Some Quiet Stillness

I'm sitting at my computer in a perfectly quiet house.  Hubby is at work.  Birdie and Bug are at school.  I'm completely alone!  I'm preparing to leave on my yearly Regnum Christi weekend retreat at Marytown.  I'm excited, but just like every year that I go (this is my third now), I feel a certain reservation.  I'm not sure where it comes from. 

Am I sad to leave my kids?

Am I worried about hubby burning holding down the fort?

Is it just 'you know who' trying to psyche me out of spending time with Christ?

Or am I scared of what He is going to ask of me as I sit in 36 hours of silence with only Him?

All of the above.

All Souls

Father provided our school and the parishioners of our church with a beautiful opportunity to live out our faith during a Eucharistic Procession for the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed. 

The whole school community took part in a procession around the block of our school, stopping at a couple of houses to pray litanies offered for the poor souls in purgatory, receiving a final blessing as the procession ended in front of the church. 

We were so blessed that Birdie was asked to help serve in the procession, carrying two of the five relics ( St. Therese & St. Francis Xavier ) included in the procession.

(Birdie in the blue scapular closest to the camera.)



Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen

The Feast of All Saints

I'm finding it so hard to keep up with three blogs!  I haven't posted any of our fun activities for so long, but had to get this one in as we begin the month of November!

Our school celebrates the Feast of All Saints with a parade and party.  Bug's class wrote reports about their saints and then presented them the day of the parade while in costume.  It was fantastic that I was able to slip away from my own class to take a peek at her as she was presenting...



St. Philomena!

All the classes processed in a parade through the junior high wing of the school and into the gymnasium for parents. 

There were some great costumes this year and it's always so much fun to see who the kids will choose (and to learn why they chose them!).

St. Philomena, Pray for Us!



And may all the Saints of Heaven Pray for Us!

St. Francis Fun!

We had a great couple of days to celebrate St. Francis.  With it falling on a Monday, we used the weekend to get started on some of our fun, splitting the time between finishing up some St. Therese things and starting on our St. Francis stuff.  October sure starts off with a bang, doesn't it!

We started with some stories.  It's fun and easy to just read excerpts from Tomie dePaola's Francis: the Poor Man of Assisi because each page is its own little story.  I love the story of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio, so we had to read that one!  And it was a great lead into our baking for the day.  We made wolf paw cookies.  I couldn't find the right kind of cookie, (I think they're called Almonetta?) so I grabbed Pepperidge Farm lemon cookies. They seemed to have the right shape.  I don't know how all the flavors will work together, but sometimes, it's just more for the fun of baking together (even if we don't like our creation!).  Besides, we can always count on Dad to do the eating!

They turned out really cute.  So much so that I had the girls make extras so I could take some to my kindergarten kids on Monday, as we had a great day planned for the Feast of St. Francis at school too!  The girls were glad to help out, as long as there was still some melted chocolate left over to lick off the spoon.

After lunch, when it had warmed up a bit (or at least it tried to warm up a bit), we went out back and painted a bird house for Brother and Sister Bird!  We kept hoping Brother Sun would stay out, but the girls were pretty cold by the time they were done! 

Getting started...

There's Brother Son, but unfortunately, the table was in the shade...so...



we finally moved the table to finish up!

Because it was so chilly, we waited until Sunday to finish up.  St. Francis must have put a word in because Sunday was a beautiful day, so after Mass, we headed back outside to make bird seed cookies.  It's our hope that all our efforts will lure the beautiful bluebirds that we see in the meadow into our backyard.  We're really hoping they like our little house (although it's not really a bluebird house).  We're hoping they won't know the difference!

When all was finished, it had been a fun weekend, filled with love of outdoors and all God's beauty, blessed by our gentle saint of Assisi!

Prayer of St. Francis

St. Francis of Assisi, Pray for Us!

The Little Flower

We prepared for the Feast of St. Therese with a novena that we started on September 22, so the girls were awaiting this special day for quite some time.  This feast day fell on a Friday, so we spent much of the weekend celebrating it.



The girls were thrilled to find the table filled with all things "Rose" when they woke for school, including chocolate roses, new rose hair accessories, a new pair of "little flower" earrings and some beautiful new holy cards along with a new statue of St. Therese.  Birdie couldn't wait to put on the earrings and Bug wore the new little hair clip to school.

First Friday is so nice at school, as each class has time in front of The Blessed Sacrament throughout the day.  It was a nice addition to this feast day!

  

For some fun, we tried our hand at making paper roses.  I guess I should have trimmed the paper down a bit (you think?!).  The girls thought they were great...but what in the world does one do with a paper rose bigger than your head?  The cat, whose name is, fittingly, Rosie, was absolutely terrified of them (especially when Birdie sprayed hers with perfume to make it more realistic...afraid it's going to take more than that!)

We wanted to have eclairs as a treat, but I didn't get around to that, so we dipped Oreo's in one of our flowered candy molds.  Yum!  They were a hit.

The girls enjoyed this so much that Birdie decided she would make some up on a pretty tray to take as a treat for her book club meeting. 

The book for this month was Olivia and the Little Way.  Perfect!  Birdie loved the story and the girls even had a conference phone conversation with the author and they made sacrifice beads.  It was a great way to wrap up a great weekend dedicated to The Little Flower. 

St. Therese, Pray for Us!

Celebrating the Archangels

I found (from my favorite blog) some great ideas to celebrate Michaelmas, but unfortunately, was completely unprepared when the date rolled around.  Such the saga of life!  But wouldn't you know that God would take care of it!  Hubby came home with Entenmann's Devil's Food Donuts that were on sale!  Perfect timing!  So the girls woke to a yummy breakfast of donuts and blackberries. 

