Welcome back and some Feast Day Celebrations

Well.... Hello long lost blog Readers,
No, I know you weren't lost, it was me 😉

The times they have been a-changing in our home. Nothing drastic (well some of it has been) but really its just the fact that life moves on, people grow, interests develop and our family life tends to reflect that. The end results have meant not much energy to invest here. Hopefully that will all be water under the bridge and we can become good friends again.

Maybe now that we are starting back to our 'scheduled' learning for the year I may be able to be more in this space and share what is happening in our lives.

The first week of a learning year is always an easy start with three feast days in a row.
St Brigid, Candlemas and St Blaise.

Naturally we celebrated in regular style for us with good food, good reading and activities as well as sharing St Brigid with a special guest.

We really do go all out for St Brigid- after all she is an Irish Saint and well we are of Irish ancestry. What else can we say!
Oh we did this year after reading more about her take St Brigid as our patron saint of our Homestead as she is patron saint of many farm activities 😊

This year we even churned some butter in the hand butter churner I received for Christmas. The kids loved taking turns at it and with that help it was done in no time.

 Next up is Candlemas and although not as big as St Brigid it certainly does get due attention.
 those amazing cupcakes in the first picture. They are actually meant to look like old fashioned candle holder with candle in it. You know the ones you carry up to bed with you. I think they are pretty darn cute.

 Each year we have our floating candles and doves  and have them lit while we do our reading and colouring.

This year on all three days we had a very, very involved little boy. He was quite pedantic about his colouring pages and towards the end of the week was a little testy about his ability. Not Mr Perfect - oh no!!

St Blaise was our final Feast day and the only edible activity we had were these licorice covered chocolate, which were supposed to represent the crossed candles of St Blaise.

Finally after these very 'light' filled liturgical days I think the children will be quite ready for some very 'boring regular' lessons on Monday.

Thank you for dropping by and visiting with us again.
We hope to be better company this year 💗


Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Candlemas and St Brigid Celebrations

As it happens most years for us the start of our formal learning after the Summer break happens around the time of the feast days of Candlemas and St Brigid.

This year proved to be no different for us except we had an interesting start with our Vellvin being lain up after a fall from a car and her injuries resulting from that.

This made our  start to the new year of formal learning  a little more complicated due to the trips to hospital and doctor appointments, x-rays etc as well as her care impeding our ability to follow any schedule at all to start with.

We seem to have come around though and although I haven't in the past year especially had much chance to actually share the feast days we have celebrated I am hoping to do so this year.

For we have continued to do this I just have not had time to document them.

 So we celebrated both Candlemas/The Presentation of Our Lord and St Brigid together, and not on either of those feast days but a day or two late.

Naturally we had to have a St Brigid Day display and we used our background and candle from pat years as well as our cows from various children.

 I knew we were going to have candles, of course we usually do, but this year I wanted to try them floating in water with the doves that symbolise the gifts that Mary and Joseph offered at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple around the bowl of lighted candles.
I really was happy with the result and the children loved them.

 Traditionally we do lots of colouring and word searches as I read aloud from our books and this year was no exception.
I did find a couple of new pages that I loved, but can't find the link to now sorry.

 Candlemas colouring are much harder to find but I was happy with these ones.

All the work is placed in the children's lesson books as a token of what we have learned for the days.
We consider Faith based learning a number one priority and so will 'ditch' the prepared daily plan in favour of Feast Day activities.

 I printed out this blessing for copy work. Although it is really hard to pick just one Irish blessing as they are all so wonderful.

 Naturally I could not find our copy of Brigid's Cloak this year but did read from St Brigid and the Cow's and Saint's Lives and Illuminations (St Brigid is a featured saint in this lovely book)

 After this we moved on to Candle making.
This year instead of making a whole heap of rolled candles for what ever purpose.
I proposed we each make one candle and use that as a special Birthday Candle to be lit in our Birthday Ring for each of us.

 Of course we read from the  New Catholic Picture Bible and then took turns rolling our candle and cutting out small decorations to put on the candles.
So we each have an individual and unique candle for our birthday celebrations.

 It is so lovely to see how the children really love to be part of the craft making for these days and we just love making candles.

 The small decorations we cut out with fondant cutters I had bought a little while ago. I think they were about $5 at K-mart :)

 For dinner we had a traditional soup/stew meal that we tend t eat regularly but always on St Brigid or St Patrick day.
It must be the Irish blood in us!!!!

 This feast day would not be complete without Irish Soda bread again a staple in our home and a recipe we love to use on a regular basis for our Irish Saints.

