State-by-State Scrapbook :: Rhode Island
“R is for Rhode Island Red.
The roosters have plenty of meat.
The hens will lay eggs all year.
Known far and wide throughout the land,
Rhode Island Reds came from here.“
.: Rhode Island by Captain :.
.: Rhode Island by Rascal :.
as you look around –
All throughout the Ocean State
water can be found.“
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
{pretty}
Rose was so cute opening her little Name-day gift… “It’s a Saint-uh!” she said, as soon as she was able to peek past the tissue paper. “It’s St. Therese-uh!” (This cute little Pixie of ours adds “uh” to the end of just about every sentence-uh.)
Bud loved checking out the gift we gave Snuggles on his Name-day. It was actually a birthday gift that had been forgotten in my closet! A starry sky works for the feast of St. Michael, right?
My Daybook :: On the Traditional Feast of St. Thérèse
Outside my window…
The weather has been gorgeous this week, it has been cooling down some at night and the leaves have started to change colors. I just hung our fall wreath on the front door and picked up a few little pumpkins to use as decorations. Hopefully we can make a trip to the pumpkin patch soon!
I am thinking…
about how nice it is to have a new iMac! (It ended up being our anniversary gift to each other, along with dinner out.) It has made blogging so much easier and way less time consuming. Blogging had become quite a chore, since it was taking forever to work with photos – the old computer was freezing every time I’d try and use PicMonkey to add the copyright to pictures, and half the time when I was online at all. It wasn’t in the plan to purchase a new computer quite yet, but with the back-to-school specials for educators, and the interest free financing, I decided to just order one. Hubby had taken the laptop with him on that fire assignment after all! 😉
I am thankful…
for my husband! And that he didn’t kill me when he called home from fire camp a couple weeks ago and I said he should “try and find access to wi-fi so we can Skype… Now that I have a computer that works around here!” He responded, “Yeah! That would be great! Wait… What did you just say?!?” Yes, I have been so very blessed with such an awesome (and forgiving!) husband. 🙂
Learning all the time…
The last few weeks have been busy for sure! In addition to our regular studies and the Alphabet Path, we’ve also attended two field trips! Last week we went on a field trip to a “farm” (more on that later, maybe) and yesterday we went to the Planetarium.
Celebrating the liturgical year…
Like Charlotte, we have had a week of very simple, yet sweet, celebrations for the saints! A Cake for the feast of St. Michael (though I was able to make our traditional Michaelmas Dinner on Sunday), Rose Cupcakes for St. Therese, Angel Treats for the Holy Guardian Angels, and maybe some Wolf Paw Cookies or Friendly Beasts Crunch for tomorrow’s feast of St. Francis.
From the kitchen…
tons of snacks… The kids always love it when their Daddy saves some of the snacks from his sack meals from fire camp. After two weeks, and some of his co-workers adding to his stash, he came home with quite the collection! On Sunday the boys decided to graph what was left, not counting the bag full of “uncrustables” in the fridge.
I am working on…
plans for this year’s All Hallows’ Eve Party! I wasn’t going to do it this year… For some reason the thought of hosting another huge party at our home was just slightly overwhelming. But, after talking to my husband and the kids (and finding out that my liver troubles are behind me!) I decided we will host it again after all. How could I not when one of the little boys told his momma that last year’s party was “the best night of his entire life” and another mom (who I was planning on hosting a baby shower for next month) said she’d rather I host the party than her shower! Sigh… It’s going to be fun!
I am creating…
a few accessories for this year’s saint costumes. They all (7 costumes!!!) surprisingly came together extremely easy a couple weeks ago, after a trip to Costco during which we found a perfect (inexpensive) costume for Snuggles who wants to be St. Michael this year! We just need to make wings for him, but isn’t it cute! I love it!!
Rascal decided he wants to be St. George this year. For his costume I used my Gymbucks to order this Brave Knight Costume and Shield from Gymboree. (What a steal at just $10.21 for the costume and $3.80 for the shield!!!)
