{JEI}: All Saints' Day

Welcome to the weekly link-up recently turned Blog-Hop Just Enough Info: JEI for short. This lovely Blog-Hop is hosted by The Zelie Group and we would love for you to join us! This week we are discussing All Saints' Day! Let's get started with this week's questions:

1. How do you celebrate the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day feasts? 

Where to begin?! There are so many things that I like to do to celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. I have already shared some of these activities through my Seven Ways to a Have a Very Catholic Halloween. In preparation for All Saints' Day we celebrate Halloween. We dress up and do the whole "trick-or-treat" thing and we spend time together as a family watching movies and discussing what the TRUE meaning behind Halloween and All Saints' Day. 

On All Saints' Day we dress up as our favorite Saints and decorate our home altar and home accordingly. There are prayer cards, saint pictures and metals hanging from all sorts of places on this special feast day. Little Man ALWAYS dresses as Saint Dominic de Guzman. Goalie has been Saint Michael the Archangel several times but I think he wants to be Saint Joseph this year. We spend our day praying for those who gave us treats on Halloween and for the Saints' intercessions. We also enjoy some foods that we make during Liturgical celebrations in honor of our favorite Saints!

All Souls' Day is very similar. We pray for those in our families that have passed away and I am in the process of creating a "Book of the Dead" that has old family photos and other family information inside that can be brought out on this day to pray that our family members have all made it through the gates of Heaven. I began working on this several months ago but I did not complete just yet so it may not be unveiled until next year.

2. What was your favorite costume as a kid growing up? 

Honestly, I have never been a huge fan of dressing up until I became a Mommy! When I was little I was your typical princess or other dressed up little girl and I think i remember dressing up as a baby one year! Yeah that's right... I dressed up like a baby. Thinking back, I just did the bare minimum to achieve my trick-or-treat candy. 

Now is a completely different story! My boys really like me to dress up with them or face paint or something so I always try my best to impress them. I love to see those adorable smiles and hear those sweet little laughs.

3. What candy are you most likely to “test for safety” from the kiddo’s loot?

We have lived in a VERY small town for a VERY long time so we never really had to check the kids candy. We literally knew everyone handing it out and it was never a huge concern. Now we live in an area where we don't know many people and I am sure that this year will be completely different. I will be throwing out any candy that does not look tightly wrapped or that is a brand I have never heard of... just to be extra safe. I try my best to always to assume the best of people but my little boys' safety is something I do not mess around with!

Thank you for joining me for another week of Just Enough Info!

You have all week to answer this week's questions about All Saints' Day:

1. How do you celebrate the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day feasts? 
2. What was your favorite costume as a kid growing up? 
3. What candy are you most likely to “test for safety” from the kiddo’s loot?

Next week we will be discussing Sports and Exercise:

1. What sports do your kids play?

2. What do you do for exercise? 

3. In the Mom Olympics, what would your event be?


The Zelie Group has some fun questions coming up in the next few weeks so make sure to follow us on Facebook and we would love to hear what you are interested in! What are you looking to learn about? Do you have questions about the Faith? Questions about the Liturgical Year? We want to help and learn and grow with you and your families!

Also stop by the new Page I created on my blog for new information concerning The Zelie Group. It is a work in progress but it has a good start!

The Feasts of All Hallows Eve, All Saints' and All Souls'

This past weekend was a whirlwind of Autumn activities, family fun and making memories! All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day were amazing for my family and we had a blast celebrating! To start all the fun we celebrated Halloween! As I stated before, you cannot have All Saints' without Halloween and vise versa. Check out Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween if you don't believe me.

Halloween:

As everyone knows, this past Halloween was on a Monday so the school decided to host a Halloween Parade where all the children dressed as Super Heroes! If you follow me on Instagram, you are already aware that I barely made it to the Parade. I was scheduled to work and assumed I wouldn't make it at all but God blessed me with a quick and easy shift so I hurried over and made it just in time to join Little Man in his classroom. Little Man was Batman... well sort of. He wore a Batman hoodie because he is starting to think he is too cool to join in certain activities. I told him to enjoy being a kid because childhood goes by way too fast. He still seemed to have a great time!

My smart husband had remembered to request Halloween off (obviously I did not) and he was with Goalie walking through the parade. Goalie was so excited to show off his daddy and trick-or-treat throughout the entire school. Goalie decided to be Captain America. I absolutely LOVE that the costume has padded muscles because he is always talking about how big his muscles will be when he grows up. He wants to be just like his daddy who works out everyday.

