Pondered In My Heart

"Hush," said Susan, "Aslan's doing something."

Saint Felix and the Spider! (illustrated by Lydia Grace)

Subtitled: If you give a girl a paint box...

Here is the 'big project' that Lydia has been working on!

Some time ago, Lydia was asked if she would like to illustrate a picture book!

Written by Dessi Jackson, Saint Felix and the Spider is a sweet story about a third century saint and his unusual friendship with one of God's smallest creatures: a spider. Felix is pursued by the Romans and very nearly captured, but wondrous are God's ways when He seeks to protect those who love Him! If you are familiar with Dessi's blog or her articles at Seton Magazine you know that Dessi has a wonderful way with words and the gift of delightful storytelling. I've read the book aloud numerous times and it is such a pleasure.

And last Friday evening we had the pleasure of meeting Dessi for the first time as she graced our home and family with a visit!

It was wonderful to be able to present Dessi with the proof copies of the book in person, and Lydia got to see firsthand her reaction to the illustrations for her story.

Dessi is truly a natural storyteller and she had us all in stitches with tales of village life in her native Bulgaria and the current joys and trials of her country life in Maryland.

We all laughed

and laughed and laughed.

We've all been enjoying the new book and Eliza has read it ever so many times!

Saint Felix and the Spider can be purchased here on Amazon:

Lydia spent much time designing and sketching page layouts, researching everything from Roman helmets to native birds of Italy, observing spiders and their webs, and painting ever so many watercolors - and now the book is finally here! Hooray!

 

...and after she reads her new book, chances are she'll take her paint box and go back to painting birds.

Our Books are Here!

Don't my novelists look pleased with their new books!

As you may remember some of my girls have participated in National Novel Writing Month and the Young Writers Program, in which writers complete a whole novel in one month's time during the month of November. The reward for actually meeting your goals and getting the novel finished is five free copies of your very own book! How totally fabulous is it to see your own work published in a real live book! With pages and illustrations and fancy covers and all!

Mary Rose and Kateri 'won' and finished their novels last November. It took quite some time to do all the formatting and all to prepare the works for publishing, and the novelists are quite thankful to their dear Dad who did all of the technical work. Mary Rose actually just published the novel she wrote for the 2011 NaNo, as she recently completed the illustrations for her book, one for each chapter, and Anna Ruth did the cover artwork for her. Kateri published her 'novel' that she wrote last November, and she too drew an illustration for each of her chapters. She wanted her pal Josiah to do the cover art for her and he very kindly read the whole story first so his illustration would match the book (no pink bulbous trees for Kateri).

It's pretty cool to have a book published that you wrote and illustrated when you were six.

Or eleven and twelve.

Everyone is enjoying the new books. Everyone is also enlisted to do a final proofreading check before we order/purchase more copies of the books. :-) Everyone is very proud of our authors!

Hurray for NaNoWriMo!

New Books

Being a family of bibliophiles we naturally gift each other with a goodly amount of books on a regular basis. Here be the new books received in our house this Christmas, commencing with Jonathan's:

That large stack on the top left is a grand pile of music I happened upon at a church thrift sale. As he put it, 'A pretty good stack of used music including two scores of Messiah, Judas Maccabbeus, and a book of Strauss useful for dinner music gigs.'  Piano Servicing is to go along with the piano tuning tools he received. He added some Chesterton to his collection with The Club of Queer Trades, 'seemingly an earlier work illustrated by the author of interesting short stories sort of leading towards Father Brown' and  The Four Faultless Felons which he described as 'four long short stories (short long stories?) more enjoyable with better endings' than the previous title.

I couldn't possibly resist getting the long awaited Hobbitus Ille, though I briefly wondered which Tolkien fanatic/Latin scholar in the house I should get it for. As you will see below, the others received some interesting Tolkien variations and thus Jonathan scored the Hobbitus Ille. I wondered how he would like it, being accustomed to Church Latin and not Classical which this work is. He reports, 'Let's see, the sentences don't start with capital letters and it never uses v or j. It seems very nicely done and every now and then there's a nice sentence that you can understand every word of! And actually Latin suits Gandalf pretty well.' I also found him a vintage copy of The Road Goes Ever On, a book of Tolkien's poetry set to music. He says this is 'an odd collection of art songs; one of the melodies is just actually what Tolkien had in mind and the fellow used it'.  

