A New Favorite Book...

Since we've moved in, there have been several little projects we've tackled in our home: a leaky pipe, fixing the drywall from the water damage from the leaky pipe, moving the chandelier, hanging office doors, etc. Both of the children have loved this. Little Man has his little wooden toolbox permanently glued to his hand and Sugar Plum has discovered Papa's Home Improvement 1-2-3 book. This book is "read" every night before she falls asleep and I caught her in this picture sitting in a little chair with her feet up on a kitchen chair just chillin' with her book. She is so cute!

Doors Equal a Happy Husband!

Fr John finished the doors (with help from our handyman) and can now work in peace and quiet in his office!

Preparing for Nativity...

I've been working with Mary for the past few weeks on plans for The Tree of Jesse. Our goal was to make the daily Bible readings accessible for little children. Our first step in this was to go through the Children's Bible Reader to find the correlating passages. Most of the readings were available and can be found in a very handy spreadsheet that Mary has come up with.

We also wanted to try something a little bit different from the the typical Jesse Tree and Ornament set. After brainstorming, we came up with something similar to Mary's Most Holy Theotokos Candles. I chose eight beeswax candles (You could also do one large one) and am adding the small Jesse symbols for each week to one candle. I've been forming the symbols from decorating wax and Bendaroos (Wikki Stix).

In addition to the daily readings and candles, Mary and I have created a coloring page for each day. The pages show the symbol or story for each passage and will help children remember the reading for each day.

When the Nativity Fast begins on Sunday (November 15), we will light the candle for the week, read the Bible passage for the day, and color the coloring page for the day. I anticipate the best time for this will be after dinner, but we will have to see how things go. I'll keep you updated.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson block!

One of My Greatest Fears...

Sylvia just posted about Fr Alexios, her priest at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Tampa, Florida. He was attacked because he was mistaken for an "Arab Terrorist." I have to admit that this is my greastest fear with my husband's beard, pony tail and cassock. Lord Have Mercy.

Here's the article: Marine Reservist Attacked Greek Priest He Mistook for Terrorist

and YouTube Video:

Commitment to Loveliness: No. 51...

It's time for another Commitment to Loveliness! This is a fun way to increase femininity and beauty in our lives each week without even trying! All you have to do is choose five things that you would like to work on or do during the week that will increase the loveliness in your life!

Here is my list for this week:

1. Plant bulbs so we have lots of flowers in the spring.
2. Store bath toys in a way that is functional for the children, but but also beautiful.
3. Take a family walk at the State Park
4. Celebrate St. Martin's Feastday on November 11th
5. Take the time to pluck eyebrows!

Once you have chosen five simple things, post them on your blog and let us know in the comments section. If you do not have a blog, but have a commitment to share, please post them in the comments section.

Thanksgiving Dinner, Part One...

BLT Dip

Chili Cheese Dip

The Grown-up's Table

The Children's Table

Sugar Plum Digging In

Little Man's Plate

Birthday/Namesday Pumpkin Pie for Uncle Nectarios

Flan

Chocolate Cheesecake

Peter and the Wolf...

For many months now, Peter and the Wolf can be heard from our car's cd player each time we venture out. Recently, we were out browsing in a bookstore near the ocean and came across the book, translated by Maria Carlson. PBS also put out an animated version of the story awhile ago. I watched it tonight on YouTube and found it to be quite good! Please preview it before allowing your little ones to watch it though. They might be scared during some parts!

Living and Learning for November...

Faith

Archangel Michael

St Nectarios

Saint Martin

Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos

Kursk Root Icon

Homemaking

Purchase last bits of warm clothing for the cold weather

Plan for our Thanksgiving Feast with my in-laws on the 8^th

Set up Reading Room

Plan Cleaning List for Nativity Fast

Plant Bulbs

Buy Pansies

Feather the nest with down blankets for the beds, warm throws for the living room, pajamas and slippers, candles, slippers and a stock of teas and cocoa

Read Alouds

Henry and Mudge Books

Themes

Stars

Winter Beds

Turkeys

Thanksgiving

Laura Ingalls Wilder Books (My First Little House)

Rituals

Establish a Firm Evening Routine for After Dinner: A Craft, Games or Puzzles, Bathtime, Prayers, Books, and Bed

Special Days

2^nd Full Frosty/Beaver Moon

9^th Uncle Nick’s Namesday and Birthday

11^th Veterans Day

17^th National Bread Baking Day

20^th Uncle Gregory’s Namesday

26^th Thanksgiving

Goals

Plan for The Tree of Jesse Lesson Block

Little Man’s Namesday, St Nicholas Day, Little Man’s Birthday, and Nativity Gift Planning and Buying

Learning

Practice Being Still and Quiet during Prayers and Services

Singing – “Our Father”

The Sign of the Cross for Little Man

Tidying up Toys after Play

Tidying the floor after meals using the dust buster

Nature table scene and book basket

Visit the State Park

Watercoloring

Go to Story Hour Weekly

Messy Art at the Local Bookstore

Lacing Cards

Caring for Our Fish

The Tree of Jesse – Christmas Preparation

Thanksgiving Vacation Fun (?)

