Books we read aloud this Christmas

 

 

What's on the menu?

If you read my previous post, you know that I'm making some changes in my life. I'm trying to become better organized and live more simply. One of the things that I believe will help me in that regard is to start planning our meals, ALL of them.

I've been planning dinners for a while now. I would often write down 5 or 6 dinners that I could make and choose from that list each night. But, I never had a plan for snacks or lunches. With school taking place in the mornings, I thought it would be much easier if I had the snacks and lunches planned out. That way, I could start on them while still helping the girls with their independent work (at the kitchen table). I also thought that having it all planned out would make grocery shopping easier (and cheaper) and life just simpler on those days that I'm "not feeling it". Now, even if I'm not in the mood, I can look at the plan and just turn on my "auto-pilot" and I'll be just fine. And, if I'm really desperate, I can point to it and say "make that". :-) Though, in my home, that is not very likely!

Anyway, here is this week's plan. We've already been into it some and the Hippie seems to LOVE knowing what is coming. She can get excited about something she knows she likes. She knows that there is something to eat for snack and even if I'm busy I can tell her to make whatever it says. It's been wonderful. If I can just devote 30 minutes ONE time per week to making the plan, the week should go beautifully.

I should note, we do not eat any meat or eggs at all, but do have occasional ORGANIC dairy. When  you see a cheese mentioned, it's organic. The girls both love to have their yogurts every night after supper ~ the Princess eats organic dairy yogurt and the Hippie eats organic yogurt made from Almond mylk (she doesn't like dairy). Any cereal, oatmeal or the like is made with plain, whole, REAL oats and organic plain, UNSWEETENED Almond mylk. The "cream of wheat" is the whole grain kind (did you know that regular cream of wheat is NOT the whole grain?). All pasta is whole-wheat, rice is brown, bread is 100% whole wheat, tortillas and pita bread are also whole wheat. Most of the produce is organic and locally grown and delivered to our doorstep! And, drinks are always fresh filtered water (green tea for Momma at lunch, YUM).

Wanna peek at what crazy vegetarian families eat all day? Please forgive Monday ~ we were out all day grocery shopping. :)

Monday:

• B ~ Cream of Wheat w/Apples, Raisins & Agave Nectar
• S ~ Odwalla Bars
• L ~ Whole Foods Salad Bar
• S ~ Lara Bars
• D ~ Butternut Squash & Pea Pasta, Yogurt

Tuesday:

• B ~ Oatmeal with Fruit, Honey & Wheat Germ
• S ~ Kiwi slices and String Cheese
• L ~ Green Bean Salad, Triscuits & Ants on a Log
• S ~ Coconut & Raw Cacao Bananas
• D ~ Sweet Potato Lentils & Rice with Cucumber/Tomato/Watermelon Radish Salad, Warm Pita & Yogurt

Wednesday:

• B ~ Cereal with Fruit
• S ~ Pear Slices & Trail Mix
• L ~ Grilled PB, Honey & Banana Sandwiches, Veggies & Cottage Cheese Dip (Giant Salad for Momma instead)
• S ~ Snack at Handwork Group
• D ~ Soup with Collards, Split Peas and Parsnips, Bread & Yogurt

Thursday:

• B ~ Cream of Wheat with Fruit
  
• S ~ Apples & Peanut Butter
  
• L ~ Homemade Hummus Plate with Veggies & Pita Bread, Kiwi Slices
• S ~ Homemade Chocolate Crunch & Pear Slices
  
• D ~Stuffed Peppers, Salad & Yogurt

Friday:

• B ~ Cereal with Fruit
  
• S ~ Veggies & Cottage Cheese Dip
• L ~ Mexican Veggie Wraps & Grapes
  
• S ~ Apples with Vanilla Yogurt & Honey
  
• D ~Stale Bread Soup & Baked Pears

Saturday:

• B ~ Scrambled Tofu, Grits, Toast & Orange Juice
  
• S ~ Triscuits, String Cheese & Pear Slices
• L ~ Parsnip Soup, Salad & Bread
  
• S ~ Fruit Kabobs (Apples, Bananas & Grapes)
  
• D ~ Homemade Pizza Night, Salad & Yogurt

Feel free to borrow my plan! Have a great week.

It All Starts With GOD.

