A Triple C Day!

One down 2 to go!

Confession - check!

Confirmation ~ about 7 hours away for the House Cat!

Communion ~ right after Confirmation.  What a blessed day we are having today!

I received special permission from The House Cat to share her patron saint report with you.  Keep reading if you'd like :)

ST. FAUSTINA


1905 - 1938
Name means: Fortunate (Latin)
Nickname: Apostle of Mercy
Patron Saint of: World Youth Day

Feast Day: October 5th

St. Faustina is well known throughout the world as the woman who communed with God and brought to others a deeper realization of His infinite mercy. She was born on August 25th, 1905, in Glogowiec, Poland, and baptized with the name Helena. At the age of seven, she received a definite call to a religious vocation. However, her parents refused her request to enter a convent at age18. From then on, she tried to ignore God's call, and forced her interests to focus on the world. But when the suffering Christ appeared to her, He asked her, "How long shall I put up with you, and how long will you keep putting Me off?" The next day, she left her home for the city of Warsaw in search of a convent. After more than a year, she was accepted into the order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In that order she was to spend the rest of her life, physically and spiritually communing with the Lord. During the next 13 years, she endured persistent illness (which became tuberculosis), and also personal injuries from inside the convent walls. She battled severe attacks of despair and spiritual dryness, and the overwhelming fear that Christ had rejected her. The challenges of propagating devotion to His mercy were also great, and spiritually and physically taxing. It was during these years that she wrote her Diary, out of obedience to her confessor. Our Lord also ordered her, saying, " . . . be diligent in writing down every sentence . . . concerning My mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it." Through all her suffering and doubt Christ remained with her, and on October 5th, 1938, He took her to her eternal reward. Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized on April 30th, 2000, by Pope John Paul II.


I have chosen St. Faustina as my patron saint because I feel that Jesus drew me to her in many ways. During my 7th grade year, I was able to make a holy hour each week. Throughout the time I spent at the chapel, I read St. Faustina's diary and felt closer to her each time it got into my hands. I admired her heroic charity, and also felt that she could help me to be humble during rebukes and not to defend myself so much. Also, I find myself fearing at times what my vocation will be, and what God's will is for my life. She endured a similar type of struggle, and the way that she participated in Jesus' grace to live out her vocation is inspiring and encouraging. Her gentleness and patience while suffering is something that I want to imitate as well. When I find myself going through dry spiritual periods and struggling to meditate, I know that she will help me, since she was attacked with these crosses. These are connections that draw me to St. Faustina, and inspire me to take on her name and cultivate a personal relationship with her. Even if I am not called to the religious life, as she was, I feel that she will stregnthen me to accept whatever God wants for me in life.

I plan to keep her diary close at hand, and to read it as often as I can. Also, I want to increase my recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and to continue to participate in the novena each year. I hope to compose a special prayer to her, and to pray it every day, along with the St. Gertrude prayer, as we share a connection in praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Reflecting her meditation, sorrow, and frequent visions concerning Jesus' passion, I hope to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries more fervently, to make the Stations of the Cross, and to watch the Passion of the Christ once a year. Through this, and Jesus' mercy, I pray that our relationship will grow and I will be brought to greater holiness for the rest of my life.
 
Saint Faustina ~ PRAY FOR US!

Divine Mercy in My Soul

From Your open Heart, as from a pure fount, flows comfort to a repentant heart and soul . . .

- Diary; 1b

St. Faustina is well known throughout the world as the woman who communed with God and brought to others a deeper realization of His infinite mercy. She was born on August 25th, 1905, and at the age of seven received a definite call to a religious vocation. However, her parents refused her request to enter a convent at 18. From then on, she tried to ignore God's call, and forced her interests to center on the world. But when the suffering Christ appeared to her at a dance, He asked her, "How long shall I put up with you, and how long will you keep putting Me off?" The next day, she left her home for the city of Warsaw in search of a convent.

After more than a year, she was accepted into the order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In that order she was to spend the rest of her life, physically and spiritually communing with the Lord.

During the next 13 years, she endured persistent illness (which became tuberculosis), and also the personal injuries from other sisters who scorned the idea that the Lord appeared and spoke to her. She battled severe attacks of despair and spiritual dryness, and the overwhelming fear that Christ had rejected her. It was during these years that she wrote her Diary, out of obedience to her confessor. Our Lord also ordered her, saying, " . . . be diligent in writing down every sentence . . . concerning My mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it." Her Diary is a great eye-opener to Jesus' mercy, and His desire to enter souls and sanctify them. The way she participated in His grace, and persevered through her sin in the belief in His forgiveness is inspiring and encouraging.

