Using my LOAF

I have been thinking about shopping more ethically - whether I should, and if so, how? I am very unsure as to what is useful, healthy or important, and which criteria are more important. Is organic food flown half way round the world better than non-organic grown in the UK, or vice versa? Is organic food significantly healthier than non-organic, or tastier, or both? And is it worth the extra cost? How important is it to buy fairly traded products? And so on.

When we came home from Greece I decided to experiment with more ethical grocery shopping. I usually do a weekly supermarket shop online, but last week I a made a couple of real life shopping trips and tried to weigh up the pros and cons of individual items. After Mass last week I spotted a poster in the Parish Hall from Christian Ecology Link which set out succinctly the principles towards which I was blundering under my own steam. Apparently, I am now using my LOAF by looking for items that are:

* Locally produced
* Organically grown
* Animal friendly
* Fairly traded

I am not worrying about an all-or-nothing approach, and simply trying to do what I can. Given that I am starting from a near-zero base anything has to be an improvement! My budget will not run to a complete switch, and I am trying to balance costs and benefits. This is my LOAF progress so far ...

Locally Produced
No major cost implications here, just a little effort to check the place of origin on produce, and I like the idea of buying seasonal local produce. I opted for British salad vegetables instead of Kenyan green beans, for example. I shop at Waitrose, a smaller supermarket chain which stocks good quality products. The prices are higher than the big chains, but by shopping carefully and making the most of special offers I find I can keep the overall cost similar. British produce was all clearly marked and they had a separate display of local East Anglian produce, from which I bought some tomatoes and some very yummy looking strawberries. I was shocked that certain basics were only available if imported from far flung places - onions (New Zealand), apples (New Zealand, Chile and USA), and pears (South Africa). Tevye has reminded me that I can buy locally produced and reasonably priced meat from a local butcher. It means being more organised and is less just-press-the-button convenient, but it is also cheaper than buying from the supermarket. I'll probably go and stock up the freezer with meat in the next week or two.

Organically grown
Organic fruit and vegetables in the supermarket were just way out of my price range (50-100% higher than non-organic). I have decided to test out an organic box scheme which looks more economical. My first order will be arriving on Tuesday - a large vegetable box and a fruit bag. The contents are chosen by the company, but there are few vegetables we don't eat so I'm happy to take whatever comes. I will have to be careful to adjust my menu plan to accommodate whatever comes in the box. I'm hoping that if I get a weekly box delivery of fresh produce I can cut my supermarket order from weekly to fortnightly and the savings in delivery charges will offset some of the extra cost of buying organic. At the supermarket I did buy organic milk, as Little Cherub is just beginning to drink some, organic minced (ground) beef, an organic wholemeal loaf - cheap because it was near its sell-by date - and organic wholemeal pasta. (I switched to wholemeal bread and pasta before we went away in a bid to move towards healthier eating. There has been a certain amount of complaining, but I'm hanging in there!)

Animal Friendly
As an old-style farmer's daughter I despise cruel farming practices, although I'm no would-be vegetarian or vegan - I have no problem with eating responsibly produced meat and animal products. I very rarely buy meat from the big supermarkets where low prices are achieved at too high a price in terms of animal welfare. One of the reasons I shop at Waitrose is that they are more careful about sourcing their meat. I already buy free range eggs, but the organic free range chickens were way out of my budget at nearly three times the price of the ones I usually buy. Organic free range eggs were also too expensive.

Fairly Traded
Both our town and our Church have "official" Fair Trade status, which means that fairly traded products are easy to find. Do I normally buy them? No (apart from bananas). Why? Habit and economy. I decided to try a few, and came home with choc chip cookies and organic Ethiopian coffee as well as my usual bananas. Our Church has a monthly Traidcraft stall, so I should start to make use of that.

As well as LOAFing, I looked at environmentally friendly products. I now have a bottle of ecologically sound bathroom cleaner, though I haven't tested it yet. I'm also planning to try out various Ecover cleaning and laundry products as I need them (Ecover is the best known and most widely available eco brand here). I have recycled paper products on order. I looked at biodegradable "natural" disposable nappies, but couldn't quite bring myself to pay the extra or risk leaks. (I confess. I'm a Pampers / Huggies person.)

So ... can I keep up the ethical shopping? Will my budget stand it? Or will I lose the will to LOAF as time goes on? At least I am trying!

Thursday Thirteen #6: Favourite English Churches

I am an inveterate Church visitor. Even Tevye has come to appreciate exploring Churches we come across in our travels - or at least, to enjoy the peace and quiet while I explore. Here are some Churches I love - some for the their beauty and historical value, others because they have spiritual significance for me.

1. St.Michael and All Angels, Stewkley, Buckinghamshire. My father's family are from this village, with branches going back centuries. It gives me shivers to realise that my ancestors would have worshipped here in pre-Reformation days. The Church itself is an unusually fine example of a Norman Church, with very few later alterations. This is for the prosaic reason that after the 12th century there was no rich land owner to make any!

2. St.Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, Yorkshire. This tiny Church is even older, originating as a Saxon minster; parts of the building are over a thousand years old. My mother was baptised here, and many of her forebears are buried in the graveyard.

3. Our Lady of Grace and St.Teresa of Avila, Chingford, London. The Church in which I was received into the Catholic Church.

4. The Slipper Chapel, Walsingham, Norfolk. After the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was destroyed by King Henry VIII the little Slipper Chapel (where pilgrims removed their shoes to walk the last Holy Mile) survived, used as a barn. In the late 19th century it was rescued and returned to the Catholic Church, and is now the national shrine to Our Lady. I first visited as a non-Catholic child of six or seven staying with relatives nearby, and fell in love with the place.

5. Westminster Cathedral, London. The premier Catholic cathedral in England. Byzantine in style, it was intended to have a complete mosaic ceiling but it remains unfinished. I love that it has a busy, prayerful atmosphere - by busy, I mean many people making purposeful visits, to light candles, attend Mass, go to Confession and so on, in contrast to Westminster Abbey and St.Paul's Cathedrals (both Anglican) which are so swamped by tourists as to make prayer difficult if not impossible.

6. St.Mary's Chapel, Lulworth Castle, Dorset. This private chapel was the first new Catholic Church to be built in England after the Reformation, and is still in use.

7. Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire. I decided to limit myself to just one of the great medieval Anglican cathedrals, which meant a tough choice. Salisbury, Winchester, York Minster, Durham and Gloucester are all favourites, but Lincoln won on points for its beautiful Angel Choir. (It also loses points for allowing filming of The Da Vinci Code to take place there.)

8. Church of St. Julian, Norwich, Norfolk. The home of the anchorite, Dame Julian of Norwich, where her cell can still be visited. Or rather, a recreation of her cell - the Church was largely destroyed by bombing during World War II and subsequently rebuilt.

9. Chapel of St.John the Evangelist, Tower of London. This is the oldest of the chapels in the Tower, at the heart of the White Tower built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. Tiny and thick walled, it resonates with history.

