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!!!

Triumph of Orthodoxy!

Blessed Feast to all!

"This is the Faith of the Apostles!
This is the Faith of the Fathers!
This is the Faith of the Orthodox!
This is the Faith that has established the universe!"

The singing of Memory Eternal at Vespers for those who have given their lives for the faith always gets me and brings me to tears. Tonight was no exception.

How wonderful to end a long week of fasting and prayer with the joyful, unified celebration of many churches gathering together for Vespers. Tonight my boys walked in the icon procession with dozens of children and 10 priests. So many thoughts tonight, so little time to type!

Good second week of Lent to all!

Because you asked: The Science Fair

Several of you, including Martha, have asked about the Science Fair. I posted about my son's project here.

I'm happy to report that my 7yo created an amazing science project. I couldn't decide what to be more proud of: the incredible observational science work he did (learning to identify certain stars and planets in the sky and also to chart their location and movement over the course of a few hours each night), or the artistic way in which he created his display. But suffice it to say that he did most of the work by himself, with little to no help from his scientifically challenged mother. Fortunately, his dad also got excited about finding the location of the stars and planets and braved the freezing January night temperatures with his son to measure the azimuth and elevation angles of Saturn, Venus, Rigel, Sirius and Polaris.

The results were fun. We took the project to our county science fair and by the end of the week we came home with two awards: a medal for Best Project in Air, Space and Astronomy and a trophy for Judge's Choice in 2nd and 3rd grades. But what made me happiest was that as we left the awards ceremony that Friday night, my little guy was already beginning to talk about his plans for the science fair for NEXT YEAR! Granted, I'm not really up for 12 months of a science project, but I was delighted to see how much he enjoyed the process. Love it when they love to learn!

Thanks for asking everyone!

A Child's Lent Remembered

As we begin Clean Week, I offer any new readers my annual link to my favorite Clean Week reading. Well, it's my favorite reading this week OTHER than the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete which is perhaps unparalleled in it's poetic beauty and countless rich scriptural citations. I love this child's reminiscence about the joy of beginning the Fast. I like to read it to my kids each Clean Week to help them get excited for Great Lent. Enjoy the full text from my previous post on my fasting blog here.

Forgive me and Good Lent!

It's Clean Monday!! I can't remember when my soul has felt so light or so delighted to welcome the fast! This year I feel as though I'm running into Great Lent with joy. I have been terribly needing and craving the focus, simplicity and trials of the fast. We've stuffed ourselves like crazy in the weeks leading up to this week. I spent lots of time cooking delicious meat dishes for two weeks. Then last week we loaded ourselves with homemade bliny, homemade caramel pecan rolls, pizza, calzone, omelets, macaroni and cheese, cheese grits, ice cream, cheesecake. We ate it all. And it was yummy! But how my stomach, body and soul are crying out for the fast. I feel so excited today!

We are home from the first service of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. It is one of the most beautiful parts of Lent for me. I just love this first week. We're all a little weary from singing and the many prostrations, but it's a good kind of weariness.

Last night after forgiving all of our fellow parishioners at vespers, having a last cheese pizza and frozen custard and calling grandparents and parents to ask forgiveness, we set about making our home ready. The kids were enlisted for some extra cleaning. After all, Clean Week is beginning! It's time to clean our home as well as our hearts. Then we took down many of the framed family portraits and photographs that cover the walls of our living room, kitchen and dining room. They were replaced with icons. We have so, so many icons so we don't normally hang them all. Many are kept in boxes in our garage. But last night, they all came out. No more looking at so many photos of ourselves this Lent. We've replaced those images with images Christ, His Mother and the Saints. And so suddenly our home seems new and our lives refocused. We also set up our Lenten journey path. I'll blog more about that soon. And we all made some plans for things other than just food that we'll give up this Lent: TV at certain times, computer games, Facebook (yes, we all need a break from too much socializing).

We are beginning the fast with new vigor and joy! How wonderful to set out as a family in this struggle. I was truly encouraged by the words of our Metropolitan JONAH (Paffhausen) of the OCA which were read from the pulpit on Sunday.

