Our Blessed Mother Display

In honor of Our Blessed Mother during the month of May, we put together a lovely little display in our dining room  to celebrate!  I found many of these wonderful ideas at Catholic Icing.

I included the most beautiful depiction of Our Blessed Mother nursing the baby Jesus.  This is a replica of Nuestra Senora de La Leche y buen parto (Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery), Mission of Nombre de Dios, St. Augustine, Florida  For more information about America's Oldest Marian Shrine, go here.

 

 We wanted to personalize our display, so we made a spiritual bouquet, complete with handprints and photos.  Does your family have any special traditions to honor Mary during the month of  May?

Lenten Links and Resources

With Lent in full swing, I wanted to share some links and resources that I use to make Lent more meaningful for myself and my family:

I have a number of things I will be doing during Lent to practice fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. I saw this great idea at Faith and Family Live. I will be using the 40 days of Lent to donate 40 bags of items from our home. I am not getting caught up with the type or size of bag that I am donating - my goal is to de-clutter my home, donate the things we no longer need or use, and bless someone else who does need it! I created a chart to help me keep track of how many bags I have donated. If you would like a copy, email me at Blessedandbusy@aol.com, and I would be happy to forward one to you.

The season of Lent obviously changes that way we eat and cook. Here are some resources to help you create simple Lenten meals:
Free Lenten cookbook by Rita Hanna
Catholic Cuisine

I have pulled a few cookbooks from my shelf that will help me plan menus filled with simple, nutritious, and sometimes meatless meals:
More With Less by Doris Janzen Longacre
Whole Foods for the Whole Family by La Leche League International
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Reading:
For my quiet time, I will be using The Magnificat Lenten Companion and a two beautiful books that I won from The Happy Little Homemaker. Thank you so much Jen! The Little Black Book and The Little White Book present six minute daily readings during Lent and Easter. You can find these at www.littlebooks.org.

I have chosen a few additional books that I will read during this season:
Grace and Gifted: Biblical Wisdom for the Homemakers Heart by Kimberly Hahn
Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry by Katrina Kenison
(Re-reading) A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul by Holly Pierlot

I also recommend Ministry Of Moms Sharing (MOMS). MOMS is a ministry that helps mothers of all ages to gather and work on their spiritual and personal growth. I have been involved with a MOMS group for the last several years at a local parish. The following are a few articles you might enjoy from MOMS:

Fasting and Feasting

Family Spiritual Check-Up

Family Lenten Candle


Resources for Children:
Just as with Advent, we have chosen a theme for our girls to focus on. This year, they will be reading and learning about the lives of the Saints. My older girls will be reading from the Book of Saints by Amy Welborn. They also want to read a beautiful book called Journey to the Heart: Centering Prayer for Children by Frank X. Jelenek. I will be reading An Alphabet of Catholic Saints with our little girls.

Another great free resource is the Lenten Adventure for children found at www. HolyHeroes.com. Once you have signed up, you will receive a series of emails with videos, activities and links appropriate for school-aged children. We participated in the Summer Faith Adventure and the Advent Adventure. My kids really enjoy these programs!

I also highly recommend Catholic Icing, a wonderful blog filled with free activities, crafts, ideas, lesson plans, coloring pages, etc. for Catholic families. We have printed out the Children's Stations of the Cross and a Lenten calender for the kids to color and follow the 40 days of Lent. They also saw an idea that they wanted to do - they selected some of their favorite toys and placed them in a bin for storage. By "giving up" some toys, they have a better understanding of what fasting and sacrifice means. Our 7 year old feels sad when she cannot sleep with her favorite stuffed animal but she is determined to follow through on her fast. I am very proud of how my girls were anxious to participate in this!

I hope these suggestions and resources are helpful to you in making your Lent a blessed and peaceful time for you and your family. If any of these ideas strike your interest, just jump in and try them!

Do you have any Lenten ideas that you would like to share?

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for Christmas: Part 4, Making Advent Meaningful

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for Christmas
Making Advent More Meaningful

Do you have any plans to make Advent more meaningful? In years past, I have had no plan on how to celebrate Advent. As a result, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas went so fast that we really did nothing to actually to celebrate the season.

