He Is Risen!

John 20:1-18

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the LORD out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my LORD, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

Palm Sunday & Easter Week Plans

Good morning!
I have just returned home from my (early) morning walk & it is a glorious spring morning!
Today is Palm Sunday - a day that we usually go for a Praise Walk, followed by a picnic (weather permitting). We are doing something different today - meeting up with friends at their caravan. We are taking some food to share: cupcakes made by Elianna, strawberries, cheese & juice. I will be taking along my knitting & also the mountain of fleece that is waiting to be carded : )
We have planned an afternoon of sitting & knitting (& carding!) while the children play. Bliss.

Palm Sunday

In All Year Round, the authors speak of Lent as a time of renewal, in gathering forces needed to meet the vital renewal of our daily lives.
What a reminder of our minute-by-minute need for God!I love this time of year - the call to deepen my love for Him.

As i mentioned, we would usually go for a praise walk, followed by a picnic ~ Marveling at the wonders of nature are prayers of praise. As we walk outdoors, we can reflect upon the Lords creation & praise God for giving us a world that meets our needs.

We will be reading "The King Comes" from The Childs Story Bible as our Bible reading today.

This evening, as each evening of Holy week, we will light a candle on our nature table.
Also this week will make time to read The Jesus Garden & our verse will be At Easter Time (Stories for The Festivals Of The Year)

Let our trust in God become
Like the good earth, firm & strong.

As the water, rising & falling,
Let God’s life be always flowing.

Our Voices carry through the air.
Softly withing, God’s call is heard.

Fire gives warmth, fire gives light.
God’s love burns within our heart.

In all the elements, God is there
Bringing new life, everywhere.

Other ideas for Palm Sunday:

~ Bake date bread & make palm crosses as gifts
~ Sew grass seeds in a bowl of earth to place on the nature table.

Holy Thursday

~Purchase Easter lillies
~Read John 13:1-5

Good Friday

Light our candle
Bake & eat hot cross buns
~ Read The Jesus Garden
At 3pm blow out our candle, followed by a quiet hour of reflection
(I give my children their prayer journals, coloured pencils & their picture Bibles, they can draw prayers to the Lord, Illustrate the story we read or look at their Bibles.)

Easter Saturday

“A quiet day, a day of Waiting”
Dying Eggs
Laying out new easter clothes
Cooking for the feast tomorrow
In secret, make a few butterflies to hand over the dining room table for Easter Morning

Lazy Day..

We have had a glorious sun-shiny weekend, which I have taken advantage of!

I have washed one of my four new shetland fleeces, purchased from Jamieson & Smith
Now washed & dried I have begun the slow & theraputic carding process.



Here are some of the rolags, all ready to spin. Soft as can be, like wee puffs of air!



I picked a pot full of dandelion heads. My intentions are to spin a 2 ply jumper yarn from all my shetland fleeces & take advantage of the natural colours. I have one fawn, one pale grey, one white & one that is possibly white, or could be more of a natural or beige, or - who knows, 'till it is washed!



The dandelions are all cooked & I will leave them in the cooking liquid for a day or two to steep, before straining & reserving the liquid for dyeing at a later date.



I found an inspiring blog post detailing dyeing with dandelions.
Liberty's Yarn, has a great tutorial for dyeing yarn.

Well, I am back off into the garden to carry on carding.
Have a super day whatever the weather.

An update:
My friend Helen owner of My Heart Exposed Yarns left me some wonderful tips for dyeing with dandelions in the comments section.
Here they are:

"I am very excited you are trying dandelion dye Lynn, some tips for you, after your flower heads have been steeping for about 24 hours, pop in either a sliced lime or a sliced lemon without the pips and allow to steep for as long as possible, minimum of 24 hours more though.

The lime and lemon give the liquid a beautiful glowing delicate yellow colour causing the pigment in the dandelion stamens to really come alive when applied to fibre for dyeing.

Also, next time instead of using alum mordant, soak your fibre in a cold tea solution made by boiling about six tea bags on the cooker in some water then allowing to cool to room temperature before soaking the fibre. When you then apply the dandelion and citrus liquid to the pot the fibre turns a beautiful amazing burnt sun gold colour which is so unique it cant be described or repeated, will be different each time because using tea bags is not an exact science as you personally dont know the precise measurement of ingredients which make up each tea bag."

Thanks Helen!