The other Tolkien is a paperback set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which his sisters were thrilled to find at a used book sale. This was presented to Jonathan as a Grand Amusement, as these are the books with the covers so detested by Tolkien himself. As he describes in one of his letters referring to The Hobbit, "I think the cover ugly; but I recognize that a main object of a paperback cover is to attract purchasers, and I suppose that you are better judges of what is attractive in USA than I am. I therefore will not enter into a debate about taste - (meaning though I did not say so: horrible colours and foul lettering) - but I must ask this about the vignette: what has it got to do with the story? Where is this place?  Why a lion and an emu? And what is the thing in the foreground with pink bulbs? I do not understand how anybody who had read the tale (I hope you are one) could think such a picture would please the author. ...When I made the above points again, her voice rose several tones and she cried: 'But the man hadn't TIME to read the book! ...With regard to the pink bulbs she said as if to one of complete obtusity: 'they are meant to suggest a Christmas tree'. Why is such a woman let loose? I begin to feel that I am shut up in a madhouse..." - letter of JRR Tolkien to Rayner Unwin, 12 September 1965, as published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.

And so you see why the girls were so happy with this great find and were greatly rewarded by the hoots and guffaws of their brother upon being presented with the horrible colours and foul lettering with emus and the pink bulbous tree and all the rest, drawn by the man who hadn't read the book.

Next up is Josiah's pile:

 I found this great oversized book of NC Wyeth artwork at that same library book sale. As Josiah is the Dickens collector in the family I was happy to also score these lovely fat hardcovers of Bleak House, The Old Curiosity Shop, and The Pickwick Papers, the latter of which is regarded by Chesterton as the best Dickens. He also received the compelling Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, and the small but wonderful classic Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book. As Josiah continues to study French in college, this Tolkien fan received Bilbo Le Hobbit.

Moving on to Lydia's pile, you can see among other things plenty more Tolkien:

I thought I had a really great and unique idea to get her The Lord of the Rings in French! I was so happy to find a used copy online of the one volume version Le Seigneur des Anneaux with the famous John Howe illustration (stolen at an art exhibition in France) of Gandalf on the cover. Completely unbeknownst to me, Jonathan had the same idea and got her a boxed set of the three books! The two of us often think alike but this was truly funny as we both thought we were being so very clever. Ha!

She also received some book sale Tolkien finds: an unusual movie cover Fellowship with a picture from Return of the King, The Hobbit with Tolkien's illustration on the front to complete her set, and the one you can't see is a Return of the King to complete her set with covers illustrated by Ted Nasmith.

The Rachel Carson is another book sale find. The Blue Book of Irish Session Tunes is full of welcome new music to play on the harp. While looking online for some Gene Stratton-Porter I was delighted to find this first edition of The Keeper of the Bees at a reasonable price - I knew my vintage book lover would prefer that to a modern paperback.

Here are a few more bird books she received, including some vintage finds - World of Birds has illustrations by the favorite Roger Tory Peterson. She really enjoyed reading Gifts of an Eagle, the story of a golden eagle raised by the author and his father in the fifties (see more info here). She said 'it was not hateful' by which I reckon she means it was a story of people caring for wildlife without having any of the anthropomorphic or new agey gobbledygook of modern tales of the same genre.

She is currently in the middle of Gathering of Angels, which is all about transgulf migrants at present. When I ask how that is she gets a bit moony and gives me a sheepish grin as she beams, chuckles slightly and replies, 'It's great.' Score.

Here's Anna's booky loot:

Being a lover of fairy tales and a rightfully wonderful illustrator herself, I knew she'd enjoy this collection of Rackham's Fairy Tale Illustrations. Her A Girl of the Limberlost is also a first edition, found along with Lydia's from a private collection.  That's an old edition of Tolkien's Mr. Bliss, a charmingly illustrated children's picture book published posthumously. She also added to her Tolkien collections with  The Return of the King and The Hobbit with her beloved Alan Lee illustrations on the covers. She also had wanted a one volume book of The Lord of the Rings and so I found her a nice copy of that with which she was well pleased. And while she's not a harpist she is an Irish music lover and so she received The Green Book of session tunes.