Through all her suffering and doubt, Christ remained with her, and on October 5th, 1938, He took her to her eternal reward. Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized on April 30th, 2000, by Pope John Paul II. Her feast is on October 5th.

- by the Housecat

Drawing With Children...Before and After

A while back I requested a copy of Drawing With Children from the library. I think it is so cool the way you can request the books online and have them notify you when they are in . Anyway, The House Cat "disappeared" with this book once we got it. The first drawing below is from a year or so ago - with no guidance. The second drawing came after following tips from this book.

There's a pretty big difference don't you think?

My Mother's Day Blessings

What a blessed Mother's Day I had! First of all it was Honeybee's 4th birthday. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate being a mother than to be able to go to Mass with your family and thank God for your blessings! It was extra special to be there to thank Him for Honeybee too! It's hard to believe our baby is now four.

Before Mass, my honey and the kids called me to the kitchen for a delicious cup of coffee and some special surprises. Don't they know it's not nice to make your mother cry first thing in the morning? :)



Buck and Honeybee worked hard making beautiful cards for me. Snuggle Bug decorated a special bird keepsake box for me and The House Cat wrote and framed an amazing poem for me.



My sweet honey made lunch for us all, including my mom and dad. He has been working so hard for all of us. I'm hoping the doctor will let me resume my normal activity tomorrow. I have been slowly working my way back into the kitchen. I made a delicious bread this morning. I'll share that later. I pray that all of you wonderful mothers will have a blessed year living for the Lord.

From Snuggle Bug

From The House Cat

The House Cat's Interior Portrait

The House Cat's painting instructor asked her to design an inner self portrait. This is what she came up with.

• The guitar symbolizes her love of music and her gift of playing guitar well. (I added the second part :)

• The Celtic cross represents her Irish heritage and Catholic faith. The six strings are for the six members of our family. Their colors are based on the meaning of each person's name.

• She chose black for the guitar since she is devoted to praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. In the background the two Divine Mercy rays represent her love for Saint Faustina and the message of Divine Mercy.

• The light at the top is for St. Luke, the patron of painters, whose name means "bringer of light."

• To the right of the light are three books representing a love for being home schooled, learning in general, and writing.

• The seven tear drops show her love for Our Blessed Mother and a love for our parish, Our Lady of Sorrows. They also represent her eagerness to receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation next spring.

Needless to say, her dad and I were blown away by all of the symbolism! Thank you Lord for such a beautiful gift in her and all our children!

April Showers.....May Flowers?

We sure are starting off spring with lots of showers. We are having a great time watching spring wake up from it's long winter nap. The girls have started new nature journals. There is so much to choose from right now! I've just finished reading Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola. It's a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to instill a love of nature study!The House Cat's entry on the Dogwood Tree

Our Flower Adventure:
First, we planted seeds.

Impatiens for Honeybee

Forget Me Not for Snuggle Bug

And Snapdragon for Buck.

Of course, they needed sunlight. Since we don't have a window sill or any other place to put them .... Mom got inventive.

Things were going great until a Downy Woodpecker came to the suet feeder in the Mary Garden
:) or :( I wonder?


The next picture tells the outcome. I would have made a picture of the mess but, of course it happened about 10 minutes before we had to leave for art class.

This is what we are left with.

Will we have May flowers?

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.

New Thanksgiving Favorites

The Pilgrims' Thanksgiving From A To Z is a book I'll be adding to our library. A must have for Thanksgiving reading!












I just had to share this adorable video. Mouse on the Mayflower is so cute and informative about the pilgrims journey and the first Thanksgiving! We borrowed ours from the library but, I'll definitely be on the look out for a copy to buy.

I want to wish everyone a very Blessed Thanksgiving and share this acrostic poem written by The House Cat. (Sorry I don't have time to work on making it look better. Hope you can click on it and read it. Our children are such an inspiration!)



oops. I noticed after posting this that she had whited out a word on V. the missing word is raised. God Bless :)

Mr. Airplane

drawn by The House Cat,12

colored by Buck,4

ALONG THE ALPHABET PATH - LETTER A

Meet Mrs. Applebee

drawn by The House Cat,12

colored by Honeybee,3

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/elizabethfoss/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path/index.htm