Holy Days

With the end of British Summer Time last Saturday the nights are drawing in and it finally feels autumnal after our long warm spell. Last week it would have seemed too summery for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls; this week I'm ready for these great Feasts that spell the beginning of the end of the liturgical year. Another month and we will be into Advent.

This week also means Halloween, an occasion that is becoming ever more of a big deal here - largely promoted by commercial interests, judging by the way the space taken up by Halloween products in the shops increases annually. In my childhood Halloween was a bit of autumn fun if it was anything at all. Trick and treating was unheard of, and all our excitement was reserved for Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes) on November 5th. Now not only is Halloween much more of an event, but the emphasis is heavily on all things spooky. We don't do spooky. We do, however, do fun and parties. Last year Halloween was cancelled due to pregnancy sickness (!) but this year we are having a small All Hallows Eve party. Thanks largely to inspiration from Joanna Bogle's Book of Feasts and Seasons this is the plan ...

• Carve pumpkins
• Darken the house and light with candles (downstairs) and small lamps (upstairs) - talk a little about what All Hallows Eve means and Jesus as Light of the World conquering death (I have a vague idea of illustrating this somehow with a skeleton and a cross. I'm after a short and visual way of making a point, not a catechism lesson)
• Eat soul cakes as a reminder to pray for those who have died (we will use ring doughnuts as everyone likes those)
• Play games - bobbing for apples, blind feeding, and anything else I can think up
  
• Eat supper by candlelight - potatoes baked in jackets with cheese and baked beans, apple pies and parkin (if my attempt to follow Joanna Bogle's recipe works!)
  
• More games, including hide and seek in the dark
  
• Sweets (candy) to take home

Everyone gets to dress up, but not anything spooky. Angel is planning to be a cowgirl and Star a ladybird. They are trying to persuade me to dress Little Cherub as a pumpkin. The guests are J and A-next-door (evangelical Christians) and G and F, another pair of sisters (Catholic). Six is a nice manageable number - although Star, F and A-next-door are inclined to be over-excitable!

All Saints Day will be a holiday, with Mass in the morning followed by a trip out for a drink and a snack. In the afternoon we will be playing badminton with our local homeschool group, which I think can be counted as holiday-ish.

All Souls Day will mean morning Mass again, followed by a visit to a nearby churchyard to visit my Dad's grave and pray for those buried there.

A sticky situation

Over the weekend I spotted a deliciously ludicrous story in the newspaper ... a pasta factory at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk (East Coast of England) suffered a mishap. Something went wrong with the air pressure in a silo, blasting 2 tonnes of semolina over the town, where the inhabitants woke to find everything covered in a white "frosting". The point at which things went truly pear shaped was when some bright spark on the clean-up team decided the best plan would be to wash it away. Unfortunately they forgot one simple equation: semolina + water = pudding. (For those of you on the other side of the Pond, I think the translation of semolina pudding is cream of wheat.) Great Yarmouth found itself wallowing under a slippery glaze of pudding. Pavements had to be closed off; cyclists slithered off bikes; cars skidded. Pudding went down the drains. There were concerns that it was heading for the sewage works. Yikes!

Roald Dahl would have had a field day. Forget Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? How about Sebastian and the Semolina Sludge?

Scrapbooking

Even though I didn't manage much scrapbooking on Friday it got me inspired and I did four pages yesterday - two with photos from a snowy day last Christmas, and two for Angel's 11th birthday. Star's rock-climbing expedition and First Communion next ... I'm hoping I might get them done this afternoon, then I'll be ready to start on Little Cherub's photos.

While I am on the subject of scrapbooking, I have to enthuse about my favourite scrapbooking resource ... Becky Higgins' Creative Sketches. A kind friend gave me one of her books (after I kept borrowing hers!) and I love it. You can take one of Becky's sketches as inspiration for a layout and then turn it into something individual. Just look up sketches for the number of photos you want to use, choose one that fits the size and shape of your photos and you are away. And there are a number of sketches available online too :). They help me to get over the initial creative hump with a page and give me something I can run with on my own. Love them!

A free day: retrospective

Here is what I actually did on Friday ...

