Month: March 2012

The Jesus Tree–Day Twenty-Six

Today’s reading focused on Jesus healing the man with the withered hand. We read all three accounts: Matthew 12:9-13, Mark 3:1-5, and Luke 6:6-10. This is a fairly short story, and perhaps not as “exciting” as some of Jesus’s other miracles, but the really important message here comes from His conversation with the Pharisees. They tried to trap Jesus, by forcing Him to admit that He was doing unlawful work on the Sabbath, by healing the man’s hand. He turned it around on them, though, and pointed out to them that they would rescue an animal that had been trapped, without worrying about the Sabbath. He then ended by reminding them that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Baking Weekend

Some people clean when they’re nesting; I bake. Ironic, given that I can’t eat much of what I make, no? But the children certainly don’t mind!

I started with an old family favorite–a Guinness cake for St. Patrick’s Day. My children have been calling this a “donut cake” for years…the bundt pan is still something of a novelty to them, since the only time I ever get it out is, well, St. Patrick’s Day! But every time they laugh about the cake with the hole in the middle, I think of that scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where Maria is trying to figure out what the heck Ian’s mother has brought to their  “meet the family” party, and I laugh, too.

From there, I went fancy. Since Turkey’s birthday fell on Sunday this year, I thought it would be fun to bring cupcakes to Sunday School. We had seen Giada De Laurentiis make some beautiful, filled, cupcakes not too long ago, and I have a cupcake filling tip that I’ve never used before, so…

They were just as delicious as we had hoped. The strawberry/mascarpone filling was amazing, and the glaze, which was a vanilla simple syrup mixed with powdered sugar, was the perfect topping. Not too heavy, not too sweet, but very complimentary.

Frankly, I wish I had some more of the filling to eat…it was that good on its own!

Turkey’s cake was equally fancy. He had deliberated for quite some time about whether he wanted a shaped, decorated cake, or a round cake in a special flavor. The decision was, once again, made thanks to Giada. This time, we saw her make her husband’s favorite cake–an orange cake with a raspberry filling and frosting. This was my first experience using crème fraîche in a frosting, and while it did take some effort to track a container of it down, I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the results…it was well worth the hunt!

I’m already planning on trying a few variations on this cake in the future…I think both an orange/strawberry and a lemonade/raspberry version would be excellent. Not sure when I’ll get around to either of those, as the next cake I’m hoping to make is a carrot cake for Easter, (if I’m up to it!), but I’m very intrigued by the possibilities!

I haven’t spent this much time in the kitchen since Christmas, but I’m not complaining…it sure beats cleaning!

St. Patrick’s Day 2012

Today is one of my favorite days of the year–St. Patrick’s Day!

The children started their day with the traditional bowl of Lucky Charms. Since St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, I didn’t even need to feel guilty about it, as Saturday is the one day of the week when they’re allowed sugary cereal. I only wish I could have had some!

I dyed the lunch applesauce green, too. It’s such a small thing, but every year, it really amuses the children. They also got to have Skittles with lunch…it’s really their “lucky” day!

We had our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage slow-cooked in Guinness…but no roasted potatoes or soda bread this year, so as not to tempt the gestational diabetic. I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to roasted red potatoes.

I did, however, indulge in the chocolate Guinness cake I made…it’s become one of my favorites, and it’s less sugary than a lot of cakes!

We had fun preparing for St. Patrick’s Day in school for the last week or so, as well. We made snakes:

And paper plate Leprechauns:

We also played my one of my favorite games, (The Alphabet Game), with green for the theme. It was fun to see Turkey and Bunny’s creativity with a few of the letters in the alphabet. My favorite part, though, was Turkey’s attempt at writing “gecko.” That’s what he said out loud when sharing his list, but when I actually looked at the list, he had written “Geico”–I guess their advertising is working!

We also used my favorite part of the hymn often attributed to St. Patrick, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” as our dictation for the week. I know he likely didn’t write it, but it doesn’t change the beauty of the lyrics:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

We read an old favorite book–St. Patrick’s Day. This is a very simplified story about St. Patrick, along with simplified explanations of a few traditions, but the children still like it.

We learned more about Irish traditions with a new favorite book–Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs: The Story of the St. Patrick’s Day Symbols. This is a great book, and full of interesting tales. I learned a lot from it myself, and the children really enjoyed the different stories, some of which we read out loud, (the chapters “St. Patrick Himself,” “The Irish Shamrock,” “St. Patrick and the Serpents,” “A Sprig of Shillelagh,” “Leprechauns,” and “St. Patrick’s Day Parades”), and some they read on their own, (“The Wearin’ of the Green” was especially popular).

The most popular activity, however, was helping Moose make his “Leprechaun Trap” for school:

The trap was even successful, thanks to Turkey’s creativity with Legos:

As long as we read about the history of the legend of the leprechaun in Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs, and read the legend referenced in that book, (“Lazy Tom”), in The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book, and attempted to “trap” a leprechaun, I decided to give Turkey and Bunny a creative writing assignment about leprechauns, as well. The topic? “If I caught a leprechaun…” It’s always fun to hear the things they come up with when they’re writing about something mythical! Turkey was focused on having a fun day with the leprechaun, and getting him to lead the way to other leprechauns’ pots of gold, while Bunny was determined to make sure her leprechaun didn’t get away so that she could get his gold and go shopping!

