By George, it was St. George!

His feast day, I mean! Though I will be the first to admit, our day did not come off exactly as planned. It was just too balmy a day ~ we were completely distracted!! And tea - hot English tea? Not when the temps. soared to 85 degrees!

Yes, this summer-like weather has us all knocked for a loop! Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It was just a bit of, ahem, a challenge keeping our focus on lessons with a warm gusty wind blowing through the house, the birds singing like crazy and flying past the windows with nesting material in their beaks. But! We did do a few things, and I'd like to share them with you.

Above is pictured our St. George display. In the background we have books on England, dragons and our Catholic Mosaic book of the week, St. George and the Dragon. Also, on the far right is the wooden framed picture of a St. George holy card. Bookworm made one like this for St. Thomas Aquinas (his patron) and CJ will paint this one in a similar way (red, I'm sure). We didn't get around to finishing this project.

Some coloring pages are taped up on the window (again, partly finished). The boys worked on these (taken from this coloring book) as I read aloud. We didn't get to the narrations or copywork, but we did answer the CM discussion questions, and as always, thoroughly enjoyed the story, as well as a brief debate on the possible "science" of dragons.

On the tabletop we have our dragon's cave in which is posed a dragon and knight, locked in fierce battle. To the right you see some British specialties for the tea we've postponed till Thursday and a floating red rose candle. The rose is England's national flower and one of the symbols connected with St. George. It's hard to tell in this shot, but the table is set with a white cloth and we have a red ribbon set down, making a cross in the middle - just like the Red Cross Knight's flag. A silk red rose lent a nice touch, too. (I got the idea for this table setting in A Book of Feasts and Seasons by Joanna Bogle.)

And in the foreground, as you might have guessed, is the slain dragon, along with the mighty (cardboard) sword. We thought we had him taken care of last fall, when CJ, dressed as St. George, posed with his conquest:

The boys were going to stage a reenactment, but it was far too hot for costumes!

As for teatime? Well, I did partake, just a bit. After Bill got home and took all the boys outside for a while, I sat down for a spell and relaxed. Flowers, tea, "biscuits," a wonderful read ~ and I had my own little British moment.

I have to mention, the tea I sipped was not actually British, but a new variety I found at the natural foods store: Vanilla Rose Decaf. With a touch of sugar and a splash of milk, it was delicious and soothing. (I think it would be great iced!) And the candle? Also found at that same store, it's scent ~ "Hope" ~ is a combination of ... vanilla and rose! I had it lit by the breezy window as the boys played outside. Just lovely.

Well, another warm day is dawning here. We'll take advantage of it before a cool rainy period moves in later in the week. Today we'll be working on math, langauge arts and science (volcanoes) and we'll take a tour of the yard for a bit of nature study. Also, later this afternoon CJ and I will be making his First Holy Cummunion banner at CCD. We'll take pictures, of course (once my batteries recharge)!

Well, my friends, have a beautiful day. Take time to smell those new flowers and open your windows wide to the sunshine and fresh air!