Pinewood Castle

Breathing a Sigh of Relief and Joy

Jamie had her baby girl!

A Slow and Steady Start

This time of year I always marvel in fear and trembling at just how in the world we will have time to "do school" again. It seems that by the end of the summer it takes all day just to accomplish house cleaning, meal making and still have some time outdoors. But somehow, every year for the past three years we managed to start school and we still have time to get the house cleaning and meal making done. Mostly.

Just as we wound down school in June we wound up again this week in a similar style. My key to sanity is not to start them all on the same day. Monday was devoted to Dancer's Day 1, Tuesday to Sunshine and Wednesday to Dino. This worked amazingly well for us and it gave me time to read some prefaces and become more familiar with our new texts. I realized things such as -

• You don't write your answers in the Saxon 5/4 math book and that I needed to make 120 collated copies of three answer forms for a three-ring binder.
• After penciling lines in two blank books for copying poetry I realized that a line guide to place behind the page was provided.
• I still need to buy several pocket folders to hold the Mommy it's a Renoir art postcards. Things like that.

The children's art supplies seem to last for years (I buy Lyra colored pencils and beeswax crayons) so I didn't feel the need to prepare the every-so-cute German Schultuete cones. We do have a tradition of giving the children a new picture book wrapped in a silk scarf and that went over well again this year.

Dancer, who loves anything Arctic/Antarctic received:

Sunshine, who endlessly asks about large numbers was intrigued by:

And Dino who loves books with cut-aways of insect tunnels was overjoyed with:

Even Wild Strawberry received books!

We also do a First Day of School photo on the porch:

Gotta get the toddler too! She won't be left out of anything these days!

After each child completed this Back-to-School book from Enchanted Learning we felt that we were officially back-to-school!

Today we "did school" with all three children, all completing Day 2 and it went amazingly well. Dino played with Wild Strawberry while I worked with the girls. When my 2nd grader finished she switched with her brother and we had all the seatwork done by lunch. Sweet!

Now for handwork, Rosetta Stone French and violin practice - the day is not over yet!

*** I forgot one thing - we eat these cookies on the first day of school too!

Circle Time at Pinewood Castle - Winter Plans

 

star snowflake made with love by my teacher/friend/neighbor

This installment covers six weeks of winter before Lent begins on February 17th. For Minnesotans this season is all about cold and snow so my circle time plans reflect the scene we see out of our  window.

Here are the plans for winter circle time: Download Circle Time Plans - Winter

These winter plans use the following books:

• A Child's Seasonal Treasury
• Sing a Song of Seasons
• A Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme
• Favorite Poems Old and New
• a Catholic Hymnal (my numbers are for Gather)
• "Tea Time" page numbers are from Mondays with Mary

sugar cubes, icing and powdered sugar

And these fun CD's are used quite a bit to liven things up:

• one song from Sing Little Children by Danny Schneible
• Laurie Berkner's Victor Vito (for fun songs!)
• Laurie Berkner's Whaddaya Think of That?

I think this reverse snowman came from Jamie's blog

The weekly themes are:

• Week 1 - Snowmen
• Week 2 - Mittens and Boots
• Week 3 - Snowflakes
• Week 4 - Frost and Cold
• Week 5 - Ground Hog and Candlemas
• Week 6 - St. Valentine's and President's Day

 

A week of penguins and polar bears would work great when it comes to books and crafts, but I can't seem to find any songs about them!

meringue snowmen

Notes:

• The Child's Seasonal Treasury includes several songs for rainy days in the "Winter" section, but perhaps you southerners have fun with snow anyway? Some families can pretend really well!
• Liturgically, January is the month of The Holy Name. There are only a few hymns on that subject, so the rest are centered around praise.
• The opening songs are different and peppy to shake things up and get moving!
• The poem for Candlemas is here: Download Candlemas poem
• Alice's Candlemas Tea impresses the story of The Presentation on young minds quite effectively!

Candlemas Tea

marshmallow snowmen held together with toothpicks

I hope these plans help get you through the winter. I know it helps us to gather together to sing and read and celebrate the weather that often keeps us indoors when the temps are too low even to play outside.

Can you tell I both dread and look forward to winter in Minnesota? It's amazingly cold and comforting and isolating and intimate and renewing.

clay snowmen

 

Dawn's A Gift of Gracias Tea

 

borax snowflake

You were all right - we went to Duluth . . . and beyond!

You native Minnesotans really know your state!

And now I feel a little more like a real Minnesotan!

The North Shore of Lake Superior is the closest thing to the ocean for us land-locked folks. It all starts here with the Duluth harbor -

Farther up there are plenty of rivers with cascading waterfalls that empty into Lake Superior.

Gooseberry Falls:

Baptism River Falls:

Temperance River Falls:

 

Our son fell in love with the waves lapping up on the rocky shoreline. They were talking to him, he said. Kissing him even.

The iconic Split Rock Lighthouse was a worthy stop.

We stayed halfway up in the Lutsen mountains. I know, I know, these are small mountains - only at a 1400 ft elevation without a tree line or anything, but they are the highest hills I've seen in years the biggest "mountains" the kids have ever seen!

