Dad--Your hat is finished!!

Coming soon, to the daughter's house near you....

from the daughter's house not so near you.

I will be mailing this to Le-Le and she will felt it to fit you.

Lenten activities--part 1

At the beginning of Lent last year, I put this dead branch in to a vase with some dull river rock to hold it. In front was a jar of kidney beans and an empty bowl. Whenever we did some type of penance (ie: relinquished the last cookie, did an unpleasant chore, etc.) we would move a bean from the jar to the bowl. The goal. of course, was to empty the jar before Easter.

This photo shows the branch as it was on Holy Friday. So let's back up a bit.

On Tues. or Wed. of Holy Week, we made caterpillars out of egg cartons, and hung them on the branch. On Holy Friday, we made our caterpillars "cocoons" (aka coffee filters stapled on), to symbolize the time Jesus spent in the tomb.

When the kids woke Easter morning, they saw this--

A beautiful branch full of new life. The butterflies, of course, are Jesus resurrected. The blossoms show us that even when things seem dead, there is life. Just as when we die, we will be made beautiful in Eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

The bowl of beans had miraculously turned into lovely eggs (peanut M&Ms), showing us that God can and does create something beautiful out of our meager attempts to serve Him.

We will do this activity again this year, as we really liked it and got a lot from it.

I hope you might try it at your house, too!

Sarah's schedule

The other day, Sarah was busy as a beaver, writing and writing and writing. I didn't see it until later and when I read it, I burst out laughing. It is so cute!
Click on the picture to read it up close. Oh, how I wish that was my schedule!

Coming soon to a blog near you.......

Lenten

activities for your viewing pleasure.

Math today

We (read: I) decided to use the pattern blocks to demonstrate graphing.

We sorted the blocks into groups of 5 each.

Then we graphed them, and used our math manipulatives to add them up. I suspect we are missing a block somewhere, but that ended up being a good thing in this case.
Then, as usually happens (thank goodness for curious kids), they wanted to know how they made that other kind of graph they had seen on an episode of "Arthur". Hence, the line graph demo. Just for kicks, I added the pie graph. I am always amazed at how excited they get over this stuff. I wonder if I was ever excited about school because all I rememeber are the unpleasant parts. I'm glad we are giving them a love a learning. They will go far with that.

Treasure Stones--- making and destroying

We made them and then waited 4 long days for them to dry.
Ooooooooh! This is the best part!
That was fun! (Even though this picture doesn't look like it)

And yes, we hadn't even gotten dressed yet--it was too exciting to wait!

RRRRRRRoot Beer!

Santa left a Root Beer making kit for the kids, so we finally got around to making it.
It really was "Super Magic Amazing Tasting"
and we liked it!!

North Carolina snow

This is all it amounted to, but it was pretty for a few hours!
TBird's snowball

Hey! Iowejuns!

Are you all OK up there, at -6*?
We got snow today and the people are freezing at 32*.

Take care of yourselves--we love you!

What I've been knitting

Each of the kids got new glittens, except for Marty, who requested mittens. The extra pair (blue, on the right) were the first ones, and they were too small. They'll go to charity.

In the center are 4 mousies for my folks' neighbors' cats (in the mail tomorrow, Mom!).

The grey/blue hat and mittens are for Jeffrey, who is learning about right and left.

Dad, I'm casting on your hat TONIGHT!

After all those tiny mittens for the wreaths, bigger has been better.

Press Release from the Maverick Outpost

After much review and tactical planning, a new NCT list has been published for all members of the Catholic Faith Friendship Folks (CFFF). NCT has also been referred to as the "Non-Confrontational Topic"list which many CFFF members use to avoid conflict in their CFFF relationships.

CFFF members will no doubt be familiar with outlawed topics such as: Party Affiliation, Half Full vs. Half Empty, Good Priest vs. Bad priest, Iowa Vs. North Carolina, and Paper vs. Plastic.

Topics new to the NCT list include:
Underwear--Right or Wrong side out?
Cake--Fantastic Treat or Fat-laden Luxury?
Honey Oatmeal Bread--Keeping It vs. Sharing It
Ball Trees-- Fun Christmas Tradition or Landmarks?
Mittens--Grey with blue or vice versa?
Scrap Booking--How to Catch Up.
Good Friends-- Not talking to Them is Hard.

For more information on these and other topics, or tosuggest more, call 9**-4**-***7 between 9 am and 11 pm EST, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays.


Iowejuns: Please don't ask me to explain this post; it's complicated.

Epiphany

Yesterday was the Epiphany. Also known as “The Little Christmas” and “Three Kings’ Day”, it commemorates the journey and arrival of the three kings who traveled to Bethlehem to see the baby king, Jesus.

It is interesting to me that I have always known about Epiphany, even way before I was Catholic. We always kept the tree up until Jan. 6th because it was Three Kings’ Day and because it was my dad’s birthday. Just so happens it is also my sister’s father-in-law birthday – isn’t that an odd coincidence? Both her father and father-in-law have the same birthday. OK, so I’m awed by weird facts, but I digress.

We had a little celebration here at the Maverick Outpost (hey, I just made that up and I like it) last night that included prayer and a house blessing, then continued today with crown making and playing kings. Here are some pictures.

The house blessing. Here Matt is writing (with chalk) over our front door. It says:

20+K+M+B+08 Which is the year (2008) surrounding each of the king’s initials( Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) separated with crosses.

Here are the kings.
Marty as King Martin from Rome.
Sarah as King Jesse from Italy.
Amy as King Michael from Mexico.
Theo as King Matthew from China.
Of course this prompted a discussion about how not all countries have kings.And how some have dictators, presidents, chairmen, etc.
Another interesting conversation was had about Italy vs. Italian, and America vs. American.
Hey, we’re just learnin’ all the time here!

I had another epiphany of sorts today, and as many of these such things are, it was not all that pleasant when it hit. Tonight I feel more peaceful and know in my heart that the changes coming will be for the greater good of our family.

Looking up

Things are getting better here.

I really had a hard time not being in Iowa when members of my family were going through the sadness of losing Baby Bailey. I wouldn't have been right with them anyway, but knowing I couldn't be if I needed to be, made me a bit crazy. (Oh, and for what it's worth-which is a lot--Matt had looked up flight costs for me if I had wanted to fly back just to be there. He's great like that).

Also, I was just plain sad. Sad for Mindi and Tim, sad for Le and Bob, sad for all of us because we will not get to meet and watch Baby Bailey grow up. We can only love and wait until we meet in heaven. Life is so darn hard sometimes.

Tomorrow I have to get a filling at the dentist, then school resumes. We are at 87 days, which is almost halfway, so I am glad about that. I had thought we were around 70. At this rate, we can finish in May. We plan to continue math throughout summer. This new math program is working well for us, and the kids like it. Best of all, they are getting it, so I think we can easily get caught up to where I'd like to be for next year.

Tomorrow also begins Tae Kwon Do at the new place. The kids are a bit nervous about having a new "Master", but Master Wyatt will be back in February, and it will all be fine anyway. I forgot to mention that at the last class before Christmas a 12 year old girl confirmed on her black belt, and broke concrete. It was awesome to watch, and I think maybe I'll burst when the kids do that! Suffice it to say that nobody messes with Miss Caroline at school--I like that part of it for the kids. They will always be small and may need to protect themselves someday. Now they will have the tools to do that, along with the self confidence that comes with mastering a skill so well.

Maybe tomorrow I will have time to post some pictures......stay tuned.