Saint Michael's Day Party...

Today, the Sunday between Halloween and the Feast of Archangel Michael and the Bodiless Powers, a St. Michael's Party was held for the children of our parish.

Each child dressed up as an angel or saint, and the adults of the parish had to guess who they were dressed as. The children dressed as angels, St. George, St. Peter the Aleut, and St. Alexandra the Royal-Martyr.

Then Fr. John carved a "Christian Pumpkin" with a special lesson on how God carves out the bad stuff in us called sin and replaces it with His light. The pumpkin has eyes shaped like the Cross, a triangular nose to represent the Holy Trinity, and a smile because we we are filled with God's grace we become truly happy.

I apologize for the awful pictures! I was distracted today and didn't do a great job... the ones I took of Sugar Plum were terrible, so she posed for me at her table when we got home from church... note the bedraggled hair minus a halo!

Learning Basket: Pumpkins...

Leaves
Flower Fairies of the Autumn (only one or two poems)
High Five October 2009
A Child's Calendar (only October pages)
Circle of Seasons (Autumn pages only)
Out and About (Only Autumn pages)
Strega Nona's Harvest
The Ox Cart Man
This is Not a Pumpkin
The Pumpkin Patch Parable
Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie

Activities
Pumpkin Craft
Pumpkin Patch Visit to Pick Pumpkins
Pumpkin Carving
Pumpkin Pie Baking
Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Sonlight Preschool 3/4 Books
Dan the Dunce(Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales)
The Emperor's New Clothes (Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales)
The Ugly Duckling (Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales)

Masterpieces

Picture Study: On an Island with Gauguin
Music Study: Mozart
Poetry Study: A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Loius Stevenson

Pumpkin Picking...

Pumpkin Craft...

I found this tutorial for making party favor apples on Chasing Cheerios and like Melissa thought, is also perfect for making wee pumpkins! Sugar Plum and I made three last night before bed!

Our Family...

Pumpkin Pie Playdough...

5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salt
8 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 oz. pumpkin pie spice
orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Store in airtight container.


As found on the 4 Real Forums.

Pets...

The Power of Words...