• Baked two cakes (Star baked one and I baked the other, which wasn't finished until 10pm)
• Did half the pile of ironing
• Looked at washing symbols on clothes with Star, who is working on her Home Skills Brownie badge
  
• Cleared one clutter hotspot
• Sorted out a bag of "stuff" that I liberated from my mother's house yesterday
  
• Read lots of blogs
• Finished off some almost done scrapbook pages
• Snuggled Little Cherub (including an extra long bedtime cuddle with a cross baby who had napped too long and too late)
  

Star and Angel ...

• Made a sweet gummy worm with the "Doctor Dreadful Food Lab". It took three attempts, a lot of stickiness, somewhat impatient help from me (I was trying to iron, and clean washing doesn't go well with sticky glop), and was more of a sticky mush than a worm once we got it out of the mould. However, we think we know where we went wrong, and have high hopes for the next revolting concoction.
  
• Made Christmas cards
• Played around with the Sibelius demo software on the computer - Angel helped Star to compose some music (interesting!)
  
• Snuggled Little Cherub

A free day

Today is free ... nothing on the calendar, nothing that must be done, no school work (it is still half term), and no car so no temptation to go anywhere. It doesn't happen often. I have a few things I'd like to do ...

• scrapbook
• bake a couple of cakes for a brass band fundraiser tomorrow
• clear out Star's drawers
• deal with a large, accumulated pile of ironing
• deal with some clutter hot spots
• make plans for a small All Hallows Eve party next week
  
• take a walk

Star wants to bake, make edible potions with a Doctor Dreadful kit she was given for her birthday (eek!) and play a board game.

Angel wants to use the computer and make potions with Star.

Little Cherub wants to snuggle.

Blog of the Week

This time my "blog of the week" is not a homeschooling blog, but one written by another English Catholic - Joanna Bogle, author of A Book of Feasts and Seasons (a great resource for families wanting to live the liturgical year). Hat tip to Rebecca of A Gypsy Caravan who pointed me in the direction of Auntie Joanna Writes. I have been thoroughly enjoying her accounts of her days and her commentary on Catholic life here.

Take a trip to London and pay her a visit.

Rule of six

Mary of St.Athanasius Academy has kindly asked me to take part in her Rule of Six carnival and give a list of six things to include in my children's day, every day. My first thought was not a Rule of Six, but a Rule of Three. Everyday my children should have:

• something to love
• something to do
• something to think about

Heard that somewhere before? It comes from Karen Andreola's Charlotte Mason Companion (I had thought it was from Charlotte Mason herself, but after rooting around on the internet and failing to find a reference I think it is Karen A's own interpretation - please correct me if I'm wrong!). And I think the Rule of Three can be quite neatly doubled into six ...

• Love God
• Love our family
  
• Do something worthwhile
  
• Do something fun
  
• Read something worth thinking about
• Discuss something worth thinking about
  

Loveliness of Babies

I sat down yesterday evening looking forward to reading through all the posts at the Loveliness of Babies Fair hosted by Elizabeth at Real Learning. And my internet connection wouldn't work!!!! How unfair is that!

It had come back to life this morning, so I have been sitting in bed with a snoozing Cherub on my lap enjoying a leisurely read. (Lucky it is our half term break!). There are some incredibly moving and heartwarming stories. If you haven't been there yet, don't miss them.

10 Random Facts

I've been tagged by Rebecca from A Gypsy Caravan for this meme ... so here are ten random facts about me, in entirely random order:

1. My favourite colour is pink.
So it is a good thing that I have three girls and can indulge in lots of pink things. Before having children my favourite colour was yellow, so perhaps I have simply been influenced by my surroundings!

2. I have black thumbs.
I can't garden. I can't grow things. I can kill plants without even touching them ... even when I water them, which isn't often. Most of the few things I remember to plant die of thirst. Sadly, I fantasise about having an allotment (a plot of land you rent from the local council) and growing my own vegetables. I once mentioned this to my neighbour, who laughed hysterically.

3. I like sheep.
I grew up on a farm, and my favourite animals were always the sheep. Cows were dumb, pigs were noisy, but sheep were kind of restful. I always used to get the job of bottle feeding orphaned lambs. And I like knitting ... which uses wool ... which comes from sheep ...

