Maybe there's something to it...

The frequent reception of the Sacraments, I mean. I've managed recently to work in daily Mass three times a week in between dropping Velcro Boy off at school and the gym. Of course everything else is suffering, but I think that is necessary at this time.

But, I digress...

I made it to two (out of 3 ) Masses last week plus Reconciliation and I found the difference in myself to be amazing!  I was more patient and tolerant.  I recognized several occasions when I ordinarily would have lost my calm...but I didn't.  I felt less stressed too.

We've been to Mass twice this week so far (other than Sunday, of course), once as a family and once on my own and so far it's been a pretty OK week.  Of course there are a few more coming up too...

We might even get to an Extraordinary Form Mass for the Easter liturgy!  Let's pray Doodlebug naps Saturday (he's been dropping them lately :( and I'm soooo not ready for that) so we can let him skip nap on Sunday.

Aren't they cute?!?

Velcro Boy

The Professor

Doodlebug

cuddly doodle...

The Climber ~ he loves his orange juice...

Palm Sunday

Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna!

Hope everyone had a great day!

We made a caterpillar today.  It will sit on the table for the week.  On Good Friday we'll put him in a cocoon (paper bag).  When setting up for Easter, the caterpillar will morph into a beautiful butterfly.  On Easter morning the kids will remove the butterfly from the cocoon.

Using Velcro Boy's Image of God program, we made palm fronds and donkey puppets...

Since one made projects...

The others had to as well.

Welcome to Holy Week!

Feast of the Annunciation

We finally got our copy of Finestrae Fidei (what a great coloring book!!!  Mosaic images and scripture too.), so we were able to color their image of the Annunciation...

~ The Professor ~

~ Velcro Boy ~ 

Lamb of God cupcakes...

The boys  had a blast decorating these!  Except for cutting the marshmallows, they were super easy.

Frost white cupcakes.  

Cut mini-marshmallows in half, cut large marshmallows in half lengthwise, then diagonally.

Place the large marshmallow ears.  Make a ring (or 2) of mini-marshmallows around the outside edge.  Make a face with M & M's (we used the spring ones).

Enjoy!

Reading...

Mary The Mother of Jesus by Tomie dePaola

The Annunciaton from the Catholic Book of Bible Stories

Mary my Mother by Fr. Lovasik

Hope you all had a great day!

Funny Story

First a little background...
Doodlebug loves to dip.   His food, his fingers, you name it and he loves to dip it.   So naturally when it comes to the holy water font (at church or home), he says he "want to dip" when he wants to wet his fingers and bless himself.

Now for the funny (or not so funny) story...
A while back he was being awfully quiet upstairs, so I went to investigate.   As we all know, a quiet 2 year old is not a good thing!   Where do I find him?   In the bathroom.   What is he doing?   Dipping.   In the toilet.   And blessing himself.   Fortunately the water was clean.

New Members of the Family

While we were out the other day we picked up a few new statues.  I've been wanting to slowly add to our collection, but the church gift shop had some great deals, so ...

St. Patrick

St. Anne & Mary

St. Francis of Assisi

Of course I had to make covers for them too :) 

...so they're all covered up for a few more days.

Jesus Tree week 5

Can you believe it's already the 5th week of Lent?!?  I can't.  It's going by way too fast (like most things lately I guess)...

Day 29 ~ Peter Receives the Keys to Heaven

Two Keys

Mt 16:13-20

Day 30 ~ Widow's Son Back to Life

Face w/ Tears

Lk 7:11-17

Day 31 ~ A Coin for Caesar

Caesar Coin

Mt 22:15-22

Day 32 ~ Lazarus Raised From The Dead

Mummy Head

Jn 11:1-44

Day 33 ~ The Adulteress

Gray Stones

Jn 8:1-11

Day 34 ~ The Widow's Mite

Two Small Coins

Mk 12:41-44

Day 35 ~ Woman Anoints Jesus' Feet

Foot

Lk 7:36-50

On the Feast of St. Joseph

We didn't do too much today (sorry it's taken so long to post).  We had a nice family morning, I'm sure St. Joseph would have approved.  We went to a local Marine life center with my sister-in-law and my two nieces.  Hubby had the day off (rare for a Friday), so we really enjoyed ourselves.  The kids had a blast with each other.

Then we went to Jo-Ann fabrics to pick up fabric to make new altar cloths (the old ones are stained for some reason) and purple to drape the statues, etc.  While we were there I "just happened" to come across the perfect lace to make a new mantilla!  I have a beautiful one now, but packing it up to go to Mass and unpacking it for home prayer time has gotten to be a nuisance.  Plus, I've recently managed to carve out time for daily Mass 3 times per week (yippee!!!!), so I know I'll forget it if it doesn't stay in my purse.  So, I decided (quite spur of the moment) to make a new one.  

Hubby and I went out to dinner and a movie that night while my mother-in-law came to stay with the kids.  We're hoping to make it a regular monthly thing.  He and I get so little time together.