I’d count this as a successful St. Patrick’s Day. I know it’s kind of silly, because I’m not Irish, (and not even Catholic!), but I really have a lot of fun with this holiday, and I seem to have made it a special day in our household in the children’s opinions, without even having to try too hard…it just came naturally!

The Jesus Tree–Day Twenty-Five

Today’s readings were about Jesus healing the man born blind. We read three different accounts from Matthew 20:29-34, Luke 18:35-43, and John 9:1-41. Actually, I was interested to discover, (because I had somehow never noticed it before), that in Matthew, it was actually two blind men that were healed. The Luke and John accounts, by contrast, only include one blind man. And the John account goes into a great amount of detail about how the man was healed, and what happened when the Pharisees questioned him afterward…to the point where I wonder if John is recounting a different healing altogether. I’ve been too lazy to actually look it up and see, however!

Quote of the Day–St. Patrick’s Breastplate

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.


I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.


I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.


I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.


I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.


I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.


Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.


Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.


I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

March 17–Patrick, Missionary to Ireland

From the LCMS website:

Patrick is one of the best-known of the missionary saints. Born to a Christian family in Britain around the year 389, he was captured as a teenager by raiders, taken to Ireland, and forced to serve as a herdsman. After six years he escaped and found his way to a monastery community in France. Ordained a bishop in 432, he made his way back to Ireland, where he spent the rest of his long life spreading the Gospel and organizing Christian communities. He strongly defended the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in a time when it was not popular to do so. His literary legacy includes his autobiography, Confession, and several prayers and hymns still used in the church today. Patrick died around the year 466. 

The Jesus Tree–Day Twenty-Four

Today marks the halfway point for our Jesus Tree readings and symbols, (but only because I added an extra one for Easter Monday, bringing the total to forty-eight). Our readings today focused on the calling of the disciple Matthew, (who was previously a tax collector, thus the money bag symbol), and we read all three accounts: Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17; and Luke 5:27-32.

We found it interesting that only Matthew referred to himself by that name in his Gospel…the other two called him Levi, his Hebrew name. It was also interesting to note that while all three Gospels mentioned Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners, (and the Pharisees’ subsequent complaining about this fact), only Luke mentions that the feast was being given by Matthew, (Levi), which makes a lot of sense, and helps the story flow better knowing that–of course he would invite people like him to a dinner party!

The Leprechaun Trap

For school this week, Moose had to make a “Leprechaun Trap.” We all had fun helping him design and assemble this project! We were also able to use things from around the house…a ubiquitous Amazon box, wrapping paper, glitter, a pencil, and embroidery thread. The only thing I actually bought for the project was a package of shamrock stickers…and if I had looked hard, I probably could have found some of those around here, too! It may not be the world’s best or most creative trap, but it sure was a lot of fun to make…Moose’s favorite part was putting stickers and glitter everywhere!

According to the instruction sheet we received with the assignment, Leprechauns like shiny things:

They also, of course, like green:

Being mischievous, they often do the opposite of what they’re told:

It was important to Turkey that Moose “actually” catch a Leprechaun, so he helped out with that task:

I love St. Patrick’s Day, so this project wasn’t even work for me…it was just a lot of fun, and I think it was great that we could all help Moose with his homework!

Third Grade: Week Twenty-Three Wrap-Up

We finally finished all of the schoolwork we needed to do before Chickadee’s birth! This included a math and spelling test, our continued readings to correspond with the Jesus Tree and studying baptism in Luther’s Small Catechism in religion, a lot of state sheets from “Adventures in My Father’s World,” read-alouds scheduled in our curriculum, (as well as some scheduled by me for St. Patrick’s Day from a great book–Shamrocks, Harps, and Shillelaghs), and handwriting and grammar. It did not, however, include Latin, because I just don’t care at this point!

We did start a new concept in math, this week. I’m not entirely thrilled with that, because I was hoping that the break in our math lessons would be a little cleaner, and I wouldn’t have to worry about them either forgetting the concept and/or me needing to reteach it once we start back to school. If I had looked ahead, I may have just ended our math lessons last week, like I did with Latin; on the other hand, I really wanted to finish up the unit and have the test before our break. I do have some worksheets that hopefully I’ll remember to have them do while I’m recovering, though, and that should help keep the idea fresh in their minds, so we don’t have to back up and start the whole process over.

Ladybug finished the first Explode the Code primer this week, as well. We had to do a few extra pages in order to finish the book, but I really wanted to get it done, and she really loves workbooks, so neither of us had any complaints. I continue to be impressed with this series, and can already see how a foundation for reading is being laid, in the way she’s trying to sound things out on her own now. It will be fun to get into the next book, and add more letter sounds…but not until after I’ve had a chance to recover from the c-section!

We also worked on our St. Patrick’s Day activities a little early…more on that later, but here’s a sneak peek at some of the fun we had: