MIchaelmas

A Story of Angel Food Cake

Last week, I was mentioning how much I was looking forward to Michaelmas, (which was yesterday), one of my favorite principal feasts of Christ on the church calendar. Ladybug immediately responded with “What are you making?”

Nothing?

I hadn’t planned on doing anything special. No angel hair pasta. No angel food cake. No fancy or themed food of any kind. Mondays are kind of a crazy busy day here this semester, and I didn’t figure it was worth it.

But this is what I’ve worked for all these years. My adult children hearing a church festival is coming up, and knowing that it’s a day for special food and feasting, a day to look forward to and celebrate. A day to recognize how God has provided for His people through the years.

This was the goal all along.

I can’t change how busy Mondays are. We didn’t have the time for a fancy dinner. But I did have time on Sunday after to church to bake an angel food cake, and I even found time to stop at Walmart to get some fresh strawberries to go with it.

I am so thankful that the traditions we’ve created over the years mean something. I’m grateful I found ways to make connections between the church year and home life. I’m glad that Ladybug heard a church holiday was coming up and wanted to know how we were going to celebrate it.

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

2021-22 School Year–Week Seven

This was a pretty fun week!

Ladybug learned about transversals and alternate exterior and interior angles in geometry (interestingly, Moose learned about the exact same thing at his school this week!). In grammar, she learned how to diagram adverbs, including prepositional phrases that act like adverbs. She continued learning about ecology in biology with a discussion on biomes and habitats. In history, she read about the first monotheistic religion with the call of Abram, so that was pretty much review. We talked about Mormonism in her study of comparative religions. We read about Meg’s wedding and the birth of the twins in Little Women, and made two new recipes from The Little Women Cookbook…Beef stew with molasses and apple cider vinegar, and chicken salad with grapes and almonds:

Chickadee continued to practice rounding money in math. She learned about walruses, manatees, and dugongs in science. She reviewed everything she’s learned so far this year in grammar. Her dictation assignments in writing have gotten much longer! We took a break from our trip around the world in geography to review the countries we’ve learned about so far and read about how maps and globes developed…next week, we’re going to begin our second loop around the world by visiting a whole new set of countries!

We also had a fun celebration for the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. We prepared a special dinner and dessert (Mediterranean angel hair pasta, and angel food cake with homemade strawberry sauce), and made hand and footprint angels…there’s now glitter everywhere!

We went on our first indoor field trip since before the pandemic began, to pretty much the only place I feel comfortable taking the yet-to-be-vaccinated Chickadee…our church! It is one of the charter congregations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and we took a tour of the building, where we learned about not only the history of the structure, but also the congregation and the surrounding community. It was very informative, and even I learned a ton!

I’m not sure how we’ll top the fun we’ve had this week, but at least it’s October now, and we have all of our favorite fall activities to look forward to!

Michaelmas Eve

Michaelmas is one of my favorite lesser-known church holidays, but even in the time of COVID-19, Tuesdays are kind of a hectic day for us, so I decided to make a special dinner tonight for Michaelmas Eve. The main dish was beef Wellington:

It was a pretty fancy dinner for a Monday!

For dessert I made a pumpkin angel food cake roll:

Surprisingly, I didn’t really like it, but the children did, and it looked really nice!

Now I can officially start counting down the days until Advent!

Hymn of the Day–Michaelmas

“Christ, the Lord of hosts, unshaken
By the devil’s seething rage,
Thwarts the plan of Satan’s minions;
Wins the strife from age to age;
Conquers sin and death forever;
Slams them in their steely cage.

Michael fought the heav’nly battle,
Godly angels by his side;
Warred against the ancient serpent,
Foiled the beast, so full of pride,
Cast him earthbound with his angels;
Now he prowls, unsatisfied.

Long on earth the battle rages,
Since the serpent’s first deceit;
Twisted God’s command to Adam,
Made forbidden fruit look sweet.
Then the curse of God was spoken:
‘You’ll lie crushed beneath His feet!’

Jesus came, this word fulfilling,
Trampled Satan, death defied;
Bore the brunt of our temptation,
On the wretched tree He died.
Yet to life was raised victorious;
By His life our life supplied.

Swift as lightning falls the tyrant
From his heav’nly perch on high.
As the word of Jesus’ vict’ry
Floods the earth and fills the sky.
Wounded by a wound eternal
Now his judgement has drawn nigh!

Jesus, send Your angel legions
When the foe would us enslave.
Hold us fast when sin assaults us;
Come, then, Lord, Your people save.
Overthrow at last the dragon;
Send him to his fiery grave.” Lutheran Service Book #521

2017-18 School Year–Week Seven

It’s hard to believe, but we’re already about 1/5 of the way through our school year!

Math has continued to go extremely well. Turkey and Bunny have been working with complementary, supplementary, and vertical angles. Ladybug has been working on word problems, and Chickadee is still practicing counting by tens.

History has been fun. Ladybug learned about some things her older siblings already covered, including the Epic of Gilgamesh. Turkey and Bunny, meanwhile, learned about something Ladybug already studied…Hammurabi’s Code. They are currently reading about the Hyksos and King Minos of Crete.

They may not like it, but Turkey and Bunny have continued doing well with diagramming sentences. Much to their annoyance, Ladybug keeps mentioning how much she enjoys doing so (although that’s not always so obvious to her teacher!). Chickadee has added her first vowel to her letter studies this week, and can now read words like mat and rat! She’s very excited to finally be reading something!!!

Today we took a break from everything but math to attend the Divine Service for the feast of St. Michael and All Angels at the LC-MS International Center, where our pastor happened to be preaching. This is one of my favorite church days of the year, so I was very happy to be there. We also took a walk through the museum while we were in the building. Even though we’ve visited several times in the past, we always notice something new!

It’s finally starting to cool off…hopefully we’ll get to do some of the outdoor field trips I’ve been planning soon!

Tasty Tuesday–Michaelmas

Blessed Michaelmas!

I can’t think of any better way to celebrate a church feast (other than, well church), than with a family feast. So, we had a special dinner of chicken medallions with angel hair pasta, and a heavenly angel food cake roll for dessert:

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And, as a bonus, here are the Fab Five with their hand and footprint angels that they made this afternoon:

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Michaelmas is one of my favorite (although often overlooked) feast days, and I love celebrating it with my family!

A Feast for Michaelmas

It was rather convenient that, this year, Michaelmas coincided with a nice Sunday dinner! We had angel chicken, which is chicken in a creamy Italian white wine sauce served over angel hair pasta:

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And a heavenly strawberry roll for dessert, also know as angel food cake jelly-rolled and filled with vanilla-strawberry cream (notice the theme?):

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I wish I could have come up with an angelic side dish, too, but I’m just not that creative. But having the main dish and dessert share the theme wasn’t too bad!

September 29–St. Michael and All Angels

From the Treasury of Daily Prayer:

The name of the archangel St. Michael means “Who is like God?” Michael is mentioned in the Book of Daniel (12:), as well as in Jude (v. 9) and Revelation (12:7). Daniel portrays Michael as the angelic helper of Israel who leads the battle against the forces of evil. In Revelation, Michael and his angels fight against and defeat Satan and the evil angels, driving them from heaven. Their victory is made possible by Christ’s own victory over Satan in His death and resurrection, a victory announced by the voice in heaven: “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come” (Revelation 12:10). Michael is often associated with Gabriel and Raphael, the other chief angels or archangels who surround the throne of God. Tradition names Michael as the patron and protector of the Church, especially as the protector of Christians at the hour of death.