Going Viking......Hemundervisning (Homeschooling)

This year in our homeschooling, we began our history and geography with the discovery of America, since that is where we live.  We began with an entry from the Greenlander Sagas, all about Lief Erickson's discovery of the North American Continent, and the Native Americans who lived there. 

We read the entire entry and talked all about how interesting it must have been for the Greenlanders to come to America and meet people here and how different the climates were, more so than they are today. We discussed the similarities and differences in cultures, and how they must have been highly suspect of each other, especially the Native Americans towards the Greenlanders, since it was so very unlikely that they had met people like them before.

Then, my son asked me a loaded question: What were the vikings when they weren't "viking"??  This, of course, led to almost of an hour of questions and answers about Nordic Cultures, and once my personal wealth of knowledge was tapped out, we turned towards the internet, and there found a vast array of information to flood our minds.

So, what originally began as an American History lesson, has now evolved into an all-consuming obsession with Viking Era Scandinavian culture and life.  My second grader has decided to learn Swedish, to study the lifestyle, laws, religion and diet of the Viking Era Nordic People. 

The good thing about homeschooling is that you can change curriculum in an instant.  Actually, it's the best thing about homeschooling.  We will continue to study American History, but now, we have a new subject: Historical Cultural Life Study.  We have also adjusted our entire curriculum to reflect and incorporate aspects of Viking life and diet into our everyday lives.

(A LIST OF RESOURCES IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST)

Here's what Hemundervisning (Homeschooling) will now consist of for my children: (ages 11,7, 4 and 15 months)

History:  Viking Era Europe 800-1200AD: How Nordic Culture influenced other cultures, and how other cultures influence Nordic Life

Math: Singapore Math U.S. Edition in their respective levels (can't find Viking Era math books! :p )

Arts and Science: Scandinavian Science Studies: 

Nautical Navigation, Agriculture, Boat Building, Turf Building, Compass Making, Ale Brewing, Food Preservation, Woodworking, Carving and Engraving, Metallurgy, and anything else we come across/ have time for! One subject is studied each month or until completion of task. As you can see, the various aspects of science involved in Nordic life cover everything from Chemistry to Earth Science,  Engineering to Physical Science.

Domestic Engineering: Food Preparation, Nutritional Understanding of Nordic Diet, Aspects of cloth making, clothing construction, Viking Camp life (one week as a full-on Viking Camp, after the turf building/tent has been constructed, food preserved and clothing made...should be interesting!)

Introduction to Svenska:  Basic Swedish Vocabulary (We selected Swedish because it is understood perfectly in Norway, Sweden and much of Finland...) We create copy work worksheet pdf's with basic Swedish words and their English translation for the children to trace over, which helps them to learn not only Swedish, but also proper letter formation and spelling and builds vocabulary, all in one sheet of paper!

Writing: "My Saga" - After reading passages of Sagas, each child will compose a short Saga of their favorite memory, their favorite trip with the family, Their favorite part of Viking culture, or a make_believe Saga. These sagas will be typed up and printed out as copy work pdf and collected for the Viking studies portfolio.

Multimedia Study Aides: Either documentaries, videos or computer pages and games that assist in the retention of information 30 minute maximum per day

Here's My Resource List for where I get my Various Information, things I use to teach and just plain fun, educational stuff for the kids to do:

Visit  The Viking Answer Lady for all of those very in-depth questions about things like what the heck did vikings eat, how did they take baths, and where did they relieve themselves?

Hurstwic Society, probably the most comprehensive site on Viking life.  You can find everything from the laws regarding vengeance, to the proper way to wear your breeches and kirtll.  ( good for avoiding those embarrassing and potentially deadly fashion fax-pas of the Viking Era!)

BBC Primary History-The Vikings   for the kids. games and stories and plenty of information with visuals to keep the kids interested, plus a very fun game where they are the archeologist discovering Nordic items and guessing what they are used for.

Then there are some very nice Horrible Histories videos about Vikings..fun for grown-ups and kids! (LITERALLY!)

We make our Swedish worksheets by using Google translate English to Swedish and copying and pasting basic words and sentences into this Copywork Worksheet Generator.

and as always, PBS can be counted on to teach your children how to write "POO" in Runic with their write your name in runes page.

Enjoy your Hemundervisning !

Turning Your House Into A Home

What's the difference between a house and a home?

COMFORT. A house is a house. It has a lot of potential like any empty vessel, but a home is so much more than potential.  A home is a place where you and your family can leave the world at the door.  Home is a place where everyone's mellow and accepted, and life lessons are usually learned in the kitchen.