After the parade, we headed home together and got changed into our first ever family costume! We decided to do a Star Wars theme. Harry, my husband, was Darth Vader. I was a Storm Trooper. Little Man was a Flame Trooper and Goalie was Captain Rex. I will be the first to admit that I have no clue what the difference between the storm trooper and flame trooper are and I also don't know if Captain Rex is on the Light or Dark side but we all had a good time and were asked several times to take pictures with people. You can also see our "melting" jack o' lanterns in the background.

As the Star Wars family we conquered the Haunted House in Old Colorado City (kid friendly of course) and did a little trick-or-treating as well. I was told some of our family photos would be posted by a few businesses on Facebook but I haven't had a chance to look for them yet.

I was so grateful a friend had invited us to do trick-or-treating as well because we have not been in the area for this season and had no clue what to expect. The kids walked away with two huge bags full of candy! I asked the boys to keep in mind as many people as they could so they could say a special prayer for the nice people that handed out candy... especially the ones that seemed to be home alone. We ended the evening as a family and the boys passed out. Me and the hubby enjoyed a glass of Spellbound Merlot and watched Gremlins.

All Saints' Day:

All Saints' Day is the real party. The kids had school so we had to wait until the evening to celebrate but we still had a great time. Which Saints did your children choose to dress up as this year? Little Man was Saint Dominic for the fourth year in a row and Goalie decided last second he didn't want to wear a costume. I felt sad but he has sensory issues so I didn't want to push the subject... he was Saint Michael the Archangel last year but had requested to be Saint Joseph. Maybe sometime before the end of the month I'll get a cute picture of him as Saint Joseph.

Also is it wrong that as an adult I really want to dress up for All Saints' Day too?! Are there families that do that? I need to know!

Do you have All Saints' Day traditions? We do! We decorate the house with saint medals, medallions and prayer cards. We also make a special dinner based on different Saints we love and cherish. Since Goalie wanted to be Saint Joseph and couldn't wear his costume, we decided on Spaghetti Squash Marinara and Turkey Meatballs. Italians have a great devotion to Saint Joseph and it is also customary to wear red on his feast day. Spaghetti Squash as a substitute for pasta made it a bit healthier and the baked turkey meatballs were a perfect companion to this Italian meal. 

All Souls' Day:

All Souls' Day is the day we use to remember ones we have lost. I had a great idea to do a more elaborate "Day of the Dead" book for our home altar. It was a bigger undertaking than I originally anticipated. I wanted to create a book that includes at least one photo, the dates of birth and passing and a brief history or story. I will continue to work on this and I will share the final product. 

In addition to the craft and extra prayers for our family, we made Soul Food for dinner. As you can imagine... dinner was demolished in a matter of seconds and I was unable to take a picture of it. We enjoyed some Baked Chicken, fresh garlic mashed potatoes and corn. Lots of comfort food and we all ate until we were ready for bed. 

I am Mexican decent and El Día de los Muertos is a great big celebration there. I am hoping to make All Souls' Day a more elaborate celebration with Soul Cakes, Day of the Dead Bread and Sugar Skulls. What do you do to celebrate these amazing days with your families? traditions? recipes? I can't wait to hear all about it!

God Bless!

My Sunday Best: All Saints' Edition

This Tuesday is All Saints' Day and there are only 4 more Sundays until Advent begins! I am also ashamed to say that we have missed Mass the past two weeks due to not feeling well, having one car working properly and just playing catch up. Goalie was actually upset when we were leaving after CCD today but we should be on track soon. Praying and fingers crossed!

I am also disappointed that I did not get a picture of myself and Goalie before I changed into my "I'm in a rut" clothes and got comfy on the couch with a blanket. These past few weeks have been super hard. Broken down car, being sick and fighting the depression and anxiety that become so much harder to deal with in difficult situations. I can share a cute picture of Little Man though. 

Here is Little Man's Sunday Best, he is dressed as Saint Dominic. The Black cape was suppose to be connected at the neck but I could not find a safety pin to keep it together this morning. He is wearing a large white shirt (suppose to look like a tunic) with black pants and a black "cape" which looks more like a veil from this picture. He has a rosary and was pretty pleased with his 1 minute costume. Little Man was dressed as Saint Dominic to do a presentation on him during CCD today.