10. All Saints, Hillesden, Buckinghamshire. I could have picked any number of country churches, but chose this for its sheer unlikeliness. Known as the Cathedral of the Fields, this late medieval church in the perpendicular style dwarves the tiny village surrounding it. It also boasts bullet holes in the door dating from the English Civil War in the 17th century.

11. The Round Church, Cambridge. Because it is ... well ... round. And old, built around 1130.

12. Magdelen College Chapel, Oxford. C.S.Lewis worshipped here regularly during his years at the College, and it is a great example of the many college chapels at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

13. Oxford Oratory Church of St.Aloysius Gonzaga. A Victorian Gothic gem tucked away at the edge of central Oxford. Run by the Oratorians, it has beautiful liturgy to match.

Computer problems

I am still fighting a battle with electronic gremlins

• The DVD drive on my new laptop is faulty. This means I should be able to return it under the warranty, but first I need to find a Mac friendly home finance programme so that we can abandon Windows for good (all our money stuff is currently on MS Money).
• Our wireless router is dead; the spare one we were loaned is faulty. I have a wired internet connection thanks to a modem scrounged from my Mum, but we can't use the laptop on line. (No DVD drive and no internet connection renders it almost entirely useless - though it can still run MS Money!)
  
• My email is playing up. Some mail sent to me is bouncing, but not all. A friend who uses the same ISP said that some of her sent mail is not going through and the ISP say there is a fault they are "working on". I have a suspicion that the same thing may be happening here ... so if you are trying to contact me or don't get mail from me, the great black hole of cyberspace may be swallowing it. (Catherine, I did get your note; Karen, I didn't get the email you were trying to sent me. Ugh!)

Pirates of the Caribbean

We saw it ... myself, Angel and Star, and Next Door, as our neighbours are generically known here (all five of them - two adults, three children). We took advantage of it being Orange Wednesday - our mobile phone service provider has a "buy one, get one free" deal for cinema tickets on Wednesdays.

It fell short of the other two - half the time I couldn't fathom out who was trying to do what and why, and at nearly three hours it was over long - but hey! it had pirates, special effects and Jack Sparrow, so we all enjoyed it, despite A-next-door managing to get her foot wedged in the seat and limping out of the cinema, and Angel blundering around in the dark for five minutes after the film finished trying to find one of her shoes. You remember how in the old days pen knifes had assorted unexpected but useful blades? It seems mobile phones are the modern equivalent. Angel's has a built in torch. Who knew?

Cottage Economy

I have no idea where I got this book, but must have picked it up because I am intrigued by the author, William Cobbett. He was the subject of much admiration by G.K.Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, and the inspiration behind distributism, the economic system they championed. Chesterton wrote a biography of Cobbett, which I half-read a while ago. His Rural Rides is considered a classic and back in the olden days of the 60s and 70s appeared on lists of set texts for public examinations. I remember seeing piles of the book in the literature section of our school stockroom, though I never read it. (I had an intimate acquaintance with the stockroom due to ... ahem ... repeated punishment duty sorting and mending books).

Oh boy, was Cobbett opinionated! Cottage Economy is his attempt to educate cottagers and labourers in how to use a small amount of land to increase their standard of living. He can't resist digressing into purple passages on his pet hates and loves. Tea, potatoes, and Methodist preachers are out; home-brewed beer, home-baked bread and fat bacon are in - beer, because of its significant nutritional value, not its alcoholic content!

For your delectation and delight, a touch of Cobbett on tea ...

It is notorious that tea has no useful strength in it; that it contains nothing nutritious; that it, besides being good for nothing, has badness in it, because it is well known to produce want of sleep in many cases, and in all cases, to shake and weaken the nerves.

... It must be evident to every one, that the practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble and unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather.

... The tea drinking fills the public-house, makes the frequenting of it habitual, corrupts boys as soon as they are able to move from home, and does little less for the girls, to whom the gossip of the tea-table is no bad preparatory school for the brothel. At the very least it teaches them idleness.

... The girl that has been brought up merely to boil the tea-kettle, and to assist in the gossip inseparable from the practice, is a mere consumer of food, a pest to her employer, and a curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate as to fix his affections upon her.

Perhaps I had better stick to coffee. Or then again, I suspect Cobbett might have been able to find a fair few things to say on that subject, too!

What are you reading right now?

I promised Faith I would do this meme when I got home. I'll cheat a little and include my holiday reading as well as my current reads.

Fiction
I rarely read fiction these days. I remember a friend saying that as she got older she read less fiction and more non-fiction. The same has definitely happened to me. I did however read one fiction book while I was away: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, which had been sitting on my shelf for months (or maybe years?). A teenager with Asperger's syndrome finds a neighbour's dog killed and decides to solve the mystery. As a result he discovers more than he bargained for. This book won a number of literary prizes for the way it uses the first person to show how the boy sees and interacts with the world. Well written, but I'm not sure I liked it.

Non-fiction
Two holiday reads: Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson, and Give Me Ten Seconds, by John Sargeant. I enjoy Bill Bryson, and this collection of articles originally written for a newspaper magazine made good light holiday reading. The second book was a biography of a former BBC Chief Political Correspondent, borrowed from Tevye's holiday pile. One of those books I finished more or less in spite of myself. Too much about the internal workings of the BBC, and not as many insights into journalism and politics as I expected. Tevye felt the same, so why I bothered to start the book in the first place I'm not sure!

Today I started reading Cottage Economy by William Cobbett, with a foreword by G.K.Chesterton. This is a gem! Written in 1821 it combines instructions for labourers wishing to improve their standard of living with commentary on contemporary life and politics. Want to know how to make beer, 36 gallons at a time? Or rush lights? Or how to fatten a pig? All there! His comments on the virtues of beer and the evils of tea are priceless. Quotes to follow.

Kathryn needs ...

I couldn't resist trying this one. Type "(Your name) needs" into Google and see what you get. Ignoring the less savoury results ...

1. Kathryn needs help. (You bet she does!)
2. Kathryn needs to execute her plan to stop the train very precisely. (Oops! Really shouldn't have clicked on that link, but it did look intriguing.)
3. Kathryn needs to be self-motivated, organised and able to get on with a wide range of people of different ages. (Well, yes ... that would apply to most homeschooling mothers. Or most mothers, come to that.)
4. Kathryn needs pieces of cheese. (And chocolate)
5. Kathryn needs time in the sun. (Which is why I feel so much better for that holiday.)
6. Kathryn needs to go down for her first nap three hours after wakening. (I wish!)
7. Kathryn needs an earlier bedtime. (That would explain number six then.)
8. Kathryn needs to stop thinking of herself as only a mother and wife. (Why?)
9. Kathryn needs to lose about fifteen more pounds to get to a healthy weight. (OK. Though if I'm honest twenty five would be better.)
10. Kathryn needs one more ticket for Friday. (Not for Friday, but I do need to get tickets for Wednesday and Saturday - Pirates of the Caribbean III and Angel's band concert, in that order.)

HT: Elizabeth at Frabjous Days

We are back

Back in the land of good plumbing and bad weather! And yes, we had a lovely break. Very lazy, with a shamefully large amount of time just spent at the pool.

I tried to take photos, really I did ... but someone who shall remain nameless (but is older than one and younger than ten) launched a snatch-and-grab "let me see!" raid on the camera, managed to flip open the battery compartment, cut the power, upset the memory card and rendered it unreadable. As I am a very erratic photographer who forgets the camera half the time, and then forgets to take photos for half the remainder, this was not a disaster of any magnitude. I did manage a bit of last minute catching up ...

Gone away!

Back in two weeks, when I will catch up with the "What are you reading right now?" meme for which Faith has tagged me.

Picture by Mafleen, from Flickr

Thursday Thirteen #5: Random facts about Greece

Tomorrow we leave for two weeks of sea, sun and sand on the Greek island of Corfu, so this week's theme had to be Greek. Here are thirteen random facts ...

1. The Greek name for Greece is Ellas or Ellada (pronounced Ell-ah-tha)

2. The Greek prime minister is Konstantinos Karamanlis, leader of the Nea Demokratia (New Democracy) party.

3. Greek soldiers can wear skirts and pom-poms on their feet and still manage to look military.

4. The Greek sewage system cannot handle toilet paper :(.

5. Do not dither when waiting to disembark from a Greek ferry. You might find yourself being carried off to the next destination.

6. In 2002 the Euro became the Greek currency, after 3000 years of using the drachma.

7. Greece is the only place I have stood inside the crater of a volcano. To be honest, it is the only place I have ever seen a volcano.

8. Never, ever, go to Athens in August. The Athenians don't - they migrate somewhere cooler and less polluted.

9. The tallest mountain in Greece is Mount Olympus. Yes, it is real.

10. In the Greek Orthodox Church the sign of the Cross is made in the opposite direction to the practice in the Roman Catholic Church (touching the right shoulder before the left, instead of left, then right).

11. The population of Greece is just over 11 million. Over a quarter of the population lives in Athens.

12. Corfu is said to have over 3 million olive trees.

13. The Greek for "Good morning" (kalimera) sounds rather like the Greek for a certain marine animal (kalamari). Greeks are very polite, so when accosted by tourists with a cheery greeting of "squid!" they will smile sweetly and not point out the error.

Knit the Classics

For some reason Brideshead made me think of hats and Catholicism of course, but not being Catholic I was unsure how to go about knitting a rosary. So I knit a hat instead.

If you like books and knitting you have to check out this unique blog: Knit the Classics. As in knit Brideshead Revisted or Dante's Inferno, not "knit this classic sweater". Fancy knitting Charles' Beret, or a Lilliputian Sweater?

Oh, this is just ... classic!

My ecological footprint

I am reading a book about living in an ecologically and ethically responsible way (the title escapes my foggy brain) and was inspired to check out my "ecological footprint". Apparently it takes 3.6 hectares of land to keep me in the style to which I am accustomed. Not bad compared to the average for someone living in the UK of 5.3 hectares, but not good considering that there are only 1.8 hectares of productive land per person when the earth is divided between its entire population. I suspect the plus points in my favour are that there are five of us living in one house, I rarely drive alone, and I also walk quite a bit. On the other hand we eat a fair amount of meat, and are not very energy efficient.

Being the curious person I am, I input exactly the same answers but pretended I lived in the USA, somewhere with the similar weather to New York. Converting the European hectares (hectares? what are hectares?) to imperial acres, here is a breakdown of the two results.

UK
Average footprint 13.2 acres
My footprint
- food 3.7
- mobility 0.7
- housing 2.2
- goods / services 2.2
giving a total of 8.8 acres

USA
Average footprint 24 acres
My footprint
- food 4.9
- mobility 0.7
- housing 6.7
- goods / services 6.7
giving a total of 19 acres

If everyone lived like the real, British me, we would need 2 planets; if everyone lived like the imaginary, American me, we would need 4.3.

Take the Earth Day Ecological Footprint quiz here.

Good news for home educators

The government here has been reviewing the law regarding home education and considering whether to impose new regulations. Given the general trend in Europe - both France and Ireland have already introduced restrictive homeschooling laws - and that the current government has turned over-regulation into an art form, I was pessimistic about the outcome. Consultation documents suggested that various changes would be made, including compulsory registration for home educated children, more intrusive powers of inspection, and possibly the imposition of the National Curriculum on homeschoolers.

The new guidelines were issued today and to say I am pleasantly surprised is an understatement. No change! Everything remains as it was, and better still, the guidelines clarify the limits of the role of education authorities with respect to homeschooling families. This should make it harder for them to overstep their legal bounds. Those of us who form the silent majority of home educators here owe a big debt to those pressure groups who have worked hard to influence these guidelines. Good job!

Read the BBC News report here.

Where are you on the political compass?

Hmmm! Very interesting! Recognising that the old distinctions between left and right have blurred and become more complex, The Political Compass claims to make it possible to map your political leanings more accurately by using four points of reference - left, right, authoritarian and libertarian.

I find it increasingly difficult to define myself politically, as I feel uncomfortable with all the main political parties here. I generally vote differently in local and national elections and my vote is largely personal rather than ideological. We are fortunate to have a Member of Parliament who is pro-life and pro-family - a great rarity in British politics - so he gets my vote regardless of party. To be honest, if I had to vote solely along party lines I am not sure I would feel able to vote at all. From my position of political disillusion I was intrigued to see where I would fall on the political compass.

The result? I am mildly left and libertarian. Left? As I was almost exactly in line with Pope Benedict XVI, I will settle for that - though he was authoritarian where I was libertarian, courtesy of a distaste for overbearing government. The political figure closest to my position on the chart was Gandhi, another figure I admire.

So, where on the political compass are you? Take the test and find out.

New look

My blog has a new look, thanks to a new blog ... Moms Who Blog, where a generous group of experienced bloggers are passing on tips and tricks. They inspired me to move beyond my profound ignorance of html and tackle a new template. I think I am pleased.

They also include advice on finding copyright free photos to use on blogs. I'm afraid I haven't been doing this correctly, though I have been avoiding photos from private sources and sticking to those available on public sites such as the BBC and Wikipedia.

Thursday Thirteen #4: England in May

1. May (hawthorn) blossom

2. Maypoles

3. Ice cream vans

4. Ducks

5. Lambs

6. The Padstow 'Obby 'Oss

7. Picnics

8. Bluebells

9. Cricket

10. May fayres

11. Cow parsley

12. Well dressing

13. The Helston Floral Dance

Slightly late due to technical issues! Glad to report that my internet connection is now fully, wirelessly restored :)

And no, everything in England isn't quaint and rural, but I thought it would be fun to share a few things that are.

A candle for Heather

Like many other homeschoolers, I enjoyed taking part in the recent Homeschool Blog Awards. One of the organisers, Heather, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour and is undergoing surgery today, May 3rd. Alice at Cottage Blessings suggested "lighting a candle" for Heather, by including this picture in blog entries along with a reminder to pray for Heather and her family. Please join us.

