The Adventures of April

Time for our "Month in Pictures" report.  This is always a rather full time of year, but full in many good ways.  

The annual fiddle convention was a fun gathering.  Over the weekend we participated in the public show and the girls took part in a wonderful Scottish fiddle workshop by the very talented Hanneke Cassel.  At last month's contest, we discovered these brothers who play a French-Canadian Style of old-time fiddle music.  Yes, they sing in French and their music is quite fun!  Our children even think one of them looks very much like their uncle!.

Country Girl (with backup by Tender Warrior) played a tune at the request of the association as the current state Young Adult Fiddle Champion.  She and Adventure Girl also played a twin fiddle piece.  I always love being the listening, cheering mama!

Early in the month I finished this simple, but cute and comfy, nightgown for my Princess Girl.  This is the age when they can no longer fit into those nice cotton pajamas that Carter's makes, and the older girl pajamas are very trendy and not very lovely or modest.  So we made our own.  I adapted this pattern, and was pleased that it turned out well.  I think she is quite happy.

While my olders were out fiddling, my youngers wanted to bake sugar cookies.  Fun with rolling, cutting, frosting and sprinkling always makes for smiling faces.  And then the anticipation of eating them!

Lovely weather means time for a nice evening walk near the river.

Holy Week is full of traditions at our house. One is that we  do a very simple Passover meal.  You might laugh at our cute little stuffed lamb there (the lamb of Passover is anything but pretty!), but we do not actually serve a lamb dish at our Passover meal, preferring to save it for Resurrection Day itself.  So we have to have some symbol of the lamb on our Seder plate, and this is what we chose.  We like to make our own matzah bread too.

Continuing the beloved tradition of my grandmother, who is still going strong at 94, we always make our lamb cake.  This year we made two of them to take some to a gathering with friends on Resurrection Sunday.  The children were begging for decorating one this year, so I let them do the cake decorating.  A lovely job they did, indeed!

Tender Warrior says we've started a new tradition of a Saturday campfire on the eve of Easter.  Of course, when you have lovely weather, that is a nice tradition to make :)  Everyone loved it.  It was a little breezy and chilly, but he make a perfect fire in true Warrior fashion, and all were delighted to roast marshmallows.

Resurrection Sunday means everyone must indulge mama in photos.   I'm not posting here all the photos of my sweet ones, except for my sweetest one (and me)!

After a morning of lovely music which my girls helped provide with their dear friend and a few others from church, and a stirring sermon on the resurrection, we returned home for a few hours of continued celebration and some rest.  Before I report on those, I just have to record my new favorite quote from our pastor's sermon that has been sitting with me ever since:

"Risk is Right because the Resurrection is Real!"

Hunting for eggs.  These ones were the hard-boiled and plastic-filled variety.  A couple of weeks before we also gradually go through the story of Christ's last week using the Resurrection Eggs.

In the evening we joined a couple of families for dinner and games.  Younger children played tag....

And grown men played a game of basketball.  I think it was three forty-somethings, a couple of twenty-somethings, and a few teens and pre-teens.  Some serious competition here!

Later in the evening we broke out the game of "Your Best Life Now."  Now, before you think we've gone a little wacky in our theology, you must know that this was a big joke.  Our pastor's family received it as a joke gift from another family in our home group, I think after reading a review on Tim Challies' blog about bestsellers.  So, we opened the box and everyone took turns reading the questions.  They really were good for creating laughs...and at the same time, were quite sad.  I'm not going into a commentary here on it.  Let's just say we think his theology is all wrong.  That's as far as we got with the game.  Then we went on to play another (real) fun game together.

April is also the time for our annual trek to a favorite family discipleship home education conference!  Hurray!  This year we had to stop at a coffee shop we found out about run by a fiddling family.  It was a perfect stop and a nice place to meet and talk with some of them.  This sign caught my attention.  I told Warrior that it was for him :)  Oh, and we stopped here on the way home too.  And we discovered a new favorite....A chocolate peanut butter frappe!!

We stay with Warrior's brother and sister-in-law in their lovely home on the hill (the gardens and view are a sight this time of year!  Wonderful!)  Our first night we had a family movie night.  This uncle has quite a movie theater and he wanted to treat the children to "Frozen."  So he fired up the popcorn machine, much to Littlest Warrior's delight.