Written by the Very Rev. John Breck

A few weeks ago my wife and I pulled into a gas station, and I got out of the car and began filling up. A pickup truck stopped about twenty yards in front of us, and the driver started waving and shouting. He was miffed because he couldn't pull up to the air pump; somebody had parked another pickup too close to it. The driver of the first truck kept waving and yelling something, I thought to one of the other customers, somebody he knew. Finally I saw him glaring straight at me. I called out, "Who are you talking to?" His aggressive response, coupled with a look of combined rage and disdain, was "You!" Then he pointed to the other pickup and yelled, "Is anybody in that truck?" I peered be-hind the pump I was using, then replied to the guy, "Nobody's in the truck." He uttered an expletive I'd do better not to repeat here, then he made a gesture toward me that was one of hostile dismissal, an intentional put-down both for the driver of the other vehicle and for me. He was mad and wanted me to know it.
I finished filling up and was feeling pretty miffed myself. By this time the other truck's driver had returned, he pulled away, and this guy I immediately labeled as a Carolina redneck was busy putting air in his back tire. Rather than get into our car and reasonably, rationally drive off, I walked around the front of his truck and stood a few feet away from him. He looked up and snarled, "What do you want?" My reply, in a normal but none too friendly voice, was "You'd get a more decent answer to a question like that if you'd ask in a civil voice and not just sit in your truck shouting and waving your arms."
It wasn't a very bright thing to say, but I was mad and shaking a little. He stood up and said something -- I forget what. I glared at him for a second or two, then turned my back to him and started walking toward my car. The guy yelled out one last time: "Hey, I waved at you! That's the way we do it in South Carolina!" By the grace of God I kept my mouth shut, which seemed to make him all the more outraged. He was mumbling something as we drove away. Later on I found out that my wife, overhearing all of this, was sure I was going to get a bullet between the shoulder blades. This guy, after all, was hostile, aggressive, maybe a little drunk, and obviously of the redneck species, the kind that carries a loaded shotgun in the rack behind the driver's seat and a .38 in the glove compartment.
A week later I recalled the incident while I was reading Steven Pinker's marvelous book, The Stuff of Thought. That book, which explores the interrelationship between language and human behavior, got me to thinking about the really fascinating dynamic of that exchange at the gas station. The "guy" started off with an aggressive demand for some information: was there a driver in the truck blocking his path? The arm waving was his attempt not so much to attract my attention as to assert his authority: his right to be mad at the offending truck and to exact information from any available bystander. When I told him the truck was empty, he transferred his aggression to me, the messenger with the bad news. Once I confronted him, the aggression mounted in both of us. I called him on his lack of civility; he reposted with an attempted putdown. When I turned my back on him, I was dismissing his complaint as of no worth. He felt shamed, so he fired back with a self-justification ("Hey, I waved at you!"). When in the following second or two that had no effect -- I kept on walking away from him -- he called on a collectivity to back him up: "That's the way we do it in SC!"
If I'd answered what I wanted to, "That's the way rednecks do it in SC!" I may well have gotten that bullet in the back. There's a poorly enforced concealed gun law in this state, and most of its citizens, it seems, are armed to the teeth. "Don't tread on me, buddy!" no matter how uncivil I may get. My own combination of anger, shame and aggression did nothing but compound the situation, to the point that my poor wife was seriously afraid for my life. The guy is probably a very good father and husband, no more of a redneck than me or my neighbors. But whatever, the exchange was fascinating because of what it revealed about the dynamics of a meeting between strangers that's based on hostility and self-justification, both his and mine.
Just maybe, again by the grace of God, I'll learn from this how much language -- meaning attitude as well as words -- can make or break a relationship, between strangers or between friends and lovers. Words have power, as the ancient Hebrews so well knew. It's no accident that the Person of the Holy Trinity who deigned to become incarnate, to take upon himself this very fallen human nature of ours, was the Word of God. With words we can bless or curse, heal or wound. We can reflect the mercy and love of Christ, even in potentially hostile situations, or we can let our nervous system -- our passions -- get the better of us, as I did, and make a bad situation worse.
What that brief little encounter at the gas station accomplished, on the positive side of the ledger, was to remind me of and reinforce for me once again a truth so often spoken by a departed friend, colleague and mentor at the St Sergius Institute in Paris, Olivier Clément. A theme that recurred throughout his writing and teaching career is one I, and I suppose most of us, need very much to keep in mind. That is the truth that every human person without exception -- from the holiest monk to the most aggressive gun-toting redneck -- is created in the image of God and is therefore worthy of infinite compassion.

Learning Basket: Leaves...

Leaves
Flower Fairies of the Autumn (only one or two poems)
High Five October 2009
A Child's Calendar (only October pages)
A Tree for All Seasons
Why do Leaves Change Color? (above our little one's listening level, so I shorten the information in the book)
Circle of Seasons (Autumn pages only)
Out and About (Only Autumn pages)
Leaf Man

Activities
Leaf Rubbings!
Tree climbing - on the tree that Papa climbed as a little one!
Leaf Preserving in Beeswax

Sonlight Preschool 3/4 Books
I am a Bunny(20th Century Children's Book Treasury)
Thumbelina(Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales)
Whose Mouse are You?(20th Century Children's Book Treasury)

Masterpieces

Picture Study: On an Island with Gauguin
Music Study: Mozart
Poetry Study: A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Loius Stevenson

Guardian Angel Suncatchers?

I seem to remember that someone sells a guardian angel suncatcher that children can paint. Does anyone know where I can find them? We'd like to use them as the craft for our Saint Michael's Day Party this year, so I should order them soon if they are actually available and not a figment of my imagination:) Thanks!!

October's Nature Shelf...

9 Ways to Help Spark Your Child's Imagination...

A stick fort for children to play in at Longwood Gardens

Read, read, read! Taking the time to sit down with your little one for a little reading time is the perfect way to help them increase their imagination. Each story you read together opens their world a little more. Try to find books that are worth both your time and theirs! Several sites have extensive booklists to help you choose good children's literature - whether you are building your own collection or borrowing from the library. Here are some lists to consider: Ambleside Online Preschool/Kindergarten, Along the Alphabet Path, Early Read-Alouds.