We colored pictures:

The Professor's

Velcro Boy's:

And we read a few books:

Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
Father and Son a Nativity Story by Geraldine McCaughrean
Good Saint Joseph by Fr. Lovasik

I had planned to do a 3D Cut & color Virtual St. Joseph Altar as well, but we ran out of time.  Maybe for St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st.

Veils

In keeping with the older traditions of the church, we've covered all the crucifixes, statues and religious art with purple drapes that were thrown together at the last minute painstakingly made.  The effect is quite somber.  The kids are all sad to see, or not see, them covered.  Doodlebug actually cried!

Our home altar.  Behind the cloths:

The crucifix, flanked by rosary holder of Mary and St. Therese.  

There are images of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus hanging behind the altar.

(aka the reclaimed space from the old t.v.)

Jesus tree week 4

Day 22 ~ Return of the Prodigal Son

Ring

Lk 15:11-32

Day 23 ~ The Rich Man and Lazarus

Angel

Lk 16:19-31

Day 24 ~ The Call of Matthew

Money Bag

Mt 9:9-13

Day 25 ~ The Blind Man

(eye popping...isn't it ;)

Eye

Jn 9:1-41

Day 26 ~ The Man with the Withered Hand

Hand

Mt 12:9-13

Day 27 ~ The Centurion's Servant

Roman Helmet

Mt 8:5-13

Day 28 ~ Zacchaeus the Publican

Tree

Lk 19:1-10

All the decorations are finished!!!!  I'm so thrilled.  It was a lot of painstaking work, but it was worth it.

St. Patrick's Day

Garland...

Cookies...

Yummy, homemade cream cheese sugar cookies!

and more cookies...

candy coated Oreos!  

We also read...

1.  Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola

2. The St. Patrick's Day Shillelagh by Janet Nolan

We had some more requested from the library, but they haven't come in yet (this seems to be a recurring problem lately)...

  1.  Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert

  2.  St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons

More great ideas can be found at this wonderful blog...

Erin go Bragh!  (Ireland Forever)

Jesus tree week 3

The next installment..sorry it's so late :)

Day 15 ~ Jesus Walks on Water

Footprints on Water

Mt 14:22-33

Day 16 ~ Promise of the Eucharist

Chalice w/Host

Jn 6:22-59

Day 17 ~ Lost Sheep/Good Shepherd

Sheep

Lk 15:1-7

Day 18 ~ Jesus Feeds 5000

Loaf of Bread w/ Fish

Mt 14:13-21

Day 19 ~ Samaritan Woman at the Well

Well

Jn 4:4-42

Day 20 ~ The Cripple at the Pool

Mat

Jn 5:1-15

Day 21 ~ Nicodemus Comes to Jesus

Dove on Water Drop

Jn 3:1-15

Small Successes

"It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that."

I just realized I haven't done this since the end of January!  Too long.

1.

I just finished updating our family albums!  I had to get prints made going back to last September!

Not only did I get caught up, I ran out of album :(  So I picked one up today while we were at Wal-Mart.

2.

After a run of sickness, we're finally back on track for school.  

As much as the kids refuse to cooperate with school when they're sick...

...they also get into a funk when we get off schedule.  Go figure...

3.

I figured out our crafts for the rest of Lent and some for Easter, including the upcoming feast days for St. Patrick, St. Joseph and the Annunciation.  We also have several things planned for the Tridium.

Now I'm off to finish putting together the timeline notebook for my son's world history.

What are your Small Successes this week?

Stop by Faith and Family Live to read more of this week's Small Successes.

As luck would have it...

As luck would have it...

After posting about my 5 favorites, I go out to the mailbox and find a few more!!!

 

Does this box look familiar?!? :)

Of course, it's filled with more of my favorite things ~ 

BOOKS!

(what homeschooling mom doesn't love books ?!?)

 

 

We have:

Loyola Kid's Book of Saints

Usborne Time Traveler

F is for First State

G is for Garden State

Old Testament Days : An Activity Guide (this and the other ones in the series are fantastic!)

An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

K is for Keystone

New Catholic Picture Bible

You Can Understand the Bible:A Practical and Illuminating Guide (for me)

I've recently been doing some thinking about our curriculum and decided we needed some overhauling.  We're adding on some Geography, covering a state about every other week, so I'm slowly acquiring the Discover America State By State Series.  I purchased the first 4 states already, the rest I'll keep an eye on through Amazon.  When I find a good deal (probably used), I'll grab it.  Going through roughly 2 states per month will take us a while to finish. There are study guides for each book here.

We also added World History with RC History.  That's what most of the rest of the books are for.  It looks like I'm going to have to buy more for this program though.  I went through the book list from the publishers' website and found most of the books at the library.  Great, but when requesting them, it is taking the library forever (longer than usual) to get the books.  To guard against not having access when needed (especially since I'll be doing this with 3 kids), I'll probably buy the books.  They're a good investment.

We'll also be working on the Alphabet Path using the ideas found here.  Jessica has some fantastic ideas!  Since I don't have nearly her energy, I don't think we'll be doing everything, but we will do what is good for our family.