As I mentioned in past posts, I decided to chose a theme for Advent this year so I could have some activities for myself and my little ones to focus on. Our theme this year is Fruit of the Spirit. I will be reading A Mother's Harvest: A Devotional for Moms Based on The Fruit of the Spirit. I found many books and CDs on Amazon that could be used with children of all ages to learn more about Galatians 5:22-23 . I also found this sweet sticker chart to to reinforce what my girls are learning and encourage them to practice love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control . I also plan to use some handmade coloring sheets and the lesson plan for preschoolers found on this blog.

I am also hoping to make dinner a little more special each Sunday evening as we light the candles on our simple Advent Wreath.


Here are a few other resources you may enjoy:

For some great activities for the kids, check out Holy Heroes. Once you sign up, you will receive daily educational online videos and activities for school-aged children. It is not too late to join Advent Adventure. My girls participated in the Summer Faith Adventure which was a fun home vacation bible school. They really learned a lot. I believe they also offer a free Lenten Adventure.

I have been reading Kitchen Stewardship's Advent Daily Dose here.

Here is a nice article about Advent from Faith and Family Live. The Faith and Family Live website is filled with great articles and activities for the Catholic family.

I also liked the following articles on preparing for Jesus while waiting for Santa and ways to strengthen your family during Advent:

http://www.stpaulsmonastery.org/6-moms/whatisadvent11-09.pdf

http://www.stpaulsmonastery.org/6-moms/waystostrengthenfamilythisadvent11-09.2.pdf

I hope these resources help you and your family take some time to truly celebrate Advent this year!

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for Christmas: Part 3: Christmas Cards

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for Christmas
Part 3: Christmas Cards

I love to send and receive Christmas cards. Every year since my husband and I became engaged, I have sent a photo card to family and friends. I am not very good at sending pictures throughout the year. With our schedule, I have rarely have time to call or even email all those special people in our lives. Thankfully, they understand! However, I love to be able to send a card with pictures of our growing family as a way to reconnect with those we do not have a chance to talk to very often. And, I know our family and close friends appreciate the pictures they receive each year, as well.

This year, as with most families, our holiday budget is very tight. I considered not sending cards this year but I knew I could find a way to keep up this tradition while staying within budget. I received a deal from Shutterfly for $10 off and free shipping on orders of $30 or more, good through 11/30/09. If anybody would like the code, please let me know and I would be happy to email it to you. It is listed as a "unique code" so I do not know if it can be used more than once.

But wait . . . .

As I was about to place my Shutterfly order, I came across the DEAL OF THE CENTURY on photo cards. On www.freebies4mom.blogspot.com, there is a deal for 50 FREE 4x8 photo cards and FREE shipping from www.seehere.com by Fugi Film. You can find the code here.

I ordered my cards last Tuesday night and I had them by Friday morning! Absolutely free! They turned out very well! They also sent me an email offering an additional 100 free prints.

Hurry, this deal ends November 30, 2009! I will be addressing my cards tonight, and I will be ready to send them out for the first week of December. What a great feeling to have this done so early in the season.

In my next installment, I will talk more about our family's Advent theme and activities that I have been preparing.

Preparing Our Hearts and Home for Christmas, Part 2: Pre-Planning and Organization

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes For Christmas

Because the Christmas season is a busy time of year, I started planning early (as in early October) in order to stay organized, peaceful, and calm. Planning ahead and lowering expectations will make this a wonderful season for our family! At the end of October, I created a free Christmas Countdown Holiday Planner which can be found here. Having everything in one binder allows me to avoid all the notes and lists on tiny scraps of paper, missing receipts, lost addresses, etc.

Here is my Holiday Organizer:

First and foremost, my planner includes a Holiday Values Worksheet. I am using this to remember what is truly important to our family during the season. This is the first page of my planner so it is the first thing I see every time I open the book!

Next, I have a series of printouts to record gifts, stocking stuffers, a to do list, a shopping list, cleaning list, Christmas card planner, baking list, cooking ideas, weekly menu plans through New Years, traditions, and a full section for the kids with ideas on activities, crafts, and some baking of their own. I also have an envelope to hold all receipts.

Also included in my binder is the Heavenly Homemaker's Guide to Holiday Hospitality and the Heavenly Homemaker's Guide to Holiday Hospitality for Kids which both can be found here. These e-books are full of biblical inspiration, ideas, tips, recipes, crafts, lists, etc. I absolutely love the Heavenly Homemakers website and all of Laura's e-books! Check it out!

FlyLady also has many holiday resources including a free Holiday Control Journal here.

