Sweetness and Light

Seen, Heard & Read ~ Week's Worth

Our past week has been filled with yet more profound and undeniable sadness as the news of yet another loss in our online community. I have truly been without words...

Never the less, some happenings and things to share :: Seen ~

A warm summer evening walk produced these lovely Trumpet Vine Creeper (Campsis radicans) blossoms. They are also called the "Hummingbird Magnet". 

 

These incredibly vibrant lavendar and white "petunia-like" flower, anyone care to gander at what this might be??? I couldn't find a match but thought it was a petunia variety??

 

We finally got around to making our Father Pine, except it's not made from pine, but we like how the cross holds our "fiddleback style" vestement which thanks to Violet came out beautifully with a little gold glitter paint :)

Here's closer look at them ~

Overheard ~

"Mommy Tyrannasaurus Rex starts with a "T"!! (Sean-Paul)

"Hey Sean-Paul, wanna be in my secret spy club?" (Seamus)

Reading Around the House ~

Read Aloud ~ Magic Tree House #7 Sabers at Sunset to Seamus/Sean-Paul at bedtime (how can these be SO boring)?? Seven Silly Eaters, Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent, I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (Sean-Paul)

Independent Reading ~

Violet ~ Rilla of Ingleside, Nancy Drew The Case of the Velvet Mask (a bit of a light week for her reading wise as she has been at intense ballet rehersals for an exciting part in Coppelia)!

Matthias ~ The Black Cauldron (second Prydian chronicle) Jackie & Me with Seamus (still wroking through) Boys' Life magazine

Seamus ~ The Little Bear Collection (he's thrilled he can just pick this up and read it now :)

Me ~ Revolutionary Road (about 1/2-way on this, good) Around the Year With the Trapp Family

A parting shot, another beauty from our evening walk :: Butterfly bush 

 

"Best I love September's yellow,
Morns of dew strung gossamer,
Thoughtful days without a stir,
Rooky clamours, brazen leaves,
Stubble dotted o'er with sheaves -
More than Spring's bright uncontrol
Suit the Autumn of my soul.' ~ Alex Smith

I bid you a lovely Labor Day weekend with many snuggles with your loved-ones, my prayer is that you are all safe.

Jesus said, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you."

For St. Francis from Matthias

Matthias wanted to do some crafting yesterday, so inspired by his sister's teabox shrine for Our Lady of Fatima, he created this delightful home for his St. Francis of Assisi statue.  He has always had an affinity to St. Francis and I think he really took his Sts. theme to heart with his creation!  Just a little bit of Sweetness for your day :)

Oh Mary, The Immaculate!

Our beautiful little Mary Immaculate Spoon for the top of our Celebration Tree! Thank you Violet :)

A Celebration of Saints Tree Craft: Advent to Epiphany (or The Presentation)

With Advent upon us we are so blessed to have many many beautiful Saints to celebrate during this time.  This is a time when we can truly capture our childrens awe and wonder and bring the Saints lives alive for them as we get closer and closer to the birth of Christ. 

Continuing with my theme of Keeping the Company of the Saints I thought it would be appropriate to come up with a meaningful way to display our beloved Spoon Saints and Saintly Clothes Pin Dolls as well as create many more from our feasting between now and the Epiphany on January 6th.

A Celebration Saints Tree is the perfect envoy!!  The Saints will always be with us, and the vivid recollection of their deeds big or small will help us during this time of waiting for the Infant Jesus to be born.  Then we will all rejoice in His glorious birth together with all the Angels and Saints and Choirs in Heaven.  As we journey with the Wise Men our Celebration Saints Tree continues to blossom and we devote our thoughts and prayers to Epiphany when adoration stirs up images of these Kings and fine jewels. (This could be a beautiful finished project at this point, if however you want to continue through the Presentation then follow on...)

