In preparation for St. Patrick's Day

We usually celebrate March 17th in grand style at our house, but not because of St. Patrick. We celebrate because March 17 is also the Feast of St. Alexis the Man of God, the patron of my oldest son. However, in the last year or so, we've really enjoyed reading and learning more about the life of St. Patrick, so this year we're looking forward to really celebrating both feasts tomorrow! In preparation for the feast, I thought I'd mention some of our favorite books about St. Patrick. Some we own, some we've checked out from the library this month.

The first is The Life of St. Patrick by Zachary Lynch, published by Conciliar Press. I really like this version of the life of St. Patrick, told in nice prose by Zachary Lynch. It's really for older kids (I'd say at least 6 or 7 and up), because the prose is a bit long and has older vocabulary.  The illustrations are interesting and unique. I love the use of traditional Celtic designs, but the faces of the people sometimes seem a bit odd.  They are intended to be primitive and they are indeed interesting, just surprisingly unusual.

A nice alternative for younger kids is St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons.  We recently read this one and my 3-year-0ld and 7-year-old liked it.  It has a simple retelling of the life of St. Patrick and then discusses various traditions associated with the feast.  It also has a list of miracles and other stories associated with the life of St. Patrick in the back.  A plus for younger children is that there are only a couple sentences on each page, so it moves quickly with new bright illustrations with each turn of the page.

This morning we read St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting with illustrations with Jan Brett.  This is such a delightful little tale about a little boy who is too little to walk in the St. Patrick's Day parade in his Irish village, but manages to climb the hill alone in the wee hours of the morning on the feast.  My boys really enjoyed this one I and liked the illustrations in only black, white and green.  (Have I ever mentioned that I love Jan Brett?)

I haven't read this next one, but I'd like to find it and try it out.  It's St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie de Paola.  I love de Paola's books and illustrations and I've heard others say that they really like this book.  Maybe next year, we'll find this one and try it out.

And finally, I'll mention one more book that deserves a whole post of it's own.   That post is coming soon, but for now, let me say that we really loved the Life of St. Patrick included in this wonderful book: Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman, published by Yesterday's Classics.

Grab a shamrock, talk about the Trinity as Three-in-One just like the leaves of the shamrock, read about St. Patrick, eat a potato, and get ready to celebrate the feast!  And, in the meantime, don't forget to celebrate the wonderful life of St. Alexis the Man of God!!!

Unfinished Business: Nativity Books #35-40

It's almost Lent and I've got to finish my incomplete task from the Nativity Fast or I'll never manage to get things picked up and going on this blog again! I've been avoiding facing this blog because I knew that I never managed to finish posting about our Forty Books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. In those last days before Christmas, I just lost all my momentum. My blogging here encouraged some family and friends for Christmas gift ideas for my kids. So we finished out the season with quite a few beautiful new Nativity books to add to our collection. They have been enjoyed and then packed away to emerge again this coming December 15. I'll include them in the blog posts next Nativity. However, here are the last six books we read this past season. They are all Arch Books, as I filled in the last days with various Arch Books from our huge collection.

On the Sunday before Christmas we read Abraham's Big Test in honor of the Sunday of the Forefathers.





On the 20th we read Joseph's Christmas Story, which is probably my least favorite of the Arch Books about Christmas. I'll probably omit it next year. Too often the story of Joseph is told with too much adding to the story and not keeping with Orthodox tradition.





On the 21st we read My Christmas Prayer Book, which is a nice way to teach children little prayers of thanksgiving in that they can say.





On the 22nd we read Just Look in the Stable, which has really nice illustrations.

On the 23rd we read Mary's Christmas Story.





And finally, on the 24th we read On a Silent Night.


And with that, I can now go about the business of Lent, with a slightly more clear conscience! This unfinished task is complete!

Balentime, Be Mine!

We had a great "Balentime's Day" (and week) according to my youngest son. I never cease to marvel at how much the boys delight in choosing those silly little cardstock Valentine's, putting names on them and then giving them out. And even more they delight in receiving tons of those little slips of paper (along with too much candy, of course). It's fun isn't it? And it so often falls just before Lent, making it a fun time to celebrate just as we are thinking about getting in a little feasting before the Fast begins.

We had fun earlier in the week making and decorating boxes for them to receive all their Valentines.

And here is the Valentine that my oldest son made and gave me.

