Call the Midwife...

Have you seen the trailer for Call the Midwife yet?  It will be airing on September 30th on PBS and looks like a very promising series!

Yarn Along...

I was a lazy knitter this past week.  I completed one washcloth and started another only to have the yarn keep tangling (remember, I was knitting these with two strands from the same ball of cotton).  Once I got that all straightened out and began knitting away again, Sugar Plum and I visited our yarn shop and I was able to buy the correct sized needles for the yarn that I was using.  Stupidly, I ripped out the washcloth that I was nearly done with to knit with the new size 6 needles and Oh! My!  I like my size 8 needles so much better!  So, my knitting has been languishing.

On the other hand, Sugar Plum has been a very eager knitter!  She completed a dolly shawl for her first project and even taught herself to change colors!  Miss Monika (the knitting store owner) taught her how to cast off and she immediately cast one for a new one!  Unfortunately, she lost it while we were out last night, but she coolly shrugged it off and stated that "she hoped whoever found it would like it!"

 We're reading Charlotte's Web as a family right now and are enjoying it.  I wonder if our love of bacon will be affected, though.  Sugar Plum is a devoted breakfast fan and finds bacon ( and sausage for that matter!) terribly hard to resist.  However, she does feel things deeply and I wonder if this was the best choice for our read-alouds right now.  I am reading Calm and Compassionate Children:  A Handbook.  I am about halfway through and am enjoying it.  Though the information is hardly new, I like the author's writing style and enjoy the stories she throws in.

Come tell us what you are reading and knitting!!

Types of Icons...

Note:  Do not be alarmed by the subtitles...  this video is in English!

The First Days of School...

 

 

Reading...

Every morning after breakfast, Wilbur walked out the road with Fern and waited with her till the bus came.  She would wave goodbye to him, and he would stand and watch the bus until it vanished around a turn.  While Fern was in school, Wilbur was shut up inside his yard.  But as soon as she got home in the afternoon, she would take him out and he would follow her around the place.  If she went into the house, Wilbur went, too.  If she went upstairs, Wilbur would wait at the bottom step until she came down again.  If she took her doll for a walk in the doll carriage, Wilbur followed along.  Sometimes, on these journeys, Wilbur would get tired, and Fern would put in the carriage alongside the doll.  He liked this.  And if he was very tired, he would close his eyes and go to sleep under the doll's blanket.  He looked cute with his eyes were closed, because his lashes were so long.  The doll would close her eyes, too, and Fern would wheel the carriage very slowly and smoothly so as not to wake her infants."

Charlotte's Web

E.B. White

Living and Learning: September...

Faith
Church New Year
Nativity of the Theotokos
Elevation of the Precious Cross
Saints Juvenaly and Peter

Homemaking Visit large farmers market a few time before it closes for the year Plan a Few Picnics
Begin Serving Warming Meals
Make S'mores as a Family
Organize Out of Season Children's Clothing 
Plan Children's Autumn Wardrobes and Start a List of Things Needed
Decorate Porch with Mums and Ornamental Kale
Continue Good Homemaking Habits 
Knit the Little Ones Scarves for the Cooler Weather
Replenish Everyone's Socks and Pajamas
Put Out Autumn Decorations
Organize Seasonal Decorations

Learning Basket Themes 
 Zoo
Harvest
Autumn
Apples

Special Days
First Day of School – 1st
Grandparents Day – 9th
+ Michelle – 19th
Auntie Claudia – 20th
Uncle Peter – 24th
Grandmama – 30th 
Full Barley Moon – 29th
 
Learning

Practice patience and love towards one another

Learn to Sing "Beneath Thy Compassion"

Tidy bedrooms each morning  

Tidy the playroom each afternoon
Put Away Own Laundry

Enjoy the Autumn Book Basket

Nature Table Scene

Begin First Grade for Sugar Plum!

Begin Pre-School for Little Man!

