Hobbit Day

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September 22nd marks the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.  Of course, the LOTR enthusiasts debate how the Shire calendar matches up with ours and, therefore, think the birthday falls on a different day.   But, for plain folk like myself, I’m just happy to have a day to celebrate hobbits.

In other years, Hobbit Day has merely been a mention from me at the dinner table.  But, as I’m edging out of survival mode, I thought this would be a great year to do something fun to celebrate.  There are a million and a half great ideas online (and I ‘pinned’ some of them here), but we started simply this year.

We began the day with apple cider, since Hobbit Day lined up with the first day of fall.  Then we made Lembas bread.  Wow!  Way better than I thought it might be.  Very simple ingredients too.  (We didn’t have chia seeds, so used two eggs in place.). We wrapped these in green fabric ‘leaves’ and headed out for a mini picnic amongst trees.

I brought one of our copies of The Hobbit, of course, and we had hot apple cider and Lembas bread while I read.  I had made a pair of hobbit feet the night before, but since they needed adjustments, they didn’t make it on the journey.  We did, however, choose hobbit names, using some of these little charts.

We also translated some Elvish and wrote letters to each other the best we could.  Then we sealed them with sealing wax, which proved a great lesson in trial and error, since I didn’t know what I was doing and we didn’t actually have the proper equipment.  I held a flame up to old crayons to get the ‘wax’ and then we tried everything from carved corks to rubber stamps to pencil tops with no erasers to get the designs.  Nothing seemed to work very well, but it sure was fun trying.

We watched some of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit (just the opening) and Lord of the Rings (just the opening, after the prologue).  There are great tours of people visiting Hobbiton on the YouTube.  And, of course, I busted out my tin whistle for a little hobbit theme music.

I’m glad to finally be celebrating Hobbit Day!

Here are some of the things I look forward to in future years:

–More Hobbit feet (obviously)

—A whole day of food

–Definitely making a Gandalf hat

—Hobbit door cookies

—Making this awesome miniature

–Reading more of the books together as the kids get older, sharing favorite parts, etc.

–Watching more of the films when the kids are older

–More decorations!!

(These are the ones we currently have around the house:)

-A Hobbit door I made out of cardboard

-A Hobbit scene I decoupaged onto an old cupboard door I found at ReStore

-This silhouette I found on Etsy

-This sign I made and sell on Etsy

 

Looking forward to more Hobbit Days in the future!

Little Women

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Little Women (1868-9) by Louisa May Alcott

In my 20s, pre-husband and kids, I went through a phase of reading this book every winter.  It was one of my all-time favorites.  I loved that tradition too, but haven’t quite been able to get those 562 fine print pages into my life since mamahood.  I adored Greta Gerwig’s approach to the story, and I’ve loved reading about Alcott’s life–wow.  I’m really, REALLy hoping to visit Orchard House soon, but we’ll see.  Having not read through the book in over a decade, I feel ill-equipped to make too many remarks at the moment, only to say that if you’ve never visited this book, I highly recommend you do.  I recently read a modern, young reader take on the story, which I also loved, Littler Women.

Last year Orchard House was offering some virtual tours which helped support them through the shut-downs.  They were so fun to watch, and what a great place to support.

I just found these vintage paper dolls, which I also had to share.

 

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Littler Women

Bees

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My daughter recently joined the Girl Scouts as a “Juliette” brownie.  This means, for now, she is scouting as an individual.  I’m quickly realizing what an amazing addition this is to our homeschooling.  At this point, I don’t know how long her scouting journey will last, but she is SO excited about it.  And so am I.  What a perfect program to match her age.  The badges are set up to learn and explore several different topics, and I’m a big believer in young kids not being overly committed to one specific focus too young.  It’s such a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to different interests and areas that I may not have thought to introduce.

She’s decided to start working towards her “bug patch” first, and I can’t believe how she’s taken to it.  She spent a good chunk of time yesterday creating a large poster about butterflies.  I learned a bunch of new facts when she shared it with me.  And while I’m excited to see what other bugs she decides to explore, I took it upon myself to search out some bee resources.

I was amazed at how many bee farms and shops we have in the area and how many bee resources are online for kids.

One of my FAVORITE resources has been Maddie Moate.  This woman amazes me.  She’s fun and energetic and entertaining, and her videos cover just about every topic there is.  But she has some wonderful bee videos.  You need to check them out!

Also, since writing (and forgetting to post) this, we’ve been to our local bee store several times.  (Their honey is AmaZing!)  And while they were very busy the first couple times, we happened to go back on a slow day.  The owner was so great.  She showed the kids around the supplies and did a mini lesson about beekeeping for us.

Bees are an essential part of all our lives, and we need to all be doing more to support them.  Education is the first step, and I’m so very grateful for all the resources out there, so people like me can start to learn more about how we can help.

10 Ways for Kids to Help Bees

One Flower Project

Bee Activity Sheets

More Activity Sheets

Wings of Life (various short videos)

National Geographic Kids (2:03)

World Honeybee Day (3:36)

Great Sunflower Project (1:18)

Picture Books:  Bee Books

Good News!

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I’m on so many email lists for environmental causes and petitions.  When I’m in a Pollyanna spirit, these are great.  I’m so heartened to see organizations working for a better world and collecting information to share with like-minded people who care to make a change.  Usually though…  I get easily overwhelmed and discouraged reading about all the areas of our environment that need help.  Opening my email elicits an emotional response almost every single time.  I can feel my heart sinking even before I glance at the subject headings.  For years I’ve debated whether to just unsubscribe from all of these for my own peace of mind.  And I really have tried to weed some of them out.  But I just can’t fully disconnect.  It’s not in my nature to play the “ignorance is bliss” card.  Recently, I ended up on a new list (this happens, which is why the emails have multiplied over the years) and it claimed to be a bearer of “good news.”  Only it wasn’t.  At all.  Maybe tucked into corners here and there, but mostly it was just more overwhelming, scary news about our world.

Some people really do need to hear the realities of what’s going on in our environment.  A lot of people need a major wake-up call.  Like, NOw.  But, I am not that person.  I’m here.  I’m on board.  Let’s do this thing!  I work hard in my daily life to make conscious choices and do my small part trying to passing information and ideas along the best I can.  What I need is some good news.  I need something that’s going to keep me inspired and staying positive on this journey.  I need one of those large thermometers that shows we are indeed making progress towards a goal.  I need to hear about the large groups of people and companies who are also making huge efforts in their corners of the world.  So, for my own benefit (and hopefully someone else’s too…), I’m collecting some Good Environmental News here. (Coming Soon!)

Polly, Put the Kettle On

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Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
We’ll all have tea.
Sukey, take it off again,
Sukey, take it off again,
Sukey, take it off again,
They’ve all gone away.

The nursery rhyme “Polly Put the Kettle On” dates back to the early 1800s, and the tune dates back to the late 1700s.  It’s one of my favorites for some reason.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that when my youngest was a baby, I felt like I was constantly having a little dance with making tea where I’d start the water and then have to turn it off again before I could actually get around to making a cup.  As much as I love this little song, I’ve struggled to find (bearable) versions of it online.  I rather like this one I did find, but the video quality isn’t great:

Polly Put the Kettle On

Mostly I found these bluegrass-y/folksy versions, which are a lot of fun, even if they aren’t quite the little nursery rhyme I had set out to find:

Fiddle and banjo

This one has more adult lyrics (nothing bad, just not kid) and is a lot of fun.

I’m going to continue my search for more versions of this rhyme and post them here if I find them.