{Seven Quick Takes} iPhone Photos
Snuggles had helped Bud get dressed and I didn’t realize until I was buckling him in his car seat that he was wearing a pair of his sister’s size 3 capris. Whoops! Our girls don’t wear pants very often and someone must have put them in his drawer. Oh well. I don’t think anyone noticed, though they were really short!
Captain is ahead of schedule and should be getting his braces off sometime this summer. Two more of the children will need to start braces sometime within the next six months. I guess they all inherited my teeth… Ranger will need full braces and Chiquita will need to start the first of (possibly) two phases. So thankful for dental insurance this year to help offset the cost!
After spending most of this month’s grocery budget on the cow and restocking the freezer, our Costco rebate checks came at a perfect time. My total at Costco yesterday afternoon, after this year’s rebates, was only $40.27! As I said on Instagram, gone are the days of buying something fun with those checks, especially with teen/preteen boys in the house!
And, apparently, I stack groceries like Sean stacks wood! 😉
(I had already removed another box and 5 dozen eggs before letting go to snap the picture.)
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Comment Policy
One of my favorite things about Shower of Roses is hearing from my visitors in the comment box. Living in a rural area and raising a large family without much support for Catholics and Home Education is challenging. I’m so grateful for the friendships, prayers and support I have been blessed with through blogging.
However, the comment box has gotten a little out of control the last couple years, which has resulted in me trying to find different ways to manage the comments that come through, including requiring word verification at times, and ultimately moderating each and every comment, most of which are spam, and which ends up taking more time than I have to spend on the computer.
It is time to make a few changes, starting with installing a new commenting system for all new posts. Hopefully this will make leaving comments easier for all my visitors and also cut back on the time it takes me to moderate comments, leaving me with more time to spend with my family and still continue blogging.
I’ve listed some clear guidelines below for what is allowed, and more importantly what isn’t allowed in the comment box here at Shower of Roses: (Note: Please read the section titled “No Personal Attack Comments Permitted” and remember that this is my family and a little glimpse at our lives that I am sharing here and not a generic “resource website.”)
Comment Form Guidelines: The comment form must be filled in with a proper or legitimate sounding name and URL. Comments using keywords, spam or splog-like URLs, or suspicious information in the comment form will be edited or deleted.
Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared. They may be used by the blog owner to privately contact the commenter.
Commenter Privacy and Protection: All email, snail mail, phone numbers, and any private and personal information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of the commenter. To prevent such editing, never share this private information within the blog comment.
No Personal Attack Comments Permitted: This blog is a digital scrapbook for our family. As much as I love and enjoy sharing what we have been up to here at Shower of Roses, I do not welcome debates or attacks on me, my family, or my faith in my comment box. I do not claim to be an expert on any topic I blog about, nor do I have any sort of authority in the Church. I am just another Catholic mother doing my best to raise the children God has blessed us with and entrusted to our care. Even though many visit this blog looking for ideas to incorporate in their own homes, just because I post something doesn’t mean it is the best option, or that it is even a good idea. My children look back and read through the posts and comments and I do not want them reading comments left (almost always anonymously) about what is wrong with the craft they lovingly created, or how any particular book, activity, our Holy Father the Pope, or even canonized saint(!) that I blog about isn’t “Catholic” enough. The First Amendment gives you the right to express your opinions on your blog not mine. In short, any comment that I do not want my children to read will not be published.
Blog Nicknames: Please refer to my children by their blog nicknames. All comments that include their real names will be edited or deleted.
Language and Manners: This blog is “family friendly” and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by the blog owner and administrator to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted.
Limit Links: This blog is setup to automatically hold any blog comment with more than two links in moderation, which may delay your comment from appearing on this blog. Any blog comment with more than four links, or which includes affiliate links, could be marked as comment spam. You may, however, post a link to your site or your most recent blog post.
Questions: I do my best to try and include as much information and links in my posts, when possible. If I missed something, you are more than welcome to post follow-up questions in the comment box. If you have a question, chances are you are not the only one. Therefore, I would much rather receive your comments on my blog than via email. It is a better use of my time to address everyone at once rather than answer several emails.
Comment Spam: Any comment assumed to be possible comment spam will be deleted and marked as comment spam.
Commenters Blocked: Anyone who violates this Comment Policy may be blocked from future commenting on this blog.
What To Do If Your Comment Does Not Appear: If you leave a comment on this blog and it does not appear in a reasonable time period, and you know that it does not violate these Comment Policies, please send me an email at jessica(dot)showerofroses(at)gmail(dot)com.