I had asked the children in my CCD class to pick and research a saint they would like to learn about. Well, I only had three children dress up but I was very impressed with the amount of effort the kids put into their research and saints. I am hoping to share the other costumes on this post later after I have permission from the children's parents. 

After the saint presentations, I discussed some old Christian Halloween traditions and how they have evolved into the modern Halloween we know nowadays. The kids were really interested in the Soul Cakes and story of the Jack O' Lantern. You can find more information on those topics and more on my Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween and {JEI}: All Saints' Day. Overall, I think having a small break from our books and getting some hands on learning was fun, exciting and the kids learned a lot about some of their favorite saints. I even shared information about my Confirmation Saint (Saint Bernadette) and encouraged them to keep learning about the saints because they also get to pick a saint in their Confirmation. 

Remember All Saints' Day is Tuesady! My boys will be dressed up as Saint Dominic and Saint Joseph so make sure to come checkout my pictures on Instagram later in the week!

This was my Sunday Best but I'll try to update with a picture from our All Saints' Day Mass!

God Bless!

Menu Plan Monday: October 31- November 6

With all the Halloween fun yesterday, I am a day late sharing my Menu Plan Monday post. I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween but remember that today, All Saints' Day is the TRUE celebration. This was apparently the warmest Halloween our area has had in awhile... I honestly wouldn't know since it was our first Halloween here but it was amazing! Here is a little sneak peak into our Halloween celebration yesterday:

This was our first year doing a family costume and it really was a big hit! We all had a blast and the kids are excited to plan our next Halloween family costume. I'll be sharing more about our Halloween later on and I am prepping the house for our All Saints' Day Celebration this evening! I can't wait to see pictures of all the All Saints' Day Celebrations today! Here is our family menu:

Monday: Halloween

Chili (Friends' home)

Tuesday: All Saints' Day

Spaghetti Squash and Turkey Meatballs

Wednesday: All Souls' Day

Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

Thursday: Feast of Saint Martin de Porres

Ratatouille

Friday: Feast of Saint Charles Borromeo

Vegetable Soup

Baked Apples for Dessert

Saturday: Lantern Festival

Crockpot Salsa Chicken Tacos

Sunday:

Chicken and Dumplings

Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween

For my post to share with {SQT}: Seven Quick Takes this week, I thought I would share seven ways to have a very Catholic Halloween! I honestly think that Halloween often time has a bad connotation attached to it that can make it hard for some people to want to celebrate. An important fact to remember is that when Christianity was being spread many pagan holidays were modified to celebrate Christ and the liturgical teachings. As long as you are embracing the correct teachings any day can be celebrated, including Halloween! The most important thing to keep in mind, is that Halloween isn't the big holiday, it is actually the beginning of celebrating All Saint's Day. You can't have an All Hallows Eve without the Holy Day!

{ONE}

The Jack O' Lantern:

There are several ways to incorporate the Jack O' Lantern into your Catholic Halloween. You can create a Saint O'Lantern or in other words, a pumpkin with a Saint, rosary or other object that symbolizes something Holy is a great idea. If you prefer to draw a customary Jack O' Lantern face... that's OK too! I always read the story of the Jack O' Lantern. The story discusses heaven, hell, Saint Peter and the devil. My kids are always intrigued by the story and it opens the discussion of purgatory as well since All Soul's Day is in dedication of the souls in purgatory. I also like to include the pumpkin prayer with my kids regardless of what we decide to carve into our pumpkins. A few years ago, Little Man even said a prayer for Stingy Jack in hopes that he would find a way to heaven.

Roasting pumpkin seeds can be a great metaphor too! You are scooping out the seeds (scooping out the sin) and roasting it in the oven. I think you get where I am going with this.

{TWO}

Remember to Pray:

Including prayer on Halloween is essential to a Catholic Halloween. Halloween also known as All Hallows Eve because the following day is the feast of All Saints. The entire month of October is dedicated to the rosary so including the Rosary, the pumpkin prayer mentioned above and prayers for the souls in purgatory are important. October is also dedicated to Respecting Life and November is dedicated to Souls in Purgatory.