As the Wise Men return to their own countries we will continue to discover and feast and be blessed by those who have gone before us, filling our lives with thoughts of heaven as we read about the lives of more great Saints.  The culmination of our project comes into full bloom when Mary and Joseph present their blessed babe to Simeon and their offering of two small doves, showing us that even the Mother of Our Lord and her husband, the Good St. Joseph humbled themselves before their mighty King and the throne of God.

To begin with the First Sunday of Advent and the Saints of this week you will create a Spoon Saint (linking Alice's St. Nicholas at St. Nicholas Center) or a Clothes Pin Saint (linking an adorable St. Lucy that Helen linked in her post here Advent Dreams and Traditions) and then apply a hanger of some sort to attach it to your tree (we're using thread)!  Now let me preface this by saying this tree can be as simple as a piece of Felt cut out like a tree, or a construction paper tree taped to the wall. We have chosen an artificial evergreen that we have had for several years to use as our Celebration Saints Tree.  A Live Evergreen or even a Fruit Tree would be exquisite!!!  **Updated to add this project could easily be carried out with Holy Cards and minimal "craftiness" if you prefer!!

We are beginning our tree officially with the Feast of the Immacualte Conception of the Virgin Mary on Dec 8th where will create a devotion of love and splendor, our Celebration Tree of Saints!!  We will bless the Tree and say the Litany of the Saints!

As an example, here is a tree we made up for you to see it partially decorated:

(I have left the top of our tree bare for Mary to be placed on Saturday, Dec. 8th)

Here are all of the Saints Feasts between now and the Presentation (see Litutrgical Calendar):

• December 3rd - Feast of St. Frances Xavier, priest
• December 4th - Feast of St. John Damascene, priest and doctor
• December 6th - Feast of St. Nicholas, bishop
• December 7th - Feast of St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor
• December 8th - Solemnity of The Immaculate Conception
• December 9th - Second Sunday of Advent, Feast of St. Juan Diego
• December 11th - Feast of St. Damasus I, pope
• December 12th - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
• December 13th - Feast of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr
• December 14th - Feast of St. John of the Cross
• December 21st - Feast of St. Peter Canisius, Optional
• December 16th - Third Sunday of Advent
• December 23rd - Fourth Sunday of Advent
• December 24th - Vigil of the Solemnity of Christmas
• December 25th - Solemnity of Christmas
• December 26th - Feast of St. Stephen, 1st Martyr for Christ
• December 27th- Feast of St. John, Apostle & Evangelist
• December 28th - Feast of the Holy Innocents
• December 29th - Feast of St. Thomas Becket, Optional
• December 30th - Feast of the Holy Family
• December 31st - Feast of Pope St. Sylvester I, Optional
• January 1st - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
• January 2nd - Basil the Great; Gregory Nazianzen
• January 3rd - Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
• January 4th - Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
• January 5th - Feast of St. John Neumann
• January 6th - Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord
• January 7th - Raymond of Penafort, Optional
• January 13th - Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
• January 17th - Feast of St. Anthony, Optional
• January 21st - Feast of St. Agnes
• January 22nd - Feast of St. Vincent of Saragossa Optional
• January 24th - Feast of St. Francis de Sales; Our Lady of Peace
• January 25th - Feast of Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle
• January 26th - Feasts of Sts. Timothy and Titus
• January 28th - Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas
• January 31st - Feast of St. John Bosco
• Februaruy 1st - Feast of St. Brigid of Ireland
• February 2nd - Presentation of Our Lord; Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Here are the Saints we have thus far and of course any Saints can be added to your Celebration Tree, especially keeping in mind your Patron Name Saints or those of your sweet children!

(St. Joseph by Matthias)

(St. John Damascus, by Violet)

(St. Barbara, by Violet)

(St. NIcholas, by Seamus)

(Our Lady of Guadalupe by Violet)

(St. Lucy by Violet)

As you can see, this project can be as grand or as simple as you choose. (Truth be told this little tiny tree is not going to be large enough for a complete project, but as we have moved twice in the past 18 months, our larger tree seems to be MIA at the current moment)  Not to worry however, as it's all about Keeping the Company of the Saints in Advent to Epiphany or the Presentation.  I hope some of you will try this with your families and enjoy the company of those beautiful souls of whom we ask for intercession to Our Lord and Savior!!  Many blessings to you during this beautiful time of waiting!!

