Hallowe'en and All Saints' Day costumes

My hair is naturally red and now that I am in my 40s it is slowly beginning to turn. I wasn't sure when it would actually happen for me because virtually no women in my family wear their natural hair color. I am planning on going grey naturally, I have zero interest in coloring my hair because I am too lazy to keep up with the maintenance that would entail. Therefore I need to do all the red-headed characters for the next few years of Hallowe'ens while I still can.

We decided to begin with Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Mr. W loves Hallowe'en and loves costumes. He had been thinking about growing back his mustache for the winter so his beard grow out made for the perfect Fred 5 o'clock shadow. I already had leftover black felt and and white fleece from the Olaf costume I made a few years ago. I bought new orange fleece, turquoise felt, and some white cotton to be split between the Wilma costume and a saint costume. (However it was SO thin that I ended up supplementing with the fleece for the skirt and wearing a white tank top as a camisole under the one sleeved dress.) I did not use a pattern for this and there was A LOT of trail and error in sewing the Wilma dress. My ripper was well used. I used a shirt as a template for the top and tried to add pleats to the skirt to give a bit of the bubble effect. I also added a couple darts in the top once I had it all sewn together. Sewing the top and bottom together was also difficult trying to find my waistline on myself in the mirror, but eventually it all came together well enough to be worn under a coat while chaperoning trick-or-treaters. The Fred costume was much easier to sew together since it doesn't need to be figure flattering and fleece doesn't need to be hemmed. I did sew all the black spots on, rather than hot glueing, so he could wash this costume and use it again if he wanted. Mr. W really liked this costume and I think he was much warmer than I was.



Here is a closer look at the necklace (expert photography by tween.) I used the same technique as the top search result for Wilma costume. I bought styrofoam balls, rolled out white, air drying modeling clay, and wrapped the balls with it. Then I speared them with bamboo skewers until they dried over night. I originally wanted to use kitchen twine for a rustic look, but It was too difficult to force through the holes so I switched to curling ribbon instead. It was still a challenge to fit through, but eventually worked.



Fortunately the children never committed to any costume in advance so we ended up reusing or buying new store bought costumes. They settled on a donkey, Charzard, and a peacock (our spring break trip to Victoria has inspired our whole year apparently!)



One thing that I was sad about Deuce missing by not being in a traditional school this year was the 3rd grade saint project. When my oldest participated they did a report on a saint of their choosing, made a shield with 4 different facts about their saint, create a costume, and wear them to the All Saints' Day school Mass. Such a sweet tradition. I was very happy to learn that the homeschool group we joined had something similar for every student. This parish had the added fun of playing Stump The Priest at the fellowship party following the Mass. Who wouldn't want to stump a priest so the boys decided to pick less obvious saints. When T-Bone was a 3rd grader he had done his report on St. Theodore of Amasea who, as a demoted saint more popular in the Eastern church, seemed to be capable of stumping a priest. We still had the costume of this soldier saint so T-Bone just had to review what he had learned 3 years ago to compose his 3 clues.

I would have wanted Deuce to do a report on his patron saint, but he is among the most popular and would be so easy to guess. Instead he looked through the box of Patron Saint Flashcards he received as a First Communion gift. He settled on St. John the XXIII. Can I just say there are a lot more components to this saint costume than the humble, brown robe I would have been making? I bought the white cotton for the cassock and a red shiny poly blend for the capelet. I knew I could reuse the fancy cloth we bought for the chalice of the First Communion banner for the stole so I bought some gold fringe and red, fabric covered buttons. I just looked up cassock to make sure I was using the term correctly and learned that the pope's capelet is actually called a mozetta. You learn a new thing every day. I used another shirt as a templet for the white robe and made it quite long so the hem could be let down if needed. More trial and error occurred while working on the mozetta. What eventually worked was folding the fabric in quarters in order to cut out a big circle. I attached a little collar, but ended up just hand sewing on the buttons without making button holes on the joining side because I was running out of time. The yarmulke was a souvenir from my ex-boyfriend's dad's second wedding. I imagine a future pope hat is not what they had in mind when they gave them out. haha.