Responses to Comments: Comments on this blog will only be responded to in direct response to the blog comment when possible. I will not respond privately via email or other communication method to a blog comment, so be sure to check back or subscribe to replies if you leave a question. If I haven’t responded to your question, please feel free to send me a reminder.
All Rights Reserved: I reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments and block certain IP addresses as necessary. By leaving a comment, you also grant me a license to post your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. You grant me the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to the blog, in a book, a video, or presentation.
Hold Harmless: You retain ownership of your comments. I do not own them and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By submitting a comment on this blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold this site, Shower of Roses, and all subsidiaries and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.
Trackbacks Are Comments: All trackbacks will be treated inline with the above Comment Policy.
Social Media: You are more than welcome to follow me at Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter (I’ve never really posted much there), or on the Shower of Roses Facebook Page. I plan to go through my personal Facebook page soon and reduce the “friends” list back down to just close personal friends and family. Usually what I post on Facebook is shared from Instagram anyways.
Note: Comments will continue to be moderated through the new commenting system as I test it out. I will work on adding approved friends and frequent commenters to a “whitelist” so their comments will be published immediately. Thank you for your continued patience during this transition, as I work on setting this all up and working through any technical difficulties, here at Shower of Roses.
I LOVE getting comments, questions, and emails. I really do! I work hard to answer as many comments and emails as possible, but no matter how hard I try my inbox always fills up faster than I can empty it. In fact the only time it has been emptied completely, for about a day, was when I switched accounts back in the fall of 2011. At this particular moment I have well over 300 emails that have been “saved to answer later” sitting in my inbox…
I DO read every single email (and comments too!) but if I tried to reply to every single one I wouldn’t have any time left to live the life I blog about here at Shower of Roses, or even sleep for that matter. Please accept my sincere apologies if you haven’t heard back from me and thank you for understanding! You are welcome to email me again if you’d like – I usually have every intention of responding but your email happened to come through at an extra busy time and was quickly buried…
Thank you again for all the kind comments, emails, support and prayers. Please continue to pray for us and know that I do pray for all my visitors. May God bless you all!
St. Valentine’s Day Cards & Party
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| Not only did my husband surprise me with beautiful roses and chocolates, he also stayed up late the night before cleaning the kitchen and clearing the countertops! ♥ |
Jesus Tree – Walk with Jesus Through Lent {Sponsored Review & Giveaway}
Jesse Tree Treasures has a brand new product for Lent this year! Similar to the felt Jesus Tree I’ve been using with our children for years, the Jesus Tree – Walk with Jesus Through Lent is an excellent teaching tool to use with children to incorporate a Lenten Bible Study on the life of Jesus.
This beautiful new set from Jesse Tree Treasures includes 64 wooden disks. There are 47 disks for the 40 days of Lent and the 7 Sundays, 10 disks for Ascension Thursday to Pentecost Sunday, and 7 bonus disks which include various holy days. The disks arrive in a gold pouch and can be easily sorted by color to coordinate the weeks with the enclosed prayer cards which list the readings for each day.
Madonna and Child Valentine Cards
- 6 inch Doilies
- White Crochet Tread
- Miraculous Medals (I had these left over from when we made Sacrifice Beads)
- Silver Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint (optional)
- Images of Our Lady (I resized ours to 4×3 inches)
Step One: Cut out images of Our Lady and Baby Jesus and glue to the center of doily.
Step Two: Fold in the sides of the doily and lace a piece of the crochet thread through the holes.
Option: On some of the cards we outlined the image with Silver Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint.
After they dried overnight we then finished assembling the rest of the cards.
We also made some with color images, which I had softened using photo editing software to create a more antique look. Rose loved attaching the medals to all twenty of her cards!
Conversation Hearts Bible Verse Valentines
A 12th Birthday Filled with Surprises!
When I asked Rascal Ranger* what sort of theme he would like for his birthday this year, I expected him to say a “Ranger’s Apprentice” theme. . . or perhaps something that would incorporate The Lord of the Rings series, like last year’s Hobbit Birthday Party. Instead he told me that he wanted it to be a “surprise!”
A couple days later I was out running a few errands with our oldest son and as we were leaving the store we noticed a poster for The LEGO Movie, and that it was going to open on Ranger’s birthday! How perfect! We have only taken some of our children to the movies a few times, and after discussing it with Sean we decided the movie would be a fun birthday surprise. Between The LEGO Movie and Charlotte’s past movie themed party I had all the inspiration I needed to pull together his “surprise” birthday!
