St. Brigid's Cross

Welcome to Marker Monday!

Are you familiar with St. Brigid's Cross? It is the cross woven out of straw that you see to the left. My mom, who loves all things Irish, introduced me to them years ago. I thought they were beautiful and always wanted to learn to make one. Luckily, my mom had a book with a diagram. (of course she does...she has every Irish book under the sun!) It was much simpler than I first thought. Since it is March and St. Patrick's day is near I thought it would be fun to teach the boys a bit about St. Brigid and her cross. There is a lot of conflicting information as to whether St. Brigid ever existed but here are a couple websites if you are interested in learning more about the other patron saint of Ireland. Here and here

We used pipe cleaners to make the cross. I cut them all in half, about 6 inches long. The wire inside did a great job staying in place after they were crimped over the previous pipe cleaner. I really expected Yip and Yap to have problems holding all the pieces together but they surprised me by finishing this crosses in only about five minutes. It is helpful for an adult to tighten up the cross before the ends are twisted though.
Here are the steps in making a St. Brigid's cross.
1. Lay a pipe cleaner vertically. Take a second pipe cleaner bent in half and place around the first pipe cleaner. The second should be pointing to the right.
2. Bend another pipe cleaner in half and place around the previous pipe cleaner, the one pointing to the left. The new pipe cleaner should be pointing down.
3. Bend yet another pipe cleaner and place around the previous, the one pointing down. The new pipe cleaner will be pointing to the left.
4. Bend another pipe cleaner and place around the previous, the one pointing to the left. The new pipe cleaner will be pointing up.
5. Repeat these steps until your cross is as big as you like. As you work, it is helpful to tighten the pipe cleaners toward the middle. To finish, twist the ends of each cross arm.






If this diagram and directions don't make sense, please let me know and I'll try to clarify them.

Sunday Devotionals for Kids - St. Patrick

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Well, almost anyway....do you have your green to wear on Thursday?

St. Patrick was born in a well to do family in Britain around the year 380. It was very probable that he had a house full of servants and lived a very comfortable life. At this time Britain was part of the Roman Empire and a Christian country. Ireland on the other hand, though not far away, was very different. The island was full or warring tribes whose religion believed in many gods. Life here was not so comfortable. People lived in mud huts and life was very hard.

When Patrick was about 15 years old an Irish kind attacked Britain. Patrick was captured and taken back to Ireland as a slave. He became a swineherd and lived in the hills taking care of animals. He was very sad and missed his family. As he worked he prayed and prayed to God. Soon he was having dreams from God telling him to escape. After 6 years as a slave he was able to return to his home in England. But when he returned, his home was destroyed! The Romans had been chased out of England and all the people and places he had known were gone.

For many years after this Patrick prayed and studied and became a bishop. During this time God told him he needed to return to Ireland. His job was to unite all the warring Irish tribes and make Ireland a Christian land. He did return to Ireland and after many years built many churches and converted the Irish from the believe of many gods to that of only one God.

There are many legends about St. Patrick that may or may not be true. It is said he used the shamrock with its three leaves to convey the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It has also been told that he drove all the snakes from Ireland.

People around the world will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Thursday. You may celebrate by watching parades and wearing green. If you live in Ireland you would celebrate by going to church for three days. However you celebrate remember that St. Patrick was serving God. He didn't do what was easy or what he wanted to do. Instead he did as he was told by God. Even when it was hard and lonely and dangerous, he never gave up his service to God.

John 12:26 - "Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

Dear God, Thank you for making me a servant for You. Please help me learn your will so that I may spread your word. Amen.

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

The prairie is starting to come alive again with color if only for a short time in the sky.

We spend a few last days enjoying the snow and ice...

...as we welcome the mud and rain.

Welcome back Spring! We have missed you. Thanks for coming to play.

"Pot of Gold" (Pun intended)

Welcome to Foody Friday!

I have to say, this soup turned out so much better than I was ever expecting. I literally just threw everything in without much thought. I do that a lot...usually it ends up with a meal my family rejects. But this one? I hit Gold! (Sorry for the pun...again!) Perfect timing too since St. Patrick's Day is upon us!

Here's what you'll need;
1 16 oz. bag of yellow split peas
4-5 diced potatoes
1 can of corn
about 1 cup of diced chicken breast
2 cans of chicken broth
salt/pepper/lemon pepper seasoning/parsley
butter
olive oil



I bought this bag of yellow split peas at the grocery because it was on sale...and because I didn't know there were yellow split peas. Yip refuses to eat pea soup and I thought I might be able to sneak this by him.



I let the peas soak in my cast iron Dutch oven for about 12 hours. I love cast iron by the way!

Dice up the chicken and toss it into a Ziploc bag. Add the lemon pepper seasoning and parsley, a couple teaspoons each. I didn't really measure...I'm rebellious like that. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil into the skillet, add the chicken and brown.

Toss the peas, potatoes, corn and chicken into the crock pot and cover with chicken broth. Set at low for 8-10 hours. (I set it on high for a couple hours with the intention of setting it on low before I left the house. I forgot...and it was on high for about 5 hours and it turned out really well.The peas had cooked down to a nice thick consistency.) Before serving add a couple tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper to taste.