4. I am allergic to horses.
They make me sneeze and my eyes run. As a child I even used to get blisters round my eyes from being with them. I am allergic to animal dust generally - very convenient, that, when living on a farm! - but horses are much the worst. Perversely, cats rarely bother me, which is odd considering that they are so often an allergy trigger.

5. I once walked 120 miles from London to the national shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.
On my own, to raise money for the Sue Ryder Foundation. I did it in a week, which for someone with no experience of long distance walking, turned out to be a rather ambitious pace. I have never ached so much before or since! I got up in the morning aching, started walking and just kept going ... stopping for a rest made me ache more, so I mostly just plodded on. Tevye, who was recovering from back surgery at the time, was mission control. He kept getting plaintive phonecalls along the lines of "if I ever suggest doing anything like this ever again, STOP ME!!!!".

6. I'm a roller coaster fan.
As are both Angel and Star, which gives me an excuse. Angel is now tall enough to ride serious rollercoasters, and I had promised her a trip to Alton Towers last spring to ride on Air and Rita: Queen of Speed. It had to be postponed due to pregnancy, but she is still on a promise. I can take any amount of being flung around upside down, but I find ferris wheels seriously scary as I'm not keen on heights. It is the being stuck at the top while the lower cars are loaded and unloaded that does for me!

7. I love trains.
If it were feasible and affordable, I would always choose to travel by train. I like being able to sit back, relax and watch the countryside zoom past. So much nicer than being in a giant tin can in the sky, or being stuck in a traffic jam in the car. There is a romance to trains - how could hoping on a plane to Venice possibly compare to the Orient Express?

8. I hate complaining.
I will put up with any amount of abysmal service or inconvenience rather than complain. It's an English thing. Tevye, being Jewish, doesn't have the same diffidence. He is on a one man campaign to eliminate the misuse of the apostrophe. He complains. I stand at what I hope is a safe distance away, trying to look as though I am not with him, in a state of mortified embarrassment.

9. I went to boarding school for 9 years.
From age 8 (only a few months older than Star) to age 17. My parents had what seemed very good reasons at the time.

10. I would love to live in Cornwall.
My great-aunt and uncle lived in Cornwall for much of my childhood. They were grandparents to me in all but name, so we visited often and I fell in love with the place. One day, when Tevye is retired and the children grown, I picture us living out our twilight years there.

Cottage Blessings
Doris's Deeds
Dumb Ox Academy
Family Centred Life
Karen Edmisten

... you're tagged! Apologies if anyone else has already tagged you.

Relaxed home schooling

Since realising last week that I was hitting overload I have been experimenting a little with the structure of our days. I'm feeling pleased with myself as I think I have it cracked. Next week is our half-term break, then when we start back we will be trying a new routine I think will keep our days simple and relaxed.

I'm going to split our days into three parts ...

• Read alouds - relaxed and informal, reading to one or other or both in whatever order works best on a given day. If nobody is dressed at 9am when I aim to start "work" they can listen in pyjamas and get dressed as and when I am reading to the other girl. That way I will not get stressed because nobody is ready and I am behind. And I will also not get stressed about my failure to get everyone into a better morning routine. Everyone is enjoying read aloud time this year, after a bad run last year when we had a series of books that just didn't fly for one reason or another. (And yes, I have learned the lesson about not ploughing on too long with a book we are not really enjoying!)
• Written work - the more formal stuff. Maths, English, French or Latin, and researching and writing notebook pages. The later part of the morning seems to be working best for this at the moment as Angel and Star don't switch their brains on very early, and we lose impetus in the afternoons.
  
• Activities - after lunch and some quiet reading time, the rest of the afternoon will be free to do more hands-on things - science experiments, art, crafts, music practice, computer, cooking, trips out, walks, watching a DVD, playing games.
  

We will just "do the next thing" in each session, apart from the afternoons which will be more free-flowing - I'll keep a running list of activity ideas, but not plan in any detail. If we miss a session on a given day, we will get to it again on then next.

The not-at-all mysterious worshipper

Inspired by the mystery worshipper reports and shamelessly plagiarising the questions here is the low-down on our parish ...