I have been purchasing gifts here and there throughout the last few months using sales and coupons. I have not purchased anything that has not been on sale or that I was not able to use a coupon for. At this point, I have almost completed my shopping, and I can start wrapping this weekend. Shopping early has kept me on budget. If something I previously purchased gets drastically marked down between now and Christmas, I will return it and buy it again on sale. I will share some of our favorite toys and gifts later this month.

I have started my holiday baking by making and freezing some dough each week so when I need some sweets to give or enjoy, I am ready.

One of the most important things I have done is to menu plan for the coming weeks. I think it is important during this often indulgent season, to make sure I am cooking healthy meals for my family in the midst of all the cookies and candy.

In my next installment, I will discuss Christmas cards and include a link with a GREAT FREE deal on photo cards. Stay tuned!

Preparing Our Hearts and Home For Christmas, Part 1: Keeping Christmas Centered on Christ

Preparing Our Hearts and Homes For Christmas

As I looked at the calender today, I was a bit giddy noticing that Advent and Christmas will be upon us so soon. It is such a beautiful season. I have many plans this year to prepare our hearts and our home for Christmas. Over the next several weeks, I would like to share some of the celebrations, activities, prayers, projects, gifts, and food that I hope will make this season very memorable for our family. I will also include Thanksgiving in this series because I think having a thankful heart is a wonderful way to begin the season of Advent. We, as a family, want the days and weeks leading up to Christmas to be a time of reflection, prayer, calm, joy, peace , love, tradition, fun, and organization.

I have spent some time over the past few weeks thinking about how to celebrate and use tradition to keep our Christmas centered on Jesus.

I have made a commitment this year to make Advent something really special for my family each and every day before Christmas. We will have an Advent Wreath on our dining room table and have a few minutes of prayer each week as we light a candle.

Our theme for Advent will be The Fruit of the Spirit. The girls and I will be studying, reading, and doing activities to practice love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We, of course, will attend weekly Mass as a family. I will also take my girls to Eucharistic Adoration a few times during the season. A few churches in the area have weekly Pray and Play Adoration where families with children can attend and a little noise is expected!

The girls will be reading and doing activities from Magnifikid. I will also be praying and studying with my Magnificat.

We will also participate together in a few service projects including making Thanksgiving placemats for the local soup kitchen, making a box for Operation Shoebox, purchasing a gift for a child from our church's Angel Tree, and Christmas caroling and visiting with residents of our local assisted living facility.

I am sure there will be a few more religious activities and outings in the coming weeks that I will share. I want to keep our celebrations and traditions simple and age-appropriate. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for Christmas: Organization!

Apple Picking

I took our little ones to a local farm to pick apples on a very warm day in September. We met some good friends in the orchard and picked 1/2 bushel of apples. There were a lot of bees, but thankfully, nobody was stung. The market was so beautiful with the flowers, pumpkins, gourds, and scarecrows. When we got home, we made LOTS of applesauce and a caramel apple crisp for dessert. And, there were plenty of apples left to snack on!

First Day Of School Celebration

Grace started First Grade this morning and was filled with excitement. Erin starts Kindergarten next week and is very anxious to get started. After Labor Day, I will start working with Mary as she begins her homeschool preschool. I wanted to do something special in the morning, but like most mornings, we were just struggling to get everyone in the car and out the door. Luckily today was my day with my babysitter. Last year, I started hiring our WONDERFUL babysitter to come weekly so I could run errands, clean, relax, or have a lunch date with Dan. While the baby always comes with me, it is still so much easier than bringing all the girls with me on errands. Anyway, I took this opportunity to prepare a special First Day of School dinner celebration. The girls love Chinese take-out but I always cringe when I order it because I have a feeling it is not the healthiest meal on earth. I decided to make Happy Family Sesame Chicken from the Dinner Diva, Leanne Ely, at www.savingdinner.com. I added some brown rice and mandarin vegetables. The girls enjoyed using their kids chopsticks. Of course, we needed fortune cookies to top off the meal. I also made a tray of brownies with frosting as an extra treat.

I wanted to get the girls a small gift to commemorate the start of school. In a "Chinese take-out container", I placed a prayer card with a prayer for students, a pin of the Blessed Mother, and a small cross to wear with their uniforms. I gave Mary a small puzzle that she and I can work on together. Everyone loved their meal and gift. This was a wonderful yet simple idea that the girls will remember for a long time!