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.

Why is Fasting Important?

Fasting was instituted by Our Lord as a remedy for our mouth, for our gourmandizing and for our gluttony. Since sin entered the world through the mouth, the mouth must do penance by being deprived of foods prohibited and forbidden by the Church, abstaining from them for the space of forty days. But it is not our mouth alone which has sinned, but also all our other senses, our fast must be general and entire, that is, all the members of our body must fast. For if we have offended God through the eyes, through the ears, through the tongue, and through our other senses, why should we not make them fast as well? - St. Francis DeSales - (1567-1622)

Honeybee Noticed

This morning I gave Honeybee this picture to color. She said, "She's getting ashes like I did last night!" Then she told me she had seen people with green hair before? What impressed me about the coloring was she got the color of the priest's chasuble right. When the priest came out last night she looked at me and said, "He's wearing purple!" She and Buck have been studying the liturgical colors in atrium. It looks like she's been paying attention.

Our Crown of Thorns

We told Jesus we were sorry for all of the thorns as we stuck them into the crown (dough).
Buck and Honeybee have been anxious to be good about things constantly asking to pull out a thorn. I suspect The House Cat and Snuggle Bug have reached the age of making sure they are alone before they remove any. They are such good kids.

Pretzels and Pancakes

Happy Fat Tuesday everybody. I hope you are all as excited as we are about the change of the liturgical season. Tomorrow we will leave the "growing time" (Ordinary time) for a while and begin to prepare for the most important celebration of the year. We have all been talking of ways to draw ourselves closer to Jesus this Lent. We decided to have at least two things we give to God this lent. The first we will share with each other and try to help each other stay on track. The second will be a personal denial that is only shared with Jesus.

We made homemade pretzels today.

We will have these with a simple vegetable soup tomorrow for lunch.

Tonight we will have a BIG pancake supper. In some places Fat Tuesday is called Pancake Tuesday. Buck's excited about this. He LOVES pancakes :) Then tonight we will talk more about replacing worldly activities with Godly ones this Lent. Before bed we'll collect all of the DVDs and videos that have no spiritual meaning and put those away. We'll fill the basket with all of our good spiritual videos. Then I'll drape a purple cloth over the TV which will remind us of our Lord's retreat into the desert and the beginning of Lent. It will stay there all of Ash Wednesday.

On Wednesday we will make our crown of thorns and begin on our Jesus Tree.

We'll go to Mass with dad in the evening and receive the cross of ashes on our foreheads. This is done as a sign of repentance for our sins. The ashes are made from burning last years palm branches. The priest reminds us that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We must strive to perfect our souls to live forever in heaven with our Lord.

Feb. 2009 Bible Coloring Pages

Here are the links I used for the Coloring Pages for Feb. 2009 Daily Mass Readings.

Feb 1st Jesus teaches in the synagogue
Feb 1st Word Search
Feb 2 The Presentation of the Lord
Feb 2 Simeon and Anna
Feb 3 Jarius' daughter
Feb 3 Woman made clean
Feb 4 Jesus is rejected
Feb 5 Jesus' disciples
Feb 6 John the Baptist
Feb 8 Jesus heals Peter's Mother-in-Law
Feb 8 Gospel Word Search
Feb 9/10 Creation
Feb 11 Adam and Eve
Feb 15 Be made clean
Feb 16 Cain and Abel
Feb 17 Noah's Ark
Feb 19 Noah and the Rainbow
Feb 20 Tower of Babel
Feb 21 The Transfiguration

Preparing for Lent 2009

Ok guys. Lent's almost here! Are you ready? Well, I'm not, but this is a beginning, putting my thoughts together in this post. As I posted before we ordered The Jesus Tree from Scripture Trees. I was sooooo excited when it arrived and somehow I haven't taken it out of the wrapper yet? hum, how time flies. I'd better lay it out and have my scissors ready! I know it is going to make Lent come alive for all of us just as the Jesse Tree did for Advent. Jessica at Shower of Roses has an awesome post from last year. I plan on using this as a guide. She includes coloring sheets, activity pages and scripture readings.


Jesus Tree week one week two week three week four week five week six week seven

More than likely we will read the daily scripture readings with coloring pages as normal with our morning prayers then re-read the bible story of the day from the New Catholic Picture Bible with dad in the evening. The kids will take turns, probably youngest to oldest, putting the symbols on the tree. I think this will be a wonderful way to bring our Lord and His life to "life" for us all. This will be a great way to grow closer to Jesus as we prepare to celebrate Easter.

