Celebrating St. Anne’s Day
A nameday commemorates the feast of the saint whose name we received at baptism. To the Church’s mind, the day of the saint’s death is his real feastday, and that is the day usually assigned as his feast–his birthday into heaven. In some countries and in most religious orders it is customary to observe name-days instead of birthdays. ~ My Nameday: Come for Dessert
I’m curious… Do you celebrate namedays in your home? If so, and your parents didn’t give you the name of a specific or well-known saint, how did you figure out when to celebrate your nameday?
Our children are all named after specific beloved saints, and we have always celebrated their namedays. A good number of our feast day celebrations, at least most of the ones that we make sure to celebrate every year, are actually namedays in our home. But when it comes to my own nameday, I’ve never been completely sure when to celebrate… For the past 5 or 6 years (basically once our children got old enough to ask when we would celebrate mom and dad’s namedays, too) we’ve been celebrating my nameday on the feast of St. Anne. My name is actually just Jessica Jo, but I choose to be confirmed with the names Ann Elizabeth, so choosing St. Anne’s Day for my own nameday works, right?
(My Grandmother’s name was JoAnn, so I choose St. Anne in honor of both our Heavenly Grandmother and my own Grandmother, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary because, in my opinion, she was one of the prettiest saints in our Picture Book of Saints! 😉 I was confirmed when I was about 12, and didn’t develop a devotion to St. Therese until years later.)
Anyways… I had plans to make a special dinner and dessert in honor of St. Anne, but I somehow managed to throw my back out and have hardly been able to move all day! (Which explains all the extra time for blogging today!) Despite not being able to move, my kids were amazing today! They helped me get back up off the floor after trying to change a diaper, put away all the laundry, help make all the meals, took turns holding the baby, and even finished preparing a special treat for their momma’s nameday! (I guess all those State-by-State baking “classes” are starting to pay off!)
I did show Twinkle Toes a picture, and she ended up decorating our Dessert Pizza with “Red & Green Fruit Ribbons” just like Lisa did last year. (Thanks for the additional inspiration Lisa!) It turned out beautiful and delicious. I posted the recipe over at Catholic Cuisine!
P.S. The only reason my kitchen has been looking so spotless in these last two posts is because yesterday afternoon was the “every other Wednesday” when I have a cleaning lady for three hours! I told Hubby we could stop using her for awhile so we could catch up on all these new medical bills, but he said no, not yet… I feel so spoiled! She is such a blessing!! So, yes, I have been resting! 🙂
A Few Pictures from the Feast of Sts. James & Christopher
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
{pretty}
The birthday boy with his baby brother, who was very happy at the moment despite that brand new tooth.
My Daybook :: July 25, 2012
Outside my window…
it is still looking like a campground! The kids have all been having such a fun time camping in the backyard this week. We all slept out in the tent on Saturday night, which made me realize that I am now way too old to sleep on the ground… especially with a nursing baby. Ouch! I am still sore!
I am thinking…
about this morning’s (or I guess I should now say yesterday’s since it is after midnight) doctors appointment. I still don’t have an answer to what is causing my liver to be inflamed, and I will be going to see a specialist soon. I guess now they want to test for some autoimmune disorders. Don’t they know that I don’t have time for all of this? 😉
I am thankful…
that “when God closes a door, He opens a window!” I was recently reminded of that by my Dad’s cousin, after posting on facebook a few weeks ago that I had just found out that the great teacher we had coming to our home once a week this past year (as part of the homeschool charter school we were using) won’t be returning. I also said that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to stay enrolled without her and that I had some decisions to make… Well, within minutes of that reminder, I received an email from a friend letting me know that she had just been hired by our charter school as the department head for Math and Science and that perhaps she could be assigned to our family! I couldn’t have hand-picked a better person to help teach my children!! Not only is she incredibly smart and doing an amazing job of home educating her own children, she is Catholic, and also happens to be one of my Little Flower moms! (And she also reads my blog… Hi Kathleen!) This past Thursday I stopped by the school, and it’s official. She will be our new ES for this coming year. My husband is just as excited as I am, and we feel so very blessed. (Even though we will still dearly miss Cynthia!)