Last but not least we had a candle cake for sweets as the finale for  this double  Feast Day.
I am thankful for the help of our children always for these feast day celebrations.

Long gone are the days when I had only little children and I did all the preparations myself. These days I have lots of older helpers to prepare food and crafts if I need it, and really I think that is how it should be.

As they get older they can take a more active part in living our Liturgical Year and thus truly make celebrations of Feast Days a memory that now becomes a reality of living!

Blessings to you and your homes,
  

St Brigid Day Celebrations 2013

Our celebrations of St Brigid Day this year went fairly smoothly even though I had a fair bit of running around to do.

Vellvin read Saint Brigid and the Cows and Brigid's Cloak to the younger children while they coloured in their colouring pictures and did the word search that we prepared earlier for them.
Eden prepared a back drop for our display of St Brigid with her cows coming along behind her.

I really love how this turned out with our Schleich figures

We enjoyed this year again the making of paper dolls of St Brigid. I am so blessed to have such arty children as these were Rogan's creations. I really love these drawing of St Brigid.

He actually made these ones first but they were a little too small for the children to make the cloak for based on the Brigid's Cloak  book

The fun part of making these paper dolls is the making of the cloak.
We used light blue tissue paper this year and then put the sticker stars from the school supply section on the them. Then close in front with another star.

Just a couple of the St Brigid dolls

As St Brigid is the patron saint of Dairy Maids we usually have a few dairy items on our menu. Arwen had a lovely time stretching some of the dough as I made our Soaked Buttermilk Date Scones.

Can I mention these are great for breakfast, Lunch or snacks or sweets, oh well they are great anytime.

I mentioned in my planning post this year  we were trying a new Irish Soda bread that was also soaked in buttermilk overnight. This recipe looked good but we decided to go with this one instead .
I am sure we will make this again as we did really like it
Here is the recipe we used to suit our preferences~

Ingredients:
5 1/2 cups spelt or Kumut flour ( we used Kumut time- it is more like a wholemeal flour compared to the white spelt we usually use)
2 cups  buttermilk
Port
1 cup dried currants and soak in Port
1 tsp bicarb soda

Method:
Put five and one-half cups spelt or Kumut flour in a bowl, then stir two cups fresh buttermilk into the flour. Combine the flour and buttermilk well until the two are thoroughly mixed together to form a soft, shaggy dough.
Cover well and tightly, allowing the dough to sit at room temperature overnight or up to eighteen hours – a process referred to as “soaking.”
In a separate bowl or small container, pour out 2 cups dried currants then pour enough port over the currants and or sultanas to cover them. If you do not have whiskey on hand, or do not wish to use it, cover the currants with filtered water brought to room temperature.
Allow the currants and or sultanas to soak in the port for the same amount of time you allow the flour to soak in buttermilk – overnight to eighteen hours.
The next day, after the dough and currants have sufficiently soaked overnight or up to eighteen hours, strain the currants from the whiskey reserving the whiskey for another use as you see fit. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the oven preheats, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead one tablespoon caraway seeds, the whiskey-soaked currants, one teaspoon baking soda and one teaspoon unrefined sea salt into the dough. Flour your hands, as needed, and shape the dough into a nice, full and round ball.
Cut a deep cross into the top of the dough. When the oven has reached a temperature of 425 degrees Fahrenheit, place the dough in the oven and bake for twenty-five to thirty minutes.
After the soda bread has baked at 425 degrees for twenty-five to thirty minutes, reduce the heat of the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to bake for another fifteen to twenty minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool thoroughly before serving.

Dinner was a meatless meal is it was Friday. So we had Potato Bake and steamed vegetables with a drink of milk.

We never got around to making our crosses this year. So sad but next year we will get to it again.

However we had a lovely day and pray you enjoyed your own celebration of this favourite saint!

Prayer to Saint Brigid Saint Brigid:
You were a woman of peace.
You brought harmony where there was conflict.
You brought light to the darkness.
You brought hope to the downcast.
 May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious, and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.
Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.
Brigid you were a voice for the wounded and the weary.
Strengthen what is weak within us.
Calm us into a quietness that heals and listens.
May we grow each day into greater wholeness in mind, body and spirit.
Amen

ST BRIGID PRAY FOR US!!!! 

Blessings to you and your homes,

 

St Brigid....of Ireland

Tomorrow is the Feast of St Brigid of Ireland and I know I have said it before, but it really is one of our favourite feast days.

We have some interesting ideas for tomorrow that we hope to do as part of our celebrations and a couple of Doctor appointments as well, so here is hoping we get it all done.

