Wingfeather Saga Book Club

My boys and I were so invested in this one!  This series is one of our absolute favorites, and we absolutely geek out together over all the details from the books.  We had planned to do the whole series for the book club, which was the first time we tried more than a single book for a club meeting, and it was just a bit much for schedules and such, so we ended up focusing primarily on the first book.  We couldn't help slipping in a few other things for our food and costumes and decorations, but for the activities and discussions, we stuck with the first book.  This was a reread for my older son and me, but my younger son didn't really remember it from before, so it was fun to hear his gasps and have him shout out things he thought as he was drawn in this time.  Both of the boys wanted to make posters for the book club, so while I was reading (or while we listened to the audio book), they were often drawing.

 Here is my younger son's poster:

 

Older brother is obsessed with birds, so younger brother decided to draw the birds from Wingfeather.  Here we have a Lone Fendril, a chorkney, and a snickbuzzard! 

Sea dragon in the harbor at Ban Rona

 We proudly hung up our map of Aerwiar (as well as our Kickstarter posters), and my older son put his poster below it:

The battle of Ban Rona

 All three of us were pretty excited to dress up for this one!  Artham Wingfeather posing with Oskar N. Reteep and Janner Wingfeather as a Durgan Guilding!

 I just had to toss in a few labels for "my" book shop!

My son loves anything resembling a scavenger hunt, so I made one for this book club.  Our housing development has a layout that resembles the shape of the roads on Oskar's map, so I decided to tweak his treasure map to fit with our neighborhood.  I actually had a hard time getting over a few things mentally (seriously, I kept being upset at having Anklejelly Manor on the same corner of the map as the Igiby Cottage!), but it was fun to make a map that looked like Oskar's and had those landmarks but forced the kids to read the map and follow it to find the clues.  

I included comments on the document of how the clues fit together and played out, but here are a few shots from our set-up.

The kids had to throw "stones" to knock out the Fangs at the jail.

I include this one to show that you  have to work with what you've got sometimes--stuffed dinosaur with a bit of gold fabric tied on, in this case, equals a sea dragon (using lots of imagination)! Ha.

The kids had to climb across some bridges to reach Peet's "tree house."

Here is "Peet" in action after delivering the clue to lead to his tree house!  :)

The Jewels

I wrote rules for the game of zibzy!  Yes, I'm the kind of nerd that gets excited about writing rules for a made-up game from a book!  Unfortunately, it had POURED rain, and the field where we would have played was a swampy mess (and the kids were going to be coming back inside my house!), so we didn't get a chance to try it out.  The cover and rules are included in the same doc as the scavenger hunt, so someone will have to let me know if you actually try it!

  The food!  There is SO much good food in these books that I could not possibly put enough to satisfy me in one book club!  We made quite a few other foods throughout the week leading up to the book club, which you can find in my other post about Wingfeather feasting.  Here is our menu for book club:

We basically used the Cheesy Chowder recipe from the Book Club guide at WingfeatherSaga.com but tweaked a bit based on what we have here.  (The recipe is in the kit for the first book.)

I used the recipe from the kit for the second book to make Ronchy McHiggin's Sailor's Pie.

I posted before on how we made Butter Bread.

Since we were focusing primarily on the first book, I decided to try to make some sweets from the Dragon Day festival.  None of the kids, thankfully, ended up covered in blue stickiness like Tink did, but we thoroughly enjoyed Blueberry Gooeyballs and Berry Buns.  I used Alton's Brown's cinnamon roll dough as the base for both.  For the blueberry gooeyballs, I rolled the dough into small balls, put them in the pan, and poured blueberry pie filling over the whole thing (honestly, I would double the amount next time so that they were seriously gooey!).  After baking I poured some glaze over them (made from a bit of cream cheese spread--can't easily get the real stuff here--with icing sugar and a bit of milk and vanilla).  For the berry buns, I made them like cinnamon rolls, but instead of a sugar/cinnamon mix, I put strawberry jam on top of the butter and rolled and cut them like you would cinnamon rolls.  I put a bit more jam on top, baked them, and then poured the glaze on these as well.  

