Our Trek Up Cross Mountain

I know I’ve been missing in action for a while now, but I don’t want to totally ignore my blogging friends! It seems like my life has been much busier now that we’ve moved, than it was back in California! We’ve become involved with a home group at church and the kids are in AWANA and youth group, so along with still discovering things in our town, we’re running to and from these activities, also. But it is definitely a satisfying busy; not a crazy busy.

One thing we did today was take a walk up to the top of Cross Mountain. These links offer a little bit of information about the history of Cross Mountain:

Cross Mountain Blog Post

Native Plant Society of Texas

City of Fredericksburg

One thing we did notice was the abundance of poison oak on the mountain.

Here’s some photos from our trip to the top:

The Cross and the kiddos in front of it.

Laina took a minute to sketch the cross. Blake did a sketch of it, also.

                                       

Here is the view from the top. It was absolutely magnificent. There was also several different types of butterflies playing around in the flowers.

                                        

I have several other trips I’d like to share with all of you! Please be patient, I may get to them yet!

Day Out at Oktoberfest

We spent yesterday enjoying the activities at our town’s Oktoberfest celebration. This is a big deal here, and people come from all over the country to visit it.

Oktoberfest originally began in Munich in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding. It has continued through the years and has turned into an event celebrated by people everywhere.

We started the day off in the kid’s section. We bought some game tickets and the boys jumped around in the bounce house, played wheel of fortune, fished a duck out of the tub for tokens, swung the sledge hammer and rang the bell for strength and flung a chicken into a bucket.

They traded their tickets in for silly bands, shutter shades and an inflatable sword.  Great choices.

Then we headed over to the food area and dined on German potato pancakes, sausages and applesauce, while listening to the band.

There were several vendors set up with homemade wares, including jewelry, pottery, quilts, wood carvings and more. I brought home a soap dispenser painted with cactus and windmills for the kids bathroom.

We were able to tour the Vereins Kirche Museum and read about Fredericksburg history. We have a Pioneer Museum membership and can take advantage of this museum with it, also. That is it in the background of our picture in front of the gigantic beer keg!

                                       

We snuck away for naps in the middle of day, after grabbing a bag of roasted pecans to snack on.

We returned at night for more food and entertainment. Dinner consisted of “Texas taters,” which are potatoes cut into long, curled slices and deep-fried, popcorn chicken, curly fries and a kraut dog. I know, not healthy, but definitely delicious!

Here the boys show off their German side. (They do have a little German blood in them.)

                                              

The weather was beautiful, the food was great and the music was lively. A great day!

                                   

Have a lovely Sunday!

Hysterically Funny!

I just have to share this link to Carol Barnier’s post on her Sizzlebop blog. These are some entries in her “I’d Never Thought I’d Say That” contest. If you want a good laugh, hop on over and read this post!

If you are not familiar with Carol, just let me say, you should be! She is the hilarious author of How To Get Your Child Off The Refrigerator and On To Learning and If I’m Diapering a Watermelon, Then Where’d I Leave the Baby?

I noticed she has some new books out that I haven’t read yet, but will definitely be ordering. Her refrigerator book was the first one I read about homeschooling a “spirited” child when it was time to start schooling Connor. So, if you have a “sizzler,” as she likes to call these energetic kiddos, I would recommend perusing her website.

Enjoy!

The Finished Project

Some time ago I had shared that Laina was working on a hand-stitched quilt project. She started this with her 4H group last year, but did not complete it with the group.

Not long after we moved, I suggested she dig it out and work on it. In a matter of minutes, she finished it up and was ready to move on to something new.

Here is the finished project:

                                          

It’s about the size of a doll quilt or small lap blanket.

Pretty darn cute.

How I Incorporate the “Extras” Part V: Composer Study

This is the last in my “extras” series. I’m going to be honest and tell you that of all the  subjects, I have the hardest time with composer study. Our composer for this term is Chopin; however, we have yet to listen to anything by him!

I have this scheduled for Thursdays. Ideally, I would like to introduce the composer, read a short bio on him, put him in our Book of Centuries and listen to pieces by him. Our day tends to get busy and I don’t bother to put on the music, though. So, if you are interested in trying this out, it should only take a few minutes a week. You could play the music while the kids are working or even in the car if you have a cd to listen to. The website www.classical.com has several pieces you could listen to over the computer also. I used it last year while studying Bach.

Happy studying!

How I Incorporate the “Extras” Part IV: Hymn Study

I don’t know about you all, but there are so many hymns that I am not familiar with, nor are my children. These are songs that are not sung as often in church (at least in mine) as they used to be. I liked the idea of introducing my kids to the old fashioned hymns, while learning some myself.

We do hymn study on Wednesdays. It only takes about five minutes. I use the outline provided by SCM. The Center for Church Music offers a lot of the words, music and history for the hymns Sonya recommends. If I couldn’t find one that was on her list, I just substituted another. The site also offers a devotional you can read if you choose to.

I print out the words ahead of time for the entire year-six hymns total. Then the first time I introduce one, I have the kids listen to the short (about 4 minute) history for the hymn on the website. The narration is interspersed with the hymn being sung. So the kids read along with the song and get the history all at once. In the following weeks they listen to the hymn a couple of times through. Usually by the 3rd week they’re singing along; although, sometimes they get a little silly in trying to keep up with the high notes!

As a side note, I also do our Trial and Triumph reading on Wednesdays, and we come across hymns written by some of the martyrs that we’ve read about. It’s a neat way to tie the history of the songs into the lives of the people we’ve read about.

How I Incorporate the “Extras” Part III: Poet Study

Along with Shakespeare, we also do poet/poetry study on Tuesdays.

Again, I referred to SCM’s poetry study recommendations in choosing our poets for the year. We’ve begun with Robert Frost this year, as last year we studied Robert Louis Stevenson and Lewis Carroll. I’ve chosen to study one poet every six weeks, so my list will be much more extensive than SCM’s over the years.

I use www.famouspoetsandpoems.com to choose my poems and obtain a biography if I haven’t picked one up at the library. I choose one poem by the author for each week, six in total. On the first Tuesday, I read about the poet and pass out the poem for the week. Each of the kids take a turn reading it aloud and then we just discuss what it meant to them. This gives them a chance to practice oral speaking, pronunciation of new words, etc.

We read poetry from other poets throughout the rest of the week, just so the kiddos can see the different styles of poetry writing.  Some of the poetry books we’ve read from are: Favorite Poems, Old and New by Helen Farris;  The Earth is Painted Green; A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson; choices from  The Book of Virtues and Everyday Graces; and we have even enjoyed some Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky and Goop Poems!

There your have it-our poetry study.

Enjoy your day!