Raggedy Ann Days

As a child, my bedroom was decorated in the red white and blue of R*ggedy Ann and Andy.  My favorite color is still red :)  So, earlier this year while reading Nie Nie, I found the link to this darling party.  I knew then I had to dig out some old R*ggedy Ann dolls and revisit the colors of my childhood!

First, plenty of lovely flowers, real and paper, all in red and white.

Next, add lots of sweets! Striped lollipops from here, and instructions for the amazing (super easy) lollipop tower.

Red cherry sours and aqua jelly bellies from the grocery store filled apothecary jars to tempt the little ones......

.....who could resist?

But before too many sweets, some potato salad and blue cheese slider burgers, Barefoot C*ntessa style.

To top it off, a few "couture" cakes to complete the meal......

....cute as a button, don't you think?

Speaking of cute as a button, get a load of these "rag-a-muffin" cuties in their party dresses.  We don't usually give them a gift on their birthday (with the exception of milestone birthdays) since I consider the party gift enough, but I usually gift all three girls a new dress for each birthday. 

For patterns, check out Pink Fig's "tea party skirt" and "cuppy cake dress", and Portabellopixie's Claire.

Time to say goodbye to our guests, send them home with a few more sweets, and a little rag-doll love.

Happy Birthday to my two youngest dolls!

                                

Now mommy is tired, and ready to give her feet a rest :)

Sixth Grade Plans

Planning this year has seemed harder than in past years.  I suppose part of that is the heavy burden that a homeschool parent begins to feel as your children get older, the fears, the self-doubt, the second-guessing.  Part of it is because I have allowed my time to become too scattered, I have fallen away from my routines as I put all my effort into several other projects.  Part of it is getting older :)  So, here we are, the end of September, and I finally feel as if I have a plan, sort of!

Christian Studies:
Rostov's Lives of the Saints
Saints of Anglo-Saxon England
The Holy Unmercenary Doctors

Here I am keeping it pretty simple.  Some days we will read Rostov's lives together in the morning.  Other days he will read it independently.  It is so far my favorite collection of saints lives, the translation is nice, and is very readable for all. I am also using Sanctity through the Centuries to help incorporate lives of the saints into our history studies.

Math:
If you have read my blog for long, you know my feelings on this subject.  And, once again, I have to eat crow and say, we are using Saxon.  I hate it.  Last year the crocodile hunter hated it.  But, we finally turned a corner over the past few months, and I will be honest, it is great to have him be able to work so independently in this area. 

Latin & Classical Studies:
First Form Latin
Augustus Caesar's World
Horatius at the Bridge

After what seems like forever, we finally wrapped up Lively Latin Book 1. I think it was a good choice, and will use it again.  Now, we are moving on to something more rigorous, and I hope Memoria Press' First Form will provide us with that.  For fun, he will read Augustus Caesar's World.  As a long term goal for the year, he is going to attempt to memorize Horatius at the Bridge, a feat which is attempted by the 6th graders of Highlands Latin School each year.

History & Geography:
Middle Ages History Portfolio
Famous Men of the Middle Ages

The Core - I learned about this book at a Classical Conversations Practicum this summer, and it contains a great method and plan for teaching mapping skills, so we will be using those this year for our geography.

English Studies:
IEW Developing Linguistic Patterns through Poetry - still loving this resource!
Spell to Write and Read
Robinson Curriculum booklist for literature

Science:
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 - our co-op is covering this book, as well as a short series of lessons on aviation by a homeschool dad who is a pilot
Burgess Bird Book for Children - this is a great complement to Flying Creatures, and I bought each child a Peterson Field Guide coloring book as well as the Audubon birds coloring book.  More on how we are using these in a later post.

Music & Art:
Piano Lessons - he received his first "real" piece of classical music to learn this week - a simple piece by Beethoven, but not a simplified version. He is very excited to learn to play a classical piece just as the composer wrote it!
Beginning Drawing
The Art of Watercolor
Byzantine Chant - there is a wonderful series of podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio which we are going to try to follow along with at a very slow pace

Composers: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev  (here is our approach to composer study using Charlotte Mason's methods)
Artists:  Audubon, Cassatt, O'Keefe - we also follow Charlotte Mason's picture study method for art appreciation

Physical Education:
Karate - he is close to earning a green belt, which means by next summer he could be a brown belt!
Running

The Dormition Fast

I have really enjoyed cooking in the past few weeks, with so many garden vegetables pouring in, and a brief break from the fasts, but it is time to look again to another fasting season, the Dormition.  Thankfully, a two week fast seems like nothing after this year's extended Apostles Fast, but each fast comes with its challenges.  One of them this year, our chickens decided to start laying eggs this week :)  Here's to hoping we have some non-Orthodox friends interested in farm fresh eggs for the next two weeks!  Also, I will be spending the first week and a half of the fast attending an intensive training for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, so with 8 hours of training each day and a service nearly every night - cooking time will be short.
Here is a peek at our menu for this season, with recipes to follow.  A word of warning, a few of these recipes I am trying for the first time, so I make no promises on how some of them taste!  I tried to find a few new recipes that would make the most of our overabundance of corn (over 250 ears harvested so far this year :), squash (12 squash casseroles currently sit in the freezer :) and tomatoes (still trying to get those canned)!

Dormition Fast Menu

Lessons from the Farm: Perseverance

A farmer went out to sow his seeds in the deep furrows of the earth....from dust he came, and to the dust he looks for sustenance.

But lest he become too reliant on himself, placing his trust in the earth alone....  God sends the rains, and twice, all is washed away.

... yet God does remember His covenant with man, "the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh"

....  and for a third time, hands humbly digging deep into the rich, flooded soil, seeds go into the ground.  This time they rise from the warm, dark earth and produce, according to their kind.

... "for behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that sows seed on the face of all the earth... 

..and to you it shall be for food.  I also give every green plant as food for the wild animals of the earth,

..for all the birds of heaven, and for everything that creeps on the earth in which is the breath of life.

It was so.  Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed,

......it was very good."

Days of Grace

After Days of Grace had to be deleted, I figured it was for the best and I enjoyed a bit of a break, but I must confess, I miss the challenge of a photo a day to remind me of the presence of God in my life.  So, I decided to try to put it back together.  It will take a week or two to get all of the old photos reposted, and of course, sadly all of your beautiful comments are gone, but hopefully you will join me again.  At this point, I have uploaded January (though I am missing a few days, and cannot honestly remember what photos they were :), and began officially taking new photos yesterday.  I hope to repost all of the old photos, and select a few from the past few weeks, while continuing to document the rest of this year's Days of Grace. 

Lessons from the Farm: The Rewards of Patience

From this......

to this......

today.....

the crocodile hunter's first eggs!

Orthodox History in America

As I was sifting through resources this morning, I ran across a wonderful site I thought I would pass along.  If you are planning to study American history, this site is a wealth of information on the Orthodox history of America.