You can even receive some Indulgences for your prayers during this Holy time! A partial indulgence can be obtained by devoutly visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead. You can also gain a plenary indulgence visiting a cemetery each day between November 1 and November 8. These indulgences, however, are only applicable to the Souls in Purgatory. A plenary indulgence for the Souls in Purgatory, is also granted when the faithful attend a church on November 2. In visiting the church, you must pray one Our Father and the Creed. A partial indulgence can be obtained for the Souls in Purgatory when the Eternal Rest is prayed. This can be prayed all year, but especially during the month of November:

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. 

Amen.

{THREE}

The Decorations:

Decorating for a holiday is important. During Halloween, All Saint's and All Soul's I actually change up my decorations to correlate with what is being celebrated. My Halloween or All Hallows Eve decor consists of the above. I stay away from anything related to witches, zombies and anything demonic. Skulls and bones represent the dead and I have branches, pumpkins, gourds, leaves and pine cones scattered throughout the display to represent the Autumn. The scary house is actually a tea light holder and so are the bottles on the ends of the mantel. I have explained to my boys that these things aren't meant to be scary but to remind us that all things are beautiful in God's eyes and the light he shines down on all of us. 

Once Halloween is over, I will be removing a few items and sprucing up a few others. I will create a Saint Tree from the branches and hang saint medals that are important to my family up there. I will also put up other decor that portrays feelings of thanksgiving. As you can see, our crucifix is the main decoration and sits above everything because above all things God is most important. He is the focal point of our household. 

{FOUR}

Let's Trick-or-Treat:

Trick-or-treating has roots dated back to early Christianity. Young adults and children would go door- to-door asking for a Soul Cake in exchange for prayers for the neighbors deceased family members. Back then trick-or-treaters were called "Soulers." I think I like that name better because it sounds more liturgical. In addition to asking for soul cakes the children would often sing:

"Soul, Soul, a soul cake!

I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!

One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him what made us all!

Soul Cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.

An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry.

One for Peter, two for Paul, & three for Him who made us all."

I have made soul cakes for the boys before and will probably be doing it again this year too. Check out Catholic Cuisine for a great recipe! The roots of Trick-or-treating were special to believers of Christ, so make sure your children know why it is they go out on Halloween night! I have asked my children to say prayers to those that gave them treats on this night and why shouldn't they? A prayer for a treat seems like a pretty good trade-off to me!

{FIVE}

The Costume:

Here is were some troubles begins for some families. How scary is too scary? What is an appropriate costume for your child, your family and your beliefs? The answer to this is a little tricky. For my family, I try to steer my children in the direction of characters that they admire or would like to be more like. I do not force my kids to dress up as Saints because I feel it takes away the excitement of dressing up as a Saint on All Saint's Day. I have shared several pictures from past Halloweens and my boys were dressed up as: Scooby Doo, Transformers, Captain America, A Cowboy, A Football Player and other non scary costumes. That being said, my oldest is starting to ask questions about scary costumes. I have never said they weren't allowed so we will be entering the crossroads about what is appropriate to wear in the upcoming years I am sure. 

{SIX}

The Halloween Party:

I came across an article several years ago and I wish I could find it to share but the topic was about scary Halloween. It discusses how we as Catholics should utilize the "scary" aspects of Halloween to remind us how VERY REAL Hell really is and remind us that Purgatory is not Heaven so it isn't sunshine and giggles either. I loved that the author of this article compared the Christmas Carol Story to Halloween and how "scary" it was for Bob Cratchit to essentially be "haunted" by his friend who was in Purgatory. They even suggested that you could host a Halloween party and create a cemetery and place tombs in your yard with real names of friend's and family members that had passed away. At the Halloween party you would pray a rosary in your yard "cemetery" and an adult would dress up as a soul in purgatory (covered in chains and locks) and cry out for help and prayers. The whole scene sounded so scary but truly a way to illuminate the importance of living a good and prayerful life for your family. Honestly, this would be a crazy scary house to visit too while trick or treating. 

The article also mentioned incorporating some other traditional games like Bobbing for apples, eating soul cakes, having a bonfire and so much more. If anyone reading this knows what article I am referring to I would be so grateful for you to send me the link! If we use these scary things to be reminded of the souls waiting to go to Heaven, maybe a scary Halloween isn't such a bad thing? Especially if we are celebrating with friends and family and we truly understand that God is the light of the world. 

