December Podcasts

Learn about the original Book of Virtues from one of Month 4's topics.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin

Ambleside notes on studying Plutarch

Why Study Plutarch? by George Grant

G3 online library

S9 Stories from History with Greek stories

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

(From Psalm of Life by Longfellow)

If you want me to keep you a little bit of company while you're wrapping presents or cleaning the oven, Podcast #29 is ready to go. In today's podcast, I share how Lew Wallace came to write Ben-Hur and the effect it had on him. Here's a picture of him writing the book under his favorite birch tree at home in Indiana.

The First Christmas from Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace

Ben-Hur (the movie)

Although little kids won't follow the story line, my parents took me when I was a little girl and the images made such a lasting impression on me. It's rated G.

Lew Wallace's home and museum, including his 'pleasure-house for the soul'

My Gift by Christina G. Rossetti

What can I give Him
Poor as I am,
If were a shepherd,
I would give Him a lamb.
I I were a wise man,
I would do my part.
But what can I give Him?
I will give Him my heart.

The Story-Life of Washington compiled by Wayne Whipple (1911)

Other book suggestions on Washington

Washington at Valley Forge

With his lean, ragged levies, undismayed,
He crouched among the vigilant hills; a show
To the disdainful, heaven-blinded foe.
Unlauded, unsupported, disobeyed,
Thwarted, maligned, conspired against, betrayed--
Yet nothing could unheart him. Wouldst thou know
His secret? There, in that thicket of snow,
Washington knelt before his God and prayed.

--R.G. Sutherland

The Madonna in Art--combines Christmas, our role as mothers AND Month 4's Mother's University topic of Art.

The Madonna in Art by Estelle Hurll (1897)

Links to pdf images of paintings mentioned in the book can be found in the book above.

Gloria in D Major by Vivaldi

Oh, let me enfold thee, my baby, tonight;
While legions are singing in joyous delight.
A new star has risen to hail thee divine,
For you are a king, but tonight you are mine.
--Bertha Anderson Kleinman

It has taken a lot of years for me to make peace with Christmas.

The rush of Christmas traffic blurs
The days that we prepare
To celebrate the birthday of
A babe so sweet and fair.

In all the rush did we neglect
A place for Christ to stay--
A tiny manger in our hearts
Where He may spend each day?

For once within, His presence grows;
The love that will unfold
Will be enough to reach and warm
A world confused and cold.
---Debra Crevelli

This Year's Christmas Message.

Virtue: Strength; That substance or quality of physical bodies, by which they act and produce effects on other bodies.
(1828 Webster dictionary)

And why people liken him to Cincinnatus.

Art credit: Cincinnatus Abandons the Plough to Dictate Laws of Rome by Juan Antonio Ribera y Fernandez

The Mothers of Great Men and Women by Laura Holloway

Stories of Great Wives and Mothers

"And say to mothers, what a holy charge
Is theirs--with what a kingly power their love
Might rule the fountains of the new born mind."

​--from a poem by L.N. Sigourney, read as a tribute to Mary Washington

The Mothers of Great Men and Women by Laura Holloway

Stories of Great Wives and Mothers

"It is to my mother that I owe everything. If I am Thy Child, O my God, it is because Thou gavest me such a mother. If I prefer the truth to all other things, it is the point of my mother's teachings..."

--St. Augustine

A message of hope to you mothers of 'wayward' children. Love, patience, prayers...and often tears.

​Art credit: Saint Augustine and Saint Monica by Ary Scheffer (1846)

The Mothers of Great Men and Women by Laura Holloway

Stories of Great Wives and Mothers

"The theory that mothers were the ruling influence on the characteristics of their children is not a new one, having been held by the ancients as an indisputable truth. To the mothers they looked as the source of the improvement or the degeneracy of the race."

Art: Mother and Wife of Coriolanus Pleading With Him

Stories of Great Wives and Mothers

Fifty Famous People by James Baldwin

"...he was quite sure that...there was one really true Most High God, who governed the world...and sent him the inward voice, which he tried to obey to the utmost of his power, and by so doing...his inward sight grew clearer and clearer."

Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History for the Little Ones by Charlotte Yonge

The Death of Socrates found in the Art Section of Mother's University

"There is much in them calculated at once to purify and elevate both the intellect and the heart..."

​Art credit: Narcissus by John William Waterhouse

"...just as the sweet green grass and common flowers cover the earth where treasure lies hid, just as the rough shell holds in its heart the soft, shining pearl, so these old stories may seem at first but simple, common tales, but those who look beneath will find at the heart of them a living truth more precious than gold or shining pearls."

Legends and Stories of Italy for Children by Amy Steedman

Today, the story of Raphael.

"...if you learn something about these great artists and their wonderful pictures, it will help your eyes to grow wise... Their pictures will not only be a delight to your eyes, but will teach your heart something deeper and more wonderful than any words can explain."

​--Amy Steedman

Knights of Art: Stories of the Italian Painters by Amy Steedman