The homeschool group is part of a parish we do not regularly attend. They are Dominicans and it is very traditional, they still use the communion rail and receive on the tongue. Check out their chancel lamp!



As the daughter of a stained glass artisan I always check out leaded windows and every window in this church had a dalmation dog in it. I imagine that must be an attribute of St. Dominic, but I'm going to save that teachable moment for religion class next week. It was a very nice Mass and I really appreciated what the priest had to say during his homily. My mother joined us and the boys were relieved that they weren't the only children dressed up. After Mass the priest saw Deuce in his costume, bowed to him and greeted him as "Your Holiness."

Stump The Priest was very fun. So many cute and creative costumes and the two priests playing did a good job of playing along with the children whose costumes were more easily guessed. There were a couple of Maronite families in the group who were dressed as saints popular in the Maronite tradition and they definitely stumped the priest. It was pretty funny. At one point the priest said that if anyone wanted to gift them a book on Maronite saints that they would gladly accept it so they could study up for next year. Our boys did pretty well. St. Theodore of Amasea stumped both priests.


When St. John the XXIII walked onto the stage the first priest again greeted him with "Your Holiness" and kissed his ring. He thought he was either a John or a Paul, but not a John Paul. In the end St. John XXII stumped one priest, but not the other. He was a little disappointed, but I think they were proud of themselves.




These are the clues they used:

St. Theodore of Amasea

• I lived in the 3^rd century in Asia Minor and died a martyr in 306 AD
• I was a young Roman soldier
• I wouldn’t worship pagan gods and set fire to the temple of Cybele

St. John XXIII

• I lived in Italy from 1881 to 1963
• I wrote several socially important encyclicals like Pacem in Terris
• I wanted a “New Pentecost,” a new out pouring of the Holy Spirit

Pumpkins, cider, and poetry

The Freddy's had a huge display of season treats including pumpkin donuts from Franz bakery. I could not resist that kind of temptation and, therefore, decided to have another Poetry Tea. I bought a jug of fresh apple cider to round it all out.

We had cheese, crackers, pretzels, and salami to accompany the pumpkin donuts.  I asked the boys to bring down their Shel Silverstein books; each has received one from us on their 7th birthday. I had some Mother Goose verse out for Little Miss to read aloud from too.

This poem about perseverance from The Children's Book of Virtues edited by W.J. Bennett spoke to me. Homeschooling is a significant challenge.

The best part about this is that the kids really like reading these silly poems aloud. The books were still on the table tonight from yesterday's tea and the boys were still taking turns reading aloud.

Indigenous People's Day

I once pinned an article on ways to decolonize one's Thanksgiving menu. I still haven't gotten around to trying out any of the recipes, which is a shame because I have thought I could make some of those dishes to celebrate Indigenous People's Day. The best I ever end up with is reading books we have collected on our travels during tea time. This year I read: Crazy Horse's Vision by Joseph Bruchac,
Great Wolf's Search by Bruce Swanson, and The Girl Who Loved Horses by Paul Goble. I also had Trickster A Graphic Collection of Native American Tales for the boys to read on their own.

Adventures in Homeschooling...in which I nerd out about birds

I'm a total novice at this homeschooling thing; I don't hold a degree in elementary education. But ever since high school when I volunteered as a counselor for outdoor school I have been aware of the concept of 'teachable moments.' They happen a lot in the forest when you are hiking around with a group of sixth graders. And they also happen while volunteering with high school youth group students and those who are preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation. And, for the last 12 years, they have been a huge part of my parenting career. Naturally I am trying to apply them to my new career as a homeschool teacher. When the school year started we could still have lunch outside almost every day. It occurred to me we could track that and somehow, at the end of the school year, they could do something science-y with that information withe their science teacher. (My mom and her sister both love science and, mercifully, she offered to teach science to them for the entire school year. This is awesome because I can get super excited about humanities like history, art, literature and english, but would not have been able to muster that same zest for science.) So we had a conversation about data collection, and what data means and we have been tracking what the weather is like every day and whether or not we can eat outside.

