Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

What a lovely Feast! We had Liturgy, Nativity plays, the famous Christmas enchiladas, loving family and the most generous friends that ever were...what more can we ask? Hope yours was a Feast to remember :)

Nativity Fast Week 6 -Joy

It was a bit dicey, the flu continued to reign and we didn't get our stove/oven functioning until the 23rd but it turned out to be a lovely week. The people in our Nativity scene showed up , the Magi began their journey as did the Theotokos and Joseph the Betrothed. The angels surrounded the shepherds and the midwife waited by the candles. The manger appeared and the kids worked frantically to earn a few last straws to fill it.

Solstice Lights...

Christmas Card!

I usually have the kids make up a Christmas card and tuck a family photo in it. Being sick I missed the boat this year and dint get any made or mailed but Iddy Biddy saved the day and here is our card this year. A lovely family portrait.

Carisa over at 1+1+1=1
is hosting Christmas card link up
so click on over and add yours.

We don't do anything fancy with our cards- just hang them on the back of the front door .
If you look close you can see all the tape marks from years past! Ah the memories :)

Spelling...

One of the Grandparents (who shall be unnamed:) ) asked about spelling since well I can't despite years of drill and kill weekly spelling assignments in school.

We did attempt to use a spelling program our first year of homeschooling and Biddy and I found our selves banging our heads on the table in boredom.

So to answer the question, no we don't study spelling as such. We do pull words from the stories we are reading and write them in our main lesson books like we did this week with Saint Herman...I usually let the kids choose the words. Ferdinand often has words like Tsunami and Centurion and Fenris in his book.

We also play daily word games ie ... I'm think of a word that rhymes with clop and starts with a "t" sound

and make up a lot of tongue twisters ie He held a handful of hot hash.

Occasionally we write out word families.

We have watched Iddy blossom from "I can't spell" to being the best speller in the house.
We will have to wait and see as Ferdinand grows how this method works for him.

Nativity Fast Week 5-Mercy

My flu is making a comeback, after a busy Monday/Saint Lucia day we kept it quiet, with mommy resting, reading about St. Herman and welcoming the animals to our manger scene. We have had no functioning stove for week and feeling tired of my crock pot but grateful I'm not cooking over an open fire :) (although the kids suggested it!)

Ballet!

Ferdinand mentioned when he was about 4 that he was going to learn ballet and dance the "big rat" when he grew up. We smiled and laughed and ruffled his hair and promptly forgot all about it. It's three years later and in October he reminded us out of the blue..."Am I ever going to get those ballet lessons?" We took him in to observe, not knowing if he even really knew what ballet is, and he floored us by having a funny conversation with the director about all the ballets he knew and pointing them out on the posters on the walls and how Peter and the wolf was his favorite ballet. With a moments hesitation we signed him up.

He has 2 months of lessons behind him now and tells people he is going to go to "college for ballet" Today was parent observation day and I was torn between giggling and tears. He is the funniest twitchy-est kid in class but he has the happiest smile - grinning from ear to ear the whole time.

Nativity Fast week 4- PEACE

We are still struggling to get healthy but the fast is flying by. Last week was busy even just staying at home.
We always get our first poinsettias during this week, and read Tomie dePaola's Legend of the Poinsettia on the 9th.
This year luckily the kids picked a little red one instead of one like last year!

Sankta Lucia...

We had another incredibly energetic Liturgy this morning followed by a nice breakfast of gluten free Lucia buns, mandarins and gingersnaps which we shared with our fellow Liturgy goers.

This is without a doubt Iddy Biddy's favorite saint's day and it was a tearful decision when getting chrismated whether to take Lucia or use her given name. She ended up choosing to use her given name but maintains a special connection with her "good friend in heaven."

We have been celebrating Lucia day "Swedish style" for eight years now and the kids always love taking treats to church.

It is days like today I miss my camera most! They were all really sweet all dressed up and sinigng. By the time this shot was taken we had broken star staffs, popped buttons and spilled all over robes.

Gingerbread day!

Why not to have a pretty sink...

I was looking at this mess on my desk...it was spotless a week ago, I kid you not.
It was depressing and I didn't know were to start. Then I remembered seeing this post at Like Mother Like Daughter.



I decided to skip the desk and tackle the kitchen window sill instead, it looked the same but is a lot smaller than my desk.

No before pics but it had 4 cups , 5 juice lids, 4 paintbrushes, 2 jars, a set of prayer beads, 2 sponges, one veggie scrub brush, one flower pot, one small dish, a little goose, 3 pieces of trash, a playmobil sword, a penguin creamer and an empty vase. The pictures hanging on the wall were dirty and crooked and the window covered in scum, and wax and the curtain ewww, lets just say it was not white.

I thought hey I'll wash the curtain, what a great idea! Then "well why not all the curtains in the kitchen!?"

Despite following the directions on my curtains half of them shredded, while hanging one, I slipped and it dragged across the chalkboard covering it in blue and red chalk and while hanging the last, I broke my kitchen table.

Lets not talk about the implications this has for my current weight hmm?

But the curtains are hung, some vaguely purple and some very wrinkled and one hanging above a wobbly and needs to be replaced table
and it is very peaceful in my kitchen right now.

I can't do much about the view but its clean woohoo!

Thanks Leila for getting things rolling, tonight the desk! (but no standing on furniture)

A Lovely St. Nicholas day!

We were woken early in the morning on the feast of St. Nicholas by the sound of bells. The kids excitedly assured us it must be the bells on St. Nicholas' censer ("He is a bishop mom!") and not a jingle bell wearing robber. We tiptoed downstairs and sure enough we could smell the incense in the air lingering with spices and all the candles were lit.

What a feast! Ginger cookies, candy canes in shoes and hanging from our Jesse wreath, chocolate coins and hot chocolate for the big kids, a festive reindeer for Valentine and most importantly oranges! We eat seasonally as much as possible and our first oranges of the season brought to us by St. Nicholas are much anticipated. Mommy is happy to report receiving an orange this year instead of last years onion! The kiddos also happily received new pajamas as always and were grateful as its been getting chilly- half our heaters are broken and on back order :(.

We went to liturgy but I must report that there were more children present than adults, even including Father and the servers and that three fourths of the kiddos were under the age of 6. It was the most ahem energetic Liturgy I have ever attended:) So no pics!

Upon arriving home we discovered St. Nicholas had tucked a surprise package wrapped in gold amongst our red wrapped Nativity books.
The kids enjoyed their new book from St. Nectarios Press.

Thank You PAIDEA CLASSICS!

The icon shrinky paper was a huge with the preschool class at church today...we share a big room for all the ages and the high school group across the way was disappointed we only had enough for the wee ones.
I told them I would order more next year :)

Because of the usual camera woes I didn't get any pics of the finished ones hanging on the tree in the lunch hall but they are very sweet.



If you haven't seen them do check out PAIDEA CLASSICS they are wonderful to work with, easy orders, fast shipping, great customer service and lots of fun freebies on the site.

An early visit from St. Nicholas!

Guess who stopped by the parish today while we were having our weekly potluck lunch?

Nativity Fast Week 3

Iddy Biddy is really enjoying being the "family photographer", and I am still really missing my camera.
Finally feeling back on my feet, didn't get to our usual St. Barbara's day activities but did visit with a good friend on her names day.
Many Years Michelle Barbara!

December Copywork.