As for the conference...OUTSTANDING, as usual!  I'll have to write a separate entry on what I gleaned from it.  Ken Ham was one of the keynote speakers, and we so appreciated how he has grown to tie all that he teaches even more to the Gospel than ever.

Our girls participated in the chorale for the first time and really enjoyed it.  What lovely music!  We had several friends play amazing music at family night too!  A tremendous blessing.

Game time with Aunt and Uncle

And the conclusion of our weekend with a mini-concert for Grandma, Aunt and Uncle.  Grandma did not get to go to the fiddle contest, so she requested that all of the children play their pieces for them.  Then there was a special request for "Lord of the Rings" music. And in between, in the course of the weekend, there was good opportunity to play Irish music and practice our dance steps for class.

One of my other favorite signs at the coffee shop I only noticed the second time we were there and I didn't have my camera on me (can you believe it?).  It said:

"There is always, always, always something to be thankful for"

We have had so much to be thankful for this month!  And I am learning how important it is to express gratitude even  especially in the moments where I might be tempted to grumble.  Just one means of learning how to apply daily living in the Gospel light of Christ. 

The Moments of March

The last day of March means it's time to review the moments and memories brought to us within its thirty-one days.

The entrance of spring is always glorious! But the onset of Daylight Savings?  Not so much.  It always takes about a month to adjust to it ever since "the powers that be" moved it to a month earlier.  At least we get breathtaking colors and blossoms on our plum and cherry trees to make up for it.

 

I wanted a fresh way to countdown the Lent season this year and saw this idea.  The rock candy, small though it is, is given to a child who has exhibited something of the character of Christ that day.

Many tea times this month, which is always a special treat!  We had a small tribute to Purim with these Hamantaschen cookies.  Only a few of them stayed folded in the oven though!

  

We get to start bringing cut flowers in from our garden! Sunny daffodils warm my heart.

Once again, a St. Patrick's Day feast!   We enjoyed our favorite Irish Soda Bread recipe, Potato Leek soup, and a new addition this year.....Irish Apple Cake.  We spend some time reading of the life of Saint Patrick during the course of the day and after the meal.

We were finally able to make it back to a Ceili dance!  Hurray!  It is a family-friendly event, but I kind of thought our younger children would be a bit lost in the speed of the dance and end up watching most of the time.  Not so!  They danced their hearts out and loved every minute of it, and didn't want to leave.  This was truly a great time for our whole family.  Loved the live Irish music, the friendly, helpful (more experienced) people who also helped the younger ones learn the dances, meeting a new homeschool family, and getting very good exercise while having a blast together!  We can't wait to do it again!  (In the meantime, Country Girl, Adventure Girl, and I will be taking an Irish dance class through our local community college.  It starts tonight!)

March means time for the annual state fiddle contest.  Another anticipated event, and a lot of hard work goes into preparing for it.  This was our second year.

A gorgeous day!  Thankfully we could have a picnic outside in between being indoors playing up a storm of music.

As I've said before, one of my favorite parts about this is the interaction of generations.  The older, longer-playing musicians are always so gracious to come alongside the younger and pass on their knowledge.  This man is in his 80's, and he also placed 2nd in his age division fiddling.  Most of the time he was backing people up, including our daughters, with his guitar.  And giving Tender Warrior and Young Warrior tips to grow their own guitar capacities.

My other favorite part?  Watching my family play music together!  The joy this brings my heart is indescribable.  Why am I not on stage you might ask?  Well, I am busy keeping track of Littlest Warrior, for whom this is a VERY long day, and my instruments of choice don't quite blend in.  I am focusing on Irish harp and whistles, which can blend when we play Celtic music, but this was Old-Time music day.  I'd love to play the hammered dulcimer someday too :)  And the bodhran.  But then, you must know that I have IAS (Instrument Acquisition Syndrome)!

The children did so well.  The older ones made it to the second round (top 5), which can be tough to do, especially for playing less than 2 years.  Every one of them earned an award, which was a great accomplishment.  And we were surprised and delighted that Country Girl WON her age division!  So thankful for the rewards for their hard work.  It has encouraged them to play and grow all the more.