Apple Picking
Attend the Pow Wow for Some Local Native Americans
Visit the Gardens
Visit the Renaissance Festival
Learning Basket for Nativity of the Theotokos
Learning Basket for Elevation of the Precious Cross
Visit the Beach Frequently Before it Gets too Cold
Weekly Library Trip  

Collecting Bits of Nature...

Several weeks ago, we had some of our children's godparents visit and we took them to one of our favorite beaches for a few hours.  While we chatted and got our feet wet, Sugar Plum spent some time collecting shells.  She found quite a few (which is very unusual for our beaches).  Once we got home, the shells were deposited on the step and we sort of forgot about them once all of the little ones got sick.  One day last week, they were dumped into a galvanized tub that it is a multi-purpose plaything for these children of ours and washed.  They have been washed and rewashed many times since then and each time I spot them in the tub damp from the water, I admire their beauty.  Look at all of the shapes!  Look at the colors!  They aren't the perfect shells that we can find in the gift shops around here, but they are just lovely in their own way. 

I have been spotting little Nature Museum ideas all over the web lately.  I love these ideas to display all of these little collections children bring home!  Eventually, I think that it could be the next step up for older children who have been maintaining a nature table while they were little. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons for nature displays and I cannot wait to take long walks looking for pretty leaves, acorns and other nuts, seed pods, grasses, shells, and rocks.  It will be nice to find different ways to display our findings in our home.

Organizing for School at Home...

I have been kind of waiting for inspiration to strike when it comes to how to organize our school things and finally got it the other day.  We purchased all of our books a few weeks ago, I bought a binder, binder tabs, and fancy paper from the Martha Stewart Staples collection, and we found a wonderful planner at Target that will be great for a monthly overview as well as space to write things down each day.

We are planning to try to do our schoolwork in the playroom each morning this year.  We did most of our work at the dining room table last year, and that was mainly because we had a grabby toddler on our hands.  We still have the toddler, but he is a little more easily distracted and I am hoping that being in the playroom will allow him to occupy himself while we do our work each day.

I decided to re-purpose one of our bookshelves for our learning materials this year.  The top shelf holds Sugar Plum's basket of  school books, a little pencil holder, and a pretty framed illustration by Shirley Hughes.  The second shelf has a basket full of our learning basket materials each week, a featured book, and binoculars.  The bottom shelf holds Little Man's basket of books and a few activity books that he likes, as well as a basket of wooden Handwriting Without Tears letter shapes that he will be using. 

This setup is pretty simple.  We'll see how it evolves over the year!  We are looking forward to our start next week...  though I am a little nervous about how we'll get it all done.  Somehow we've ended up with a lot of house-guests planning to come that week! 

Yarn Along...

This week was an exciting one!  I finished my tenth waffle knit dishcloth and got to dip into yarn that I bought weeks ago!  Though I had planned to make twenty waffle knit dishcloths (we use them for everything!), I was getting a little tired of knitting them.  I finally did get into the groove with the pattern though and my tenth one was just as it should be! After I get some things off of my To Knit List, I think that I will return to knitting dishcloths to bulk up our supply.

One of our parishioners recently had a baby boy, so I decided that I wanted to make her a few Petite French Farmhouse Dishcloth Pattern No.1 washcloths.  I will complete the gift by getting a pretty bottle of baby soap to go along with them.  This yarn is wonderful!  It is Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine and is so silky and soft!  I started knitting with one strand of the yarn and found that I had the wrong sized needles, so I followed my sister's suggestion and just doubled the strand.  I was nervous that this would be confusing, but it isn't!  If we are ever blessed by another baby, I will be using this yarn to make tiny little things for for him or her to wear.

As for reading, I am re-reading my English Country Homes and Interiors that my mother gave me when she visited last month.  We also just finished More About Paddington on cd and are about to start These Happy Golden Years.  I am sad that the Little House series is coming to a close, but am already planning to listen to it again for Little Man's kindergarten year (which starts next Autumn!).

Come tell us what you are reading and knitting!

Struggle for the Icons...

