(And All My) Work Be Praise

Last week we re-visited another old favorite, Corduroy  by Don Freeman. I'm pretty sure the copy we have was mine as a child. We covered bears a little bit during our berry month over the summer, but there is no shortage of bear stories and activities in the world! Levi reading the story to his brothers. Food :  teddy bear toast  with banana and blueberries. Cute and easy! We also made these  peanut butter button cookies . It might interest you to know that the holes in Corduroy's button are only pictured on one  page in the entire book: at the end, when Lisa is sewing his new button on. (It might also interest you to know that I spell "Corduroy" wrong first every single time.) Even though it's a two-hole button, we decided it would be okay to make both two- and four-hole button cookies. Poking holes in the cookie dough with a straw.  Silas joined in the "flattening" (er, smashing) of the balls of dough. Unflattering pictu...

We sing O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing quite frequently at my church. It's one of those in which the words fly by so quickly that I don't often stop to consider them, but over the past several months I've been struck repeatedly by this verse: He breaks the power of canceled sin He sets the prisoner free His blood can make the foulest clean His blood availed for me ~Charles Wesley It's funny (or not, really) how having small children can turn the most patient person into screaming madwoman. (Not that I was ever the most patient person, and I'd like to think I haven't quite reached "screaming madwoman.") Confession over losing my temper (largely to one of my children in particular) has become a near-daily occurrence around here, but even with repeated repentance, I'm still struggling. So I try, in what little brain I have left for meditating on higher things, to let those words sink in: I am not a prisoner to my temper, or to my impatienc...

This week we re-visited an old favorite, Caps for Sale . I had corresponding activities tucked away from both ABC Jesus Loves Me and Before Five in a Row . Levi's monkey drawing . Are you familiar with this book? A peddler stacks caps on his head and walks around town trying to sell his wares; Silas loves to fill in his call: "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" One day nobody is buying, so he walks into the country and takes a long nap under a tree. When he wakes up, all of his caps are gone: monkeys in the tree above have stolen them all! There follows a delightful "monkey see, monkey do" sequence, which Silas especially loves to mimic. In the end, the peddler is so angry he takes off his remaining cap and throws it to the ground. All of the monkeys follow suit, and he gets his caps back. The whole story is just perfect for acting out, from wearing hats to good posture (to keep hats from falling off) to shaking fingers at the monkeys. Pi...