Sofia’s Corner
Hello, and welcome!
I’m Sofia, John’s wife.
Life fundamentally begins and ends in the home. Over the years, I have been privileged to do the hard but beautiful work of making a home for our family together with John. I have loved collaborating with John on the Bethany Weekends, the Woman of the Household course, and other LifeCraft projects examining what a home is for; how to develop friendships in it, how to welcome friends into it, and how to better integrate our work lives and home lives. It’s been a long-time desire to put together resources for you sharing books, music, and household activities that have played a role in the Cuddeback home. Sofia’s Corner is the space where I will do just that! I have put together three of my favorite areas: Reading in the Home, Singing in the Home, and Celebrating in the Home, and will be sharing things with you there as time allows. I hope you enjoy!
Christmas in the Home
Make an easy Advent wreath!
From the earliest days, the Advent wreath has been an important tradition in John’s and my marriage. Gather supplies and follow along to make your own beautiful Advent wreath.
Why Christmas Carols?
I LOVE Christmas carols; I would sing them all year.
Historically, Christmas carols were just one of a part of many different songs celebrating the seasons and feasts of the year. These songs were celebrating religious sentiment but were sung by the laity in non-liturgical contexts. These were songs, in contrast to liturgical chant, that were designed to be sung while holding hands and dancing in a circle; that’s why so many carols have a lilting, dance rhythm.
The preface to the Oxford Book of Carols describes them like this: “The typical carol gives voice to the common emotions of healthy people in a language that can be understood and music that can be shared by all. Because it is popular it is therefore genial as well as simple; it dances because it is so Christian, echoing St. Paul’s conception of the fruits of the Spirit in its challenge to be merry -’Love and joy come to you’. Indeed, to take life with real seriousness is to take it joyfully, for seriousness is only sad when it is superficial.” I love thinking about how these carols were the overflow of the spiritual life nurtured by the liturgy in the Church overflowing into the streets and fields!
Start Singing Today.
Enjoy free downloads below to help you prepare for the Advent and Christmas seasons. Included in the Christmas Resource are audio files and a printable songbook to help you learn classic carols. The Christmas Carol resource also includes an introduction, “Why Christmas Carols?”
The words of the Advent hymns are exquisite! Some great opportunities to sing these hymns are: at the daily lighting of the Advent wreath candles, at the blessing over your meal at dinner or even as a bedtime song. Included in the Advent resource is recordings of the melodies for all the hymns as well as recordings of the harmony for each hymn. Click the third button for the YouTube lessons with Sofia!
Advent Calandar Project
As we begin the liturgical preparation period of advent, it can often be difficult to balance the practical preparations for celebrating Christmas and preparing our hearts to celebrate Christ’s birth. This year, Sofia designed a color-in advent calendar as a checklist for practical preparation and something the whole family can work on together.
How to use the color-in advent calendar
1. Number each box in the grid, with the last box as the 24th
2. Make a numbered list of tasks to complete in preparation for Christmas (these can either be spiritual preparations, practical tasks, or both!)
3. Hang on the wall, preferably in a central location where all the family can use it
4. When a task has been completed, color in the box with the corresponding number.
5. Work together as a family to fill in the whole calendar before Christmas!
Tips from Sofia:
-Use the template as is for an 8×11 advent Calendar or you can blow it up to a larger size. We made ours a 24×36 and hung it in a central location for all to use.
-Instead of numbering the grid and making a corresponding numbered task list, you can put a post-it note with the task in each square that can be removed when you color the square. We like the numbered list because it gives us great satisfaction to see a record of the tasks we have conquered!
-Reduce the template to the size of your journal and make it a personal task/coloring page for your private Advent goals!
Tune into our Christmas Podcasts
Tune into a Christmas Read-Aloud
Check out our LifeCraft Read-Aloud CHRISTMAS SERIES. New stories posted every Friday during Advent:
Have Your Own Christmas Read-Aloud
Here are some of our favorite books to read-aloud together at Christmas!
Reading in the Home
See my favorite picture books to read aloud with children!
This is a list of my favorite books to read aloud with our children. Of course, this list is not exhaustive; there are many other wonderful books out there. These are the ones we have loved!
Good Reads for Adults
All of the books are like personal friends of mine that I love and I want you to love them too (or in any case get to know and appreciate them)!
Jane Austen Discussion Questions
I think everyone should read Jane Austen and believe that with the right effort, everyone who reads her will at least come to appreciate, if not love her. I am currently working on discussion questions for each of Jane’s major novels. These will be available in the LifeCraft membership section, where you can also find course content, like Man of the Household and Woman of the Household.
Singing in the Home
A few words of introduction…
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Why I love singing:
I started to play the violin when I was six, but my mother sang to me from the cradle. I never had formal voice training but one of my most distinct memories is sitting in a little, plastic wading pool filled with sand with my mother (I must have been tiny if we were both in there!) and my mother showing me how to find my head voice and the Italian aria “Caro mio ben.”
My mother had a beautiful voice, like her own mother and her mother’s father. She was a Juilliard graduate and filled our home with music. I loved to stand next to her at church and hear her voice. It was like soft velvet to the soul.
My father also had a beautiful voice. But he had no pitch. Standing next to him at church was painful. Growing up between them both taught me a few very important things. From my mother I learned the deeply formative power of beautiful music, how to play it, how to sing it. From my father I learned that the desire to express one’s heart through song belongs to everyone, even those who can’t keep pitch aka “can’t sing.”
I also learned from my father that even people who can’t sing on pitch can learn how to sing.
All ten of the children in our family learned to play classical instruments by the Suzuki method from a very young age so our house was NEVER empty of music. Someone was always practicing, the listening tracks were always playing and when they weren’t, the classical radio station was playing. After being surrounded by so much music for so many years, my father began to sing on pitch.
I remember standing next to him at church as a teenager and realizing that he wasn’t throwing me off any more.
I never got to take formal voice lessons. But I always hear my mother’s beautiful voice in my head and I keep turning around what she taught me in that sandbox, like a child with a treasured object in her hands. And I still remember all the words to “Caro mio ben.”
New! Singing with Sofia Download
I am so excited to introduce our new Singing with Sofia resource! My hope is that this resource helps you gain the confidence to sing and, most importatnly, bring the joy of singing into your home. I am convinced that we are all designed to sing and I’d like to have a chance to convince you too.
With this free download, you will have access to 34 rounds I have recorded that you can sing along with, learn, and teach your family. These recordings aren’t intended to be listening recordings (sound brushed, with accompaniment etc), but rather work recordings (ie just me singing the melody line in my living room, probably with background noise) to help you learn to sing them yourself. I’ve also included an instructional video, a PDF handout explaining why I love rounds, and a document containing all the song lyrics.
Anyone can enter their email here to receive the free download! Podia members can access the materials by signing into their Podia account here.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out by sending an email to: lifecraftgroup@gmail.com, and be sure to put Singing with Sofia in the subject line. Happy Singing!