Related posts:  Keeping the Company of the Saints and More LIturgical Year Resources

More Liturgical Year Resources!!

Let me begin this post by saying THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for the kind and beautiful comments on my Keeping the Company of the Saints post!  I was overjoyed at the response and look forward to sharing more posts along these lines in the future!!  I am also honored to mention that I will now be a contributing author at the ever-delightful O Night Divine blog hosted by my dear friend Mary Ellen at Tales from the Bonny Blue House, thank you so much for the invitation, I am thrilled to say the least!

I know there are so many resources available for Catholics in the realm of the Liturgical Year, but I thought I'd compile a more comrehensive list of blogs, books and links for your perusal, and please let's add ones that I may miss (as I'm sure there will be some I don't know about) in the comments section and I'll add them in accordingly!  This will hopefully be something you can bookmark to refer back to as necessary in your Liturgical Year planning and Keeping the Company of the Saints!!

Blogs: 

• Alice at Cottage Blessings has compiled all her Spoon Saints posts here :)  She is truly brilliant, my kids LOVE making these!!
• Family in Feast and Feria by Jenn Miller, so much wisdom and inspiration here, plan to spend some time absorbing it all!
• Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight has so many good things to share for Liturgical Year Planning, she even gave a talk on it with Jenn (listed above) Please visit her for some goodness in your day!

Books: (some may have already been mentioned in the mainpost)

• The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland
• The Big Book of Catholic Customs by McNamara, Robinson and Neuberger
• A Book of Feasts & Seasons by Joanna Bogle
• The Catholic Parent Book of Feasts by Martin, Puccio, and Romanowsky
• A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz
• Cooking With the Saints
• Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger

Links:

• Catholic Mom
• Catholic Exchange
• Cyber Faith
• Favorite Resources for Catholic Home Schoolers
• FDLC Resources
• The Catholic Calendar Page (they include a nice explanation of definitions here)
• Women of Faith and Family list of Church Seasons page

Other recent blog posts on Saints or Liturgical Year thoughts: (an ever-growing list of lovely links for your reflection and perusal)

• Gentle Learning: Yearly Rythmn by Kathryn at The Bookworm
• Lost and Found by Eileen at Eileen on Him...At Least I Try
• In Honor of the Saints by Jessica at Shower of Roses (added 11/2/07)

If you have recently written your thoughts on the LIturgical Year, I would be happy to share them here, please add your post link in the comments section.

I'd like to finish this additional resources post with another quote from The Year and Our Children:

"O ye Angels and Archangels, Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers, Virtues of Heaven.  Cheribum and Seraphim, ye Patriarchs and Prophets, holy Doctors of the Law, Apostles, all Martyrs of Christ, holy Confessors, Virgins of the Lord, Hermits and all Saints:  Intercede for us. (Antiphon at Vespers on the Feast of All Saints)

God Bless You!

Our Twelve Days of Christmas

We like to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas in our family with a little fun and lots of traditions and hands on learning!  This year I got sort of an impromptu idea and decided to roll with it.  We decorated Twelve small yellow gift bags with color copies of the Jan Brett book Twelve Days of Christmas and the correlating Christian symbols and their relevance.  It was a fun and quick afternoon project and can be adapted to many different ideas.  Here's how ours turned out with a few instructions, but really it's carte blanche for whatever you think would work for your family!!  Enjoy!

