The First Week of ... Whatever

We've just come to the end of the first week of school for children in our town. Since we don't send our children to school and we don't "school at home," it wasn't our first week of school--at least that's what I keep telling myself. This week:

We celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday with the cousins. It was a very sweet time. It just so happened that it was Karoline's last "month birthday"--she's officially eleven months old. The next one is a biggie!

The college boy came home for a quick visit. He reclaimed his Sox hat and tried to claim the block stacking title. He was pretty impressive, but Christian reached the highest heights.

Everyone came down with a nasty cold. The nebulizer once again took up its seasonal song. I met the new doctor in our practice. My dear, veteran doctor and good friend is fighting a losing battle with breast cancer. Please pray for her.

The new doctor and I became buddies. I made several trips to the doctor and spent a several hundred dollars on medications to ensure my children will breathe through the fall. I willfully brushed away my irritation at having to pay to breathe and instead prayed for two friends whose children's breathing problems are not so easily fixed with medicine.

The washing machine broke on Monday night. Three or four times a day, all week long, I drove my laundry up the street a mile and lugged it up two flights of stairs to wash it at my friend Mel's house. Then, I lugged the wet laundry back down the stairs and back home. I have biceps. And triceps.

I called the washing machine guy no fewer than six times this week. His voice mailbox is now full. I filled it with desperation.

I bought paper diapers.

Nicky was devastated by his inability to build block towers of any commendable height. We distracted him with Connectagons. Way cool.

The girls fell in love with Cicely Mary Barker and the little boys discovered Elsa Beskow. I think we are about to ditch the Colonial America plans for a woodland fairy rabbit trail.

I watched my friends' little boys on their packing day. And their moving day. Sure hope they didn't take our colds with them to Florida.

Christian did some math. I am certain of this because Teaching Textbooks allows me to check his progress with a click of the mouse. I think I have found math heaven.

I managed to make Indian food on the feast of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

We read the book for the feast on the morning after the feast.

We had the tea and sweets for the feast at 9PM on the evening after the feast. We never got to the craft. Oh well, I get points for trying, I think.

In an act of utter insanity, I decided this was a good week to get Karoline's first set of shots. A faraway friend's recent tussle with Pertussis and the counsel of the new doctor led me to go ahead and do it. News flash: Karoline is 1 in 1000 who would scream for three hours or more. What's the chance of three of my children being those 1 in 1000 children? This is a purely rhetorical question. Please don't attempt to teach me math. Whatever the chance, that's the reality. I'm just grateful it wasn't worse.

We spent an hour or so of quality time drafting for Family Fantasy Football. I'm glad we made sure to do the important stuff;-). Yes Michael, you missed it. No worries, Katie picked for you;-).

The long awaited art supplies arrived and I fell in love with Lyra pencils.

Mike hit the road for the first installment of Monday Night Football. Yep. It's officially the beginning of a new season. School or not.

And Monday will come again, right? And we can start "real school" then? Maybe not.

Sweet Feet

Karoline received a package in the mail yesterday--her first pair of shoes with soles! Her feet were very happy and she sends along a smiling "thank you" to Mrs. Quigley.
Now, I really look forward to Michele's promised tutorial!

Preparing to Celebrate the Feasts of the Fall

If I am lucky, I can be outdoors on a rare late summermorning and I can feel just a little hint of autumn in the air. And it will make me smile. I’m not doing the jig the lady did the other day in the supermarket when she was asked how excited she was to send her children back to school. My children don’t go to school. But I am thrilled to be settling at last into the rhythm of the autumn.

 These are days that are filled with light and warmth. As the academic year gets underway, we return to our early morning rising and our comfortable routines. We get in an after breakfast walk and notice the change of seasons around us. We settle into our new stories and projects. We begin a new handcraft. The summer menu plan is replaced by an autumn one and we greet once again the sweet potato crop and the fall apples at our co-op.

 The Church is practically a perpetual feast in the early autumn. We go from one great saint to another, celebrating who they were and who they are in our lives. This year, right after school begins, our afternoon tea celebration will include Indian sweetbread and spiced chai tea. We will read and talk about Blessed Teresa of Calcutta on her feast September 5^th. On September 8^th, we will have cupcakes with blue sprinkles to celebrate the Blessed Mother’s birthday.

 The following week, we’ll celebrate the Triumph of the Cross on September 14^th with a cross shaped cake at tea time and a simple stained glass cross craft. Then, we kick it into high gear and celebrate nearly every day (or at least it seems like it to me).

 My second son is named for St. Matthew. Gold chocolate coins are sure to figure into our celebration on September 21st .

St. Michael and the archangels are celebrated on September 29^th, which happens to be my son Michael’s birthday. Devil’s Food cake served with tiny cocktail swords and cinnamon hot chocolate are standard St. Michael’s fare at our house.