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Beef jerky makes for great "dried diggle."

You have to have bibes for a party!

One of my favorite parts of the day was that, after the kids all went outside after lunch to play, we moms kept discussing the book and had a great time digging into some of the things we encountered in the book and how it affected us deeply.  I love this series so much, and I love having bookish friends!

One other note is that we were able to bring back some Wingfeather treats to share with our friends, and they are delightful!  I absolutely LOVE the patches!  Check out the goodies!

Wingfeather Feasting

One of the MANY things I adore about The Wingfeather Saga is all of the delicious food in it!  I've posted some things we've made previously and some for our book club, but here are some others we made just for our own delight!

Henmeat Biscuit Pie
I made this for a quicker weeknight meal for just our family of four, so I adapted it from the first time we made it to simplify it a bit.
I made 1/2 batch Filling from my former recipe (minus the cream).  After shutting off the heat, I stirred in 1 c shredded cheese and then poured the filling into an 8 x 8 pan.  I then mixed up a small batch of drop biscuits and dropped it in spoonfuls on top of the filling.  For the drop biscuits:
1 c flour
1/2 T baking powder
1 t sugar
1/4 t salt
Mix those dry ingredients and then stir in:
1/4 c melted butter
1/2 c milk

Honey muffins
2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 large egg
1 c milk
1/4 c butter, melted
1/2 c honey

Mix together wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and then pour the wet ingredient mix into the dry ingredients.
Pour into greased or lined muffin pans and bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin cups), until they are lightly golden.

Melt about another cup of honey with a tablespoon or two of butter and a pinch of cinnamon.  Take the muffins out of the pans and put on a tray or plate.  Pour the melted honey mixture over the muffins before they are fully cooled.
These were SO good!

Cinnamon hotcakes and bacon
I used this recipe (without the nuts), and it made for a yummy breakfast, along with some bacon.

Butterfire biscuits and Hogpig gravy
1 lb seasoned ground hogpig
Brown the seasoned hogpig in a skillet with a healthy dab of butter (around 1/4 cup).  Once browned, add some flour (around 1/4 cup) and stir in until all absorbed with the hogpig and butter.  Slowly pour in some milk.  Start with a modest amount (around 1 1/2 cups).  Lower the heat, and stir the gravy until thickened.  If the gravy is too thick, slowly add milk a little more at a time until it is the desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with your favorite butterfire biscuits!  (On a rushed morning or just needing to keep things on the simple side, I like this recipe and just added some melted butter over the top toward the end and cranked the oven heat up for just a bit to make them seem really "butterfire.")

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Club

We had a lot of fun with this one!

To start off, I had hidden golden tickets around our little housing development outdoor area, and as the kids arrived, they had to each find a golden ticket before coming into our chocolate factory (our house).  I really wish I could remember where I had gotten the printable for the ticket because it was editable and simple, but I seem to not have saved the information!

My sons and I had a lot of fun setting up the decorations.  We used some blankets to make a chocolate waterfall from the corner of our living room.  We wrapped bright balloons in plastic wrap to look like candies.  They didn't look like pinterest but still a fun addition.

I made some "swudge" (melted marshmallows, white chocolate, a bit of butter, and green food coloring and then rolled it out and cut it) and put it in containers by the "river."  As kids came in, they were pretty excited to taste the "swudge."

My son made a long paper "tube" with Augustus Gloop stuck in it! :)

My son also set up the "Nut Room."  We put some empty clothes to look like the squirrels were throwing someone down the garbage chute with the "bad" nuts.

             

We had "snozberry" lickable wallpaper on one wall.  It took the kids a little while to trust they were allowed to go and lick it, but once they did, they really like it.  I put a strip labeled with each kid's name to avoid everyone licking the same spots!  To make the "wallpaper," I made a thick syrup from adding a bit of water to sugar, along with some food coloring and fruit flavoring and then dripped it onto strips of wax paper.  Once it was cool, I taped the strips to the wall.

We had an "Invention Room" set up.  The kids worked in groups to design their own sweets and then present them to the group.

