Awesome American History: 1776-1805

This was two weeks squashed together since we had a family sick the first week.  This covered pages 49-68 in The American Story.  The topics were Founding Fathers East, Revolution, Capitol, George Washington, Bananas, Lewis and Clark.

For our active activity, we had a treasure hunt, put together by Zorg and Leena.  They wrote the clues in the form of letters from Thomas Jefferson to Lewis and Clark.

Brilliant, hilarious, and loads of fun!

The "treasure" was bananas.

Our art activity was Revolutionary War paper soldiers.

This was one of those things that I wildly underestimated.  I had made a dozen photocopies for the kids   to color and cut out.


 They spent two hours (and many trips to the photocopier) making an entire army!

 The original snack was bananas, but since they were spending so much time on the soldiers, I also made johnnycakes.  They are like cornmeal pancakes with honey.

Gospel Dessert: Raising of Lazarus (Plus our April Fools)

For the Gospel Dessert, we made Lazarus's tomb out of brownies.  Easy peasy and very chocolatey - thank you, Klenda!







I'm getting behind on my blogging, so I'll put our April Fools silliness here, too:

For breakfast, we had a dessert disguised as breakfast.  Our "eggs and bacon" are really vanilla pudding with apricot halves as yolks.  The bacon is apple butter, put on the plate with a fork.  The picture is from a previous year since I forgot to get a photo this year.



For lunch, we had dinner disguised as dessert.  The "cupcakes" were meatloaf with mashed potato frosting.  We got miixed reactions to that one, as you can see.


For dinner we had breakfast: actual bacon and eggs!

Poem of the Week: The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

By John Greenleaf Whittier

 

SUNLIGHT upon Judæa’s hills!
And on the waves of Galilee;
On Jordan’s stream, and on the rills
That feed the dead and sleeping sea!
Most freshly from the green wood springs	5
The light breeze on its scented wings;
And gayly quiver in the sun
The cedar tops of Lebanon!
A few more hours,—a change hath come!
The sky is dark without a cloud!	10
The shouts of wrath and joy are dumb,
And proud knees unto earth are bowed.
A change is on the hill of Death,
The helmëd watchers pant for breath,
And turn with wild and maniac eyes	15
From the dark scene of sacrifice!
That Sacrifice!—the death of Him,—
The Christ of God, the holy One!
Well may the conscious Heaven grow dim,
And blacken the beholding Sun.	20
The wonted light hath fled away,
Night settles on the middle day,
And earthquake from his caverned bed
Is waking with a thrill of dread!
The dead are waking underneath!	25
Their prison door is rent away!
And, ghastly with the seal of death,
They wander in the eye of day!
The temple of the Cherubim,
The House of God is cold and dim;	30
A curse is on its trembling walls,
Its mighty veil asunder falls!
Well may the cavern-depths of Earth
Be shaken, and her mountains nod;
Well may the sheeted dead come forth	35
To see the suffering son of God!
Well may the temple-shrine grow dim,
And shadows veil the Cherubim,
When He, the chosen one of Heaven,
A sacrifice for guilt is given!	40
And shall the sinful heart, alone,
Behold unmoved the fearful hour,
When Nature trembled on her throne,
And Death resigned his iron power?
Oh, shall the heart—whose sinfulness	45
Gave keenness to His sore distress,
And added to His tears of blood—
Refuse its trembling gratitude!

Wordless Wednesday: Patuxent Wildlife Refuge

It's a Pollen

Somehow we got interested in pollen, probably because a number of us have allergies, and I thought it would be interesting to see under the microscope.

We started with lily pollen, and then daffodil pollen.

We dissected a daffodil to see the pistil , stamen and anthers.  We looked at the anthers to see how the pollen was dispersed.

Then we took a bloomed out daffodil and opened the ovule to look at the unripe seeds. Since the seed coats hadn't formed yet, we could even see tiny embryonic plants within the seeds!

Then we looked at all the other flowers we could find.

Once we pushed back the petals, we could see pistils and stamen on all of them, even the pansies!

We looked at the different pollens as well, but they were all quite similar, even the pollen from the hazel catkin.

