Fairy Celebration

I won't say we are completely recovered from the fairy fete this weekend (I am not sure I will ever get ALL of the glitter off my floors :) but it was certainly a birthday to remember for my little fairy queen! Fairy foods included cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad croissants, lemon curd tarts topped with raspberries, and yummy, sparkly fairy punch.

The easiest decorations for a fairy table: plant wheat grass a week or two before the party - in baskets, trays, even tea cups!
Here is the fairy bower, awaiting the arrival of all the sweet little fairy princesses.

First came a dusting of fairy glitter, followed by lots of fun with bubbles, silks and fairy wings. Then it was time to eat!

A plate fit for a fairy meal.

A local artist I found at an event this summer came and painted big beautiful butterflies on each little fairy's arm. Here is the queen getting her wings.

And of course, a sweet sugar fairy, sleeping on a chocolate tree stump to end this event.

I think she had fun :)

Happy Birthday

There was a fairy in our garden this morning - and not just any fairy - a birthday fairy!

Today in our house we celebrate two birthdays. One, our little fairy queen, and the other, our blessed Queen of heaven, the Theotokos. I love that one of my little girls gets to celebrate her birthday with the Mother of our Lord! Many Years (and stay tuned for pix of the fairy party celebration coming this weekend :)

Simplifying your Household: Laundry

Laundry always seems to be one of those areas where you can never stay ahead. I spent the first 4 years of our marriage going to the laundromat - so I did laundry once a week. Then we got our washer and dryer, and I continued with the habit of doing all the laundry once a week. That works (if you own enough underwear :) when there are only two of you, not so much when babies come along :) , but I still have a hard time being consistent with daily laundry. This summer I have been able to fall into a routine of 2 loads of laundry each day. I have also been working on making sure the kids learn to put their own clean laundry away. The problem with that of course, is that often I clutter the school room floor or kitchen counter with folded clothes, waiting for them to come get them. My solution - which has worked really well so far - is one of those hanging closet organizers. It cost about $15 and hangs from the bar in my laundry "room". I get the laundry out of the dryer, fold it on top of the dryer, then sort it into compartments for the kids. Each morning when they bring their dirty laundry down, they take the clean clothes from their shelves and put them away. It keeps the clean laundry from taking up my counter space, and it helps them become responsible for putting their clothes away.

Going on an Expedition

Our trunk is packed, and we are heading to Africa this year! Here is a look at our geography/continents box - don't you just love that trunk? I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't live within 30 minutes of an Old Time P*ottery Store - can't beat the price on the coolest boxes and baskets! What kid wouldn't be excited about exploring a trunk like that?

So, are you curious? Want to peek inside?

Here is a look at much of what our box contains. The crocodile hunter graciously loaned us a selection of animals from his zoo, and I pulled books from our shelves (plus a few new purchases :). I found African textile design paper at a school supply store, with directions for creating paper doll clothes. I also included an Ancient Egypt T*ob, and picked up a hand carved gourd from Kenya at TJM*xx. Not in this picture, but included in our studies will be the lives of several saints of Africa - St. Moses the Ethiopian, St. Tekla, St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt . We will also spend some time exploring St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt. We will have a heavy emphasis on Egypt because we are studying Ancient history, but plan to explore other parts of Africa too. I also do not store our maps and general geopgraphy books in the trunk - but the crocodile hunter is learning to identify all of the countries of Africa right now. To see what others put in their boxes, check out these sites:

Close Academy's North America Box
Serendipity's Continents and Cultures
LaPaz - entire collection of continents boxes

Montessori Blog - another look at a North America Box

Baby Steps

Both Dave Ramsey and FlyLady use the term "baby steps" in describing how to make progress in your life. They preach taking small steps towards seemingly overwhelming goals. That concept is a hard one for a perfectionist personality - we want it all done at once, and done perfectly. I find as I fall behind in house cleaning, I can let the house go for weeks, but when I decide to clean it, I get caught up in not just washing sinks and toilets, but reorganizing drawers and wiping down walls. All of those things need to be done, but it becomes overwhelming trying to do it all at once. So I have tried to learn to take baby steps. My household binder is designed to help me break chores up, but I have also found that I need time to build habits just like my kids. This summer, we have chosen a chore/job every three weeks. We started with getting up every morning and making beds. For three weeks the kids (and mommy :) got up and made beds, then marked a sticker on the calendar. At the end of the three weeks, I rewarded them with a small prize. Then we added emptying the trash each morning. We have now established a very nice list of chores that get done every morning without a lot of complaining. I give them the option of earning a small reward for the end of the three weeks of a new chore, or they can earn Chucky E. Cheese tokens on a weekly basis (if you clip the coupons, these end up costing about 10 cents each - far cheaping than an allowance/commission system though it does require me to suffer through that horrible place every so often, unless I can convince the grandparents to take them :) I took most of the chores from this list, which came from this very helpful and practical site. It is sort of a FlyLady streamlined approach.