Surprise! A Simple Cake
From Instagram last Friday morning: The birthday boy is such a great kid! He knows it has been a busy week and smiled and thanked me when he saw his simply frosted cake this morning after requesting a “surprise” theme this year… Sean just took him to get a birthday hot cocoa and it’s time for the rest of us to get busy with the rest of the decorations!!! His day will be filled with surprises!
He really did think it was all I was able to pull together for his birthday… and he was perfectly fine with that! Wednesday we had the opportunity to purchase a used bunk bed for the little boys (I’ll post more about that later) and after a trip to the hardware store Sean and I were up until well after midnight assembling the bed. Thursdays are always filled with lots of schoolwork and tutoring, and just when I was about to start decorating the cake we received a call from Captain’s doctor letting us know that he is referring us to the specialists at the children’s hospital 5 hours away, which had me fighting tears the rest of the night… (Please continue to pray for Captain. They suspect CVS, but need to rule out other diseases. We will also be having him tested for food allergies and sensitivites soon.) His reaction and gratitude for even a simple cake made the rest of the surprises we had in store for him that much more exciting and fun!
Surprise! A Popcorn Birthday Cake
As Sean was leaving with the birthday boy, I asked them to please pick up some ice cream too, while they were in town. This would give us about one hour to decorate the cake and the house before they got back! Thankfully it all came together incredibly fast.
Ranger did think I was going to do “something” to the cake while they were gone, but all he could come up with for that round yellow cake was the sun! He had absolutely no idea what I had planned.
Note: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.
Popcorn Birthday Cake Supplies:
- 9″ round Funfetti Cake
- 14oz container of Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting tinted with Yellow Concentrated Gel
- Small Pop Corn Boxes
- M&M’s
- Kettle Corn Pop Corn
- 12 Birthday Candles
I bought two 12 packages of the Wilton Dot Candles so we wouldn’t need to use the purple. These reminded Captain and I of Legos and matched our theme perfectly!
Surprise! Decorations
I downloaded the Movie Times font suggested by Charlotte and created the birthday banner using a small hole punch and black ribbon. You can download my birthday banner document here.
I found the Movie Director Clapper at Amazon. I have white chalk around here somewhere but I wasn’t able to find it so I just printed out the text with the Lego font and taped it on to the clapper. Not what I originally had in mind, but I was in a hurry and it worked.
I had a box of concession candy for each of the children as party favors. You can download the Concessions sign here. I added the yellow lights with marker.
We hung some Dizzy Danglers from the light fixture and set the table with a red plastic table cloth, black plates, and yellow napkins. We also scattered some old fashioned movie tickets around the table, and some Lego Movie items/gifts for the birthday boy!
Surprise! Let’s Go to the Movies!
I ran across The Lego Movie Collector’s Edition gift card at Target. He discovered it at his place setting and we asked if he’d like to go see the movie at noon!
Surprise! LEGO Movie Series Mini-Figures
Captain and I also picked out some Lego Movie Series Mini-Figures to give the birthday boy and use as decorations! We stood there in the store for awhile trying to find the ones we wanted and were excited that they ended up being the ones we had been looking for: Larry the Barista Coffee Guy, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Emmett/Construction Worker, Bad Cop/Good Cop (played by Liam Neeson!), and Taco Tuesday Guy.
Surprise! Special Gifts
Before we left for the movie, we had him open a few of his gifts.
The first was a tackle box filled with the discontinued Lego Mindstorms NXT that one of my friends son’s had outgrown and she had passed down to us!!!
He also opened the gifts (coins, drawings, a candy bar, etc) from all of his siblings.
“COOOOOOKIE!!!!” said Bud, after his older brother opened the Twix from Twinkle Toes.
Surprise! Friends
Ranger was surprised once again when we arrived at the theater and discovered that five of his friends were joining us for the movie, and would be spending the rest of the day with us. His one and only past birthday party that included friends was his Bowling Birthday Party on his 7th (Golden) Birthday!
Note: The Lego Movie was fun and entertaining, and it definitely had me laughing at times. However, just like pretty much every Hollywood movie anymore, it included some bad humor, language, and unnecessary scenes that we would have skipped had we watched it at home. We only took our oldest three (ages 10-13) to see the movie and the four younger children had fun with their cousin and aunt during the movie.
Surprise! Colossal Pizza Party
Colossal Pizza minus the $25 gift certificate I won last time, minus another $10 Restaurant.com certificate = $15.00 for pizza for 14 people, with leftovers!!!
Surprise! Birthday Fun
After pizza, his friends all came back to our house for cake, ice cream, and to play for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Surprise! More Gifts
After cake and ice cream the birthday boy opened the rest of his gifts including:
The Art of the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings Confrontation, Ent (from the Tower of Orthanc set and purchased separately on ebay)…
… a Wood Burning Kit and Mongoose Knee & Elbow Pads…
… and the Lego Movie Trash Chomper and Lego Movie Castle Calvary (from his friends).