The ski lodge there was running a great summer special. We rented a townhome that slept six - five nights for the price of three!

The gondola ride took us up to a mountain-top restaurant -

The alpine slide was a huge hit. When the kids are old enough to haul their own sleds we will splurge for an all day pass!

Further up the shore is the artsy harbor village of Grand Marais -

This is the Naniboujou Lodge's famous dining room painted with Cree Indian designs. The pan-fried walleye was amazing but the wild rice side dish was even more savory!

We went all the way up the shore as far as we could go without current passports. Sorry Renee!

A quick left gives you one more waterfall to see. The Pigeon River divides the U.S. and Canada here so the Grand Portage Falls are shared between us. See the people on the right? They are in Canada!

 

And that's all we had time to see in the five days we were gone. The children were sick one day, one was rainy and the last night I came down with the bug. I tell you, if there was such a thing as a vacation flu vaccine I just might consent to that one! Running a fever the whole way home was no fun at all!

We just have to plan a trip back to see and do what we missed - a canoe trip, the Grand Portage fur trading fort, some restaurants we didn't have the stomach for, and all the Duluth destinations. Can't wait!

I'm Back!

Can you guess where we've been?

Wordless Wednesday

Blogger's Tea - It's a Small World After All!

 Hopefully you have already found everyone's lovely posts about our 3rd Annual Blogger's Tea? If not, just check out my shared items for links.

I really don't have much to add except to tell you that only half the guests on the guest list were able to attend. Can you believe we are really getting to be such a large group? We pondered why that might be . . . cabin fever? It is definitely therapeutic to maintain connection with others when the temps dip below zero!

Here are some individual shots of the ladies (please forgive me for not linking)

Josefa - we recently discovered we are practically neighbors - small world!

Jamie-who-drank-too-much-tea! Do we share a small world story, Jamie? Maybe not, but we do seem to have much in common. Seriously, though, she is sacrificing a lot to have this fifth baby. Send some prayers her way for these last few weeks!

Sarah who won Meredith's book - she lives near my husband's grandmother - small world!

Meredith who won Karen's book. We discovered we are practically neighbors too! And our girls attended the same birthday party last week - small world!

Kristina who went to school with my husband - small world!

And Margaret. Small world - we used to go to the same Bible study way back before we were too busy with homeschooling. We used to see each other at the Latin Mass back then too. I was hopelessly  distracted by her daughter Cate's baby face during Mass. And get this, we both used to wear blue corduroy knickers back when we were on staff at Interlochen. We were there the  same summer but did not know one another. We must have crossed paths, though, because I worked a lowly food service job to be there so I probably saw her at least three times a day as she came through the cafeteria line!

See, here I am with 80's bangs:

Margaret, if you have an old Interlochen photo I would love to see it. You don't have to blog it. But we've already seen your 80's look so you have nothing to lose, right?

You've seen the whole group, right? God bless the lady who took seven photos with seven different cameras!

One more thing look what they had for sale there - aprons!

I did not buy one, but I did purchase some loose tea and scone mix for tea time.

Until next year . . .

Go Visit Margaret Today

 . . . because she has published an absolutely snort-and-belly-laugh post covering the highlights of our 3rd Annual Blogger's Tea!

She must have knocked herself out to find a blogging time slot over the weekend.

I, on the other hand, wiled away the day at the St. Paul Irish Fair (after Mass of course), came home, showered, ate pizza and went to sleep early.You see, someone is adjusting to her new toddler bed this weekend and is preventing the rest of us from getting enough sleep.

You know what this means, don't you? Hearing little pitter-pats as late as 10pm, seeing a rascally smiling face and returning the little cherub back to her bed. Ditto at 5am! At least she is not climbing out of the crib anymore and risking potential injury.

So head over and see what we were up to Saturday! It was a wonderful diversion from spending time with my sleep-deprived toddler!

Small Successes

I am going to give this a try for the first time - I so enjoy cheering everyone else on in their accomplishments!

1. Last tennis class for the girls! Great weather every time, played at the park with the younger two. Now Dancer claims to like tennis more than ballet.

2. Speaking of ballet, a real ballet academy is opening nearby in September. I was thrilled when I heard about it and I thought sure Dancer would want to enroll. But she doesn't. She want to take a theater class with her sister instead. Being ok with that is a small success for me. I had high hopes that we would have a lovely ballerina in our family.

3. Last T-ball for Dino! We have no scheduled classes or lessons or games or practices for the rest of August!

4. I let my two year old play outside today wearing footed pajamas and sparkly gold shoes. I'm really not that kind of mother. I must be mellowing out. Or too tired to change her clothes and risk a tantrum.

5. I've cooked from Saving Dinner for three weeks in a row. I have always planned my own menu before, but this cookbook is really freeing up time and brain space in my life. 

6. I bought eight big and local organic chickens.

7. On Monday I shredded zucchini and made double batches of zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini cake.

What are your successes this week? This is a great exercise in holding ourselves accountable and patting ourselves on the back. Mothering and homemaking don't have built in performance reviews and bonuses. The  internet can be a source of support and encouragement. Let's encourage one another in our small successes.I'm very late to the party, but you can still share too at Faith and Family Live!

Random Summertime Photography