New Year *Wonder*

+Happy and Blessed New Year to All+

We ventured out to brunch with my parents today after Mass where we found these festive balloons to mark the New Year!  

Duty called so dear husband had to work at the Fire Department on Christmas Day, New Years Eve AND New Years Day this year:( We don't ever get used to him working holidays and we miss him but we manage try to make the best of things when we can.  I'll admit, sometimes it's very difficult to stay cheerful…Though I'm smiling here, aren't I?  Mass and the balloons definitely made me smile:)  I was also very happy for our future firefighter that he got to ride-along with Dad for the New Year.

 My parents are good sports.  They come a long with us when they can.  They were gone out of town for Christmas so it was just me and the kids. Having college boy home definitely made things more complete!

We've had some really nice days doing this kind of thing…

Christmas Day brought glorious weather…and wonder!  

In some of my Advent reading, author Anthony Esolen describes wonder in an Italian grotto where St. Francis orchestrated the first live Nativity.  It was an experience where people forgot themselves for a time in order to witness and wonder in the birth of a little child who was God humbled.  Esolen comments that when people "forget to be great they may return to childhood themselves, their eyes bright with delight and their lips parted in that happy look that children have when they are all wonder and no self."  If only we could make ourselves small enough more often…Forget trying to be great…Just maybe we would find ourselves in the womb of wonder.  I have no doubt that we would certainly be happy there.

*Wonder*

Its become my new word and goal for 2014…I want to live in radical wonder this year…To marvel, be amazed and have deep admiration for God's wondrous works.  Keeping the virtues of charity and humility in mind, I want to be smaller…Less of me (figuratively).  Though less of me physically would be nice too:)  Can you tell that I might "need it" from the start of this post?  One of my favorite Saints, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, says that "we should always, even to the very last moments of our life, question our own strength and place all our confidence in God, always begging Him to give us humility."

Well, kind of an interesting story …

On New Year's Eve, I was out for a walk, praying the Rosary.  Part way into the Sorrowful mysteries, a little scene started playing in my blind's eye.  It was me, crawling on my hands and knees through a very small and dark space, much like an attic.  I was crawling towards a tiny bright light to get out.  It dawned on me that I was too big to fit through the small opening…I needed to be smaller in order to get out of the darkness and reach the light.  With each Hail Mary, I began to shrink until I was small enough to break through.

Hmmm, I think I'll take that as a big hint, even a sign, that less of me is definitely in order… In fact I think I may need to just quietly slip out of sight after that one!  So if you see less of me around these parts of the woods, you'll know why…. 

It's all good and I am grateful to be reminded that less of ourselves is definitely more if we are to be humble in the eyes of God.  Unplugging from social media distraction has always been a healthy break for me.  I'm just not sure where God wants me to go from here…Keep blogging or not? I can hardly keep up anymore as it is.  Hmmm, what to do?

Providentially, this scripture verse, discovered during Advent, is my new favorite!  I'm pondering things with it in mind...
"If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.  Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others." ~Philippians 2:1-4

In the meantime, I'm off to wonder and shrink…:) God willing!

Hittin' The Home School In 2013!

OK, so I'm posting the "after" picture first...Don't you love before and after pictures?

As a Mom and Teacher, I sure do!

It helps me keep on believing that mountains can be moved:)

Take a lookie at the school room "before" our cleaning project:

*YUCK*

What a MESS!

Embarrassing, right?

It took us all day today to hit it...2 big, black, trash bags and 2 grocery bags full-of-trash-later...

Ahhhh, we ALL feel much better!

Now we can safely hit the books on Monday and be happy in our new, tidy, spaces:)

Dear Dad is working a 4 day stretch, bless his heart, so the rest of us are working too, in his honor.  My lesson plans are next on the list, a long with bedroom tidies and getting laundry done.  It's always nice to start a new learning period feeling fresh and on top of things, even if it's short lived sometimes!

It was fun to pull out this photo of Princess today on the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  

She worked hard on this project, that fit into the Colonial period that we were studying this past Fall.  
*A free packet from the Sisters of Charity is a valuable and fun resource for kids!* She got to present her project to a group of other home schoolers...It was great practice standing up in front of a group and speaking. (Which she doesn't like to do;)

Moments like this help me to appreciate our home schooling. Being able to weave our faith through our studies is always a main goal...Sharing it with others was an added bonus!  

