i’m sitting on the deck this chilly morning.
enjoying the cool weather, the warm coffee, the gorgeous view.
finding so many reasons to be thankful.
for the gift of vocation, where the sacred intersects the mundane.
for the gift of teaching these children to love beautiful things.
for the gift of marriage, where we see the sacrificial love of Christ on display.
and for the gift of leaves—whose acceptance of their changing colors inspires us to
embrace our own.
i hold each moment still with my camera.
i savor the way things are, knowing that they’ll
never be just this way again.
so, why did october give a party?
and invite all the leaves to come and dance?
because he knew that we must celebrate every day.
every season.
even every trial.
for every day is a gift from God, who’s Word renews the face of the earth.
happy birthday stevie. you’ve given me so many things to be thankful for.
and now the girls will recite for you ‘October’s Party’ among other things. if you have time, stick around to the end where you’ll hear elea do a fantastic rendition of ‘Jabberwocky’. it only works if you say it in your best british voice 🙂
i must go inside now, the cardinal and the chickadee are both impatiently waiting for me to move so they can get to the feeder!
and i’m going to bookclub today at patty’s. we’re doing poetry this term and patty is a skilled writer with a contagious love for poetry. and she’s making butternut squash soup. i can’t wait.
hope you join ‘October’s Party’ and splash around in some leaves this weekend.
October’s Party by George Cooper
October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.
Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly “hands around.”
What FABULOUS recitations, girls !! I particularly loved the Jabberwocky in your finest ENGLISH accents ! If you fancy doing a mini-tour of the British Isles in terms of accents, why don’t you have a crack at some of the Robert Burn’s poem Tam o’Shanter – also most appropriate for this time of year with it’s tale of bogles and carlins ! Also listen to the overture by Malcolm Arnold (you can You-Tube it !)
You should be very proud of yourselves !
so cute…i’m amazed!
Enjoyed!
love a grateful post!
Your girls are adorable! They are so smart too! I wanna be home-schooled by you. 🙂 I love reading your blog. You inspire me.
Fabulous! Love the accent! We don’t do nearly enough of this in our homeschooling day, but you inspire me Edie!
Beautiful post!
Loved it! My kids watched with me. It’s good that they know I am not the only mother who makes her children memorize poetry. Thank you! Your girls are adorable.
-FringeGirl
This is divine and if there were leaves to splash around in, here in Dallas/Ft Worth, this would cause me to DIVE right in! Blessings dear Edie…you are a beautiful part of my day…
Beautiful:) Good job, girlies!
Sweet! Beautiful weather here in west Texas as well – high is about 80 today, completely gray and cloudy —- love it !!!!
I always look forward to your posts.
Gwynie Pie
wonderful…what a great way to kickoff the third weekend in October! good job girls…
October is a party, and from the looks of your daily view so is every other month. Splendid!
Fun! That is our memory poem for this month too! It’s always fun to hear about your homeschool (though I love your other posts too).
Love all the fall leaves. I’m totally bummed that they hadn’t changed yet in N.Y.! I totally miss that now that I live in AZ. Love all the recitation…it’s so fun. Jaxon memorized Jabberwocky too. Oh if only my memory were as sharp as my kids. 😀 Your girls are growing fast, enjoy your beautiful fall. Loves. Jess
Edie- I was cracking up when I read this because I actually wrote the first 2 lines of this poem on my little chalkboard in the kitchen last week! I thought it was so cute when I found it & had never heard it before.
Oh my goodness I truly enjoyed every minute. I am so impressed with your girls they did an absolutely beautiful job! And good job Mom too!!
This is the perfect time for being thankful. I am feeling very thankful at the moment and your post made me even more thankful. I loved the poem. How wonderful.
The leaves are gorgeous there! We’re still green mostly. I love how the girls hesitate at the same time during their recitations.
Oh, and I can’t get the button to work on my blog!! I’ve added it in different areas, copied and pasted over and over, and still can’t get it to show up. What am I doing wrong?
lovely recitation, though you should read up about a few birds you missed – kookaburras, galahs, cockatoos – all australian and amazing!! I’m sure the girls would love to learn about them!
I absolutley loved that! Happy Monday!
~Molly P
You might also like my other site: http://mygrammashouse.blogspot.com
The girls’ video was totally, absolutely DELIGHTFUL~LUV,LUV IT.
Here’s to “new friends”
Jonell
You%20might%20also%20like%20my%20other%20site%3A%20%20http%3A%2F%2Fmygrammashouse.blogspot.com%20%20%20
The%20girls’%20video%20was%20totally%2C%20absolutely%20DELIGHTFUL~LUV%2CLUV%20IT.
Here’s%20to%20%22new%20friends%22
Jonell
this post was just beautiful…. all the way around!
Totally adore this post, the gorgeous leaves, your beautiful journaling, your amazing girls…love, love, love. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Edie, I am so impressed by the memorization that your girls have done. This is something that I was never good at and so I struggle with teaching my own children how to memorize. So my question is: Do you have any suggestions on ways to help them memorize? Do you repeat it orally over and over with them? Do you give them a list and have them read it over and over? What’s your secret?
Love the scenery. Love the October poem! I’d never heard it. You’re girls did an awesome job. We’ve memorized some short poems, but I’m inspired to try a long one now. And the bird list was soooo cool. I think my kids would love to memorize that. Thanks for sharing what you’ve been working on!
Susan
I just wrote a post on Vocation today too.
I have my next post already typed and ready with a link to that same Steven Hein broadcast from Issues, Etc to put up on my blog tomorrow. It is so comforting and liberating isn’t it?!
Thanks
Love the beautiful fall colors! We went to the Smoky Mountains last weekend and my sister and brother-in-law met us there. We all stayed in our RV. It was awesome and she and I had so much sister fun!
Your girls are amazing! Their memorization skills are off the charts!!! Thanks for sharing!
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites
really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website
to come back later. All the best
I stumbled across your blog looking for more classical ideas. We did CC last year, but this year we are doing it from home. We also do a little montessori, waldorf, Charlotte Mason really a little of everything 🙂 . When I watched the video I called the boys in (we have home schooled from day one ages 10, 8, 5 and 2) and wanted to see what they thought-as I informed them that I would like to add in more classics and poems to their daily memory work. They said how wonderful it was and that they really liked the jabberwocky and that is what they would like to start with! They really enjoyed watching your girls so I told them I would let you guys know how much we enjoyed watching
This is beautiful!