You can also find the code for the "praying for Heather" button in my sidebar here.

I'm wired

... though not yet wireless. Thank you St. Isidore! And also thanks to a nice, helpful young man from the Tiscali helpline in India who gave me advice and even called me back to talk me through setting up a borrowed modem-router on the Mac.

More good computer news ... in a perverse sort of way. Possibly. The DVD drive on my new, much unloved Windows Vista laptop appears not to be working. Could I be looking at a refund on yet another machine? Surely not! But if so, then I will be looking for a used MacBook rather than go through more pain with Windows Vist-grrr! I'm trying not to get too hopeful.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good ... I am managing to do a reasonable number of workouts. I have decided I like the Taebo one much the best - it leaves me feeling fitter and stronger, rather than tired and achy. Every other day seems about right for now.

The bad ... while exercising yesterday, I stopped for a drink and knocked my glass of water over the wireless router. Our wireless connection disappeared.

The ugly ... several wasted hours and much frustration later I can't resurrect the router, or find any way of getting an internet connection on either of our computers. I can like get a connection using my old broadband modem and my neighbours' laptop, but can't load it on to either my iMac or the WindowsVista (grrrr!) laptop.

Who is the patron saint of computers? I need help!

Voices from the past

Karen E posted a link on her blog to an internet poetry archive where you can hear poets reading their own work. It reminded me that a while ago I turned on the radio and caught a snippet of Hilaire Belloc reciting one of his poems, in an old, crackly recording that sent shivers down my spine. I wondered what else might be lurking on the internet. I couldn't find Belloc but here are ...

• The only surviving radio broadcast by C.S.Lewis, from 1944.
• The voice of G.K.Chesterton

Any shivers out there?

"There are timetable things everywhere!"

Indeed there are, Angel. Indeed there are!

Most unusually, yesterday was a free day for us. We went to Mass on Saturday night in anticipation of doing something yesterday that didn't happen, and Angel and I decided to miss our brass band rehearsal as we were tired.

So I spent the day getting organised. This past week I finally realised why I keep feeling as though I am wading through glue. Doing anything with a high maintenance eleven month old baby is like driving across the Alps - you have to assume it will take at least twice as long as you expect. I'm a slow learner, but I get there eventually. Faced with this realisation I picked A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot off the shelf to browse through in search of inspiration.

While I know I will never manage to fully implement a Rule in the way she recommends, I did find myself inspired to put things on paper, trying to work out a routine that will allow me to fit in everything necessary without that paddling like fury feeling. I now have copies of the following in a nice neat binder and displayed in the kitchen ...

• Daily schedule for all five of us, in half hour increments. Yep. Even Little Cherub has a schedule (along the lines of "with Mum", "with Dad", "with Angel", and a slightly optimistic "nap")
• Weekly schedule, in morning, afternoon and evening blocks
  
• Evening schedule of who does what when and who drives them. Again even Little Cherub is included ("go with Dad to take Angel to dance" for example). This schedule alone made me realise why my brain was hurting trying to remember everything - and why one child ... ahem! ... got forgotten at dance one day.
  
• Schoolwork and daytime activities for this week
• Menu plan for this week
• Basic weekly housework task list

Now, I am not by nature a "schedule every half hour" person, but I found it a surprisingly useful exercise. Drawing up a detailed schedule allowed me to see just what was realistic, and how to overcome the logistical problems in my day. Today I put the schedule to the test, and had the calmest, most orderly day we have had for longer than I care to remember (at least until Star had a five star bedtime meltdown).

I noticed that two things made a very big difference. Firstly, I was focused on what I should be doing at any given time and didn't let myself get distracted by what I wanted to be doing. Secondly, I had a couple of planned times to get on with practical tasks while someone else was responsible for Little Cherub, which meant the amount I could do increased exponentially.

Will it last? Watch this space!

Ooh! I want this!

Doesn't this Salve Regina prayerbook look gorgeous. It includes some prayers from the pre-Reformation English Sarum rite as well as the full twenty mysteries of the Rosary illustrated with medieval art from the collection of Stonyhurst College, founded in exile by 16th century Jesuits. Recommended by Joanna Bogle, who also makes some comments on homeschooling in this post.

We have been out and about

At least, Star and I have. On Thursday we went for a nature walk at a local country park, where Star took these photos of primroses

a solitary bluebell (there were more, but not in their full glory - I wonder whether we were too early, or whether this warm April has already seen them past their best)

and mallards asleep and awakeLittle Cherub came with us and found the fresh air exhausting, particularly after the weather caught us out and we got a little damp (you would think I would have learned by now not to be fooled by meteorological appearances).

Yesterday we went further afield and saw some more wildlife
.... made of Lego. We also saw Romeo and Juliet's balcony at Verona

Sacre Couer in Paris
and even made it as far as Houston. Being a Legoland model maker must be a great job ... and they really are masters of their art.

We also ate ice cream, rode the Jungle Coaster nine times (the advantage of going on a school day in April is that there are no queues!) and got rather more than a little damp - or should I say very wet indeed - on a water raft.

Thursday Thirteen #3: Games

Our current favourite card and board games .... some we have played off and on for years, others are newer. Card games first, then others:

1. Uno ... simple enough for younger children, still fun for older kids and adults. The basic principle is matching colour or number, with special action cards to add a twist. We also had a Uno Extreme machine for a while, which spat out random numbers of cards mechanically, but the numbers were always too random and when it eventually broke we didn't miss it.

2. Duo ... similar to Uno, but requires matching of two characteristics out of three -shape, colour or number.

3. Blink ... yet another card matching game, but this one relies on speed. Rather like Duo, but with two players racing to get rid of all their cards.

4. Numero ... a maths game originally developed for people with Alzheimer's and memory loss. It can be played at a number of levels, starting with basic addition up to 10 or 15, then adding in subtraction, multiplication, division, and later fractions, squares and square roots.

5. Categories ... bought for 50 pence at a charity shop, this has been Star's favourite game for a while. You pick cards to get five categories, then pick five letters and spend two minutes trying to find a word for each category beginning with each letter. We ran out of the printed forms included in the game and are now having to write our own.

6. Monopoly ... enough said.

7. The Hobbit game ... Star and I both enjoy this one, though Angel is less keen. Travel through Middle Earth trying to collect enough jewels and adventure points to defeat Smaug and win his treaure.

8. The Dickens Game ... another charity shop find. Each player chooses one of four books by Dickens to "write". To write an episode you have to match a plot card with a character card and take them both to a writing desk. The winner is the first to finish all six episodes in their book. Includes suitable Dickensian characteristics as inns, stage coaches and a debtors' prison.

9. The Cooking Game ... I have grown to loathe this, but it is one of the girls' favourites. It involves a lot of time going round and round a kitchen collecting heaps of ingredient cards and not doing much else - apart from having to stop to do the washing up, stir the pots or lay the table. Exciting, huh? I suppose the interest, such as it is, is in the opportunity to take cards from other players. Collect all the ingredients for a main course and either a starter or a dessert to win. The game always lasts at least twenty minutes too long for me.

