St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day. This day gives me a wonderful opportunity to share our Celtic heritage with the children. We are teetotalers here, so no green beer or anything like that, we celebrate with nice Celtic music, and maybe a movie with an Irish theme (this year we will be watching The Secret of Roan Inish), but best of all we have one of our favorite meals, Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, and Soda Bread, and some yummy dessert. This is also a perfect opportunity for explaining to children about the Trinity using the same example St. Patrick did- the Shamrock.

This year I had fun making St. Patrick's Day mix Cd's for my friends and family with lots of my favorite Celtic Music. I also thought I would share with you some of my favorite Children's Book selections for St. Pat's day.

First I will start with Tomie DePaola books-He happens to be one of my all time favorite children's author's and writes some wonderful books for St. Patrick's Day.

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato an Irish Folktale by DePaola is a wonderful story about a lazy Jamie O'Rourke whose poor wife throws out her back doing all the work Jamie doesn't do, and has to stay in bed, so Jamie becomes worried about what he'll do about the potato harvest and then has a lucky encounter with a leprechaun. Very funny book, great illustrations.

Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka by DePaola- another story about the lazy Jamie O'Rourke, this time his wife is going out of town and he has to keep up with house chores, but every night he has his buddies over and they make a mess, then a pooka cleans up every night until the last night, and I will leave that surprise for you to find out when you read this fun story , this has a great little lesson in not being lazy.

Fin M'Coul The Giant of Knockmany Hill by DePaola- this is a story about a how the giant Fin and his wife Oonagh trick the bad giant Cucullin. Good classic Irish tale, great illustrations, I will say that some people have commented that they don't like that Cucullin's finger gets bitten off, and that there is some talk of fighting in the book as well as a little magic. This never bothered me or my children since it is in the realm of folk tales, we have always enjoyed this tale, good introduction to Irish lore.

Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by DePaola- wonderfully illustrated book that teaches about who St. Patrick was, and some of the history and lore that surrounds him. Wonderful introduction to St. Patrick. I enjoy this book even as an adult.

Now for three other books- St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting Illustrated by Jan Brett- this is an absolutely darling story about a little boy up early on St. Patrick's Day morning, and how everyone in town is getting ready for the parade. Great drawings of how it might actually be in a small Irish town on St. Pat's morning. Perfect for young children, when my kids were younger we read this many times in March, it is a family favorite.

This year I added two new books to our collection of St. Patrick's Day Children's Books- the illustrations were so beautiful they books just drew me in- when they arrived in the mail, I read them right away, and was not disappointed, wonderful stories.

First was A Fine St. Patrick's Day by Susan Wojciechowski a story about two towns competing in a town decorating contest, and how one town ended up winning because of their kindness to a stranger. Cute tale about keeping perspective of what's really important.

And last- Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman- beautiful book- great tale about how cleverness can be worth more than strength, and how a young girl uses cleverness to help her community when the leprechaun king takes all the luck.

Hope everyone gets a chance to read a few of these books, they are all wonderful, and are a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Here are my Amazon affiliate links for the books mentioned in this post.

Moses Lapbook

As some of you know I have been a children's Sunday school teacher for the last 15 years. I love coming up with wonderful new ways to teach Bible stories to the kids. Recently, I learned about lapbooks through some homeschool websites I was surfing through for new ideas. For those who are unfamiliar with lapbooks, basically they are file folders folded like shown in the pictures I included, and filled with interactive little crafts, like mini books or other paper crafts. There are tons of websites out there with lots of great ideas for every subject.

I currently teach an all grade early Sunday morning class- ages 5-12- and felt like this would be a great way to teach a multi-week unit on Moses. For the younger kids I pre-cut some of the items, and they colored and glued, and the older kids were able to piece the crafts together by themselves using my teacher's copy as a guide. Our Moses unit took 6 weeks- the stories we learned were Baby Moses, Moses and the Burning Bush, The Ten Plagues, Parting of the Red Sea, Manna & Quail, and The 10 Commandments. It was a lot of fun, the lapbooks turned out really nice, and were a fun thing for the kids to take home and keep. I wanted to do another one for Easter but didn't get it put together in time, so I will save that for next year, next I plan to do a lapbook of either Parables or Jesus' miracles. I have included pictures, for the patterns I used some pattern books I have had for years, as well as mini book printables, and lots of Internet searches.

Update-
For those interested in the printouts I used to make parts of this craft I have included links to some of the places I found printouts.

This website has pictures of the 10 plagues- http://coloringbookfun.com/Moses/index.html

Also a lot of good info can be found at this web site-

http://www.mssscrafts.com/oldtestament/plagues.htm

Here is where I found the crafts for Moses as a baby in the basket, and the parting of the red sea- this site has a lot of good info and printouts as well.
http://dltk-bible.com/exodus/index.htm

As far as the 10 commandments I just drew them out by hand. The pattern on the front of the book of Moses is from an old pattern book I have that they no longer sell- but I think you should be able to find a good picture to use at one of the links above.

This book is where I got the mini book printout- I use this book as well as the one for the new testament all of the time.