Mystery worshipper: The Bookworm
The Church: A Roman Catholic Church in deepest Bedfordshire that will remain anonymous!
The building: Single storey, brick-built, rather uninspiring 1950s building. Replaced smaller "tin hut" on same site.
The community: Mixed bag - mainly English, Irish or Italian, but with a sprinkling of other nationalities.
The neighbourhood: Older part of town, a few minutes walk from town centre.
The cast: Father J, parish priest
Date and time: Sunday October 22nd, 10.30 Mass
How full was the building? Almost full - I would guess about 180 to 200 people.
Did anyone welcome you personally? Yes - an extremely large teddy bear (space is at a premium so donations for a Christmas bazaar are being left in the entrance area), P, an older lady who is a regular welcomer for the 10.30 Mass, and N, a 14yo boy on the autistic spectrum who gives out hymnbooks and missals..
Was your pew comfortable? Standard wooden pew, as comfortable as any other wooden pew. Fold down kneeler a little narrow but adequate.
How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere? Low but persistent hum of chatter.
What were the exact opening words of the service? "Good morning everyone. During our Eucharist this morning we remember that Jesus came among us to serve ... " (can't remember the rest of the introduction, but it was highlighting today's Gospel). Strictly speaking the introduction was not part of the Mass, which started with "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".
What books did the congregation use during the service? Hymn book (Laudate) and a missal for the second half of Year B.
What musical instruments were played? Organ - small pipe organ installed fairly recently. Nice sound but frustrating to play as it has only one manual, few stops and no swell box (which allows volume control).
Did anything distract you? Star and Little Cherub!
Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what? Middle-of-the-road English Catholic. Sticks to the rubrics of the Mass, though not always to the strictest interpretation. Music a mixed bag - hymns ranged from Cardinal Newman to Graham Kendrick; main prayers of the Mass mostly sung, again mixed bag ranging from a traditional Alleluia, through modern-ish setting of Kyrie Eleison, to litany-style Lamb of God. Singing somewhere between tentative and moderately enthusiastic.
Exactly how long was the sermon? 5 minutes
On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher? 7
In a nutshell, what was the sermon about? (A) Used references to a TV sit-com (Blackadder) to illustrate the inability of the apostles to grasp what Jesus was telling them, because it was so different to their expectations of the Messiah. (B). Ended by emphasising that Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Began with flippant humour, but overall the sermon was short, to the point and focused on the Gospel for the day. I'm not entirely sure how Father J got from A to B as I was distracted by a squeaking Cherub.
Which part of the service was like being in heaven? Reverently said Eucharistic prayer; receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion.
And which part was like being in ... er ... the other place? Kerfuffle of children coming back into Church from children's liturgy. One group got accidentally shut out, causing them eventually to collide with the offertory procession. Irritating clapping of children by congregation before they were sent back to their places.
What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost? Can't really answer that one. Too busy dealing with Star's friend F who had "lost" her boots - which, naturally, shouldn't have been off her feet in the first place. Suffice it to say that I was briefly in loco parentis while F's mother was taking grandma home ... and Star and F are two of a kind who need watching like hawks ... and Angel and her friend G (who happens to be F's sister) should know better!
How would you describe the after-service coffee?
Basic but adequate - coffee or tea, orange squash for children, biscuits (or cookies, depending on your version of English!). Served in parish hall which is basic and inadequate - an old, prefabricated building, unheatable in winter and in dire need of replacement. Friendly and sociable. Children over-excitable.
How would you feel about making this church your regular (where 10=ecstatic, 0=terminal)? 7½. I've had an off-and-on relationship with this parish, but it has grown on me over the years. It has some glaring weaknesses - the total lack of any input for over 8s being one - but nothing I can't live with. Overall it is a lot better than it was a few years ago and there is a good sense of community - it is easy to feel part of the Body of Christ.
Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian? Yes.
What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time? Seven days time? I have trouble remembering anything for 24 hours!

History? I quit!

With the honorable exception of Usborne's Time Traveller which Star loved, my daughters dislike non-fiction history books in any shape or form. They have also developed to a high degree the ability to take in information through their ears and eyes and promptly eliminate it from their brains. The final straw was Angel yesterday, who proclaimed complete ignorance of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 despite the fact that we read about and discussed that very incident only two weeks ago.

I give up.

