Making breakfast great (again?)

 I've been sharing with friends that I had gotten into a happy state of letting the kids make their own breakfasts.  They had boundaries of choices-healthy choices.  But I found that as we went through the day people were either hungry very early in the day (9:30-10) or found that they had forgotten completely to make their breakfast!  So I'm mixing it up!  

I have been a strong advocate for a high protein, low sugar, moderate balanced fat breakfast from the beginning.  My husband is happy with some left over veggies and scrambled eggs for breakfast, but the kids were not going for that as much....

This was what I needed:  good amount of protein, low sugar, balanced fat, tasty, easy to cook, ability to make ahead during meal prep the night before, cooks for an hour or less,  and EVERYONE must like it! Is this too much to ask?  

So this month I have chosen to find breakfasts that I can make the night before.  All the prep can be done and all that is left is the heating or baking in the morning.  I like to exercise and pray a bit before the day, so I wanted something that I could pop in the oven before I head out for a walk...or something that takes just a little heat attention.  I wanted the breakfasts to be ready by 7am so we could begin school by 7:30. 

Does this sound like something that you want too?  

Here are the recipes:

Spinach white bean quesadillas

Kale and tomato egg bake

Sweet Potatoes Hash

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Crustless Quiche

Here are the recipes that we tried and the ways they were able to help us get up and get going and stay going until lunch!  Hope they help you too!  

(Should I share like this for our lunches and dinner too?  I have had a few requests for meal planning help.  It can be quite the decision fatigue to make a menu over and over!)

See my stories on IG for photos.  

 

Eira How

More than four years ago we moved to a "new house" in a more rural area.  It was less than 3 miles from our 1868 house in the village.

But a new house to us.  A very modern 1950's style house.  The most modern house we've owned in our marriage.

We've been practicing hospitality, both to those who live in the home and those who live outside, for many years.  I have written about this dear to my heart topic before...
The past four years we have kicked around names for this place.  What would embody what we hope for here?  What name could evoke the heart of what this place means?

Our home is simple.  We use three bedrooms of the four for our own sleeping quarters. My children say we are minimalistic.  (I feel as though we have too many toys, but not enough books!)  We are not minimalists.

We welcome many people.  We do not go a week without a guest in our home.  We welcome strangers and friends.  And we hope the strangers can call us friends when they leave.

The midwest is typically considered a very flat area.  But for some reason the road on which we live is the hill-i-est around.  We have often called it the roller coaster road!  It's a natural phenomenon.  Our house sits on the top of one of the many hills around. We can see the tops of the other hills when we look down our road, but we cannot see the valleys.

So here's the "big" reveal.  We finally have a name for this place.

We've kept an icon over our kitchen table area for the past 10 years at least.  It's the visitation of the three guests to Abraham.    Sometimes it's called the Trinity Icon or the Hospitality of Abraham.  It's probably the most famous Russian icon.  It was written (as icons are not painted) by Andrei Rublev in 1440.  I hope one day to travel to Moscow to visit it.  For now, we just sit in it's gaze while we share our own table with guests from far and near.

Our copy of the icon is from Romania.  My parents were traveling there many years ago and we requested they bring a copy of this back for us.  They found it in an Orthodox gift shop/church.  It reminds us of our friends who live there and those that have suffered greatly in the Eastern church for their faith.

My family roots are in England and Sweden so I've been doing a little dive into Norse language roots.  We often talk about how our home is where we learn to show mercy.  It's in giving mercy that we receive mercy.  I wanted to know what norse words might reflect our mission of giving mercy in and out of the home with our place of hill.  Here is what I came up with!

Eira How.  Eira (ear-rah) meaning Mercy and How meaning Hill.


This past month Embroidery was our focus so I chose to make mine for our home with our name.
I tend to have the most productive handwork time while my husband is driving!

And now my embroidery hangs in our dining room.  In a simple frame.

Do you have a special name for your homestead/house?  Does it reflect the values you have for your home/family?