In Pictures

Holy Week Plans

Easter 2008


In All Year Round, the authors speak of Lent as a time of renewal, in gathering forces needed to meet the vital renewal of our daily lives. The quiet mood of Lent will be deepened in our home over the Holy week, the week leading up to Easter.

Story for the week: “The Story Of The Great Stone” (Stories for The Festivals Of The Year)

Verse: At Easter Time (Stories for The Festivals Of The Year)

Let our trust in God become
Like the good earth, firm & strong.

As the water, rising & falling,
Let God’s life be always flowing.

Our Voices carry through the air.
Softly withing, God’s call is heard.

Fire gives warmth, fire gives light.
God’s love burns within our heart.

In all the elements, God is there
Bringing new life, everywhere.

Palm Sunday
~ Light a candle on our nature table
~Go for a praise walk, followed by a picnic (weather permitting!)~Marveling at the wonders of nature are prayers of praise. As we walk outdoors, we can reflect upon the Lords creation & praise God for giving us a world that meets our needs.

~ Bake date bread & make palm crosses as gifts
~ Sew grass seeds in a bowl of earth

Light the nature table candle daily.


Holy Thursday
~Purchase Easter lillies
~Read John 13:1-5

Good Friday
Light our candle
Bake & eat hot cross buns
~ Read “The Story Of The Great Stone” (Stories for The Festivals Of The Year)
At 3pm blow out our candle, followed by a quiet hour of reflection
(I give my children their prayer journals, coloured pencils & their picture Bibles, they can draw prayers to the Lord, Illustrate the story we read or look at their Bibles.)

Easter Saturday
“A quiet day, a day of Waiting” The Parenting Passageway
Dying Eggs
Laying out new easter clothes
Cooking for the feast tomorrow
In secret, make a few butterflies to hand over the dining room table for Easter Morning - I love this magical idea from The Parenting Passageway

March Circle Time

Better late than never!

Hymn:

Joyful Joyful

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

Scripture:

Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Verse:

A caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree.
"I think I'll take a nap'" said he.
So - under a leaf he began to creep
To spin his cocoon, & fell asleep.
All winter he slept in his cocon bed,
Till spring came along one day & said,
"wake up, wake up, little sleepy head.
"Wake up, its time to get out of bed."
So - he opened his eyes that sunshiny day.
Lo! he was a butterfly - & flew away!

Spring - Wynstones

Fingerplay:

"Come, little children," (beckon)
Calls mother hen.
"It's time to take your nap again". (head on hands)
And under feathers (make arms into wings)
The small ducks creep,
And she clucks a song
Till they fall asleep (head on hands)

Spring - Wynstones

Song:

Little snail, little snail,
on the rock you make a trail,
Carry your house upon your back,
It takes so long to get there & back,
But even though you're not very fast,
You're happy that spring has come at last

Spring - Wynstones

French:

Dans le ciel
© 2003 Alain Le Lait

Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Il y a la lune

Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

La lune et le soleil
Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Il y a les étoiles 

Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Les étoiles et le soleil
Et dans le ciel il y a des oiseaux

Qui chantent cui, cui, cui, cui, cui
(x2)
Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Il y a les nuages

Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Les nuages et le soleil
Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

Il y a la lune

Dans le ciel, dans le ciel

La lune et le soleil
Et dans le ciel il y a des oiseaux

Qui chantent cui, cui, cui, cui, cui
(x2)

In the sky
© 2003 Alain Le Lait

In the sky, in the sky

There is the moon

In the sky, in the sky

In the sky, in the sky

There are the stars

In the sky, in the sky

The stars and the sun
And in the sky there are birds

Singing chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp
(x2)
In the sky, in the sky

There are the clouds

In the sky, in the sky

The clouds and the sun
In the sky, in the sky

There is the moon

In the sky, in the sky

The moon and the sun
And in the sky there are birds

Singing chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp
(x2)
The moon and the sun

Maths practice (clapping / beanbags / jumping)

Current recorder practice.

Rosie (preschooler)
Story - Golilocks & the three bears

Our May Day Cake

A bit late adding a picture, but here is our May Day Lemon Cake

Preparing for May Day

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance. It is when people celebrate the coming of summer with lots of different customs that are expressions of joy and hope after a long winter.
Traditional English May Day celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and dancing around a Maypole.
Although summer does not officially begin until June, May Day marks its beginning. May Day celebrations have their origins in the Roman festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers, which marked the beginning of summer. It was held annually from April 28th to May 3rd. As a Christian family, we use it to talk about how the Lord changes the seasons & the wonders of his creation.