I rarely bring up moments like this in fear of being bragidocious. Did I just make up a word? The point is that we all need inspiration to keep us going.  Being called to home school is not always easy for me.  Speaking for myself, it's far from easy.  For heaven's sakes, being called to motherhood and being open to life certainly isn't a piece of cake. But as most of us know, God doesn't call us to easy.  He calls us to things that are challenging, things that will strengthen our souls, things that draw us closer to Him. 
No cross, no crown.

Speaking of crosses, I am joining in prayer, with many others, for some Mamas who are bearing theirs right now. I was thinking about what an honor it is to pray for Kelly from the Careless Catholic and Jennifer Fulwiler from The Conversion Diary who are courageously living their faith, the gospel of life, and suffering for it.  Jessica has a beautiful prayer posted for both ladies and all pregnant Moms.  If you follow Kelly, Barbara is organizing some CARE for her.  I don't know either of them in real life but I have gotten to know Kelly from our contributions at Catholic Cuisine, as well as her inspiring blog about her family.  
I am storming the heavens! 
(Including all of my other expectant friends here in the bloggy world and beyond:)
Speaking of crowns...

We are looking forward to our annual Royal Epiphany Celebration.  We will be celebrating on Monday since Rod will be on duty until then.  We I am especially looking forward to receiving new patron saints:)  It will be a nice way to end our first day back to school!
+Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go+

Catholic 12 Days Of Christmas (Day 11 & 12)

~A clean school room in honor of Mother Seton~

It's back to school around here!

These are the last plans for the final days of Christmas as we get back "to work."

Note: I created a Catholic 12 days of Christmas page on our blog sidebar that lists all 12 days in one spot:)  I know that I will need it for future reference!

Day 11 (January 4)

Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Read and Reflect on the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  She is an important saint for all Americans being the first American-born canonized saint.  After the death of her husband, she continued to raise their 5 children and became a nun while doing it!  Numb with grief, she marched on to found many Catholic schools, orphanages and the American Sisters of Charity.  She holds a special place in my heart as the Patron Saint of Widows and those who have lost children. (She later lost 2 children to tuberculosis) Read the Gospel (John 1:35-42) and reflect on following Jesus.


Reflection: Would we be ready to change our plans for Jesus?  Would we drop what we are doing as readily as both the apostle Andrew, Simon and even Mother Seton?  I am in awe of this when I reflect on my own widowhood and how paralyzed I was at the time.  I pray that I will have the strength and grace to handle future trials with deeper trust and hope in the Lord.


Respond:  In preparation for the Epiphany and the arrival of the Magi to honor Jesus, we are cleaning house!  (Not taking down our decorations quite yet, but cleaning and organizing the clutter:)  As a special honor to Mother Seton, we hit our very MESSY school room this week!

Here are the "before" photos...

One VERY cluttered desk!

After a full day of work, we are tidy again and ready to hit the books!

Our pre-schooler wanted to start back "to work" today!  Every child is different but this one LOVES her work books.

(AND she was the only one with an eager spirit)

The rest of us will start back to school on Tuesday.

Pray Psalm 23, known to be Mother Seton's favorite prayer, and/OR this prayer:

Prayer by Mother Seton

O Father, the first rule of our dear Saviour's life 
was to do Your Will. 
Let His Will of the present moment 
be the first rule of our daily life and work, 
with no other desire 
but for its most full and complete accomplishment. 
Help us to follow it faithfully, 
so that doing what You wish 
we will be pleasing to You.

Day 12 (January 5th)

Last of the 12 days of Christmas

Feast of St. John Neumann

Read and Reflect on the life of St. John Neumann who came as a missionary to 

America. He ministered to American Catholics when there was an extreme shortage. 

(Only 36 priests to serve over 200,000 Catholics) Discuss how it must have felt for 

John to be uncomfortable as he lived in poverty to serve the poor...How can we get

"uncomfortable" to serve those that Jesus calls us to? In what ways can we stretch 

ourselves from our comfort zone?

What have we learned the most from these 12 days of 

Christmas?

Respond:  We will be planning for our Epiphany Royal Celebration to celebrate on 

Sunday.  

It will take a bit of organizing to gather what we need... We will pretty much 

following the same menu and plan as last year. Our Firefighter Dad will be on duty

through the weekend, until then, so we will look forward to him coming home:)

Prayer for the Epiphany of the Lord:

Dear Jesus, as You led the Three Kings to You by the light of a star, 

Please draw us ever closer to You by the light of Faith. 

Help us to desire You as ardently as they did. 

