Feast Day: St. Matthias

Happy feast day, Uncle Matt!

Feast Day: Our Lady of Fatima

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima is a wonderful proof of God's love for us all ... and Mary's maternal love and care for each and every one of God's children. 

We were fortunate enough, back in 2001, to take the family on pilgrimage to the site of the Fatima apparitions.  The Cova, where the children saw Mary, and the surrounding area is still much like what it would have been back in 1917 when the children saw Mary the 13th of the month, from May through October.  We walked all around the village, did the Stations of the Cross, visited the homes of the children, and participated in the processions and Masses at the Basilica.  [Here's a link to the official Shrine site's pictures of these spots.]  We saw the statue of Our Lady to which Pope John Paul the Great added the bullet that could have killed him ... saying that Mary's protection kept him from dying on May 13, 1981.  

Pope Benedict, arriving in Fatima this past Tuesday, said:

"It is a profound consolation to know that you are crowned not only with the silver and gold of our joys and hopes but also with the 'bullet' of our anxieties and sufferings."

Since the pilgrimage in 2001, I pray the Fatima Prayer everyday (at least once, usually more often throughout the day; Our Lady asked the children to pray this prayer after each decade of the rosary):

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell. 

Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us all .... 

Our Lady of Fatima still has such meaning for today ... when we have such turmoil, war and distress.  Mary's message is simple -- turn to God in all things.  Just think if everyone did that, what a wonderful world we would have!

Mary's Month and May Crowning

The month of May, for Catholics everywhere, is considered the "month of Mary".  And usually, close to the beginning of the month (or in our case, the first Friday in May) groups of Catholic children celebrate Mary's Month by crowning a statue ... bringing flowers of the fairest ... to crown the Queen of the Angels.

Today, our parish had the homeschoolers participate in our own crowning -- crowning the lovely outdoor statue of Mary after 12 Noon Mass. 

It was a gorgeous 70+ day, not a cloud in the sky,

while Father blessed the crown of roses (Lego Maniac, not pictured was one of the dozen altar servers ....)

, two children who made their First Communion this year crowned the statue

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and we prayed a full Rosary and sang Marian hymns. 

So while the big girls were doing this: 

The little girls were doing this: 

and my youngest was doing this:

 

(facing 90 degrees from the action!)

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Here's Mary's Court:

After the celebration, we ate:

and socialized and enjoyed this uniquely Catholic celebration!

Blessed Mother, please watch over all who look to you for succor ....

SAA Plans for 2010-11: Sacrament Prep for BamBam

I am so excited! I love this time of year when I search and search and plan and plan and search some more for the right blend of resources for loving, living and learning in the heart of our home!

Next year, I'll be preparing BamBam for his First Reconciliation/First Holy Communion!  I've got some plans all set (since I did this with String Bean and LegoManiac a few years ago -- and actually remembered to save everything!) but was trying to find a new, active, visual way of helping him understand -- without having to do a BUNCH of re-creating the wheel, as it were.

Well, some sweet fellow homeschooler mentioned Lapbooking with a Catholic Twist and the Faith Folders that she creates.  They are all wonderful, but the ones I'll be using for Sac Prep next year include:

• The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder
• The Sacrament of Holy Eucharist Faith Folder
• The Sacrament of Confession Faith Folder

I'd buy all of 'em, but we'll stick to those for now ....

Go check out the cool lapbooking ideas she's got ... btw, she is donating 50% of the profits from sales of the  Year for Priests Faith Folder  in Ryan Barrett's name to Autism Speaks and Friar Suppliers.  Cool huh?

 

Birthdays: she's "legal" now!

HAPPY 21st Birthday, Sarah!

We love you ..... may God bless you abundantly today (Wednesday, May 5th) and always ....

 

More about tea and cakes ...

A week ago, I mentioned a post from the lovely Pious Sodality of Church Ladies and the tea/barbeque their parish holds for young people. Here is a link to a further post about this program, including a link to the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis brochure about this youth program.  If done properly, this program looks fabulous for our Catholic youth.

Hmmm .... looks like I'm going to have to look into this further .....

Nurturing Creativity Daybook: May 3-8, 2010

As I mentioned in a post last week ... I can't keep up with "daybooks", but week-at-a-glance seems doable!  Here's this weeks creativity in the heart of our home:
Week-at-a-glance:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program;
  the Season-spanning Cardi and the Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket are knitted, drafted, packed and off to the post office this morning.  The one that I've just started is titled "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that is wonderful to knit! 
• on the craft table: SEWING projects WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing.  Today, since it's rainy out, will be a fabulous day to start!
• on the kitchen counter: ground turkey thawing for the kids' favorite dinner -- spaghetti with meat sauce!  Dinners are gonna be quick'n'easy this week as I'm stage manager for Rumors and we're in "tech week" ... 6:00pm call time for rehearsal and performances this weekend.
• in the garden: I have seedlings coming up, HUGE transplanted azalea that has taken, and all the other transplants this past month seem to have taken.  Rick and I worked on the front garden, tilling and mixing and augmenting the amazingly dense clay soil so that I could get flower seeds in and we could transplant Japanese maples into the center of the two gardens.  The gentle rain yesterday and today will help TONS in getting these things established.  Looks like I'll be weeding this weekend!  Kids have planting (including watermelon seeds) to get in the ground this week. We're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids".  Stage 1, the swing, is shown here and we'll work on finishing the 4x8 platform atop this week. 
• in the school-room: winding down the heavy schoolwork (altho we'll continue thru the summer, just on a lower-gear); got May Crowning on Friday; end of the year projects to work on.  I'm going to pull out some various craft supplies a couple of times this week and let them make what they will.  Charlotte Mason-ites call this "masterly inactivity", I call it "free explore", the kids call it just fun!  We're also field-tripping this week since this is the week of the anniversary of the battles of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863) and Wilderness (May 5-6, 1864) .. since they're in our "backyard" ... this is a great excuse for heading out and exploring (and maybe re-enacting a few of the bloodier scenes!) 

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?