St Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Doctor

Saint Augustin was born at Tagaste in Africa in 354. He was unsettled and restless searching for the truth until he was converted to the Faith in Milan and baptized by Ambrose. Returning to his homeland, he embraced an ascetic life and subsequently was elected bishop of Hippo. For thirty-four years he guided his flock, instructing it with sermons and many writings. He fought bravely against the errors of his time and explained the Faith carefully and cogently through his writings. He died in 430.

From Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours

"Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance." ~St Augustine

"Our hearts are restless till they rest in you, O Lord." ~St Augustine

~Happy Name Day dear Augustin!~

Handmade Toys

Alice at a number of things is hosting a Homemade Toy Fair tomorrow. Since today is Felix's birthday and we only start school tomorrow, I have a little bit of time to play on my blog. I could write about many neat things that happened in the last two months (and I will later), but since today is a milestone day for one of our boys (officially a teenager now!), instead I am going to look back at much older days. It seems a fitting day to spend in reminiscences.

Creativity is something at the very core of my being. Give me raw material and I delight in their possibilities. Many years ago, I received my very first Heart Song Catalog. I couldn't afford much, but it awakened in me a desire to surround my children with beautiful toys made with natural material. So I made my own. I only wish I had taken more pictures of all the toys, dolls, and puzzles the children and I made, but in those days, without the convenience of a digital camera, pictures were sparse.

The picture above is about twelve years old! Inspired by the halfpenny dolls sold then by Hearth Song, I made Peter of Blueberry Land and a Cranberry Girl. A few years later the wires from the pipe cleaners broke and the dolls fell apart, but they had been well loved! Here is a picture of the table setting that Easter, more than a decade ago. I had also knitted a little rabbit, some gnomes, and a few balls. My husband used to work for a company which made felt for the paper industry. The huge felts were made with carded wool, he would bring me bags of it. I dyed it (with natural dye stuff), made felt with it, and even fashioned puppets out of my homemade felt. Sadly I do not have any pictures of those.

And yes, I kept my first catalog for inspiration!

Another Easter table of long ago.


This picture is even older. I made this little doll for Sara's birthday almost twenty years ago!


Many of the projects were from the book The Childrens' Year. Much more than shown here. Sara and I made gnomes, slippers, dolls, knitted animals, window stars, and gnomes' hats to name a few.

Three year old Lydia with one of these dolls.



Sebastien wearing one of the gnomes' hat Sara knitted. Oh, how I wish I had pictures of those lovely knitted gnomes Sara made for each of her brothers one Christmas!



The boys also made toys. We made and sold puzzles, wooden animals, and cut wood silhouettes backed with colored transparent paper. We still have this pig Gabriel made with a scroll saw ten years ago. I drew the pattern, he did the cutting. The boys got to be very good at it!



Here are Lydia, and Raphael on a homemade swing. She was about four and Raphael two.

Hetty (Lydia) and Hank (Raphael) are looking at their bag of turnips in front of Augustin's log house. We were rowing Down Down the Mountain a Five in a Row title. Augustin built this log house when he was in his teens.

There was and still are plenty of costumes for playing dress-up .

The Holy Family.



St Joan of Arc praying before her martyrdom.



Burning "behind" the bonfire.



Lydia wrote a play on St Thomas Aquinas. It was a great success.

Sweet Dominique has been seen asleep at the tea table, all decked in his Dominican habit, with his head resting on his folded arms.

The always popular crowns!

Sara made these for two little girls she took care as an au pair in England.

Remember my hobbits?

Frodo four years ago!

I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that Felix asked for a new cloak for his birthday. With his homemade bow and arrow he is ready for battle.

Happy Birthday dear Felix!

Crayon Pouch

I recently bought some new beeswax crayons for the children. After reading the comments of other homeschoolers on the 4real message board, I decided to give the Stone crayons a try. They have cute bees on the wrapper. Can you imagine how happy I was when I found some fabric with little bees buzzing all over! I bought some interfacing and got busy. The ties are crocheted from leftover cotton yarn used to make washcloths.

Here it is closed.

And opened.

Snakes!

(Not for the faint of heart!)

Our local library had a special event this past July, featuring Ron Cromer of Snakes Alive. Our children were completely engrossed by Ron's presentation.

But the fun (for them!) didn't stop there! To their delight they were allowed to handle the snakes.

Oh dear, this one creeped up Dominique's sleeves.



I pulled it out for him. Oh, what would a mother do for her child!


Matthias isn't quite sure about this!

But Laurence didn't seem to mind.

Look at my girl!

This Burmese python is impressive, isn't she? Her name is Penelope.


Now, that's a big, heavy snake! Raphael and Lydia volunteered to hold it!

Amazing!

Summer is...

For blueberry muffins with frosty, cold goat milk for a snack. The muffins recipe is from William-Sonoma Bread.



Summer version of spring cleaning since last May with the wedding prep we were too busy to deep clean.



The little boys bedroom is newly decked with a sailing theme.

I love the airy, breezy look given by the silk.




Lydia's room is sweet and gentle looking, just like she is.


I don't have time today, but later I'll show you our learning room and my bedroom with my new sewing corner.

Fourth of July Fun!

Early in the morning Michel went to Moe's farm to meet with Moe and Gene (Sebastien's godfather). Gene is a vet and was going to determine if Cleopatra had been bred. She had been at Moe's farm since March. According to Gene she is three months pregnant. Good! In the trailer she went. Easier said than done! It took them forty five minutes to get her in there, even though Moe has a nice arrangement to move cows around. She is home now, Leif and Eric the Red have quickly learned to respect her. She is undeniably the queen around here.

Here are the two youngest ready to go visit the little ladies at the Special Care Hospital.

For dinner, Lydia and Raphael fixed a scrumptious feast. They made potato salad from William-Sonoma: Potato, hamburgers, grilled corn on the cob, and red, white, and blueberry sundaes from Complete Party Planner, by Annabel Karmel. Although she calls them sundaes, they are not ice cream but layers of jello and fresh strawberries, whipped cream and of course blueberries. Don't they look pretty? It took the children two hours to gather the blueberries, they came home with more than two pounds of them and too many dirt ticks bites to count!

At night fall they watched stars with Raphael's telescope.

Michel set off a few firecrackers. OOh...! AAh...!


When everything had cool off, they just had to have a closer look. They also found this strange looking horned beetle?


Farm life, work of mercy, good food, awe at God's majestic creation, firecrackers and creepy crawly things... a blessed day for little (and big) boys.... a time to keep!