It all started with a book...

A six volume series in fact.  And it's gone uphill since then.  With a little side jaunt and then.

Several months ago, a I met-you-in-real-life-friend turned now let's keep in touch on Facebook friend, posted some photos of some original books by Charlotte Mason.  They were green covers and so beautiful.  Personally I own the six volume series published in the nineties.  It's the worst binding you've ever seen and the books fall apart often.

But I was also in the need to make a thank you gift/gesture to some women who were speaking at a local Charlotte Mason gathering.  SO  I invited another homeschool mom and her children over to try and replicate the ORIGINAL home education Volume 1 series.  (thanks to Jeanne for posting pictures of binding and cover for me!)

And off we went on creating books based on this nice youtube video I found.

They turned out smashingly.  Don't you think?

Of course there was a little worry that they might need to be mailed or driven home when given as a gift.

My Tip?  It's a good idea to be a super reader if you want to carry a brick book on a plane.   And also to be able to narrate all the good things you've read.

And why not have as many books in the flower beds as you do on the shelves in the house?  I see handicraft written all over this one!  :)  Get out and get looking for old bricks why you can!

I wonder why I hadn't thought of this one before.  Because you just can't have too many books.  err bricks.

grow

July 2013

June 2014

Last year we moved into this house in June.  By July we had a nice little garden and had tidy-d up the flower garden that had been overgrown.  

This year we have a much larger garden and things are really starting to look nice!

Preparing

We follow the Philips Fast to prepare for Christmas.  And here is it already this week!

We enjoyed making these shrinky dink ornaments last year.

They started as 8.5 x 11 pages.  We used permanant markers to color them.  

And after a little time in the oven...Beautiful icons to treasure.  

How are you preparing for Christmas?

(I also purchased chocolate coins from this company.  We gave them out for St. Nicholas day.)

Settling into our environment...

It's been a challenge to know how to get this house in an order...it's got so much potential.  And we have too much stuff.

Which prompted me to re-read Simplicity Parenting.  At least the chapter on environment.

Here are some notes from when I read it before.

I'm slowly trying to make sense of our Fine Arts Room.  It's that extra bedroom that has violins and art supplies and boxes and clarinet and viola and ironing board and a pile of ironing in it.   Everything does not have it's own place yet.  And it's driving me wild.

So I wonder.  Does a cluttered environment make you have a cluttered mind like me?  When I find that every room in the house has toys and clothes and left overs from life in it, I can't seem to be open to learning new things.  My mind freezes on the crumbs trailing across the floor...the shoes randomly placed.  I brought this up at a discussion with some other homeschooling moms.  Do YOU struggle to find calm in your mind when your house is in shambles?

We've got a bathroom all torn apart that will find order this month!  (or at least the tile man says!)  We've got a chickens that are waiting for a coop.  I've got a kitchen that is calling back to the 70's for help.  I have a basement full of toys.

Where to start first?  I have four garbage bags waiting for this week.  I will conquer this chaos.  It's been four months here in this house.  We will have order soon.

And just because there is SOME order around here.  

(and it's only really bad for me...other people like it here)

I'll include these photos of #6 (one year old) at our prayer table in his pajamas.

Some early photos of our new place.

Many of you have noted that I haven't been sharing any photos of the new place.  

It's been overwhelming at times as we begin to make the changes necessary to call this our own home.  I dug through photos to find "before" photos.  

The stair case in the main living room.  This is before the previous owners moved out. 

The *beautiful* basement.  With an early "flat screen TV!", and built in surround sound.  Notice the wood paneling.  

Lots of wallpaper and dated things.  Just a glimpse for you.

Purple bathroom with painted vanity.  

Now here's where it gets good.  This is a view from the upstairs bedroom in May.  See all the pretty trees?

And here's a closeup of what we found in the backyard.  Lots of bluebells.

Hiking around the property when we were still shopping for this place.

The back of the house.

The pasture and fence before the new septic and well were dug.  This is looking to the neighbors across the street.

So there's the beginning view of new place.  

It's been a blessing to see God's handiwork in all the little things around here.  