My Warrior "boys" were busy all the day long strumming their guitars (Young Warrior also played fiddle in the contest in between accompanying others), so their fingers were quite tired after being on stage a dozen times, playing 3 songs each time they were up there.  They did great!

What is a month without a little action between the Blue and the Gray?  At least, that is so around here.  Young Warrior's paper soldiers advance over the table and the battle is on!

The arrival of the tulips rounds out the month and I can never resist pictures of little ones with flowers.  He did this on his own, and I just grabbed the camera to capture it.  I think tulips are among my favorite of flowers and I just love the colors of spring!  They represent hope and new life to me.

On a sadder note:  A few days ago we said good-bye to Adventure Girl's dear little rabbit, Clara.  Thus ends the era of the friendship of Heidi and Clara in the pages of rabbit story.  Our girls were quite little when they brought home these two Dutch rabbits.  We had so enjoyed the story of "Heidi" that they chose to name their bunnies after the main characters.  They have lived with us for almost ten years.

I am rounding out the month finishing up some projects I have purposed to do:  Finally finished Princess Girl's cloak and hope to work on a nightgown today, along with finishing another project.  Perhaps I'll have photos of those next time.

Capturing Moments--February Edition

As we are now nearly half way through March, I am quickly documenting the memories of February.  It was really quite a fun and eventful month!

Music is an integral part of our lives and home and cold winter days means cozy indoor moments spent learning new tunes or new instruments.  We added a couple of instruments to our repertoire recently, though this guitar isn't one of the more recent ones.  This one was a gift from an uncle, when we discovered it sitting at Grandma and Grandpa's house, a little worn and lonely on its stand, and Young Warrior asked if he could have it.  So we brought it home and had it brought up to playing quality--my, is it lovely!

I already mentioned the snow.  Yes, it DID put happy faces on everyone's face, even our buried little car!

I suppose it did not put happy faces on our hens, though!  After a few days of keeping them insulated, Country Girl went out to "un-bury" them.  I love this photo because it seems very Tasha Tudor-like, in her long wool cloak.  After spending some time with the company of Middle Earth this winter, Country Girl and Adventure Girl decided they were finally going to do that long-planned project of making these capes.  And now, they hardly go anywhere without them! (They double as a nice warm winter blanket for reading time on the couch).

Did you know you can make your own S'Mores pizza like they make at Papa Murphy's?  It's really quite easy (and much cheaper)!  It's a little sweet for me, personally, but it is a fun treat on occasion for our weekly homemade pizza night.

Ah, yes, and Valentine's Day.  Which means just another excuse for a tea party and a pretty table!  And scrumptious food!

I love my little tribute to Olde England in a teacup :)  

Family love letters.  Each year I think the children stuff this box more full!  Taking them out is a highly anticipated moment.

Homemade Valentines and a sweet potholder from my Country Girl.  I am well-loved indeed, and so very thankful.

My beautiful friends held a very special English-style tea with a Downton Abbey theme.  They did a fabulous job at creating such a lovely event! We were encouraged to come in costume, and as DA is set in the 1910s and 1920s, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to wear my Titanic tea gown that I made about ten years ago!  Thankfully, the weather even cooperated.

I honestly think it's about the best tea, in terms of delicious food and beauty, that I have been to!  You must believe me that everything tasted wonderful!  And I had another opportunity to provide some scones.  I rarely pass up an opportunity to make scones :)

And, we must not forget the Olympics in Sochi.  A source of lots of conversations about discipline, hard work, the sacrifices people make (and are they always worth it? and for what prize?), and inspiration.  

One evening Warrior Daddy decided to have a speed skating competition.  The children practiced their best speed skating form and tried to move in sync with the skaters on the television.  It was rather amusing.

Speed skating in pajamas

Getting the form down quite well.  

And may I add that hereafter there was much rollerblading outdoors and practicing all manner of skating in the cul-de-sac....and finally....