Learning all the time…
I just finished ordering most of our schoolbooks for this coming school year! I still need to make a few decisions for Snuggles, who will be starting Kindergarten, but other than that I am really happy with our plans. The four oldest also participated in their very first online class this past Thursday, learning all about Prizes and Penalties: The Ancient Olympics. It was the perfect way to kick off their Summer Olympics Unit Study! (Thanks for the suggestion, Charlotte!)
Celebrating the liturgical year…
today is the feast of St. James and the memorial of St. Christopher! I have some fun Transportation Themed Snacks, in honor of St. Christopher, patron of travelers, planned for the kids, which we will enjoy while reading The Legend of St. Christopher. Hubby is also planning to make a “Spanish Dinner” in honor of St. James, patron of Spain. I organized a much needed Mom’s Night Out at a local restaurant, but I should be home in time to make the Coupe St. Jacques for dessert. Then, tomorrow, we have the feast of St. Anne, who is one of my patron saints! I’m still trying to decide what I am going to make, but I’m leaning towards some sort of “dessert” with lots of red and green fruits (strawberries, raspberries, grapes, kiwis, etc) representing the colors she is traditionally shown wearing – red for Divine Love and green for immortality. It might be fun to create a whole dinner in red & green! Spaghetti (julienned zucchini for me) and Red Sauce, Garden Fresh Basil and Cherry Tomatoes, Green Salad, and maybe even some sparkling grape juices. Yum!
From the kitchen…
special meals in honor of the saints, as usual!
I am creating…
a list of ideas for Twinkle Toes’ birthday next month… She’s up next, and has requested a “Camp” themed birthday. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?
I am working on…
improving my health. I haven’t been exercising this past week, but I have been eating extra well and taking my supplements. I plan to get back on the treadmill soon today!
I am going…
to try and post a few more pictures from Captain’s birthday party in a {pretty, happy, funny, real} post, but just in case I don’t, here is one more that proves that Rose was indeed at the party! 🙂 I hadn’t realized that I didn’t include a picture of her in my original post. I just wasn’t able to get her to take a nap the day of the party and, sure enough, she fell asleep while eating her dinner and the slept right through the whole party! (Pictured from left to right: my brother Brian with Bud, my brother David with Rose, and my sister-in-law and niece)
I am hoping…
that Bud’s 2nd tooth breaks through soon. It is so close! The poor little guy has been miserable lately!
I am reading…
a new blog, after seeing Charlotte’s link. After just clicking over to get the links for this post, I laughed at Barbara’s comment… I too have recently “threatened” my children with giving away half (or more!) of what we own. I’m not sure I could go that far, but I sure wouldn’t mind some extra inspiration!
I am praying…
for Sam and her little Steven Thomas.
Pondering these words…
from an article I read weeks ago on “The Busy Trap”, after a friend emailed me the link. It has been on my mind since, and I have been re-evaluating all of our extracurricular activities for this coming year. Click on over and read the whole article… I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I am listening…
to the baby swing rock back and forth, the air conditioner, and one of my little ones coughing in their bed. I just gave him some cough syrup. It sounds like we have another virus making it’s way through our family. That always seems to happen after I take my kids to the doctors office for their annual well child checkups… sigh.
Around the house…
lots and lots of laundry. How does it pile up so quickly?
One of my favorite things…
the sacrament of Confession! We all went on Saturday evening, stayed for Mass, and then went out to dinner. It was great!!
A few plans for this week…
- Followup visit with my Doctor
- Mail a couple packages to friends
- Celebrate the feasts of St. James, St. Christopher, and St. Anne
- Mom’s Night Out
- Mass on Friday
- Opening Night of the Summer Olympics
A little peek at my day…
A Settlers of Catan Birthday Party and Game Night
This past Friday our oldest son turned 12 years old! I still can’t believe he will be a teenager next year… His childhood is going by way too quickly… He is such a great son, and we are so proud of the wonderful young man he is becoming!
