Our Lady of Altagracia

Patroness of the Dominican Republic

Today, in honor of the feast of Our Lady of Altagracia, we had our first liturgical tea of the year.


During tea time I read Cay's Catholic Mosaic book suggestion, A Gift of Gracias. This warmly illustrated book tells the legend of Our Lady of Altagracia, or Our Lady of Thanks.


Our tea fare consisted of Bigelow White Tea With Tangerine, Dawn's orange snowball cookies, and blooming oranges (Lydia's idea)! The sweet aroma of the Orange Blossom candle from Le Couvent des Minimes and the delicate warm tea made us feel all cozy, despite being January. A sample copywork from Matthias

And a simpler one from Laurence

At the end of a fruitful school day I gathered the three youngest on the sofa in the school room, and as suggested in Catholic Mosaic, I asked them what they were thankful for. We casualy started our conversation, but within minutes I realized that I had to capture the moment with written words. I proceeded to write their thoughtful words just as they presented them to me. As I wrote my own heart was filled with thankfulness.

We are thankful for…

Laurence
Toys
Me
Saints
That we have a house
Baby goats

Dominique
We found Sara
That we are doing school
That I can pray to God
That I believe in God and not anything else
That one day I will be with God
That I can go to church every Sunday and some other days also
For living in this country

Matthias
The mother and father I have
That I like history and maps
For good food that keeps me healthy
For nature
That I have many brothers and I hope to have more sisters
I’m homeschooled
Snow
I could continue for a long, long time. ;o)

Children's mind truly absorbe what they hear and see. This morning we read the book Geeta's Day, From Dawn to Dusk in an Indian Village, one of the book suggested in the Mater Amabilis Prep Level. After reading this book Dominique had real, tangible reasons for saying that he's thankful for living in this country. We also read about St Agnes, who's feast day is today as well. Although, acording to St Ambroise, she went to her death more joyfully than some go to their wedding, hearing that she was beheaded for her belief insited Dominique to be truly thankful for his freedom to go to Church and pray to God. And studying Ancient Greece with is mydiad of dreadful gods and goddesses, surelly makes you glad you have one and only one true God! I am thankful for this little exercise that provided me the privilege of a glimpse into my children's precious minds and souls.

Serendipity

Elizabeth and Katherine have put their heads together to create a very imaginative rabbit trail; Along the Alphabeth Path. Soon gnomes and gnumbers came to share the fun and inspired by Ruth Heller wonderful language books a serie of creative lessons brought the world of language to life.

Last November we slowly entered the magical land of letters, numbers, and words with the company of wee fairies and gnomes.

December found me busy as an elf, knitting, sewing, and crafting dozens of present for my dear family. The school plans were put aside, at the exeption of Cay's fantastic Christmas Mosaic.

As you can see it was a lot of fun and oh, so yummy. Cay has included lots of recipes to make it all memorable. If you wonder why we were making spiders for Advent, have a look at the reading list.

But this post is not about the Christmas Mosaic as wonderful as it is. So let us go back to gnomes and such.

We can't wait to continue our math adventures with the rainbow gnomes this week. And so much more!

Here is a sample page of a Lively Language Lesson by Dominique.

And a botany page by Matthias.

Elizabeth should have a Serendipity-do-dah! post up tomorow to showcase how other families are using Serendipity. Come and join in the fun and add a bit of beauty, creativity and wonder to your school days!

A big thank you to Elizabeth and Katherine for taking the time to share their gifts with us.

Epiphany

A visit at Père Valère Dubé (the Benedictine priest who married us) is always a memorable experience.

How blessed were the children to be able to attend Holy Mass this morning in his small private apartment, a sacred place indeed. Putting it into the words of sweet Dominique, he is a saint!

I can't resist posting a few pictures from our trip last Fall.

Augustin, Kristie, Sébastien, and Lydia are in Canada!

And boy are they having a grand time!

Lydia, Sébastien, Kristie, and Grandpa Bellavance

Even Grandma is sledding!

Today they are going ice fishing, and tomorrow they will have dinner with their uncle Robert up north in the Laurentide Mountains. I can't wait to see more pictures!

Christmas Pictures

We always get together on Christmas Eve for a traditional French Canadian Christmas dinner followed by the opening of presents. Then the older children and Michel leave for midnight Mass while I put the youngest to bed. Felix and Matthias alter served on Christmas Day.

The little boys had their own table.

After midnight Mass the older children had dessert with us. Augustin and Kristie made the egg custard pie, Lydia the fruit cake and Sara the magnificent cream puff pyramid. I made the tablecloth. ;o)

After dessert they enjoyed a game of scattergories.

Sébastien, Lydia, Shannon, Gabriel, Augustin, and Kristie.

Raphael on the right, Clark and Sara on the left.

St Nicholas Day

The little boys woke up this morning on the Feast of St Nicholas to find each of their shoe filled with gold chocolate coins and a delicious orange. Later in the afternoon Lydia mixed up a batch of German Spice Cookie dough from the book Christmas Mosaic. The children cut them out using a carboard template, and had a great time icing them. What a delectable treat they were with Kimberlee's cocoa supreme !

Thankful

HT: View From The Pews