AN ICE SKATING TRIP!  We've been trying to do this for over a year.  For various reasons we just couldn't seem to make it happen (the ice skating rinks are not necessarily close-to-home).  What fun everyone had.  We stayed to just about closing and still didn't want to leave except for our tired aching feet (rental skates are not well-known for their comfort).  I helped my girls who wanted to learn to skate backwards, and we all tried to fumble our way through learning a spin of some kind.  There were some skilled skaters there.  My Princess girl found herself trying all kinds of tricks....and this was her FIRST time on ice skates!  I was amazed at what she could do by the end of the evening.

I don't have pictures from our visit with the like-minded, fellow Bible Bee, musically talented, and dear S family whom we were able to visit on the same weekend!  It was so much fun to have such stimulating conversations, good food, fellowship for the young adults and teens while Ceili dancing and playing games in the basement, younger children playing together, and more.  The older ones were all getting warmed up at 11 pm, but we needed to make the drive back to our hotel and get up early the next morning.  Great memories!

The great backyard bird watch takes place in February too.  In our household, it takes place almost all year long!

That is our February all wrapped up in one blog post!  And now, I'm off to take in the rest of March.  We plan to attend a Ceili this evening, have some St. Patrick's Day fun (including food, of course), participate in an upcoming fiddle contest, and start Irish dance lessons.  

Winter Light, Winter Bright

Country Girl says she wishes that every winter were like this one.  No, we don't live where the temperatures have been sub-zero or in the polar vortex.  I don't think we would say the same if we lived there.  But we have had a delightful mix of weather and a little of everything this winter, and I think I'm inclined to agree with my Country Girl.

Just enough snow to make children happy (which is actually quite a lot for around here!)

It's true...our Christmas lights are still up.  And we're even known to still turn them on.  They are white, and we just so like how a touch of light brightens the dark, long days of winter and carries us through until the light of springtime breaks through.

The hummingbirds are having a bit of a tough time maneuvering the winds, but when they do, they are rewarded.  Adventure Girl keeps them supplied, and even thaws their feeder periodically during the day.

I am quite contented to stay warm and to enjoy the cozy fire.  Today I am trying out a new sourdough bread recipe, and it is rising, slowly but surely, atop the pellet stove.  I like the slowing that snow brings.  Lately my head has been swarming with details....so many things to think through this year....graduation, travel plans, hopes and dreams.  And oh yes, the everyday planning of meals, celebrations, what each person needs,etc.  I will still need to tend those, but appreciate how just the presence of this white and drifting snow makes me feel slower and calmer.

Another bright spot of winter for me....knitting.  I just finished this sweater vest for Littlest Warrior.  Can you see the owls?  They are his favorite!  I think I will always remember this season and his love for these creatures, and hope that it drives me to pray he will ever grow in wisdom.  Now I 'm pondering my next knitting project(s).  They are a bit ambitious, but I remain hopeful.

Still another bright spot of winter is that we have made it a tradition to go to the ocean at least once.  Always in search of the sun when the fog sets in at home just a little too long!  Oh how glorious this day was!  Find the sun we did and we spent the day walking, talking, playing, and even squishing sand in our toes (yes, it was warm enough to do that!)  I didn't plan for little ones getting wet, but they could not resist splashing their legs and feet in the tumbling waves on shore.

We found this long piece of sea kelp and found that it makes a perfect jump rope.  And I can still jump rope!

Being at the shore always creates this little flutter in our hearts, because we met there!  If ever there was something to bring light to our hearts in the midst of winter, there it is!

Wishing you bright moments and the light of Him who brings them in your winter days!

My Favorite Reads of 2013

As I recap my reading list for the year, I am grateful to have reached my "40 books" benchmark once again.  This seems to be my pattern for this season of life, and I did have to squeeze in finishing a couple of them in order to reach that benchmark.  But it is a worthy goal to work toward!

The past couple of years I have given a "top 11 or 12" list according to the year.  But I'm not doing that this year.  For one, I just find it hard to select that many "top" books this year.  Don't get me wrong.  I do have some definite favorites.  But perhaps not thirteen of them this year.  Or even ten.  So I will briefly review the ones that stood out to me this year.  Maybe you'll find some to add to your own reading list, whether your personal reading, or reading aloud to your dear children or grandchildren.  This year's favorites are admittedly mostly composed of books I read aloud to my children!  What fun memories they have made.

