious practices, the weeks leading up to Christmas were quiet ones. My mother had a largewooden bowl we filled with pine-cones or nuts or poinsettias and candles, 3 purple one pink.

I continued this with my own family. I could never find a bowl like my mothers so we have had a wreath on the table, one hanging from the ceiling (dripping wax on my ever patient dh) and candles in a row in the window -Swedish style.

Last year we were taken by surprise that the Orthodox Nativity Fast begins 2 weeks earlier that the western Advent. We made a quick call to our Matrushka and made a few candles to carry us through the season. We set them in the window and our wreath is now set aside as our Jesse tree- no more dripping wax on our heads during meals :)

Some of our candle lighting songs were just fine with our new wreath but we had a little trouble with our favorite -it lacked 2 verses.

This year with a little more lead time I was able to prepare a bit, and found the lovely posts at The Liturgical Year for Little Ones and realized that our original Advent themes in our song

were contained in these posts plus the 2 we lack. Do check our the series if you haven't before.

The idea of six instead of 4 was throwing me though, how to find a candle holder for 6...we had four, five and seven but couldn't find one to hold 6 anywhere.

Then we found these wonderful 6-pointed star holders at our local independent craft store- woohoo!

We are excited to use them for the first time, my camera is missing so I borrowed one to post up a peek.

Here are some old wreaths of past are shown in these posts...

http://craftyincoffeeland.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-nativity-fast.html

http://craftyincoffeeland.blogspot.com/2008/12/it-is-begining-to-look-lot-like-advent.html

http://craftyincoffeeland.blogspot.com/2007/12/gluten-free-saints-days-st-nicholas.html

Button Turkey...

I made a little mental posty note to my self when I first came across this idea last December on counting coconuts. I had forgotten until being admonished by Blue Eyes and Ferdinand's occupational therapist for fastening their buttons.

I remember working in special ed classes years ago before my dc were born- i would wonder why parents would do things for kids they should have been doing for themselves. Well now I know...trying to get four kids dressed and out the door leaves little time for self buttoning!

Well we actually have very few buttoning clothes- ah t-shirts!

So I remembered this little project. I did the cutting out but Biddy did most of the sewing, and it was a hit.

Blue Eyes would pick it up and screech "I can't do it- its too hard!" Then she would throw it, pick it up again and fasten the button. She did this with each button. She was so proud when she was done! She entertained Valentine for some time gobbling at him before unbuttoning each feather "until tomorrow".

Math Envelopes...

These tiny little envelopes are one of Biddy's favorite ways of math review.

The problem is written on the outside then she has to answer the problem before removing the tape to check her answer.

I spend many an evening preparing lesson plans while watching Star Trek reruns with dh. I can whip out dozens during the average borg invasion , using up my paper scraps .

I keep a large envelope in my file box to pull out for occasional review.

Its nice to have a self checking assignment so I can have some one on one with another kiddo.

Plus they are "oh so cute"- a bonus when you are 9 :)

St Martin sneek peek...

Due to a visit from the Metropolitan (!!!) scheduled at our Parish this month our family's annual St. Martin lantern walk and soup potluck is being held a bit early. We are in a tizzy collecting fall leaves and rummaging up glass jars to modge podge them to. We are practicing our turnip carving as well! We are hoping for a rain free night, the last few years we got drenched!

Pumpkin Processing...

For several years October 31st has been the day the we process all the pumpkins we will need for baking through the winter-we start by letting the little ones (OK the big ones too!) pound golf tees into the pumpkins, just for fun. Then carving, scooping, roasting, baking, pureeing and freezing lots and lots of pumpkin. Iddy Biddy was big enough to help with the actual cooking this year ans it went a lot faster. Yay for 9 yr olds!




( And yes 18 month old Valentine is sitting on the table with a real hammer...my wooden mallets are all missing and he stand on chairs only on the table will he sit.)