Celebrating Saint Bernard

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Clairvaux, meaning "The Valley of Light," was the location of the monastery where he served as abbot in his later life. We enjoyed reading about his life over brunch muffins.St. Bernard had a great devotion to Our Lady, and to Jesus Christ Crucified. He greeted Our Lady with a Hail Mary each time he passed her statue. Once, when he greeted her, Our Lady responded, "Hail, Bernard!" This showed him how much his devotion meant to her.

He is the author of the beautiful prayer, the Memorare. Here is the House Cat's copywork illuminating it.

I purchased these beautiful sheets from Notebooking Pages.

May we, like St. Bernard, ask ourselves each day why we are here. May we never forget that our ultimate goal is heaven!

St. Bernard, pray for us!

A Blessed Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY
Monday December 22, 2008


Outside My Window...
Coldest morning of the season, yeah I know it just began. :) It's sooooo wonderful to have the briskness in the air. Now it feels as though Christmas is almost here!

I am thinking...
Cookies for breakfast are yummy but make you want to go back to bed :(

I am thankful for...
Too many things to list. Thank You God!

From the learning rooms...
Catching up on the O' Antiphons copywork. We have been living the advent season like never before. It has been truly wonderful. The kids were in our homeschool Christmas play on Friday. The House Cat did an awesome job leading the music on her guitar. Snuggle Bug sang beautifully and also narrated "No Room in the Inn" perfectly. Buck was an adorable shepherd and Honeybee was an angelic angel!
My parents celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary and we delivered a big, beautiful poinsettia and some homemade molasses cookies to their door.
On Saturday the girls and I went to a cookie swap while Dad and Buck finished up some Christmas shopping. The cookie swap was a lot of fun and we came home with some wonderful new recipes. The molasses cookie recipe came from a close friend's grandmother and were really yummy. The recipe's below if you'd like it.
Yesterday we enjoyed our monthly Teams of Our Lady meeting. We had a good time with our ornament swap(or steal you may say.) :)


From the kitchen...
All's quiet today as we prepare for our caroling at Children's Hospital tonight.
Tomorrow we will bake cookies and treats for our neighbors.

I am going...
To start a new diet on Jan 1. :)

I am reading...
The O'Antiphon's and Jesse Tree readings each evening with my family.

I am hoping...
TO get by The Catholic Center of Concern today or tomorrow to drop off all of our gifts for Jesus.


Around the house...
The tree is light and the stable is up. The shepherd boy is there with his sheep and a donkey is resting. Buck pointed out to us that the donkey wasn't there yet because Mary was still riding on him. Out of the mouth's of babes!

One of my favorite things...
Anticipation

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:
Tonight we join other homeschoolers to sing Christmas Carols at Children's Hospital. It's also my mama's birthday. Happy Birthday Nae-Nae!
Tomorrow we'll bake and wrap gifts. Then dad will be off for the rest of week! YAY!
Mass on Christmas Eve and lots of hugs, happiness, and thanksgiving as we celebrate the birth of Our Lord Jesus!

God Bless You All with a wonderful Christmas!


Grandma’s Molasses Cookies

Step One - Melt ¾ cup shortening over low heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir in ¼ cup molasses, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg. Mix well.

Step Two - In a separate bowl combine 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, ½ tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ginger, ½ tsp. salt.

Step Three - Slowly add flour mixture to shortening mixture until well combined.

Step Four - Form mixture into walnut sized balls and stack in a dish (use cling wrap in between layers.) Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.

Step Five - Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray silver pan with non stick spray. Roll cookie balls in sugar and then place on silver pan. Bake for 11 minutes or until they flatten a little and begin to crack.


Here is picture thought I am sharing

O Wisdom

The House Cat's Copywork For Today

December Copywork

The House Cat is copying S Is For Star: A Christmas Alphabet

Snuggle Bug is copying
"B Is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet Board Book

These books are a couple I'm using from

Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas

Election 2008 Work

We really enjoyed our D is for Democracy unit study. (see below for links)


Snuggle Bug(9-right) and The House Cat (12-below) learned about The Electoral College and how it works. Choosing the President 2008: A Citizen's Guide to the Electoral Process was an excellent resource for this.








Buck(4) did a great job on his first notebook page. He and I had such a good time working on it together! At the top of the page he drew George Washington's belt with his knife and money bag. I thought it was so sweet that he told me, "this is where he kept the money he gave to help people."





Even though the election outcome was not what we prayed for, we trust in God and continue to pray for an END to abortion. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.

A is For Apple

We've had a great time today with our Apple unit study!





The Life & Times Of The Apple was a great resource for my 9 and 12 year old.

An Apple A Day (over 20 apple projects for kids) by Jennifer Story Gillis also had some great ideas. We tried the apple star prints on pg.33 although the stars weren't as easy to make out as we would have liked. We had fun painting and trying anyway :) I hope to try making the apple wreath and homemade applesauce soon.

As the children "painted" I read aloud The Song Of The Apple Blossom Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker and Johnny Appleseed by Madeline Olsen.


Buck's (age 4) Apple Print


Honeybee's (age 3) "Abstract" Apple Painting :)


The House Cat's Notebook Page


The Snuggle Bug's Notebook page


(maybe next time we'll put the tape on the back :)



Here's a link for a fun apple word search for the older ones:
http://www.abcteach.com/wordpuzzles/WordSearches/applewordsearch.htm

And a connect the dots apple for the younger ones:
http://www.abcteach.com/free/d/dot_apple_to10.pdf

Hopefully Buck and Honeybee will complete some of the activites soon.
http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace1.htm