These are not necessarily listed in any order.  I'm just going to list them as they appear chronologically on my own list.  I'm not going to write much about them, so you will have to investigate them for yourselves.

1.  "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge.  A delightful read all around.  It reads a bit like a fairy tale, but more believable.  I took away some gem quotes from this story, and we just really enjoyed it together.

2.  "Blue Willow" by Doris Gates.  I have a friend who loves this story and even bought her granddaughters their own blue willow plates to go with the book.  I thought that a beautiful little idea that I might just have to tuck away for someday.  This story was a gem, full of the elements that make a story wholesome and good.

3.  "Treasures of the Snow" by Patricia St. John.  So far, I have read only two of Patricia St. John's titles.  I enjoyed this one more than the last only because I didn't like the evil "villain" in the other story.  But she writes excellent stories of redemption.  Stories that have the power to make you cry (which I did) for both injustices, and for the transformation of character.  If you are familiar with Lamplighter Publishing or Lamplighter Theater, her stories fit right in to that "genre."

4.  "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody.  Having a bunch of "country dreamers" in my house, this book was well-loved.  I did edit out the language episodes that appear periodically as part of the "rough and tough Western culture" (and appreciated the many, many reviews of this series over the years that warn you about that element, so I could be forewarned).  I think I cried in this book too.  The children are all eager to read the next book in the series.

5.  "Candy Bomber:  The Story of the Berlin Airlift's 'Chocolate Pilot'" by Michael O. Tunnell.  What can I say about this book?  It is an incredibly heartwarming account of a man, Lt. Gail Halvorson, also known as "Uncle Wiggly Wings," who touched thousands of lives by dropping candy from an airplane.  His legacy still stands for how he used his military career to care for the war-torn, divided, hurting people of Berlin.  Tender Warrior read this one to us all and everyone kept asking him to keep reading.  We all loved it!

6.  "Alone, Yet Not Alone" by Tracy Leininger Craven is the story of her ancestors, sisters who were captured by Indians during the French and Indian War.  We wanted to read this one before National Bible Bee since they would be showing the movie there as an optional activity (which we ended up not seeing anyway for lack of time).  It is a bit on the "scary" side, so I would caution reading this to children younger than ten without some editing.  It is simply written, as the author wrote this story as a young girl, but is a touching story of how God used some tragic events in the lives of these women and carried them through.**As a side note, the book linked here is not the same edition as the one I own.  I do not know if the book has been at all changed to "fit" the movie.  I read one review that suggested this.

7.  "On the Shoulders of Hobbits" by Louis Markos is a bit of an intellectual study of virtue on Tolkien and Lewis. It is largely about the power of story to convey truths about virtues (and vices), which is not a particularly novel concept, but the author does do a good job of pulling these out of the stories.  If you like Tolkien and Lewis, you will probably glean something valuable from this book.

8.  "Hannah Coulter" by Wendell Berry was an interesting fictional story of a woman's life and love and family life in rural America post World War II (primarily).  I found many truths interspersed in this story and many beautiful descriptions of real life.  As with many fictional stories, there are portions I did not care for.  But I found it a very telling study in family life which can communicate powerfully to us today.  This is the only book of Wendell Berry's that I have read so far.  I know he has a whole series of tales on the Coulter family.  I picked this one up after seeing a trusted recommendation, and I enjoyed it.  As I don't spend much time in adult fiction, it might be awhile before I pick up another.  But I would like to read another of Berry's works on this family.

9.  "The Greatest Gift" by Ann Voskamp.  I was at first hesitant to pick this one up, thinking it would end up being just a hard copy of her original  Jesse Tree devotional booklet that I already have.  I was not disappointed!  These are all new devotionals for the Christmas season and I found them insightful, stirring and thought-provoking and just the right thing for my personal Advent devotionals this year. I will be returning to this one again!

It's been a grand year of reading, once again, and I am so thankful to be able to even enjoy the ability to engage with the world of words in story, prose, and teaching.  It still holds true that when I sit down and start reading aloud, everyone drops what they are doing and comes to the living room!  I am grateful for the power of words well-written, well-chosen, and well-told.

A Happy New Year of reading adventures to you all!

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

― C.S. Lewis

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