RE Graduation and Starting a New School Year!

Here is another better late than never post I started and forgot about. It's been so much easier updating my blog from a regular computer versus my phone... I know the new school and religious education years are about to start but oh well!  

 

Little Man and the rest of the family have been attending several different churches over the past year while we have been trying to figure out our new living situation. Well around February/March we finally moved into a beautiful new home and are becoming more active members (aka registered!) in the Catholic Church nearby. I was ecstatic to find that they offered Religious Education classes for Little Man's age group. He was only able to attend for a couple months but he absolutely loved his class and his teacher! He was lucky enough to have a beautiful Graduation ceremony to celebrate his achievement! I can not wait until next year's class... Little Man will be preparing for his First Reconciliation.

I am hoping that there may be a Blue Knights Group started here soon to open more educational opportunities about our faith. Squishy gets super excited when he sees his big brother getting awards and participating in events. I am truly blessed to have two sweet loving children. They are so affectionate to everyone but especially to each other. I love the "hurry up and take my picture mom" smiles I received! These boys have blessed my life in so many ways. I love being their mommy!

 

 

Now its time to get ready for the new chapter of religious education and Little Man starting 1st grade! Squishy still has some time before starting formal classes but I think he is learning a lot from me and his brother at home.

 

In addition to school we also registered Little Man for his first season of football... I am a little nervous but I hope he enjoys it. There are also some exciting new changes coming our way! Keep a look out for updates soon to come! God Bless!

 

 

Feast of Saint Anne and Joachim

Friday was the Feast of Saint Anne and Joachim. They are the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. I have a special devotion to Saint Anne since she was the Baptismal Saint my parents chose for me. This day is a little more special to my parents now because they are now grandparents too.

 

It is customary on this feast to enjoy shellfish and summertime fruits normally in a sort of pastry or tart. As I stated in my previous post, I have really been craving seafood so I decided to try my hand at Lobster Bisque. I was very impressed with myself because I have never made Bisque from scratch (minus making my own stock). The soup was very tasty! I think it was a huge success. I found the recipe on Pintrest not too long ago and saved it just for this celebration. I'm sure many of you have found tons of cute crafts and recipe ideas from this website too. If you haven't, I have to warn you it is utterly addicting, so check it out at your own risk.

In addition to our Lobster Bisque, I made a watermelon cake! Its an actual watermelon cut into the shape of a cake. I used Vanilla Greek yogurt as the "icing" and covered the "cake" with other summertime fruits and some praline pecans. Not too bad for my first try and I will definitely be making it again.  I liked the idea of having a healthier alternative to the many sweet treats I normally make. You know, the usual cupcakes, candies etc.

A few interesting facts I discovered preparing for celebrating Saint Anne is that she is correlated with rain in Germany and Italy. It is said that the rain showers during the month of July are Saint Anne's dowry. I promise it has been raining for almost 3 weeks straight here and I found it so ironic that it did not rain this past Friday in honor of Saint Anne. Oh well, there is always next year! I hope everyone else had an amazing celebration with their families with special recognition of any grandparents.

The next feast we will be celebrating is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on Wednesday! I am hoping to actually have that post completed on Wednesday instead of almost a week later :o) In case anyone was wondering we will be making nachos!!

St Anne Prayer (To Obtain Some Special Favor) Glorious St. Ann, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I recommend to you under your special protection.

St. Ann, please, recommend to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue.
St. Ann cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. (Here ask for favor you wish to obtain.)

Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face, and with You and Mary and all the saints, praising and blessing Him through all eternity. Amen.
Good St. Ann, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request. (Three times).

 

 

Saint Anne, pray for us!

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

Last Monday was the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. I have to be real honest, I really wanted to make one of the traditional French pastries that are common to make in honor of Mary Magdalene but since I have never made them before I was afraid I may mess them up. Also I have been extremely crunched for time so I wanted to make sure whatever I attempted to bake or cook would be made in time to still enjoy it before the kids had to get ready for bed. So instead of the traditional Magdalenes, I decided to make "Mary"land crab cakes with grilled zucchini, homemade mash potatoes and corn bread! If you would like the recipe send me a comment or email!

I love the play on words and I have really been craving seafood lately! I have to admit they came out as a huge success and are apparently Little Man's new favorite :o) To finish our meal we also enjoyed a Passion fruit Sparkling drink to represent Mary Magdalene's presence during Our Lord's Passion. Overall I think the small celebration we had was very fun and delicious! Sorry again for the lack of pictures and late update.