                                           COMFORT

That's a very important word. When I think of comfort, I think of fluffy pillows, flowers in little vases, country breakfasts in a country kitchen.  These things, these visions of a life where there's not much if any rushing around, unless of course, you're headed to the lake or the beach on a hot day.  But comfort is more than a feeling.  It's a state of mind.

Our home is a house is the worst possible sense. It's a white and oak nightmare of potential. It reminds me of an early 20th century sanitarium.  It is sterile and emotionless.  It is very impersonal. 

Part of what makes us fall in love with certain decorating styles is that they feel like the home space of a specific person. Whether it's a kitchen decorated all in cupcakes, or a garage with horizontal stripes painted on the floor.  Someone claimed that space and made it theirs.  This is what my house was missing.  It was missing me and my family.

I have seen a lot of houses where everything is clean and in clean lines.  I personally don't like it one bit.  When I walk into someone's home, I want to feel the comfort of what soothes and comforts them in a world-weary life.

But I couldn't decide where to begin, so I did what any Google-savvy mom would do: I scoured the internet for design boards and inspiration boards related to things that I love.  I found that I loved a lot of different styles.  So, I thought about it for a while, and decided that since the majority of my day is spent in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, feeding and schooling, I should start there.  The next room I chose was the Master Bed and Bath. I work in the kitchen and retire to my Bedroom, so for my sanity and the sanity of my family, I thought those were the most important.  We decorate our cubicles and desks at work, why not do it at home, on a much grander scale?

First, the kitchen: Since I don't have a before, you'll just have to open your mind's eye and imagine a space about 14'x20', with a sliding glass door at the far end, one small window to the right,white vinyl flooring, white painted wood cabinets with honey oak unpainted doors, a standard stainless steel kitchen sink, white stove, white fridge, and an odd architectural ledge along the right wall. It kind of looked like this, but much less awesome:

(Thanks to The Helpful Housewife...Who is awesome and helpful doesn't even begin to describe what a blessing she's been to me!)



When we moved in, the first thing I thought was "WOW! This kitchen is HUGE!" but that was a trick of the eye. The length of the kitchen makes it seem really big, but it becomes very thin when you try to put in your furniture.  Our standard sized oak dining set was too large, so the leaf and two chairs were hauled off to the garage. But those cabinets needed to be worked on, and immediately.  Remember that the doors remained unpainted, and seemed very mix-n-match.

I decided that I wanted my kitchen to resemble the kitchen of my Grandparent's house in Perry Hall, Maryland.  My grandfather Ed built that house from the ground up and it was full of my grandparents, right down to the garage doors that had "His" & "Hers" in chrome painted letters on each garage door.  That's who my Grandparents were, and that was the place where I felt the most at home. 

My Grandma's Kitchen had white metal cabinets with red accents and this truly tacky red crackle Formica countertops, with the requisite aluminum edging. My Grandfather had designed and built a lazy-susan style corner cabinet before there was such a thing, and in one of the corners, he had written "I love you" to my Grandma.  Grandpa had made by hand each individual 4"x 4" stainless steel tile for the backsplash, with a 16"x 16" stainless tile over the stove, where he engraved a portrait of a smiling chef.  They even had a kitchen clock that looks like a cast iron skillet, with bacon and eggs instead of numbers.  My Grandparent's house was a kitchy, silly, fun place to be.  You felt like you were home, even if you were a perfect stranger. I want to capture that feeling. That obvious and pervasive, infectious and desired feeling of overflowing joy.  

Our family is so infinitely blessed, it seems ridiculous.  God has given us so much more than we ever dreamed possible as children, and then given us a family to share it with!  We want that same joy reflected in our house, and truly make this our home.

Here's my inspiration board for my hopeful kitchen, and I'll post more as I complete various projects.

Happy Homemaking! :D
Lynnie 
 

HELP! I'm Out Of Recipes For Lent!

If you're like me, you spend a big part of your Saturdays prepping food for the next week.  I have countless casserole dishes tucked away in my freezer for later use. But not during Lent.

No, Lent is my busy time of the year.  The kids are usually part of the Passion Play, there's new catecumens to tutor and sponsor, school testing time is coming up, summer sports practices are coming up...It seems like everything starts to snowball right around Lent.  And to top it off, No Meat! That means no pepperoni pizza, no hamburger helper, no lasagna, no burritos...either vegetarian dishes or fish.

My big problem here is that by the second or third week of lent, I'm all out of no-meat recipes and I start hunting up some new ones online.  To my great surprise, I found This Site !  It is packed with new and interesting ideas for family meals during Lent.