                   

We went outdoors again to the "Juicing Room" to help Violet Beauregard.  The kids were in pairs and tossed the water balloons back and forth until the balloons were all popped.

It was a little difficult to come up with a main dish for lunch to balance all the sweets!  I considered attempting to make pot roast flavored gum, but well, that crossed the line of crazy.  So, it wasn't exactly from the book, but it seemed to fit with the sweets theme to make meatloaf "cupcakes."  I just cooked the meatloaf in muffin pans and then topped with mashed potatoes to look like the icing.

We obviously had lots of sweets!  In addition to the swudge, we had some candy set out with signs to look like things from the book.

I also made Wonka's Scrumptious Fudge Mallow Delight and printed out the cute label from here (and she also has a delicious-sounding recipe but more complicated).

I followed a simple fudge recipe given to me by a friend:

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk 

1 2/3 cup sugar (pretty sure I cut this down since I think the original recipe was actually evaporated milk, so I think I maybe did 1 cup of sugar with the sweetened condensed milk)

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Bring first three ingredients to a boil for 5 minutes (stirring pretty constantly). 

Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients until all marshmallows are melted.

Pour into a butter pan and refrigerate for an hour.
Before I put the pan in the refrigerator, I poured in some extra marshmallows and pressed them in lightly so that they would stick in but still be visible as whole marshmallows.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Book Club

There are few things quite as magical as going through the wardrobe for the first time with a group of kids!

Aslan's Pavilion set up in our living room

Look at these kings and queens of Narnia all geared up for their epic adventure!  

As the kids came in, there were supplies set out for them to each make and decorate a crown.  There was a paper slip for each of them to attach to their crown, saying, "Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen.  Bear it well, Sons of Adam.  Bear it well, Daughters of Eve."

Then it was time for a quest!  They were given the first clue (taped onto the bottom of the "arrest warrant" for Mr. Tumnus) and had to follow steps, do some activities, and answer some questions related to the story.  With a brown fuzzy blanket wrapped around me and some "teeth" tacked onto a raccoon hat we had, I became Mr. Beaver!  :)

Their first clue said to follow the Beaver, and I led them around our outdoor area where I asked them some questions.  I then led them to a pretend cave, and when I went out to "look," my friend up as Father Christmas.

She said a few lines from the book and gave them each one of the miniature bows and arrows I had made.

They came back inside to the "pavilion" where I had hidden a small toy lion.  After finding it, they proceeded out to our yard (the Witch's "Castle") to free the animals I had frozen in ice.

They wrapped up the quest by shooting their arrows at a large image of the Witch, administering "cordial" to the "wounded" animals we had scattered on the ground, and returning inside for their coronation as kings and queens of Narnia.  You can find the clues and "script" I put together for the quest here.

We had a wonderful discussion about the book and a yummy lunch.  For the discussion, we just follow and adjust by what comes up as we're talking, but I always have a few questions jotted down to help me to get things started or in case we hit a lull.
I missed taking photos of part of our lunch, but we had lightly boiled eggs and sugar-topped cake from the tea at Mr. Tumnus's house (though I boiled the eggs more than lightly to make them easier to serve and eat!).

We also had broiled fish, boiled potatoes with a "great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes," finished off with a "marmalade" (we used jam) roll like the dinner at the Beavers' Dam.

We served hot chocolate or tea to drink.

We also had a really big map of Narnia printed at the local print shop (SO much cheaper to have done here than in the States!) from this great free download.

Mary Poppins Book Club

To be honest, this was not one of my favorite books or clubs to host.  It is a really rare occasion that I like the movie better than the book, but this is one instance in which I love the movie and would gladly have skipped the book!  We ended up having yummy treats and a good discussion, but there were just a lot of things I did not like about the book, so it was hard for me to get as excited about the club for it.

For the food, we had slabs of gingerbread (on which I put the shiny gold paper stars), raspberry jam cakes, tea sandwiches, and tea.  The jam cakes all sunk in the middle, so instead of the cute little stacked layers in the recipe photo, I ended up with the filling in the middle where they sunk.  They were still pretty tasty.

