Topaz and The Flight Into Egypt

Another varied lot. :-) First, Natalie is much better. I am not a big fan of antibiotics but they are doing the trick against the strep. Today was their Tuesday evening Pizza Night with their dad and I went around doing errands. One was my annual trip to Borders to stock up on calendars. I just love love love a fresh calendar. I always feel so organized, thinking about how everything will fit in its little slot. I really indulged this year and got seven. One is a Witches' Datebook which has lots of cool information about what the moons and astrological signs are doing, when to plant and when to harvest and etc., and includes a color to wear each day. I got it in part for the recipes and information about different holidays which I don't celebrate but want to learn more about. The color thing is just a bonus. Tomorrow is Topaz by the way, so I looked up Topaz on Google to get an idea of the color and found this lovely link from Katz Glass Design so I am passing it along.

Epiphany is coming up faster than ever this year (I guess Natalie being sick has sucked away all my sense of time) so for Sunday School I have to get organized. I used the star stories from Stories for the Festivals of the Year Told for Children by Irene Johanson to explain each king's journey and why he chose his gifts (I just LOVE those stories) but this year I also want to go deeper into What Happened Next. In Matthew 2:14 they mention Joseph's flight into Egypt because the three kings conveyed the message of the Savior's birth to Herod and he had a huge number of Jewish babies killed (parallel to the story of Moses). Magic Wool:
Creative Activites with Natural Sheep's Wool by Dagmar Schmidt and Freya Jaffke has a wool "painting" for this scene on page 42 and I would like my Sunday School children to make it with me. Painting with dry wool is something that is new to them and I think they will enjoy it.

By the way, I looked back over my Animal Architects unit (there is more than just building shelter -- there is trapping prey) and found that Abel's Island by William Steig is the recommended read-aloud to accompany it. So I will do that and then move on to maybe The Wizard of Oz. I have lots of books in mind for this class, including The Secret Garden, Heidi, The Best Bad Thing, and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. We'll have to see what moves me as we go along.