Happy Epiphany!

Today we moved the wise men into the Nativity scene and read about their remarkable journey and humble adoration of the Christ Child. We decorated and ate star cookies. (Jon just couldn't resist making one last batch of his holiday specialty, "Sour Cream Cookies.") We made sparkly stars to hang in the windows and over the table. We sang more carols and continued to savor the Christmas Season.


Now we will look forward to Sunday's celebration of the Baptism of Jesus. I guess after that we really will need to take down the decorations and settle into Ordinary Time. However, I did recently hear that some families have the tradition of keeping up the decorations until Candlemas (February 2nd). We'll see. As Ray notices more and more of the holiday decorations disappearing around town, he keeps saying, "Wow, they must not be Catholic!" Today I explained to him that even the Catholics are finishing up the Christmas season now. :)

I recently read a great post about finding ways to really celebrate the Christmas Season for twelve full days. This homeschooling mom notes that she has developed many special traditions and devotions for Advent, so many that it seems they were celebrating Advent MORE than Christmas. I love her ideas for celebrating Christmas more fully. I've got the post printed and filed for next year! You can read it here:
http://pinewoodcastle.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/01/on-the-twelfth-day-.html


Finally, a favorite prayer and blessing for this holy Feast:


When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoners,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
(by Howard Thurman)



Blessing
On this Feast of Epiphany,
May the Light that guided the magi to the Christ Child
guide you in all your journeys.
And may that same Light of God shine within you,
that others may see its brilliance as you go about the
work of Christmas in the coming year.
(by Debbie Payden)

School Pictures

One thing that homeschoolers miss out on is having school pictures taken. Each year I receive school pictures from my nieces and nephews, but I hadn't taken the boys for professional pictures in almost two years. So, of course, some family members (who shall remain unnamed) began to complain. We decided to get family pictures taken for our Christmas card and get shots of each of the boys. We gave their pictures to grandparents, aunts, and uncles for Christmas.

Done, right?

Apparently not.

My dad and his wife generously watched the boys a few nights ago so that Jon and I could enjoy a long-overdue date night. When we returned, they informed us that they had taken school pictures of the boys. Here they are:

Cute, huh? So handsome. So school-like. They even dug through the kids' closets to find vests and ties! The boys just thought it was cool because they got to sit on the school table to have the pictures taken.

Here are their "scholarly, thoughtful" poses:

We'll definitely display those when they graduate from Harvard.... or get their GED's. :)

Ironically, the day after these pictures were taken I found out that some older children from our homeschool group are working on a yearbook AND.... they are bringing in a photographer to our Valentine's Day party. All of the children will have the opportunity to have REAL SCHOOL PICTURES TAKEN! Wow! So, family members, you will have PLENTY of school pictures of the boys this year.

Guest Post - By Ray

Ray wanted to blog about today's field trip to a local museum. Here's what he has to say about it:
Today we went to a museum, the WORKS Museum. We saw them make a glass vase. We also saw a big train. We saw a racing car place where we could build cars and race them. And we also saw a thing where we could try to shoot balls down ramps. And we saw a "chain reaction" movie. The movie had lots of fire in it. The kids liked it, but the parents were in the back discussing about it. It was very, very fun.

Here's Ray before the glass-blowing demonstration.

All aboard the homeschool express!

We had a great time today learning and playing with our homeschool friends!

Still Celebrating

Happy New Year again!

Today my dad is watching my boys and I actually have a few minutes to sit and pray and think and relax. Now that is cause for celebration! Jon and I are even going on a date tonight!

We spent most of yesterday moving things from room to room. No, we did NOT take our tree down. It's still the Christmas season. We've been singing carols and really savoring the full 12 days. We did, however, do a major cleaning and re-arranging of the school room. The boys received lots of wonderful learning tools/toys and we had to make room for all of them. Adam received TWO BIG BINS full of fun art supplies. We finally created an art area for him where he can make messes and leave his projects out for more than a few minutes. (I am going to TRY to be "one with the mess.") So, we are ready for a fresh start with school this week. We will be studying magnets, Africa, art, music, and animals this month. Phew, we better get busy!

At Mass yesterday I heard the best homily I've heard in months. I have to admit that when I saw an unfamiliar old priest process in, I growned a bit. Little did I know what a gem he is. His name is Msgr. Maegher (sp?) and I was so inspired by him. He talked about the Epiphany, of course, and he said that now is when the true work of Christmas begins. He noted that you can't have celebration without responsibility. Commenting on the great life celebrations of marriage and ordination, he suggested that the real BIG celebrations should be 25th and 50th anniversaries.... we should celebrate when we've actually lived out our promises and done the hard work of fulfilling our vocations. He explained that we call the Magi WISE men because they showed that they had true wisdom, the living-out of knowledge. They did not just figure out what the star meant, but they went through the very difficult journey of coming to adore the newborn King. Best of all, Msgr. addressed the children directly. He encouraged them to listen to God. He affirmed that God is present to them and will help them be holy. How awesome is that! After Mass Ray even said to me, "Mommy, I'm holy too.... not just grown ups." AMEN! Praise God for the graces and blessings of that holy Mass. Many blessings and thanks to Msgr. Maegher.

