Surprise- It's almost Holy Week

A very Good Evening to you,
Well we are almost in Holy Week and tonight I have written up with the older girls our traditional  'Holy Week Booklet.'
I like to have a booklet as we have so many activities we are completing and liturgical requirements that if I don't have it all written in one place day by day I know I will forget something important 😊

One thing that can be guaranteed in this busy life we have is the regular activities but also those little moments when you have a 'sweetness' moment.
This is Felix the Bunny. He is Arwen's special bunny gifted to her by her siblings on her birth. Felix was named after a book we are very fond of -Letters from Felix  and Arwen's bunny has certainly traveled around.
Since he has journeyed  far and wide he was in need of a little surgery. As I was getting things prepared i left the room and came back to discover that Felix was now all ready to face this gruesome deed. Arwen had placed some eye protection on him so he could see what was happening to him. Sweet little girl, how I love this gentleness in her.

 One of the activities that Trahaearn does everyday is to draw. He has a few particular types of drawings he does.
Viking ships were his very first drawings from his imagination  and he spends ages on them getting them perfect. Did I say perfect? Yes I did, because we have often had a little pile of paper on the floor as they did not meet his standard.
I particularly like this latest Viking ship as it has the ship behind as well as the one coming up at the rear. I think he did an excellent job on making the ship looking realistic with the flags and sails.

 I had a special day in town with Arwen last week. Well not really special but she came with me to run some errands, you know essentials like groceries. The really fun and exciting type of shopping.
Well we did pop into K-mart to check on Winter clothing and walked past the toy section- cause I'm a really nice Mama 😏 and because Arwen has a fascination with all things panda she could not resist this life size panda head.
Now me, I think she is kinda cute but that huge head still 'weirds' me out.

 Isn't he just adorable???
Our grandbaby dumpling came for the day and he has just really learnt to walk most of the time. That sweet - I'm just waddling look- that I love.
He also loves to be outside and runs to the door when it is open and squeals to go outside. He also loves the dogs and seeing all the animals. A very gentle and sweet  little guy he is so happy.

 We have been busy preserving all the stone fruit and this is our no sugar jam we made.
It really is a lovely jam, but I would probably call it a very thick stewed fruit.
I think it is certainly more versatile this way as it can still be used as a stewed fruit in pies or with cream but can also be use as jam on toast.
I'm pretty sure we will continue to do it this way. However it does take a much longer time to cook as you are reducing the liquid as you cook.

You probably also might have guessed by now that I love long hair and all our girls have long hair as well as myself.
Well, mine isn't as long as it used to be but we won't go there.
As I was giving Vellvin's a brush last week I saw this beautiful ringlet at the back and just had to take a photo. Is that strange? Maybe but I love ringlets.
The other interesting fact is that when Rogan saw this photo that he thought it was my hair 😍

Have I mentioned that the children are always offering to make me some sort of drink, mainly a coffee as that is my beverage of choice. Myffy had been offering me her special recipe drink for a few days and I had not really had the time to have it as she usually offered when I wasn't able to enjoy it.
As I was doing my own study she brought me her 'famous Myffy Chocolate drink' her special and secret recipe. Of course then I was able to enjoy the gift of love. Thank you Myff!

And it is here that I say goodnight to you all again. Thank you for catching up with us and I hope you all have a blessed Holy Week.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Lent and Easter Books

Today I remembered I haven't posted any of our Easter books this year.

We keep them in a box or basket in the lounge room and read through them during Lent and the Easter Season.

Some of them are more loved than others and are read often but we have read them all over the years and I just wanted to share our love of these books with you ☺

Amon’s Adventure -  Arnold Adventures

The Easter Story – Brian Wildsmith

A Tale for Easter – Tasha Tudor

The Story of the Rabbit Children -  Sibylle von Olfers

The Story of the Butterfly Children - Sibylle von Olfers

The Story of the Easter Robin -  Dandi Daley MacKall

Rechenka’s Eggs -  Patricia Polacco

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward

The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter

The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

The Bird’s Gift (A Ukrainian Easter Story) – retold by Eric. A. Kimmel

The Easter Rabbit’s Parade – Lois Lenski

The Giving Tree – Shel Silversten

The Tale of Three Trees – retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

