Over the weekend I worked on some articles to do with Hospitality

My weekly, Live life with your Kids! newsletter.  It is free to subscribe and then you can dig around in the archives.  (This week's was titled "Show Hospitality")

Character Notes on Hospitality - these are just a collection of thoughts that I will be discussing with my kids over the next month.

Children need to be involved - an article listing some of the things that happen around our home.

 

OH… just for fun wanna peak at what $91.85 will get you at the grocery store in Accra, Ghana?

 

Yes. You too can have ALL of this for the low low price of $91.85

 

To list the items for you folks that’s:

 

6 chicken breasts, 12 coke lights, 4 cartons of juice, 1 small container of feta cheese

1 small block of mozzarella cheese, 11 roma tomatoes and last but not least 4 packs of butter.

 

Yep. We miss Costco!

Today for her English, Emily had to write a poem - either funny or serious.  Discussion ensued on what she could write about.  Bethany was in the middle of a report on King Henry VIII's wives, so I suggested Emily write a limerick about him. 

This is what she came up with:

Henry's Wives

by Emily

 

Two of the wives of Henry the VIII

Had a very fatal fate (beheading)

Two of them were forced,

at the King's command to be divorced.

Then one had died,

and one survived,

and that was the end of the wives.

 

~ all because he wanted an heir!

Silly Henry!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There are two incidents that have happened around here in the last week or so that I just shake my head over – it doesn’t happen every day – thankfully!  Let me tell…

 

The other day Pete had an early start to his day.  He was filling up with fuel at the 24hour BP at 3.00am.   As he was at the bowsers he felt the car drop down – he just thought the car was adjusting to the weight of the fuel but then the car started up and started to drive away on him.  He looked up and there was someone in his car – driving it away. Someone was stealing his car – and he was standing right there!!   He had the presence of mind to pull out the fuel hose, jump in the back seat and whack the gear stick into Park.  The car stopped.  He realised the woman in the car was so ‘out of it’ drunk that he got out of the back and walked around to help her get out of the car.  She was very drunk, very distraught and had no idea!!  Obviously she was still able to steal a car though.

I am personally very impressed with Peter's presence of mind.  I would have had no idea what to do.

 

 

Second thing happening in our life is that we have acquired a Bull – he’s not a pet bull, he isn’t even really our bull but he seems to like us.  Next to our farm there is a scrub block and it appears as if this bull has lived there quite happily for some time.  But he has since found our place and seems to like the company.  He has been right upto the house yard fence, grazes down near the chook shed, and today has been enjoying the shade of the mango trees.  We would like him to be gone!  He is very big.

 

Bull near our house yard fence

Bull grazing on old bale of hay down near chook shed and veggie garden

 

Bull near backyard play area

 

The American Embassy, traditionally, hosts a large bash at Halloween. There is such a great community here that even we decided to join in, so we wouldn’t miss out.

The Embassy had a cake decorating contest at the Halloween family event- Addison entered a delightful pumpkin and won!

 

And...Our other entry for the cake decorating contest 

 

 

We had to raid the kids dress up clothes for outfits to wear—good thing they are so well stocked!

 

Addi was a cutie

 

Dylan was so wolverine

 

Devon was Indiana Jones.

 

Paul was a pirate (sporting that puffy shirt that Devon made in AU ~Thanks Natty!)

And I pulled out a renaissance dress Addison had in her closet.

 

It was a fun evening catching up with everyone.

 

This week’s newsletter talked about training each of our children even though they are all at different levels of skill and understanding.  One of the ways that has worked for me is by breaking down a skill or moral truth into bite size pieces.  Each step is progressive and therefore each of my children can be working at a different stage and yet I keep my focus knowing that we are working on one thing at this moment in time.

 

An example of working with these progressive steps is going grocery shopping.  We do this every week; it is a fantastic training opportunity and yet we miss that opportunity because we want it over and done with real quick!  And yet the learning that goes on is huge. Here is a progressive list (it may not be exhaustive) that will move our children through grocery shopping training. 

• Stay in the trolley or pram
• Keep voices quiet, inside voices
• Hold onto the trolley, don’t leave mum
• Don’t ask for things!
• Greet people politely, say a big hello to the checkout lady
• Be patient if mummy talks to a friend
• Follow instructions, help mummy by getting things off the shelf (the right things, the things I need!)
• Help unload the groceries into the car, and then into the house and pantry once we get home.
• Go off by yourself and get 2-5 items (initially in the same isle, eventually in a different isle than mum)
• Understand comparing prices, understand quality for money
• Go off by yourself and do ½ the shopping
• Understanding the family budget and nutritional needs
• Go off by yourself and do the whole shopping

 

 

When I look at this progressive list I can immediately see what Daniel, my youngest, can achieve and what I can teach him next.  I can also see what training needs to happen for each of my children.  This means I go into my weekly task of grocery shopping ready to teach and practice and I come out knowing that each of my children have grown in this area of responsibility.

