He is Risen!

But before we move to Easter... let me share a few snapshots of Lent.  Perhaps one day I'll stay ahead of myself in this space, but for now I hope you don't mind looking back from time to time!

I was grateful to return to the tradition of stripping our Christmas tree to make a cross for lent.  We haven't had our own real tree the past couple years so it wasn't possible.

To make the cross I used our hedge clippers to snip off the tree branches.  I used our miter saw to chop of the top third to make the smaller piece of the cross, but a hand saw would work well too.   I used a strip of purple cotton to bind the two pieces together.

 We are hoping to do some flower making to decorate the cross through the fifty days of Easter.

I finished our lenten banner a few days before Easter and now need to make a white one... but I'm just pleased that it got done at all.  It is made from a taffeta scrap I had in my stash and the cross was made with masking tape and fabric paint.  I'm determined to make banners for all the seasons this year... three down, two more to make.

Spring has come...

...as has Holy Week.  (Okay, I know it is Easter, but I started this post last week...)  

We are reading through the events of Holy Week together, but with a garden to be started and a baby to prepare for (and I'm talking basic preparations like finding him/her a place to sleep and finding some infant clothes - not fun sewing type preparations), and energy going into the nurturing of this wee babe who is readying him/herself to join us, there isn't much left for creative new Holy Week ideas.  So, I don't know that much (if anything will be posted here.)  I still have a couple ideas for projects I haven't totally given up on, so we will see if they can happen.

The word Lent comes from the Old English word Lencten, which comes from "to lengthen" and thus, was used to mean spring.  I think the discipline that has shaped me the most this year during Lent is watching our wee plot of ground come to life.  There were moments in the winter that I found myself dreaming of the mini-farm that we think of as our ideal home.  And in those moments I would look at our pathetic grass and city lot with a bit of sadness, but oh, spring has changed that as I've (for the first time) watched our dogwood blossom, the violets appear, the fruit trees and vines come to life, the forsythias shout 'spring' with their yellow radiance...  I had no idea how much life could appear on a quarter acre.  So meals have moved outside and our days are spent in the garden.

(Don't mind the coloring in a couple of these.  I have a new camera lens and was messing with the settings a to figure it out, which resulted in some odd color and less than perfect focus.)

Tending the Garden!

Jim and I have been dreaming of having a proper garden for years.  Oh there have been potted plants here or there, but never have we had the space or stability to invest ourselves into a 'proper' garden.  Jim is now jokingly calling the back yard our farm... and yes, we are definitely dreaming of urban farming.  We now have three rhubarb plants, three blueberry bushes, four grape vines, half a dozen brambles (a mix of blackberry and rasperry), a plum and peach tree (Jonah's requested birthday gift from my parents last year - love it!) and now... drumroll please... we have a five foot circle waiting to be made into a herb spiral, mounds waiting for squash and melons and seven raised beds.

So the past two weeks have been full of preparing a space (thanks to my Dad who arrived with a chainsaw ready to tackle the horrid bushes on the sunny side of the yard), testing soils, sorting and starting seeds, building beds, and a dump truck load of dirt that was delivered into our alley.  (Oh, what a lovely memory I will keep of being eight months pregnant and trying to shovel dirt madly into the wheelbarrow so we could make a reasonable path for cars to get by.)

We are a bit sore and tired, but mostly, are just so very pleased to see all of this coming together.  There is still lots of work to do, but the beds are ready for planting later this week and the weather has turned warm and balmy warming the soil for our precious seeds.  We may be a bit crazy (especially considering that baby will probably join us in about a month).  But, I'm comforting myself that we could be crazier, I did decide to put the chickens off till next spring.

Lent

Well this is a long overdue post...

Thursday morning after Ash Wednesday Jim and I flew to Texas to attend a retreat for ministers to artist (yes, without children! And, no neither of us are technically ministers to artists, but combining art, imagination and theology is just our thing.)  We got back and got settled just in time for spring break, which was devoted to a big project we've been dreaming of for years (I'll share later this week, I promise!)  And in the midst of all of this Lent has seemed scattered and difficult to bring into focus.

That said, there are a few Lenten activities that have been progressing and reminding us daily (even if they aren't always practiced daily) that we are in these lenten forty days.

Jim and I have been enjoying Walter Wangrein Jr.'s book Reliving the Passion.  The book follows the passion narrative with a reading each day of lent.  I am behind and have been reading in spurts, but it is a wonderful book that invites one to imaginatively enter the passion.

A lenten tree: the idea was to add a leaf a day through lent as we read through Mark's gospel.  But, this has ended up being in spurts too.  We just aren't finding a rhythm right now that works regularly for these readings.  We've traditionally gone through the life of Christ in Lent, but I think I want to attempt to do the Life of Christ next year during Epiphany and then spend the forty days of Lent focusing on the passion (the above Walter Wangrein Jr. book is inspiring me).
I'm hoping to add flowers and maybe eggs to the tree on Resurrection Day.