While the kids were arriving, I had large papers and chalk or oil pastels set out for them to make sidewalk chalk drawings. (Our neighbors are not fond of the actual sidewalk being drawn on, so we did them on paper.)

I made a little activity for the kids to try to practice using compasses.  I provided each group a compass, and we had a large world map.  They were first told they would go north.  They had to use the compass to actually move north in the large yard, and when they got to the spot, there were the three choices of countries.  They had to pick the correct country that could have been to the north of them (assuming they started in England), and if they did, they found the picture of the animal that Mary and the kids found in their "travels."  The document doesn't really provide much, but it does have the images, the country choices, and some follow-up questions in it, so I'm including it:

Compass Activity

Treasures Encountered

It's been a long time since I've written on this blog, and I've had a long list of posts that I've wanted and intended to write.  This one has been brewing for over a year now, and it keeps getting longer and longer.  I have felt so incredibly blessed by some beautiful treasures that we have encountered over the last year and a half!  I have shared bits and pieces but have wanted to share more fully.  Really, the impetus for finally just getting something written, even though it doesn't come close to doing justice to these things, is that I have the wonderful opportunity this week to attend a conference at which several of these people will be sharing in some form.  I have never been one terribly impressed by "celebrity," so this isn't really about me getting to meet well-known people.  These people and the things they have made, written, shared, sung, and curated have truly had a radical impact on my life and journey over this last season and have shaped me and my family in a way for which I cannot possibly adequately express gratitude.

I am certainly not the one to have discovered these things, which is why I phrase it as treasures encountered.  I have personally encountered these stories, songs, and resources over the last couple of years, and they have changed me.  All have been absolutely incredible sources of beauty, truth, and life that have nourished my soul.  The start of my encounters with these things was a really challenging season for me and my family, and even through the challenges of that season, I remember very clearly having the sense of being totally and utterly overwhelmed by the beauty that God had been just pouring over me as I encountered more and more of these things.

So, even though I am sharing things that might just seem like a list of favorites or recommendations, it feels like sharing my personal journey and story over the last couple of years in a very meaningful way, as each of these things truly is a part of my story now.

I think that the reason that I have waited so very long to write about these things is that they feel so deeply personal to me, and any words I could possibly express seem so inadequate to describe them and express their significance to me.  I still feel no confidence in doing so, but I just feel compelled to share and will keep it to a brief(ish) description to finally put something out there.

Without further ado, I'll dive in.

It all started with reading one little book called Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie.  It is a wonderful book that challenged me and started me rethinking my approach to school and life with my boys.  It created in me a longing for deeper things in my own soul and in our family and school life together.  It’s a wonderful book.  But, it’s more than that.  It is the source that started me on a path of discovering all of these other things.  I was so drawn to the deeper pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty that I dove into uncovering more. 

I joined Sarah’s Read-Aloud Revival (RAR) Membership site, and that is where the uncovering took off for me.  I listened to wonderful classes given there and was introduced to people like Andrew Pudewa, Julie Bogart, Heidi Scovel, and Adam Andrews.  I caught up on episodes of Sarah’s podcast.  I was new to podcasts and couldn’t quite handle listening at first, reading the show notes instead.  But, as Sarah’s voice began to feel like a friend’s rather than a stranger’s, I enjoyed listening to the episodes as well.  I’ve ended up with countless encounters with lovely people and delightful book recommendations through RAR, and I am inexpressibly grateful to Sarah for her own writing and for inviting me and many others into such a delightful realm.