Surprise! Ranger’s Cloak and Oak Leaf
His favorite gift was the surprise Ranger’s Cloak (complete with a “Claw of Kalkara” for the clasp!) made by my dear friend Erica, along with a silver pewter oak leaf I ordered from a shop on Etsy! He has been wearing them nearly non-stop since his birthday. I hope you are planning to open that Etsy shop soon, ELM! I have four more children who has already requested cloaks for their upcoming birthdays this year…
*I’m officially changing Rascal’s blog nickname, at his request. He was only 5 when I started blogging and quickly outgrew “Rascal” later that year! I’m hoping that since they both start with “R” it won’t cause too much confusion…
Happy 12th Birthday, Ranger!
Mama’s Notebooks {Sponsored Review & Giveaway}
Mama’s Notebooks brings you helpful notebooks to organize your family life. All of our notebooks are designed from the ground up by a Mom for other Moms, and feature simple and effective charts, lists, and ideas to help your family life run more smoothly! Our notebooks are spiral bound for your convenience.
Mama’s Notebook: Weekly Planner and Organizer provides you with an easy, flexible, and efficient way to organize your life. In one glance, you can coordinate your meal plan with the whole day’s events and tasks, and there’s always ample room to take notes on the things that matter to you most! Unlike other planners, you can start up Mama’s Notebook on any week of the year, and you can skip weeks as needed. The back section of the planner provides you with easy reference sheets to help you schedule and shop efficiently.
The Budget Notebook by Mama’s Notebooks is designed to help you keep a household budget that is simple, easy, and accurate. It features charts for everything you’ll need to get your budget under control, as well as a Notes section at the back with ample room for planning, organizing, writing reminder and to-do lists, and tallying up sums. You can purchase this notebook for an academic year budget (September-August) or a calendar year budget (January-December).
- Mama’s Notebook: Weekly Planner & Organizer
- The Budget Notebook
- The Knit & Crochet Notebook: Project Planner & Organizer
- The New Baby Notebook: A Planner & Organizer for the First Six Weeks
- Watch for The Homeschool Notebook which is COMING SOON!
Bible Candy Valentines {Tutorial & Free Printable}
1 Corinthians 13:4
This year for our upcoming St. Valentine’s Day card exchange, Snuggles decided to create Bible Candy Valentines to give to his family and friends! I’ve run across variations of this idea in the past, some using Avery labels to create the text or silver wrapped candies. We opted to create our own text boxes so that the “gold gilding” (on the edges of the bible pages) would show. It was such a fun craft. Snuggles really enjoyed assembling the Bibles and can’t wait to hand them out next week on St. Valentine’s feast!
Supplies:
- 1 bag of Hershey’s Nuggets *Affiliate link (I purchased the 18 oz “Family Bag” of Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Almond, wrapped in gold)
- 1-2 sheets of Black Card Stock cut into 2.25″ x 1.5″ cards
- 1/8″ Red Ribbon cut in 2 1/2″ to 3″ lengths
- Scissors and Glue Stick
- Printable (or create your own)
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| I love it when our crafts/activities tie in nicely to our other studies. This week in Math we have been practicing counting by 2’s! 🙂 |
- Glue about 1/2″ of the ribbon to the middle of your black paper rectangle.
- Add additional glue to the paper and center the wrapped chocolates on the paper, side by side, over the red ribbon.
- Cut out the printed text (from printable or create your own) and fold in half. Cover the back with glue and attach it to the top of the chocolates, sticking the folded center down the middle of the two chocolates, creating the appearance of an open bible.
- Take the ribbon and put a little glue in the center of the side facing you. Bring the ribbon over the two pieces of chocolate and place it right down the middle of the open pages. You might need to press the ribbon down gently (with your finger or a paperclip) so it will stick. Let dry completely.
Meet the Masters :: Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt was the next Master Artist, following Vincent van Gogh, in our Art Course this year. We completed this unit study last Saturday afternoon. Each of the units has taken us about three hours to complete – one for the lesson/discussion, one for the worksheets, and one for the art activity. We prefer spending a whole afternoon completing the units, but they could easily be broken up and spread out over the week or month. My goal for this year is to complete Tract A, which leaves us with Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet coming up this spring.
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| Young Mother Sewing (1900) |
During our lesson we identified and studied the “line of composition” in some of her paintings including Young Mother Sewing and Breakfast in Bed.
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Breakfast in Bed (1897)
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