For this birthday he requested a party based on one of his favorite games: The Settlers of Catan! We decided to have a game night and invite a few friends to join us. He does have the extension games for Cities & Knights and Seafarers, but for the party (since some of our guests would be playing for the first time) we decided to just play the original version of the game with the 5-6 player extension. We set up one game at the dining room table and another (my brother brought his game for us to use too) at the coffee table. It was such a fun birthday party… “The best birthday!” as my kids tend to say every. single. year! 😉
I had all sorts of plans that I had hoped to pull together for decorations, but my time was extra limited this past week between doctors appointments and babysitting my niece. I made his “cake” the night before, and then the morning of the birthday/party (while the boys were at Mass with their Dad and the birthday boy received a birthday blessing from Father!) I scrambled to pull a couple things together starting with a “Happy Birthday Banner!”
Normally I use my Cricut to make banners, but I needed something extra quick and easy, so I created the banner using reddish marble hexagons with the font Garamond MT (adding black lines to the edges and gradient color) in yellow. I printed it onto white card stock, cut them out, and punched a couple small holes in the corners for the ribbon. You can download my document here.
As much as I loved this idea to decorate plates (and even purchased clear disposable plates) I ran out of time and just went with red plates and napkins. I did pull out all of my wicker serving baskets and trays, made up labels for our resource card inspired appetizers, and also decorated with all of our Catan game boxes.
Mountains/Ore Terrain: Oreo Cookies or Donut Holes
Instead of an actual cake this year, we decided to make individual cupcakes representing the various hexes that make up the Settlers of Catan board game. Here is the link to the post about our “Cupcakes of Catan.”
Captain was blessed with so many gifts from his friends and family, including such thoughtful and loving birthday cards (and an extra funny one from Uncle Brian, of course, who is always so much fun at Captain’s birthday parties!), Nerf Super Soakers, Gift Cards, and Playmobil toys!
Bud was so cute to watch as he crawled around checking out all of the gifts and playing with the wrapping paper.
Along with illustrating some beautiful cards for their brother, I loved that a few of his siblings had been saving up their tickets all summer to purchase him gifts! Twinkle Toes redeemed 25 of her Summer Bingo Tickets to purchase him the new Lord of the Rings Gandalf Arrives Lego Set, Rascal redeemed his tickets to get his favorite big brother a new model airplane kit, and even Chiquita picked a stick of beef jerkey (Captain’s favorite) from the prize box, instead of something for herself! 🙂
.: Birthday Campout :.
We rarely have sleepovers, but we decided to let Captain ask his friends to stay and “campout” in the backyard!
It was nearly midnight when I finally sent them to bed the tent… I think they would have stayed up all night, had I let them! You would have thought they’d sleep in, but sure enough they were all up at the crack of dawn assembling that new lego set!
Happy 12th Birthday Captain!
Cupcakes of Catan
I’m still working on sorting through all the pictures and creating a post from our oldest son’s 12th “Settlers of Catan” themed birthday this past Friday, but I thought I would pop in real and share a few pictures of his “cake.” I decided that, instead of making an actual cake, it would be easiest to just use cupcakes, representing all the individual pieces that make up the board game. You can find all sorts of versions/inspiration through a google image search. Here is what we came up with for our “Cupcakes of Catan!”
Supplies:
37 Cupcakes
- Ocean – 18 Cupcakes frosted blue, topped with blue sprinkles
- Desert – 1 Cupcakes topped with white frosting, brown sugar, a little blue icing for the Oasis, and a candy (we used a spice drop) for the Robber
- Ore – 3 Cupcakes frosted white, topped with crushed Oreo’s
- Brick – 3 Cupcakes frosted white, topped with Twizzler Cherry Bites
- Wood – 4 Cupcakes frosted green, topped with a pile of Pretzel Sticks
- Sheep – 4 Cupcakes frosted green, topped with Mini Marshmallows
- Wheat – 4 Cupcakes frosted yellow, topped with Honey Smacks
{this moment}
7 Months Old Today…
*photos taken July 15th
Lighting a candle…
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| our blessed St. Raymond Nonnatus sacramental candle in St. Therese candle holder |
Blessings
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| These beautiful roses, sent from a friend, arrived Tuesday afternoon! |
I only have a couple minutes since I am watching my little niece again today and have a birthday party to get ready for tomorrow, but I wanted to thank you all again and give you an update. It was a difficult couple days, as I waited for the results from my ultrasound, but last night the doctor finally called with some good news! Everything looks normal and they didn’t see any liver damage, tumors, or other problems. We still don’t know what’s causing my high numbers and symptoms, but now all the really scary things have been ruled out!
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