The nature, the neighbors, the space and the quiet.  

The ability to have friends over and to keep the children busy and working well.

I wondered if we would ever find a place.  It was all in God's timing...

and that's going to have to be another post.

What makes a home?

I've been packing and packing and packing.  It's a daunting task to have so much accumulated in a home with a large family.  

As I've packed the pictures on the walls (I had help with that) and the books on the shelves (I had help with that too), I have reflected on the sadness I feel.  

It's not so much a sadness of loss, but a sadness of missing.  

This 1868 home has been a blessing to us.  I've been perusing old posts about the updates we did on the house.  And came across one from our previous house!  It, too, had some beautiful details.  It was built in the 1930's.  

Now we move to a "modern home".  Built in 1964.  It has so many exciting prospects, but I also see a lot of work in the years to come.  

It won't be the setting or the renovations we do (although now I have a teenager to help propose ideas).  

This new place will be a home in which we:

forgive often

live the faith and the liturgical year

learn more about the Natural World and God

be a blessing to others.

What makes your house a home?

Mother Culture

Mother Culture is the term that Charlotte Mason used to describe how teaching mothers keep what they are learning for themselves stimulating and fresh.  Of course as mothers teaching the Charlotte Mason way, we are joyful and inspired by the same things our children are...but we have deeper learning to do as well.  There are things this mother has never done that would be fun to do.

Do you find your day of teaching school (or working or being a mother) drudgery?  What are you doing to keep the life of mothering interesting and new?  Are you falling into the groove of just being the same person you were when you graduated from college?

Here's what I do:  READ
3+...I always have at least three different books that I am reading at a time.  I tend towards books that are helpful for parenting, but I try to have at least one novel going at all times.  I enjoy authors Elizabeth Goudge, Rumer Godden, Miss Read to name a few.  I also try to find a specific passage in the bible to read in an ongoing basis.  I also pick one spiritual type book to read alongside our school year.  This year I'm reading Elisabeth Elliots Keeping a Quiet Heart.

So my stack looks like this today:
Bible bookmarked to the gospel of John
China Court  by Rumer Godden
Keeping a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot
The Mindful Child  by Susan Greenland
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth  Ina May Gaskin
Family Cloister by David Robinson and some other Benedictine rule books....

Some of the books I've found inspiring in the past year include: Unbroken by Hillenbrand, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona Carnavon, The Bird in the Tree by Goudge, Jungle Pilot by Russell Hitt.

Besides reading, I also try to add some other culture type things to my plate.  We listen to quite a bit of classical music in this house (four violin players), so I am always on the look out for new music that might bring a variety of sound into our home.  With our study of Handel this Term, I'm putting all sorts of things on our play list and humming about as we nest for the baby to come.

I also try to learn new HANDICRAFTS.  I'm spending time working on water coloring.  I do enjoy calligraphy, but can't seem to get children to stay off my lap for my hands to be steady.  I spent time this month with some friends doing Pysanky egg work in anticipation for Easter (yes, already!).  I'm working on a goose egg this time.  It will be an egg in shades of blue and white.

What do you find to grow in your learning as a person?  Are you picking up any new ways of learning for yourself as a mother and wife?

Making a Haversack (part 2)

Here's a look at all the things packed into my son's haversack (+the book).

A eating set (plate, cooking pan, measuring cup, and pot) at top center, field guide for birds, sewing kit, first aid kit, rope, gum, granola in reusable helicopter bag, rosary in handmade pirate bag, water bottle, handkerchief and pad of paper with pencil.  

Here's where it hangs on the pegs beside his bed.  Along side a coonskin cap and other hunting paraphernalia.

A recent live trapping success.

Checking out freshly caught minnows with a friend at a local state park.

Making a Haversack (part 1)

Have you seen seen 

the cute book 

Tin Cups Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food & Fun?

My 7 year old son recieved it for a birthday gift and has been diligently working on his plans for campouts and father/son hikes.... 

Here's what it took:

Measuring +

Cutting +

Folding +

Sewing by machine and by hand + 

(this might have been the longest stage!)