 

That sentence is something I obviously already knew. When I began to see that I was not happy with the way I was living my life, I came up with some goals, some new habits I wanted to form or work on. Some of the things I wanted to change were:

• Daily exercise
• Eat better, drink more water
• Spend focused time with the girls each day (other than school)
• Read aloud to them every day (other than school)
• Form the habit of SCHOOL
• Form the habit of chores, a clean home
• Form the habit of ROUTINE, schedule, rhythm
• Menu Planning
• TIME.WITH.GOD

It's interesting that my instinct (or was that God speaking to me?) knew where to begin. A part of me wanted to start with the daily exercise. I wanted to change my eating habits. I wanted to spend more time with the girls. I wanted to start our new schedule and routine and keep my house clean and start school.

All of this was and is true.

But, deep down I already knew that all of this was only possible with GOD.  I knew that I had to put HIM first. I knew that if I would start with God, the rest would fall into place.

All things are possible with God.

So, I decided to focus first on the habit of spending time with God each morning. Before worry about anything else, I would begin by getting up at 7:00, not turning on the computer (I didn't check the computer until 1:00pm today!) and spending my hour of quiet time WITH.GOD.

Wouldn't you know, the first thing I read when I started was this:

"It All Starts With God."

Funny how 'smart' we are sometimes. How I knew where to start before I even started.

So, I am starting with God. Each morning, tea time with God. I'll be reading from

and

and

I'll read and think and pray and write in my journal (yes, a real hard copy one).


Then, and only then, I believe that the rest of my plans will go much more smoothly.

Would you like to join me?

2012 School Year

Believe it or not, in the midst of all of our Christmas decorating, gift-making, gift-wrapping, cleaning, cooking, baking, stories and celebrating, I've also been planning our upcoming school year (2012). I've done a lot of thinking, researching, meditating and praying about this. As you may know, we had a rocky start to the fall of this year. We've dabbled here and there with various ideas of Unschooling and Oak Meadow, but hadn't found our niche or groove. I'm happy to report, though, that after much thought and prayer, I feel like I have a solid plan for 2012. I thought I'd share some of that here. I'm in the process of purchasing and organizing materials, but we will be starting FRESH  in January. Items with one * will be used only in Term 1, ** Term 2 and *** Term 3. If there are no *s, we will use the resource all year. Each term will be roughly 12 weeks. Here's what we have planned:

Family Subjects:

BIBLE:

The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos (Old Testament)

Wisdom and the Millers (Proverbs for Children)

HABITS:

Work on learning and following our family's rules.

TALES:

Oak Meadow Fairy Tales *

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit ** & ***

Seven Little Sisters **

Snow White and Other Fairy Tales by Grimm *** 

POETRY:

Robert Louis Stevenson *

A.A. Milne **

A Family of Poems ***

GEOGRAPHY:

Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography

WORLD HISTORY:

Child's History of the World, Hillyer (Narrate, Map and Timeline)

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History

Life in the Great Ice Age *

Boy of the Pyramids *

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth **

Trojan Horse

Growing Up in Ancient Greece

The Greeks

                                

AMERICAN HISTORY:

A Living History of Our World Volume 1 (Chapters 1-16)

The Very First Americans

Holling C. Holling Book of Indians
Eric the Red

D'Aulaire Leif the Lucky

D'Aulaire Pocahontas

D'Aulaire George Washington

D'Aulaire Benjamin Franklin

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

A Lion to Guard Us

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims                                    

Liberty's Kids DVDs

SCIENCE/NATURE:

Outdoor Secrets and Companion
Burgess Bird Book along with coloring and listening to their calls

Weekly Nature Study

MUSIC:

Orchestra, Peter and the Wolf *

Opera, Mozart's Magic Flute Opera, Hansel and Gretel Opera *

Bach with Opal Wheeler's Sebastian Bach The Boy from Thuringia **

Beethoven with Opal Wheeler's Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells ***

ART:

Renoir *

Cassatt **

Cezanne ***

LITERATURE:

* Little House in the Big Woods

* Twig

* Five Little Peppers and How they Grew

* Understood Betsy

** Wise Enchanter

** The Voyages of Doctor DoLittle 

*** A Little Princess

*** Wind in the Willows

*** The Door in the Wall

CHARACTER:

Beautiful Feet Teaching Character through Literature, Primary

OTHER:

Continue our weekly Waldorf Handwork Group & Homeschool Adventures Playgroup 

INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS:

THE HIPPIE:

Math Lessons for a Living Education

Life of Fred Elementary Series

Dreambox Math

English for the Thoughtful Child (orally with me)
Queen Language Lessons for the Very Young Vol 1