 

Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us!

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

I am so excited to be writing this post about SAINT Kateri! Last year I was writing about Blessed Kateri, what an amazing opportunity to share how this amazing this new saint is and share how she has made an impact in my life in the short time I have been praying for her intercession in my life and my children's. There were a couple fun ideas and crafts I described before but I would love any new suggestions or ideas! Last year we made sand art and colored from Holy Heroes free coloring book they offered. If you have a chance you should check out their website and purchase their Glory Stories CD about Saint Kateri. It is amazing and people of all ages will appreciate it! The CD even includes an interview of the little boy whose miraculous recovery in 2006 helped pave the way to Kateri's sainthood!

My plans for Saint Kateri's first year as a saint were postponed. I really wanted to make a visit to the Indian Temple Mound nearby on Saint Kateri's feast day but they are not open Sundays. Instead, I felt it would be very appropriate to spend some time outdoors with the boys. We are still having some difficult times and I feel so much more at peace hearing the soft sounds of birds, the gentle whisper of the wind and the grand beauty that the world offers us. God has bestowed a vast world for us to enjoy and Saint Kateri was very aware of this. I have started running and praying quite often to help me cope with my current circumstances and I have asked Saint Kateri to intercede and pray for me and my family. I can honestly say that the quite time I spend running and praying has helped me exponentially. I have Saint Kateri to thank for that I am sure. Praying outside is something I think everyone should do. I have fallen in love with the closeness and personal feelings that accompany it. I am thinking of creating a rosary garden including statues of Mary but also Saint Kateri, she is the patroness of ecology after all :o) And she also made her First Communion on the Feast of the Annunciation.

There is a Nation Shrine in Saint Kateri's name that I hope to one day visit! Until then I will continue with my small outdoor prayer time in her honor. Below is a picture of me and my children enjoying homemade lunchables and praying the Litany of Kateri and the rosary this past Sunday. It was so peaceful and I think the boys enjoyed it too.

St. Kateri, Star of Native People and Bright Light for all! We thank God for your heroic courage, constant perseverance and deep love of the Cross. Pray for us that our love for Christ may deepen. And may we imitate you in following God's Will even when difficulties arise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen

Saint Kateri, pray for us!

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Tuesday was the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I absolutely love all the special celebration I have with my children but the ones we have honoring Mary are my favorite!

To start the day we had some Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins. I think we always end up having some kind of blueberry something in honor of Mary. Little Man told me that we have to have blueberries for Mary because they are her favorite. Stuff like that makes my heart and soul soar :o) Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of those beautiful muffins... I did get a picture of the delicious Mount Carmel Meatball Subs we had topped with "carmel"ized onions. This dish was inspired from Catholic Cuisine. They always have so many creative and yummy ideas to bake! One day I will be way more organized and I will make one of the beautiful Our Lady of Mount Carmel Crown Cakes. I purchased a pound cake with icing to symbolize our crown cake as a substitute.

Last year I posted some information about the Brown Scapulars if you wanted to know how to enroll your scapulars on this special feast day. This Feast day would also be a good time to make a family tradition of praying the Rosary daily. I try to do it with my children often but I need to make it part of our daily routine.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!

Saint Bonaventure

I wanted to update everyone about the amazing time me and my children had celebrating the Feast of Saint Bonaventure this past Monday! I actually wasn't able to take many pictures because the boys devoured dinner and everything else before I could snap any. Oh well, such is the life of a mommy with growing boys... very hungry growing boys :)

Saint Bonaventure is a quite famous Italian Saint. He is known as the Doctor of the Church and renowned for his amazing writings. I thought it would be fun to have some pasta (Italian) so I made Cheese tortellini with zucchini, squash and cherry tomatoes tossed in a sun dried tomato alfredo. I chose tortellini because it looks like the Franciscan's style of hair, a tonsure.

In honor of Saint Bonaventure, I bought the children and I journals so we could write just like this amazing saint. Here is the one picture I was able to get of Little Man's journal. I think it says it all!

 

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, and with true, calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee, may yearn for Thee and for thy courts, may long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.
Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and super substantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delightful taste.
May my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, Whom the angels desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst for Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the fullness of the house of God;
may it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, come up to Thee, meditate on Thee, speak of Thee, and do all for the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, with perseverance to the end; and be Thou alone ever my hope, my entire confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession, my treasure; in Whom may my mind and my heart be ever fixed and firm and rooted immovably. Amen.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us!