Busy as Bees: Alveary musings

My family used the Alveary this past school year.  We were part of the pilot program.  Did your family use it?  Are you considering it?

The surprise of being a beekeeper

You want to know my experience?

So let's get to it!


The Good.  The Bad.  And the Ugly. Let's hear all the BUZZ!

The bees in my top bar hive

Last summer I attended the CMI East Conference.  I heard a small 'commercial' about this new curriculum that they were piloting.  As I had been homeschooling with a Charlotte Mason philosophy for the past 11 years, I didn't think this curriculum would be very helpful to someone like me.  I dismissed my need of it within minutes.

My two hives.  One Langstroth and one top bar.  

But then I began to think more about what kind of help a new curriculum could provide for me.  I valued the research I knew had been done.  Research that wasn't available in the volumes alone.  Information that hadn't been available on the internet when I began my first Form 1 child 12 years ago.  I had great respect for those that were on the Board and those helping to create the curriculum.

This year I would have five students for the first time.  A Senior, a freshman, a seventh grader, a fourth grader and a first year student.  Whew.  The pilot would be covering the youngest three.  I still would need to put together something for the highschoolers.  It seemed counterintuitive to have someone help me with something I had already done well three to four times.  I can give a real response to what it's like to have been living and educating with Charlotte Mason and then jumping into this.

For the past seven years, I have been part of a study group of Charlotte Masons volumes.  I have gleaned so many gems from these books.  Each time I really understood a new part of this kind of philosophy and methodology I would begin to implement it.  Sometimes it was with ease.  Other times it just didn't work at all.  Could the Alveary help me fix my gaps?  

I had used Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis as references for helping myself find books that could be useful in our home.  I also used other websites that provided living sources.  Our schooling was super full of goodness, truth and beauty.  This year was new in that I would have five students at one time.  I was poised to have a senior and a freshman in highschool as well as three kiddos in the Alveary. And a four year old.  So life was going to increase a little this year.  

What was the GOOD that the Alveary added to our homeschooling?  

The lessons were all planned out for me.  Each week and each day I could easily access the links to places of interest on the internet, the pictures and music and each time consuming search was already done for me.  It gave me simplicity if I was willing to use it.

I especially enjoyed the Spanish lessons.  I was able to move my youngest children so much farther along with Spanish.  We picked up many poems and songs in Spanish.  It became a delight for the whole family.  A foreign language was smoother than it had ever been.  We used the resources suggested and developed a nice rhythm to our language lessons.

I looked closely at the amount of time the Alveary was going to take me each day.  And I realized I was cutting short our school day to benefit my own needs.  So this year I cut out many of the great things I did for myself (bible study in the morning, friends for lunch, day playdates, etc).  I added in more time at home.  Every morning was sacred time together with real focused learning.  I also took advantage of a better scheduling for the weekends.  Daddy was able to join us when I scheduled our rambles in nature for Sunday afternoon.  This forced us to find Sunday as a real day of rest.  Together.  It helped sooth the worry that soon one of our bees would be leaving our hive as she heads out into the world of her own.  The Alveary made me refocus on what I was doing.  Homeschooling first.

The pilot program had forums and a facebook page that I could ask questions on and hear ideas being shared.  Using the internet as a helpful part of our schooling rather than a source of feeling inadequate was healing for me.  My children loved being able to see pictures of other children's work on the same subjects.  Being part of something larger than our own home was exciting.

Each month two webinars were provided in a live setting.  These were experienced Charlotte Mason educators talking about both the philosophy and methodology as well as implementation of the HOW.  I had heard many of these in the past at live events, but it was great to have access to these people.  The webinars were also available to be watched in an archive format.  I really enjoyed this option!  

What was the BAD of using the Alveary for my family?  

There are many times that I got overwhelmed with the help.  There were some books that I didn't connect with and we stopped reading them.  I, at times, tried to do more than my family of six children could adjust to at a time.  It would have been helpful if someone would have told me to do three things well and then add one more slowly.  Around Christmas, after our first Term exams, I began to streamline more subjects.  I see that my weakness is trying to do everything as written.  And I had begun to do many things poorly.  This made me feel personally as if I was failing.  So I set a new goal at doing a few things excellent and letting perfection go.  When we had those things going well, then we added another and another.