Terrible picture.  I took it early in the morning before there was much light and it didn't turn out at all!

The girls were surprised by the breakfast choices, as we normally don't have sugar-y foods in the mornings (especially on school days).  It threw Birdie off so much that she didn't even want a donut!  Whose child is that??!!  She opted for a hard-boiled egg, which, oddly enough, was very fitting as well (and much easier to stab with the cheap plastic swords that we had sticking in the devil's food donuts).  And I can say that the blackberries did not go over well at all.  I couldn't find fresh, so I purchased some frozen and drenched them in sugar.  Both of the girls were certain Lucifer had spit on them! I believe Birdie's exact word was "disgusting".  Well...I suppose the point was made even if breakfast didn't get eaten.

We had a bit better time in the evening with a cool poster in honor of the three Archangels.  The coloring pages came from the only source I ever use.  The girls really enjoyed them and since there were so many, Mommy and Daddy even got involved.  It was a fun coloring night!

Bug chose to paste the Prayer of St. Michael in the center of hers, but Birdie (which I learned during this project) took it upon herself in religion class a school to memorize the nine choirs of angels (just for the fun of it!).  She decided to list those on her poster instead.  Very nice!

Then it was off to bed!

St. Michael, Pray for Us!

Our Lady of Sorrows

Our parish has the blessed privilege of being named for Our Lady of Sorrows and today was an absolutely beautiful day to honor Mary, our Sorrowful Mother.  Father had an amazing morning planned for all the classes, having each participate in a Eurcharisitc Procession from the school chapel to the church for prayer and adoration.  It was such a neat experience for all involved.

  

Bug on left in blue.

Birdie on right with white bow.

Our church has such a beautiful side alter dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and it was the perfect place for our moments of prayer. 

The procession at school was a great way to start the day.

We ended the day with some crafts and baking. 

We mixed up some little heart-shaped white cakes to decorate in honor of the seven sorrows.  While they were all baking, the girls colored the heart of Mary, glued it to a little red envelope and wrote out the seven sorrows to place inside it.  We found arrow-shaped toothpicks at Kroger which worked perfectly for the craft as well as the cakes.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for Us!

Happy Birthday, Mary!

I'm finally getting around to posting our day last Wednesday, as we celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Mother. Of course, we had to be in school, but we did have a birthday party for Mary with several of the classes. The cake was beautiful and absolutely delicious! It had been kept in the freezer and was still partially frozen, which, for some reason, really made it good!!

YUM!

After school, we went to evening Mass, followed by Adoration. We haven't been to the Wednesday evening Mass for quite a while. (It tends, unfortunately, to be a wintertime routine that we loose the habit of in the summer.) Mary's birthday prompted us to go this evening and it was nice to get ourselves back into that habit.

The girls enjoyed the extra time spent with Jesus, too. We prayed the Rosary in honor of Mary, then we had the opportunity for reconciliation.

Once at home, the three of us made blueberry muffins (more for the next day's breakfast, but they were perfect for Mary's birthday celebration!).

Bug formed them into a cross and chose blue candles...interestingly enough, there were seven blue candles and seven muffins made a perfect cross. Just enough for the seven sorrows (although that's next Wednesday, isn't it!?)

With a little bit of extra time before bed (and no homework!) the girls got creative on their own. They dug into the "old clothes" box and pulled out two old uniform shirts. They decorated the fronts with markers just for fun, making "I belong to God" shirts!

There is a story there...Father has a T-shirt that says the same thing and he happened to have it on at school. Evidently the girls liked it!

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Blessed Mary, Mother of us all, Pray for us!

In Honor of Blessed Mother Teresa

September 5th is the optional memorial of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa is a favorite saint-to-be in our house. She has been of interest because of a CD by the beautiful Catholic artist Danielle Rose. Her CD I Thirst is dedicated to Mother Teresa and takes several of her more famous quotes and prayers and puts them to music. It has been an inspiration to me and to my girls. The Prayer of Mother Teresa is one of their favorite songs on the CD. I have to admit, it's one of mine too!

Well, September 5th fell on a Sunday this year...a special Sunday for our family, as the 11:00 Mass this morning was offered for my husband's parents.

After Mass, many of his siblings and their families went to lunch. It was a nice way to honor his beautiful Mom and Dad and a nice time to catch up with family.

Once at home we tried something new. I found this post and the recipe for Indian Sweet Bread. We thought it really sounded good, so we went to work mixing, kneading, rolling and frying. It turned out yummy...and according to Birdie...kind of like an elephant ear, especially when you cover it with confectioner's sugar! I'm not sure that falls into the true category of traditional Indian Sweet Bread, but it sure did taste good!

Bug tolerated the sticky fingers much better than I would have expected!

Birdie, on the other hand, not so much!

What was so beautiful here was that as she was waiting to flip the bread, I could hear Birdie humming the tune of The Prayer of Mother Teresa from the Danielle Rose CD, even though we had not listened to it on today! I love to watch the Holy Spirit at work in my girls!

Then the work table was set...

In a stretch to find something new and different for today's craft, I decided to try creating a photo collage of Mother Teresa. It was a hit. The girls loved seeing the pictures so much that we even brought up some more photos on-line for them to look at. They were especially interested in the real photo from which the coloring page was drawn. Isn't she talented?! The collage included some of her words of wisdom and, of course, her beautiful prayer which, as I mentioned, my girls dearly love. It was neat to see them make the connection between the other quotes we used and some of the other songs on the CD.

Our finished board looked nice! It was great to get it updated. We've been behind since school started!

Prayer of Blessed Mother Teresa

Dear Jesus,

Help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.

Amen.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us.