I couldn't get a good picture (starting to have some problems with my trusty old camera), but it says, "Sorry, my love for you is unexplainable." I was a little confused when I read it. He said, "Well, it's just so much love that I can't put it into words." Pretty sweet. During dinner, his dad s decided to introduce him to the word "inexplicable" to help his composition. Gotta love the Orthodox vocabulary!

Of course, Orthodox don't celebrate this St. Valentine on Feb. 14. And, in fact, I don't think we make much of his feast at all. (It's sometime in the summer I think?). However, I wanted to mention that my boys and I have really enjoyed reading the book Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda. It has lovely mosaic illustrations and tells several stories/legends from the life of St. Valentine. We read it as part of our study of the Roman Empire (and the persecution of Christians before Constantine) earlier this year. But I was glad we had it around when Valentine's Day rolled around this year.

Nativity Book #30 - Daniel in the Lion's Den

This is the thirtieth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Sunday was two Sundays before Christmas which means it was the Sunday of the Forefathers. So, our book was about one of the Forefathers - the Prophet Daniel. We read an old classic Little Golden Book, Daniel in the Lion's Den. I think this book is out of print, but there are lots of old copies available in various places online. It's a nice retelling of the story of Daniel spanning reigns of Kings Nebuchanezzar, Balthazzar and Darius. The illustrations are nice and we especially liked seeing the drawing of Nebuchanezzar's Ishtar Gate which we studied in Art History this year.

St. Herman Day - The Day of the Tree!

For several years now it has been our tradition to put up our Christmas tree on the feast of St. Herman of Alaska, December 13. We like to think about him on cold Spruce Island among the spruce trees as we decorate our evergreen tree. This year the feast conveniently fell on a Saturday, so we had a fun night decorating the tree after Great Vespers. Though it makes us all a little sad, we resorted to the artificial tree this year. We all prefer to get a real one, but some years, convenience, allergies, and travel take precedence.

I love the way kids decorate the tree. Here is my 3yo with his low branch - filled with about 15 ornaments in one place by the end of the night. Yes, I'm a perfectionist and I moved them after he went to bed.

Nativity Book #29 - North Star, St. Herman of Alaska

This is the twenty ninth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Saturday's book was, of course, North Star, St. Herman of Alaska. I've blogged about it in the past. It's an absolute must-read on the feast of St. Herman and is a magnificent book by Dorrie Papademetriou, This has been a favorite since my youngest was less than a year old. The illustrations are so bright and eye-catching. And the story is told beautifully. We love the stories (and illustrations) of St. Herman feeding a bear with his bare hands, saving the island from a tidal wave with the icon of the Mother of God, saving the village from fire by digging a trench, and especially, making cookies for all the children of Spruce Island. And it's so good to hear over and over his words, "From this day, from this hour, from this very minute, we should love God above all and fulfill His holy will." This feast is also the patronal feast of our homeschool (my oldest chose our patron - probably based largely on loving this book since he was a toddler). And it's the day we put up our Christmas Tree!

Nativity Book #22 - The Legend of St. Nicholas

This is the twenty second of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Of course, on December 6th (after the gifts were found in the stockings, and they had been eaten and enjoyed for a while), we had to open and read this book about St. Nicholas. I've already said that The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is my favorite children's book about St. Nicholas. But this one is a close, close second for our favorite.

This book is The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi. I should first mention something very interesting that happened when we opened this book this year. In language arts and history this year with my second grader, we've been talking a lot about legends and what legends are. (For example, the story of King Arthur is a legend. He may have existed, but we don't know for certain, and the stories written about him are legends.) Well, when this beloved book came out, my 7yo immediately said. "But there's one big problem. This book is NOT a legend!" Yep. Good call kiddo!

Demi is not a specifically Orthodox writer, but she does a very respectful job telling the story of this saint, including many, many stories from his life. I only have to correct it a bit in one or two places. And it DOES tell the story about St. Nicholas hitting Arius which we really love, but not in quite enough detail. The best part about this book is probably the illustrations. They are wonderful - especially those images of St. Nicholas inside churches. They are great depictions of the interior of Byzantine churches.

Nativity Book #21 - The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

This is the twenty first of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (a little late)! All of our celebrating in the past week has left me with little time to blog. So I've got a lot of catching up to do.