As it was a pilot program, there were some times in which there was no clear answer for me.  Determining a better choice on a book, knowing how to choose a biography from the list of hundreds shared, considering how to balance a CM coop with the Alveary...these were questions that many had.  And I wasn't able to have a definitive answer.  Instead it had to be experienced.  And there were some bad feeling days on my part.

I found the amount of information on the web site available to Alveary members to be so expansive I couldn't listen or process it all.  I had to prioritize what I needed and use.  I wanted to be able to to listen to it ALL.  Right now.  But in reality, for me, it was good to listen to one thing, try to implement it and when that habit was well ingrained, THEN try to add a new thing.

If I had been brand new to homeschooling, I think it would have been imperative to access more of the philosophy of a Charlotte Mason education.  I wish the Alveary had put together some "first watching webinars" that would have shared the philosophy and methodology practiced a little better.  I have had mothers come and observe us in our learning at home to get a better understanding of the 'how'.   {There were also book groups reading through the volumes available for Alveary moms.  I did not take advantage of this as I already am in two different real life groups reading through the volumes.  If I lived in an area where I did not have access to them, I would have joined an online/skype book group with the Alveary.  It's imperative that you read and reread the volumes if you do this kind of education}

What was the UGLY?  

The ugly was all me.  I have so many ways I need to change.  So many ways I need to hold still and let the Holy Spirit change me.  As a homeschooler, each mother has to have a strong personality to be able to weather the emotional ups and downs of daily work.  She has to be malleable to the suggestions [snide remarks] that come from well meaning persons.  Sometimes this is detrimental to being a homeschooling mom.  

About one month after I signed up my children for the Alveary, I began to see the large undertaking I had agreed to.  I wanted to do everything that was suggested in the Alveary and according to what was suggested!  I was overwhelmed. I had a really good cry.  I considered throwing in the towel.  I met with one wiser homeschool graduate mom and she talked me down from the ledge.  Integrating my five children into the Alveary for our family was a much bigger worry for me than I realized.  I also began to see the bigger picture.  I could use the Alveary to help me accomplish the goals I had already set for our homeschool.  I could use the Alveary to it's fullest potential or I could use what would work for me.  

Now that we are rounding out our year, {we only have four weeks left} I have the hindsight to see where we have been and all that we have accomplished.

I considered the bees...did you know that one bee visits 50-100 flowers on one trip out of the hive?  And he's working his whole lifetime to make only about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey?  If I compare this to my one year of work with my children...the offerings of 50-100 flowers {books and things} I've given them.  Is there hope that we have made a little honey of their life? Have the habits of duty begun to be second nature for them?  Have they seen the perseverance in my life?

First harvest of honey in 2016

I've tried to have kindsight for myself.  Not just looking back, but being kind at all I've learned.  I'm so much more faithful with my Nature Journaling.  I'm singing in Spanish now.  I'm feeling a lightening of my load.  We have decided to continue with the Alveary for the coming year.  And with anticipation and joy I'm looking forward to how we will learn together.

And spring is here and the bees are flying.  

Keeping a journal

We've got lots of different ways of recording in our home.  Some of them are fast.  iPhones are a great way to quickly catch someones narration (or meltdown).  Video cameras on fancy cameras can collect some great music played at a concert.  But SLOW is our journey.   So I want things written down slowly and by hand.

So we keep notebooks of many kinds.  And sometimes they get lost and it's a great joy to find them again.

It's the first snowfall of 2016 today.  So I'm look for our book of firsts to record...


Do you keep notebooks?

Hospitality

All GUESTS ARE TO BE RECEIVED AS CHRIST.

This is a photo of the guest house at Mt. Angel Abbey outside of Portland, Oregon.  

I've been contemplating this quote from the rule for months.  10 months to be exact.  