I'd like to show them grass, tree and weed pollen as the year rolls around so that they can see why some people tend to be allergic to certain pollens.

It's always fun to spend some time looking under a microscope!

Gospel Dessert: Healing of the Man Born Blind

 This was a tricky one, and we nearly made tapioca (it reminds me of eyes).  Fortunately, we went with the slightly less weird "mud pie." 

Jesus made mud to cure the man's sight.

And we certainly had some wide eyes when Klenda brought out the pie she made!

The...aroma!

In other Eating Chocolate During Lent news, at Mass on the Annunciation last Saturday, Father declared that it was a feast day, not Lent, and we should eat all the sweets we wanted to!

Now that's spiritual advice that was easy to swallow!

Providentially, our neighbor had just brought us a box of fancy candy!

Poem of the Week: Brier

Brier: Good Friday

Because, dear Christ, your tender, wounded arm
      Bends back the brier that edges life's long way,
  That no hurt comes to heart, to soul no harm,
    I do not feel the thorns so much to-day.
  Because I never knew your care to tire,
    Your hand to weary guiding me aright,
  Because you walk before and crush the brier,
    It does not pierce my feet so much to-night.
  Because so often you have hearkened to
     My selfish prayers, I ask but one thing now,
 That these harsh hands of mine add not unto
     The crown of thorns upon your bleeding brow.

 

By EmilyPauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

HT: All Poetry

Lent: We're Halfway There!

Unfortunately, this makes my kids think of the Bon Jovi song "Living on a Prayer," probably because it goes: "Whooaaaaoooooo, we're half way there, Whooaaaaoooooo, living on a prayer."

The kids are working on a Lenten parody, and they are, well, half way there.

To be clear, I'm not advocating Bon Jovi for Lent.  I grew up in New Jersey in the 1980s (Bon Jovi is from New Jersey), and, not being an ardent fan, I felt stuck in the middle of the Bon Jovi ocean.  By which I mean I was completely surrounded and could see no end to it.

My kids like Bon Jovi.  They also like lima beans though, so it's not an endorsement.

Wait, what was I talking about?  Right, Lent!



The scripture cross is filling out.




The vine and branches are filling in.




The sacrifice bean jar is filling up.

 The Walking with Jesus poster is going along fine.  I kind of ran out of room so it is hanging above the world map in the front hall.  I think I may move it so it's more readily available.

The Gospel Desserts have been great!



We are getting to Mass a little more often.


In fact, at Mass this morning for the Annunciation, Father told us that it was a feast day and we should eat all the sweets we want today.

We take his spiritual advice seriously!

I've been getting more spiritual reading done, and I've been listening to Archbishop Sheen podcasts, but other than that, it feels like most of the things I thought I'd do for Lent have happened only intermittently.

That used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore.  Many of the things I had wanted to do got overturned by things I could see God wanted me to do, and as to the rest, they are an excellent reminder of my own weakness.

I don't think I've ever had (or will have!) a "perfect Lent," and that's probably a good thing for me.  If I did, I'm sure I'd be enormously proud of what I'd done! Have you heard "The operation was a success, but the patient died."?

Now is a good time for me to reflect and try again at my poor and imperfect Lent with my poor and imperfect self!

So, how is your Lent going?

Awesome American History: Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Western Missions

These were pages 27-37 in The American Story, covering 1752-1776.

Our active activity was "The Minutemen," a game we made up way back when we did our US History megaunit.

In this game, you wait until your kids are least expecting it and then you attempt to startle their socks off by screaming, "The British are coming!"

They then have 60 seconds to grab something that represents their gun, and something that represents their powder (usually something sack-like).  Or you can simplify it and just do the "musket." We had enough kids that I just had them grab a nerf weapon for a gun.

For our art activity, we made butter.  It ended up being more active than artistic (shaking a jar of cream), but I just realized that next week I have 2 art activities, so I guess it all evens out (you can tell how much I stress about these things)!

For our snack, my friend from Boston made Boston Brown Bread, and we ate it with yummy fresh butter~ and yummy it was!

Wordless Wednesday: Two Years Today