The Very First Easter – Paul Maier

Little Rose of Sharon – Nan Gurky

The Jesus Garden (An Easter Legend) – Antoinette Bosco

Easter Eggs for Anya – Virginia Kroll

On That Easter Morning – Mary Joslin

Bright Easter Day – Julie Steigmeyer

A Child’s Easter – Patricia A Pingry

The Story of the Cross – (The Stations for the Cross for Children) – Mary Joslin

Benjamin’s Box – Melody Carlson

Children’s Stations of the Cross – Susan Brindle, Joan Bell, Miriam Lademan

The Legend of the Easter Egg – Lori Walburg

The First Easter Bunny – Frrich Lewandowski

The Story of Easter – Aileen Fisher

My First Story of Easter – Tim Dowley

The Story of Easter - A Little Golden Book

My First Story of Easter – Tim Dowley

The Story of Easter - A Little Golden Book

The Stations of the Cross - Fr. Lovasik

My Path to Heaven: A Young Person's Guide to the Faith - Geoffrey Bliss

Petook - Caryll Houselander

The Donkey and the Golden Light- John Speirs

The Caterpillar That Came to Church: A Story of the Eucharist - Irene H. Hooker and Susan Andrews Brindle

The Most Beautiful Thing in the World- by Gerald T. Brennan and Susan Andrews Brindle

The Butterfly That Found Her Way Home - Miriam Andrews Lademan and Susan Andrews Brindle

The Fish in the Fountain- Susan Andrews Brindle and Miriam Andrews Lademan

The Little Creatures' Crusade - Susan Andrews Brindle and Miriam Andrews Lademan

Blessings to you and your homes,

  

Preparing for Winter in our Home

Preparing for Winter usually means getting firewood, checking clothes and other real life preparations.

In our home all these things occur but we also prepare our home learning environment as well.

I am a great believer in creating a beautiful atmosphere and using that as a learning tool to enrich not only our children but for myself and other people who come into our home.

So on the second of June, the day after our Myffwyn's birthday I started getting out our Winter themed decorations.

I love this little print of a boy with lantern light and put a couple of cardboard blue stars with gold glitter on them beside it on the little card holder Stephen made me some time ago.

As Winter has truly arrived and we are using the fire I have moved our display off the top of the fire and over onto the buffet and hutch. Each day Arwen changes the day of the week and our little 'elements: fire, water, air and earth, sit nicely here as well.

Behind them  is our liturgical Father Pine with a Green Chasuble for the 'growing season' of our Liturgical season.

Here is another part of our display, on the following  day with the new perpetual calendar we made. Seriously I just love looking at it.

Putting out the Winter Gerda Muller book that gets the pages turned regularly for inspiration especially at art time is always refreshing for me

Naturally the Tasha Tudor book, A time to Keep, changes too. Of course we have to ignore the actual month of the year as depicted in these seasonal books as all these lovely books are set in the  Northern Hemisphere.

Next to be changed is the Seasons table and we placed out our Winter collection which is looking quite sad at the moment.

I realise now I haven't set out King Winter or Jack Frost and his family and will have to get them out tomorrow.

The next thing is of course the Winter book basket with all the Winter books placed in ready to read.

It's hard to see what is in the basket it so I took photos of the books to share :)

These are probably what I call our real Winter books.

I separated these ones because I am going to be doing a wool dying, spinning, weaving and knitting project with the children using the wool form our own sheep that we had from last season.

More lovely books to read....

and our last selection to share with you.

I know I haven't got them all listed but here is a link to my Winter book list, and as I link to it I see I missed some from our book shelves, which I will need to find and put in our basket.

This is our display that sits right near our dining table and so is very visual for us throughout most of the day.

How do you like to prepare your home for Winter enjoyment?

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Gingerbread House and Baby

It is just about Gingerbread House making time here and I just thought I would share this as we love The Gingerbread Baby  book by Jan Brett, in fact we read it all year round and we love making our own Gingerbread houses.
We make ours from our own gingerbread recipe and house style and free style decorating.