We also began to notice a lot of birds flitting around outside their bedroom windows while we work at their desks. We decided to track that too. For example we noticed some Cedar Waxwings in the dogwood and fig trees. Cedar waxwings are a bird I was first introduced to in our previous old house. In the parking strip there was a crabapple tree that bloomed white in spring, developed red berries in winter and kept them all winter until they would eventually all drop over the course of one or two days at the end of winter. Except that one year I noticed a flock of birds I had never seen before. They had a little red tip and a tuft on their head. They swarmed our tree to eat the berries with some of them remaining on the power lines above ostensibly as look outs, rotating constantly. Over the course of two days they had eaten the tree completely clean of berries. They did this several years in a row and I never saw the Cedar waxwings except for those two days. So imagine my delight at noticing them at our current home devouring berries and fruit.





Deuce and I have gotten very good at recognizing black capped chickadees and juncos.

I have been following the Story of the World history program in which the children have optional maps and coloring pages. In addition to them Deuce has been creating scenes from the lessons including Lei Zu discovering silk from silkworm cocoons falling into her tea cup and a Mesopotamian merchant with his cart.

They also made snakes out of modeling clay after reading the legend of Gilgamesh and the snake eating the secret to eternal life. Deuce really loves snakes (more to come on this for his birthday party this year) so he enjoyed learning 'why' snakes shed their skins.

Leaf Change in the Garden

It has been such a nice dry autumn that we are having such an amazing leaf change in the city. Normally so many dying leaves would have been lost from the trees from pelting rains. Instead, all over town, we are seeing beautiful and amazing colored trees: bright reds, intense almost neon yellows. It is very enjoyable. And even here in our garden we are finally getting an indication of future leaf changes. When we planted the native hedgerow a few years ago we planted three vine maple and one western crabapple. Today I noticed that one of the vine maple is showing some vibrant red; how exciting when all three mature enough to get plenty of sunshine to yield all that crimson for us!


I modified the landscaping plan that we had because the designer had specified a few trees too close to the house for my preference(as a result of what happened when we did the exterior restoration had scaffolding erected.) Also she specified some non-native trees which, while undeniably pretty, were not what what I had in mind for naturescaping. Near our newly designed terrace I decided a cascara tree would be a better choice than the proposed ornamental. Cascara have pretty grey bark with a lobed leaf and yield a berry that birds can eat. Eventually this tree should provide much needed shade for the terrace so I won't have to manuever umbrellas around. Once we went on an outing to Portland Nursery and I was telling Mr. W about the cascara's qualities and he suggested we buy one then and there. I was pleasantly surprised because I was talking future, but he was feeling quite generous. We've had it for maybe 3 years now and it is thriving, thankfully, because I have definitely not been babying it like one should. Today I noticed that it also is beginning change color with reddish yellow leaves.

And I'll toss in this shot of my beauty bush and chrysanthemum in the beds beneath the cascara. It was even prettier when the two Michaelmas daisies were in bloom. My poor lopsided beauty bush though, we really need to remove that out of control laurel hedge. That is the last step I need to qualify for platinum certification for the Backyard Bird Habitat. One day...

Celebrating St. Francis

St. Francis Day is a particularly special day to celebrate in our house. Little Miss's school was doing a blessing of the animals at the end of the school day so the boys and I packed up the bunnies to take them in to be blessed.  There were a lot of dogs, but our bunnies were very popular with so many of the students. Deuce found a beetle in the grass while we were waiting and was hoping Fr. would bless the little beetle too.