Note:  Do not be alarmed by the subtitles...  this video is in English!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Thirteen inches of water poured down on Saturday night in a crazy thunderstorm that lasted several hours!  When we woke up on Sunday morning we were shocked at how much water had accumulated!  The little ones had fun splashing in the puddles while they lasted.  The water is already gone!

Reading...

They followed him across the waiting room and up the stairs to where his mother was waiting in a little hall at their head.  She was small as Laura, and plumper, and she was daintiness itself, in a soft gray dress with snowy white ruffles at throat and wrists.  But she was so friendly that Laura felt comfortable at once.

In her bedroom they took off their wraps.  the room was as dainty as Mrs. Woodworth.  They hesitated to lay their coats on the dainty bed, with its knitted white coverlet and ruffled pillow shams.  Thin, ruffled white muslin curtains were draped back at the windows, and on a little stand-table a knitted lace doily lay under the lamp.  White knitted lace to match was spread on the bureau top, and white lace was draped across the top of the mirror frame."

Little Town on the Prairie

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Jonathan Jackson Wins Emmy!

Jonathan Jackson converted to Orthodoxy in 2012!  I posted an interview with him by Father Andrew Damick awhile ago, HERE.

A Quiet Friday Afternoon...

Today has been quiet.  It is the first day in about ten days that the children have not had tummy troubles and have been able to eat whatever they want without consequence.  Father John and Co. are laying tile in the Chapel and eating Mexican Seafood Soup that Miguel's wife prepared and I am puttering around the house.  I keep coming back to this arrangement of dried hydrangea that I put in on the wooden chest by the front door.  I bought eight stems from our little farmer's market this morning (along with five purple and white eggplants that will be grilled and made into babaganush at some point) and promptly put them in a white metal flower container.  I keep rearranging the blooms to get the right balance of color.

The boys are busy bees out-of-doors today.  The ride-on lawnmower is parked in front of our house because it is broken and they are playing on it, pretending that they are construction workers.  Sugar Plum is quietly knitting up bracelets and necklaces to give to her friends (one of whom is a six month old baby!).  She is using her long-lost knitting fork that I found by simply sticking my hand between couch cushions (though we removed all of the cushions multiple times to look for it or make pillow forts in the weeks that it has been missing!).

Later, I think that we'll wash our shells from the beach and lay them in the sun to dry.  I'll finish up a washcloth and we may go swimming.  I'm not sure what we will have for supper, but it will probably include the babaganush!  It would also be nice to have warm peach crisp, but that depends on whether the peaches are ripe.  

I hope that you are having a peaceful day too!

Nature Finds...

Yarn Along...

This past week was a rough one for our family...  all three little ones were sick with strep, a stomach virus, or a combination of the two.  We also had lots of company and the start of putting in the tile floor in the church!  Because of all that, I only picked up my knitting once the whole week!  Once I took it up again on Monday evening, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to remember what to do.  Thankfully that was not a problem!

I have six waffle knit dishcloths completed right now.  It is still quite easy for me to loose my place (I've yet to turn out a perfect one!), but I feel like I am getting a bit better at keeping track!  Now that our sicknesses seem to be under control, Sugar Plum and I are hoping that we can pop over to the knitting shop this Saturday for a bit of a lesson.  She is still doing wonderfully on her knitting!  She lugs her knitting basket around wherever she goes!

We're listening to Little Town on the Prairie right now and enjoying it so much!  I can't believe that we only have two more books in the series to listen to after this!

Come tell us what you are reading and knitting!

Image of God?

Note:  Do not be alarmed by the subtitles...  this video is in English!

Blueberry Cream Scones...

Blueberry Cream Scones

Ingredients:

2 c.  Flour

1/2 c. Sugar

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1 stick Butter, cold and cut into small pieces

1/2 c. Blueberries

1/2 c. Sour Cream

1 Egg

Sanding Sugar

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in bowl of food processor.  Add butter and pulse blades until mixture looks like coarse meal.  Take care not to over process.  Combine sour cream, vanilla, and egg, then add to mixture in food processor; pulse just until mixture starts to come together.  Fold in blueberries.  Transfer to lightly floured surface and pat into an 8-inch circle.  Sprinkle with some sanding sugar and score into 8 triangles.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Reading...