Have fun watching this and reading your own book as well as making your own gingerbread baby and of course a house for him!

Blessings to you and your homes,
  

My Christmas Books Wish List

As we approach the month of November I always like to look for new Christmas books to add to our collections. Sometimes of course it often ends up just a beautiful idea and then, sometimes, we actually get to add to our collection.
During the year I did get a couple of books for my birthday that I will share here and I will also add the ones  that we were able to get  after Christmas that I have not shared on my lists before that I absolutely love.

As  I have been making a wish list of sorts of some I would love to buy and read to our children and thought others would like to see what we like to read. I will post them here as well.

Not all our Christmas books are about the actual Christmas story, but if not they do usually have something to do with the traditions of Christmas or about a Christmas virtue so to speak.

These are the new books that are new for us this year (so far)~
A Christmas Dress for Ellen
Little Fairy's Christmas
Penny's Christmas Jar Miracles
The Christmas Eve Ghost
Annika's Secret Wish
The Gift of the Christmas Cookie
The Wee Christmas Cabin
A Child is Born
The Shepherd's Christmas Story
The Little Drummer Boy
The Little Christmas Tree
And here are the books on my Christmas Wish List ~

These are the other books we own that I have made up into different lists that you may enjoy looking at~
Advent and Christmas books List 1
Advent and Christmas Books List 3
Chapter or read aloud books
Countdown, craft and activity books
Board books
2009 List

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Tell me a Story Please?

Yesterday I was reading a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears from my  Seasons of Joy Spring Edition.. One of the suggestions, which I have done before with other books too, was to act the story out with some puppets.
So as I had not made any puppets I found three bears that we have around the house and a doll from the girls collection and used these with a few other small items like silk, a plate and spoon and a small basket to represent a chair.
As it was a beautiful day we went outside on the balcony and I used one of the play stands that Braedon had made years ago for a 'stage'.
The little ones really enjoyed this version of the story and the props were fun to use too.

After the story we grated some nutmeg by hand and added it to a honey milk drink.

I have never grated nutmeg before even though it is one of my favourite spices. I could not get over the beautiful aroma that was wafting around the kitchen.
As we grated we sang the little song that Annette uses
" Grate the nutmeg!
Grate the nutmeg!
Smell the nutmeg sweet.
Grate the nutmeg!
Grate the nutmeg!
Sweet enough to eat.

We made up our own tune as I cannot read music from the sheet. The children loved this activity and adding the fresh ground nutmeg to the top of one of their favourite drinks.

It is a wonderful experience to share the wonder of a story with children and then add that something extra as well.
Every time I do an activity like this ( Frances Lunch) I remind myself to keep doing it. That is until I get caught up in the basics of learning and forget to add the fun stuff.
But it is the fun stuff the kids remember and one of my goals as a mama is to make memories with the children.

What better way to do this!!
Linking with Annette today...

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

New Books.....again

You can never have too many books right?

Of course right!
Well with my Amazon gift card from the older boys, yes I did use it once but actually made a mistake in processing- long story and had not actually used it.
So I bought these books with the money, and guess what I love them all!

 So here is a quick review on them so far.
Twenty Six Letters to Heaven I bought this one for Corbyn to use for his start to lessons instead of my Alphabet Path which I think might be a little too, um, girly for him.
I like the simple and yet crafty, reading structure of this programme.
A Christmas Dress for Ellen This is a most beautiful Christmas book, in fact one of my all time favourite books for telling the message behind the birth of the Christ Child.....pure unselfish love.
Penny's Christmas Jar Miracle This is a sweet story too but in my opinion the above book is a better choice if you had to choose.
Pheobe's Sweater I loved the idea of this and Pheobe's Birthday after reading about them from Nicole's blog. I really love them and two of my younger girls have asked for items from the book. So I need to start some knitting and sewing for them
Fancy Nancy: Pajama Day These four Early readers I got because both Moran and Myffwyn love Fancy Nancy. Well we all do really but I wanted to have these as an incentive for the girls to progress to more advanced books.
Fancy Nancy: The Show Must go On
Fancy Nancy: Sees Stars
Fancy NancY: At the Museum
Gyo Fujikawa's Little Library These I bought after falling in love with the illustrations. Yes I so love a great illustrated book, especially one with children in them.
These will be perfect for little Trahaearn to be read to and for him to look and hold.