{SEVEN}

All Saint's Day:

The TRUE Celebration! As I stated earlier, Halloween is a day to prepare for All Saint's Day so you can't celebrate one without the other! My favorite traditions on this day is the Parish All Saint's Day Parade when children dress as their favorite saints. They parade through the church and are normally blessed, we even had a priest that would have each child tell the congregation which saint they were dressed as for the day and something special about the saint. 

In our home I already mentioned we hang medals from our fall branches to make an All Saint's Tree. In addition to the All Saint's Tree, we adorn the Altar with prayer cards and pictures of saints that our family has special devotion. We also cook special meals throughout the day. We don't call this a Feast day for nothing! We feast on the Feast of All Saint's with our favorite dishes that remind us of our favorite saints! 

I hope these Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween are helpful in your Halloween preparations! If you are still looking for more information on Halloween and the Catholic Liturgical Year please check out the following resources:

Don't be Scared of Halloween

Hallowe'en

It's Time for Catholics to Embrace Halloween

God Bless!

My Sunday Best: Parish Faith Night Edition

It is so amazing to be back! Our computer gave out a couple weeks ago and my cousin came to the rescue. Now to catch up with some great posts because it always happens that you are inspired while unable to share right?

Today is the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time and also a Parish Faith Night for our Church. Parish Faith Night is a special event that we host to help share information, fun crafts and fellowship. This particular Parish Faith Night was all about Saints and Feast Days. I was really excited that we were able to attend Parish Faith Night because we missed Mass this morning. My youngest son has been having an extremely difficult time with his emotional outbursts this week and this morning was rough to say the least. We have routines for everything to help our transitions and nothing seemed to keep Goalie in a calm disposition. We had a small talk after he completed Tiny Turtle. We came to the agreement that the wiggles and nervous feelings he was having this morning were very hard to control so we would not attend Mass but we would attend Parish Faith Night. It is sometimes very difficult to make choices like this because it does change our routine but it is better than keeping Goalie in his downward spiral of emotions he finds himself at times. He is formally diagnosed with ADHD but he is currently undergoing testing for an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) because his school and behavioral therapist both have noted concerns that he may have Aspergers, which is a high functioning Autistic diagnosis.

In case you haven't heard of Tiny Turtle before, it is a new anger management skill we have been practicing for Goalie. If you are interested in trying out "Tiny Turtle"check out these simple steps:

First, form an imaginary turtle shell by curling into a little ball.
Second, take at least three deep breaths.
Third, say "I can do it, I can calm down" until you feel better and then you can emerge from your tiny turtle shell and move forward with your activity.

After a rough morning, I am happy to say that we really turned around the day and Parish Faith Night was a success! Our night was centered around the Saints and the Feast Days. To kick things off we started with an enormous pot luck dinner to start our fellowship. We had an abundance of many food, dessert and drinks. After everyone had eaten, we began a discussion with the children about Saints: What makes a Saint a Saint? Who can become a Saint? Who decides who is a Saint? Name some Saints and Feast Days. You know the saying "Kids say the darnedest things?" Well tonight was no different! So many laughs and great memories.

After the discussion we went into our Saint Parade! Here are my two little Saints below: Saint Dominic and Saint Joseph!

In addition to all of our fun events we also incorporated some printables for the families present to work on together. Check out Catholic Icing has an amazing Family Litany of Saints Worksheet that we discussed and there were also All Saints coloring pages. You can check out my Pinterest page if you are looking for some great Catholic coloring pages.

I think that my most favorite part of the evening was being able to sing The Litany of Saints with my two little saints and just be in the moment of peace and fellowship with my parish. I am so glad that the evening was a success and I am looking forward to the next Parish Faith Night in March!

Now that the night is over, I am enjoying a glass of wine with my husband! I am linking this post to My Sunday Best

God Bless!

{SQT}: The Great Things to Come

This week has been a complete blur. I have been fighting with my allergies or something and it has completely kicked my butt! So I thought I would save everyone from hearing how I didn't really complete much of anything... just started or halfway completed things. I think we all have a week or two like that every once in awhile. Instead I thought I would share about some of the fun new things that we will be diving into over the next few weeks because I need the motivation and looking to what the week ahead seems way more interesting and exciting than the mess of a week I muddled through this past week. 

{ONE}

We are starting CCD tomorrow! This will be my second time volunteering as a Catechist in my older son's classroom as well. I am so looking forward to tomorrow. It will be the official start to a new week and I can wrap up all the "unfinished business" of last week with a clean slate. Little Man will be altar serving at the 8AM Mass as well so we will be up bright and early, ready to tackle the day.