I love the color of this soup! So bright! The picture really doesn't do it justice by the way. Perfect pot of gold! The boys thought it a great joke when I told them leprechauns had visited our house.

Photo Thursday - Macro Setting

I should know a bit about photography. After all, I did take a photography class in college. I just didn't pay much attention or try very hard. At the time, I suppose I had better things to do!

A little over a year ago I bought myself a Canon PowerShot camera. A nice point and shoot camera with some manual settings. I've always used the automatic setting but lately I have been playing around with the manual settings and I have fallen in love with the Macro setting! I was going around the house shooting any little objects I could find! This I thought was one of the most interesting, considering there are hundreds of these running around this old farmhouse! I never looked at them this close before.



I love how the macro setting can give you such sharp detail of anything but leave the background blurry. I'd love to use this more on my kids but I can't get them to sit still long enough!

I'm having a lot of fun playing around with this camera. Hopefully, once I understand photography a bit more and am comfortable with this one, I can get myself a better camera. Do you know of any that would be a good manual camera to start with? I'd love some guidance here.

Shooting Old Yeller

When my twins were about three years old their favorite movie was Old Yeller. The Disney movie set in Texas in the late 1800's about Travis and his dog, Old Yeller. At the time I was telling another mother, with amusement, how often they asked to watch it.

"Do you let them watch...the end?" she asked.

Of course, she was referring to when Travis the main character, has to shoot his dog Old Yeller who has contracted "hydraphoby" (rabies).

At first I thought she was joking! It had never dawned on me to hide that scene from them. It wasn't a bloody or gory moment and Travis was forced to do something he didn't want to do. I viewed it as a teachable moment to discuss death, grief and sadness.

Over the years the boys and I have watched a lot of wildlife documentaries to learn about our world and its animals. Most of the time I was disappointed because directors chose not to show any death in the animal kingdom. The giraffe barely escapes the lion or the reindeer gets away from the wolf. How will my children learn about the "circle of life" if its always edited out?

Life isn't like it used to be when America was an agrarian society. A time where children saw birth and death first hand out in the barn. They saw it, understood it and accepted it as a part of life. Growing up, my sisters and I spent part of every summer butchering chickens with Mom and Grandma. Grandma chopped off their heads, with a very dull axe, and our job was to catch the chicken after they were done flopping around. Yes, it was bloody. Yes, there were parts of it I didn't enjoy. But I liked to eat chicken...so I did the job and went on.

The only first hand experience my boys have had with death was when Knothead the dog killed a squirrel in front of them. My dad still laughs hysterically over that story but that is another post for another time.

Last week I found Disney's EARTH documentary and I applaud it. Not only do they have Darth Vader (aka James Earl Jones) narrating but they aren't afraid to show the realities of death. The wolf catches the baby caribou. The lion pride takes down the elephant. The male polar bear starves because he can't hunt.

EARTH'S death scenes are never bloody or gruesome. In fact when the Great White Shark attacks it is almost a beautiful moment. The scene shows the shark leaping from the water while attacking its prey in slow motion and set to classical music. Of course, there were times while watching the film when the boys were uncomfortable. But they didn't want to turn it off and I answered all the questions they had. Death is a way of life and I wouldn't be doing my job as a parent if I wasn't educating my children about life and death.

So I am wondering, how have you had to handle this subject with your own children? What works? What doesn't? How did you come to terms with death growing up?

Marker Monday - St. Patrick's Day Activities!

There have been a lot of little St. Patrick's Day crafts, books and activities the boys and I have been enjoying lately. None of them are too detailed so I'm going to clump a bunch together into one post. Hope you can find something good to share with your little ones.

Number 1 - Pot of Gold Sandwich

First of pot of gold sandwiches...nothing special...just ham and cheese sandwiches. I was just lucky enough to find a cookie cutter shaped like a pot of gold. The boys liked the mustard "gold" we added at the top.

Number 2 - Shamrock Hat

Start by painting a paper plate green on both sides. After it has dried use an exacto knife to cut 2 large X's through the middle, like you would cut a pie into 8 pieces. Stop the cuts 1 or 2 inches from the edge. Bend the points up to form the crown. For the final touch glue green shamrocks to the point. This could easily be adapted for any holiday or painted gold or silver for a crown. You could even put paper candles on it for a birthday crown.

Number 3 - Shamrock Sucker
We made a bunch of these with the kids at church this week.


Cut out three (or four for luck) hearts and punch a hole at the bottom of each. Stick the sucker stick down through the holes. Add a bit of glue to keep it all together.


Number 4

We watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I love this movie! I don't care how old he gets, this mama will always swoon over Sean Connery :)



Number 5


Then we practiced mixing colors by making pictures of rainbows.

Number 6
We found this fun four leaf clover game. There are 10 four leaf clovers hidden in a field of three leaf clovers. The goal is to click on all ten as fast as possible without losing points by clicking on a three leaf clover. Tricky!

Number 7

And my all time favorite...a leprechaun trap! Yip and Yap and I were talking about how we could catch a leprechaun. "Maybe we could build a trap.", we decided. So Yap has went ahead and drawn up these plans below for Daddy to build a leprechaun trap :)

Sorry I can't quite decipher this blueprint for you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!