December Details #40

Simple plans, books, recipes from magazines. And everyone's new best friend-- Pinterest.

Here it is.

School. CC is over till January, but we're still Reading, Writing & practicing our Mathematics.

Reading. We have a wonderful version of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Robert Frost's Poetry are rich with winter illusions.

Right after Thanksgiving - It Was a Dark & Stormy Night by Janet & Allan Ahlberg.

and The Snail House also by Allan Ahlberg.

FIAR presented to us The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills.

The Runaway Dinner is truly comical along with The Pencil.

At night, we've been reading a couple of passages from The Book of Virtues by William Bennett.

These need to be selected with some care, but most are perfectly appropriate for my boys. Last night we read a story about a man who saved a woman from a the plane crash into the Potomac in 1982. Courage demonstrated. Tonight we read about Abraham Lincoln. Honesty personified.

We also read from BOV, the story of Esther, Queen of Persia, ancestor of Jesus. Also our reading from the Jesse Tree, December 18. (Henry knows what a scepter is now.)

Our Reading from Our Spiritual Heritage brought us to the story about grumbling & complaining. The children of Israel not liking what they had, and wishing they could go back to Egypt.

The crossover is in reading comes in two books, and leads to my personal reading.

Carry On, Mr. Bodwitch by Jean Lee Latham has been recommended academically as well as bearing the Newberry Award. We've made it through the first 3 chapters and found it interesting

My Reading.

Echo in Celebration, by Leigh Bortins. She recommends 'Bodwitch' for purposes of seeing a classical education. Thank you Marianne ( my director at our Classical Conversations community) for your gracious gift mid-year.

Started a new Alexander McCall Smith series - 44 Scotland Street. I loved his 'Ladies Detective Agency' series. It is excellent.

'In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving' by Leigh Anne & Sean Tuohy. Exellent. Inspiring.

'Gluten Free Girl' Shauna James Ahern. Extremely interesting and thought provoking. She has a blog. http://glutenfreegirl.com/

Listening. Handel. Before the Christmas season, we started with Bach because we are currently enjoying an academic program(Master's) focused on the Baroque period. We then moved into Handel, 'The Messiah'. But started with Handel Cantatas. Our cd is from the library, the artists are Magdalena Kozena & Marc Minkowski. Beautiful.

Baking. Country Living December 2010 Tea Cookie Dough & Jam Thumbprint cookies. I used Cherry Jam instead of Strawberry Jam.

Mrs. Field's Cookie Book. Kelley my sister-in-law gave me this at one of the shower's I was given. She was so creative, and gave me trays and all. But this is my go-to chocolate chip recipe. I'm finally going to venture past the one page and make the Refridgerator Thumbprint Fudgy Cookies. Because I've been invited to a cookie exchange & I'm all out of butter! I've got 3 dozen made of the Thumbprints, but I need 3 more dozen.

I made my Appetizer tho. Just a mix of the usual suspects to make shrimp dip. Cream cheeze, sour cream, mayonaise, grated cheddar cheeze. Garlic salt, diced red onion, stalk of celery diced and shrimp in small pieces. The shrimp is medium & I cut it down. Not small canned. Serving with crackers.

Growing. Amarylis. Red. One saved from Baton Rouge, and 2 purchased at Publix. So not really growing, but doing alot of raking/burning leaves in preparation for soil for the backyard garden.

Loving. My life. Peace abounds. Something to do, people to love, hope.

**Picture courtesy of Pinterest. When I find the actual source I'll credit. But this is the picture of inspiration Eric & I are considering for our livingroom/schoolroom. love the order. *sigh*

343- 350 I stopped counting & posting in August/last 1000 gifts post #39, but our school has been much more intense this year. Blogging has been put on the back burner. But as Christmas has come, I'm seeing the fruits of our labors and the gifts of God. Following our plan, seeking His. So I will assign these numbers to above. Looking forward to a week of counting God's blessings with kids as our assignment is to turn our grumbling into thanks, learning from the Israelites in the Wilderness. Lesson's abound in God's Word. Counting with others at http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/12/3-gifts-you-really-need-to-open-right-now-love-comes-down-video/ . I think I'll print Ann's list for the boys. We saw blue birds in our bird house. They'll love the eggs & birds for places to write gifts. 351.