Because I lean more towards Orthodox Catholicism, I prefer more orthodox recipes! ;)  Happily, my unquenchable thirst for new and exciting things has been relieved by This Lovely Lady. How lucky is that? Miss Ma'am is right here on blogger! She has many, many really great recipes for Lent, as well as any other time of the year.  Especially check out her lovely post concerning Pascha Baskets! What a sweet way to remind ourselves and our friends what Easter's all about! (and you'll also learn some interesting facts about Easter Traditions you probably never questioned before.) Anyone up for a nice spring picnic? A Pascha basket and some friends are all you'll need!

I'd like for all of you to scan the pages and get your tummies rumbling and mouths watering for some really incredible ways to feed your family a Lenten Meal and so much more!

Yours in Christ,
Lynnie

Oh, Lent! How you are killing me!!

Lent is now in full swing, and it is already killing me!

My first Lenten "giving up" was meat.  That hasn't really been very difficult, but it has had me wishing that I could eat the corn dogs that my kids got to have last night.  They looked really good, and I even had a new mustard to try...So, I had some of their tater-tots with my fancy new mustard.  It's super yummy! :)

My next Lenten "adding to" is going to be exercise.  It's been too long since I just had a good cardio rotation. Cardio and I have a love/hate relationship. I hate doing it, but I love the after-effects.  I hate jogging and running and jumping jacks and burpees and everything that makes me sweaty and gross!  But after a week or two of doing cardio for about 1.5 hours per week, I feel fantastic! The exercise and increased water consumption makes my skin look and feel wonderful, and I have increased energy to do everything around the house and still hang out with my husband until 1:30am, and then get back up at 6:30am, raring to go!  But it does require me to carve out a minimum of 30 kid-free minutes to do it, plus find the motivation to do it...that's where I'm struggling. 

My Grandmother always said that the best way to find motivation to do something was to just start doing it.  I need to keep that in mind.  I mean, that's how I keep my dishes washed, because Lord knows, I hate to do dishes! I'd rather eat off banana leaves like the tribal people do in the Amazon.  Then, when you're done, you just toss your leaf into the fire...NO DISHES!  But it certainly does have its downside...I mean while there's no dishes to speak of, there's also no toilets or Hershey's, so you know, I would never make it! 

I guess my only real option is just to start doing it and get healthy.  The upside to getting healthy, apart from feeling fan-freaking-tastic, is that I will also LOOK fan-freaking-fastic, and it is about time for that!  Little Bear is old enough to go 30 minutes without needing me, so I really should work out.  Hey, since I have enough time to blog, maybe I should take advantage of this opportunity to go do some cardio! :D This might be my only chance! lol.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes, so if you're also trying to make exercise part of your life this Lent, at the very least, you'll know you're not alone!

HUGS!

Lynnie

Wish you had more time in your day? Start your day with service!

Do You all ever have those days when you're just wiped out???

Do you look around your house and think "how did it ever get like this??"

Some days, it just seems like there's so very, very much to do, and almost no time to do it at all.  How can we get the time, the motivation and the energy to get it all done?

My big trick for getting it all done is really and truly making time to do a small service of saying a rosary every day.  When I know that I've prayed a rosary for others, I feel better about my day.  They say that a truly happy heart is the heart of the willing servant.  If we can take a little time to do one thing to serve others, we feel better, happier and more optimistic.  Life looks and feels sweeter and more fufilling.

Every morning, when the kids are settled in doing something, I usually sit down to fold laundry, put my earbuds in, and pray the rosary along with Rosary Army.

What a fantastic organization! Take a little time to go over to their website and download those rosaries for your MP3 player and pray a rosary every day for your family, for your husbands/wives, for anyone or any thing that's weighing on your heart.  It will not only help you to be more motivated and have a happier outlook, but your heart will be uplifted and your burdens lightened by knowing that you've done something good!

Your days will seem a lot less hectic and frustrating when you have a prayer in your heart and on your tongue.

Have a Blessed Day!
Lynnie Duran

12 Days of Our Christmas Road trip!

          Every couple of years, we think it's a good idea to drive cross-country with our kids to visit my mother for Christmas.  We love being with my family on Christmas, but the road to get there is long, arduous, tedious, frustrating and hilarious!

This year, my darling husband acquired the one thing in the world I have been asking for: a third-row seat for our Yukon! It doesn't match, but now the whole family fits into the same car, at the same time!! :D

So, in honor of our recent fit of insanity, I jotted down a little ditty to make you all smile! (I'm trying to stop using "Y'all". It's my new year's resolution)  Enjoy!