Turn off the Tube! I am the first to admit that my children watch television. They like PBS programs and enjoy one or two shows each day. Everything in moderation, though! It is very tempting for those of us who have television to use it as a way to keep our kids occupied for a little while while we do things without being bothered by them. While I don't think that is a problem once in awhile (it is nice to cook without someone trying to steal the cheese, dip their fingers into the milk, or scorch their hair on the stove!), it can very quickly get out of hand. It is a much better idea to help teach your children to go play when you need a bit of time. The less time they watch tv, the more they are working on a craft, reading/looking through books, playing with toys, spending time outside, etc. Guide your children when they seem to be at a loss for something to do and make it fun!

Some Ideas:

• Why don't you cook me some delicious stew to go with the bread I'm making? Guide your child to their play kitchen or offer them some of the veggie scraps you're going to throw away, the cutting board and a child safe knife.

• Would you like to give your baby a bath while I vacuum? Set your child up with a plastic baby doll, a sink with some warm water, a washcloth and the stepstool.

• Here's the hungry elephant! He wants to eat all the crumbs we dropped while we were eating our lunch! Hand your child a small hand vac or a cute crumb vac and watch your little one happily spend time cleaning up!

Tell Stories! Preschoolers love to hear stories that you make up or that you tell them of the past. There are many stories that we grew up on that are easy to tell to your children. Ones like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, etc. Pre-schoolers love to hear stories about when they were babies or when you were a child. Prepare yourself to tell these stories over, and over, and over again. Oral storytelling helps children to build their imagination as they picture the stories that you tell them in their little heads. It is an entirely different experience than listening to mom or dad read a picture book. Try it!

Playing Store

Offer Toys that Encourage Imagination! Toys that do only one thing are really not very interesting after awhile. When you have a toy that is open- ended and encourages you to try new and different things with it, you can be entertained for hours! Take a set of blocks for example. A child can use them to build towers. She can build a house, a castle, a church, or a store. She can add a train set to the blocks to build a little town. She can make patterns, use the blocks for food in her pretend kitchen, set up a tea party for her animals... The possibilities are endless when you have an open-ended toy to play with.

Help Your Child Imagine! Often times we kind of expect that our children will know what to do with a toy when it is handed to them. Without trying to impede their creativity, you can guide your child when he seems stumped. For example, your child is hanging off your leg while you are trying to vacuum. You could say to your little one, "Why don't you play with some of the thousands of toys your father and I have for you?" or you could say, "Sugar Plum, I think I hear someone crying! I do! It is your baby, Baby Claudia! She must be hungry or maybe her diaper is dirty!" Usually, that is just enough to send a child off running!

Music! Introduce your child to all sorts of different composers and musicians. Encourage them to dance and move to the music. One favorite cd in our home is Peter and the Wolf. Our little ones never tire of hearing it. We also have classical music, country music, showtunes, Disney songs, and oldies playing at some point every day. In the age of mp3's, it is quite easy to build a nice collection of different styles of music very quickly and cheaply.

Fireman climbing up the ladder

Crafts! Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be crafty to create with your little ones! With the internet and a printer at your disposal, you can find all sorts of directions for crafts to try with your children. Elizabeth Foss has two excellent articles that I think you will find to be good for deciding what to stock in your crafting arsenal and also how to handle crafting practically.

Time Outside! For some reason time outside used to seem like such a huge stressful chore for me. I either wanted my kids strapped into their stroller or I wanted to be at a place where there was something for them to do (like a playground). I felt like if I had some playground equipment or a sandbox, or some shade from a tree older than our son things would be easier. Then one day, I handed my daughter a child sized spade, her bug house, and a magnifying glass. Time outside magically became easier! Even our little guy who cannot sit still for three seconds loves to dig in the dirt and ride his little bike up and down the walkway. Yes, it is messy. You know what though? Everything and everybody is washable. Have fun in the dirt. Bring out the hose. Blow bubbles, draw with chalk, water the flowers, ride bikes, etc. If you have a hard time like I did, write down a list of things you can do with your little one outside and then do one thing each day!

Free Time! It is so tempting to fill your child's days with activities, classes, and playdates. Home should be the place that you want to spend as much time as possible. Try to limit your outside activities to a couple of times a week and then just hang out at home! When there aren't unnecessary trips out and demands upon your time, children can actually play with the toys that you have. They can make crafts at the kitchen table and read the books on their shelf. They can actually come up with imaginative games and ideas to entertain themselves with. Life will be more fun and less harried. Trips out will be enjoyed more and times when you go to activities geared toward children will be much more appreciated.

Special thanks again to New Mom for suggesting this topic!