I've been trying to keep some purple on the table.  (This photo was taken a couple weeks ago, thus St. Patrick and his boat are there as well.)

Late Lenten Trays

I'm going with "better late than never" on this one.  I took these photos in lent, but they never made it to this space.  I had so many plans for our lent together this year, but they met with resistance, so it was a fine, though unremarkable lent.  The one project that was finished (though not used as much as I thought it would be) was to make some seasonal trays for Rowan to use while Jonah did his skill work during lent.  I found these little trays at hobby lobby and am thinking some chalk paint will make them something special one of these days, but for now, they are unfinished wood trays lined with seasonal scrapbook paper.  If you changed the colors, these trays could work for the season of Easter too.   

Word Building: I made this set last year and we used it in our godly play room at church for a work option.  Laminated watercolor paper with purple-painted wooden letters, they are simple and perfect for mister three, who is lately showing interest in letters and sounds.  I bought unpainted wooden letters for a couple dollars at a craft store in St. Andrews and traced them on the paper before drawing and water coloring the objects.

 Beading: Beads on pipe cleaners is a real favorite around here right now.  They are fun to string and then connect into long, long necklaces.

A Sensory Bag: I made the sack from the same fabric as our palm sunday underlay.  It is basically a drawstring bag, but instead of a string I used elastic at the top so an arm can slip in, but you can't see what is inside.  The idea is to don a blindfold mask and then reach in the bag and find an object.  I filled it with a lego, an egg, wooden bunny, small cross, piece of train track, and a wooden peg doll.  I would love to make a card with pictures of the different objects (maybe next year), but it works to have Mum say an object too.

I made these little blindfold masks a couple months ago and have been doing a few different sensory exercises with the boys.  They are fun exercises and are stemming from some research in helping the early cognitive child.  They help with motor and sensory skills that sometime are skipped when a child focuses on reading and other cognitive development earlier than most.  And mostly, I love that sensory games are always eagerly met because they are fun and different.

And, now I'm off to pack these little trays  before I go to bed; slow and steady we prepare for the move!

Lent and the Good Shepherd: Good Shepherd Magnets

I love working with magnet paper.  You can use it in a printer, but it is also fun to draw on.  I took a sheet with me to York and drew up a set to use for the lost sheep story.  It was inspired by Butterworth and Inkpen's story The Lost Sheep, though I added in dark shadowy places (like the godly play story).  The boys loved listening to the story and Rowan especially loved telling it again and again hiding the lamb somewhere new each time.

I've drawn sets similar to this (but different stories) and copied it off on the magnet paper for kids to color and take home after church in the past, but haven't since leading godly play.  I do love that kids can retell the story to parents and play with it on their own at home through the week.  What do you think, is there room for a work a less open-ended option like this in a godly play setting?

Lent and the Good Shepherd: Reading Along

There are always stacks of books on every surface in our house.  Sometimes I sigh - my house will never be tidy - but overall I'm glad.  Most of the time the stacks are rather random, but with each season change or, if we are studying something in particular, I always position a stack of books that will be easy for little ones to find and explore.

Here are some of our favorites for our time with the Good Shepherd story.

Stories Jesus Told by Nick Inkpen and Mick Butterworth: This book is a must have for any toddler (and I don't say that lightly).  It is a collection of simply told parables that are great to read aloud.  The tale of the lost sheep is perfect for a wee one and is fun to read over and over (and you will be reading it over-and-over if my boys are any indication).

Beautiful Sheep: Having grown up on a sheep farm I have a special afinity for our wooly friends and all things wool.  I want my boys to understand that sheep aren't just sheep.  Heavens no, spunky, hard-hooved, ugly cheviots (sorry I have a grudge) aren't anything like stalky, dense, and oh-so-cute southdowns (I had my own flock of southdowns growing up.)  Jim's aunt sent me this book and it is a treasure.  This collection of portraits of various sheep breeds is just fun to flip through.

Little Baa by Kim Lewis:  I love Kim Lewis' books.  The rolling hills, sheep and simple stories are lovely for little ones and remind me of my childhood.  Little Baa is my all time favorite; the story of a little lamb who gets lost from his mother and the shepherd helps him find her.

Days on the Farm by Kim Lewis: This is a collection of Kim Lewis' stories and a couple are very applicable to the good shepherd story.  In one a little girl looses the bottle-baby lamb she is to look after and searches everywhere.  In another a little boy becomes a shepherd like his daddy.  Kim Lewis oblates the experiences of a small child on a farm simply and beautifully.  (And there are tractors, which makes these books a winner for Rowan!)

