More Ogden Nash and an iphone picture

Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.

Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami. 
                            Ogden Nash




Jenny Wren got her bangs trimmed, thanks to her older brother holding her hands away from the scissors and making funny noises. She spent the evening at an indoor trampoline and jungle gym and had a blast, climbing way too high for my comfort and fearlessly hurling herself down the slide.

January 2017 Daybook

Outside my window... dark, cool and soon to be raining again

I am wearing... Jeans, a purple top, and red socks

I am thankful for... Everyone being well and contented, dinner with my family, no one particularly needing me at the moment.

I am thinking about... Not too much, and that is lovely.

Learning all the time... reading. My second grader and my kindergartener are learning to read. That is also lovely.

From the kitchen... Well, we ate out tonight, and we've been having leftovers that I put in the freezer after our kind friends brought meals a few weeks ago when Jenny Wren was in the hospital. I did make a delicious cranberry cake the other day, with the recipe shared by Matushka Emma. It was so yummy!

I am creating... slowly working away at an afghan I've been crocheting here and there for a couple of years. Also a little book to hold icons for my goddaughter. And coloring with Bluejay in his kestrel coloring book.

I am working on... peace and gentle discipline in the home. It's working!

I am going...  to help make piroshki at church tomorrow, maybe. 

I am hoping... for the peacefulness and routine to continue for a little while. It was a rough first few weeks of the year. For Jenny Wren to be excited about speech therapy. I think she's gonna love it.

I am reading... hmmm. I have my fingers in a number of books lately. Snuff by Terry Pratchett, God's Path to Sanity by Dee Pennock and rereading Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge.

I am praying... daily prayers and scripture readings.

I am hearing... the children getting ready for bed; my husband requesting the occasional help as he tidies up the school/playroom/garage (it's all one room!).

One of my favorite things... daybooks :-) this makes me cheery.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Church, homeschooling, a dentist appointment for Bluejay and a visit to the orthopedic specialist for Bluejay as well. He took a fall on his bike and it turns out he broke a bone in his left arm near the wrist! So he's in a splint until we can get it appropriately treated, as early as possible next week. The doctor 

Some picture thought I am sharing with you...

  

Jenny Wren very very happy to be home after five days in the hospital!

Bluejay and Chickadee doing pull-ups. We did not know at the time he had a broken arm!

Waiting for the wrist/arm prognosis

This is probably a very poor quality video, but it shows our little cutie practicing her new, fabulous walking skills!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ Midsummer Edition

{Pretty}

Our little garden. Much thanks to Aaron's godfather and his daughter, who invited Bluejay and Chickadee over a few weeks ago, and then sent them home with a tomato plant, an eggplant plant, a squash plant, a lemon cucumber plant, a basil plant and two pots of flowers. We have a big eggplant already that is almost ready to harvest, and I've been using the basil in various cooking. We love watering our fast growing little container garden.

{Happy}

Swim lessons. I took all 4 children to the pool for eight days (only the older two were actually taking lessons). A few of the days I was able to bring our teenage neighbor to help me out, but mostly I did it by myself. And I rocked it. I think the key to parenting lots of littles is a) go slow, and b) don't panic.  If you can do both of those things, you can pretty much do anything. It's not as easy as it sounds, though. Hahahaha.

I have lots of pictures of Bluejay and Chickadee swimming, but I realized that they include lots of other people's children, so I'm not going to post them on my blog. But here are the two younger ones, being troopers at the pool.  

{Funny}

The things Sparrow says these days. We've been using the record player lately and have the first Beatles album, which belonged to Aaron's mom. I was putting on a record and Sparrow kept saying "I want wadybugs! I want wadybugs!" (That's ladybugs, for those of you who don't speak toddler). I finally figured it out: "Oh, you want the Beatles." "Mmm hmm," he said, very satisfied. 

Also, he has a friend named Emmiliana. I was singing Karma Chameleon the other day (don't ask me why, I don't even like that song), and later I heard Sparrow singing "Comb, comb, comb, comb, comb Emmiliana".

He's a funny boy.

{Real}

Baby girl got sick for the first time. Oh, how that hurts a mama's heart. She is fine, and handled it like a champ, and I did too, although not quite as bravely, since I got very worried the first morning she woke up at 4am with a fever, and then again later when our lactation consultant suggested I make sure she didn't have pneumonia.  

She's almost better now, just has the tail end of a cough. And now I'm coming down with it. Joy.  

