new year, new thoughts

(wonderful little calendar can be found here)

Happy New Year of our Lord, 2012!
Or as we have learned in Latin this year: Anno Domini 2012. (AD 2012)
In the Year of Our Lord.

We had a very relaxing Christmas holiday with my husband home from work until this morning. But since that routine cannot last forever, I am glad to be back into our normal weekday routine. I accomplished many household projects in the last week and rid ourselves of extra items that we no longer(ever?)needed. I moved books around and re-organized some shelves to better suit our needs. I have been studying and planning our history lessons as we continue to cover the Middle Ages this year.
And I have hired a math and science tutor for the rest of this year. He is known to our family...as Daddy! Yes, I asked Shane to teach Seth some lessons before he leaves for work each morning. Today was the first day and I am hoping this works out well for us as it lightens my load and allows me to focus on areas I felt were being a bit neglected. Shane is a math and science genius and I am not. I see my limitations very clearly. So here's hoping we can make this new schedule work.

For the first time ever, I am planning to celebrate the liturgical calendar beginning with Epiphany in our home this Friday, January the sixth.
I was struck by an article I was reading prior to Christmas and that has led me to do lots of online research and reading. I am working on putting all those links together in one post so you can see what I have been reading.

(Apparently one of the Magi was led off course by one of the well-meaning local urchins. I think he had a lovely time. )

At this point, I simply plan to mark Epiphany with a nice candlelit dinner and use the Magi from my nativity set to decorate the table. I do not want to give anymore gifts at this time, so I am trying to come up with something meaningful that will highlight this part of the Christmas story for us as a family. Friends gave my girls a little wooden chest that I am currently staining and lining with felt to make it seem regal and rich. I was mulling over making mini replicas of the gifts brought by the Magi, but I'm not sure what to do with them exactly, other than look at them together as a family. I admit that I am a bit at-sea, but I would like to start and learn as I go then forget about it all together.
We as Christians, have a very full and rich heritage of celebrating God's Redemptive work in history and I want to pass this celebration on to our children in a way that helps them see themselves as part of the whole Church, not just our local body.

I also want to do better at posting books that I read throughout this year as I barely wrote about titles I read in 2011 and besides, how else am I going to keep my mind from forgetting what is on all these shelves in our home?!

Lastly, I wanted to say that I am looking forward to writing here for another year, Lord willing and to say thank you for all the kind comments that all of you have sent over the past year and more. And since I often read online without commenting myself, I appreciate the effort those notes required. :)