Now, for self denial. This is something that is all but lost in our culture today. It is such a beautiful gift of self and truly pleasing to our Lord. He did teach us (it is in giving that we receive). This is easier to do outside the home. Especially when you are together ALOT as homeschooling families are. However, this is the MOST important place to start!!!!!
I'm thinking of giving each member of the family a jar with a lid (like a Mason jar). Each time that person gives of himself he/she will put a treat in the jar. (jelly beans, skittles, m&m s).
Older children won't need as much supervision as little ones ;)
After Easter Sunday Mass, we will take our jars and look at all the little presents we gave Jesus during Lent. Then we get to enjoy the treats during the Easter season.

Last year we made a Crown of Thorns. We'll probably do this again. Actually we may do this instead of the candy. I'm sure there will be more than enough of that around here come Easter.

Materials: 4 c. flour 1 c. salt Water Toothpicks

Directions:Mix flour and salt. Mix enough water to make a stiff clay. (A little warmth helps dissolve the salt.) Knead until smooth to remove any air bubbles. Roll three long ropes and loosely braid them. Form braid into a circle and stick toothpicks loosely throughout the entire crown (If they are embedded too deeply they cannot be pulled out intact.) Bake at 350° F for an hour or until it is dry and light brown.

On Ash Wednesday, follow the instructions above to make a salt dough crown of
thorns with your children, anticipating Lenten sacrifices your family hopes to
make. Place the crown in a prominent place in your home; it makes an excellent
centerpiece for your dining room table, and placing it upon a royal purple cloth
has a striking effect.
For each Lenten sacrifice a family member makes, he
or she pulls a toothpick out of the crown. This activity makes a great visual
reminder of Christ’s suffering: Parents can explain to their children that sin
brings additional pain to Jesus’ suffering and good works can comfort Him and
show our love for Him.
The goal should be to remove all “thorns” from the
crown by Easter. Once all the “thorns” have been removed, you can paint the
crown gold or otherwise decorate it with colorful craft jewels, beads, or
flowers where the “thorns” once were as a sign of the triumph of our risen King.
This makes a beautiful Easter Sunday centerpiece with a great story to share
with your guests. (Stacy Mitch in her article “Hearts at Home: Living the Liturgy as Preparation for Our Heavenly Home” in the November/December ’06 issue of Lay Witness)

This looks like a very informative lapbook. I'll probably wait a year or two and use this with Buck and Honeybee. As for The House Cat and Snuggle Bug, we'll see where the Holy Spirit leads us.

Snuggle Bug will be reading

The House Cat will be Reading

Thanks Mary for letting me know about the Lenten adventure from Holy Heroes. I look forward to getting the "free" emails and seeing what it has to offer.

That's all for now. I pray for you all to have a blessed Lent. God Bless

The House Cat's turn...

This is the cover of The House Cats lapbook she's been working on for February 2nd.

Up Next...

Snuggle Bug's Picture Collage of places we visited in Louisiana.

Playing Catch-up

Today we are trying to catch up on lots of work. I hope to have a lot of postings to share..

First up: Buck's Journal of our trip to Louisiana along with his coloring of a turtle. We saw tons of turtles "sun bathing" on logs in the bayou.

Happy Birthday Snuggle Bug!

We had a great day today celebrating the gift of our snuggle bug. It's hard to believe she's now double digits! She is such a joy!

I hope to get back to posting soon. I haven't been feeling too well since our trip.

I'll have to take a rain check on WoW this week. I'm not sure I want to know the tale of the tape

We picked up The Passion of Bernadette. I'd better get the little ones ready for bed so when can check it out. God Bless.

950 miles later.............We're home!

Well, you just never know what lies ahead. We had an unexpected death in the family on Tuesday. We headed out for Louisiana Wednesday morning and 950 miles later we returned home last night. It was a bitter sweet trip. My honey's cousin was taken to his eternal reward leaving behind a wife and two children. It was heartbreaking sharing in their loss and also wonderful to see so many family members whom we never get to see. We are thankful to our heavenly father for a safe trip.

The kids had never been to Louisiana. They saw so many wonderful things. I'll be sharing some of that soon. On our way home yesterday, we stopped in New Orleans and visited Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral. We even had beignets at Cafe du Monde. They were YUMMY! Although my honey said they couldn't touch his grandmama's! :)

St. Scholastica

Today we remember a holy nun who was the twin sister of St. Benedict. We started our morning prayers reading this wonderful book. It was a birthday gift to The House Cat many years ago from a dear friend. Thanks again if you're reading this. You know who you are :)

I couldn't find a coloring sheet of St. Scholastica so I went with this one of a nun.

For supper we'll have Chicken Linguine with Red Sauce and a side dish of spinach.

The kids spoke of acting out a skit of this today. We'll see if they put on a show for us after supper.

St. Scholastica - Pray For Us!!!