I'm not a dog person, but I enjoyed this St. Bernard representing on St. Francis Day.


Mr. W is back at his college celebrating 100 years of his fraternity chapter so I threw together a very light supper and we ate inside, I just did not have it in me to set up a picnic in the yard while solo parenting for 4 days. We always have a meatless meal to celebrate St. Francis and tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches is a crowd pleaser here. I don't even follow a recipe for the soup anymore, as long as I have a big can of crushed tomatoes I can pull something together.


Fortunately the kids were super helpful and enjoyed decorating the table for our meal. T-Bone cut some hydrangeas for me to arrange for the centerpiece and put out the fruits. (Hence the stickers still on them.) Deuce had requested pears for the holiday so I bought several options for him.

As everyone finished their meal I read St. Francis and the Animals by Leo Politi and my autographed copy of St. Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Return of Michaelmas

"Netherfield Park is let at last... he is to take possession before Michaelmas..."

Pride And Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but lines like this were always so perplexing to me as a child. When the heck is Michaelmas? What time of year are they supposed to be laying out for me? And what on earth is Michaelmas anyway? This old fashion, English ordering of the year was as lost to me as any French word ever inserted into a story but not translated (my only regret to learning Spanish in high school.)

It has been a really long time since we have celebrated Michaelmas by roasting a goose. In looking back through my notes it was 2008 the year after we had our oldest child. Parenthood took a toll on us I guess! I have made the Michaelmas pie in the a couple of times and done a simple tea party rather than the full dinner. But I was really missing the full goose experience. Since St. Michael's Day fell on the weekend this year I felt like I had a better chance of talking Mr. W into roasting a goose. He didn't say no when I first suggested it so I took that as a yes. Earlier this week I bought a 9 lb frozen goose at New Seasons which was comical because the man behind the butcher counter acted as if he had never had anyone request a goose before, and was I sure I really wanted it because they are frozen, they'd have to go all the way upstairs to retrieve it from the freezer, and I would have to wait at least 5 minutes. "okay"

Because I knew Mr. W did not want this to have a lot of fan fare I did not invite anyone over figuring we would just eat the goose ourselves and probably have some left overs. Then yesterday morning he decided that it would be too much goose for us so he invited the Fs over for dinner when he saw them at the tweens' soccer game.

As I mentioned I had to review my notes from my Michaelmas binder and fortunately found a few former menus. We revised it slightly this year and served:

• Gordon's roast goose (Mr. W really enjoyed this recipe vs the Irish recipe. he liked the cavity stuffed with citrus and the addition of citrus zest on the skin.)
• Potato apple stuffing (From The Traditional Irish Wedding Book; we actually serve this as a dressing, baked in a casserole dish rather than in the bird's cavity.)
• Brussels' sprouts with bacon and cream
• sautéed carrots
• homemade pickles, dried apricots, almonds, fresh blackberries (for the finicky eaters among us)
• two bread options
• Michaelmas pie (I reduced the cloves by half because in the past I have found it overwhelming)

By the time I found two printed out recipes for for bannock I learned that Mrs. F had volunteered to bring both bread and a cocktail to share. I would really like to try this out next year.

The Michaelmas daisies I have in the garden are beginning to fill in nicely although I did not water enough this summer so some were looking a bit spent. But I was able to put this whole arrangement together from my own garden so I am quite pleased. Maybe one day we will be able to afford to have the last of the laurel hedge removed and my favorite bunch of Michaelmas daisies won't look so leggy. I paired the fresh arrangement with the original wheat sheaf arrangement. And I still have this sweet old Michaelmas daisy fairy postcard. 

I have served carrots in the past, based on my old menus, but unlike blackberries, I could not remember what was the significance. Today I learned about Carrot Sunday which I love! This would be good motivation for me to plan carrot seeds as part of our kitchen garden/homeschool science class and then harvest them on the Sunday before Michaelmas. And maybe learn the ceili dance!