Give us the grace to overcome all the obstacles that keep us far from You. 

May we, like them, have something to give You when we appear before You. 

Mary, Our Mother, help us to know Your Son. 

Amen.

Wishing everyone a glorious and royal celebration!

Catholic 12 Days Of Christmas~(Days 9 & 10)

Day 9 (January 2):

Feast of St. Basil the Great & St. Gregory Nazianzen

Read and Reflect upon the Saints for today who had a well-known and admirable friendship.  Discuss qualities that make a good friend.  How can we be a good friend to others?

 How can we be a good friend to our siblings and those in our own home???

Respond by reaching out to a friend.  Make a point to let your friends know how much they mean to you.  A tangible action can be made by writing Christmas Thank You Notes:)

Pray the 2nd Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary, The Visitation.  Meditate on Mary's gift of charity to her cousin Elizabeth and offer up your friends and all of their intentions.

Day 10 (January 3):

The Most Holy Name of Jesus

Read and Reflect on the Holy Name of Jesus.  We will be using this booklet but there are also many online resources, some good ones listed over at Joyfilled Family.

Respond:  with a craft or project to honor the name of Jesus.  We found this neat idea over at Bible Story Printables, where you can print colored or black and white Names of Jesus Ornaments to hang or place in a binder.

They have even included scripture versus to find all of the names of Jesus in the Bible!  We are thinking about making a fireplace garland to hang through the Presentation of the Lord on February 2 and work on looking up each name in the Bible over the next few weeks!  I'm looking forward to this:)

*Since January is also dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, we will also work on memorizing this scripture: 

"At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."~Phil 2:10-11~

Last year we made a Holy Name of Jesus plaque for our liturgical door wreath and this yummy breakfast snack:)  This yummy pizza was also a lunchtime hit!


Pray:  The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus

Catholic 12 Days Of Christmas~(Days 7 & 8)

Day 7:  (December 31)

Feast of St. Sylvester I

New Year's Eve

Read and Reflect upon John 3:16 and St. Sylvester. It's the last day of the year so we will pause to be thankful for God's greatest gift of salvation, through the birth and death of His only Son.  We are also grateful for personal blessings received throughout the year, including the challenges that are inevitable gifts.  Discussion:  What are we most grateful for this year?  What difficult things have we experienced that have helped us grow closer to God?

Respond:  It is a New Year's Eve tradition in our family that we rotate through our Parish 24 hour Adoration.  It is the perfect way to pause and return thanks to God as we express our love to Him, ringing in a new calendar year.  

Prayer: For the adults and older children, there are beautiful meditations and prayers in the Magnificat that are perfect for the Adoration Vigil, concluding with this prayer: (Note: Magnificat has a wonderful Iphone/Smartphone App...I believe it's still free for a trial period:)  

"I waited, I waited for the Lord, and he stooped down to me...He put a new song into my mouth."~Psalm 40:2,4~

Happy New Year!
I also thought I'd share 3 New Years articles that I enjoyed from other places:
National Catholic Register "Pope Gives Thanks to God"
Integrated Catholic Life
Jeff and Emily Cavins

Day 8: (January 1~Octave Day of Christmas)

Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God

Read and Reflect: upon Mary as the Mother of God.  Read Luke 1:38 when Mary proclaimed her "Yes" to God: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.  Discussion:  In what ways can we renew our own "Yes" to God as we enter this New Year?  In what ways can we renew our faith? 

 How can we have the faith of a little child?

"Mommy, last night I dreamed about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus and ALL the angels..."

My response:  "Wow, Mommy would love to have a dream like that!"

Respond: Last year we made Blessed Mother of God Brownies.  My wheels are still turning on this one:)  

Pray the Rosary as a family and the Magnificat prayer.

"In thanksgiving for the time that has been,

in hope for the time that is to come,

Let us pray through the intercession of Mary,

the Mother of God:

We praise you, O Lord, and we bless you."

Catholic 12 Days Of Christmas~(Day 5 & 6)

Day 5: (December 29)

Feast of St. Thomas Becket

Theme: The Nativity of the Lord

Reflect and Read the Nativity of the Lord, as a family, from the Gospels (Matthew 1 and 2 or Luke 1 and 2)  We will be following a long with the beautifully illustrated picture book, The Nativity.  The focus of our discussion will be the angels and shepherds.  The angels first proclaimed the Good News and the shepherds made haste, or rushed in from the hills, to see God's promise fulfilled with the birth of the Messiah.  

