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 #5 - The Miraculous Child

This is the fifth of my postings about our 40 books of Nativity. You can read about the tradition here.
Today's book is The Miraculous Child which is a Christmas folktale from Russia, told by Aleksi Currier and illustrated by Nadezda Glazunova. This is a beautiful story about almsgiving and the miracle of the Christ's love for us. It is told in verse, which is a little long for smaller children, but my 7yo really enjoys it now. And in fact, my 3yo listened attentively to it this afternoon, when offered a snack to eat while listening. In some past years I have just paraphrased it because just enjoying the lovely illustrations was enough

Boys will be boys . . .

Why, oh why, do boys insist on beating each other up? I remember my brother and cousin doing it. I've heard stories about my uncles, my dad and my uncle, and my husband and his brothers, but it still continues to baffle me. Why does playing necessarily involve beating on each other? The fact is, it does. And it especially does around here now as the weather gets cooler and we're inside more and more. I had been intervening whenever I heard one of those bloodcurdling screams coming from another room. But now, I've resolved to take a more laissez-faire approach. They can come to me when they need me to work it out. Otherwise, I will intervene when there are serious injuries (and then with harsh punishment in most cases). We start out the day with a reminder to "go easy" on each other, and then often refresh that at lunch time when Daddy is home. But, if they are both doing it maybe they need to fight it out? I don't know.

Yesterday was one of those days. I told my husband that I think throughout the afternoon there was rarely a period of more than 10 minutes which was scream-free. Sure we had a nice poetry tea time and got some reading and other schoolwork done, but much of the afternoon was just hitting, pushing and screaming. At one point near the end of the day, I was in the kitchen making dinner. Both boys were in the living room playing. I heard an awful scream coming from 3yo. I started to run to the rescue, but then checked myself and decided to wait and listen. 3yo screamed for a few seconds, then I heard 7yo's voice:

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Really I am. OK, now you can beat me. Beat me now. Do it! As hard as you can!"

I didn't hear any more noise, so I guess 3yo agreed and the problem was solved.

Five minutes later, more screaming. Then 7yo's voice again:

"Sorry. But you do it now. You toss me down, OK? Do it hard."

Whatever. I guess if it works and they still love each other . . . Boys!

Nativity Book #4 - The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

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

Today's book is my husband's absolute favorite: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski. The illustrations by P.J. Lynch are really beautiful and the story brings tears every time we read, well every time HE reads it because he is usually the one to read this story aloud. I think he likes it because it is about a woodcarver and he loves to carve wood. But, really this is a lovely story about love, death, family, children and a special set of Nativity figures. The text is beautifully written, but is a bit long for children under 4 or 5. I sometimes paraphrase it for my younger son, because the illustrations are beautiful and can still captivate him with my paraphrased text. My oldest son loves all of the text, and in fact, a few of the quotes from grumpy Mr. Toomey have become regular sayings around our house.

This book was made into a full-length movie last year, but we haven't see it yet.

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!

No Mirrors in My Nana's House: Book/Music Review

We try to go to the library about twice a month to replenish our stash of books. These days we really like to check out a few books with accompanying CDs. These are great for my 3yo, because he likes to settle in with some books on CD and flip through while listening to the story. I can occupy him for some time with this so I can do some work with the 7yo on math or spelling or something else. Last week I was flipping through the CD books when I discovered this book: No Mirrors in My Nana's House by Ysaye M. Barnwell with illustrations by Synthia Saint James.

The illustrations looked lovely, but I really picked it up because the front cover of the book said that the CD included a song version of the book sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock, a women's a cappella group which I've loved for years. I knew if they had done a song, it would be worth checking out.


Well, it certainly did not disappoint. The story is lovely, the illustrations perfect in their bright simplicity and the music with lyrics to match the book text is just right. This is wonderful story about a girl who says there are no mirrors in her nana's house. Instead "the beauty in everything was in her [nana's] eyes." The little girl never noticed that her clothes didn't fit, that the hallway was dirty, that her skin was too dark, or anything, because there were no mirrors and instead she found beauty looking into her nana's eyes. You can find the full text/lyrics here. Wonderful!