Feast of Saint Benedict

 

The boys and I had a blast celebrating Saint Benedict! Its been hard planning and executing our special feasts but I am extremely happy with the way everything turned out the other night. You will have to forgive me because I have several posts that I am going to bombard you with because I have gotten so far behind on my posts. To get things started I printed off this coloring sheet for the boys from Equipping Catholic Families

  Little Man wanted to use as many colors as possible and Squishy wanted to be just like brother! I love watching them play and color together, it is so sweet and heart warming. While they colored, I read what each part of the medal symbolized and it was exciting to see Little Man retain a lot of the information. For the most part Little Man just colored and didn't really seem interested as to the "why" we are coloring and eating specific meals. Lately he has been asking many questions and I feel like it help Squishy have another reason to be excited too. Since Squishy is only 2, the feast days are just fun activities and he doesn't understand much more than this is fun!

Moving forward... I saw this idea on a blog somewhere and I can't remember where so if you know which great blog this idea came from, please help me out! We made Saint Benedict Medals out of pepperonis and black olives on a personal sized frozen cheese pizza. I believe the family that originally did this made their pizza homemade! I wish I could have done that but our summer schedule has been crazy so to save some time frozen pizza it was! As you can see from the pictures Little Man tried very hard to make his "perfect" while Squishy tried eating his pizza frozen. He had eaten most of the pepperonis and olives off the pizza before the oven was ready.

There is a story that is told of Saint Benedict about an attempt to kill him with poison wine. While Saint Benedict blessed the food and drink, his glass shattered. This caused the poison wine to be spilled and saved Saint Benedict's life. The boys love their plastic wine glasses I bought at the Dollar Tree so we decided to have "poison wine" with our meals aka Dr. Pepper :o) It was nice having several stories to incorporate into our talks about Saint Benedict. Obviously the boys were very excited to have soda, it is a luxury in our household, and their special glasses I think made it taste even a little sweeter. Speaking of sweet! There is another custom where Benedict metals are hung from beehives and blessed on Saint Benedict's feast day. I do not have any bee hives and even if I did I would be way to afraid to approach one. I thought having some Sleepy time tea with honey would be a nice substitute. It was a nice relaxing way to end the evening but I think I may get Honey buns or something similar to enjoy as an after dinner treat for next year!

NOVENA TO SAINT BENEDICT

Glorious St. Benedict who taught us the way to religious perfection by the practice of self-conquest, mortification, humility, obedience, prayer, silence, retirement and detachment from the world, I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you to take my present need under your special protection (mention here). Vouchsafe to recommend it to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the angels and saints to praise Him through all eternity. O most powerful Saint Benedict, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for me the grace of winning my way to heaven, there to worship and enjoy the most holy and adorable Trinity forever and ever. Amen.

Pray 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, and 1 Glory Be.

I hope everyone else had an awesome time celebrating with the ones they love. These traditions are so much fun and getting everyone involved is so easy! 

Saint Benedict, pray for us!

Happy 4th of July!

This post is a little late :o) But I hope everyone had an amazing Fourth of July! I had an amazing time and was blessed to spend the day having fun with my boys! It was very rainy and cloudy where we live so we drove to another town about an hour away to enjoy there firework display... our town did fireworks yesterday, which was still fun but it was weird too because it was the 7th of July!

God Bless America! 

I also wanted to add a few notes here to give everyone a small update to what's to come for me and the boys. I will be sharing our new Saint Apollonia tooth tradition in more detail, planning for the end of Soccer season and preparing for our first season playing Football, Celebrating Saint Benedict this Thursday! I also have Field Day posts and a few other end of the school year things I have been working on and some pictures from Little Man's 6th Birthday. There is so much happiness and new adventures coming our way and we are happier than I ever knew was possible!

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement! It means more than you know.

Saint Apollonia: Tooth Fairy Traditions

Saint Apollonia is the Patron Saint of dentistry and tooth problems. I have seen so many cute ideas where parents have made dolls in the likeness of Saint Apollonia to hold their children's babyteeth until the "tooth fairy" comes and replaces it with a dollar or two. I hope one day I will be blessed with a little girl so I can make a Saint Apollonia doll one day but for now I have two boys that were not excited about making a doll. I decided to make our own unique tradition. I, of course, took a picture of Little Man's smile with his missing tooth and wrote a cute prayer that I found at Crafty in Coffeeland. I will place the picture next to his Guardian Angel Candle and we will recite the prayer and put his tooth on the picture. Maybe I will be a little more creative with the next tooth... until then...

Saint Apollonia, pray for us!