So there you have it what we are snuggling up with to read with at the moment.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Our Little Book Basket

You know I love books right?
You know I adore picture books as well?
You also know I love baskets too?
And of course scattered throughout our home are books in baskets!

If you happen to see an empty basket in our home, goodness how did that happen, well it won't be like that for long.

A week or more ago I happened to have a few empty baskets and was browsing blogs and saw this post by Ginny about her book basket.

Now like I said I had an empty basket and we have so many little books on our shelves that they just begged to be put in this basket for 'special time use'

What sort of special time though?
Hmmm, I think it will work for us as a 'wiggle time basket', you know a little one has some need for cuddle and special time with mama or just some time to be apart from others in a busy household and a focused activity to regroup with in a special type environment.

And as we are entering a stressful time with moving I can see this little basket getting a lot of use.

Oh, you are wondering what I put in that basket well here is an incomplete list (as I am a long way from that basket at the moment)~
Old Bear Collection by Jane Hissey (we have had these simply forever they are well loved and their box is missing the bottom too)
Brambley Hedge Boxed Set - Summer, Autumn, Winter Spring by Jill Barklem (again a much loved set)
If you give a Mouse a Cookie
The Fairy Necklaces Flower Fairies of the Wayside and Flower Fairies of the Trees all by Cecily Mary Barker
Now it's Fall and I like Winter by Lois Lenski
Selected 'extra' copies of Beatrix Potter that aren't in our boxed collection
Miffy and Miffy's Garden by Dick Bruna (we have quite a collection of these as our own dear Myffwyn is often  called Myffy and we bought her some of these for her won as well as some for our family library)
Little Grey Rabbit's Washing Day By Alison Uttley
Mother Goose  and The Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway
First Prayers  and First Hymns by Tasha Tudor
A collection of Victoria Plum Adventures
Ladybird Books - The Story of Daniel and The Wind in the Willows
And from my own childhood Little Donkey by Jessica Broderick

Well that is all I can think of right now but I hope to change and add some interesting titles for our little ones to enjoy.
Do you have any favorites to add??

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

When a book becomes an activity........

Family traditions are so important don't you think?
Special occasions that bring a smile to your face!
There are so many opportunities for us to have these in our lives and  they are the ones we have that are to be treasured.

One of these for our family is reading from the books written by Russell Hoban.
Last week I was reading Bread and Jam for Frances to the little children. It was Arwen's choice for the day and when I finished reading it we decided to have a Frances Lunch.

Now we have had "Albert Lunch's" before from another favourite book Best Friends for Frances complete with a red wagon packed with luncheon goodies. We have had this happen so many times and the children have such fond memories of it.

So this day we made a new memory by creating a Frances Lunch. Then main thing in this lunch was the setting up of the  meal like in the book..

First we made paper doilies of which I had a few and as is Winter here I thought we could make some snowflake doilies too. However I really could not get the hang of it, I was so embarrassed. Here was this so simple paper craft and I could not do it. So in the end we went with a couple of my snowflake placemats and the bought doilies.
The next important item to have was the  flowers in the vase, followed by the egg in an egg cup.
As we did not have thermos we simply had milk in a glass.
For the food as we were having a lunch type of meal anyway - Frances has carrot and celery and we just used some leftovers and salad.

The interesting thing with these type of activities is the fact that while it was aimed for our little kids it was not long before we had more takers for our Frances Lunch.

Again I am so thankful to be able to 'enjoy the journey together' with our children, which is one of the most special aspects of living and learning at home.

Blessings to you and your homes,

My New Birthday Books

 For my birthday this year I was given a fairly substantial book voucher by my older sons.

I worked out a wish list and then finally after much deliberation placed an order for the books.

Guess what? Today they arrived, well all except one that I am still waiting for. I can tell you there is much joy in opening a box full of books in our family. The children were all vying for their favorite new picture books and I was keen to look at my 'boring mother books' as the children call them.

