Earth Hour Reminder

March 31 8:30

This will be our 4th year participating as a family.

The First Light Of Advent

Tonight kicks off our Counting To Christmas.

” The first light of Advent is the light of stone, stones that live in crystals, seashells, and bones”.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, even though we don’t start the count down until December 1. We also picked out our Jessie Tree branch while at the park Friday which we also will start reading on the 1st.

The girls and I have been busily scoping ideas from Family Fun.com and tomorrow plan on a visit to our most favorite craft store to gather supplies.

The only disappointment that’s come so far this year is notice that there will be no Christmas card swap this year from Kids Craft Weekly. Oh well that won’t stop our homemade Christmas card making anyway.

Here’s to happy safe  holiday celebrations!

Welcome To Monster High

Happy Halloween !

Happy Easter!!!

Wishing everyone a happy Easter !

We will be taking next week off for more spring cleaning.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!

Today St. Patrick has made his way to our seasonal table replacing King Winter. He brings along with him spring ,as everything he touches turns to green.This morning I awoke to thisand this as well as having green toilet water(food coloring I hope), but I spared you that picture . Yes there seems to be a very mischievous leprechaun running loose in our home and you bet The Little’s aren’t saying a word.

Today’s festivities include a feast of Shepherds Pie and Soda Bread (oh yeah), a reading of Patrick by Tomie dePaola, and watching The Little Travelers visit the British Isles. Though with temps in the 70s it would have been a beautiful day to see the parade.

As far as school Tuesday I did something a little different. I pulled out our basket of homemade goodies and told The Little’s I wanted them to come up with a story using characters from the basket.For Little Sis I had her draw pictures for her story.Then I had them tell their story as a puppet show. This was a big hit. Little Sis did so good telling a story with her pictures, and Miss Sky wrote 1 whole page front and back for her story.This was not graded in any way but gave me a chance to see where Miss Sky is with spelling and punctuation. She did great.

For math Miss Sky and I have been going over word problems. This is something I noticed she needs to work on. We have continued with our number study with Little Sis

but this has been a bit boring for her so I picked up some math books at the library this week. We read The Math Zoo by Patricia Whitehouse and she LOVES this book. I also got to see where she is on math concepts.

For Reading Little Sis read her first “library” book Hot Dog by Molly Coxe. She is really excited and Miss Sky is rereading Meet Felicity.

Independent studies this week started like this “Mom do we have any books on gorillas?” So we headed to the library for “her” to find some, and she did.I “assigned” her to write a report due next week and we are going over the steps one takes to write it. Such as note taking, resource lists, and rough and final drafts.

We rearranged the kitchen during our “cleaning” making room for our art supplies. This way they are available for whenever inspiration should strike. Little Sis decided she wanted to make pet rocks.I guess that about sums up what we have been up to this week.

Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day !

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day !

Good-by Snow, Hello Sunshine

Well could it be that the cold is finally coming to an end ? Would it be wrong of me to hope so?

Today we happened to be blessed with 50 degree weather and thought it a perfect time to go out for a winter hike, something we all agree we do not do enough of. It felt so good to get out and stretch our legs waking muscles that have been in hibernation all winter.The woods were full of reminders that a road trip is near.But by far the best part of a winter hike is being able to say good-by to the snow and ice one last time (hopefully).

Oh King Winter as much as we enjoyed you so, I am sorry to say it is time for you to go!

Welcome Mrs. Thaw we are so glad you came.

Peace

Round 1

Last night we were hit with part 1 of the winter storm, ice , ice , and more ice.Our whole back yard is a sheet of ice.Today we went out to investigate the storm, The Little’s couldn’t even make it up our hill.

We are getting hit with round 2 now.

Wishing many warm blessings !

12 Holy Nights 2010

Tonight at dawn marks the start of the 12 holy nights and ends the evening of January 5.

“During this year’s Holy Nights we will be doing the inner work of looking at our soul’s development of certain capacities in our thoughts, feelings and intentions.” Lynn Jericho

I will be unplugging and diving into the gospels during this time starting with the gospel of Mark (choleric) as I prepare for the new year.

The gospel of Matthew (phlegmatic)

The gospel of Luke (sanguine)

The gospel of John (melancholic)

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and see you all in the new year.

Peace

Our Lantern Walk and Changes

Yesterday the Little’s decorated their lanterns as we prepared to  meet with a small group of families to help celebrate Martinmas later that evening. We all gathered round the table as Danielle told the story of St. Martin before we broke bread and shared a meal and fellowship with one another. Then we headed out on our lantern walk under the stars.She has the perfect yard (and voice) to do a lantern walk, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Positive energy was  in the air and though Papa thinks it was just dust (the only photo from the night that turned out this way) I think I captured it on film.After our walk we gathered round the fire for storytime.It amazes me how quiet everyone gets (not a peep from any child) during the story, but Danielle is a very talented storyteller.

We had a lovely time and enjoyed meeting new friends but as they say all things must come to an end.

Literally . I guess turning 10 brings on many changes, changes that this Mama is not ready for (not yet anyway). Well I knew it was just a matter of time when my little girl would step out spread her wings of adolescence and start to become her own person.

Our family does have family movie night  about 1 sometimes twice a month where we make homemade pizza (still trying to find a good gluten free crust recipe) and pop popcorn on top of the stove. Our favorites being Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and Summer Magic where Miss Sky fell in love with Hayley Mills. So of course I had to share with her one of my favorite movies from childhood. I never thought it would backfire on me. Yep it ‘s gone. The time has come ,my little girl is growing up. All I can do now is hold on and enjoy the ride .

Well at least she does have good taste.

Wishing everyone a great weekend !