{TWO}

I will be starting another Vegan for a Week Challenge Monday! I like challenging myself to be in a healthier lifestyle and I think I need the increase of nutrients from the fruits and veggies to help heal my body from whatever this "sickness" I'm fighting is doing to me. I also like to limit the type of food I am consuming as an offering to God. I do this with a grateful heart and will offer up the times I find this challenge difficult up to God for my sins and the sins of my family. Saint Rose of Lima gave up eating meat completely in honor of God. Please join me if you like!

{THREE}

Goalie will be starting a new group therapy session starting in a week or two. The Group is called the Dino School Group (so cute!). The group will consist of children that deal with developmental delays and other challenges like ADHD and SPD. Goalie is so excited to be around other boys and girls that understand how hard it is to be a child with delays in a regular classroom setting. I am excited to see how this will help Goalie control his anger, sadness and other behaviors that he struggles to contain. 

{FOUR}

We will be going on a small trip to Kansas to visit with my family and celebrate my cousin Serina's wedding. When I lived in Florida, it was nearly impossible to see my dad's side of the family because the distance was so far, travel isn't cheap and taking time off work, school and other activities is difficult. Being closer to then geographically has been great! We were able to go visit for two days back in January and we will have another two days to celebrate this upcoming weekend. 

{FIVE}

One of the few things I can say I can check off my to-do list from this week is I ordered the boys' Halloween costumes. We decided to all dress up as characters from Star Wars. The boys are all ready thinking of what Saints they would like to be for All Saints Day too. My boys love to dress up so these are two of their favorite memories to create during the Autumn season. The picture above is one of my favorites when Little Man dressed as Saint Dominic. I know its still over a month away but what are you doing for Halloween? All Saints Day? 

{SIX}

We are all ready discussing what winter activity to put the boys in for the winter. In Florida there were outdoor sports all year long but here in Colorado they don't offer any outdoor sport due to the cold weather. Goalie was in karate last year so we contemplating picking it back up. It did wonders for his discipline and he actually had several other friends from his Disability Preschool class that attended the same Dojo. Little Man has been asking us about Cub Scouts. I have no experience with Cub Scouts so I sent out an email to the Pack he would be joining to get some basic information. I would really like to get them in a Blue Knights group but I don't think we have any near us. As of right now, I have no clue what we will decide or if the boys will be doing separate activities again. 

{SEVEN}

We finally got a new couch that the entire family can sit on! I had to share because it has been the highlight of the entire week for the whole family. It takes up most of the living room but it is super comfy and already decorated for Autumn. 

I am so excited about all the great things to come. Please pray I kick whatever it is my body is fighting because I would love to be able to breathe properly at mass and CCD tomorrow and maybe even get a little extra sleep so I am not so tired throughout the day! 

God Bless!

{SQT}: No Excuses November

October was full of bumps and bruises. I fell off the health and fitness wagon hard. We had a bunch of unexpected happenings. It wasn't all bad. We enjoyed some good times too though. I haven't been able to join in Seven Quick Takes for a bit so here I am with a few highlights over the past few weeks. I will apologize in advance because October has been mushed together in my memory so I'm not sure of dates or anything right now. 

{ONE}

We bought a new car! Well we had no choice in the matter. My old vehicle my husband was using and it broke down on the interstate while he was driving home from work late at night a few weeks ago. We had to get it towed to a mechanic and we were informed that a cylinder had blown and we would need to replace the engine block to get it working again. The car itself was worth less than the cost of the work needed to get it going again so we had no choice but to cut our losses and trade it in at Carmax. Longer story, short: Here is our new car. 

{TWO}

We hit up one of the best pumpkin patches ever! Diana's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze was so much fun! We received free pumpkins with our admissions, got lost in a corm maze, rode on a tractor and played in a pit full of corn! In addition to all the fun we were able to get TONS of great photos, buy some boy scouts badges and enjoy our first candy apple of the Autumn season.

{THREE}

We celebrated Goalie's 6th Birthday ! He had a small get together on his birthday with his friends and then the following weekend we had tons of plans to celebrate as a family. First we had Little Man's Last football game (Quick Take Five) and then headed to Diana's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze (Quick Take Two). We also attended the Great Pumpkin Festival and had a birthday dinner at Old Chicago's! Goalie and Little Man are in love with the "fancy" root beer AKA root beer in a glass bottle served with a cherry. Goalie decorated the Pirate hat while we waited to be seated and he rocked it throughout the night. Happy Birthday Goalie!