Our computer is being weird lately and won't let me see the pictures Aaron has downloaded, when I'm logged in as me. So I don't have very many good ones to post today. 

Linking up with Like Mother Like Daughter...

What I'm Reading - February through May

I finished The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos C. Markides and really enjoyed it. I got much more spiritual encouragment and advice than I had anticipated from my initial perusal of this book. Highly recommend.  

After sharing my January reading blog post with my darling husband, he got me For the Life of the World and Everyday Saints for Valentine's day.  I had to make myself not touch Everyday Saints until I'd finished The Mountain of Silence. Then I devoured it. It was every bit as wonderful as I'd heard. I missed it for weeks when I was done. I have also started For the Life of the World, which is incredible. I am reading it very slowly, because I feel like I really need to pay attention to each paragraph. The depth of truth in this book is stunning and yet subtle. It requires me to pay attention. I'm only a few chapters in so far.

In the interim I read Hannah Coulter, which was very good, as is everything by Wendell Berry, but not, I would have to say, my favorite of his. This one had a greater focus on the reality and brevity of life.  A bit sad.  I also read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It was a bit slower reading at first, at least in comparison to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but definitely entertaining, and picked up quickly toward the end.
My sister-in-law lent me another Terry Pratchett book, Going Postal. It was the best one I've read yet, lots of fun. As soon as I finished, I requested a few more from the library. So now I have Men at Arms and Guards, Guards! waiting for me.  
I just finished re-reading In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. A very good book and this time (having recently read Everyday Saints), I noted many of the similarities between Orthodox monasticism and Roman Catholic monasticism, at least of the Benedictine variety. The only thing that struck me as odd was the reference to the crucifix with the broken knees. What about the scripture "For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19:36)?

I still want to pick up a copy of Brideshead Revisited. And I found a book of short stories by Jessamyn West at our local used bookstore and have read a few so far - I loved Cress Delahanty as a girl and was excited to see that she had a greater repertoire.

Also, I should note that the main reason I'm able to keep up with reading after Jenny Wren's birth is the amount of time I spend hooked up to that blessed breast pump.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real in short

This post will be full of subpar pictures I took on my cell phone. But, at least I'm getting a post up!

{Pretty}

Geraniums in this wine barrel were my Mother's Day gift last year. Look how good they are doing!  (I recognize this is only something to celebrate when you are a veteran plant killer like me).

This sweet little girl.

{Happy}

Baptism gowns, washed by Jenny Wren's godmother-to-be in anticipation of her baptism this weekend.

This prickly pear cactus was given to us by a friend, the man who used to teach me US history back when I was a homeschooled 5th-8th grader. The bottom leaf is what he gave us. It came from Luther Burbank's garden, and it has no thorns.  I was told he spoke kindly to this plant always, and prayed over it, and thus it grew without thorns. We have tried to be kind to ours and say some prayers for it, and, indeed, it grew new "leaves" just recently, after being in our garden for about 5 months. The new leaves do have thorns, I am sure we are not as dedicated as Mr. Burbank, and I know there has been a fair share of yelling that takes place in our back yard. But the children are thrilled to see the new growth.

Finally getting caught up on all those thank you notes for everyone's kindness after Jenny Wren's birth.

{Funny}

Sparrow has this funny thing. He does not like chairs to be upright. You can always tell he's been in the room when you see this.

My handsome oldest boy got a hold of my camera phone.

{Real}

My breakfast this morning. Frozen quiche. Reheated two-day-old coffee. Water. However, it was delicious because I was hungry, and I got to eat it on the patio the cool of the morning. As you can guess, I shared the quiche.

We got the dreaded stomach bug. This is Sparrow on day 3 of it. I thought he was done so we went to the park. Alas, not so. But he was a trooper.

A day later and the rest of the family dropped like flies. Oddly enough, despite the sheet washing and bathroom scrubbing and generally feeling awful that had to occur, we actually enjoyed some quiet family time together, doing puzzles when we felt up to it and taking lots and lots of naps. I'm not used to Bluejay and Chickadee sleeping during the day anymore, but they napped wherever they happened to be sitting this time.

Linking up with Suki at Like Mother Like Daughter...

I am linking this post up with 

Baby News!!!

Our little girl, baby numero quattro, surprised this mama by deciding to be born almost three weeks early! In fact, she snuck in the day after her big sister's 4th birthday.  Introducing Little Jenny Wren:

All of my babies so far have been big chunkers, this is my first little baby (6 lbs 2 oz at birth). So that explains the enormous pajamas she's wearing in this picture.  My sweet sister-in-law headed out shopping and sent a huge package of newborn size clothes for her, and now she is more appropriately dressed.  Only I don't have any of those pictures on the laptop yet, of course.