Discussion questions:  How can we be heralds of the Gospel?; Have we seen God's glory in our own lives?; In what ways can we rejoice with the angels: "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!"~Psalm 96~  How can we move closer to the Lord, keeping the shepherds in mind: "The shepherds went in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the Infant lying in the manger."~Luke 2:16~

Respond:  Make an angel craft AND a Gingerbread Manger.  We used this Usborne book as our guide for this hand print angel art.

Angel Baby in action...

I am not a "messy Mom" so I always have to relinquish my desire to keep things neat and clean.  This is a struggle for me and something I always have to work at!

The end results are usually worth it when hands and faces (and sometimes hair) are all cleaned up!

(Especially when art project turn out so cute:)

The older kids worked on this Gingerbread Manger with Dad:) Yep, I admit we bought the 'cheater' supplies so it was pretty effortless.  

The Claydough Nativity set can be found online here. By the way, mine came in a nice plastic encasement for storage and protection...That makes the price a little more bearable.  Plus, they sure are cute!

As I've mentioned before, Dad is pretty good at this stuff:)  He wanted to create a humble and simple manger, without any gumdrops on the roof.  You know what that means? More candies from the kit for the kids to eat right away:)

As you can see, they used Nutella for the frosting on the Gingerbread Manger....YUM.  "Somebody" got a fun sampling of the Nutella:)

We browned some coconut for the manger hay and this is the finished project, mostly edible! (Except for the claydough figures of course)

Pray:  Stations of the Manger that were created last year.

Today we also decorated our white Christ candle that we light each night during the Christmas season.  It was simple to add some Nativity stickers and glitter.  

Our parish bulletin had a nightly Christmas table blessing that I Mod Podged to the back of the candle for easy prayer access!

Just in case you are wondering if we are some "holy family", think again!  I always like to point out that we are not perfect by any means.  Striving for holiness is something we take to heart but we certainly have a long journey ahead with routine struggles:) For example, we no sooner get done with our pleasant angel discussion tonight and our 3 year old Angel Baby yells out from her bedroom: "MOM!  My jammie drawer is all jacked up!"  Well, it certainly wasn't a 'sweet as an angel' exclamation but I got a good chuckle anyway ...Hmmm, wonder where she heard that one?  Time for nightly Guardian Angel prayers! 

**Dad and 2 older boys are serving dinner at a local homeless shelter with our Parish Youth Group.  Praying this makes up for a few of our imperfections*wink*

Day 6: December 30th

Feast of the Holy Family

Reflect upon Jesus living a real human life with a Mother and Father chosen by God.  Discuss how our parents were chosen by God to raise and care for us.  How can we follow the example of Jesus as a child?  How can we follow the example of St. Mary and St. Joseph as parents?

Read the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 3:12-21.  Discuss how we can treat eachother as St. Paul writes to the Colossians.

Respond: Do something together as a family today, even if it's just sitting down for a meal.  Today our Dad will be gone to work so the rest of us plan on attending daily Mass and getting donuts afterwards.  Didn't the Holy Family eat donuts?  OK, maybe not...But it's still a real treat for us:)

Three of our children served daily Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family. Army Dude helped Father T. give us all a good dousing of Holy Water for a blessing...Sure beats a shower!

  Our activity will be picking the name of a family member from a hat.  We will spend a little time writing about the great qualities of that person and why we love them.  The letters will be read in the evening around dinner or prayer.  Dad can e-mail us his letter from work!

Pray for all families, including those from our Christmas cards started earlier in the week.

"God and Father of all, you gave us the Holy Family to serve as an example of love and obedience.  Grant to all people, in family homes or alone, the grace to hold in honor the bonds of love and respect which bind the human race chosen for adoption as your children, through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

~Magnificat Morning Prayer~

Christmas Devotion to the Holy Family

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,

From the heavenly household on high

Look upon all earthly households today,

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

You were not welcome in Bethlehem;

Embrace those rejected by the world.

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

You were sheltered in a stable;

Protect those who have no home.

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

You heard the angels' song;

Sing to us of heaven's joy.

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

You faithfully observed the divine law;

Show us how to do the will of God.

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

Protected and guided by St. Joseph,

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

Cared for, looked after by Holy Mary,

Pray for us!

Holy Family,

Fulfilled by the Presence of Christ,

Pray for us!

Be our strength in life,

Be our hope in the hour of death.

Pray for us. Amen.