For the rest of this year we are just going to read historical fiction. I'm sticking with my plan to study 20th century history with Angel, but ditching Star's intended foray into the middle ages and having her listen in to Angel's books where they are appropriate - many are not, but if she does history-light for a year it won't ruin her entire future! She has voluntarily opted in to Angel's current read aloud, The Angel in the Square by Gloria Whelan, and I'll play it by ear from there. History should merge neatly with geography as we wander through Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

I already have quite a good book list, though I'll have to do a bit of pre-reading as there are some tough themes and some may be too 'young adult' for Angel ...

Women's Suffrage (British)
Bring Out the Banners by Geoffrey Trease
Miss Rivers and Miss Bridges by Geraldine Symons

First World War
War Game by Michael Foreman
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
(though WW1 decidedly did not capture Angel's interest, so I think we may skip these)

Russia
The Angel in the Square
The Impossible Journey (Stalinist era)
Burying the Sun (siege of Leningrad during WW2)
The Turning (end of Communist era)
- all by Gloria Whelan, an author we are very much enjoying

Spanish Civil War
Toro! Toro! by Michael Morpurgo

Second World War
Dolphin Crossing by Jill Paton Walsh
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
Fireweed by Jill Paton Walsh
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Silver Sword (a.k.a. Escape from Warsaw) by Ian Serallier
When Hitler Killed Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
The Small War of Sergeant Donkey by Maureen Daly

Communist Europe
Song for a Tattered Flag (Geoffrey Trease) - collapse of Ceaucescu regime in Romania

Bosnian War
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic

Korea
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi (and sequels Echoes of the White Giraffe and Gathering of Pearls)

Pakistan
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples (and sequel Haveli)

Afghanistan
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (also sequels Parvana's Journey and Mud City)
Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Israel
One More River by Lynne Reid Banks (and sequel Broken Bridge)
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

South Africa
Journey to Jo'burg by Beverley Naidoo
Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope by Beverley Naidoo

Nigeria
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo

That should be more than enough to keep us going for a year ... and I'm sure I'll find more!

Sweet India

You learn something new every day when you homeschool. Today's gem was from Angel's notebook page on India ... "some of India is covered with hot dessert". Hmm ... are we talking chocolate sponge and custard, apple and blackberry crumble, or rice pudding?

I don't think she will mispell desert again for a while!

Champagne Service

Still intrigued by the mystery worshipper reports ... I like the sound of this one. What a shame it is Anglo-Catholic and not Roman. Magnificent liturgy, and champagne instead of coffee after Mass!

The Mystery Worshipper

I've heard of mystery shoppers, but never of mystery worshippers. I stumbled on this site accidentally, and couldn't resist browsing. What would a mystery worshipper make of our parish Church, I wonder?

In Eden

You know the way things suddenly connect and you find yourself somewhere you didn't expect to be? I am unexpectedly blundering around in Eden. (I'm sure Eden is a place where one should float gracefully, but I am built more for blundering than graceful floating.) At the weekend I finally picked up one of the unread books from my holiday reading selection - Eden by Tim Smit, the man who imagined and ultimately created Eden ... no, not that Eden, but the Eden Project in Cornwall, where the largest greenhouses in the world hold an astonishing array of plants in tropical and warm temperate biomes, providing both a stunning tourist attraction and a repository for the world's horticultural gene bank. I'm intrigued by the sheer scale of the achievement and the way in which a ridiculously impossible idea became reality.

At the library yesterday a new book jumped off the shelf at me, partly because it is published by the Eden Project and partly because it is by one of my favourite illustrators, Jane Ray. In Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, unlike her other Biblical books (Creation, Noah's Ark and the Nativity), she does not use the original text but retells the story herself - well, I thought, though I only skimmed through quickly. One imaginative addition I rather liked was God giving Adam and Eve plant cuttings to take with them out of the Garden of Eden. I just love her illustrations!

And just to keep the theme going, Star and I are currently reading about Eve in Saint Patrick's Summer.

Postscript: I just browsed Jane Ray's website, which confirmed something I suspected. She is the daughter of my former organ teacher. Now I like her even more!

Chilling out

Our school routine is beginning to shake down and is getting more chilled out. Every year I start with a magnificent schedule from which I then proceed to deviate. This year I am both simplifying and allowing more scope for flexibility. The revised plan (I have to have a plan!) is to spend the mornings reading aloud, doing maths, English, French or Latin, and working on notebooks. After lunch we will do some quiet reading, then have the rest of the afternoon free to do hands on stuff - science experiments, art, crafts, games, cookery, gardening, or whatever takes our fancy. We won't get through everything listed on my plans, but we should still manage a fair chunk of it. And, I hope, enjoy more relaxed days.

