It has taken me so long to get the first post onto this blog. I sign in and click to post and then...I do nothing! I haven't been able to find the right thing...I haven't been able to find the right words...it just wouldn't come. Until today. Today is the Feast of St. John Vianney, the beloved and humble patron of parish priests and a man whose trust and devotion to St. Philomena was unwavering. It was he who called her The New Light of the Church and who began so dedicatedly to distribute the St. Philomena chaplet to all those around him. What better way to begin my blog than with the celebration of one of our Church's beautiful saints, while at the same time creating a dedication to the saint our family holds so near and dear to our hearts.
When Birdie and Bug woke this morning, they found our work table full of fun projects honoring St. John Vianney. The girls were familiar with St. John Marie already, as we've read the book St. John Vianney: A Priest for All People by Elizabeth Marie DeDomenico. Our parish priest has an intense devotion to St. John Vianney, so he also speaks and teaches of him often. So when the girls saw the coloring pages and holy cards, they knew right away whose feast day it was!
We were crunched for time this morning, so much to the disappointment of the girls, they only had time to do one project and then we were off to Bible School. Birdie chose to color her coloring page, which came from a downloadable coloring book from Relevant Radio. Bug decided to make her own holy card. (Of course she did! That meant getting out the gold paint!) As the girls were finishing up and getting ready to eat breakfast, they had the fun idea of taking the crafts they made to Bible School with them and leaving them as an anonomous, surprise gift for our priest ~ since he sooooo loves St. John Vianney! (Birdie has been reading Olivia and the Little Way by Nancy Carabio Belanger and this fit in perfectly with the lesson of doing small things (the little way) for others without the expectation of anything in return.) So we gathered the things together and added a couple of snack-sized Butterfinger candy bars (his favorite!) and off we went. The girls had a blast sneaking in early and placing the goodies on his chair.
They were ever so excited when Father realized who his admirers were!
Father, of course, incorported St. John Vianney into today's Bible School lesson, showing a quick movie to the younger kids about him. Birdie and Bug didn't get to see it, as they were teacher's assistants rather than participants this year. (Officially only Birdie is old enough for that, but Bug was allowed to be an assisstant to the assisstants! Sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know...wink, wink!) But anyway, Father let us borrow the movie for the afternoon, so as I was preparing lunch, the girls watched the EWTN production of My Catholic Family: St. John Vianney. Then we were in for an afternoon of crafts!
Birdie and her wood spoon
mini-saint.
And the paints came out again!
We have been addicted to these little guys ever since seeing this post. 
Bug's first time making a wood spoon saint!
When all was said and done we had a project board full of fun things to celebrate St. John Marie Vianney and we planned on ending it with a chaplet at bedtime to honor his most beloved saint (and our's!) St. Philomena. I'd love to end with a picture of the beautiful chaplets that were given to my girls by our dear neighbor, Diane, who hand-crafts rosaries and chaplets with designer beads. They are absolutely beautiful...but...I've just realized that my first post has become more of a novel that has actually taken me 2 hours to compose! Hopefully I'll become a bit more efficient as time goes on! So the St. Philomena chaplets will have to wait for another post, on another day and instead I will end with one more photo of our completed project board.
St. John Vianny, Pray for Us.
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