How to we welcome others into our home?  

Do they feel as if I see them as Christ in their soul?  

And who are my guests?  

My daily guests in my home are my children.  My husband.  My Father-in-law who lives with us. 

And those guests that come and go.  

My parents.  My mother-in-law and her recently deceased husband.  It's my brother-in-laws and their partners.  My sister and her family.  

Those guests that come once.  

Those that come every week to take a violin lesson from my daughter.  Or to play with my children.

Do they leave this home feeling like I stopped my daily life and gave them attention?  

Do they feel as if they were cared for as if they were Christ?  

Oh, that on my judgement day, it will be said "Well done, my faithful servant".  

"You reached to the least and welcomed them in."  

"You entertained angels unaware".

(Would you please visit me so that I can treat you as Christ?)

Growing habits part 1

Charlotte Mason wrote "Habit is ten natures."  What ever did she mean by this?

It's in my nature to be lazy.  It's in my nature to put things off to the last minute.  It's in my nature to wait until it really must be done in order to finish the job.  I have lots of projects begun and then the steam has left my train.  It's not that I derail myself.  It's just that I don't finish quite as timely as I would dream of.

If perhaps I could create some habits that would subplant my nature...ah, what a joy my life might be. Oh, what a lot of friends I might find waiting to spend time with me.

But I continue to learn on how to be the best of myself.  And, thank you, LORD, for sending the Holy Spirit who continues to work on me even in spite of myself.

So WHAT does Charlotte mean when she writes "Habit is 10 natures"?

If we had to break it apart we could ask, What is Habit?  What is Nature?

In the preface of Charlotte’s first volume, she gives a wide view of her philosophy in what she calls her "principles of education".  The #7 principal says Education is a discipline- the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully whether habits of mind or body.

  Nature is what God designed you to be. The characteristics of you.

Natural law is the philosophy of law determined by nature.  It refers to the use of reason to analyze  human nature and how binding rules of moral behavior flow from it.  Thomas Aquinas taught Natural Law.  He was fairly prolific in his writings about it!

Since the will of a child (and of the adult!!) is feeble, it requires some diligence to train it.  As an educator who sees children as persons, we must give the child control over his own nature.  Habits are 10 times stronger and it can work both ways.  Either positively or negatively.  When we begin to create a habit, it can over take nature.  A selfish child will learn a habit of keeping, while a good natured child will learn the habit of giving. 

Our bodily habits of movement train our body to move in certain ways.  Growth and adaptation happen the most in youth.  Don't we marvel at watching a child learn to roll over the first time.  Hey! we even just exclaim our joy the first time they smile!

Training our own self is one reason CM recommends lots of running, jumping and outdoor time from the youngest age.  CM says its as if a TRAIN creates a rut in our nervous system and without much effort it returns to that rut.  It is only an effort of the will that change our natural inclination out of this rut.

Our thoughts, also, are habits that we share with our children.  What we say about things or ourselves aloud become habits of thought in our children.  When we belittle ourselves or our own habits, we teach our children to think similarly about themselves.  If we could remember to say positive things about ourselves, we could teach children to think more highly of themselves.  Perhaps an emotion or traumatic event can help cement the "train rut" even stronger.

But thanks be to God, new brain tissue is always being built.  I can (perhaps less slowly today, than when I was young) grow new habits of thought and body.  But I must feed my brain well.  Of your consumption of calories each day about 20% is used by the brain…this is about 300 calories per day. So eat great foods to grow good habits!

Aristotle says “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act, but a habit."
 
Pop science says that it takes only 21 days to make a habit, but current scientific research says habits can be formed in 18-260 days.  

What effects a habit?  Motivation.  This is most important to have reasons.  Make clear goals that are reachable.  (We’ve all made those vague goals around New years….that never fly past January)  The motivators that are most effective long there are intrinsic ones.  We usually need some kind of visualization.  Seeing ourselves doing the steps that it takes to make a habit into a normal activity.  It’s important to include the different learning styles when encouraging a habit.  Seem of us only need to be told—we are the audio learners, we learn to hang up our coat after only being told.  Some need a visual—a  coat handed to us, a point to the hook. And then the kinetic learners…they require the parent to walk with the child and help them hang the coat on the rack for the first 18-200 times.