I am really excited about reading them, some for myself and some to the children.
In fact I really should link to the books for you but I just am going to read them instead, sorry.

However you will certainly be able to find them on line from the title in the pictures if you are interested.

Any way have a lovely day what ever you do, and  me what will I be doing? I will be reading to my hearts content to our children and then a little for me too!

Blessings to you and your homes
,

Favourite Family Movies, TV Series, Audio Books and Music

Just thought I would share with you our listing of favourites within our family~

Favourite Family Movies ♥

• 5 Children and It
• A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Anne of Green Gables Trilogy
• Baby's Day Out
• Bedtime Stories
• Cheaper by the Dozen 1 and 2 (Steve Martin)
• Dudley Do right
• Enchanted
• Ever After
• Father of the Bride 1 and 2 
• George of the Jungle
• The Chronicles of Narnia Series
• Inkheart
• Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• Maverick ( 1 scene skip)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (scene skip)
• Nanny McPhee 1 and 2
• National Treasure 1 and 2
• Night at the Museum 1 and2
• The Star Wars Saga
• Pirates of the Carribean 1, 2, 3 and 4
• Spiderwick Chronicles
• The Forbidden Kingdom
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
• The Karate Kid Series 1,2,and 3
• The Pacifier
• The Princess Bride
• The Princess Diaries 1 and 2
• The Star Wars Saga
• Yours Mine And Ours (the Lucille Ball version.)
• The Theif Lord
• Dinotopia 
• The Parent Trap (1998)
• A Knight in Camelot
• The Three musketeers (older kids)
• X-men first class, X-men 1 & 2 and Wolverine
• Leap Year
• Kit Kittredge, Felicity, Mollly and Samantha - An American Girl Series

Some of my Favourite Music ♥

• Any Celtic Music
• Casting Crowns
• David Meece
• Edens Bridge
• Hillsong
• Jonas Brothers
• Michael Card
• Michael W Smith
• Mozart
• Newsboys
• Plumb
• Revival in Belfast (all Robin Mark in fact)
• Sons of Korah
• Steve Grace

Favourite Animated Family Movies ♥

Aladdin 1 and 3

Arthur and the Invisibles

Bee Movie

Cars 1 and 2

El Dorado

Finding Nemo

Hoodwinked

Horton Hears a Who

Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2

Monsters Inc

Mulan

Over the Hedge

Ratatouille

Robin Hood

Shrek 1, 2 and 3

Sinbad

The Adventures of Tintin (Series)

The Adventures of Tintin (new movie)

The Aristocats

The Incredibles

The Rescuers Down Under

The Sword in the Sword

The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends

Toy Story 1, 2 and 3

Megamind

Katie and Orbie (series)

Tangled

Dispicable Me

The Emperor's New Grove

Tarzan

Favourite TV Series ♥

Bewitched

Fawlty Towers

Get Smart (old ones)

Gilligans Island

Hogan's Heros

Tintin

Katie and Orbie

Home Improvements

Little House on the Prairie

Road to Avonlea

The Flying Nun

The Good Life

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

The Waltons

Hornblower

North and South (Catherine Gaskill)

Pride and Predjudice

Robin Hood (BBC version)

McGuyver

Clone Wars

Favourite Family Musicals ♥

• Annie Get your Gun
• Calamity Jane
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Hello, Dolly !
• Mary Poppins
• My Fair Lady
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers( all time fav)
• The Sound of Music
• Singing in the Rain
• Phantom of the Opera

My Favourite Authors and Illustrators ♥

• Eloise Wilkins
• Elsa Beskow
• Gene Stratton-Porter
• Jill Barklem
• Kate Greenaway
• Kim Lewis
• Louisa May Allcott
• Marguerite de Angeli
• Patricia Polacco
• Rosemary Suttcliff
• Shirley Hughes
• Tasha Tudor

Favourite Audio Books ♥

• Classical Kids Series
• Dads Army
• Famous Five (any of these)
• Grimms Fairy Tales
• Josie Smith
• Just William Series
• Little House Series
• Narnia Series
• Olga da Polga
• Postman Pat
• Rangers Apprentice 1,2,3, 4, and 5 read by William Zappa
• Redwall ( any of the them)
• The Borrowers
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• The Inheritance Series
• The Lord of the Rings Series
• The Princess Bride
• The Twins of St Claire
• Inkheart series
• Noddy
• A Series of  Unfortunate Events
• The Princess Bride