{FOUR}

This picture is a little blurry but such is life... you get good ones and bad ones but they all can bring smiles if you are reflecting on the memory. Well, Little Man finally got his Bobcat Badge for Cub Scouts! He wasn't able to get it due to schedule conflicts during his football season. Goalie received his last month so he was excited to cheer his big brother on when he was being honored.

{FIVE}

Little Man's football season just ended. We ended on a high note too! A great win with lots of dedication and effort given by the entire team. I have been making the banners the kids' ran through before the game and we all decided it would be great for the kids to sign their names on the final banner. I think it came out super cute! In addition to looking great, this was the ONLY banner that split down the middle perfectly! All the others' tore from the hands of the adults holding it. Fall season was amazing we are already looking forward to the Spring.

{SIX}

As I stated at the beginning, I flew off the fitness wagon hard over the past month. I allowed my increased work schedule and other excuses be just that... excuses. Well this month will be No Excuses November and I have been baking some tasty healthy dinners, breakfasts and lunches. I also started running again. I will be hitting the weights sometime this week too. 

{SEVEN}

Who would I be if I didn't mention Halloween and All Saints' Day! Our whole family decided on a Star Wars theme and we rocked it on Halloween. All Saints' Day wasn't exactly as planned because Goalie refused to dress up. He was having a rough day with his sensory-ness so I didn't want to upset him more and just let him be. Little Man rocked a Saint Dominic costume again.

I think that about sums it up. I didn't want to be too much of a negative Nancy so I attempted to stick to the fun and more upbeat events over the past few weeks. I wouldn't mind a few extra prayers for all the craziness if you don't mind though. Thanks for stopping by and I am looking forward to reading about everyone else's celebrations and family fun over the past week!

God Bless!

{SQT}: Marriage, Sports and Much More

I have been MIA from several of my favorite linkups, including {SQT}, because of an overwhelming amount of extra activities that were added to our schedule. This past week was no different but I am doing my best to get back on track with everything that has been pushed to the side. 

{ONE}

My cousin Serina's wedding was this past Saturday! Congrats Serina and Jesus! They have such an extraordinary love story. They have actually been together for 12 years already. They have endured so much and have supported each other through all the good, bad and the ugly. I have no doubt that they will have a long, prosperous marriage and will live happily ever after.

The wedding was in Liberal, Kansas so it was only a 6 hour drive from where we live. We have most of my dad's side of the family living in Kansas so we were able to see a large amount of them at the wedding too. It was a beautiful wedding and a gorgeous reception. Little Man was given the opportunity to altar serve during the wedding. I know he was scared and nervous because he had never served for the priest or at the location the wedding was being held but he was brave and accepted the invitation to honor his family during the Mass. I was and still am so proud of him for stepping up.

{TWO}

We completed our Halloween decorating this week too! My boys love to decorate the house and do seasonal crafts to celebrate. I am working on a post right now about Halloween and being Catholic. I read an article several years ago about how to keep the "scary" in Halloween without losing the important concepts that are the important aspects of All Saints and All Souls Day. Halloween is a day of fasting to prepare for All Saints and All Souls. I think it is also important to discuss purgatory on Halloween and that allows us to have a scary Halloween. 

I even received the boys costumes in the mail this week so now I only have to figure out what my husband and I will wear. This will be the first year we have done a family dress up. The boys are REALLY into Star Wars so they are dressing as a Flame Trooper and Captain Rex. My husband really wants to be Darth Vader and I have absolutely no clue what I will be. Maybe I'll just be a storm trooper too? Suggestions are welcome!

{THREE}

We have TWO football games this week! We normally only have one so it was a FULL week of football. I am enjoying that there is no practice today so I using this time to catch up on old, new and late blog posts! Little Man has really missed having a banner to run through the past few games so I found some banner paper and created a banner for his team. Little did I know that when I bought this paper that there would be over 75 feet of paper!!!! Needless to say, I will be making banners the rest of the season. I might even make one for Goalie's soccer team. 

