Lent Day 27

Fast: Refrain from self promotion. “The only way to make rapid progress along the path of divine love is to remain very little and to put all our trust in Almighty God. That is what I have done.” — St. Therese

Pray: Is there someone who inspires feelings of inferiority in you? Offer a Memorare for her intentions.

Give: Page through your wedding album with your children today. Remember how loved you felt that day. Love your family well.

Elizabeth Foss In the Heart of My Home

Lent Day 26 Today's offerings

From Elizabeth Foss:

Lent Day 26

Fast: Let go of despair and know that God gives you sufficient grace.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” — St. Francis of Assisi

Pray: Pray to know how God wants you to spend your time online.

Give: Make sure that every one in your family gets at least one of your hugs today.

I've been following these daily meditations and have been very blessed by them.

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation, the day we celebrate the angel Gabriel's announcement of the Incarnation to Mary.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
Luke 1:27
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Luke 1:42).

These are some things we will be working on:

Coloring page of The Annunciation

Art Study: Davinci Botticelli

Food: How about Angel Food Cake with Cool Whip (for Purity)?

The Angelus Try to pray three times today (morning, noon, night) Angel Bell Craft for the little ones. I found this information from Fish Eaters interesting.

The Angelus Domini, shortened to "the Angelus," is the ringing of the church bell -- in three groups of three chimes with a pause in between each group, followed by 9 consecutive strokes -- at 6AM, Noon, and 6PM roughly, and its associated prayers, which spring from the monastic practice of praying the tres orationes at Matins, Prime and Compline. While the monastics said their prayers at the sound of the Angelus Bell, the faithful would stop what they were doing and say 3 Hail Marys in honor of the Incarnation. Later, since at least A.D. 1612, verses were added to these Hail Marys such that we get the form of the Angelus we have today (see below). During Paschaltide (the Easter Season), the humbling Angelus prayer below is replaced with the more celebratory, joyous Regina Coeli prayer at the direction of Pope Benedict XIV in 1742.

I have always loved this painting. My grandparents were farmers and had this hanging in their kitchen. I didn't know until a few years ago that it was The Angelus.



Visit American Life League (ALL) for more ideas. I wish I would have ordered Life Is a Miracle sooner. Oh well, at least we'll have it for next year. :)


Have a blessed day!

A Beautiful Sight to Behold!

The ladies at our church did an AWESOME job preparing the St. Joseph Altar! It was truly breathtaking. I wanted to share a couple of pics with you all. I hope you had a blessed day!

Our St. Joseph Altar

We all worked together to make this beautiful little altar in honor of St. Joseph. We can't wait for dad to get home and see it! We are going to Mass tonight and are filled with anticipation to see the altar prepared by our parishioners. It's always beautiful! Hope your day is truly blessed by doing what St. Joseph would do - that is God's will in your life :)

The kids also enjoyed listening to The House Cat read this wonderful book while they colored.

Saint Joseph - Pray For Us

Happy St. Joseph's Day

We are working on making our own St. Joseph Altar. Hopefully I'll have it to post soon.

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen

O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It Has Begun...

The weather has been so nice lately that we were able to start cleaning up in the backyard. Tuesday after an early supper dad picked up a rake and started to tackle all of the leaves. It didn't take long for Snuggle Bug to run into the kitchen and tell me that she had discovered a snowdrop in the forgotten flower bed in the back. Each spring we have beautiful daffodils there. I can't remember the last time I cleared the bed, if ever. Anyway, we were amazed to see some small Candlemas Bells standing amidst the leaves.

She was so excited to find these especially since she had just done a notebook page on them.

Well, one thing led to another and before we knew it we had broke ground on the Mary Garden we'd been talking about starting. The more we worked the more we saw God's hand in this.

I had never noticed all the thorns that grew here. As I cut them down we talked of our Lord and His crown of thorns.

I also came across this crown of thorns someone had made.


By nightfall we went from this



to thisNot bad for a couple hours work, huh?

My New Look

TA DA........

I finally figured it out!!! :) YEAH!!

I've been researching 3 column blogs for a while and have finally got it to work. Could you hear my shouts for joy?

Once again I must thank Jessica for her help. I felt as if this site was the one to use since we have something in common :)

Hopefully now I'll be able to expand and add some things I've been wanting to. Please bear with me and let me know what you think!

God Bless you all, Lori

Book Review by The House Cat

From time to time, I have the older girls write book reviews. Thanks be to God, they both enjoy writing. The House Cat has been working on a novel for about a year now. I can't wait to read it!
I thought I'd share the review she wrote on The Scarlet Pimpernel.

A Blessed Monday

Are you sure it's Monday today? It's not my typical Monday. I seem to have been able to go through The House Cat's and Snuggle Bug's work with them and plan the week. It's such a blessing to start the week off this way. I was really being tested last week but, I hung in there through the grace of God and today He is rewarding me :)

I'm always interested in seeing what other homeschoolers are up to. If you'd like to know what were doing this week.... read on.

(The House Cat (12) 7th Grade)

Religion

Seton Religion 7 Ch. 21 The Sacraments, Little Flowers of Saint Francis

Math

Continue working a lesson a day in Saxon 8/7.

Reading
Classic Lit-Robinson Crusoe
Faith and Freedom 7-1

Writing
Final revision of Scarlet Pimpernel review.
Poetry - Writing different types of poetry from R is for Rhyme.
I love these books from Sleeping Bear Press!
Creative Writing - The novel she's been working on for a while now.

Vocabulary
Wordly Wise 4 - List 14

Science
Finish geology study and begin Module 9 Apologia General Sciences.

What is life?

Nature Journal: At least one entry.

History
Catholic World Culture-Seton Ch. 19 Beethoven

Art
Seton 7 Ch 18 Jesus is Condemned to Death
Oil Painting Lesson

Latin
Prayers for Adoration and Benediction
O Saving Victim

(Snuggle Bug (10) 4/5th Grade)

Religion
Seton 5 Week 7
The First Christians by Marigold Hunt

Math
MCP F continue one lesson per day

Grammar
Intermediate Lang. Lessons
Wordly Wise Book 1

History
How America Grew, Fr. Furlong Read Ch7-10
Continue to read from history book basket.(War of 1812)

Science/Geography
Seton 4 Gases
Minn of the Mississippi
S is for Sunflower
Bird study

Latin
O Saving Victim

(Buck (5))
Jesus Tree Readings from Picture Bible and Coloring Sheets
Hooked on Phonics Level 1
Explode the Code Book 1
St. Patrick Book from Catholic Mosaic
Start T-Ball

(Honeybee (3))
Jesus Tree Readings from Picture Bible and Coloring Sheets
Letter C from Along the Alphabet Path
Letter C Tracing Sheet

Remember Man You Are Dust....

and to dust you shall return. What a powerful statement! As we travel along our Lenten journey, we continue to be mindful of this and to ask God's mercy upon us.

Yesterday we received a WONDERFUL book in the mail. It was perfect timing, being that it arrived on Friday!

The Story of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross for Children is an awesome book for kids of all ages!

I also got in this book and am looking forward to starting it.

We were blessed to attend an awesome lenten retreat for our homeschool group today. We saw so many wonderful people and were blessed with new friends also. Thank you to all involved.
Praying for God to bless you and your family as we prepare to celebrate Easter.

In Like a Lion

March came roaring in, here in the deep south. What a beautiful and fun filled day we all had!

Want to know where "In like a lion - Out like a lamb" originated? Check this out.