Cursive *

Copywork from various school books ** & ***

Free reading during Quiet Time

My America Copywork

THE PRINCESS:

Math Lessons for a Living Education

Dreambox Math

Delightful Reading Lessons
Reading practice from Treadwell, Lobel, Cobweb the Cat & other readers
Queen Language Lessons for Little Ones Vol 3

Finish Oak Meadow Letter Introduction via Fairy Tales & Drawings *

Copywork of words and short sentences ** & ***

My America Copywork

*******

Of course, we will always add books from the library to our Book Basket and I may include some a little more "officially", but these are the resources I know I want to use.

Memories

 

Please forgive the quality of the pictures. These are from the 80s. Even if I were to try to give you some more recent pictures of these amazing people, the pictures would still be fuzzy. Why, you ask? Well, two of them went to be with their Heavenly Father before the "digital age".

Here we are. December 10th. Smack in the middle of my favorite time of year.

Really. It is. Always has been.

I loved the Holidays as a child.

Thanksgiving in Louisville. The longest day ever, but oh so worth it. I didn't watch football back then, so it bored me to tears to have an entire day of waiting to eat the food that was smelling up the house so wonderfully. Football in the background. Smells swirling through my Nana's home. W.A.I.T.I.N.G.

Then, finally the fellowship of family. My aunt and uncles. My cousins. My near 100 year old GrandMomma. My dad. My mom. My little brother. My Nana & Grandpa. Stuffing balls (hehe), olives, sweet gerkins and SHIRLEY TEMPLES. Oh the SHIRLEY TEMPLES.

Christmas at home. The earliest day ever, but I'd venture to say it was also oh so worth it for my parents. It was the one day we could wake them up before dawn. Now that I am a parent, I have a whole new respect for their willingness to get out of bed SO VERY EARLY, just for us. I remember trying to wake my dad up at 4:30 a.m. once. He just nicely told me it was a bit too early. I waited patiently until about 6:00.

We woke them up EARLY. They made us W.A.I.T. while they got their coffee (Of course, I TOTALLY get that now). They wanted to see our faces as we came into the living room. Beautiful, amazing, wonderful memories.

I simply L.O.V.E.D. the holidays.

I still do. Now, I'm the one making them wait while I get my tea.

The only problem with this time of year is how it brings my childhood memories to the surface. They are wonderful. But, they are bitter sweet.

You see, those memories include four people ~ my mom, my dad, my brother and me.

As I sit here today, only two of us remain ~ my mom and me.

I can't help but get a little weepy this time of year. I turn into a big baby. I miss my Daddy. I miss my little brother. I want to wake my Daddy up at 4 in the morning again and have him tell me ever so sweetly that it is just a little bit too early. I want to wait for my Daddy to make his coffee. I want to squeal in anticipation with my little brother as we are both about to climb out of our skin. I want to hug my Daddy and feel his rough fingers as they squeeze me back. I want to see that joy in his eyes as he spends Christmas morning with the greatest thing he's ever done ~ his family. I want to joke with my Daddy and my brother in Louisville as we wait for dinner at Thanksgiving (my immediate family were the only ones who didn't watch football in those days). I want to watch as my brother makes jokes that no one gets but us. I want to watch as my Daddy shows my almost 100 year old Grandmomma the most attention she's seen in a while, as he patiently listens to all of her stories of "way back when", simply because he loves the elderly as much as he loves children and animals.

I want to step back. Just for a minute, please. I want to smell them. I want to hug them. I want to feel their arms around me.

But, I can't.

I just have to accept that and move on.

And, thankfully, God has blessed me with a beautiful distraction.

He has given me the gift of a family of my own. He has given me the opportunity to make those same memories for my own children. I must look forward. Always remember and appreciate the past, but move forward, making memories for my own children.

So, here we are.

I'm making memories for my girls. We are decorating our tree. We are making them Shirley Temples and watching football on Thanksgiving. We are making them wait just a bit longer on Christmas morning as we fix our hot beverages (Daddy drinks coffee, Momma drinks tea).

And, we're making new memories for them.

We're taking them to The Nutcracker Ballet. A real ballet. But, we're reading the book first and listening to Tchaikovsky first, so that they know what they are seeing and making connections on their own.

We're taking them scootering around the Friendship Fountain while listening to Christmas music on the loudspeakers (maybe that's Florida's version of Ice Skating in New York???).

