More Spring

Ian, Eleanor, W., Abigail

Seventy degrees! Yesterday I took some of W's friends to the park while the big girls were in Tutoring Center classes. The crocus in our front flower bed "magically" appeared this week.

Cousin Love

Daughter A. and Daughter L. are somewhat younger than any of their cousins on Husband's side. And the cousins on my side are more M. and W's age, although the big girls have a lot of fun with them, too. But God provided excellent cousin-ness of the correct age for A. and L. through Husband's first cousin's kids. Cousin Keith's three kids live a couple of miles away and have been beloved companions for tree fort making, snowplay, horseback riding, easter egg dyeing, bike riding, giggling, bible school attending, choring, Halloweening, eating, poking, teasing, and just generally cousining together. The extreme beauty of the plan is that these favorite cousins have no first cousins at all of their own. Works great on both sides. How rich we are. (l to r-Spencer , Brittney and L., last Sunday in church. This shot was not staged, this is what they were doing when I turned around.)

Signs of Spring

The robins and the bikes are out. It must be Spring!

Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my Wisdom, and thou my true Word;

I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, and I thy true son,

Thou in me dwelling , and I with thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise;

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

We sang the timeless hymn Be Thou My Vision on Sunday. This hymn never fails to fill my heart with its lovely poetry and holy content. The haunting ancient Irish tune called Slante perfectly and poetically complements the poem, which also comes from ancient Ireland.

Some attribute the poem to St. Patrick, who was kidnapped by pirates at age 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland. After escaping, he eventually returned to Ireland for his revenge. He chose as his weapons a Latin Bible and a love for Jesus Christ and the Irish people. Largely through his efforts, Ireland was converted to Christianity.

The poem enumerates the titles for God: Vision, Lord, Light, Wisdom, Word, Great Father, High King of Heaven, Treasure, Bright Heaven's Sun, Ruler of All.

Wire Sculpture Initials

Last week in my art classes we made wire sculpture letters. I have seen this idea on various blogs. We used: 16 gauge galvanized anchor wire from the hardware store (100 foot roll, about $3.50)/ leftover beads, yarn and pipe cleaners /glue gun and hot glue sticks or glue /wire cutters/ pliers /scissors to cut yarn lengths

We drew some letters on the board to help visualize how to bend the wire. I gave each student a pre-cut wire about 40 inches long. They were able to bend them with their hands. I had a few pliers on hand but found most students needed adult help with the twisting together of the ends of the wire.Use care, the ends can be sharp and can poke neighbors as the letters are formed.

Once everyone had their letter formed, they could choose yarn or thread or pipe cleaners to wrap around the letter. If they use yarn, tie the end of the yarn to the wire and glue it on with a drop of glue from the glue gun. An adult should use the glue gun. Hot glue will badly burn skin. Regular glue could be used, but does not hold instantly like hot glue. Knot again at the end of each yarn length and glue.

My second class mostly used the pipe cleaners to decorate their letters, and this method went more quickly. Wider yarn will also cover more quickly. We used some donated thread/yarn that was quite a fine weight, and it filled in the letters very slowly. Next time I would not offer the thin yarn. My first class will be finishing their letters this week. These classes were 4/5 and 6th graders.

Brown Finch

Today's Postcard from God. This must be a finch, by his beak and size. Anyone know for sure? He and his friends were having a meeting on the bush outside our bathroom window this morning. C'mon, Spring!

Evening Bath

My idea of a relaxing evening. Whoops, forgot the book.

Co-op Group Picture

Friday, Friend Ana and I took group pictures of our St. Margaret's Fellowship Homeschool Co-op.

"Homemade" Cards

I love Mary Engelbreit, the artist. Usually for Christmas I receive one of her daily calendars. I hate to just throw each "day" away, so I recycle some of them into cards. I was getting low on my supply, so I've been working on putting some more together.

I have some repeats from several years, and it is fun to pick out different patterned papers to make the same picture look completely different. These two will make cute baby shower cards.

Spring Nest Pin

I was looking for a cute, simple, inexpensive spring craft-preferably something that would be a good gift for a mom or grandmother. I was seeing a lot of darling bird's nests on other blogs. Then while I was at the dollar store the other day I went by a box of men's brown shoelaces. Bingo! I bought the box and whipped this little nest up that evening in less than 10 minutes (not counting clay baking time.)

Here are the two ingredients you will need, along with leftover cardboard, a pin back or regular pin and glue. I like Aleene's Tacky Glue. She has a new clear Tacky Glue that is wonderful!

The process is very simple. First I tied a loose overhand knot close to one end. Holding the knot in two fingers, I coiled the rest of the shoelace in a loose nest shape. When there were about 8-10 inches left uncoiled, I wrapped the loose end around the coil three or four times to "tie" the coil together. Tuck the finished ends into the nest so they don't show. I cut out a small piece (about the size of a nickle) of cardboard from an old cereal box and squeezed a generous amount of glue to cover it. I pressed the "nest" onto the cardboard circle then filled the center with glue and let it drip down in. When it dries it holds everything in place.

I got out the blue "Sculpey" clay and made some tiny eggs and baked them about 15 minutes. Try them out in your nest for size, before you bake them. (Follow manufacturer's handling and baking directions.)

To finish, I tied a little blue ribbon on the top and ran a safety pin through the lace behind it. Or, you could attach a craft pinback to the cardboard with glue, or a glue on a magnet if you wanted to use it on the fridge. Cute, cheap, simple! Yay!

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