The "big" sister and brothers are so so excited. They love her to pieces and I have to ask them to step back a little when I'm trying to nurse Jenny Wren, since they are always as close to her as they can get.

The birth was amazing, my fourth home birth and my first water birth. After lots of pre-labor the night before, once I actually accepted that she was coming early and went into real labor (which, it seems, just required my finally making that mental adjustment), she was born in an hour and a half. It was my most present labor yet. I remember at one point joking with my midwife between contractions; I had packed a dresser FULL of baby girl clothes, and there were two boy outfits sitting on the bookshelf.  I said "those two are just in case it's a boy".  I was just so sure she was our girl.

Little Jenny Wren has Down syndrome, so these past three weeks have been a whole new experience for us - more doctor appointments (we went to basically NONE with our other babies) and more challenges breastfeeding. We were so blessed to have the home birth, because that saved us from any time in the NICU - she was doing very well that evening and when we took her to the doctor the next day, and so we've been able to just deal with the necessary evaluations without any hospital visits. Most importantly we had an echocardiogram, which showed that her heart is in great shape. Now, I am a full time feeding mama... trying to help this little girl get the eating habit down, and doing lots and lots of pumping. The hardest thing for me has been accepting that she cannot get sufficient nutrition directly from the breast, and that I need to use bottles of pumped milk to achieve that for her. But I've been making lots of milk so no need for formula, I've had some good conversations with other mamas who have been through this, as well as great lactation consultants and I am really hopeful that we can be back primarily breast feeding before this journey is over.  I am very committed to long term breastfeeding with all my children, so this has been a hurdle for me.

My amazing husband has been able to take extra time off work to run the household while I take care of this babe. He has been our rock. 

I have lots more pictures to post of Jenny Wren, her big brothers and sister, and other things that I want to update on this blog (homeschooling! reading! other kiddos!) but just posting this has been a little treat for myself. So, more to come...

What I'm Reading - January Edition

One of my goals I noted in my beginning of the year daybooks for the past few years was to keep a record of what I read. So, here is a start~

January:

I finished The Brothers Karamazov (this remarkable translation)!! This was a re-read for me, although I only vaguely remember the ending from when I read it last. Such an incredible book. No character in here is a caricature. I do not doubt it will continue to be amongst just about every list of the greatest novels ever written. My dad gave this version to me last year for my birthday.

I devoured Among Others by Jo Walton, a Christmas gift from my lovely sister-in-law.  It was delightful, refreshing, had a lovely depth while still being an easy book to read. I couldn't put it down.

Started The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos C. Markides. I am enjoying this more and more as I get deeper into it. I wish I'd been better at keeping a pencil handy to notate in this one.  About half-way through now.

For a break from the more intense reading, I picked up some Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad, passed on to me by another sister-in-law, which was great fun. In each pregnancy I've found I get to a point where I need more of the fun and lightweight reading, and this fit the bill nicely, not intense at all, not dumb, not annoying. After finishing this one, I decided I needed more of this fare for the next few months, so will be picking up more Pratchett, some Douglas Adams, and a few others along that line.

Also on the to-read list right now: I would really love to finally read For the Life of the World, by Fr. Alexander Schmemann.  I have heard many wonderful things about this book, and recently saw an incredible CBS documentary on Fr. Alexander's life and impact, which made me cry. In the spiritual reading category as well, I've been dying to get my hands on a copy of Everyday Saints.

In the literature/novels category, I just ordered Hannah Coulter, for my next installment of Wendell Berry reading, and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, to get a little deeper into the world of Douglas Adams.  I guess I have a taste for fantasy/sci fi these days!  I think reading Among Others may have something to do with it.

And last but not least, I am curious to read Brideshead Revisited, it's popped up in several reading lists of interest to me lately. There wasn't a copy at my favorite used bookstore I visited this weekend, but hopefully I can get to the library sometime soon.

So that's the January update... let's see how far I get this year, with baby number four arriving soon, and homeschooling, and working and trying to fit in a little crocheting and all.

Because it makes me laugh...

The Panther

by Ogden Nash


The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.

Overheard on the 4th Day of Christmas

Bluejay and Chickadee to one another this morning several times this morning~

"Are you the innkeeper?"

"Yes"

"Do you have a room to rent?"

"I'm sorry, there's no room.  Well there's one place..."