One thing different for us  this year is our Irish Soda Bread.
As far back as I can remember we have used this recipe for both St Brigid and St Patrick celebrations as well as any other time we wanted some Soda Bread.

Now we are are grain free, except when soaking in a lacto-fermentation process we have to find new recipes for our favourite foods.

Last year we made a grain free version of Irish soda bread which was fairly good. It was a fairly small loaf for us though.

But we still would prefer a more traditional Soda bread so at the moment we have some Kamut Flour soaking in buttermilk along with a currant/sultana mix soaking in port (it should be whiskey but we don't have any in the house) which we will make into Irish Soda Bread tomorrow.

I look froward to sharing this along with our other activities with you then.

Oh, I just have to share this idea with you now though before I head off to bed as a plan for tomorrow:
One of the traditions that has almost died out is that of creating a "St. Brigid's Mantle." This is where families hung a ribbon or a handkerchief out on trees or clotheslines. The belief was that if Saint Brigid touched the cloth, it would possess curative and protective powers. These ribbons or handkerchiefs are called "St. Brigid's Mantle." 

So Until tomorrow I would like to share this blessing with you:


St. Brigid's Blessing
Through her holy intercession
with our Father in Heaven,
may St. Brigid bless
you and and make you
generous in your giving,
pleasant in your greeting,
honest in your speaking,
loyal in your loving,
clear in your thinking,
strong in your working,
and joyful in your living
And when it's time
for your homecoming,
may there be peace in
your passing and a warm
welcome in heaven.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

St Brigid Celebrations 2012

Eden's colouring page she drew for us

The celebration of St Brigid snuck right up on us as we had just started back to our regular lessons for the year this week. After a long Summer break we are excited to be back in the organised learning phase.
However as we had not time to look at anything new this year, or the chance to get materials either. Our day consisted of using what we had to great some memories for the favourite feast day.

The first thing we started to do was to colour in some pictures while I read aloud Saint Brigid and the Cows 

Brigid's Cloak

We used Eden's colouring page as well as  St Brigid that Charlotte has shared. The children also coloured in the Celtic knots that I have on my planning page

As the reading took quite a while we started to have a jumpy three year old and Corbyn stayed  for most of it which is a good effort for him

While we were doing other feast day activities Autumn was doing puzzles puzzles with little Arwen and then a very bouncy Corbyn wanted to join in.

Vellvin actually cam up with the idea to make St Brigid Paper Dolls (she was couch bound after spraining her ankle the day before). Rogan individually drew and coloured in the dolls, each one different and cut them out for the younger children.

I wanted to create a blue cloak for her to wear that the children could take on and off. So based off the picture book above Brigid's cloak I found some blue tissue paper,

cut it out with a slightly rounded end on one end, crumpled it up and got the younger ones to put some starts on the cloak.

Then I simply twisted it on in place at the front and held it with another sticker.

A view from the back.

As is tradition we made Irish Soda Bread (recipe on this post) and interestingly again Rogan was the keen participator of this activity.

Here are our little ones putting stars on the paper cloaks.

Our line up of St Brigid Paper Dolls

These are close ups of Rogan's Paper dolls

The two St Brigid peg dolls I have made for Autumn (left) and Arwen (right) for their birthdays. They let us borrow them for this feast day.

Eden making a St Brigid Cross from the sags (sharp wild grasses) we have on our property. They were difficult to work with as they do not roll or bend easily.

So not to be discouraged we looked for another medium to make them with- our solution from something we had on hand was.....wait for it....

The Jute String St Brigid's Cross

Our Bookcase display

As Rogan was setting the table he ran off saying he had a brilliant idea, and came back with these Schleich cows from our collection of these toys.

As we were unable to go out to get food or supplies for this feast day (lack of a car) we looked as I said for what we could use at home. Hence, the fact that it was just before shopping day as well meant, well not much to choose form in the larder.
As we thought about it we decided we could make home made wedges: potatoes are great Irish food right, with sour cream; representing the dairy of St Brigid's early years and sweet chili sauce (with no relation to Ireland at all)

The beverage of choice this evening was more dairy: milk shake, chocolate of course with yet more dairy, cream.

Our completed soda bread was the last item on our agenda and  we even had left over  for morning tea.

Just remember that the tradition of celebrating Saint Brigid’s Day was often focused not only on the saint herself but also on cattle and dairy ... of which Brigid is the patron saint.

I know I always can't resist looking for new ideas so here are a few new ones~
*  new links for making Crosses and this one Crosses- easy to see
* Irish Ideas- like a unit study (not sure how good this one is as I have only just started looking at it)

Blessings to you and your homes,