Friday 29 January 2010 - This Month in The Olive Grove

Today marks the end of our fourth week of academic studies this year.  Next week will only be three-and-a-half days because of Sgt. Elf's birthday, and then we will take a two-week break.

We always ease back into things at the beginning of the year.  Here is what we have done so far:

• Morning Time
  • We memorized all of our Treasure Keeper verses for this quarter.
  • We read the first half of The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L'Engle; this took us up to the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  We will read the rest during Lent and Easter.
  • The illustrations in The Glorious Impossible are from frescoes by the artist Giotto, so this has been our art study as well.  I plan to expand on the art aspect when we pick the book up again.
  • We finished Winter Poems and are more than halfway through Rudyard Kipling (Poetry for Young People series)
  • We have been listening to our Lingua Angelica CD to familiarize ourselves with the sound of the Latin language, but that is all.  Again, I plan to expand our Latin studies as the year progresses.  This CD has also been the extent of our music studies thus far.

• Seatwork
  • Copywork: our Treasure Keeper Bible verses
  • Spelling: J~Man finished up last year; Lulapalooza has done 80 (100 after next week), and Toodles has done 20 (30).
  • Math: J~Man started Saxon 65 and is breezing through it.  Lulapalooza is working through some old grade 4 & 5 textbooks that I bought years ago at Half Price Books.  Toodles is having fun with a grade 2 Saxon workbook; I will start doing Ray's again with her after our break.  We have never used Saxon before, but I got the books for $1 at our library sale.

• Afternoon Read Alouds
  • Geography:  We read the introduction and the first chapter of Where on Earth: A Geografunny Guide to the Globe.  We  are using Usborne's World Geography to give a bit more detail, and  Life in the Great Ice Age for a creation science perspective.  We are also reading Usborne's Stories from Around the World; I let a different child choose a story each day, and after we read the story we find the place on our globe.
  • Literature:
    • Mondays:  Miracles on Maple Hill
    • Tuesdays and Thursdays:  The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
    • Wednesdays:  The Magician's Nephew and Around the World in 80 Days (J~Man has already read both of these so we read them on the afternoon he is often gone)
      
    • Fridays:  Farmer Boy
      

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Saturday 9 January 2010 - Just Do It!

I vaguely remember reading about the Pick a word for the year concept last year, and I have noticed it popping up here & there this year; it is an intriguing idea.  I really like Sarah's idea for setting goals for the new year.  Ah, yes, ideas, theories, plans, these are a few of my favourite things.  I love to think about things and plan things, but not so much to do things.  Oh, and I love to tweak things.  Of course, it being the 9th day of 2010, I am already behind.  I tend to do the whole life-evaluating, goal-setting deal around my birthday, too, which is at the end of June. 

So, here is my twisted, tweaked plan. 

1. walk 100 hours (40-45 minutes; 6 days a week)
2. plan & prepare 168 home-cooked dinners (every. single. day.)
   
3. complete 24 small decluttering projects (one a week)
4. start & finish 4 knitting projects (one every 6 weeks)
   
5. read 8 books (one every 3 weeks)
6. 504 hugs, kisses, and smiles for my husband (three times, each & every day)

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Saturday 9 January 2010 - Christmas is over

I am (quite reluctantly) putting away the decorations, books, CDs, etc.  To be honest, I think that some of my reluctance stems not so much from a love of the season as from a sense of regret at (yet again) not completing many of my plans for us.  I truly have made efforts to limit my desires to only those things which I and/or my husband and children really want to do, yet I still seem to accomplish so little.  We did not finish any of the Advent readings; we never even got the fourth candle lit, let alone the Christ candle.  We didn't get a family picture.  We didn't make any ornaments.  We didn't even read the story of the Nativity from the Bible.  I did absolutely nothing special for the 12 Days of Christmas or Epiphany.

We did get a tree up and some lights on it; I gave the girls some pretty glass snowflake ornaments that I had bought at a craft fair (and promptly misplaced) last year, and I bought some painted acorn snowcaps at a craft fair this year for the guys.  I finally attended a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve this year, and it was lovely.  We had our traditional Christmas brunch dishes: egg casserole, little smoked sausages, cranberry-pear crisp, and gingerbread baked in my castle-shaped-bundt-cake-pan.  We had some friends over on New Year's Eve and made a few more of our traditional treats: spinach piroshky, queso bites, and vegan-oatmeal-craisin-chocolate-chip cookies.  Before the arrival of our guests the kids and I got the house clean. really clean. cleaner than it's been in 5 years. and we have kept it up.

All told, it was not a bad Advent/Christmas season in our home.  My children and my wonderful husband all have fond memories of the past six weeks, and I was able to focus on the nativity of our LORD and ignore the clamor for the world.

I think, though, that I will leave the blue twinkle lights which I bought for Advent this year up around the kitchen windows.  They have become a pleasant companion during my pre-dawn prayer time.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Wednesday 6 January 2010 - Wise Men Still Seek Him

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Tuesday 5 January 2010 - Three versions of Three Kings

the simple:

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Monday 4 January 2010 - We are still celebrating

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sunday 3 January 2010 - Praise Him, all creatures here below

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link