My friend's husband posted a beautiful piece on his blog about why Christmas seems to bring an empty hangover to so many people and how we as Catholics don't experience that when we celebrate Christmas as it is truly meant to be celebrated. Read it and be inspired to turn up the carols and continue wishing everyone, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
(http://causafinitaest.blogspot.com/2011/01/merry-christmas-still-and-leave-up.html)

Zoo Lights

A few days before Christmas, we enjoyed another one of our holiday traditions - visiting the Columbus Zoo to see their amazing lights display.

Here's Adam on our way TO the zoo at around 5:00pm.


Ray loved taking pictures all around the zoo. He is becoming quite a good photographer!

We enjoyed watching and listening to the musical light show around the pond. We ducked into several buildings to keep warm, including the elephant building and the aquarium. We saw the koala for the first time. We rode the carousel. Mostly, we strolled through the zoo and enjoyed all of the beautiful lights. We are so blessed to have such a great zoo here in Columbus!



Check out this rare species: the two-headed peacock!

Gingerbread Day

A few years ago, when I was first discerning the call to homeschooling, I had a "Gingerbread Day" with my boys. We read Jan Brett's awesome books ("Gingerbread Baby" and "Gingerbread Friends") and made gingerbread and did some crafts. Here are some pictures from that day:



I remember how much fun we had and how I began to fall in love with the idea of doing these kinds of things with the boys at home as part of their schooling.

For some reason we didn't do a Gingerbread Day last year, but I knew I wanted to have one this year. I planned it for the week after Christmas and invited my dad and his wife, my niece and nephew, and my sister to join us. I took advantage of the post-Christmas clearance sales to pick up our supplies, including a pre-made gingerbread house for us to decorate. I laughed when I saw two of my favorite blogger-moms post about their own gingerbread days! I'm thrilled to share this fun tradition with them.

So, on Thursday, everybody came over and we had a really fun day! We started by reading Jan Brett's "Gingerbread Baby" and then we helped each child assemble their own graham cracker gingerbread house. While the icing dried, we worked together to decorate the pre-made gingerbread house. (I loved Jessica's idea - on Shower of Roses - to use muffin pans to hold all of the decorations. It worked great!) Then the children got to decorate their graham cracker houses. After that, we had free play time and then lunch.

That morning, before everyone arrived, I had mixed a batch of gingerbread dough. After lunch, we rolled out the dough and cut and baked some big and small gingerbread man cookies. We then decorated those. We also did a little bit of crafting, decorating gingerbread cut-outs with glitter glue, sequins, pom poms, etc.

I was amazed at how calm and fun the whole day was. Thanks to my dad, I think my kitchen was actually CLEANER when the day was over. We all had a really good time, nobody ate too much candy, my house wasn't destroyed, and the children loved spending the day working and playing with their cousins. Special memories are made on days like this!

Happy New Year!

Happy 1-1-11! May God bless all of us with a year filled with grace and blessings.

My dad and his wife are here from Myrtle Beach and today we celebrated his 63rd birthday. Happy birthday Dad! May you know God's blessings, peace, and joy in special ways this year. Thank you for sharing these fun days with us, for all of the great Christmas presents, and for your love and support.


Last night we rang in the new year by taking the boys downtown to "First Night Columbus." There were many fun activities for all of us, including bouncers, art stations, entertainment, special night hours at COSI, ice carvers, Lego-building, and even fireworks! I think the boys had the most fun at the "bubble wrap" station. They got to jump and stomp and run on huge sheets of bubble wrap. What can be more fun than that? They also fulfilled a lifelong dream of riding on a city bus. (Funny, I know!) The buses were running as shuttles among the venues. We had a fun ride. I couldn't believe the boys lasted until the 10:30 fireworks. We had a wonderful time.




We got the boys home, carried them upstairs, tucked them in bed, and then collapsed into our own bed. As we watched the excitement at Times Square and waited for the ball to drop, we felt really old. It didn't seem as exciting as in the past. We mostly just couldn't believe how fast time seems to go now. How can it already be 2011? Jon was snoring by 12:05 and I wasn't far behind him.

This morning we all slept in a bit. We had intended to go to our parish for Mass to celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. It didn't happen. Although the boys and I were very resistant, Jon finally motivated us to get ready and head to the Cathedral for Mass at 10:30. I am so thankful for his gentle encouragement. We enjoyed a beautiful Mass and the boys - especially Ray - were really enthralled by the immensity and beauty of the Cathedral. Ray insists that we are going there for Mass all the time now. We'll see what happens tomorrow!

As we begin 2011 I am filled with gratitude for all God's blessings, especially for my family. I am making the usual resolutions of improved fitness and balance in my life. I hope that all of us will enjoy the gift of each day, each moment. May we recognize God's faithful presence and listen to His encouragement as well as challenges so that we may grow closer to Him and reflect His love to all we meet.