One year ago

One year ago yesterday I celebrated my 45th birthday. When I turned 40, I still had small children; by 45 it seemed I was definitely in that mid-life stage of children growing older and no little ones coming up behind. I had accepted that much as I would have loved a larger family, my two precious daughters were as big as it was going to get. A few months earlier we had got rid of assorted car seats and pushchairs. That stage of life was gone.

One year ago today I began to suspect I might be pregnant. Over the next few days it became much more than a suspicion - though I put off doing a test, partly out of disbelief, and partly out of fear of disappointment. Finally I plucked up the courage. Sure enough, the test was positive. I asked everyone I knew (and many I didn't) for prayers. I have reason to be very grateful to those friends, both known and unknown, who prayed for us. Pregnancy never comes with any guarantees, and at 45 there was a significantly higher risk of miscarriage and complications. I made it to 12 weeks and a scan showed a perfect, tiny baby. The miracle began to seem real. Morning, evening and night sickness (fortunately afternoons were better) was replaced with a nasty asthmatic cough and breathlessness. I don't normally suffer from asthma but it is triggered by pregnancy. I had it mildly with Star. This time it was a six month battle, trying to keep ahead with an ever increasing pile of inhalers. People continued to pray. Our Little Cherub grew despite my poor health.

Two weeks before my due date I had a routine appointment with my community midwife. My blood pressure had begun to rise. The midwife felt the breathlessness was taking too much of a toll. Worse still, she was not happy with Little Cherub's heart rate. She sent us to the hospital for monitoring. During a brief stop at home to collect my bag I sent out emails asking for prayers. And they were answered. Little Cherub's heart trace wasn't good. Worse, she wasn't moving. The obstetrician decided on an emergency c-section. Within 15 minutes, Little Cherub was out and being resuscitated by a team of paediatricians. I discovered later she was born with an Apgar score of 2. After a short but heart-stopping wait the doctors started to smile ... and Little Cherub cried. Within a few minutes we were able to hold our new daughter. She was tiny - only 5lbs 7lbs - but in perfect health. All those prayers had been answered. Our miracle baby was with us.

What can I say about mid-life motherhood? Simply, it is a joy. I am aware in a way I wasn't with Angel and Star that every day with this little miracle is precious and I savour each one. Even after four months I have to pinch myself to believe this is real. My heart melts each time I look at my Little Cherub; I snuggle her and I'm warmed to my toes. Even looking at the baby paraphernalia scattered round the house is a thrill. I have learned gratitude. I thank God constantly for this precious, unexpected gift. Having a new baby after an eight year gap is in some ways like being a first time mother again - I have that same sense of wonder and excitement - but with the benefit of experience. For Angel and Star, their baby sister is a wish granted. Both had longed for a new sibling. To see them cuddling, comforting and playing with their sister is an added joy.

I try to say Evening Prayer daily (though I'm afraid I miss it too often) and each time Our Lady's great prayer of praise resonates in my soul and hones that spirit of gratitude.
My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour
... the Almighty works marvels for me, Holy His name ...

Deo gratias! And if you were one of those friends who prayed for us, thank you more than I can say.

Blog of the Week

It has taken me well over a week to get round to posting this, but better late than never!

I am not a crafty homeschooler. We rarely get around to the making, baking, painting and growing activities that I'm sure would enhance our studies if only I were better at making time for them and more organised at getting materials together. I love the idea of using crafts to celebrate the liturgical year, but I need inspiration - a lot of inspiration - to make it happen ... and I know just the place to find it.

Alice at Cottage Blessings has a talent for coming up with wonderful Catholic crafts that work for a range of ages. Take a look at some of these. Only Alice could turn wooden ice cream spoons into a cavalcade of saints. And she does all this while homeschooling and mothering seven children.

Enjoy!

Note to self: add ice cream spoons to shopping list. I think we could manage this one!

Beam me up Scotty ...

Hat tip to Alice (a.k.a. Alice-stotle) at Cottage Gardens ...

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?