Here are the embellished bags:  We used punches, decorative scissors, stickers and drawings to depict our themes. (For the color copies I used about a reduction to 30%) Inside each bag is a small votive that we light with each night, so on Twelfth Night we'll have all of them lit and a great party to boot!!  (Please be VERY careful when handling these bags with votives, we used a glass one inside each bag for extra safety)

Christmas Day:  Partridge in a Pear Tree = Jesus Dies on the Cross

2nd Day of Christmas:  Two Turtle Doves = The Old & New Testament

3rd Day of Christmas:  Three French Hens = Virtues of Faith, Hope & Charity

4th Day of Christmas: Four Colly Birds = Four Gospels

5th Day of Christmas:  Five Gold Rings = Five Books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch)

6th Day of Christmas:  Six Geese A-Laying = Six Days of Creation

7th Day of Christmas:  Seven Swans A-Swimming = Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

8th Day of Christmas:  Eight Maids A-Milking = Eight Beatitudes

9th Day of Christmas:  Nine Drummers Drumming = Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10th Day of Christmas:  Ten Pipers Piping = Ten Commandments

11th Day of Christmas:  Eleven Ladies Dancing = Eleven Apostles

12th Day of Christmas:  Twelve Lords A-Leaping = Twelve Points of The Creed

Singing the lyrics to this beautiful old song would be a very nice accompaniment to beginning your evening prayer time, as well as a 12 Days of Christmas treat for each day.  We like to give Saints Statues, Holy Cards, gold coins, chocolate kisses (well really ANYTHING chocolate!!) small books, stickers.  And then of course the celebrating for Twelfth Night, but that's another post!!  Happy Feasting and Merry Christmas to you!

We're Counting to Christmas!

(Our Pocket Advent Calendar)

The Countdown has begun for all Christians and especially Catholics during this blessed time of Advent!  In our home school that means LOTS and LOTS of picture books and read-alouds.  Like so many who read my blog, we have also enjoyed the lovely TOMIE DEPAOLA CHRISTMAS UNIT and the JAN BRETT LITERATURE STUDIES in years past. 

This year, we are including all these FAVORITE BOOKS as well as some wonderful NEW ONES to the bookshelf!  We will surely have more than enough to keep us busy Counting... our way through Advent to Epiphany!!  This superbly illustrated picture book has been a favorite since Violet was a toddler and we discoverd Nancy Tafuri in our little library. Back then she was just as thrilling and a joy to read as she is today!  Here's a little snippet: 

"I'm counting to Christmas.  On days 1, 2 and 3, I paint,cut, and paste.  On days 4, and 5, I write, stamp and send.  On days 6, 7, and 8 I pour, measure, and mix...On days 19 and 20 I cut, spread, and sprinkle..." 

The story written for her daughter Cristina has the joy and wonder of the season beautifully drawn throughout the book.  At the end, there are special recipes and ideas for the countdown including treats for the outdoor friends!!  It's a true delight!

One new one for us this year is another delightful and heartwarming story, The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas, by Madeleine L'Engle.  It's wonderful and my kids could hardly let me put it down last night to go off to bed.  We are finishing it today and will be doing many of the sweet activities suggested by the ever-gifted Cay at her Cajun Cottage and House of Literature site!  She has carefully selected ideas from the book and made a fun way to read through the book as an Advent calendar!  Thanks Cay! 

We'll also be doing her literature study of Night Tree, by Eve Bunting, who has become an author we absolutely adore. She truly has the hearts of children (and adults) captured by her stories, and they lend so well to further study and activities.

We are just going to start Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent, just waiting to pick it up from the library today!! 

Here's a look at our Jesse tree with Advent Cubes in progress, the Cubes are in the basket and all has to be on top of our piano, for no little tiny hands to dismantle!! This is surely to be one of our favorite activities we will look forward to every year, thanks to Alice for bringing this lovely idea for us to make wonderful Advent memories with our family!! 

To the right of the Jesse Tree is Seamus's special wood Nativity set for this year as little Mr. Sean-Paul still wants to put them in his mouth!! : o  Baby Jesus is hidden behind one of the trees awaiting his place on Christmas Eve!! 

May God Bless you in your Advent plans for today!!