Mary Rose -

Naturally we had to get Legends of Zita the Spacegirl - you have to love graphic novels that start off with Chesterton and Belloc quotes! Current favorite Zita quote in my house: And she had these terrible little flat teeth gibbin me nightmares that sounded kind of bad. Did that sound bad to you?  You should hear Eliza reading Zita out loud! She does the funniest voices and sound effects, I think even Ben Hatke would crack up.

Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin by favorite author Marguerite Henry is one that we didn't have; I was happy to find a vintage hardcover, and my illustrator girls were happy to read a book about an illustrator.  Christmas is a collection of seasonal stories selected by Alice Dalgliesh; Mary Rose says the best were the ones where the little kids knew how to make their own presents for other people. :-)    I waited patiently to get Melissa Wiley's new book The Prairie Thief so I could give it to one of her biggest fans for Christmas. Mary Rose also received Irish Session Tunes - The Orange Book and The Book of Kells.

I got Michael The Price to Pay: A Muslim Risks All to Follow Christ which he recommends as a very good and informative book. I also got Fr. Lasance's wonderful little books on Kindness and Patience for the family to read and share, which we will most likely do during Lent.

Anyone still reading? Here are Eliza's new books:

From the book sale are Animals in Winter, an old Children of the Northern Lights, and Birds in Their Homes, the latter of which has illustrations highly approved of by Lydia. She also got the delightfully funny reprint of The Bear that Wasn't , Always Room for One More  and the audio Jim Weiss' Just So Stories. Some Dover coloring books and a new copy of The Fellowship of the Ring (hers is so tattered it is falling apart) round out her pile. (And no, she hasn't read the entire Fellowship, but she does love to open it at random and read passages aloud. You know, she's one of us.)

And finally Kateri's books. She received The Lion in the Box, a lovely Christmas story by Marguerite de Angeli and The Bird's Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. (Thank you to Christine, whose book lists I always enjoy, for leading me to these new treasures along with Mary Rose's Christmas book.) Kateri got some new Dovers and a Jim Weiss CD as well. As Kateri loves to draw and wants to be an artist when she grows up, I thought she would enjoy The Boy who Loved to Draw, a picture book about Benjamin West.

I think it's safe to say that her favorite book she received by far is The Thirteen Clocks. When I asked her about it she just said, "I love it." I think we all agree with her on that one. I read this aloud to the whole family in two tea sittings during one day of our Christmas break. It's one of those books that you read and wonder how you didn't know about it for all those years. It's witty, it's beautiful, it's classic, it's clever. It had all of us from the nevermindhowold grown ups down to the six year old laughing out loud. It has the most wonderful language that begs to be read aloud and to be read over and over. I read it aloud but every kid has since grabbed it to read again and savor it by themselves. Unless you wear a green tie and don't like fairy tales or have absolutely no sense of humor you just have to love this book. (Or maybe I shouldn't say that? Your expectations will be too high and then you'll be disappointed. You can't possibly like it as much as we do. There. That's better.)

And if you don't like the book, beware! The Duke will feed you to his geese!

Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn't go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke, and his niece, the Princess Saralinda. She was warm in every wind and weather, but he was always cold. His hands were as cold as his smile and almost as cold as his heart. He wore gloves when he was asleep, and he wore gloves when he was awake, which made it difficult for him to pick up pins or coins or the kernels of nuts, or to tear the wings from nightingales. He was six feet four, and forty-six, and even colder than he thought he was...The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber

See?

Here's one last shot of the Tolkien take:

(Net gain sixteen - huzzah!)

'Fine' Art Friday: Literary Bookmarks

This year Anna Ruth decided to make bookmarks for some of us as stocking stuffers. They were all inspired by some of our favorite books, and they all greatly pleased their recipients.

Here we have General Anna: 160 (By Hand) from The Pushcart War of course. This is an oft-referenced classic on our house, but sadly I see it seems to be out of print currently. (Jonathan remarked, Of course it's out of print - it's a good book! Harumph.) We have an old vintage copy with the wonderful illustrations by Ronni Solbert. I do think Anna did a fabulous job capturing the spirit of the General in action with her little smirk. They certainly don't call her General for nothing.

Next we have a marvelous rendition of The Three Spinning Fairies from the Brothers Grimm. Michael had been reading some fairy tales and he enjoyed this one so much he read it aloud to the whole family, so he was quite tickled with his bookmark from Anna. Such a great story. Such a great picture!

