I have been spending a lot of time planning ideas for our year though, so while we didn't use any of these this year, I thought I would post my ideas and plans and we will look forward to implementing some of these next year!
Pantry Cleaning: I typically clean out my pantry on St. Brigid day. Since she was known for her generous pantry and willingness to always offer food to those in need, her icon hangs at our pantry. This is a great day to go through and declutter the pantry, clean jars, refill stores of food, take stock of what is needed, and remove any items that need to be discarded.
Food Pantry Donations: During all of that cleaning and organizing is a great time to find items to donate to a local food pantry program. Doing this with the kids is a great reminder that we live in abundance and that many do not have a pantry of food to go to when they are hungry.
Tea with friends: Always a favorite in our house, we often invite friends to come celebrate with us. We have made fresh butter, baked Irish Soda bread, and created St. Brigid Crosses together.
Read The Life of St. Brigid: One of my favorite Orthodox children's books!
Set a seasonal table: We have recently moved ours into the kitchen where it is more visible throughout the day. I found a small wooden shelf that fits nicely into a small space in the kitchen and we are really enjoying it.
The small vial in front of the icon contains water from a Brigid Well brought back by my in-laws when they travelled to Ireland, as well as the cross. We borrowed the icon and cross from the pantry temporarily.
We also got a festivity stand this year, which I am loving! I have always enjoyed Mat. Emily's posts featuring a stand like this, and this year got one for Christmas. The girls have taken over the role of setting it up for most feasts and seasons and they have a lot of fun digging through the various wooden animals to locate things relating to the life of a saint. Letting them set it has been a great way for them to remember what they already know about each saint.
ReplyDeleteYour new stand looks just lovely and cleaning out your pantry sounds like a great idea...we always just walk down the road to visit the sheep. We keep saying we are going to make butter but when we start whipping the cream we never get past the whipped stage..it looks to tasty at that point! A very happy day to you!
your pantry is lovely! :) blessed day and week to you!!
ReplyDeleteI'm admiring your pantry and your seasonal corner. I can't help wondering if those are trees from Europe (Ostheimer?) or if you have a clever someone who made them with the directions from Wee Folk Art. I would love to do that!
ReplyDeleteMaria - those trees were a very gracious gift from a sweet blogger who made the most amazing peg people saints. She closed down her blog and I have been out of contact with her for quite a while (she went by Leah online). She did use the patterns from Wee Folk Art. I have made a few of the trees using their patterns, sadly they are waiting to be painted - another project I hope to get to sometime.
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