One bright April day, a red mini stopped outside Tullivers and a tall woman, paper fluttering from a gloved hand, made her way into the house.

Miss Fogerty was on playground duty that morning.  Standing on the sheltered side of the school, teacup in hand, she watched with mounting excitement.  Around her squealed and shouted the sixty or so pupils of Thrush Green Church of England Primary School.  During those delirious fifteen minuted of morning play-time, they were variously space-men, horses, footballers, boxers, cowboys or- among the youthful minority - simply mothers and fathers.  The noise was earsplitting.  The bracing Cotswold air produces fine healthy lungs, and the rumpus made at play-time could be clearly heard by fond parents who were safely half a mile away.

Agnes Fogerty, quiet and still as a mouse, and not unlike that timid animal in her much-pressed grey flannel skirt and twin-set to match, stood oblivious of the chaos around her.  Somehow, she sensed that the stranger would take on Tullivers one day.  There was something purposeful about that stride towards the front door, and the delft slipping of the key into the lock - almost as though the house were hers already, thought little Miss Fogerty. 

News from Thrush Green

Miss Read

The Right to be Right...

By Father Richard Rene

Years ago, I encountered Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s great novel Love in the Time of Cholera, which (among other things) explores the nature of harmonious relationships.
 
In the story, a couple has been married for almost fifty years. In the routine they have evolved, the wife is responsible of restocking the bathroom with soap. One morning, however, her husband says: “For three days now I have been washing without soap.” The wife knows that she had neglected her responsibility, but rather than admit her fault, she snaps, “Well, I use the bathroom every day, and there has always been soap!”

The dispute erupts, threatening to tear the couple’s marriage apart. The husband is banished to the living room sofa. The conflict continues for months, becoming almost a routine for them. One night, however, the husband forgets to retire to his new living room quarters, and climbs into bed with his wife. She taps him on the shoulder to remind him to leave. “Let me stay,” he replies, “There was soap.”

It’s rarely the important things that divide us. In a free society, our relationships with others usually rest on a common vision and common beliefs. God, the universe and everything—these are not the problems most of the time. Rather, it’s the little differences that threaten to wreak havoc. Different forms of Garcia Marquez’s soap dispute can often tear apart marriages, friendships, and even entire communities.

In his Epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul exhorts his gentile audience to welcome converts from Judaism, “but not for disputes over opinions.” (Romans 14:1) What opinions are these? Nothing less than the Jewish Christians’ desire to observe the Sabbath and the distinction between clean and unclean foods! Although Saint Paul disagrees—“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” (Romans 14:14)—he recognizes that the Jewish practices do not strike at the heart of the Christian proclamation, and so counsels acceptance, urging his audience to “pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.” (Romans 14:19)

One is tempted to wonder how the same Jewish converts might fare under today’s Christian leaders, but we won’t go there… For Saint Paul, the matter is clear: “The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17-18) He then offers a way by which his flock can live in harmony: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him … that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:1-2, 6)

In matters of opinion, Saint Paul tells us that we must bear with the failings of the weak. Even if the other person is wrong, our challenge is to give up our right to be right. In Garcia Marquez’s story, the husband relinquished his obvious rightness for the sake of marital harmony. One might argue that he compromised, but compromise is something one does when a cherished principle—not soap—is at stake. The facts concerning soap (or any other point of dispute) may be important, but is it essential to the heart of the relationship?

That’s a question we need to ask about anything that threatens to divide our marriages, friendships and spiritual associations. “Is this the hill I am willing to die on?” Is it essential—a matter of profound principles? If the answer is no (which it usually is), are we willing to hold onto a right opinion at the expense of a relationship? Saint Paul wasn’t. And if the most influential Christian apostle could relinquish his right to be right, then the rest of us could probably do the same, for the sake of a little more harmony.