Mary Rose received a bookmark featuring everyone's favorite Spacegirl, Zita delivering one of their favorite lines. (You of course have to waggle your fingers like tentacles while you say it.)

Josiah received this most clever depiction of The Fellowship of the Ring - A Foot Shot. How does she think of these things? I love it.

This is the bookmark I received - a familiar scene from The Two Towers in which Sam and Frodo discover the wonders of real elvish rope. Naturally the quote is from the book, not the movie, which has neither ninny-hammers nor noodles. Roast chicken, yes. Noodles, no.

 And finally we have Jonathan's bookmark, which is actually double sided. It features two quotes from Tolkien's Letters in which he is discussing the avoidance of modern sounding speech in The Lord of the Rings. Here he is giving an example of what a modern Theoden would sound like, which is of course not how Tolkien has him speaking in the book.

And on the reverse is another quote featuring 'Real modern English' as Tolkien called it. He's continuing his discussion of how the language and style he uses complement the grand and heroic nature of the deeds and characters he writes about. Real mod. E. just wouldn't do.

There you have it - little bits of paper transformed into fabulous pieces of artwork to delight and amuse the giftees. One of our favorite kinds of gifts!

Yarn Along: Fall Shawl

I am joining Ginny for her Yarn Along this week. I, along with the rest of the folks in my house, tend to break from 'yarning' in the warmer months every year and then naturally take up crocheting again as the weather gets cooler. This fall has been like the others and we have our hooks flying again. I wanted something simple to work on while I sit with my young ones doing their schoolwork so I started this 'Eva Shawl' for myself. The pattern looks lovely in lace weight but I was in a hurry to just start something and use what I had on hand - so some Paton's wool in 'cognac heather' from my stash that I had picked up at the craft store on clearance it is. It should prove nice and warm for the winter. You can find the free pattern at the Without Seams blog (patterns are listed in the sidebar) or on Ravelry.

Presently I am reading The Golden Key and Other Stories aloud at teatime. We are all very fond of fairy tales in general and George MacDonald in particular and thus are greatly enjoying the book. Yesterday we finished the beautiful, lush History of Photogen and Nycteris and today read the Dickens-evoking Shadows. We love stories of other worlds and unusual beings, rich with language and descriptions that are at once so simple and yet run so deep.

"How old are you?"

"Ten," answered Tangle.

"You don't look like it," said the lady.

"How old are you, please?" returned Tangle.

"Thousands of years old," answered the lady.

"You don't look like it," said Tangle.

"Don't I? I think I do. Don't you see how beautiful I am?" And her great blue eyes looked down on the little Tangle, as if all the stars in the sky were melted in them to make their brightness.

"Ah! but," said Tangle, "when people live so long they grow old. At least I always thought so."

"I have no time to grow old," said the lady. "I am too busy for that. It is very idle to grow old..."

Be sure to visit Ginny for lots more yarns of all kinds!

 

Needle & thRead: Bright Happy Skirt (and a very good book)

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again this week for her online sewing circle, sharing sewing projects and current reads.

I just finished and gifted Anna this bright, bold skirt for her birthday last week.

I came across this fabric, 'Apple of My Eye' and was, smitten with the beautiful patterns, colors, and (you know me) florals. I loved how the different designs look together and so I bethought myself to see if I could make a skirt with the five pieces in this half yard set for my bright and bold skirt loving birthday girl.

The skirt has ten gores, two of each of the five designs of fabric in the set I bought. (I didn't really have a pattern, other than roughly using a {twenty year old} pattern for a {four} gored skirt.) Each of the ten gores is approximately 5.5" wide at the top, 10" at the bottom and approximately 28" long. I couldn't take any pictures of the skirt in progress as it was a surprise gift, but here is a diagram of how I did it:

 
As you can see, I really maximize the fabric usage to get a full skirt out of the half yard pieces. (Also note, the design direction is sideways in the skirt which doesn't matter for these floral patterns but wouldn't work if you had fabric that had to have a vertical orientation.)

I made each gore straight on one side and flared on the other, pairing them up and sewing the straight sides together first. Then I sewed the five panels together at the sides. I added a solid color waistband, making a casing for elastic. A narrow machine stitched hem on the bottom finished it off, et voilà:

Easy as (apple!) pie. We both love it, and it was jolly fun coming up with the design myself and squeaking it out of my little bundle of fabric.