Captain has decided to dress as St. Paul, with the costume inspired by the picture in Picture Book of Saints. We already had the perfect Robe and Sash, but ordered a gray beard and yellow turban to complete the costume… So fun! Twinkle Toes wants to dress as St. Catherine Labouré using one of my sisters’ old costumes from forever ago. She is going to make a large Miraculous Medal to complete her costume, or maybe just choose one of hers to wear. Chiquita is still trying to decide between St. Joan of Arc (with our Fleur-di-lis Shield) or Mother Teresa. Rose is going to dress as St. Therese! And Bud is going to be St. Francis of Assisi, complete with lots of sweet little animals pinned to his costume.
I am going…
to run to town in a little bit to pick up my nursing cover. I left it at the restaurant last night. Oops.
I am hoping…
that I can find time to get my hair cut sometime in the next week or two. It is definitely time!
I am reading…
The Telmaj, a newly published science fiction book for children, as our daily read-a-loud! It was recently published by Erin Manning, a Catholic author, and our copy arrived last week. We are only on chapter three, but I’ve already caught my boys reading ahead! Rascal declared that it really needs to be made into an audio book, so that they don’t have to keep waiting for me!
I am praying…
this prayer from The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer in addition to the prayer on our anniversary:
O holy Guardian Angels, heavenly friends of my children. I address myself with confidence to you, as the children whom the Lord has confided to me are also looked upon by you with love and care. Implore for me the grace that I may cherish for my children sentiments similar to those which you have for them, and that I may, like you, be anxious above all to educate them for God and for heaven. Oh, that I may be such a mother to my children; that I may never appear unworthy of your love and friendship! Obtain this grace for me. Amen.
Pondering these words…
from I Believe in Love:
I am listening…
to my four oldest read picture books about the saints’ who celebrate their feast day’s this week to the little ones. They each choose a day/saint (St. Michael, St. Therese, Guardian Angels, and St. Francis) and corresponding books off of our bookshelves. Some of the new additions this year include Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux and Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, which were both Christmas Gifts from my husband’s parents (along with a couple other books from the series).
Around the house…
lots of sweet little saints – both homemade and from Catholic Folk Toys and St. Luke’s Brush! I also ordered this sweet little St. Therese doll from St. Anne’s Pixies to give to our little Rose in honor of her nameday. She loved it!!
One of my favorite things…
I love, LOVE, my binder and checklists for this school year, and all the progress we have been making! It’s going to be a great school year!
- Celebrate the Feast of St. Therese
- Field Trip to the Planetarium
- Park with Friends
- Celebrate the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and our 13th Anniversary!
- Lego Robotics Class for the older boys
- Feast of St. Francis
- Tutor on Thursday Afternoon
- First Friday Mass
- Festival of Cultures
13 Years Ago Today
 |
| October 2, 1999 ~ Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels |
O my God and my Lord, it was on this day that I knelt in Thy holy house at the nuptial altar, that I received the sacrament of matrimony and entered with Thy blessing the matrimonial state. Can I let this day pass without giving thanks to Thee and without some special exercise of piety? No, O Lord! I thank Thee, therefore, from my heart, for having introduced me by a holy sacrament into the state of matrimony, for having sanctified my matrimonial union, for having opened me to the treasures of Thy graces, that I might be enabled to live up to the duties of my vocation, to persevere in inviolable fidelity, in love, and in dutiful submission to my husband, and in the chastity conformable to my state in life, and to educate the children whom Thou hast confided to me in Thy fear and discipline, and thus, work out my eternal salvation. I give Thee thanks for all the graces which I have received in virtue of this sacrament. I thank Thee for the protection, the assistance, and for whatever good Thou hast bestowed upon me and upon my family. Be Thou for all these eternally praised and blessed.