Painting the banners was actually pretty calming and relaxing until I saw that my cat Lemon was drinking the water I used to clean the paint brushes! I had a mini-stroke reading the labels on the paint to make sure it was non-toxic. Lemon was mad at me for yelling at her so she ignored me the rest of the day. Oh the price we pay for loving animals. 

{FOUR}

Goalie started Dino School this week. I think I may have mentioned once before but it is essentially a group therapy that is held to help teach children with developmental delays about socialization, dealing with tough emotions and learning how to control anger outbursts. 

{FIVE}

Yesterday was the first official day of Fall and I am so glad! I love Autumn! We celebrated with Spiced Apple Pork Chops with Sweet potato and zucchini. Everyone loved it. The pork fell apart so easily from slow cooking all day and the amazing spices made my house smell amazing. We had a football game yesterday too so it really was the perfect way to start the beginning of Autumn. 

{SIX}

We had Soccer pictures this week! Goalie plays for the Memorial Blizzards and he was smiling extra hard this year! I love that my boys love playing on teams. I love his "Shark fin" hair that he requested special for picture day.

{SEVEN}

To end this week, I decided it was best to have a Halloween movie night! This will be one of many because my boys and I love movie nights and we have a list of Halloween movies that MUST be watched before October 31st! We are starting tonight with The Halloween Tree. This was one of my most favorite movies that I watched with my brother and sister every Halloween season. We will be enjoying pizza, popcorn, Halloween ice cream floats and cupcakes! I am finishing up preparations as we speak. I honestly might be more excited about this than my kids! This will be their first time watching this cartoon and it has been years since I last saw it! I love Autumn and all the amazing family activities that come with it!

#WorthRevisit: Saint Perpetua and Felicity

I have been sucked into the bullet journal craze recently and I will be sharing my special faith page layouts and other ways I have decided to utilize this great organizing system to help me grow my faith. While I have been contemplating these things, I thought I would share a post from the archives about two saints that always revamp my dedication to my prayer journal and planners. Here is my #WorthRevisit with Theology is a Verb and Reconciled to You:

Monday, March 7, 2016

Saint Perpetua and Felicity

Monday already!

Wow... My family has an insane week ahead of us! Football and Soccer start this week for All Star and Goalie. I am waiting on the soccer schedule but football is 4 days a week! All Star also has Picture Day and a Reading Goal party to attend this week. So while I wait for the rest of our scheduling to fall into place for this month, I REALLY need to clean out our vehicles, sanitize all the team sports gear and pack one of the vehicles with seats, blankets and the sports gear :) Its going to be a fun day because, of course I waited until the day before everything starts to get this accomplished. At least I will easily complete one of my 40 bags today for Lent. 

Moving forward... today is the feast of Saint Perpetua and Felicity. They have a wonderful animated movie that portrays the story of these two amazing Saints. If you click the link above you will be taken to a website where you can purchase the movie and find some great resources for today, including coloring pages, word search, games and other fun activities. 

Personally, Saint Perpetua is renowned for the journal she left behind after she was martyred. She started the journal while she was imprisoned and it was completed by a friend after her death. I think today would be a good day to start a prayer journal. Or renew your commitment to write in your prayer journal you already have... I will be renewing my commitment to write in my journal to at least 3-5 times a week. As of right now, I haven't written in my prayer journal since Advent! 

Another good activity for today would be to visit a zoo. Saint Perpetua and Felicity were thrown to wild animals in an open arena. Point out the animals that would have been in the arena with them and explain how dangerous those animals are, they are in cages and have large spaces between them and you to keep everyone safe. We haven't been to the zoo in quite awhile so I will have to plan an outing soon. Using a Zoo Passport could help keep the focus on finding animals. You can find printable Zoo Passports on Pinterest and sometimes you can find them on your local zoo's website.

Saint Perpetua and Felicity are two saints that really touch my heart. They were both young mothers, like I was myself, and imagining the difficulty of sacrificing your life and giving up your child would certainly be difficult but they did all this graciously for God. I pray that God can give me a heart like these two saints. 

Reading the book Perpetua: A Bride, a Martyr, a Passion would be a wonderful addition to your Lenten journey. I will be heading to the library later today in search of this gem so I have something to read this evening after all the hustle and bustle of the day. My family should be learning some news about my husband's job sometime this week so I would greatly appreciate any prayers you could send our way. We are praying that we are staying on the path God has intended for us as a family.

"Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, and don't take offense at our suffering."

-- Saint Perpetua