Spring Flowers

The weather has been so beautiful lately. Although it is still the middle of February the weather has been like spring. It is weather like this that makes me love living in Oregon. Monday, Gary and I went out to get the garden ready for spring planting, our little puppy ( who is no longer really little at 40 plus pounds) enjoyed "helping" us as well, although messy, watching her dig with such gusto made us laugh. The little bulbs popping up around the yard, as well as the heather and plum tree in bloom where so happy looking I had to post their pictures to the blog. I love following the seasons, and, as a gardener, love watching every cycle the garden presents- one of the most hopeful things to me, is seeing all the spring surprises that pop-up to remind me that spring and summer are near, I look forward to another year of gardening.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. I have had a wonderful and restful Saturday- I was able to spend the large part of today needle felting. I made two Valentine Gnomes for our seasonal bookshelf. If you haven't tried needle felting yet, I would highly suggest it, it is a very organic, and cathartic craft that always leaves me feeling relaxed.

Tomorrow we plan to have a nice family Valentine celebration, I have planned a fun glittery craft for my Sunday school class.

Signs of spring are all around- bulbs popping up everywhere, and beginning to blossom, and I have noticed the days getting a bit longer. Time to order my seeds, and get the garden ready!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Groundhog Day!

I love to follow the seasons and holidays throughout the year, February is a nice time of year, signs of spring are all around, even though it is still Winter. Groundhog day, also known as Candlemas has always been a holiday I like to recognize. Some years we eat glazed jelly doughnuts, they are brown and only glazed on the outside, a lot like the winter ground, but are filled w/ berry jelly, also a lot like the winter ground - all the roots ready to burst forth with spring and summer beauty providing us w/ fruits, berries, and veggies, as well as pretty flowers. This year I decided to pull out my Groundhog shaped cookie cutter, I got it a few years back- here is a link for a similar one I found at Amazon-





 I baked a nice batch of Sugar cookies, and had a lot of fun decorating them while Sarah and Joe were at school. Our whole family enjoyed them. We also decided, now that the kids are older that we would watch Groundhog Day the movie, which was interesting and had some very thought provoking messages that were interesting to think about- yet again only if your kids are in their teens. Otherwise I would suggest reading a fun Groundhogs day story to the kids- Gregory's Shadow or Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day.

Our day was Sunny until evening, so the local zoo's hedgehog did indeed see his shadow, I believe Phil the groundhog saw his as well- so six more weeks of winter for us.

Candlemas Day is what Groundhog day is also called, as some churches bless candles on this day for use in the church for the coming year, some Christians used to light candles for baby Jesus and his mother on this day as well. I love a little Candlemas poem that I read in My Festivals Family and Food book by Carey and Large-

" If Candlemas Day be fair and bright

Winter will take another flight.

If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain

Winter is gone and will not come again. "

I have included pictures of our Groundhog cookies, as well as our books, and our two resident Groundhogs who join the house's decor from mid January to mid February.

Our Christmas 2009.

Here are a few of our Christmas decoration pictures, I have a very eclectic mix of ornaments and decor, I love Scandinavian Christmas things, I was able to make some new additions to my Cardboard village, in my living room I like some of my more modern whimsical items, and my tree is a conglomeration of it all- Modern, old world, Scandinavian, Victorian, as well as our fun Sci-Fi Hallmark ornaments, we love our Star Trek ornaments, it all comes together to create a fun and warm environment, not to stuffy and perfect, but still beautiful. We had a nice Christmas this year, different gifts for the kids now that they are in their teens. We had fun watching Christmas movies, Sarah did the singing Christmas tree again, we had one snowy day, and did a nice amount of baking. I was able to bake lots of Gingerbread boys, and sugar cookies, we all had fun decorating them, as well as current cookies, snowballs, lemon tassies, spritz, Krumkaka, and rosettes. I made a Gingerbread Chalet, and two Gingerbread trees as well. We had a fun family celebration here on Christmas Eve, and the day after Christmas, on Christmas day we had a nice quiet meal together of one of our favorite holiday meals- Duck w/ orange sauce, and all the yummy side dishes, it was very nice.

Our New Puppy.

As you can tell, I have been unable to post since November. I was all organized for a lovely Christmas holiday season, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a little black, furry, very cute little puppy. Gary (hubby) went to the grocery store to pick up some holiday baking goods for me, and couldn't resist bringing home a puppy from a litter being given away outside the front of the store. When he called and said he was bringing her home I was not too happy, don't get me wrong, I love animals, but I know the amount of work that goes into puppies and I also know that my old, set in her ways, lab Xena would also probably not be too happy w/ the new little critter. But when I saw her for the first time, I couldn't resist, she was absolutely adorable. Even Xena was tolerant. So began my very hectic winter. Our little puppy is named Cordelia (a suggestion from my sister)- we call her Cordy for short. She was 6 weeks old when we got her, and was supposed to be mostly lab- her mother was a fairly pure Golden lab, and the father was thought to be some type of black lab mix. She is now roughly 15 weeks, and has grown to a large 34 lbs. Yikes! We are pretty sure the daddy must have had something pretty big mixed w/ him like Mastiff or Newfoundland. She loves to chew (everything), she can reach the kitchen counters, she is very playful, and very smart. Potty training has been a big challenge, but we are getting there. We are just now settling in to a nice schedule, and I am hoping to be able to get back to my crafting in time for spring, as well as updating my blog more often. I will do my intended Christmas posts, and finish out w/ a Groundhogs day post as well. Here are some pictures of our new addition.