And speaking of love, I just finished reading my first book by Elizabeth Goudge. I recently found this lovely old copy of Gentian Hill at a book sale, delectable with pleasant green cloth covers and deckle edged cream pages, and I have fallen truly deeply wondrously head-over-heels fast in love with this woman's writing. From the first pages I was totally captivated with the beautiful descriptions of time and place, and then I went on to bask in the exquisite way this writer can grasp the nuggets of truth and beauty and the nature of this earthly life and pour them out into gems of sentences that delight the soul while making the intellect nod in agreement. And then I just marveled and smiled and kind of sighed at the beauty of her words and how well they speak to me. Like the last book I read (In This House of Brede. So, so good.), I am sorely tempted to immediately start it all over again.

Eternity was a fact. Intellectually he had always known it, coldly and without conviction, but now the dry bones of fact seemed slowly to clothe themselves with flesh. Love was not just an emotion to be experienced or an abstraction to be argued about, but the actual stuff of eternal life, and the Curé had known it, as in love with God and man he went to the physical death that was without power to extinguish it in him. And Charles found one day that he knew it too, not as a man awake at midnight knows that the sun exists, but as the same man knows it when the sun has risen and he is steeped in its warmth and light.- Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill

I could steep for a long time in this writer's words.

Needle & Thread: Quick and Thrifty Quilt (and more)

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again for her weekly online sewing circle, sharing sewing projects and current reads. I have done a lot of sewing this week! It seems I kind of go in spurts here. Not long ago someone asked me if I sew much and I quickly replied I really don't. I went on to explain it's Josiah who really sews prolifically, and how we even bought him his own sewing machine. Well, that was then. Josiah and I have both been sewing fiendishly this week.

First off, I made a quilt. With spring here and all the work we're doing to tidy up the landscaping and make things pretty, I couldn't abide the unattractive swing on my front porch. Observe-

Blah. (said Toad)  I got it into my head to make a pretty quilt to cover up the ugly faded brown that used to be green stripes, something to coordinate with our blue front door and its springy colorful wreath like so-

So I set out to make a quilt made from thrifted vintage sheets and pillowcases. I like the soft colors and florals and it seemed like the perfect material for a porch quilt as I didn't want to invest a lot of time or money for something to sit out in the sun.

I decided to make the quilt out of ten inch squares, mainly because standard pillowcases are twenty inches wide. I calculated an array of seven by seven would fit the swing nicely. I used a variety of pillowcases for the front, and a large blue floral sheet for the backing and 'binding'. I admire the musings of Pleasant View Anna (as we fondly refer to her around here) on how quilting need not be intimidating, and I followed her method of binding by just wrapping the backing fabric around to the front for the edging. The batting is actually some sort of thin blanket or mattress pad type thing also picked up at the thrift store.

I cut out all my squares and spread them out on the floor, and this is where the fun began. I asked various children if I should make a pattern or do it randomly, and their answers were quite typical of their personalities. The vote was for 'pattern' and so I came up with this -

But then my most mathematically brained child came along and said it was Not Good. And he proceeded to Think About the seven times seven squares and seven patterns.

And he Arranged and Rearranged squares.

And he Thought Some More.

And I mentioned how this was taking so long and I kind of just wanted to make a quick quilt, but he said it was Mathematical and Lots of Fun to think about and so I just decided to wait and see.

It is always endearing for a mother to watch one of her children delight in thinking and contemplating and solving in a way that so well fits the way his brain works. Just for the fun of it.

What he came up with is based on the concept of the Magic Square, with the different fabric patterns functioning as numbers. It's all very mathematical and logical and I love that it's designed by my son's mathematical and logical brain. I sewed the top last Thursday, machine quilted it on Friday, and did the hand sewing of the edging on Sunday. Et voilà!

Methinks it is infinitely better than the old stripes!

I also made a few little gifts this week. My dear sister, who loves her tea as much as I do, recently sent me the cutest little teapot cookie cutter she found in a shop somewhere. So I thought I would send her a little tea wallet so she could keep her favorite Tetley British Blend tea bags (what else?) handy in her purse.