1: Make Beds Right Away
2: Do One Complete Load of Laundry
3: Empty All Garbage Cans
4: Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty
5: Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do the Same
6: Bathroom Wipe-Down
7: Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up

We have not established all of these (obviously if we could do number 5 every day there would not be much cleaning up to do!), but many of them are becoming habits, both for me and the kids. I even have my son wiping down his toilet each day! Now, when I look at the house and think about cleaning it for company, it is far less overwhelming.

Book of Numbers

The Queen is beginning her math lessons this week, and we will be following a very simple Waldorf inspired plan.

Our topics will include:
Book of Numbers - to introduce the numbers 1-12
All About Zero - learning about the concept of zero
The Four Processes - using simple stories that feature her favorite characters from Peter Rabbit, we will learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

The Book of Numbers may seem silly to some, especially if your child has been counting things for years, but often a child can count or identify numerals, without any real understanding of what "one" or "three" really means. A book of numbers allows you to spend a few weeks looking at each number and helping your child grasp these more difficult concepts and gain a deeper understanding of numbers. You may use anything you like to create your book of numbers, loose paper that can be bound together when completed or slid into page protectors, or you could use a Waldorf style main lesson book. We are using these scrapbooks, because I have a large supply of them (they make wonderful nature journals). They are half off at Hobby Lobby this week, so they are cheap ($5 each), the paper is nice and heavy, and they have plenty of pages (36), so we can only use one side of the paper to prevent smearing.

the Queen's Number One page

One: God, me, sun, nose, mouth, earth

Our reading for this day is Designed by God, So I Must be Special, which uses childlike stick drawn illustrations and cute rhymes to talk about all the things God created, focusing on the 5 senses He gave us and how we can experience His creation through them (dovetails nicely with our creation studies :)

A great thank you to both Katherine and Serendipity for many of the ideas from this post!

Practice Makes Perfect

A few weeks ago I came across some notes from a talk titled "Practice Makes Perfect" that my priest gave years ago. In it, he outlines 8 things we should aggressively practice on a daily basis in order to draw closer to God. It was such a powerful list, and I found myself thinking about it constantly. I wanted to find a practical and concrete way to remind myself of these things each morning, in hopes of making progress. What I came up with was a small journal listing each practice and an appropriate scripture or prayer. Then, each morning when I awoke, I could read through and dedicate my day to the practice of these things. Some of them I can do as I read through (forgiveness), others are a reminder for how to approach others throughout the day. So, here is how my journal turned out - and it sits next to my bed so I can pick it up and look through it before I even get out of bed each morning.

The cover - found it in the scrapbook aisle of Hobby Lobby - under $5.
This scripture is a reminder of the purpose of this book - trying to grow closer to God, allowing Him to make me new. It is also a reminder that I need not dwell on yesterday's failings, but remember that each day begins new.

Thankfulness: our first concious thought of the day should be to thank God for life.

Acceptance: not as fatalism, but as trust in God that He has placed us where He wants us.

Cherishing Life: slow down, appreciate life. Don't take for granted the moment by moment experiences.
Forgiveness: start each morning by taking an inventory - forgive and let it go!

Compassion: do not try to shield ourselves or our children from the suffering of others, cultivate true compassion.

Kindness: speak and be courteous to those we meet throughout the day, for we are all made in the image of God.

Joy: externals and feelings are not validators of our life, we choose how we react to all circumstances, choose to be joyful.

Peace: Pursue peace, not strife. Speak kind words, and intercede on behalf of the world

"In peace let us pray to the Lord."

Another passage on peace and a verse from a favorite hymn from my non-Orthodox past :)

Finally, I completed my book with one of my favorite morning prayers.

I chose the butterfly stickers because of their link to the resurrection and renewal of life - a reminder that each of us will be made new in Christ - and because they make me smile when I look at them!

(a note for non-Orthodox readers, all verse references are according to the Orthodox Study Bible, in other Bibles the Psalms will be one Psalm number higher)

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