These are some character qualities that we can train towards while grocery shopping

• Obedience – do what I am told with a happy attitude
• Gratefulness – be thankful for the many blessings I have
• Respect – the other person counts
• Thriftiness – being wise with my money
• Responsibility – to be dependable in all that I’m asked to do

Yes, it is true, if we train our children while we do the grocery shop it will take longer, but in the long run you will have trained your children in a very valuable life skill.  But grocery shopping is just one situation in our day where we need to be training our children. 

This week in our art class, based on Discovering Great Artists, we studied Matisse.

Henri Matisse was born in France in 1869.

Matisse is regarded as the father of the Fauvist movement.  His earlier paintings were in the Post-Impressionist style - still recognisable figures, but using strong, bright colours.  His style was considered quite shocking for the times. 

The Rumanian Blouse, 1940.

 

When Matisse was diagnosed with cancer in 1941, leaving him wheelchair-bound, he started to experiment with paper cut-outs and collages. This is what we based our artwork on.

 

 

 

Matisse designed this stained glass window for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence.

It is called the "Tree of Life".

 

 

 

 

 

This collage is called "The Beasts of the Sea":

 

 

 

 

This collage reminded us of sea-weed or a bush.

 

 

 

 

And apparently, you can't study Matisse without studying this paper collage:

See if you can find the animal depicted!

 

 

 

 

 If you guessed a snail, you're right!  If not, I can't blame you! 

These are our collages inspired by Matisse.

 

 

 

 

Check out Kathy Barbro's great site, Art Projects for Kids, for some great art lesson ideas and a Mini Abstract Mural set.  This set contains a PDF file of three different abstract murals, inspired by famous abstract artists.  I used a page from the Marisse mini mural for a colouring page in the bottom centre of the photo above (I haven't finished yet!).

Barb (Harmony Art Mom) also has a great entry on studying Matisse here, including links to activities and a biography of Matisse.

 

********

2 hours a week for 12 weeks -

Preparing for a relational, homemade Christmas -

Remembering Jesus!

I’m still revising my list on the run.  I've tweaked my plans this week so that they are in keeping with what I can in all reality achieve.  That is the purpose in starting so early - not only do you do your projects in small steps but you have plenty of time to tweak and change plans rather than rush around still aiming for the impossible as you run out of time.

 

Reviving my Christmas Tree:

I found some decorations to make for my tree from Martha Stewarts website.  I will have to tweak some of these ideas as I have a naive country decorated tree though some of these ideas will give the lift that my tree needs.

 

Ribbon around the tree – though I’m tempted to make the frosted fruit I know I won’t have time so I’ll just use the idea here of a ribbon threaded around the tree – I think I’ll look for a wide red ribbon with gold edges to match the rest of my tree.

 

Wooden shapes – vintage gold in colour.   This tree is all too frosty for an Australian Christmas tree but I’m inspired!    I have a lot of wooden shapes so I may just repaint a few to give a bit of a lift. Here are some instructions for painting wooden ornaments.

 

Beads – won’t the girls just love making these with me!

 

Button Wreathes – these are just perfect

 

Ornament hooks – this article reminded me that I need to make more hooks this year. This will be Daniel’s job – to make a collection of hooks ready for our tree decorating day.

 

I’ll also need to redo the cinnamon stick bundles and raffia bows that have crumbled over the last few years.

 

So now I need to make another Spotlight order.  It took me weeks to get around to making that first order!!

 

 

Other Ideas I came across:

 

I like this tree skirt but not sure I’m going to have time to make it.  Usually I have a strip of hessian crumpled up under my tree.

 

This idea reminded me to find the basket we usually have on the table with cards.  We like to share the letter together, then share our memories of these people with our kids (they don’t know the same people we do since we’ve lived here all their life) and we pray for our friends. 

 

I love this idea for packaging homemade cookies

 

My kids love garlands stretched all over the place – I don’t particularly like paper chains so here is a good idea – paper star garland.  A great math lesson to boot!

 

Now here’s something I didn’t’ know!

 

Still on my List to do

• Make another Spotlight order
• Checkout beads online and order some for our bead ornaments (girls also need a few beading bits and pieces for the beading they do)
  
• Get my newsletter address list made – might enlist Jessica’s help here
• Have decided no handmade gifts this year except for the two I’ve already started on and the baking I’ll do in December.  Off to the shops to find something else. 
• I still want to make gift tags but have a Creative Memories workshop this weekend so I’ll work on them then.
• I have two gifts still to organize for my family.  One I know what I’m doing – the other I am still searching for that just right gift.
• Though I am working on my Nativity scene quilt (which won't get finished this year) I have decided to work on a quick and easy project - 3 wise men applicqued in felt - for my Christmas project this year. 
  

 

 

“Bread is the warmest, kindest of all words.

Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name."

 

On Friday while the boys were busy at their studies and were gone for Praise and Worship rehearsal- Addison and I were busy baking some loaves of Bread for our freezer. Today, we made some yummy chocolate banana Bread, pumpkin Bread and zucchini Bread.

 

All the loaves are waiting, wrapped and placed in the freezer, for early mornings when we do not have time to cook but have somewhere to be.