Favourite Big kid and Grown up Movies ♥

• Batman Begins
• Emma
• Get Smart
• Gladiator
• King Arthur (scene skip)
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Little Women
• Miss Potter
• Mission Impossible 1 and 3
• Pride and Predjudice (BBC version)
• Sahara
• Sense and Sensibility
• The Bourne Series
• The last Samuri
• The Matrix 1,2 (skip scene here) and 3
• The Patriot
• X-men series 1 and 2
• X-men:Wolvarine
• X-men: First Class
• The Mask of Zorro
• The Lost Battalion
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Saving Private Ryan
• Inception
• The Last Samari

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Love you So Much.......

Have you ever have a book that you read over and over?
Of course you do, as do we.
This of course can change at a moments notice.
However at the moment our little ones are getting whoever they can to read this one So Much!

It has been a much loved favourite for many years. In fact it was first introduced to our family when Saxon was a very little 'tacker' and he picked it up from the library. He loved this book right from the start and I must admit it is one of those books that is fun to read aloud. I love to do 'all the voices' as Jo March says in Little Women.

So last week we had this book read so many times a day I lost count. I think it holds many precious memories of holding an excited little child and  reading together enjoying this special time.

I especially love to re visit those favoured books from when the older children were little as it draws the family circle closer together I think.

So what are some of your family's favourite books to read over and over again?

Blessings to you and your homes,

Books Books Books we LOVE them!!!

I know, I know, the title is SO obvious if you have known me for any length of time. We are huge book lovers in our family and the Education of our children has been based around a living book ideal. We have been blessed over the years to build up  a fairly extensive library.

We have made exhaustive use of the public libraries but have reached at each one the stage where there is not much new material unless we research and order it in on intra-library loans.

Just recently we were able to order a significant amount of new books. Some of these were books we had read from the library and were wanting to add them to our own library....what we call 'keepers'.
Some were ones we had had 'our eye on' so to speak for a while.
When ordering these from Book Depository I tried to get a variety of books taht would appeal to our whole book loving family.
Above we have Some Rosemary Sutcliffe ( a favourite with just about all of us), Redwall Series ( Stephen, Kynan and Eden's favourites) The Hollow Kingdom series (part of, more still to come) The Mismantle Chronicles, Rogan really started to love reading from this series (with more to come) and Alex O'Donnell and the 40  Cyber Thieves (always a line up for these books) and Story of the World Book 4

The picture books are a huge success with all of us: We have some new Patricia Polacco, I think we now have an almost complete collection Daniela Drescher picture books and the latest Elsa Beskow.

Today we received Saxon's favourites the Murderous Maths series, two new Fancy Nancy books (everyone's favourites) and a 'Mummy book' for me. We still have a few to get that we are looking forward too.  We all rush down to check the mail for a car to pick up the parcels from the post office!!

Funnily enough on the day we received this big book of new books the children wanted to go to the library and get some books.
Who knows why as we had some very excited children starting to read the new books.
However getting new reading matter is always fun no matter where it comes from So off we trooped to the library and came back with a fairly descent haul. Not to big for us ........only three bags full.

And of course where their are books in our house there you will find at least one person reading. As soon as I put them into our library baskets/boxes Saxon and Vellvin sat down to read some.

We keep all the library books in assigned baskets in an assigned area (the area can change in the house) but you must read them near the basket or bring them straight back to the basket if you are an older child as soon as your finish reading them. This we I can keep track of the books and have less chance of losing them . It has worked for us for a very large number of years.

So having books all over the house means we can be assured of children all over the house too☺. Not good when you are looking for them to do their jobs though!
It is a joy to see our children LOVE spending time reading, and thus opening their horizons to many interesting tales and lands.
This is the blessing of a literary lifestyle, one I am so glad we embarked upon many years ago.

Good reading to you all this night!!

Blessings to you and your homes,