We began our preparations this afternoon, by making our 'May Crowns'
I followed the directions in Earthways.





You will need:
ribbons - light spring colours, about 1 meter in length for each child.
We used 3/4 " grosgrain. Gorsgrain is easier for little ones to handle than satin.
Tissue paper - again, choose light spring time colours.
Cut into strips 2" x 5"
Needles & thread

What to do
Give each child a ribbon to fit their head (dint forget to add another few inches for the knot & streamers.)
Also, give each child a needle with about 12 " of doubled thread.
Bring the needle up through the ribbon about 7 " in from the end to allow space for knotting & streamers. This also puts the knot on the back side of the ribbon.
Have the children choose a strip of tissue & sew a running stitch down the centre of it, scrunching as they go. Then gather this 'blossom' by pushing the tissue down to the end of the thread. Tack the blossom onto the ribbon by sewing down through the blossom & the ribbon & then up through the ribbon again, so the needle is now on top of the ribbon, ready to stitch another tissue blossom.
When the ribbon is full of blossoms, except for the know & streamer allowance at each end, tie it around the maker's head & marvel at what a beautiful thing they have created :)





We also will be making Salt Dough May baskets & a magnificent May Day Cake (lemon flavoured - delicious!)

We happen to be going for a lovely nature walk on Friday morning - hopefully with a water theme :)
Do you have May Day plans?

Birthday Baking

Today is my birthday & E has been planning my birthday cake for a l-o-n-g time, complete with sketches & lists. (She is her mother's daughter!)
Today, the plans were finally brought to fruition!



It tasted yummy & my sweet girl took a lot of care to make my day special :)



My mum gave me a lovely drop spindle & some smooshy roving which I have been having a whale of a time spinning.
That is a whole other post ;)

Homescool!

Our morning.
Home schooling rocks :)

Spring Has Sprung!!!!

We have had such a lovely sunny day, today.





The girls wanted the ball pool out & had fun diving in & out.

The Magnolia is just past its best, but here is a shot anyway :)



Cowslips



Rosie was caterpillar hunting & found four Magpies



(not my photo, i didnt take any pics)

The girls have chosen their 'own' caterpillar to 'raise' & sketched them:





Well, the girls are being bathed, I am off to put pizza in the oven for family 'movie night'. I will be having a lovely glass of pimms later & doing some more spinning! (hmmm, will pimms & spinning be a good combination?)
Enjoy your day

Nature Hunt

I made these eggbox nature boxes a while ago, but cant remember who to credit for the original idea -sorry!





The girls went out into the garden this morning with their boxes, to hunt for the colours in their boxes, out in the garden.



They each filled their boxes very quickly. (sorry, the pics arent too clear)





This afternoon, they will be sticking their finds onto some cardstock & adding to their garden notebooks. Then, they will be matching their found items with paint chips that i picked up free of charge from the DIY shop.
They can cut out the correct shade from the chip & paste it onto their cardstock, if they wish to.
another variation on this is to give each child one paint chip & send them off to see what they can find outdoors that matches the paint chip. This activity really encourages the child to notice subtilties of colour, as opposed to thinking something is just 'green' (for example)

April Nature Table

Sorry for the poor photographs!
Here is our nature table, now we have cleared away the Jesse Tree.
We have the 'April' page open in Around the Year.
There are a couple of branches on there, a beautiful oyster shell, our wee dandelion & daffodil flower fairies, two root children & our little gnomes. Centre stage is a birds nest, filled with wooden eggs & 2 tin butterflies

What is on your nature table?

Gardening

A busy garden day today.
We caught a cream spotted ladybird & had a quick look at the little fellow. Then we headed off to the garden centre to buy an apple tree.



Underneath we planted Yarrow, Wood Anemone & White Campion.
We also planted Borage (in a pot, as it is quite an invasive plant) Thumbelina Carrots & Sunflowers. We also planted some potatoes I had been chitting for a while.









We later caught a Peacock butterfly which has reminded me to chop some fresh orange & leave on a bird feeder in the garden to attract butterflies.



All this has been recorded in E's garden notebook - our current project. We have had a lovely day. Chilled, but hard work.
I am off to make dinner: Cheesy cauliflower pasta. & then enjoy a relaxed evening knitting socks :)
Have a great day.