In Thanksgiving for Saints and Celebrations

The Thanksgiving Bookshelf is stocked and we're gearing up for lots of cozy read-alouds with Hot Cider and popcorn by the fire as we approach our country's beloved and oldest holiday!  There are so many lovely Feasts and Celebrations ahead of us as we meander through November and feel the solemn mood of darkening days and head into Advent. 

One of my children's favorites is the Feast of Martinmas that comes on this Saturday, November 11th!  We've already started preparing for our day by re-reading our Saints stories and making pictures and narrations. 

Here is Matthias's Picture and Narration:

Martin was a soldier in France.  One day, he and some other soldiers were going home when they met a poor man dressed in rags.  "We must help that man," said Martin, "or he will die in the cold weather, for he does not have a thick cloak like we do."  "What are you going to do?" asked another soldier.  Martin took his cloak and cut it in two, giving half to the poor man and keeping the other half.

That night, when Martin was in bed, he saw the man by his bed, he was Jesus.  "Martin,"  said Jesus, "when you help others, you are helping me."  "I was the man you gave half your cloak to."  Martin did good things for the rest of his life, and when he died, the Church made him a Saint. 

The children are already practicing and rehearsing a special St. Martin's Day drama which will certainly delight us!  We hope to make some beautiful lanterns, such as those described in Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, and process around our neighborhood to illuminate our way and sing of the praises of this good Saint!  I imagine there will be a new Craft Spoon Saint of St. Martin of Tours as well!  We will also be remembering all of the Brave Men and Women who serve to keep our country safe and those who have gone before them for Veteran's Day! I imagine our flag will also be flying high for these Saints in the making!

Other Feasts we're looking forward to in addition to Thanksgiving, are St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Albert the Great, St. Rose Duchesne, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  Feast of Christ the King, St. Andrew the Apostle.  I assure you there are no shortage of celebrations before we reach Advent and our time of waiting for our Blessed Saviour! 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above Ye Heavenly Host,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

Amen.

As we tuck in for these shorter days and longer nights, may we always remember that the Light of the World is always with us.  May God bless you in your day!

Celebrating Michaelmas

I simply love it when an extra-special feast day falls on a Friday.  It's like a mini-vacation within the liturgical calendar to really bring the day to it's full meaning and celebration.  I'm not sure why I feel this way, probably as it's the end of the week and we can relax knowing we've done most of our major academics or learning throughout the week so it feels more like a little holiday to celebrate a feast at the onset of the weekend!

We had a lovely morning doing our "Candle Craft" that Seamus helped me to decide on.  One candle to decorate for each of the Archangels.  While the chidlren were decorating and creating their Archangel candle, I read from various sources about Michaelmas Day and how it's celebrated around the world.  I also read from HIlda von Stockum's Angels Alphabet (one of my personal faves) each of the beautiful Archangels poems and we used these for copywork as well!  I should also mention that we started our day with French Toast with Blackberries and Whip Cream, truly decadent and yummy!!

Here are some photos of our celebration:

Here they are working on their candles (we LOVE Modge-podge by the way!)

Here is violets with the tissue paper first applied.

Here is her finished candle with cross, roses, and lid decorated for St. Raphael, notice how the center pink bead looks like a medicine jar!

Here are the three finished candles.  Seamus has the St. Michael Candle and Matthias has St. Gabriel.  They are lovely aren't they!!

Hope you had a wonderful feast day and may God continue to shed His light upon your days!!

Our Assumption Day: First Day of Our New Learning Year!!

(First Day of School Photo)!

We like to begin our new cycle of learning on this very special Feast of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary.  It's such a special day to celebrate the passing of Our Lady from her perfect earthly domain to that of perfection in heaven with her son and Our Lord, and God the Father Almighty.