Let's keep this conversation going...more next time.
(This is part of a talk I gave at LER this past July.)

A year of consecrated life

We continue to live the Year of Consecrated Life.  Last month we hosted two of the hospital sisters that work closely with my husband.  They run the largest hospital in our area as well as 10 other hospitals nearby.  

We've been connected to these sisters for more than 10 years.  We used to visit the sick sisters in the infirmary.  Unfortunately there are very few sick sisters that can welcome guests today.  But there are some very active ones that could come to us!

It had been some years since they had lived their Frances of Assisi life with the animals.  It was a joy to let them experience our animal life at the farm.  I think they left a little dirty compared to the hospital administration work they usually do.  

There was much joy spread around.  

Nature Walks and Natural History Clubs

Many years ago I started a Nature Walk Club (with another mom), but (because I was new to Charlotte Mason) it didn't look very Mason like at all.  I did a lot of work ahead of time and we had many kids join that had no experience with caring for nature.   It was fun.

I always left tired.  It wasn't long before it fizzled out.  I blamed it on the weather.

Now I've taken a few years and read more and feel refreshed.

In early June,  I encouraged a few moms who have been practicing and learning about Charlotte Mason to join me and my kids on a little hike.  Then after we could journal and our kids could discover and learn with no boundaries.

There was a huge turnout.

And so we've done it again.

And we will do it again.

And with that a Natural History Club has been born.

I encourage/inspire the moms and kids to bring nature journals and everything they might need to spend lots of time in nature.  We walk together (mostly) and find interesting things to identify.  And then we spend time drawing in our nature journals (MOMS AND KIDS!).  And slow down our lives to just be present to the day.  to the nature around us.  to each other.

Have you ever been part of a nature walk/natural history club?

What curriculum do you use? Knowledge of the Universe Part 1

This is a continuation of a LONG series of reflections on how Charlotte Mason lives in our home.

You can read the first post here.
Knowledge of God
Knowledge of Man Part 1
Knowledge of Man Part 2

Knowledge of the Universe includes Science, Geography, Math, PE, and Handicrafts.

What do we use for Science?
We try to make even Science a family learning.  I require individual reading as well as a group book and nature study every week.  Some books we have enjoyed include:
The Study of Light
Parables from Nature
Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
The Periodic Table
The Elements
Secrets of the Woods by William Long
Handbook of Nature Study 


What do we use for Geography?
Geography is also a group read.  I really enjoy books that are personal travelog in nature.  Ones we have enjoyed include Walk Across America, Sovietrek, Walk the Bible, Eugeria.  We follow along with a world map that hangs in the dining room/kitchen area.

Math?  Whew this is a big one.  I've gone to a more hands on approach math over the years.  We began with RightStart Math in 2nd grade (before that simple Montessori style hands on activities).  Now I've gone to less is more approach.  We talk through Math concept each week as a group.  I read a Math read aloud a couple of times a week.  We drill skip counting every week.  We play math games once a week.  We touch Math in some way everyday.  It's just a slice of the whole learning we accomplish.  It never takes an hour per day of our time.

PE/Recess/Outdoor time.What do we do for PE?  How to we best understand the universe?  By spending time in it!  Get outdoors.  Everyday.  Don't let the weather impact your time.  Purchase "school supplies" that allow everyone (even mother) to get outside everyday.  Doesn't mother need snow pants?  Snow boots?  Why should the weather keep us from enjoying the world around us?

Charlotte recommended SEVERAL hours out of doors everyday for those very young.  And for those older, I think it's very important to continue!  In our home, the older children are given more and more responsiblity for outdoor chores so that if it's not all about observing the nature around them and playing in the mud...it's about observing the changes in their animals and the way the weather impacts them.  Chickens, cats, dogs and horse are the current and recent outdoor work.  In those freezing cold months, it's amazing how quickly they can get the chores done!