We're taking them to Bethlehem. To see the Roman Soldiers and listen to them demand your taxes. To see the people of Bethlehem, selling their wares. To see and smell and pet all of the animals, goats, sheep, chickens, ponies, horses, donkeys and of course the camel. To see the little children of Bethlehem cooking over their fires, weaving on their looms. To hear the shofar as the Rabbi calls people to the temple. And, to the inn that had no more room. To the stable to see the live baby Jesus.

We're taking them to friends' to celebrate the season with a beautiful Advent Spiral.

We're taking them on Christmas bike parades and Christmas hay rides.

We're helping them make and wrap gifts and making hot "cocoa" (carob) and Silk Nog with nutmeg.

I will forever cherish the sights and sounds and smells of my own childhood memories.

My Daddy.

My Brother.

My Momma.

And, I can only pray that my girls will forever cherish the sights and sounds and smells of their childhood. All I can do is move forward and give them the same LOVE that I always felt from my family.

It's a beautiful time to have a family!

 

'Tis the Season

 

One of my blogger buddies recently commented that they "missed my posts". Sorry about that, folks. The Holidays are in full swing around here. And, when I'm not doing or thinking about something related to the holidays, I'm doing or thinking about something related to school. Up to now, my thoughts have been so muddled, I didn't think anyone would care to know what they were.

So, have you started your holiday preparations or celebrations?

I don't know about you or your kids, but my girls have been rather obsessed with Christmas for a while now.

Christmas music is playing almost constantly. If it isn't playing, they are singing it.

They have watched every Christmas special that has come on so far.

We've listened to Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" many times and read the book, all in preparation for going to see the actual ballet next week.

We've checked out almost every Christmas book our library has and have been reading from our Christmas basket frequently.

Daddy has strung the lights outside, complete with the tell-tale frustration of "The Twelve Pains of Christmas".

We've put our household decorations out.

We have the cinnamon pine cones and a vanilla candle smelling up the house.

The girls have made and wrapped their gifts already (without direction or prodding from me).

This time of year reminds me how great it is to live in a family-oriented, small beach community. Yesterday was our town's annual tree-lighting celebration. We all got onto our bikes and rode over to where the town center meets the ocean. There's just something so magical about celebrating Christmas amongst palm leaves blowing in the breeze.

We rode our bikes in the Christmas bike parade.

The girls played on the bouncy slide and made Christmas crafts.

We took a hay ride around town.

We got some hot beverages ... yummy Pumpkin Spice Latte.

We watched the local children dance.

We watched in anticipation as it grew darker and the mayor announced that Santa was on his way.

We listened to the mayor speak, counted down and cheered when the tree was lit.

We watched and listened as the high school band led the way for Santa and Mrs. Claus on their sleigh.

We cheered. We smiled at the joy on our children's faces. I smiled at the adorable little girl in front of us. Tiny ones are so dang cute!

Then, we loaded back onto our bikes, rode home in the dark and then piled into the car to head over to our favorite Christmas tree lot.

We've gone to the same lot since before the girls were born. We don't go because they have the best trees or the best prices. We go because of who they are and what they do with the money. We go there because we know that our money goes to help the less fortunate in our community. Isn't that what Jesus would do?

The girls ran around, flowing in and out, in between trees as they have done every year. We picked out a modest tree for our modest little living room. The girls had a candy cane, we gave the charity our money, talked about football and headed home.

Today is all about the decorating of the tree with Silk Nog and Christmas music playing ... well, after a family bike ride to the beach, of course.

Some other things we have in store ...

We're starting The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (the book) for our family read-aloud tonight.

We'll be celebrating the Winter Solstice with friends on Thursday.

We'll be going to The Nutcracker ballet on Friday.

We'll be going on a Bethlehem visit, a live, walk-through Nativity next weekend.

We'll be going to a friend's house for "cocktails" to celebrate the season.

We will be looking through our Samaritan's Purse catalog to pick our gifts that our family can give to others around the world.

We'll keep reading Christmas books and watching Christmas specials and making and wrapping Christmas gifts.

We'll make cookies and cards and go out as a family to look for homeless to deliver them to on Christmas Eve (we did that last year and also brought them all warm jackets and socks and blankets and it was amazing).

And, of course, we will be celebrating the birth of our oldest daughter, the best Christmas gift I ever received!

What have you been up to? How are you celebrating this lovely time with your family?