I had many special things planned for our first day of the year and it all went pretty much as planned.  In the morning after Prayers and Devotions and reading from Mary Mother of God by Tomie de Paola, we worked on our long-awaited Rosary Shelf Crafts so beautifully showcased at Alice's Cottage and by Dawn of By Sun and Candlelight.  We were unable to do these beautiful shelves during Mary's Month of May as we were moving, however, I think they were just as special for a day like the Assumption!

This is the top of Seamus's shelf. He painted special crosses on it!

Here is the top of Matthias's. We found some lovely religious stickers at JoAnn fabrics of all places!

And this is Violet's! We sealed them with Mod Podge and then an Acrylic Clear Coating over the top and here are the finished shelves with l their special things on them. As a Special gift for the Assumption the Head Master and I gave each of the dear children a new Marian Statue and (thanks to Dawn) they each have their own Holy Water Bottles atop as well!

In order again Seamus's, Matthias's and then Violet's! You'll notice on hers there is also a beautiful yarn God's Eye which we also made after we finished the shelves!

After our morning of crafts we went to a lovely 12:15pm Mass for the Solemnity and then had lunch with the Head Master, that was a real treat for us all!!  We were invited to dinner at some wonderful new home schooling friends and so we celebrated with them as well! The kids took their God's Eyes as gifts and I made Sour Cream Cheesecakes for dessert with fresh raspberries and blueberries! It was a beautiful day of celebration in honor of Our Dear Lady!

The Mosaic of Our Lives

As I contemplate my plans for this next round of school lessons and how we will spend our learning time as it especially relates to our faith, I am spellbound by the beautifully and thoughfully prepared Cathoic Mosaic by Cay Gibson!! It truly emanates a richness and diversity through the liturgical year in books, a Mosaic of literature! Cay explains very eloquently how literature can enrich our lives and how one can teach using a literature rich curriculum in her book Literature Alive! and she has definately out-done herself with her wonderful new book, available through Hillside Education.

At first glance I kind of thought I could do without something like the Catholic Mosaic (I know, GASP!) but upon further research and after reading posts like this at Real Learning and this at the 4real forum, my heart was overflowing with ideas and thankfulness that someone as talented as Cay would put this all together in one place where we can return to again and again to enrich our children's and our own lives with the beauty and wonder of our litrugical year all pieced together in a beautiful Mosasic, thanks so much Cay!!

Reflections On Our Good Friday Lenten Tea

Well no small thanks can convey the gratitude I have for dear Alice at Cottage Blessings as we were able to have our version of her masterfully creative and spiritual Lenten Tea II on Good Friday. I will have to say that this event was the highlight of Lent for me and perhaps my dh and children as well. What a blessing and a joy it was to have this beautiful preparation of solemn accord in hopes for the glorious Easter to come. I failed to get any photographs of our solemn tea, but hopefully my words can covey the awe and wonder in the eyes of my dear children as I read through the Good Friday scriptures and described the story of Our Lord's Passion and Cruxifiction through the menu items. Even my dear husband was enthralled and impressed. The children didn't even ask if there were to be treats or where the real tea was, they were just enamored with the whole process as the dishes were represented in the Word.

We started with The King's Crown with Softened Cream Cheese Spread in a Pie Plate, I placed salsa in the center and then the Tortilla chips around the rim to make the Crown, it was very impressive and I liked how the red salsa contrasted with the white of the cream cheese to help symbolize Jesus's purity and the blood he would soon shed for us!

For Out of Envy I made Homemade Guacamole to go with the Crown, it was delicious, and the kids really liked the concept of jealousy in the scriptures.

The Purple Cloak was small squares of Organic Fruit Leather (we love this stuff!) This part tied in so nicely with the Crown and then the contrast to the Crown of Thorns.

For The Crown of Thorns I used Round Wheat Crackers spread with crunchy peanut butter and then the children stuck small pieces of pretzel sticks all around for the thorns. Very powerful!!

I had Hard Boiled Eggs with Scull & Crossbones drawn on them for Golgatha. This was met with wide-eyed quiet and lots of "Oh's" as we read through this part of the scripture.