Dogger: Okay, so there is nothing about sheep in this book, but it is a treasure of a book about a precious animal lost and found.  The story is beautiful and helps a child enter into what it means to lose something that means so much.

Psalm 23 by Barry Moser:  I've looked at several Psalm 23 books and I think that this one is my favorite (at least for right now).  The shepherd is a small boy and the watercolors are soothing and clear.

Psalm Twenty-Three by Tim Ladwig:  The words of the 23rd Psalm are placed over illustrations of small children in a city, showing God's care in a modern setting.

The Lord is My Shepherd by Tasha Tudor:  I read lots of Tasha Tudor as a girl and while I don't feel the illustrations have the depth that the two listed above have, it is such a pretty little book!  I have this in a tiny book - just right for on our godly play shelves right beside Tasha Tudor's Lord's Prayer and the Prayer Book.

Tig and Tag books by Benedict Blathwayt :  These books are fun and I love the English countryside in Blathewaits work.  I have picked up a couple at charity shops and would recommend picking them up used if you come by them.


Any other shepherd/sheep/lost-and-found books you would recommend?

Pretzels for Lent

We always try to make pretzels for lent.  The story goes that a monk invented pretzels by twisting his bread dough into the shape of the monks arms at prayer to remind his brothers to pray.  This year I used my five minute bread dough, fried them and added some cinnamon sugar.  They were quick to make and tasted more like a doughnut than a traditional pretzel.  And, most importantly, they were enjoyed!

Lent

Lent is a time that I really enjoy sharing with my boys.  Sometimes I find it easy to underestimate a children's ability to be serious, prayerful and penitent and Lent is a way for us to enter into a serious time together.  That certainly doesn't mean that they are serious all through lent, or even through most of our lenten activities, but it is giving that opportunity for thought and space.

This year our dinner table has a few items in the center to remind us of this time.  I found this idea in Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman and have expanded it slightly.  The items are my palm cross - reminding us that this is a time of prayer (and pointing us to the cross), an empty bowl to represent fasting, a Bible with God's words for us, and an alms tin (yeast tin covered in purple paper).  Jonah has been earning the money for the alms tin by doing simple jobs.  I also tried doing a rice and one veggie meal, where we put the food budget we saved in the tin.  I thought the boys might enjoy this, but they weren't so into it, so we'll wait a couple years and try that again.

We are also sharing a lenten reading from Celebrating the Church Year with Young Children each night.  It is lovely and focuses on the lenten journey and God as shepherd, which I love.  It is amazing to me that something as simple as sharing these few lines each night is forming our lenten journey.

Lent Ideas and Thoughts:

Art Meditation: Artway

Montessori Practical Life Exercises for Lent: Thoughts from the Sheepfold

The Silence Game: Living Montessori Now

Lenctening Days: Eat With Joy

Lenten Link Party: Explore and Express and Easter Kind of Way

Lent on this blog

Lent and The Good Shepherd

I've been enjoying Joan Halmo's Celebrating the Church Year with Young Children this past year and love her idea of weaving the Good shepherd story through lent.  After reading The Good Shepherd and the Child: A Joyful Journey by Patricia Coulter et al. in December, I've been eager to work with the story more with my boys.  A sense of security is so central to a small child's world and certainly to their spiritual development.  We've been talking a lot about needs lately as we work on NVC (non-violent communication) with the boys and the good shepherd story is such a beautiful invitation to believe that all our needs can and will be met.  A lesson that I'm working on learning myself as well.

So my lenten project with the boys is to work with this story playfully and thoroughly.  Last year it was fun to share thoughts on prayer with children each week in this space, and so, this year I'll try to be here each of the six weeks to share something on the the good shepherd.
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The godly play story of the good shepherd is one of my favorites!  I love moving the figures through the green field, to the quiet waters and through the dark and shadowy places.   I love building the sheep fold and wondering what it might be.  I love searching for the lost lamb and sharing the shepherds joy when he finds it and brings it home.  If anyone out there is thinking of delving into godly play and wondering where to start, this story is a wonderful place to begin.  The script starts simply focusing on how the good shepherd meets the needs of the sheep.   And, once that script is familiar, there are add ons of the lost lamb and the wolf.  The figures can be easily made of paper or finding some toy lambs and a person of some sort isn't very difficult.

Good Friday

 For a Good Friday Reflection I will send you to Jim's post today on Transpositions - I've been meditating on the poem he shared and am thinking that we may need to write it out and memorize it together as a family.  Jonah really liked it tonight when Jim read it with him.