Handicrafts.
This is such a wide knowledge!  Many of these become pratctical life skills to carry with them!  Knitting, embroidery, woodworking, baking...the list can be extensive.
I'll do a seperate post on things that have worked great for us soon.

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath day

Is fair and wise and good in every way.

This week finds the kids looking up what day they were born and trying to decide if this poem reads true.  

This is our child who is loving and giving.

Lenten thots

Our Lenten journey 2015 began well.  This year my 12 year old and I created a water color "path" of sorts for us to follow through the 40 days.  

We are using a cut and dyed slice of Agate to mark the place where we are trotting.

Every three or four days I am changing up our chalkboard message.  We began with this one.  

I slipped away for many talks at a local monastery.  I specifically am continuing to dwell on hearing the voice of the Shepherd.  The retreat master said that Abraham was given only on word... "go".  I'm finding silence in my life to ponder what word God is giving me in this time of my life.  

The retreat master also said that Lent requires my distance from freedom and spontaneous desires (that's fasting), my making a sanctuary in my soul for God (that's prayer), and resisting the desire to possess anything (that's almsgiving).  

I adorned the front door, back door and mailbox with purple bows of the sort.  I'm hoping people know liturgical colors and my choice for these random fluffy things...And they look great covered in snow!  

It was sad to take down all the beautiful decorations we like in the house, but a simple Lenten meals for me starkness helps to clear the mind.

We pray the stations of the cross and the rosary together as a "school".  I appreciated the sorrowful mysteries this week and the reflections written by the priest, Fr. Philippe.

I'm happy to report that we are keeping a more consistent than ever evening prayer time.  It's been tricky with kids who have various schedules and daddies who work late and babies who sleep early and toddlers who create a ruckus....but finally we are praying compline with some beautiful regularity.  And reading a chapter book aloud.  AND hearing a little Catechism each night.  

{fingers crossed for habits that stick}

And our Lenten words continue...

Lent comes again...

This year will be the year in which Lent is looked square in the eye.  It's the year in which I'll be prepared by being empty.  It's the year I won't make grandiose plans to achieve my goals.  It's about time I let God do his work by getting out of the way.

In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Levels 2 and 3 we talk about the "blank page" of today and tomorrow that God has in his Plan for us.   We are given the freedom to join Him in his plan.  We are also given the freedom to do it our own way.

So, yes, it's good to know how you might want to join God in his work this Lent, but it's also okay to just rest in his blank page.  Let's begin with a contrite heart asking for God's and those whom we have offended for forgiveness this weekend.

Forgiveness Vespers


Posts from the Past:
Prayer during Lent
Alms during Lent
Fasting during Lent

simple things

What a simple thing to enjoy some time with a friend on a bale of hay.  The little boys were sleeping and I kept hearing laughter from the pasture.  This is what I found when I went out to attend to them.

The value of rest

                             My view some days and evenings.  Isn't it beautiful?

Experience confirms that there must be a social re-evaluation of the mother's role, of the toil connected with it, and of the need that children have for care, love and affection in order that they may develop into responsible, morally and religiously mature and psychologically stable persons. It will redound to the credit of society to make it possible for a mother-without inhibiting her freedom, without psychological or practical discrimination, and without penalizing her as compared with other women-to devote herself to taking care of her children and educating them in accordance with their needs, which vary with age. Having to abandon these tasks in order to take up paid work outside the home is wrong from the point of view of the good of society and of the family when it contradicts or hinders these primary goals of the mission of a mother.  (Quote from JPII, Laborem Exercens)

Family Prayer time

In the past my husband and I have attended homeschooling conferences, lectures and gatherings.  We've been lectured on what curriculum to buy, how to laugh at ourselves, the best way to teach boys and so on.  But the last event we attended shot right to my core.