On Friday, December 5th, our book was in preparation of the feast that would come the next day. We opened and read The Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This is certainly my favorite English language children's book about St. Nicholas. It has nice detailed iconographic illustrations and the text is told in a gentle rhyming verse. It gives many details from the life of St. Nicholas, including his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But I will say, it leaves out one of our favorite stories - that of St. Nicholas hitting Arius for teaching heresy. Nicholas was defrocked, but that night the Mother of God appeared to the Bishops in a dream and told them to return Nicholas to his Episcopal seat. My boys really like the fact that Nicholas was so passionate about preserving the true teaching of our faith that his passions got the better of him and he just smacked Arius! But even without this story, we really like this little paperback.

Feast of the Great Martyr Katherine! . . . and a Saints' book review

Happy Nameday to all Katherines today (or yesterday) . . . and this includes my sister! This is a funny feast because it is November 24 on some calendars and November 25 on others. We have Tsaritsa Catherine the Great to thank for that craziness, but that's a story for another day. What a wonderful story St. Katherine's life is! We read it this morning and my boys loved hearing how St. Katherine showed the philosophers to be fools and even converted the Emperor's wife (who was then herself martyred).

I wanted to take a moment to use this feast to plug another book I really like. It is Saints: Lives and Illuminations published by Eerdman's. It's not specifically an Orthodox book, but it is a collection of brief lives of many pre-schism saints, so all are saints of our Orthodox tradition. The lives are quite short: just a paragraph or so. And each is illustrated with a lovely colorful depiction of the saint. They are not iconographic. They are much more Western and realistic, but are still respectful and quite lovely. I was pleasantly surprised to find this book in a children's bookstore about six years ago. We've been enjoying (and giving it as gifts and buying it for our church bookstore) ever since. I really like that these stories are quick and easy to read, but beautifully tell the lives of our major saints. This morning instead of reading the life of the saint from the Prologue, we used this instead. Anytime we can read a life with an illustration, my kids are even happier. Some of the other saints included in this book are John Chrysostom, Nicholas of Myra, Great Martyr Barbara, Scholastica and Benedict, Columba, Mary of Egypt, Moses the Ethiopian, Brigid, Nina, Constantine and Helen, Patrick of Ireland, Monica and Augustine, Great Martyr George, Spyridon, Ephraim the Syrian and many others.

Nativity Book #7 - The Story of Mary the Mother of God

This is the seventh of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.
Yesterday's book was The Story of Mary the Mother of God written and illustrated by Dorrie Papademetriou. Since Nov. 21 is the Feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, we opened and read this book. I love this book mostly because I really love the bright illustrations. It tells the story of the life of the Mother of God in simple words for all ages, including her birth, her entrance into the temple, her and the Annunciation.

Nativity Book #6 - The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

This is the sixth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.
Today's book we opened and read as a preparation for tomorrow's feast: The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. It is part of the Feasts of the Church series by Sister Elayne which I described here. It is available from Archangel Books here. (By the way, Archangel books has a very nice online store, but their storefront is even better. If you are ever in the St. Louis area, it is really worth the trip. It's a lovely store with lots of Orthodox books, icons, unique gifts and many neat "finds" which I haven't seen in other Orthodox book stores.)

I love the story of the Entrance of the Mother of God: how she entered the Temple at the age of three led by virgins carrying lamps. This morning my boys were really surprised to realize that she went to live in the Temple at the age of three and was fed by the angels. What a beautiful history we have as Christians!

Nativity Book #3 - Treasury of Christmas Tales

This is the third of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. This morning we unwrapped a big collection of Christmas Tales.

For many years, we've enjoyed this collection of Christmas stories called Treasury of Christmas
Tales compiled by Susan Quattrocki and Susan Spellman. It includes some abbreviated classics like "A Christmas Carol" and "The Little Match Girl" as well as some other original stories. This afternoon we read "The Magic Toy Shop," "The Littlest Angel" and then sang along with "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with some fun illustrations. Just some light Christmas fun to help us start thinking about the feast we are already beginning to anticipate.

Nativity Book #2 - Elizabeth's Christmas Story

This is the second of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. Today's book is Elizabeth's Christmas Story from the Arch Books series from Concordia Publishing House.