Our Good Friday service here at home was simple once again.  We set up more of the story across the mantle.  And we then looked at a painting together.  I was hoping that it would be a meditative prayer exercise, which didn't end up looking as I had imagined, the boys were tired and we simply looked at the painting and did some look-and-find, but even that was prayerful in its own way.  

Last night we added the last super to our mantle, and then tonight we made the mount of Olives (green fabric over a bowl), the courtyard/trial (a few blocks), Golgotha (green fabric over a casserole with a stick cross stuck in plasticine), and then on the shelf next to the mantle we made the tomb (see below) and a path leading up to it.  We told the story and placed Christ's body in the tomb.

 The painting we looked at was Road to Calvary by Simone Martini.  If found it in this new (at least new to us) book "The Life of Jesus in Masterpieces of Art".  I really like what I've read so far.  I bought it because I love the idea of telling the story to great art and it is by Mary Pope Osborne, who Jonah loves (she wrote the Magic Tree House books).  

 We read the first chapters of Peter's First Easter earlier in the day.  I love Ladwig's illustrations and the story is told very well and is in short picture book style chapters, which makes it east to read in stages through Holy Week.  I also love Brian Wildsmith's The Easter Story this time of year.

Palm Sunday

We begin on this journey of Holy week.  I love the palm procession that marks the beginning of this week at our church and I am looking forward to our little home services during the week (our church's services are after the boys bedtimes.)  

As we continue toward the mystery of Easter I am eager to share and learn alongside my boys, but am also keenly aware that letting go of my expectations has proved to be a very important and timely lenten discipline this year that will need to continue this week.

So, without much to say here are some images from Palm Sunday - "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!"

Right now I'm...

:: Hoping the baby sleeps through the night after a rough afternoon of being sick.   

:: Recognizing the fruit of the Spirit for Jonah when he shows them and then, letting him add a grape to this magnetic puzzle on the fridge (made from a sheet of magnet printer paper, a sharpie, and beeswax crayons).  I'm cautious of overly 'rewarding' good behavior (though potty training definitely defied this general rule!), but it has been really helpful to name the fruits of the Spirit through our day and Jonah is loving it.  And, this exercise has made me ask some good questions like "when do we show faithfulness in our days?" and "is Mum showing Joy in the midst of sick-days?" 

 :: Remembering Rowan's "TRACK - TOR!" this morning when he spotted a green machine at the botanic gardens.  He chased the tractor around the pond, where it stopped and he was offered a chance to sit in the tractor... "Track-tor, Track-tor, TRACK-TOR" was his cry!

:: Making Jonah lenten mazes.  A simple way to mark this time.

:: Enjoying spring, fresh foods and everything green.  It is light till seven now, which feels like such an accomplishment and the sun is shining some days.  I even picked up a pack of seeds at the store today (we are moving in June, so we aren't planting much of a garden this summer, but the spring weather demands a few seeds!)

:: Rejoicing that not only did I hang clothes up to dry outside today, but for the first time this year they were fully dry before dinner!

Lenten Cross

Sunday morning six squirmy (and I mean really squirmy - I think it was the warm weather) children gathered around our godly play circle and I took a purply burlap sack from the shelves.  We wondered together... I wonder why this bag is so rough?  I wonder why it is purple?  I wonder what is inside?

I wonder if the pieces make anything?  There are six pieces, just like there are six Sundays in Lent. ,I wonder why they make a cross?  I wonder why it is rough and purple?  

I wonder what the other side is like?  It is smooth and white.  Look, the inside of the bag is smooth and white too.  This is a mystery - why would it be smooth and white?

The children then went to their work for the day.  It was interesting because the three things they chose were new to the class room in the past couple weeks.

Most of the children colored a cross purple to make their own lenten cross.  I had made these small bags Sunday morning before church.  They would be so much nicer with a drawstrings so little hands could open and close them, but there just wasn't time.  This lesson came from Young Children in Worship, but I changed it a bit (for one reason we didn't do it the first Sunday of lent, but the second).  The bag is to be of a rough purple cloth and as I ended up using fabric paints on burlap to make the big purple bag.  It is also supposed to have a gold ribbon to tie it, but I had to make do with what I had on hand.  For the children's bags I painted a purple cross as I was running out of paint.  

Jonah played with the circle of the church year for most of the work time.  I just completed painting and sealing it this week.  It was timely as we were talking about lent.  I got it out briefly during the circle time and the children were a bit in awe of it.  I must say it is a lot nicer than the cardboard one I made.  (This is made from the kit from St. Michael's workshop.)

We've also just added a baby, that was found at a charity shop by a friend.  I made the baby a gown from a vintage pillowcase I picked up in a box at the auction.  We added a spice jar labeled oil and a shell and the children are practicing baptizing and saying the liturgy.  It is beautiful.

Rowan at home baptizing the baby.