Locally, there are no specifically Catholic homeschool conferences for educating mothers and fathers.  So we attended a Christian event which tends heavy on Protestant themes.  As a convert, it isn't too difficult for me to translate.  I take what is helpful and leave what is not.  I wish there was a way for me to help make it more ecumenical.

So the session that got me this year was a Protestant pastors talk.  I actually realized I was sitting in the wrong session after he had begun.   His session was called "Family worship".  It was all about the importance of praying together as a family.  But I felt called to stay in the room, so I did.

This pastor said that most families in American are not saying meal prayers together, let alone having a family prayer time together.  Woah.  Really?

But then he broke it down.  Most families are so busy getting to soccer and doing homework and whatever else that they don't even eat a meal around a table together.

What a different way to live!  In this house we tend to eat the evening meal together all of us and the other two meals have a majority of us around the table!  We pray together before the evening meal.

But I was challenged to think...

Do we say a thanksgiving prayer before every meal?  Before each snack?  Do we say a prayer when we are finished eating?  I found this simple guide of meal prayers.

What if we already pray meal prayers?  Can we do more?
Could we add more prayer throughout the day with our children?

Several years ago during Lent, we made a habit of praying the Angelus at noon.  Another year we focused on the Morning Offering.  But these prayer moments were just the children and I that were home during the day.  As part of our homeschooling, we read the Bible and do a Lectio Divina in the mornings.  Would a habit of praying in the evening more intentionally be a good thing?

My husband and I listened to what the Protestant pastor was encouraging homeschoolers to do.   I thought perhaps we as Catholics needed this encouragement too.

Are we pausing to take some time to pray each day as a family?  It doesn't need to be a whole Rosary.  It can begin small and be appropriate to the day and the needs of the family.  But there is no reason we can't carve out some time in our busy modern life to pray together.

We say that we are Christians.  But we people look as us, would they know that we are?  Does our home reflect that we are praying people?  If Jesus stopped in our home, would He find us faithful?

I hear from the pulpit that we are to get ourselves right with God (accept him into our lives, get to confession, etc) and then we are to go out and preach the good news to others.  Perhaps there is a middle piece we forget?  We forget that those who need Christ the most are right in our own homes.  We need to be nurturing that relationship with God under our own roof!  When we skip right from self to world, we leave a whole family that needs to be encouraged in the faith.

We have a designated prayer area in our home.    I was pleased to hear the pastor make this as a suggestion for families!

He also encouraged the use of a catechism to use and drill your children.  Hmmm.  Not a problem.  We use the Catechism of the Catholic Church in our homeschool.  But perhaps we could use it for dad to train the children in the evening during our family prayer time?

So how about you?  Do you have family meal prayers?  Do you have an evening prayer time as a family?  Or a morning prayer time?  Do you have a designated area for prayer?

Nature Study

It's the time of year when everything is popping out and up and we have to get out there to find it!  

"As soon as he (she) is able to keep it himself (herself), a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child.  Everyday's walk gives him (her) something to enter..."  {Volume 1, p.54)

And delightful it HAS been.  

There is a nice write up in the Handbook of Nature Study about Trillium.  Several children did drawings of these.  

(did you know it's also called birthroot?)

We seem to have Prairie Trillium around here.  

"mother cannot devote herself too much to this kind of reading, not only that she may read tid-bits to her children about matters they have come across, but that she may be able to answer their queries and direct their observations."  {Volume 6, page 223}

And outside we shall be.  The flowers are calling, the birds are calling.

"never be inside when you could be outside.  Spend most of the first six years of life outside.  Be outside with the children,...keep everyone in a good mood; leave the children alone most of the time; mother may train eyes, ears and also plant seeds of truth within the child.  1-2 hours of active, vigorous play, then a short lesson..." {Volume 1, Part II, p. 42}

Now you know why I am not able to answer the phone.

Lamb of God, 

You take away

the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God

You take away

the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, 

You take away 

the sins of the world, 

Grant us peace.  

Perks of living in the country...your neighbors let you know the second a lamb is born and you drop your school work and go to see the triplets that have just been "dropped".   Then you return when they are three days old to touch them.