But have I faithfully cooperated with Thy grace in fulfilling the duties of my vocation? Have I led the life of a truly Christian wife? Alas! Too much have I to reproach myself with. [Here reflect a little while.] O my God, I am sorry from my heart for having offended Thee. Pardon me for the sake of Thy infinite mercy and for that of Jesus, Thy beloved Son! My resolution is firmly taken. I will endeavor to fulfill henceforward all the duties of a Christian wife and mother faithfully and conscientiously. How could I otherwise hope to enjoy Thy grace and to work out my salvation? But what will all my good resolutions avail me, if Thou dost not give Thy help to fulfill them? Renew then, O Lord, on this day the blessing of this holy sacrament; may its graces flow upon me in abundance every day. Animated and strengthened by them I will try in the future to lead a life in harmony with my vocation.
I recommend to Thee also my husband. Grant that we who are by virtue of this sacrament so intimately united may live always in heartfelt love and in true fear of God, in order that our matrimonial state may, as it should be, a symbol of that infinite union existing between Christ and His holy Church and lead us to life eternal.
I commend unto Thee also, O Lord, the children whom Thou hast confided to our care. Bless them, protect them, enrich them with Thy graces, that they may grow up pleasing to Thee. Assist me to educate them wholly for Thee. Holy Virgin and Mother of God, holy Joseph and all ye who have led a holy life in the state of matrimony, all ye holy parents, pray for me. Amen.
 |
| In the Sacristy following our wedding… When we should have been signing that marriage license! |
B is for Buttercream :: Happy Feast of St. Thérèse!
Celebrating Michaelmas
“A” is for Apples, Altar, St. Aloysius, and Archangels!
Why did I even question whether I would do the Alphabet Path with Snuggles or not? We have been having SO. MUCH. FUN! The Alphabet Path is definitely one of the highlights of our days, and all the big kids are really enjoying watching and helping their little brother – who is always such a character! (And Rose is joining in, wherever she can! Even Bud is intrigued!!) Here is some of what we Accomplished for the letter Aa…
Snuggles colored this picture from My Book of Letters last school year (along with B-E)…
I pulled out the rest of the activity pages for the letter A…
… including An Apple Tree with Painted Apples for lowercase a…
… Adding the pictures that begin with “a”…
… circling All the A’s and then looking through a magazine (we used a Leaflet Catalog) for pictures that begin with a – like Advent Wreath, Angels, Archangels, Apples to Apples, Aaron, St. Augustine, St. Anne, and St. Anthony!
Snuggles apparently isn’t too crazy about Modeling Wax (maybe later in the year we will try again) but the Wikki Sticks were a huge hit!
Snuggles will be making an A, B… Seas Ocean Box this year! The first thing we did was find a box and cover it with construction paper. Since we had just finished learning about the different zones – the sunlit zone, the twillight zone, and the midnight zone – he insisted on using light blue, dark blue, and black paper!
Sea Life Alphabet Coloring Book
(and of course we had to rent Finding Nemo for our family movie night!)
Ten Red Apples
Rain Makes Applesauce
Apples to Oregon
Brother Bartholomew and the Apple Grove
Amazing Apples
All for Pie, Pie for All
How Do Apples Grow?
Pressing Apples
During our field trip to a “farm” earlier this week the kids picked apples and made Apple Cider! Snuggles especially loved turning the wheel on the Apple Press! (And how Appropriate for A week!)
Assemble Aircraft
I also had been saving a little aircraft lego set for Snuggles to Assemble…
(Bud always has a smile for his Momma! Oooh, I love him!!)
… with a very Attentive Audience!
A is for Angel
Pascual and the Kitchen Angels
My Guardian Dear
Angels, Angels Everywhere
Angel in the Waters
Angels: God’s Messengers and Our Helpers
A is for Angel our Guardian so bright:
Say to him,
“Angel dear, help me do right.”
~ God’s Alphabet
I’d love to eventually get Snuggles his own set as well. In the meantime his big brothers are more than happy to share and are hoping they can start teaching him to serve Mass with them soon!