"Anything will do as long as it has a roof"

"You can use my stable in the cave back there"

"Thank you!"

And then Chickadee said "Joseph and Mary went to the stable..."

These were not either of their roles in the Nativity play they performed before Christmas, but I guess they were memorizing them as well. Such busy little minds... Chickadee was the one who particularly remembered the exact lines and told Bluejay what to say, but they took turns being the Innkeeper and Joseph.

December Daybook

Outside my window... it is sunny and beautiful and now that we've had a few heavy rains, everything is starting to look green again, after a very very brown drought year.

I am wearing... maternity skinny jeans (the only maternity jeans I've ever had that actually stay up!), a white shirt with pretty details around the neckline and my favorite boat shoe crocs.

I am thankful for... Lots of things:

1) A lovely weekend of Christmas joy for our family, especially the little ones. Yesterday night was the Nativity Play we've been rehearsing for the last five weeks, and it was delightful. The children were terrific, and I think, greatly satisfied with the whole event, even despite the significant delay between getting into costume and actually performing the play.

2) A wonderful, comforting visit with my midwife this past week. Not that there were any reasons I needed the comfort, it's been a good pregnancy, just that I always feel happy and good after visiting with my sweet midwife.

3) Squeezing in a few precious minutes to chat and connect with my husband during these busy days, when it seems everyone's conversations take precedence over ours!

I am thinking about... keeping a list of books I read this year.  This is an exact repeat of my daybook from last January. So I'm guessing I won't do it :-) Last year, I know that I read lots of PG Wodehouse, some Wendell Berry, Driftless (a wonderful book my sister-in-law recommended), and The Brothers Karamazov (a re-read, but from a beautiful new translation so it feels like new) - I'm just at the end of this one, but haven't quite finished yet.  On my wishlist for next year is Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, and maybe some Anthony Trollope. I'm also thinking about homeschooling plans for the New Year (not the new school year).

Learning all the time... For my own learning, I think I'll probably stick with some serious classical literature (finishing The Brothers Karamazov for starters and probably starting something new along that line after a brief break) and hopefully some good spiritual reading. There is finally a women's retreat planned by our church coming up, and I'd like to go to that, if I can figure out childcare. There is a second one later in the year, but it's an overnight retreat and I'll have a newborn by then, so that seems unlikely.

From the kitchen... planning our Christmas menu with my brother Gabe is on the to-do list for today. I know we are sticking with our traditional roast beef and yorkshire pudding (so yum!) but we need to discuss side dishes and dessert. Food is a (the?) KEY part of every holiday, on my side of the family. In the pre-Christmas fast period I've been more or less good at keeping home-cooked or partially homecooked food on the table... but fasting, nursing and pregnancy, and young people have been a bit challenging to navigate.

I am creating... not really anything at the moment. I was working on a craft for our sisterhood Christmas bazaar, which was a candy-cane with a mouse (a kit someone gave me) but Chickadee ripped one of the pieces and I haven't found time to get a replacement piece of fabric yet. Craftiness otherwise has been a batch or two of granola for our Christmas packages we recently mailed, and Christmas cookies with the kids which they decorated last night.

I am working on... not losing it. I think I had gotten in the habit of losing it lately, often because it has been extra hard to pick things up, my back has not been great this pregnancy, and I've gotten frustrated with the kids when things got crazy. But also because the huzz and I hadn't been making time to talk and connect when things got busy, and so I was holding everything in. Not a wise thing to do when the majority of your household and interactions are with the under 6 crowd.

I am going...  grocery shopping one more time before Christmas.  Then to Vespers for the Nativity and to Christmas liturgy on Christmas day in the morning!  I can hardly wait.

I am hoping... for a peaceful, joyous Christmas.

I am reading... The Brothers Karamazov. Such an amazing book. I almost never write in my books, I have a weird thing about it, but this time, I had my pencil at the ready. I'm at the very end of the trial, so almost done, but am taking it very slowly, as I want to be able to really grasp what is happening in one of the best novels ever written.

I am praying... prayers of praise and thanksgiving, I hope.

I am hearing... Sparrow getting frustrated with his backhoe/dump truck. It is not doing what he wants it to do. Chickadee is running another game in which Bluejay is her dog Patch, and Sparrow is her donkey Poula. Sweet Mr. Bluejay just fixed Sparrow's truck problem.

One of my favorite things... When these kids play together so nicely. How little Sparrow hardly needs me except for things like food and diaper changes, and important cuddle time when it's been a while.