I love this book because it is about my patron saint, and there are not many children's books about the Righteous Elizabeth. It tells the story of the Conception of John the Baptist, the Meeting of Elizabeth and the Mother of God, the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Nativity of Christ. It is part of the Arch Books series, published by a Lutheran publishing house, Concordia. I read Arch Books with my parents as a child and loved them. Of course, they aren't Orthodox, but they are Bible stories and are (usually) pretty true to the Scripture, though sometimes with a little bit of story embellishment. They are all told in rhyming verse which is sometimes a little cutsey, but not all bad. New ones have been published every year since the 1960s. So, there is now a huge set of them and they vary in their quality (especially in the quality of illustrations: some are really cartoonish, others are nicer), but some are quite good. I think the older ones are better than the recently published ones. We have a whole set of around 200 that had been published as of 2004 (I told you we have a lot of books). My oldest son received them as a gift from his great grandmother and uncle a few years ago. I really like having them around because they are great for times when I want a quick rendition of a certain Bible story. There are LOTS of Christmas ones, so you'll see them reappearing as I post about our Christmas books. The other thing that is really nice about them is that they are very inexpensive. If you just want to buy one, it's only about $2.50 and can be purchased directly from Concordia.

Nativity Book #1 - The Annunciation

This is the first of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here. The Nativity book we opened on November 15 was The Annunciation by Sister Elayne, with beautiful illustrations by Bonnie Gillis, published by Conciliar Press. It's available from Archangel Books here. I really like this series of books about the feasts of our church. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful and combine icongraphic and folk elements. The text is lovely poetic verse which is filled with profound statements about the mystery of our faith. Sometimes the text is a little too much for little ones, but the illustrations provide good fuel for conversation about the feasts and I'm finding that my 7yo is starting to really enjoy the verses as he gets older. Of course, we started out with this story as it is the beginning of the Nativity story and also the beginning of our salvation as this is the Annunciation is the moment of the Incarnation!

Forty Books of Nativity

We're starting a new Advent tradition this year and I'm very excited about it. The fact is, we are book addicts at our house. Really, we have a problem. Books are everywhere, in every room, packed into every bookshelf and also stacked when there isn't enough shelf space. We have three full bookshelves of kids books alone. University teaching, dissertation writing, choir directing and homeschooling doesn't help the problem. Our collection just keeps growing.

But one of the things I always regret at the end of the Christmas season is that we never manage to read all of our wonderful Christmas books. Last year I posted about some of our favorite books here. This year, I found a great idea for reading our Christmas books on this blog (thanks Ashley!). In their house, they put up the Christmas tree by November 15 and they wrap up all their Christmas books and place them under the tree. Then the kids can unwrap and enjoy them throughout the Christmas season. Wonderful idea! And a great way to make sure we enjoy all of our Nativity books and prepare ourselves spiritually for the feast.

We put up our tree on St. Herman Day (December 13), but I thought we could still use this tradition. So, this past weekend, I gathered up all of our children's Christmas books. I had about 25. Then, with a little creativity (pulling in books about various saints and feasts during the fast period and also some Bible story books from which we can read the Nativity story) I managed to pull together 40 books! I wrapped them all (yes, I'm that excited and crazy) and put enough for the first two weeks in a basket by the fireplace. We'll be opening one book each day and reading it. Once it's opened, it goes in another basket to be enjoyed again through the Nativity season. The kids are so excited about this! And frankly, so am I. I'll be posting information about each book we read on a daily (or almost daily) basis here.

Happy Nativity Reading to all!

Here we go!

The Nativity Fast has begun and Mary, Joseph and the Donkey are on their way to the cave in Bethlehem. Last year I posted about our Nativity path here. We're moving along with the Fast already, and I'll post about some of our activities throughout the Fast. Check for posts of recipes and menus on my fasting blog. Good Fast to all!

Preparing for the Dormition Fast

The Dormition Fast starts tomorrow for those of us on the new calendar. Here we go! My friend Jeanette sent me an awesome idea for helping kids participate in the Dormition Fast. I think it's such a great idea that I am both posting it here for all to see and making the exact same thing for my kids.


It's like a build-as-you-go icon puzzle. She made black and white prints of the Dormition icon. Then she also made color prints. She cut the color print into 15 pieces. Each day of the Dormition Fast the children will glue one piece onto the black and white icon, so that by the feast they will have a complete icon. Cool, huh? She took this picture before she took them to the store to be laminated so they can be used again and again.


So I headed out the copy store at 9:15 PM tonight to get big color copies and laminating done. We're going to do the same thing. I think maybe I'll have my kids attach the pieces with velcro which is stuck to the laminated surface and pieces. Then we can use it year after year. I know they are going to love this.

Thanks again Jeanette! I love it when friends share their great ideas! (Hint, hint to all you readers.)

Good Fast to all!!