I think it came out pretty cute! Pattern found here: Tea Wallet Tutorial

I also made a little purse for Mary Rose for her birthday using this sweet rose fabric I found. I was smitten with the tiny bees on it amongst the flowers. Pattern here: Buttercup Bag As you can see, I added pink ribbon for trim instead of the button detail, sewing it on to cover the seam.

And finally, the Books! These are our two current read alouds. I am reading Manalive during afternoon teatime. What can I say? We love Chesterton. It's such classic Chesterton in which nothing is really as it seems and we really shouldn't be surprised by the plethora of surprises and we know that everything will all make more perfect sense than we ever thought possible in the end. The only trouble reading Chesterton aloud is I perpetually want to say 'I love that sentence' or 'just look at that fabulous alliteration' or I bang the table so often my fist hurts. (such perils I can live with) We do love Chesterton.

I'm also reading The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc as our evening read aloud when everyone is together. It is a sort of travel journal of Belloc's pilgrimage on foot to Rome at the turn of the twentieth century. The quaint descriptions of the countryside juxtaposed with droll introspective commentary on the nature of humanity makes for a delightful read. The only problem with this one of course being everyone wants to gather some bread and wine, don some boots and go traveling through rustic villages in a time and place that no longer exist. But we delight in the dreaming and Belloc's recounting, along with so many memorable gems such as It is a good thing to have loved one woman from a child, and it is a good thing not to have to return to the Faith.

Needle & thRead: The Black Linen

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again for her weekly online sewing circle.

Back to that black linen I mentioned in my last post...Lydia had a music performance coming up and I actually realized ahead of time that she didn't have anything to wear. She was to play a piece her brother composed for harp, performing at the college in his composition recital. As musicians customarily wear black, and finding a suitable dress to purchase was so unlikely I wouldn't even try, I got it into my head to make her a dress. And as Lydia is not a synthetic fabric kind of girl, I knew at once it had to be linen. Classic black 100% linen.

Finding a pattern was a bit of a challenge. Lydia's sense of style required something simple and modest yet elegant and including these once popular but now obscure arm covering devices called sleeves. We liked the style of this dress I found on Etsy, although its slim sleeves and close fitting bodice wouldn't do for comfortably playing musical instruments. We settled on Vogue 8555 which has a similar cummerbund waist with flared skirt, and it just needed some slight modifications (such as longer sleeves as Lydia requested) to make it work.

I first made a 'muslin' out of some cotton floral fabric I had on hand. I was pressed for time so I made only the bodice (with nobbut one sleeve!); someday soon I'll finish it into a nice little summer frock.

As you can see, I raised the neckline of both the front and the back of the bodice by quite a bit:

And here we have the finished dress:

Would you believe I don't have a single picture of Lydia wearing it that night?! Next recital I'll get a photo, for sure.

As for reading, I never did get anywhere in Tolkien's letters that I mentioned last time; my library request became available and you know how you have to read your holds first. So Lydia, Anna and I are all reading The Bluebird Effect, with a most grateful hat tip to Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living who recommended it. We were going to take turns but the allure of this treasure of a book took over and we all dived in at once. It is such a delightful read and spring is the perfect time to indulge in these wonderful stories of 'uncommon bonds with common birds'. Julie Zickefoose is a naturalist and rehabilitator whose love, knowledge and intimacy with birds shine through on every page. She is also an artist and her own illustrations, from field sketches to watercolor paintings, make the book lovely to look at as well. It's filled with the kind of stories that are so endearing to birders - the little daily encounters and rare opportunities when one gets to connect with and sometimes influence the lives of our feathered friends. Zickefoose clearly loves birds, yet she doesn't succumb to excessive sentimentalism or worse, anthropomorphism. And her knowledge of the natural world remains willing to admit that in nature absolutes can be rare and surprises frequent. We have the book from the library but I surely think we need our own copy.

(watercolors in above picture are by Lydia)

Thank you again to Elizabeth for hosting!

Some Favorite Gifts

 Now that it's three weeks past Christmas I thought I'd get around to posting some of the favourite gifts as Bridget suggested. Since I'm so late I can be sure they are really favorites, see?

Like Bridget, we tend to get practical gifts and I figure that the gifts the kids make each other are the fun stuff. I try to get in some fun stuff too of course, but I can't really compete with their cleverness and creativity and ability to delight and amuse each other. I do almost all of the shopping online and just about everything came from Amazon (books!), Sierra Trading (basics like wool socks) and Dick Blick (art supplies!).