A few plans for the rest of the week... My aunt arrives tomorrow, so dinner with her and my dad in the evening. Aaron is taking Christmas Eve off (hurray!) and two of my brothers (Gabe and family, and Marcus and his friend) arrive that day too. Then... Christmas! and Feasting! 

Some picture thought I am sharing with you...

  

The Shepherd (Bluejay) and the Innkeeper

The angels. That's Chickadee in the middle.

The boy and the cat.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Homeschooling Week 12 - 15

Week 12 is the last week of our first quarter already!  I can hardly believe it. I am reviewing the curriculum to see what we will be doing new next quarter. Much of it is things we are already doing, actually, Bluejay is really just doing naturally, without any forethought or prompting by me, such as seeing numbers and patterns in real life, counting things, etc.

Monday, week 12 ~
Prayer and circle time. Circle time was a free-for-all poetry extravaganza, in that I read every poem they asked me to in our current favorite poetry book A Child's Book of Poems illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa. 

I told a story for the number 9.  I made this one up, and I think it was one of my best so far... which included 3 rivers and 3 bags of gold at each river, completing in reaching the number 9. I got ideas from the curriculum for this.  Then we drew the story in our book.

Bluejay, as mentioned above, occupied himself counting the number of pictures in a collage Aaron had done some time ago. There were 121. He did not miss one, and he did this several times.  Then he practiced writing all his numbers on the chalk board. He needs help with 5 and 8.

Chickadee set up some of her animals for school, and some for bedtime. She sat in a chair in front of the school animals and taught them their lesson. Sparrow found a way to take part in everything, especially the counting, or if he saw me taking a picture. He really likes to be in all pictures.

Tuesday, week 12 ~
Prayer and circle time.  Sang "Over the River and Through the Woods" - talked about upcoming Thanksgiving. Finished writing number 9 in our books. Decorated book cover and back with the full alphabet and all the numbers. Read from the Red Fairy Tale book by Lang (Brother and Sister).

Wednesday, week 12~
My mom came over and led the kids in an exploration of the calendar. Reviewed the months what happens each month, as well as what season it is in. Further work with numbers in the afternoon.

Thursday, week 12~
Prayer and circle time. Talked about how, although it was still fall, the season was starting to change. Weather no longer matches When the Frost is on the Punkin'. Now it matches "Over the River and Through the Woods" more, some people have snow, we have rain. Did more focused work on the calendar. Poem "Thirty Days Hath November...".  Wrote out all the months, in order, with a different color for each season, so Bluejay could see how each season has 3 months.  Bluejay wrote in the number of days for each month as we sang the poem again.

Homeschool group music class.

Thanksgiving week ~
We did not do school per se this week. We did some circle time, poems and songs, practicing the children's lines for the Christmas play. We did lots of coloring and reading books and listening to music. By Wednesday, sweet Bluejay said to me "We didn't do school!" "Yes" I said, "we are taking a break for Thanksgiving. Do you want to do school?" He most certainly did. So we added a little more of the above activities, and called it School, and he was satisfied.

Monday, week 13~
Prayer, circle time. We talked about preparing for Christmas, the Advent season, and made beeswax holly leaves and berries. Sang Away in a Manger.

Told a story about a volcano, erupting and spewing hot lava and ash into a valley, where the villagers had to evacuate. Drew a picture of the valley in the shape of a V, with the volcano in the background.

Preschooler had a project to cut and glue pieces of her previous artwork to cover the box that will hold our in-process artwork.

Learned about pomegranates, and how to open one and find and eat the seeds. I did not appropriately think this through and put aprons and bibs on everyone and roll-up sleeves before hand! But they greatly enjoyed it, even though it took some convincing for Bluejay to try a seed.

Packed up our fall decorations from our school table, and began to decorate with Christmas decorations (pinecone trees and a Christmas candle for starters).

Tuesday, week 13~
Chickadee had ballet class. Bluejay practiced writing all the letters of the alphabet in a workbook.  Then he wrote Christmas letters freehand, with my spelling words for him.

Wednesday, week 13~ 
This was a nature study day. We spent much time immersed in rain, walking around our neighborhood, getting soaked, watching where the water went and what it did in deep areas and shallow areas, with the leaves, etc. We also spent a lot of time talking about animals of key interest - a huge topic with Bluejay lately. The primary focus these days is on Cheetahs.

