It’s still hot in N. Florida, but in the early morning you can barely feel the first hints of fall. I just love fall and I’ve been making meals with butternut squash and dressing like fall is here in an attempt to make the crisp, cool autumn days come sooner.
In the Liturgical Year: Today is the the Feast of St. Raymond Nonnatus, the patron saint of expectant mothers, midwives, and newborns. Pray for us, St. Raymond Nonnatus! And next Saturday is the Birthday of Our Lady (and my birthday, too!)
In the Garden: We’re pulling up weeds and Benjamin and Daniel have started some fall planting. On Saturday we took Lucy on her first trip to the local feed store to get more chicken feed and seeds and seedlings for the garden.
Have you started your fall garden? What are you planting?
Links:
How to Store Fresh Herbs (The Lazy Way): Kitchen Stewardship
8 Reasons Why Fairy Tales Are Essential to Childhood: Imagination Soup (I just loved this post!)
The Secret Garden’s Perennial Wisdom…for Parents: The Horn Book (Already shared this one on the Carrots FB pagebut it’s so good that I want to share it here, too.)
5 Playful Ways to Practice Scissor Skills: Simple Kids (We just bought Benjamin his first pair of scissors the other day and he is loving practicing this new skill)
Walking the Alphabet: A Circle Time Song: Rockin’ Granola (I really liked this idea, but can you do circle time with only one child old enough to sing? I guess Baby Lucy might want to participate with her awesome dancing? Thoughts?)
Eating Local Without Putting the Miles On: Simple Homemade
Flannery O’Connor on Ayn Rand: Caelum et Terra
The Quotable Benjamin:
(After receiving a Spongebob bandaid):
“Oh, it’s SpongeBOB?! I thought he was called Spongebudlet or something. Huh.”
“When you drink the wine that’s Jesus’s blood and eat the bread that’s Jesus’s body, does it still come out your body as poop?” – (The finer points of Eucharistic theology with a three-year-old)
Benjamin: “Why do you still have a Daddy when you’re four?”
Me: “What?”
Benjamin: “Why?”
Me: “Do you think you’ll still need a Mama when you’re four?”
Benjamin: “Nope.”
Me: “What exactly do you think happens when you turn four?”
Benjamin: “You get to be a big man!”
“Does Jesus love us no matter what size we are when we grow up?”
(Answering a question about Star Wars): Me: “They help the Rebel Alliance.”
Benjamin: “What kind of lions?”
Instagrams Worth Sharing: (If you want to follow me during the week, I’m haleyweasley on IG)
We’re really in to hats this week.
“I wanna make a wizard hat! Let’s put it on Lucy!”
This week this little gal took her first step and her language skills just took off. She is suddenly losing her “babyness” and becoming a little girl. And she and Benjamin are becoming little friends more each day. Hoping for fewer night wakings when her two front teeth cut…
Y’all, I am so behind in answering comments. Forgive me! In the past I have tried to answer every single comment and I’m still going to try because I love interacting with my readers. Maybe this weekend I can get caught up! If you have a blog, do you respond to every comment? How do you balance that with the time you need to write new material and other bloggy related things?
Happy Friday!
First steps!! Congratulations! It’s scary how fast they grow up. Benjamin seems to be in much better spirits 🙂
Thanks! He is doing so much better 🙂
I have a question for you. I know it is still summer and we have a while to go before Christmas, but I was wondering how you handle the topic of Santa Claus with your children. Do you see telling them about Santa Claus (when I say “telling them about Santa Claus, I mean introducing them to the idea of the guy in the red suit who comes down your chimney being a real, live person), as lying? My little girl is 6 months old, so it isn’t something I have to deal with yet, but the thing that always sticks in my head about it is what is my child supposed to think if I have told them that both Santa and God are real and then they find out that Santa isn’t real. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Great question. Maybe I should write a post about this closer to Christmas. But here’s what we’ve done: We emphasize the Feast of St. Nicholas. We fill their little shoes with treats, as is traditional and talk about St. Nicholas and how much he loved Jesus, etc. We don’t really celebrate Santa Claus and in general try to keep our Christmas very liturgically-centered. We do presents at grandma’s house because it’s really special for the grandparents (and fun for the kids) but we just do one or two presents each child and do lots of cooking and fun activities during the 12 days of Christmas and lots of lead-up to the 12 days during Advent. When B has asked us about Santa Claus I think we just said that he’s an imaginary man inspired by St. Nicholas that people like to pretend brings presents to good little boys and girls by sliding down the chimney and that it’s a fun thing people like to imagine.
I personally have some qualms about telling children Santa is real. My parents didn’t do the Santa thing because they wanted me to know I could always trust what they said about God, etc. On the other hand, I think Daniel’s family did do Santa and from his experience and talking to others who grew up doing Santa, they didn’t have any trouble distinguishing between “real” and pretend in regards to Santa and God.
I guess I don’t think that it’s a huge deal either way. We choose to give a kind of alternative that we hope is even more fun than Santa (I mean, 12 days of Christmas has to be better than just one, amirite?!) 🙂
Thanks for responding Haley. I hadn’t thought about doing the 12 days of Christmas. That is a good idea. I’ve never liked the whole Santa Claus thing because I feel like it takes away from the real meaning of Christmas. I think this would be a great idea for a post closer to Christmas 🙂
Good idea, Christine! Yeah, when it comes down to it, Santa seems like a sorry substitute for an opportunity to have an amazing two week long feast 🙂
Um, I really want to know how u answered the Eucharist question 🙂
Haha! So, I told him that yes, the physical matter consumed does come out as poop. But after doing the reasonable thing and asking “Facebook” I amended my answer to clarify that after it’s digested, it is no longer Our Lord’s Body and Blood. He hasn’t asked about it since,so I guess he thought the answer was satisfactory. Also, stumping lots of brilliant friends on FB was super fun.