For The Seamless Garment I cut the flour tortillas in the shape of a "robe" and then cut White Cheddar Cheese into small squares for the "lot". This was great, the kids couldn't believe that the onlookers would want to gamble for Jesus's clothes!

We used the Basil to represent the Two Robbers. I also explained that because of Jesus' everlasting love the robbers were forgiven even before they died and met Jesus in Heaven. We then talked about the color green and evergreen trees a little.

Vinegar to Drink was just that, Balsamic, however, we dipped ours in pieces of Baguette.

The Roman Centurian became a bit of a math lesson as we discussed our 100 baby plum tomatoes and they recalled the story we read about St. Longinus and how he might have felt witnessing the cruxifiction.

I forgot to buy mini-muffins and didn't have time to make them, so for Laid in the Tomb we wrapped Challah bread around a red seedless grape and talked about the reverence Joseph of Arimathea showed to Our Crucified Lord.

We served plain cold water in our tea pot in white mugs, we also tore paper napkins for the "temple curtain being torn in two." We tried very hard to start at 3:00PM but dear husband was a few minutes late, everyone still got the gist and we had been pretty quiet most of the day. The kids made beautiful little table-tent cards with all the Menu Items so we could look around the table and see how everything was represented.

It was such a beautifully spiritual event I can't imagine another Lent without this incredible solemn practice. Thank you again dear Alice for enriching my family with your creativity and genius!! And now, Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!!

And in case you weren't able to do a Lenten Tea, Alice has just posted another incredible offering for An Easter Tea!! Alice I stand in wonder!!

A Little Bit Irish

We are doing lots of Irish and St. Patrick's Day learning this week in addition to Seamus's Ducky Fun!  If you haven't been there yet, please go to Tales from the Bonny Blue House: Everything Irish This Week. They are Irish to the core and having fun galore with baking and great books!!  Thanks Mary Ellen for the awesome Irish Soda Bread recipe, I can't wait to try it, it looks so yummy!!

Some of the books we are delving into are:

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting with illustrations by the ever-talented Jan Brett!

Jamie O' Rourke and the Pooka by Tomie de Paola

The Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie de Paola

Celtic Heritage Saints by Marian Keaney

We're having a Lucky and Ducky kind of week!  Hope you are too!

Fun for the kids:  Don't miss this cool satelite shot of Ireland!

UPDATE:  I found this in my own library, Legends and Tales of Ireland, by Samuel Lover and Thomas Crofton Croker.  We'll be reading a few of these too!

Eek! Plans For Lent

As I posted today about my debut on the next Carnival of Homeschooling, and as I've been reading through other's blogs, I realised a bit sheepishly, that Lent is beginning next week, with Ash Wednesday to be exact, that's less than 6 days away, ahem, and I have NO PLANS!!!  Then I remebered my dear freind over at Cottage Blessings and how she saved my ______ last year at this time as I had a "burgeoning-belly-ready-to-give-birth-during-the-Easter-Season", and NO PLANS, and she had prepared the most beautiful Easter Vigil Notebook project that is posted in it's entirety at the 4real forums. 

So, once again, Bravo my dear Cottage friend, we will be re-visitng the wonderful vigil project and trying to fit more of it in and expand on what we acheived last year, which was great!  Violet was the only active participant for the Notebook portion (see a few pictures at the bottom), and this year Matthias will work on his own and Seamus will undoubtedly be listening intently in.

This photo shows Violet's drawings that accompanies her narration of The Easter Story (Brian Wildsmith version). 

This is her drawing of the Easter Candle. 

This is her illustration of the different parts of The Exsultet, so beautiful.

There are so many more beautfiul parts of the notebook, it was hard to choose a few, when we finish this years project I will make a special album that will be included in my sidebar.  I can't wait to delve deeper into our rich Catholic faith and enjoy this beautiful and inspiring Lenten project with my dear ones. 

+May you all enjoy your own peaceful and fulfilling Lent.+