"Let our fasting be accompanied by the refusal to indulge in judgment and criticism of others: gossip, slander, suspicion and innuendo, all that is hateful to God. Let us fast from meat, as we fast from the carnality of hatred and resentment of others, which is the source of our passions, pain and addictions. Let us fast from cheese, as we cut out the bitterness that curdles the joy in our lives, the pure milk of love. Let us fast from eggs, so that the seeds of corruption do not hatch in our souls. Let us fast from oil, so that we do not grease our lips to slander and fry our neighbor. Let us fast from wine, that we might remain sober and watchful, to maintain the purity of our souls, minds and hearts.

Let us make this Lent a spiritual fast, so that purified in mind and heart, as well as in body, we might behold the radiant Resurrection of Christ in the reception of the Holy Mysteries at Pascha, but most especially, in the resurrection of our souls."

Indeed, may we meet each other in joy at the end of this journey at the Resurrection of Christ and of our souls!

My dear readers, please forgive me for all of my sins against you. May you have a good, profitable and joyful Lent!

(The full text of Metropolitan JONAH's message may be found here.

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.

From the wisdom of our hierarchy . . .

Click here for some beautiful, encouraging and thought-provoking words about the education of our children from the mouth of our beloved Bishop THOMAS, Antiochian Bishop of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic. I wish that now I had more frequent opportunities to see him in person, as I did back in the days when he was a deacon (and I was a teenager). Thank God for our hierarchs, and for their encouragement for us to run to the womb of the Church for guidance and wisdom.

Thanks to Ashley for pointing me to this piece!

In case you were wondering what it is like to live with my three-year-old son . . .

OK, I know most of you weren't wondering, but since I don't keep a baby book or anything, I thought it was worth sitting down for a minute to document today, a fairly run-of-the-mill Tuesday.

As of 8 PM tonight, he has:

1. Thrown a tantrum about the amount of milk in his cereal.
2. Bashed his head in on the car door while trying to beat his brother out of the car door that his brother was sitting beside when it was opened.
3. Had countless other tantrums about being the first in any door.
4. Colored a beautiful coloring page of a castle (even staying in the lines very nicely). . . and then found some Elmer's glue and glued it to his bedroom door.

5. Decided to serve himself some yogurt from the large yogurt container resulting in this disaster:

6. Gotten so busy playing that he didn't have time to go to the bathroom and then pooped in his pants, while standing beside the potty. (This one happens about once a week.)
7. Been unbearably cute while doing everything!

A little poetry practice

My 7yo asked me to post this on the blog. We've been talking about simile in some of the poems we've been reading so yesterday he did a little practice writing his own similes. I love to see how his brain works and the connections it makes. See his poetry below.

A train is as fast as a rocket, but a plane is as fast as a comet.
The train enters a tunnel as black as a raven.
A yellow school bus looks like a giant banana.
A motorcycle sounds like a motor.
A helicopter looks like a spinning tail.
A helicopter sounds like a motor.
When a helicopter lands, the wind is as crazy as a tornado.
The rusty old car creeps along the road like a spider.

Enthronement of Patriarch Kiril

We've been enjoying looking through photos of the recent enthronement of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Click here for the photo gallery.

Busy Week

The name of this week is Science Fair. My 7yo is busy at work today putting the finishing touches on his display for his fantastic science fair project. He measured the movement of various stars and planets as they move across the sky. He's been printing out text, cutting colored paper for mats and insisting that he doesn't need my help all afternoon. I may post more as the week progresses. Tomorrow night we have to go set up our display at the fairgrounds

Inspiration from Kenya (and New Hampshire and Tennessee)

I'm so behind on things I want to post here, and also low on time to make it happen. In the meantime, enjoy this awesome video about amazing brothers. Great story about encouraging children to learn and then use their knowledge to give back to others.

ABC News: Sons of Kenyan Village Build First Clinic

Loving Imaginative Play . . .

One of my favorite things about reading history and great world literature with my children is watching how they reinterpret these classic stories into their play. Today was a great example.

All afternoon, my 3yo has been running around the house, charging everything and shouting, "I am Caesar and I'm gonna cross the Rublebon!"

I love how "Rublebon" rolls off his tongue in an attempt to say Rubicon . . .

Metropolitan JONAH's Archpastoral Message on Sanctity of Life Sunday

If you haven't yet read this (or heard it read from the pulpit) make the time to read it. Trust me on this one. It's more than worth your time to read it. It brought tears to almost everyone's eyes this morning after our Sunday service.

Archpastoral Message of Metropolitan JONAH of the Orthodox Church in America on the Occasion of Sanctity of Life Sunday