12 Days of Our Christmas Road trip

On The First Day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

One mis-matched third-row seat

On the second day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

Two fighting kids 

and a mismatched third-row seat

On the third day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Three Flu bugs,

two fighting kids 

and a mismatched third-row seat

On the fourth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids 

and a mismatched third row seat

On the fifth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Five Pot-ty Breaks!

 Four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids

and a mismatched third row seat

On the sixth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Six moving violations,

Five Pot-ty Breaks!

Four missed calls,

three flu bugs, two fighting kids

and mismatched third row seat

On the seventh day of Christmas,

my true love gave to me

Seven day's vacation,

six moving violations,

five pot-ty breaks,

four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids 

and a mismatched third row seat

On the eighth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Eight "are we there yets",

 seven day's vacation,

 six moving violations,

five pot-ty breaks,

four missed calls

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids

and a mismatched third row seat

On the ninth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Nine traffic jams,

 eight "are we there yets",

 seven day's vacation,

six moving violations,

 five pot-ty breaks,

four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids

and a mismatched third row seat

On the tenth day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Ten tanks of gas,

 nine traffic jams,

 eight "are we there yets",

 seven day's vacation,

 six moving violations,

five pot-ty breaks,

 four missed calls,

three flu bugs,

two fighting kids

 and a mismatched third row seat 

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

 my true love gave to me

Eleven DVDs,

 ten tanks of gas,

 nine traffic jams,

 eight "are we there yets",

 seven day's vacation,

 six moving violations,

five pot-ty breaks,

 four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

two fighting kids

and a mismatched third row seat 

On the twelfth day of Christmas,

my true love gave to me

Twelve hours non-stop driving,

 eleven DVDs,

ten tanks of gas,

nine traffic jams,

 eight "are we there yets",

seven day's vacation,

six moving violations,

 five pot-ty breaks,

 four missed calls,

 three flu bugs,

 two fighting kids

and a mismatched third row seat !

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Welcome to Catholic Home Space!

Welcome to our new home! 

     My name is Lynnie Duran.  I'm a truly blessed  and happy wife, as well as the mother of four amazing kids!  My husband has his own business in air conditioning, enDURANce Air Conditioning LLC. in Mesa, AZ.  (yes, that's a shameless plug, but I'm just so proud of him!)

   I'm so excited to move our ministry online!  We have been blessed with great success in our person-to-person ministry, as well as a new little one!  This year, God has blessed us with such amazing gifts of love, family and comfort, our cup is just running over!  :) 

      We have been working so hard, and so many people have asked me "Why aren't you online? We're going to miss you!"  Well, what could I say to that?  So I finally got over my techno-phobia and am setting up online!  Fancy me, I even got a twitter account!  Which by this time is passe, but I'm getting there!  

      Our mission at Catholic Home Space is to help catholic families stay true to catholic teaching and to survive a world that's hostile towards traditional catholic values like marriage, children, family and God!  

     It all started about 5 years ago, when I was reading my Bible, and I came across this section in Titus 2:

" But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.  Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.  Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,  so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,  to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored."

When I read this verse, it was totally CONVICTING! I knew that I was a terrible gossip, and not much of an example to those around me.  That's when I decided to make a change in myself to be a better Catholic.  Not to just gossip less, but to really look at my faith and realign myself to Catholic teaching.  I am not a "Cradle Catholic" I was baptized when I was 23 years old, after about two years of rigorous catechism.  I had to be sure that I was making the correct choice of religion because I had been burned in the past, and that kind of heartbreak wasn't something I wanted to relive again.  


      When I realized that no matter what stage of life I'm in, I am an example to other women, even if I don't feel that I'm worthy of being a role model.  It hit me deep, let me tell you! I felt like I had really dropped the ball, and probably made a lot of people think that Catholics were a bunch of trash-talking hypocrites!  I knew it was time to make amends. I couldn't say exactly who I may have offended and harmed, but I felt that if I made a public supplication, and prayed for forgiveness, God might forgive my multiple missteps.   That turned into more and more people asking to hear my story,  and wanting my little tips and tricks for everything from home organization and home schooling to decorating!  Only then did it occur to me that maybe God had given me more talents than I knew.  And I have to tell all of you; Every gift that God has blessed me with, I have used to grow and build my family, and Our Lord has blessed us immensely! 


    Now God has also promised us that if He pours blessing into our lives, it is our duty as Catholics to pour blessings onto others.  If we will all do our part, He will make sure that we never go a day without the confidence that He will take care of us.  We can be as the Lilies of the field, and depend totally on Our Lord for our support, and He will see to it that we are cared for. 


Join us today, and let's share in the blessings of the Lord together!

Thank You,
Lynnie Duran