10. Anatomix ... educational! Answer questions about the human body to win pieces and build an anatomical jigsaw. Can be adapted for different levels.

11. Rummikub ... similar to the card game Rummy but played with tiles. Good for thinking skills as you have to manipulate the tiles in order to get rid of tiles from your hand. Like Monopoly, we have played this for years and it is still popular.

12. Pictionary ... really needs at least four people, though theoretically can be played with three. Two teams take it in turns to pick a card, then one player draws whatever is written on the card and the remainder of the team try to guess the word before running out of time. No need to be a great artist, and probably more fun if you aren't! We also have a Junior version of the game with easier words and two sets of graded cards, but have found that the adult game can easily be adapted by just skipping any cards with words the youngest players may not know.

13. Pit ... last, but not least. Loud. Fast. Great party game. Try to collect a set of eight stock market commodity cards by dealing with other players. Dealing means swapping cards by yelling the number you want to swap until someone else shouts the same number. Needs at least four players and can be played by up to eight. Danger of cards getting torn in the excitement.

Oops! Latin again!

This time she mixed up periculum and pecunia.

Star's translation of in periculo magno sumus ... "we are in big money".

What it should have been was "we are in great danger"!

Thinking Blogger Award

And there I was, thinking I was still suffering from baby brain fog ... thanks to Mary G. of St. Athanasius Academy I'm flattered to announce that this is officially a Thinking Blog. Mary is one of my very favourite types of blogger - a thoughtful reader who shares lots of book suggestions and reviews. She also has a link to the coolest bookcase ever ... or is it the coolest chair ever?

So what is the Thinking Blogger Award? A fun tag, with three simple rules:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

It's a tough choice, but here goes ...

1. Willa at In A Spacious Place. Willa articulates the needs of her children and the way she tailors their education in a way that always helps me to focus my own thoughts.
2. Karen Edmisten. Reading Karen's blog is like going out for coffee with an intelligent, well read, humorous friend.
3. Lissa at The Lilting House. I could choose her blog for many reasons ... thoughtful posts on Waldorf education, unschooling and Charlotte Mason will do for one.
4. Kristen at Small Treasures. For posts like this one on hospitality (and because I have a fellow feeling for families with small girls - though two of mine are no longer small).
   
5. Dorothy at You Did What? Witty commentary on life as a homeschooling mother sinking gradually into decrepitude (oops! delete that! ... I meant scrumdillyumptiousness).
   

For St. George's Day ...

Prayer to St. George, patron of England

St. George, special patron of England and great defender of the faith, we invoke your intercession for our country in these times. St. George, defend our people from the error of trying to live without God. St. George, defend our people from the wiles of Satan. St. George, protect our families from sin and division. St. George, protect our young from all who would corrupt them. St. George, protect the unborn from the evil of abortion. St. George, protect the old and vulnerable from the threat of euthanasia. St. George, defend the Church from all spiritual, moral and physical danger. St. George, intercede for faith to return to the heart of our land, family life and government.

St. George we pray to you, our beloved patron and implore your powerful intercession for the conversion of England, once Mary’s dowry and land of so many Saints. Amen.

[from Walsingham Prayer Book]

Mean, but not lean!

Faced with the realisation that I can no longer put off doing some sort of regular exercise I have been looking for inspiration at Lean But Not Mean, a fitness blog kept by a group of Catholic homeschooling mothers.

My last push for fitness took the form of joining the gym at our local leisure centre. It worked! I went regularly two or three times a week and felt much better for it ... then came pregnancy and that was the end of that! Right now, I honestly can't see how I could fit regular visits to the gym or exercise classes into my week, so I'm trying out exercise videos and DVDs that I can fit into my normal day. My main criteria for choosing is cost. Given that I have no idea what sort of exercise routine I would like, having not done this before, I'm trying to pick up a selection of cheap used or discounted tapes and DVDs to try out. Hence the "mean, but not lean" title of this post (the "not lean" part speaks for itself!).

So far I have three workouts ...

• Rosemary Conley's Whole Body Programme 2 - too easy, which is encouraging! I think I may recycle this one back to Oxfam.
  
• Taebo: the Future of Fitness - as recommended by Leonie, so I was pleased to spot this for a pound at a charity shop. It combines a Taebo Live workout with instruction for beginners (that's me!). The girls think mummy kick-boxing is very funny. It is a stretch, but I can just make it through the 30 minute routine.
• Kym Ryder's Burn and Firm Workout - promises "four weeks to a firmer, fitter you". Hmm. I guess that depends how often you do it and how much you eat. I'm not holding my breath. I tried the basic routine for the first time this morning - easier than the Taebo, but still felt like good exercise. There are also extra segments I can add in if I'm feeling inspired and have the time.

I did the Taebo work out four or five times the week before last, but last week went by the board as I struggled to get going after a weekend fighting a virus. No excuses this week, so I'm aiming for at least four workouts again.

Look at me!

... having fun at the farm. Am I cute or what?

What happened to the books?

For the first time ever, my plans for this term don't include any living books - just textbooks and hands-on activities. This is so not my natural inclination! But Angel has decided that at twelve she no longer wants to be read to, and the subjects she is working on are technical rather than literary (science can of course be learned through living books, but Angel really does do better with just-the-facts texts and workbooks). Star is also in a very hands-on stage and focuses much better on things she can be actively involved in, so I am going with the flow. For now, reading aloud can wait until bedtime for Star, and Angel (who at twelve has decided she is getting too old to be read to) can read to herself for pleasure.

Children are such a channel for learning humility. Here I am, a booklover with shelves full of lovely books I would love to share with my children, and with children who - at this stage of life at least - just don't want to learn that way.

Carnival of Toddlers

It has been a long time since I last had a toddler, and reading the posts including in this lovely Carnival of Toddlers by Meredith of Sweetness and Light has me looking forward to the toddler time that is just round the corner.

I love the baby days and with Angel and Star found toddlerhood hard work by comparison. This time I think the combined wisdom of homeschooling bloggers and a deeper understanding of just what a great gift toddlers are will make it a joy - though I hope the mammoth tantrum Little Cherub threw at her nine-month development check isn't going to be too regular a feature

As yet Little Cherub hasn't worked out how to get up onto her own feet so toddling looks a while off. Come to that, she hasn't made it up on to her knees either, and is slithering everywhere on her stomach - very efficiently, with a neat little side kick turn. Note to self: white t-shirts and commando crawling babies are not a good combination!

Thursday Thirteen #2: Gadgets I couldn't live without

OK, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but all of these make my life easier or more fun.

1. Bamix food processor ... I inherited mine over twenty years ago and it is still going strong. I use it for everything.