The kids loved the music which my 3yo would tell you is "jukin'." It's good dancing music which is a must around here. We did some great dancing this morning and then put it on after dinner so Daddy could hear it and we all could get in a little more dancing.


And the text of the book was great for conversation. I had 7yo think about what it meant and then we had a good discussion about finding beauty in others instead of just looking in the mirror and thinking "me, me, me." We also talked about how this book relates to the book From I-ville to You-ville which we read last year. Certainly it's about leaving our ego behind and focusing on the other. Then this evening, we talked about it again and how we find true beauty in being loved by another (and in loving others).


So, a bunch of thumbs up for this book - and for the music by Sweet Honey in the Rock. We just might have to add it to our permanent collection around here.

Veteran's Day

7yo and I have a regular Tuesday morning date to our favorite coffee shop. Each Tuesday, we have a schoolwork marathon over coffee and muffins while 3yo plays at Mother's Day Out. This morning CNN was playing on mute in the coffee shop. There was some coverage of Veteran's Day events at Arlington Cemetery. 7yo looked up, read the captions and said,

"Mom, what is Veteran's Day? Is it when we honor animal doctors?"

Discovering Rachel Field

Since we've been loving our poetry tea time each week, I'm now always on the lookout for great poetry to share with my kids. Today during our Language Arts lesson, 7yo and I discovered this wonderful poem by Rachel Field. It was in our 2nd grade poetry anthology from K12. We both loved the poem. So, I've decided to add Rachel Field to our list of poets for tea time (after we finish up Robert Louis Stevenson and A.A. Milne). I think we'll start with Rachel Field's Prayer for a Child, though I haven't been able to read through it myself yet. Here's the beloved poem from today.

Something Told the Wild Geese
by Rachel Field

Something told the wild geese
It was time to go.
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered - "Snow."
Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned - "Frost."
All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.
Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly -
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

As I read this poem the first time, I had my son close his eyes and listen. Afterwards it was beautiful how he retold the scene, complete with the colors and images of summer/fall that he had heard. He talked of the golden fields and the bright berries, and then talked about how the geese knew that they had to leave so they wouldn't stay too long.

Thank God for poets who so beautifully depict His creation!

Election Day Fun!

It's election day in America! Though the presidential campaign this year has completely exhausted and disturbed me, I'm still happy that we have the chance to vote for our leaders. We've been having fun with the election today. I took my 7yo to vote with me this morning while th 3yo was as Mother's Day Out. What a delightful experience to vote in a small town! I didn't wait in line at all and the church had homemade cookies and pastries out to offer free to all voters and kids! So different from what I remember in my childhood: waiting in long, long lines in a dingy old school with my mom. I may never live in a big city again . . .

This afternoon, my kids have been playing election. Around here we vote on paper "scantron" type ballots. They just give you a paper and you bubble in your choices with a pen and then you insert it in the machine to be read - just like taking the SAT. While I prefer computerized voting, this method has actually been nice for the kids today. We were able to go to our county election commission website and print off sample ballots for our precinct. They look just like the ballots at the voting location. So we printed them off, and the kids are "voting" and then inserting their ballots into a box they created to "read" the ballot. Wonder how the results will turn out at our house?

One thing is for sure, around here the voters have chosen some non-traditional candidates. In several of our county races the incumbent is running unopposed. So, my 7yo chose to do some write-ins. He wrote in himself for County Commissioner, his dad for County Treasurer, his best friend for Sheriff and the Libertarian Presidential candidate (Barr) for District Attorney. Interesting . . .

The 3yo voted for the Reform candidate (Baldwin) for President. . . . He also wrote in Obama District Attorney. I think we're going to be hardpressed to get majority votes in this house.

Today's Poetry

Tigers

Among the tall grass a hunting tiger creeps.
Its fur stays soft like sheets,
Although if I go out there alone
I am sure to forever be alone.
For if the tiger creeps too close.
I will be to him like toast.

-AM, age 7, 3rd November 2008

Autumn Colors