 Katie’s birthday is September 30^th, the feast of St. Jerome. We’ll read St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodges and make a crafty lion. Birthday cake will dominate the tea menu. After Katie’s birthday, it’s her feast day because her “real” name is Kirsten Therese.

 St. Therese is a patron of our family and I am careful to plan ahead so that her day does not get lost amidst the “birthday week” we celebrate here. Michael is Katie's godfather and he always brings her sweetheart roses ("little flowers"). We bake a white cake and decorate it with edible sugared roses. We serve some sort of herbal tea with rose hips. We pray the rose novena. This year, my Our Lady of Guadalupe roses have been amazing. I've been drying them to make sachets on October 1 and I’ve got some small ones to sugar and freeze for the cake.

On the evening of this feast, I'm halfway through birthday week.  And I am so looking forward to a long soak in the tub with this soap and this lotion and this candle (St. Therese Scent). These were gifts from a very kind person who might have heard my six-year-old mention (sort of loudly) that Saintly Soaps were the raffle prize I wanted most at the conference. Oh my! These are truly heavenly. Honestly, I'm not much on cake and sweets, but I have a weakness for nice soap and this might just be the nicest soap I've ever used--worthy of a feast day of my favorite saint of all. If St. Therese has a smell, this is it. When i use it to wash my baby's hair, every time I kiss her sweet head, it reminds me why we named her Karoline Rose.

 
Honestly, by October 2, we’re beginning to tire of cake. But cake again it is, because Patrick was born on the Feast of the Guardian angels. We have angel food cake, topped with chocolate mousse because Paddy loves chocolate mousse. I think we’ll try our hand at making wool fleece angels that day and hang them over the children's beds.

Finally, the end of birthday week brings a new twist to our family celebrations. Last year, the Feast of St. Francis on October 4^th took on a new significance. Karoline was born that day. We are going to celebrate with an animal themed birthday (thanks to Matilda for the idea). Kara loves dogs, so the children have decided she’ll have a cake decorated with a dog theme. They are excited about painting faces with animal characters. Nicholas was a bit skeptical as we brainstormed, though. He’s wary of St. Francis. “No one will have to get naked on the town green, right?” he asked, looking for assurance. Nope. Not this year.

 I’m planning and putting aside provision for the feasts and, honestly, I’m tired just thinking about it. But the celebration of birthdays, intertwined with name days and feast days is a part of our family culture. This is not back-to-school time, it’s party-hearty time. And in the process, we learn a little more each year about the saints and angels, we try a few new crafts, and we eat way too much cake.

 It's not usually so busy around here, but I have grown to love the way that the feasts of the Church are intertwined with the feasts of our family. After busy birthday brouhahas, we'll settle again into a quiet rhythm of one teatime a week set aside for liturgical celebrations. As you think about how the autumn will look in your domestic church, remember the planning conversation continues here and here. These ladies are full of good ideas!

Here's what happens...

...when you give your children liberty with the manipulatives:

I asked him to clean up the room. Instead, he noticed the nesting blocks, the base ten blocks and the alphabet blocks begging to be used in heretofore unimagined ways.

And he got carried away with the challenge of mixing several different types to do something entirely unintended, particularly when encouraged by a younger sibling up way past her bedtime.

Soon, he climbed on the furniture and used the ceiling for balance because this is a child who loves, loves, loves a challenge.

I finally shooed them off to bed. The next morning, Nicholas, who had slept through it all, was totally enchanted. He woke Paddy and begged him to tweak it just a little more.

The final tower was over seven feet tall. I ushered them all out of the room, downloaded another Christopherus audio inspiration , and cleaned the room myself, moving carefully around the tower all the while.

Celebrating St. Monica and St. Augustine

We had a simple tea yesterday to celebrate the feasts of St. Monica and St. Augustine this week. Since it was Day 10 for my Amish Friendship bread, the baked goodie was decided for me. But when I learned of a crisis of chocolate proportions, I decided to bake it chocolate. It's a good variation, and I added mini chocolate chips, too, for good measure. I made two loaves to give away and saved two loaves for our tea. I left our two loaves to cool before tea time. That ninth child who lives in my house--the one named "Not Me"--tested the bread in advance of our tea. Tested quite a bit of bread it seems. Real life--I wonder if Martha Stewart deals with things like this in her test kitchen;-). For tea, I served African Rooibos with a little chai spice.
Our craft was very simple and very meaningful. We followed Maggie's lead and made a prayer board in honor of St. Monica, super prayer warrior. We attached prayer intentions with sticky notes and we'll change them as we go. Mary Beth's board is pictured. Different children included different intentions. In the days surrounding St. Monica's feast, some real prayer needs have come my attention. And they are needs of mothers who understand the pain St. Monica felt before Augustine rested to his restless heart in God. She is such a valiant woman, such a model of faith in prayer for mothers and wives! I'm glad to have this visual reminder of St. Monica, St. Augustine, and the Holy Spirit who so dwelled in them.