Thursday, week 13~
Prayer and circle time. Worked on the number 10. Talked about how we have now learned each number symbol, and are starting a new series of numbers with 10. Talked about what 0 means and what it stands for in a number. Wrote the number 10 in our book, drew our two hands and numbered each finger.

Homeschool group music class. Afternoon work with modeling clay (especially our little preschooler Chickadee).

Monday, week 14~
Prayer, circle time. Practiced our lines for the Christmas play and read poems.

Made Christmas chains for decoration out of red and green construction paper.  The children practiced cutting along straight lines, and Bluejay learned how to staple to create the rings of the chain.  Also did drawings of Christmas trees, etc.

Tuesday, week 14~
Chickadee had tap/ballet class. Bluejay brought one of his favorite National Geographic books and we read about how different animals move: three-toed sloths who only hang and are not well equipped for walking, kangaroos and crickets who can jump much farther, body-length for body-length, than a person, and herds of wildebeests who travel great distances following storm clouds and thunder to find grazing pastures.

Bluejay practiced writing numbers.  He still needs lots of practice with this, although he has his letters (capitals) pretty much down.  Later my mom came over and she and Bluejay continued with learning to use a stapler, making books out of construction paper, in which he wrote numbers (numbered the pages, his idea) and drew Christmas trees.

Wednesday, week 14~
Prayer and circle time.  This week for circle time instead of singing 'O Heavenly King' we are singing the Christmas Troparion, and will probably do that until Christmas, so they can learn it.

Read the story of Christmas, poem from the Nativity episode of the 12 Great Feasts books for children.

Read The Golden Key (Grimm's).  Made guesses as to what was in the iron chest, that might start with K.  Drew a key that looked like a K in our book and colored it in.

Thursday, week 14~
This day was the day the big Northern California storm of the year hit. We were overjoyed to get some rain, and it was a staying in the house kind of day, as the roads around us weren't safe, but it felt different. So instead of regular school we had lots and lots of imaginative play. I'm going to try to upload a video of some of the action. I parked myself on the couch in our play room (converted garage) with The Brother's Karamazov, and read and kept them company for over two hours, while they just played - first they played with Mr and Mrs Potato head for a long time. Sparrow brought me trains and asked me to drive them over his head and down his tummy. Then they played with the train table. There was a raging inferno. They needed all hands to put it out. It was very exciting and intense. 

The rest of the day was spent in similar fashion, cooking and eating yummy food and hot tea, reading books and being cozy, with a little bit of very muddy outside time when the rain and wind was a less intense in the afternoon.

Monday, week 15~
Prayer and circle time - sang the Nativity Troparion. Sang the St. Herman song, as his feast day was Sunday - it is a modification of one of the Bruderhoff songs (Land of the Silver Birch). Read poems, mostly Christmas poems but others that appealed to our fancy as well, like 'How Doth the Little Crocodile', and The Eagle ("He clasps the crag with crooked hands" - I love this one). It thrills me how much my children love poetry.

Made a list of all of the letters we've done in our book so far. I told the story of the Three Bears, which, although they've heard many times, never ceases to be a fun one. Then we drew the Father Bear in the shape of a B in our book.  Chickadee also drew the Mama Bear, and practiced writing B's. She is starting to want to learn how to write the letters too.

Tuesday, week 15~
Chickadee's last tap/ballet class which we got to watch. She was very pleased with the whole thing.

Prayer and circle time, then Christmas crafts - made reindeer antlers out of cardboard and an old head band.  Read nature stories from Bluejay's National Geographic book about how animals move.  Made a Christmas gift (food) to give to our family members.

Wednesday and Thursday, week 15~
Well, I don't remember much of the last of this week.  We did more writing as we made more Christmas cards for family members far away and put them in packages. Bluejay is getting quite comfortable writing as I spell for him, although he does not line up his words quite accurately on the page, in his efforts to fit them all in. Chickadee just started, with this Christmas card business (and especially her notes to Santa - one in which she told him what she is giving HIM, and one in which she made her requests) to actually try to write out words that I spell. She has quite a few of the letters down, but makes up others and is very content in the knowledge that they are suitable for her purposes.

We had a fun time at the last of our homeschool group music classes, 6th hour service and picnic lunch together on Thursday, and Friday evening was the final dress rehearsal for our Nativity play at church.  The play took place Saturday after Vespers and was just completely adorable. The kids were so so excited and the whole event was lovely, plus, St. Nicholas made a visit after the play and caroling.  

And, I think, that may be it for homeschooling this year!  We'll see though, I'm not sure Bluejay will let me get away with taking a two week break...