Making sure there is enough materials for a first aid kit

 (and all the other "required" items) inside =

One proud boy.

(more things added to the sack to come...)

a little spot for your ipod

We'd gotten into the habit of storing ipod in old Altoid tins, but a 12 year old in this family thought a little pouch is so much prettier.  

She sat down one afternoon during our Masterly Inactivity time and produced a delightful pocket. 

She used a simple felt strip. 

 (see the one she's making for a boy in the family?)

Pretty stitches.

And a snap to hold it all in.  

I could see this fitting a rosary nicely.  Or even a treasure found in the yard.

and here is the one she made for little sisters birthday.

Doing Service work, the joy of volunteering

The kids and I typically have some kind of service project that we are working on at all times.

The girls are part of a 4H club that does clean up on the highway quarterly.
We visit two shut ins weekly.
We visit a local infirmary for retired nuns.
We make cards for people in the hospital.
We donate time at a local pantry.
And do all sorts of other sporadic gifts of time and energy.  It's really enjoyable.

Recently my oldest daughter, age 12, gave a talk at her 4H Club on volunteering.  Here are her notes.

Hello my name is            .This is my 5th year in 4-H.Today my talk is about “why in the world should you volunteer”.The definition of the word volunteer is “a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task”.Why volunteer?  Why because you always have a ton of extra time floating around in your schedule? no because helping someone, working hard gives you satisfaction that even if  you only put a plastic kitchen set together you still are helping some kid by providing a fun toy that will bring hours of play.  So the question is can you volunteer anywhere? Yes and no.Yes because mopping the floor or cleaning the toilet at home or in this weather shoveling snow would i am sure make our parents very happy.  But volunteering to go to the mall with your friends might not be quite the same as mopping the floor.  It also depends on how much time you are willing to put in to the project.  If you need ideas on how to help I bet the food pantry would love to have help even if you can only help for half an hour.  If you would like to help in Peoria there are several soup kitchens and missions to check out.  But for the people that would rather not get their hands dirty you can donate blankets(or even better sew blankets to donate), food,or even an animal thru Heifer international or another company.I bet now you are thinking why did she pick this boring subject.Well, because i enjoy volunteering for people in need.Some of the projects I have helped with are a 4 week afternoon camp for needy kids at the missionaries of charity in Peoria.There was crafts games 

Bible school and dinner provided for them along with weekly outings to swimming ,bowling or playing at a park.  2 years ago, at Christmas  time I went with the first united Methodist church in Peoria on a mission trip down to Louisiana.   A hurricane had devastated the area several years before, but unfortunately there were still many people that needed help.  I also like to donate a goat at Christmas time thru heifer international.

What are the benefits of volunteering?Right now my family and I are working on a project.  We are sewing 100 heart shaped pillow cases filled with rice that you can put in the microwave for a little heat pad.  These are for the OSF hospice and home care patients as Valentine’s Day presents. I believe that we (the people that made the hearts) have equal amounts of pride and satisfaction as the people that give the hearts to the actual patients.and I bet the patients will be very grateful to receive a gift.but are we overlooking anyone who might have helped in the 100 heart making process? maybe the people that made the sewing machine the person that made the fabric the people that packaged the rice even the cashier that sold both the rice and the fabric.So why did I write on this topic? I am not exactly sure but for some reason it popped out and said write about me write about me and I somehow managed to write a two page talk on this subject that somehow turned out not to bad.  

This month we made 100 rice filled heart shaped bags for Hospice and HomeCare clients.  They can be heated in the microwave to be used for warming hands, feet, ouchies, etc.  It took us more than two days to complete it.  One day a friend of my 12 year old and her mother came to help us.  We will never meet those who receive them, but it was a fun project to do!

Even the littlest in the family could fill with rice.  (and pour some on the floor too.)

Advent memories...

I hope this finds you preparing well for Christmas.  We are enjoying more music, little to no studying, standing around the piano, spending more time praying, playing and going to Mass, eating making cookies, and the like...

Well, see for yourself.