The family is a school which enables men and women to grow to the full measure of their humanity... 

" O God, who in the Holy Family left us a perfect model of family life lived in faith and obedience to your will, help us to be examples of faith and love for your commandments."~Pope Benedict XVI~

Catholic 12 Days Of Christmas~(Days 1-4)

(I know this is kind of a goofy picture but I guess we're just dorks that way:)

On the 12 days of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

A plan for our family!

My husband and I sat down together this year to make a family plan for celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. (We decided to go beyond the Octave, or eight days, of Christmas and "go for the gusto"...all 12 "plus some" to include the Epiphany proper:)  Either way, it was fun to share our goals to keep our Catholic faith burning and churning through the rhythm of the liturgical wheel, into the New Year. I thought we'd share what we have planned so far!  [Please note...This year,(2011) the Christmas season "officially" lasts 16 days plus an evening.  If you want to get the low-down, The National Catholic Register has a great article to explain the count!]

We incorporated family reflection or discussion topics with ways to respond and an evening prayer as we light our white Christ candle in the center of our Advent wreath.

DAY 1: (December 25th)

It's Christmas Day~Rejoice!

Read and reflect upon God as love coming as a baby, a Messiah, a promise to His people. God loves us so much that he wants us to be happy with Him forever; knowing, loving and serving Him.
Respond: We express our charity by placing baby Jesus in the manger, exchanging gifts, and celebrating Christ's birth.
"When are we most happy? When we do that for which we are made"~Archbishop Fulton Sheen~
Pray: We pray for all of our family and friends to know God's love.

DAY 2: (December 26th)

It's the Feast of St. Stephen, the church's first martyr.

Read and reflect  (Acts 6 and 7) on St. Stephen.  Being one of the church's first deacons, ordained by Jesus himself, Stephen was given the task of helping care for the poor.  It was fun to discuss the story of King Winceslas and his connection to the Feast of St. Stephen and the Christmas Carol:)

~Resources for our reading and prayer~

Respond: As we clean spaces and make room from gifts and new toys received, spend time this day gathering toys and clothes for a local shelter. We gathered a loot and still working on more to take to our local shelter on Thursday!
Pray for those who are persecuted in other parts of the world, for those physically and spiritually poor, and for those who care for them.

DAY 3: (December 27th)

Feast of John the Apostle & Evangelist

Read and reflect on St. John through the Gospel and letters attributed to him.  The more we read the Bible, the more it becomes a part of our way of thinking and living.  St. John's message is the central them of the teachings of Christ: "Love one another."
Respond:  As an act of love, gather up all of our Christmas cards and place them in a basket. Choose one at random each evening to read at dinnertime. Explain how we know them and how they have blessed our lives.  This feast day is also a day of reconciliation.  In 1983, it was the day that Pope John Paul II reconciled with the man who tried to assassinate him.  Resolve to take an opportunity during these Christmas days to reach out to an estranged family member or friend, even if it's just sending an e-mail.  If there is no reconciliations to be made there are always reconnections to strive for!  I have a list of people who I need to reconnect with:)
Pray for all of those in our basket...One of the children thought of putting together a litany prayer with all of the names of people who sent us Christmas cards...great idea!  We'll see how it goes:) We will also pray for the intercession of St. John for reconciliations and forgiveness. 

"Bridge building is costly, as the Cross demonstrates, but the people stranded on both banks are all freed by the bridge."-Magnificat 10/6-

DAY 4: (December 28th)

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Read and reflect upon the Holy Innocents (Gospel of Matthew and Saints for Young Readers) when King Herod sent his soldiers to kill all male babies in Bethlehem under the age of two, in the hopes of killing the Messiah among them.  These little children are honored today by the Church as martyrs and are called the Holy Innocents.
Good Resource: Word on Fire
Respond: Make Baby Jesus Rolls!  I found this cute idea over at Catholic Missionary Family.

Pray for those who abuse and neglect children.  We can also ask the Holy Innocents to intercede our prayers for the protection of all children from harm and to change the hearts of those who promote abortion.

~We pray this list may be helpful to others...More days to come!~
Ideas adapted from this great article at U.S. Catholic


Daily Prayer for Christmastime
Lord Jesus, God from God,
Guide my every thought today.
Heaven and earth, rejoice!
Lord Jesus, my Redeemer,
Let my lips speak only your word.
Heaven and earth, rejoice!
Lord Jesus, my King,
Fill my deeds today with your love.
Heaven and earth, rejoice!