The Fairest Month

I love June. June starts out with my sweet daughter's birthday. It's the month I became a mother! She will be 10 tomorrow. Then we celebrate my wedding anniversary. There is Father's Day of course, and then my own birthday. A month of celebrations.

It's also the month of my favorite wild flowers. Tiger Lillies, Queen Anne's Lace, and roses. This has been a fantastic year for roses and just today I saw a huge wild bush spilling over a fence dripping with gorgeous pink blossoms.


I like this poem and the thought that June's sweetness would comfort the grieving. A time when all the world seems at peace and we have just a glimpse of the garden we left behind. By the way, Bryant did indeed die and was buried in the month of June.

June
I gazed upon the glorious sky
And the green mountains round,
And thought that when I came to lie
At rest within the ground,
"Twere pleasant, that in flowery June,
When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
And groves a joyous sound,
The sexton's hand, my grave to make,
The rich, green mountain-turf should break.
A cell within the frozen mould,
A coffin borne through sleet,
And icy clods above it rolled,
While fierce the tempests beat--
Away!--I will not think of these--
Blue be the sky and soft the breeze,
Earth green beneath the feet,
And be the damp mould gently pressed
Into my narrow place of rest.
There through the long, long summer hours,
The golden light should lie,
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
Stand in their beauty by.
The oriole should build and tell
His love-tale close beside my cell;
The idle butterfly
Should rest him there, and there be heard
The housewife bee and humming-bird.
And what if cheerful shouts at noon
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids, beneath the moon
With fairy laughter blent?
And what if, in the evening light,
Betrothed lovers walk in sight
Of my low monument?
I would the lovely scene around
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
I know that I no more should see
The season's glorious show,
Nor would its brightness shine for me,
Nor its wild music flow;
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
These to their softened hearts should bear
The thought of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
The gladness of the scene;
Whose part, in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills,
Is that his grave is green;
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice.

- William Cullen Bryant

Hymn Study

Charlotte Mason recommended that children learn hymns. I quite agree with her. I have found that hymns remembered from my childhood often bring me comfort in difficult times. But how to teach these older hymns to my children? We attend a church that worships in a more contemporary style and while I enjoy that, I also want my children to learn older hymns.

Simply Charlotte Mason has a nice list of suggested hymns for a CM style hymn study. They also provide instructions for hymn study:

Select one hymn to sing together until all have learned every stanza. If
possible, sometime during the learning of the hymn, read together its history.
Children may also use the lyrics of the hymn for copywork, dictation, or
recitation.

Another place for good information and suggestions on hymn study is the Amblesideonline website. They provide a 12 year rotation for hymn study here.

Even with all the great resources for hymn study out there I always struggled with how to make that work in our house. For awhile my children were involved in a Children's Choir at church that would learn at least one fine old hymn every few months. The kids earned points for memorizing the verses. That worked out nicely for us. But then we moved from that Church and the new church didn't do this! So we lapsed from our hymn study to just occasionally learning a hymn.

I'd like to say that I planned out my current method of hymn study, but the truth is I kind of fell into it. My children began taking piano and their teacher is really excellent at what she does. She has the gift of teaching if I have ever seen it. She loves what she does and it shows. She had my children get a hymn book that is part of their piano curriculum and they learn a hymn every week or so. So I decided to start looking up information on the hymn. We talk about the history, the person who wrote it and they learn the tune and usually two verses. Ta-da! Hymn Study! Works for us.

Little Red Riding Hood - Trina Schart Hyman

Trina Schart Hyman is a wonderful illustrator who has provided a very authentic retelling of this story.

We Remember

For the Birds

Many people just feed and observe birds in the winter, but many experts advise feeding year round to keep the birds coming to your yard. In addition there are different birds that can be seen in the winter and summer so there are new things to see. One of my new favorite companies has a great way to do this.

Terracycle is coming up with great ideas for recycling everyday items into purposeful items for lawns and gardens. I found that not only have they come up with a really great, reusuable bird feeder, but also include a free curriculum to use with your children! So I urge you to check it out and while your there take a look at some of the other great products this innovative company has.

The Gift of a Mother

Mother and Child by Jessie Wilcox Smith

courtesy of art.com

I recall your sincere faith that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you.

2nd Timothy 1:5

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Click on the eyes to view a larger image that you can read.

Homeschool Hi-Light: Growing Food with Kids

Homeschool Hi-Lights is hosted by Ellen at Fun Learning. Be sure to check out her fantastic Ten Steps to Multiplication Memorization. And be sure to check out all the other Homeschool Hi-Lights posts.

A big highlight of our week last week was finally seeing my daughter's peas poking through the ground! Last year my children started growing small crops in pots and it's so fun for them. It not only teaches them biology it also teachs them responsibility as they must keep the plants watered. I highly recommend letting your kids grow their own food!

A great book I found is called Crops in Pots. Not only does it give you ideas for plants to put together in a pot, it also gives ideas for the type of pot to use and a recipe that utilizes all the things in that pot. I urge you to check it out and grow something with your kids!

Refrigerator Muffins

Today I'm participating in the Works for me Wednesday Blog Carnival. Check out other posts by clicking on the graphic above.

Last Saturday I was out of milk. This is not good because Sunday morning's breakfast is usually cereal as we dash out the door to church. So I decided to try a recipe for refrigerator muffins.

Refrigerator muffins are basically a muffin batter that you mix up ahead of time and then store in your refrigerator. You can usually store the batter for 5 days. So anytime during that five days you can bake as many or as few muffins as you like depending on the amount of batter you have.

The first recipe I tried was for Refrigerator Bran Muffins. There are LOADS of these recipes on the internet. I, and you, have probably seen them hundreds of times. The recipe I used called for any type of bran flake cereal and then you could use (or not) any type of dried fruit. What I really liked about this recipe was that it called for oatmeal which is so healthy. I made mine with Fiber One flake cereal and dried blueberries. We had 12 on Sunday and then I made the kids some more on Monday. Today I had a little hunger pang in the mid morning and had the intense joy of popping one scoop of muffin batter in a sprayed glass cup and then microwaving for 45 seconds. Tasty little muffin with tea in no time!!! I like this!!

So, I decided to see what other types of refrigerator muffin recipes are out there. Here are a few links that I haven't tried yet, but plan to:

Refrigerator Sweet Muffins - several variations in this recipe

Pumpkin Bran Muffins - this one can be kept in the refrigerator for two weeks!

Molasses Muffins - this one can be stored for three weeks and makes a spice type muffin

Refrigerator Bran Muffin - this muffin takes the prize because it can be stored for six weeks.

If you have a good refrigerator muffin please let me know in the comments!

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day

Recently I posted on the No-Knead bread I made. I've really enjoyed that recipe but wanted to learn to do more with it. Then I heard about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which is the same concept except you make a very large batch of dough and keep it in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. I finally got it from the library so I could try it out.

I made the Master recipe one afternoon in certainly no more than 10 minutes. It really was quick to put together. That night I made two EXCELLENT pizzas from the dough. Then I made a batch of orange rolls and a batch of cinnamon rolls for Sunday School the next morning. I felt the rolls needed a softer dough but they were tasty. My husband said the cinnamon "rocked" but didn't feel the orange went with the style of bread dough I used.

One week later there was still some dough in the refrigerator. I made some doughnuts with it. I had hot oil from fixing supper and so I scooped about a teaspoon of dough into the hot oil and cooked until golden brown and then dropped into cinnamon sugar. The taste was not quite what I think of when I have a doughnut but tasty. I'll try it again with the brioche recipe in the book.

With what's left I'm going to make...bread!