The books are listed in my sidebar on the left and I think they have all been read by now. The color fairy books were a big hit - we've since added The Yellow and The Pink Fairy Books, purchased with Christmas gift money. Definitely a favorite genre around here. I was delighted when I finished writing that post with the fairy books in it I clicked over and saw that Auntie Leila (now Grandma Leila) had just written about the importance of fairy stories. Alas, she has taken the post down for now, but not before I saw her recommendation for some of George MacDonald's fairy stories. We have long been fond of The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie and The Light Princess, but somehow these other books had somehow escaped my radar. You know how it's always so exciting to discover new books by a favorite author - I quickly ordered up The Wise Woman,  The Gray Wolf, The Golden Key and The Light Princess. They are really lovely volumes with beautiful type and pleasing covers.  I have started reading The Wise Woman aloud to the whole family in the evenings and from the very first sentence it is simply delicious. We are enjoying it immensely.

Mary Rose also bought the BBC Narnia movies with her Christmas money. I realize many people despise these, but we watched them recently for the first time and were very amused. I think after seeing Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the theater we were all delightfully surprised to find Narnia movies that actually follow the stories in the books, and we found them quite entertaining. (Josiah reviews them here.) The Silver Chair is particularly nicely done and Puddleglum is as charming a marshwiggle as you can get on screen. And that eel stew is something to behold. Ew. (It's like the complete opposite of Eowyn's soup.)

I got everyone stainless steel water bottles from Sierra and these have all been in use daily. Jonathan especially likes to have a water bottle when he goes off to college or off to sing in church and he is happy to stop using the crinkly plastic kind. I got mini bottles for the little girls and also one for my purse.

I made these wool covers for the bottles to make them more pleasing to hold and so we could tell whose is whose. Don't laugh at my primitive needlefelting skills - Lydia makes it look so easy (did you see her barn owl?)  I thought I would give it a try. ahem. The boys just have their initials (in elvish). (you can't see Mary Rose's apple tree - I had to add apples to the 'tree' because it looked like a haystack...)

.

Another practical gift is these hankies I made for the girls. They each got half a dozen in these cheery cherry prints - I just chose some clearance fabrics in thin soft cotton and edged them on the machine. Naturally these are a big hit and in use every day.

Eliza's had to get some new music of course and I was happy to give her Cake for Dinner. I first heard of Scythian on Alice's blog, and then I was delighted to learn that their mother Mrs. Fedoryka (may her soul rest in peace) was a friend of Bridget's, and then I found out that our favorite local musicians have performed with them as well. I love how the internet lets you discover little connections like that. Anyhoo, the little girls absolutely love it and I enjoy the Eastern European flavor to much of the music (being just a bit akin to a gypsy myself).  In our quieter moments we are also enjoying Mary Kate's new CD of mostly solo harp, Mirabilis.

And finally, another small sized gift that has been a big hit is the little book of meditations, My Daily Bread. I first learned about this gem from Christine. I started out with two copies that we were sharing, but some children asked for personal copies so I was happy to get two more. The book is arranged into brief but powerful daily reflections, and I find it's just perfect for mid-afternoon when I need a bit of targeted meditation to re-focus. It is very blunt and straightforward and we like it. Example (in the voice of Our Lord):

 Knowing all things, I know your most important needs. I want you to gain the perfect and unending joy of Heaven. For this reason I will place you at times in a spiritual darkness of doubts and confusion. Then again I will let you enjoy the light of My truth and joy. One day I will console you, and on the next day you may find life hard and sorrowful. But through all these changing conditions, remember that My hand is leading you on toward Heaven.

Follow My Will in all things. Be just as ready to experience suffering as to have joy, just as glad to be poor and needy as to be well off. If you prefer My Will in all these things, you will be preferring the Perfect Wisdom and the Highest Good.

God made me for the perfect life of Heaven. Whatever He sends me is sent with this goal in view. Some things I can remedy and improve in my daily life, while other things are beyond my control. After I have done my best, I should accept the results as God's Will for me. Be it hard or easy, pleasant or disagreeable, I can always be sure that God knows, wants and permits what is good for my soul.

Goodness, methinks that's quite enough linkiful rambling for one Friday night - from the mundane to the meditative!