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.

The Queenship of Mary

A table set for Mary!

These yummy little brownie bites are called, fittingly for the day, "Crowned Cupcakes". It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's a brownie with a peanut butter cup crowning the center. They are an absolute favorite at our house but they never last very long!

We had these paper crowns left over from a birthday party years ago...I think it was when Birdie turned five! I pulled them out of a box in the basement and the girls had so much fun adding the glitz. Bug was very disappointed that her statue of Mary (Our Lady of Lourdes) didn't have on a crown too, so up to her room she went. Of all things...a Polly Pocket crown that fit perfectly!

Mary Queen of Heaven, Pray for Us!

Our First Day of School!

It was a beautiful, but very warm, first day back at school. Birdie and Bug could hardly wait to get back to see all their friends and meet their new teachers. Our school is such a beautiful family centered in Christ...It is such a blessing to be part of it!

The Perfect End of Summer

Up, up and away...

Can you believe that this is how we got to end the evening on our last day of summer break! Amazing! And it happened in the meadow RIGHT BEHIND OUR HOUSE! Absolutely beautiful and an experience the girls (and Mommy and Daddy) will never forget!

The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

It's been a while since I've posted! We've had some busy days with school starting but we did take some time to enjoy the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary this past Sunday. We chose to go to the Saturday evening Mass, so Sunday morning the work table was ready with a neat craft.

I had some gift boxes from Michael's craft store left over from organizing my classroom, so I found a beautiful picture of heaven-bound Mary on-line that the girls could cut and glue to the inside bottom of the box. They added silver stars around her head and TONS of cotton clouds on the sides around her. We had a coloring sheet of angels at the Nativity, so we used a few of those as well.

They turned out so cute, we still have them sitting on the kitchen table, but I think the neatest part for me when Birdie (mind you...almost in junior high...) said, "I love doing stuff like this!" Smile!

Then we ended the day right as well! This is a Little Debbie strawberry shortcake roll (too bad they don't make blueberry shortcake roll!) with piles (and I do mean piles) of whipped cream and blue sprinkles.

Birdie and Bug had the perfect jobs. Birdie loves whipped cream and Bug loves things to have sprinkles. They each made sure the shortcake had its share of both...and boy did it! YUM!

Oh Mary, conceived without sin,

Pray for us who have recourse to thee.

The Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe

The Feast of St. Max fell on a Saturday, so we had grand plans that would fill the afternoon, since it's way too hot to do anything else. Well, we learned earlier in the week on the Feast of St. Clare that plans don't always go the way we think they will...And so it was with today as well, but at least there were no spills...only interruptions!

The agenda today included two recipes and several crafts:

Ptasie Mleczko (our version anyway!) from Waltzing Matilda

Crown Cakes

Coloring picture of St. Max

Handmade Holy Cards

Beaded Maximilian Kolbe Chaplet

(all found at my favorite blog, Shower of Roses)

Birdie and I made the Ptasie on Friday evening, so it was ready to go. We just melted chocolate chips and rolled them in chopped almonds. Not really the traditional Polish candy, but the girls loved the idea! The hardest part was waiting until Saturday to eat one!

The crown cakes (one white and one red) were made of a 9x9 brownie that was cut in half and serrated at the top to look like a crown. (Ugh, I know...this one would have been perfectly gorgeous, but just more than we could do today!) The girls iced and sprinkled the necessary sugar color as I read the story of the vision of Mary offering the crowns of purity and martyrdom to St. Max. He, of course, accepted both.


Not too terrible to look at, delicious to eat, so all was well!

And then grandpa came by! Time out for a while to visit!

After grandpa left we were all prepared to get to work on the crafts. Our table was set with the coloring page (also from Waltzing Matilda) and materials for making our own holy cards (stickers, colorful papers, images of St. Max). Just as we were beginning, two little neighbor friends came by to see the baby bunnies that we are babysitting for a family down the street! The bunnies are positively irresistible, so we had to take another time out!

Once back at work, the coloring pages and holy cards were completed and really turned out nice. Our regret for the day was that we were not able to get the beads out and bead our own St. Maximilian Kolbe Chaplet. Birdie has been very interested in beading her own rosaries and chaplets, so she was disappointed that we didn't have time. The bunnies, however, quickly consoled her!

And our work board looked quite nice as we finished our day.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pray for Us!