Lord, Hear Our Prayer

{sunset as we drove home after my aunt's funeral}

The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-filled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

How about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.} 

Gospel

LK 14:25-33

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion? 
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? 
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. 
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

Think

Fasting is the champion of every virtue., the beginning of the struggle, the crown of the abstinent, the beauty of virginity and sanctity, the respendence of chastity, the commencement of path of Christianity, the mother of prayer, the well-spring of sobriety and prudence, the teacher of stillness, and the precursor of all good works.

~St. Isaac of Syria

Pray

Lord, please bring peace to Syria.

Act

Choose something from which to fast--longterm--for peace in the Middle East. Perhaps you give up a particular food for the duration. Perhaps you choose to leave your smart phone alone for certain hours every day. Find something from which to abstain and pray that fasting becomes for you everything St. Isacc of Syria observes that it is.

How can we pray for you this week?

A is for Animals

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

As we travel along the Alphabet Path, we don't reach the zoo until the very end. But Wednesday was just so beautiful and I knew that it was way too early for anyone to have already organized school field trips and I was pretty desperate to inhale great gulps of fresh air, so I declared that "A is for Animals" and off we went.

Long ago, I promised Stephen that when he finished the entire Apologia Zoology Series, he could give us a tour of the zoo. He was a most impressive tour guide. Seriously, they should hire this kid to sell the series. He learned--and retained-- so very much. 

We had a glorious day. Katie was given free reign with the camera. Nearly all the "big camera" photos are hers. And even though we'll revisit the zoo, both in story and for real, at the end of the Alphabet Path, I did bring our just a few zoo books for the occasion.

Zoo: For the youngest set. A very simple introduction to the zoo and the people and animals there.

The View at the Zoo: Darling rhyming book with whimsical illustrations. See the zoo from the animals' perspective.

If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo: A little girl who lives on a hill above the zoo tells various animal keepers to remember that the animals are welcome at her house if ever anything should go wrong at the zoo. There's a flood and...

A few more zoo books here and here:

My Visit To The Zoo

100 Animals To Spot At The Zoo

National Zoo Board Books

Z Is for Zookeeper: A Zoo Alphabet

We'll do it up big with zoo books in the spring.

For more about our Storybook Year, read here. And, there are Storybook Science books, from A-Z, linked here, scroll down on the lefthand side.

iPhone shots:

.

Amber on the Mountain

One of my favorite books in the autumn, just as school is shiny and new, is Amber on the Mountain. It's the sweet story of Amber, a girl in the mountains, far from school and books and even pencil and paper. Another little girl, Anna, moves into the town for a time while her father builds an "impossible" road. Anna teaches Amber to read and gives her a great gift in the process. She so persuades her that she can "do almost anything if you fix your mind on it" that Amber teaches herself to write after Anna leaves. 

The book is beautifully illustrated with rich, luminous pictures and we all sigh a happy sigh every time we greet Amber and Anna. We've had a bit of a rough beginning this semester in the reading department. It's hard when you are well old enough to read and write and people littler than you seem to do it much more naturally and easily. Much perseverence and hard work is going to be required this year of some of my middle kids. But reading and writing are worth it and they know it.

{Karoline, on the other hand, is reading right along and setting all "reading lesson" plans on end. Note to self: don't order the reading program in the spring and think you can set it aside until fall. It just might be irrelevant by then.}

For more about our Storybook Year, read here. 

needle & thREAD

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

{all photos credit: Katie}

This week, I tried to sew all the things that I've been promising the girls we'd sew "this summer." I didn't even come close. Karoline had a sweet piece of needlework long finished, that I'd suggested for a pillow. She chose fabric from the stash and pieced together a bit of a log cabin square. I referred to my pillow tutorial and she made a sweet cover. Delighted doesn't even come close to capturing how she feels about it (and herself). Bonus points: she happens to have a matching sundress. Everyone matches their dresses with their throw pillows, right?

Then, we made some notebook covers. The girls each have a new compostion book for the new school year. Sarah and Kari are using their for journals. Katie calls hers a "conversation book" and she's begun a dialogue with Kristin. Very cute. Kristin's thinking deep thoughts while barfing, by the way.

I've used Rachel's tutorial every time, embellishing a bit differently with each cover.

All in all, some fun playing with pretty fabric just before the school year kicks into high gear. That lofty list of sewing goals? Oh, dear. Time is closing in quickly.

 

In the reading department, this volume has become available at Amazon:-). I've been reading through (which is so not the way it's intended to be read) and pondering ways to create community online around folks who are using the book along with me. There was a book club suggestion on Instagram. Not sure what that would look like. I'd also like to find the way to make the Small Steps Companion Journal available to you in some form even though it's not going to be republished. Thinking thoughts. Dreaming dreams. Dream along with me? I'm happy to hear your thoughts.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

All About Apples

The first couple of weeks of school are always apple-y around here. The Alphabet Path story begins with an apple tree and the fairy who lives there. And, of course, there are apples to pick and apples to make into pie and apples to can for later. The apples where we like to pick aren't quite ready for us yet, but we have our apple books out and we're exploring the science behind all that apple loveliness. 

It's my theory that good picture books can completely cover all necessary elementary science. To that end, two favorite apple books are How Do Apples Grow by Betty Maestro and How Do Apples Grow.

Karoline chose How Do Apples Grow, a simple book which follows an apple tree from the bare winter branches until autumn picking time. We read the book and talked about it and then she chose her favorite picture to copy. 

Katie chose The Life and Times of the Apple, which is sadly out of print, but worth the hunt. It's a more advanced lifecycle book with excellent detailed illustrations.

Other favorites are:

Apples (a Gail Gibbons, book. She's always excellent.)

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (Gail Gibbons again. Excellent again.)

The Apple Pie Tree (this one is new to us this year. I pretty much love the collage illustrations.)

We have some favorite apple-themed fiction books. I'm saving those for next week.

For lots more apple-related and "A" themed learning, visit us here.

For more about our Storybook Year, read here. And, there are Storybook Science books, from A-Z, linked here, scroll down on the lefthand side.