Sometimes moments in life can be scrumptious (skrump'shes), adj. extremely pleasing, especially to the taste, delectable ♥
This morning we awoke to snow...and so took off for French Park a little after 8 o'clock...lucky we homeschool and can do lessons later on! There was no one else out so we let Lusy run free...no leash!!! She loved it. Licked the snow, raced like a wild dog and went into the woods...
Just enough for us to enjoy...to make it really feel like winter.
These were given to us with the K12 curriculum for my 5th grader, Hannah. The exercises in these books are very useful, Exercises in English often give sentences that teach you about something, like American history (e.g. Neil Armstrong) that are written incorrectly, where you have to write the correct form of the verb or underline the adjectives. The vocabulary one is nice, because at the beginning of each unit, they give you the words, with their dictionary meaning and an example of it used in a sentence. They are both workbooks, which I'm not fond of in general, but when you need one to help you with basic grammar, these are excellent!
A few days ago we went to a local book shop where the kids made pom poms and then they read aloud this book Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett illustrated by Jon Klassen (I really love the pictures, looks like he rolled paint onto knitted fabric and pressed it on the paper)!
They hung up their pom poms on a tree in the bookstore, and some on the trees outside, too. A group of women, who call themselves the Cincinnati Bombshells (they "bomb" the town with their knitted and crocheted colourful beauty...for example, we saw the outdoor statue of Cincinnatus the Roman with leg warmers and a scarf!), came and helped. What an awesome group! They wear blonde wigs, so to remain anonymous. And gave out blonde wigs for the kids to wear. What do you think of Olivia (I thought she was already blonde, but guess she's actually a dirty blonde or light brown hair girl now)?We went to the monastery in Wayne, WV, Holy Cross Hermitage, this weekend. It's a 3 hour drive from Cincinnati, OH.
The last time we were there in September 2010, Bishop George gave us this prosphora (bread that is used in the altar to prepare Holy Communion). Yesterday he gave us one again. We will visit my parents today and give it to them, as they have both been sick and were not able to attend services at all this weekend.
We stayed at the guest house, which is next to a small cemetery where a friend of ours, George Booth, is buried. At night, there is a lamb on his grave that is lit. We walked down the road to have dinner with everyone, about 30 monks and one nun, who makes pure beeswax candles. Along the way, we stopped to say "hello" to Myrtle the cow and the goats. Up on the hill, one can see about 10 white boxes, the beehives, and they sell their honey, which is a beautiful amber colour, Brother Anthony, who helped us in their store, told us that this is dark because of the many tulip poplar trees.
Vigil began at 6:30pm and when it ended at 9:50pm, it was dark, cold and the 1/2 mile walk would have been possible, but when Father Tikhon offered to drive us back, we accepted. He told us that when he turns around, the vehicle would turn into a Ferrari! That made us laugh.
Sunday morning, we watched as the monks sang in beautiful Znamenny chant and Bishop George was dressed in his festive garments. Buttoning up the sides and then finally placing the golden miter atop his head. The girls really enjoyed watching. The service was wonderful, we listened about Zacchaeus, the short man who was a tax-collector, who climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus and invited him to dine at his house. Then, he gave up his wealth and changed his life. We all partook of Holy Communion. At the end of the service, Bishop George held a beautifully carved wood cross. An old friend, Audrey, came with her husband and 3 children. It was really nice to see them. Everyone there was so very kind. We hope to go again soon!
A while ago we got a wooden spool with 3 nails atop....and my 8 and 10 year old girls have taken turns working on it...it's about 50 inches long right now. We plan to twist it up like Lori did and if it's big enough make a small rug!
In addition to spool knitting, we attempted i-cord (there's a link to the wonderful Purl Bee tutorial) this past week...that is what Hannah made using the purple yarn...3 stitches. The blue is made with the spool. I also made an i-cord with 5 stitches using my DPNs (double pointed needles) made it into a little bracelet for my niece.
We got The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem from the library...what a sweet book, the stories are lovely and illustrations beautiful! I especially love this wintry scene above.
Lemon Poppyseed Cookies
And we are addicted to playing Scrabble in person, too. Hannah and Olivia and I are going to play a game today! We allow the use of a dictionary, because I believe it's more educational...you LEARN new words!