2. Bread maker ... I really should get back into the habit of using it regularly instead of occasionally

3. Digital camera ... the useless photographer's friend. If it doesn't work first time, try and try again.

4. Printer-scanner-copier ... how did I ever homeschool without one?

5. Rechargeable electric screwdriver ... no blisters however much flatpacked furniture needs assembling.

6. Wine cooling sleeve ... from room temperature to chilled in ten minutes.

7. Baby bath seat ... she loves it, we love it. No more trying to cling on to a wriggling, slippery small person.

8. Clip-on book light ... if I can't sleep I can read without disturbing Tevye.

9. Memory stick ... for moving files easily between computers.

10. MP3 player ... I am trying hard not to covet an iPod

11. Mobile phone ... I used to despise them, but now I'm hooked. I think it was those Orange free texts deals that did it.

12. Pampered Chef toaster tweezers ... what? I hear you ask. Yep. Bamboo toaster tweezers. No more burnt fingers trying to fish those just-too-small crumpets or pittas out of the toaster. And no risking electrocution by trying to prise things out with a knife.

13. Paint rollers ... transform a room in the blink of an eye, and so cheap you can throw them away instead of spending hours washing the paint out. (Maybe it isn't very environmentally friendly to treat them as disposable, but I have never succeeded in getting one clean, so I have now shamelessly given up trying.

Art and music resources

Our local Charlotte Mason mothers' group (how lucky I am!) meets tonight, and we are planning to talk about art and music, CM style and share favourite resources. Here are a few of mine ...

Art
I particularly like books that combine picture study with hands-on activities (that way I get to cover two subjects in one go!).

Artists Workshop: Animals by Penny King and Clare Roundhill is one of a series (other titles are Landscapes, Stories, Portraits, Myths and Legends and Sports and Games). Each book has a double page spread focused on a specific work of art, followed by another with art activities inspired by it. The artwork and activities are both very varied, ranging from stone-age cave paintings to modern art.

Oxford First Book of Art by Gillian Wolfe. Similar to the Artists Workshop series, but each double page spread includes two or three works of art linked to a theme, a "look closer" section, and a suggested activity.

Discovering Great Artists: Hands-on Art for Children in the Style of the Great Masters by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. An activity based book with numerous art projects, including a useful table showing the difficulty level of each. You would need to find another source to view the original works of art by each artist (easy enough with the internet).

Artistic Pursuits. This is a full scale art curriculum which combines picture study with art instruction. Begins with books for 5 to 8 year olds and goes right up to high school level. We have only dabbled in the two books we have - pregnancy inertia took over - but I like them a lot. You can even buy kits containing all the materials needed for each book.

There are a number of art books for small people I am looking forward to getting out to use again with Little Cherub ...

For picture study I Spy: An Alphabet in Art and other books by Lucy Micklethwait, including Numbers in Art, Animals in Art and A Child's Book of Art (one I missed last time round that looks wonderful). Lots of great art in picture book format.

Usborne's Playtime series was a wonderful source of art and craft ideas for this art-challenged mother ... titles include I Can Cut and Stick, I Can Finger Paint, I Can Crayon and I Can Draw Animals.

Music
iTunes. Or any other source of music downloads. Being able to buy just the music I want to listen to rather than having to buy an entire CD, half of which I didn't really want, is wonderful.

The Best of ... series (like this Best of Haydn CD) produced by Naxos - covers all the major composers and reasonably priced.

Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten - a great way of introducing children to the different instruments of the orchestra.

Having instruments available for children to experiment with. They do not need to be anything fancy - a recorder and some percussion instruments would be plenty to start with.

I have never bothered with books about music or composers - probably because I always think of music as something we do.

Plans for this term

Angel is on a basics-only schedule (so that I can spend more time with Star) ...

Maths - Conquer Maths / a.k.a. Maths 2XL, sections on measurement, area, volume and statistics
French - plugging on slowly with Skoldo 3
English - finishing So You Really Want to Learn English 1 (3 out of 10 chapters to go)
Religion - on hold, waiting for a couple of books to arrive from Amazon for me to check out
Science - working on chemistry from So You Really Want to Learn Science 2. I'm thinking of buying Apologia General Science for next year for her. If I do, then we will probably start it early. I'm not sure whether it would allow her to work independently (more-or-less) for science, or whether it would simply cause traumas. I don't like the young-earth stance, but think I can work round that.

For Star I want to do some more time-intensive, hands-on and outdoor-oriented stuff ...

Maths - finish off My Pals Are Here 3B
Latin - chapters 4 and 5 of Latin Prep
Religion - read The Life of Our Lord by Marigold Hunt
Science - nature study, focusing on birds, trees and insects in that order
History / geography - making a lapbook about our local area, with lots of field trips to take photos.
Art - projects from Artists Workshop: Animals for the first half of term. We will probably use another book from the same series after that.

I used my wilting and under-the-weather weekend to plan out the term, and have nice schedules mostly finished. I have to have those boxes to tick! Not that we have ticked all of them over the past two days, but on the whole we have got off to a reasonable start. This term will be very light on "real" books, relying mainly on texts and activities - we need a change of focus for a while.

Fruity Latin

The neuter ablative singular of magnus according to Star ...

MANGO

Better than chocolate?

Maybe not quite ... but this culinary delicacy is, as Angel would say, lush.

Ikea's Swedish gooseberry jam - especially good on soft, fresh wholemeal bread.

Getting out and about

We are enjoying an unusually warm April, which is whetting my appetite for getting out and about during the summer. Some ideas I have so far ...

• Have Star do a local history project with lots of field trips (more on that later)
• Start homeschool gym classes on Friday mornings - you are right, that is an indoor activity, but it means reorganising our week so that we have the car on Fridays, then we can stop off on the way home for a picnic lunch and some nature study, or take a trip somewhere else on Friday afternoons.
• Take Little Cherub to the park.
• Take Star to Legoland (a long promised treat)
• A family trip to Chessington World of Adventures - Tevye used to go on annual trips there as a child but has never been back since, so he is coming along with us.
  
• Visit Cadbury World - no, not outdoors either, but it will be a fun trip. And they give away free chocolate!

I am taking advantage of supermarket loyalty card deals for the last three - I can cash in vouchers for four times their value if I use them for day trips. For some reason Tesco seems to be particularly generous with bonus points on nappies and baby clothes, so I may as well make the most of them!

Silver lining to a cloud

We have some unidentified but unpleasant bug - I have a headache and feel wobbly if I move, Little Cherub's temperature shot up to 103 last night (then mercifully went rapidly back down after being stripped off, dumped - protesting! - in a cool bath, and dosed alternately on ibuprofen and paracetamol), Star is off colour and Tevye's neck aches.

The silver lining to this particular cloud is that I am taking a sick day and spending the morning in bed with the laptop planning for our next term which starts on Monday. I also had an email about a resources day a friend is organising for May 1st which has turned my mind to thinking about next year. I already have a fair idea of what we will be doing, but there are still some holes (mostly science-shaped ones) to fill, and it will be a good opportunity to check some things out. Resources days and curriculum fairs are few and far between here, so I'm looking forward to it.

Next term - and next year - I want to focus on Star, who for too long has been playing second fiddle to Angel. I'm planning to spend more time with her while Angel plugs on more independently with the basics. I hope. It is summer, so I want us to get out and about more - partly doing educational things, partly just fun stuff. It will be a term of two halves, with a long break in the middle. The first half term is a short one, just four weeks before we leave for a two week holiday in Corfu. When we get home it will be half-term for the schools here, so we will take an extended break - I know from experience that trying to work when all their friends are home is not a recipe for success! After that we will have a seven week stretch before we finish for the summer, which I hope will be broken up by enough time outdoors not to feel like a long haul.

Thursday Thirteen #1: Life begins at forty - 13 things I have done in my forties

A friend introduced me to Thursday Thirteen (hey Dorothy ... what happened to them recently?) and I thought it would be fun to play. The thirteens can be anything you choose. So here goes - 13 things I have done in my forties (so far! still another three-and-a-half years to go).

1. Had a baby - biggest and best! (OK, maybe the baby is more cute and petite than big, but you know what I mean)

2. Driven across the Alps - which petrified me as I do not have a head for heights and it felt like driving along the edge of a mountain. I was too pigheaded to let Tevye take over driving, though.

3. Played in a symphony orchestra - strictly amateur, but still a challenge.

4. Ridden rollercoasters - Angel and I have some big ones lined up for later in the year.

5. Taken up scrapbooking - though I don't think I will ever manage to keep up with just current photos, yet alone catch up on forty years of backlog.

6. Written half a book - can I finish it before I reach fifty?

7. Spent a week on a canal in a narrow boat - steering a sixty foot long boat under a narrow brick bridge immediately followed by a bend is a challenge I'm not sure I would wish to repeat. At least I didn't have any disasters quite on the scale of Tevye, who reversed into a clump of blackberry bushes ... messy and painful.

8. Joined Weight Watchers and lost twenty pounds - but have since put it back on and more. I can't even blame it on the baby, as most of it had come back before she was on the scene.

9. Bought a tent and camped for the first time since I was in my teens - though I am strictly a fair weather camper.

10. Begun learning to play the euphonium - OK, so I have only been learning for four weeks. It still counts.

11. Started wearing skirts - more at some times of year than others, but maybe half the time overall. Quite a revolution for someone who hadn't worn one on anything other than special occasions for years (or would that be decades?)

12. Converted to a Mac - and after my experience with Windows Vista I am never, ever buying a Windows machine again!

13. Discovered I enjoy cooking - and that it is even possible to make something without being totally reliant on a recipe.

Finding the new normal

Little Cherub is ten months old.
Grandma is settled in her new home and (almost) everything is unpacked.
We are all fit and healthy (thank God!) and my energy levels are pretty good.

After an eighteen month run of crises and survival mode, life is finally getting back to normal. But ... what is normal? In many ways we are having to make a fresh start, with completely new daily routines. Over Easter Tevye and I tried to pin down a routine we think will work. It looks something like this ...

Morning routine
7.15 Get up. Change and dress Little Cherub.
7.30 Exercise (I'm trying out exercise videos) while Tevye gets showered and dressed if he is home. Little Cherub can either watch my efforts or snuggle with a big sister if one is awake.
8.00 Shower and dress while Tevye looks after Little Cherub (on days when Tevye is at the office a big sister gets the job). Make breakfast.
8.30 Eat and clear up breakfast. Angel and Star dress and get ready for the day. Play with Little Cherub.
9.15 Prayers and start schoolwork.

Late afternoon and evening routine
In the days of the "old normal" Angel and Star were either in bed or well on the way there by 8, leaving Tevye and I with two or three hours to ourselves in the evenings. As the girls get older, that time is disappearing fast, so we are now trying to fit in time together earlier so that we can give the girls the time and attention they need later in the evening. Although it will vary according to the older girls' various outside activities our evenings should look something like this ...

5.00 (on office days Tevye usually gets in around this time) Sit down together for a drink and a chat. If possible go out for a walk together with Little Cherub - this depends on the weather, the dinner and the girls' schedule.
6.00 to 6.30 (again depending on the day's schedule) dinner and clean up. Bath Little Cherub.
7.00 Family time for whoever is in and wants it - time to play with Little Cherub, play a board game, watch TV or a DVD together, and so on.
8.00 Bedtime for Little Cherub (in theory at least!). Star gets ready for bed.
8.30 Bedtime for Star.
9.00 Bedtime for Angel (who can be relied on to get herself organised and ready for bed).

The morning routine is looking good so far, after all of two days. The evening routine will be trial and error, as Angel and Star have so many evening activities that no two evenings are quite the same. This week we are still on our Easter break, and I'm not sure yet quite how our schooldays will work. Again, I think it will be trial and error to start with. I definitely need to plan it around meal and snack times, as if the girls (or myself!) get hungry things tend to fall apart.

It all looks far more structured than I expect it to be in practice - it really is routine we are looking for, not a regimented timetable, but I know from experience that I need to start off with something specific and detailed to work towards or everything will just collapse back into muddle and chaos. I also have to write it down to get myself focused and to see that I have a realistic plan. Having the self-discipline to stick to it is the hard part.

A legacy of love

I am way behind on reading my favourite blogs and even further behind in posting here, but when Alice posted this story of A Promise Delayed I was reminded of a family story I discovered recently. I say story, but it is really only the bare bones of one, something I pieced together looking through family papers as I cleared out and packed up my mother's old house.

A while ago I posted on my cookery blog about my Auntie ... technically an adopted great-aunt, but in reality my grandmother in all but name. During our decluttering Mum and I found a box of papers and photos that had belonged to Auntie and Uncle. Among the photos were some of Auntie as a child. Born in 1903, she was the picture of a happy Edwardian childhood ... a contented toddler in frilled petticoats and buttoned boots, and later a smiling family grou0p of a young woman with her mother and father. The photos spoke eloquently of the beloved daughter of proud and doting parents. As indeed she was.

My mother knew that Auntie was an only child. What she did not realise was that her parents married in 1883 (we found their wedding certificate in the same box) and waited twenty long years for this precious child, born when they were both in their forties. Were there lost babies? Was there just month after month after month of bitter disappointment? I don't know ... but I can imagine what joy they must have felt at the arrival of this long awaited daughter.

Auntie herself was childless. She did not marry until she was thirty-five, and there was to be no late in life baby for her. For many years she taught small children, and then found her own family by unofficial adoption - first a lonely young woman whose own mother had shown her no affection, and then that young woman's children ... myself and my brother. Although she died when I was only in my teens, Auntie left the deepest impression on me of all my grandparents, and I realised recently why this was. She possessed what is perhaps one of the most important qualities of motherhood - the ability to make her "children" feel absolutely and unconditionally loved.

I wonder now whether that quality was a fruit of the great love her own parents showed for this child of their later years. If so, then it left an inheritance of love that has passed down the generations of our family. Another find during our clear out was Auntie's engagement ring, which my mother was happy for me to have. I had it altered to fit and now wear it as a reminder ... not just of Auntie herself, but of the warmth of the acceptance, love and joy that she radiated. And I pray that this reminder will help me to pass on to my own children this same warm feeling of knowing themselves unconditionally loved. What a legacy that would be.

Who am I?

1. YOUR REAL NAME:
That's for me to know and you to guess {big grin}
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first three letters of your name, plus izzle)
Katizzle
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three of your last)
Kfau
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite month, favorite drink)
September Champagne or May Pimms, depending on the mood of the moment
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, Street you once lived on):
Helen Mornington (works rather well, I think - more upmarket drama than Coronation Street)
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom’s maiden name)
Faukadug (what does that make me? a wookie?)
7. SUPERHERO NAME: .)(fave color and fave animal)
Pink Elephant (better than White Elephant, but not as good as Pink Panther)
8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father’s middle name)
Nathalia John

HT: The friend known in detective circles as April Darjeeling.

Happy Easter

May you have a very happy and blessed Easter.

Passover recipes

I have posted three favourite Passover recipes on my much-neglected Cookbook blog. During Passover Jews avoid all foods with raising agents, and because of the risk of natural fermentation flour is also normally avoided unless in the form of specially prepared matzah meal. Cakes and cookies therefore become something of a culinary challenge, and most Jewish families will have their own seasonal favourites - cinnamon balls and coconut pyramids are my Passover standbys.

Good Friday, being a day of fasting and abstinence, may not be the obvious time for posting recipes, but my excuse is that the third recipe makes a good light meal for a fast day - chremslach, or matzoh meal pancakes. They are simple and meatless, though I'm afraid my family tends to regard them as a treat, as I rarely make them other than during Passover.

Holy Thursday

Today began with Star's dance exam, followed by a walk to the park for lunch and a play on the swings, an hour wandering round the shops, a visit to the doctor to be officially diagnosed with tennis elbow and given a prescription for anti-inflammatories, and a walk home - uphill! - with a very tired, very grumpy Star. Then dinner and a dash out to the evening Mass.

But after all the rushing around came the familiar dramatic liturgy of Holy Thursday - the return of the Gloria, the readings, the psalm, the washing of the feet, the stripping of the altar ... leaving the Church silent and stark, with statues hidden under purple and the Tabernacle bare and empty. Impossible not to be drawn into the atmosphere of the Easter Triduum. Tonight set the scene for tomorrow's remembrance of the Crucifixion, always emotionally draining, but also tinged with anticipation of the celebration of the Resurrection on Saturday night. As each layer of the Triduum unfolds it draws us "higher up and further in" to the great mystery at its heart ... that God became man, died on a cross for the sake of each one of us, and defeated death itself.

How grateful I am, both for that mystery, and for liturgy that allows even a tired, fuzz-brained mother, whose spiritual preparation has been sketchy to say the least, to experience at least a glimpse of it.

Tevye is visiting ...

... Gdansk, in Poland. Formerly the German Free State of Danzig and one of the ancient Hanseatic towns.

His father left in April 1939 intending to go to the United States, but never made it further than England. We think it is probable that he would have attended the last service held in the Great Synagogue on April 15th. The Synagogue was then sold to the Nazis and destroyed. Almost the entire Jewish community was evacuated from the city, although for the many who went to Poland (including Tevye's grandmother and one of his uncles) it simply postponed the consequences of being a Jew under the Nazis. Others went to the US, the UK or - often illegally - to Israel.

Which Church Father are you?

You’re St. Justin Martyr! You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

HT: Amy at Among Women

Holy Week and Passover

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week and today Passover begins. With rare exceptions due to a quirk in the way Jewish and Christian lunar calendars are calculated, Holy Week and Passover always coincide. In our mixed bag Christian-Jewish household this makes for a very busy week, with two Seder meals and the need to cook without raising agents (no bread!) added to the preparations for Easter and the Easter Triduum (the three great liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday that form the culmination of the Church's year). Last year was the first year since Tevye and I married that Passover fell four weeks after Easter, and this year it is back to the usual double effect.

I have come to realise that my Holy Weeks are seasonal. There have been seasons of intense religious experience, particularly in my early Catholic days, before children, when time and lack of distractions made it possible to fully focus on the liturgy. There have been busy seasons, when I was in charge of music for the parish and Holy Week was hard work, but the effort and involvement helped to bring the meaning of the liturgies to life. Then there have been the years where everything is a rush, small children a distraction, practicalities a burden, preparation scanty and it is hard to feel spiritually connected.

Guess where I am right now? Yes, that's right, one of the rushed, chaotic years. Two years ago I had a marvellous, spiritually uplifting Palm Sunday. We had visitors from the US, a Catholic homeschooling mother and her seventeen year old daughter, and we spent Palm Sunday in London, beginning with Mass at the Brompton Oratory. A liturgically perfect celebration of the current Roman Rite in Latin - including a full reading of the Passion in Latin - in a beautiful Church. We even felt suitably penitential after someone occupied our seats during the procession with palms and we ended up having to kneel on a metal grille. Last year Palm Sunday was a write off. I was pregnant and ill and didn't even make it to Mass. This year? Well, I made it. Angel is an altar server, so she was busy and out of the picture so far as the rest of the family were concerned. I was playing the flute for the procession with Palms (the idea being that it helps the different ends of the procession to keep singing at least vaguely together. I have never known it to work.) This gave Star the opportunity to spot one of her best and most like-minded friends and for the pair of them to launch into a sword fight with palm crosses - or rather, several palm crosses, which they had somehow acquired. It also gave her the opportunity to wedge herself into a packed seat in church next to like-minded friend before I got there. When I asked friend's mother afterwards whether they had behaved well, the answer was "not one of their better days". Little Cherub was also not having one of her better days and had to be removed from the main part of the Church for a good half of the Mass. We have no crying room, so that means hovering in the entrance area at the back where one can see but not hear particularly well and going outside during particularly loud grumbling periods. Not exactly conducive to concentration.

The rest of Holy Week looks busy, if not chaotic. Today I have to shop and prepare for our family Seder tonight, and get rid of any bread and bread-like products from the house. Tomorrow we will be going to a Seder meal at my sister-in-laws - late night, over excited children, out-of-routine baby! An added complication is that Angel and Star have three dance exams between them, each of which will swallow up the best part of an afternoon or evening. They start today with Angel's ballet exam, for which I still have to sew ribbons on shoes (ballet shoe ribbons are one of my pet hates). I will get to the Easter Triduum feeling unprepared and unfocused, and regretting the lack of time to prepare the children properly. But at least we will get there! And this is, after all, just a season. The time will come when we do have time to prepare properly and celebrate Lent and Holy Week more fully. Meanwhile we will live Holy Week in amongst ballet ribbons and flat-packed furniture (yes, still assembling after yet another trip to IKEA!), over tired and out of routine children, with interrupted nights and tail-chasing days. And however imperfect our Holy Week, next weekend it will be Easter.

Last mystery destination clue

A final clue, and I'll post the answer tomorrow for anyone who has not got it yet ...

This city was the site of the first battle of World War II.