A is for Always Ask
I had ordered a few 8.5″x11″ blank books from Rainbow Resource (Amazon has them too, just more expensive at the moment) and am using a few of them for the Alphabet Path. They contain 14 pages – 28 back and front – which is just perfect for the 26 letters of the Alphabet!
After gluing the cover page on, we laminated the cover with like we did for our “Wisdom of the Saints” Journals. We skipped the first page, front and back (saving it for a title page and index), adding Always Ask to page 3.
Since Snuggles was born on the feast of St. Aloysius, and since my Grandfather was named (middle name) after St. Aloysius, we decided to include it in his name as well! Our little Snuggles, with two middle names, has quite the long name – and he is very proud of it!
Note: I’ve actually been completely amazed at Snuggles interest in coloring! I really didn’t think he’d want to color much, but has really been enjoying it! Yay!!
) and St. Anthony (An Alphabet of Saints and S is for Saints) we also read about Saint Aloysius from A Picture Book of Saints.
Oatmeal Sparkling Cider Pancakes
2 cups pancake and waffle mix
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup instant oatmeal
1/2 cup sparkling cider
In a medium bowl, blend together all ingredients using a wire whisk. For thicker pancakes, allow batter to sit for 5 minutes. Cook on a hot griddle. Serve with Apple Cider Syrup.
Apple Cider Syrup
3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (I used honey)
2 T butter
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and stir occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until thickened. Serve warm.
Highlights from “Z” Week
*I wasn’t able to find all the pictures, or all the worksheets/coloring pages to take pictures of (they were on my desk until a week or so ago!), but here is what I have for Z Week – over 2 years later! 🙂
while listening to A Flower Fairy Alphabet
on CD.
, Wooden Pieces and on paper. I can’t seem to find the pictures from that, but here are some of the Zoo Animals they made out of Playdoh, which was a gift from a friend, and a very rare treat in our home! 😉 
Z Is for Zookeeper: A Zoo Alphabet
My Visit to the Zoo
Curious George Visits the Zoo
Coloring Pages and Extra Activities from Wild Animals Fun Kit
The girls also helped plan a birthday party for Snuggles with a “Zoo” themed cake!
.
and nesting blocks
. 
They were SO excited!Precious Moments & Blessings
I don’t have much time to spend online today, but wanted to pop in real quick to share a few pictures from this past Sunday night, when Bud figured out how to stand up on his own while holding on to a piece of furniture. He was so excited!
An Alphabet of Saints :: Painted Wooden Peg Dolls
Just over four years ago (in 2008) I started painting An Alphabet of Saints to go along with our first journey Along the Alphabet Path, inspired by the illustrations in An Alphabet of Catholic Saints… I started out with a handful of saints and then continued adding to our collection as the girls completed each letter of the Alphabet. I only made it half way through painting the very last doll, St. Zita, during Z week- before setting her aside as we began our major kitchen remodel and home addition in June of 2010.
Poor St. Zita has been sitting on that shelf ever since, constantly reminding me that I still haven’t posted about Z Week patiently waiting for her lovely hair, face, veil, cross necklace and broom to be completed.
I carefully cropped her out of that picture I posted the other day, but had a feeling it would trigger a few questions!
In addition to the Highlights from “Z” Week, I also haven’t posted about my awesome saint display…
Is it bad that I am displaying our sweet little collection of saints in a… ummmm…. Shot Glass Display?!?
I searched and searched for the perfect thing, before settling on an inexpensive “Black Shot Glass Curio which holds up to 36 Jiggers Saints!”
Despite it’s intended purpose, it really does work perfectly for our painted saint dolls! I found ours on ebay, and was able to find a few more that are currently available. (Though I think they are a little more expensive… I remember paying $20.00 including shipping for ours, but that was a couple years ago.)
So yesterday afternoon I finally dusted off St. Zita, pulled out my painting supplies, and finished painting her in less than 10 minutes while on the phone with my mom.
And just incase anyone would like to get started on their own 4 year project set of saints, here’s the link to my favorite source for the wooden peg dolls. Happy Painting!
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