The first book I tried from RAR recommendations was The Green Ember by S. D. Smith.  I cannot possibly begin to express what this book means to me.  It’s an absolutely wonderful story, but I cannot possibly even begin to be objective in describing it because it became a critical part of OUR story.  In the midst of a hard season, it was a beacon of hope and truly began a journey of healing for my son in his battles with fear and anxiety post-earthquake.  I genuinely get teary-eyed any time that I try to talk about this book and what it means to us.  Sam has a true gift to tell stories and speak hope and life through them, but I also believe that he is humble and faithful to just put stories out there for God to use as He will, and I know firsthand that He has used them powerfully!  The sequel came nearly a year after we read the first one, and in terms of a story and the writing, it is even better than the first.  Nothing holds the place for us that the first one does, but Ember Falls (the sequel) was so skillfully written and is such a beautiful story.  It is the middle of the story, so it is hard.  We genuinely grieved over it, but that was a healing part of our journey as well—to sit with the hard things, to grieve and to acknowledge the hurt and brokenness around us and in us, but to look with hope for the truth and beauty that is still there and for what is yet to come! 
“Let us be who we truly are, friends.  When the Green Ember rises—and may it happen soon—let us live so that when the Mended Wood comes, we will not be strangers to its charms.”  The Green Ember
“But it’s better to live as you will want to have lived, rather than spend your time worrying about the end.  You are right here in your story.  Don’t skip ahead.”  Ember Falls

We next encountered The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic by Jennifer Trafton.  It is quirky and funny and yet so insightful.  I will try to avoid spoilers here, but there is a point in the book in which Trafton’s words felt like they cut deep to my heart and expressed things I didn't know I hadn’t already processed or even needed to process with our own personal experience surrounding the earthquake.  “What did ordinary things matter now that they knew such an extraordinary thing could happen—and might happen again?” 
Followed, a bit later by…
“Yet she was surrounded by people—unstomped, unsmashed, uncrushed, unbroken, unruined—miraculously, wonderfully whole.”

There is also a poem that expresses so beautifully the meeting of weeping and rejoicing!  It was a profound experience for me.

The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson absolutely wrecked me in the very best possible way.  I wept through much of the book—tears of loss, tears of healing, tears of overwhelm at beauty and hope.  The story pulled my heart wide open, raw at times, to process things from my past, my present, and my future.  It challenged me in ways I desperately needed but could not possibly have received in a way as profound had it not come through such a powerful story. 
My son also loved these stories.  As The Green Ember had started for him, this series continued a journey of courage and healing.  It also holds a special place in my heart as I watched his reading take off.  I knew he could read well for his age, but he had never read anything aloud beyond very early chapter books.  One day he looked up and asked me if he could try reading a chapter aloud…and he did!  The way we bonded through this series was and is really precious to me.  He could not wait for our read-aloud time, and he would often get chapters ahead of me, but that became a fun bond between us for me to prioritize catching up with him for my evening and then getting to talk with him to connect about what we had read. 
This series is at the top of my all-time favorite books!  I literally reread several of the chapters and sections dozens of times over the next few months after finishing the series.  I mourned when the series was over and could not quite connect to anything else for awhile.

Because of enjoying Andrew’s writing, I also started listening to some of his music, which I had only minimally encountered before that.  It was one evening listening to his music that I had the moment I described earlier of starting to cry because of feeling utterly overwhelmed at the beauty that God was pouring out to me!  I truly felt that I could hardly even handle and most assuredly did not deserve such a flood of beauty and goodness!

My son dove into The Wildering Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers after that.  I thoroughly enjoyed starting the series with him.  It was a brilliantly crafted story inspired by the story of David from the Bible.  While I was enjoying it, my son’s reading had taken off to a point that I could not keep up with him!  He read much of the series completely on his own, and while it was a moment that had a mix of emotions for me, one significant feeling welled up in my heart to be so incredibly grateful to have discovered some wise and lovely sources and guides that I deeply trusted to be part of my son’s own journey as he branched off from me in a newfound confidence and level of independence.

There have been and continue to be so many more treasures.  The Rabbit Room and Story Warren have been groups of people that continue to blow me away with the incredible thoughts, writing, artistry, and goodness they are creating, curating, sharing.  The journey has led us to a place with homeschooling that I never expected…and absolutely love!  I have encountered kindred spirits all around the globe and beautiful people putting out beautiful, true, and good things!  I hope to share more about many of them, but these few represent a core of a journey for me and for my boys.  It was a season of transformation that set us on a path of finding things that continue to overwhelm me with their beauty.