Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Self-Control
For this month’s Virtue Notebook/Scrapbook Page, I used the memory verse for Self-Control, a quote from St. Felicity (found here), a quote from the bible, an image of St. Felicity and her Seven Sons, and a few amaryllis flowers. You can download my document here.
Don’t you just love that quote?!? I teared up during the meeting when I was trying to explain to the girls how St. Felicity is such an amazing example of self-control. . . Encouraging her children to look towards heaven, as they were all about to be martyred for our faith!
We read and discussed a story about St. Felicity, along with a couple stories from The Book of Virtues
. We also talked about Self-Control goes hand in hand with offering sacrifices. “Self-control is holding oneself within due limits in pleasures and duties, as in all things else; self-denial, the giving up of pleasures for the sake of duty.”
With Charlotte’s post on her Crown of Thorns in my mind, I explained to the girls that when we make a sacrifice, “we hope in some small way that our sacrifice will help make amends for the sins that caused the suffering Our Precious Lord endured.”
“When St. Therese was a child, her older sister Marie gave her a string of beads to help her count the gifts she did to offer to God. In this way she was able to advance in perfection daily.
Sacrifice Beads or Good Deed Beads are a string of ten beads, which can be pulled and remain in place. They are used to count the acts of love or sacrifices a person makes in a day for God. The string of beads helps a person to grow in virtue by challenging them to be faithful in making acts of love each day. Sacrifice Beads also have a fixed Our Father bead on the end of them and can double up as a rosary.” ~ The Little Ways
Originally we planned to have the girls iron on a “No Licking the Spoon” image to their aprons, but at the last minute we decided to have them paint the handle of a wooden spoon to either attach to their apron (with a little loop) or keep in their pocket. Next time I am going to be sure to put down some newspaper first!
with Pink and Yellow Candy Melts, I made some Pink (the color for this virtue) Amaryllis Flowers (the flower for this virtue). Have I mentioned how much I love candy molds! 😉
I completely forgot about a suggestion from a friend to place a bowl of M&M’s in the middle of the table during the meeting – and having the girls practice self-control in not touching the M&M’s during the meeting and then only taking a few afterwards. . . Next time!
St. Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!
Catholic Easter Basket Ideas
UPDATE: You can find a new post with 100+ Easter Basket Stuffers & Catholic Gift Ideas here.
Over the weekend, I planned out our children’s Easter Baskets for this year. While I was at it, I decided to share the following list of ideas – some for this year and others that we have used in the past – tying in our beautiful Catholic faith and the true meaning of Easter.
Just like on the feast of St. Nicholas, when we give our children each an Advent/Christmas themed book, we have always given our children a new book on Easter. Over the years we have built a wonderful collection of Picture Books for Easter!
- For Twinkle Toes :: The Princess and the Three Knights
- For Chiquita :: The Story of the Easter Robin
- For Snuggles :: The Easter Cave
- For Rose :: The Easter Swallows
Also, now that my boys are getting a little older (and since the UPS man didn’t arrive until 8pm on Rascal’s Birthday) I decided to give them each a new chapter books, Lost in Peter’s Tomb
I think Easter Baskets are a great place to include a few new coloring books and art supplies! There are so many wonderful
The Holy Imitation Series :: Life of Jesus
Catholic Story Coloring Books :: All these coloring books
Catholic Mosaic Coloring Book :: I am sure most of you already own a copy of Fenestrae Fidei: A Coloring Companion for Catholic Mosaic, but if not, you really should consider adding it to your collection. I love that the illustrator and publisher gives permission for copies to be made for family use!
Easter Egg Coloring Books :: Artful Eggs from Around the World Stained Glass Coloring Book
Art Supplies :: I have been slowly adding to our supply of quality art supplies. The Stockmar Modeling Beeswax
This year I ordered a cute little set of Crayon Rocks in a Cotton Muslin Bag for Snuggles. I think he is going to love them!
Another question I receive often, is where do I purchase our Catholic Stickers… I don’t think I have ever answered that here, so this is the perfect opportunity! Here are some great sources online:
Trademark Stationary :: These traditional and inspiring stickers are my favorite!
RosaryCard.Net :: Here you will also find a great assortment of Catholic Stickers, in addition to free shipping!
Autom :: Although you have to puchase these in bulk, Autom has a great variety to choose from. Including all the stickers that can also be found (occasionally) at the Dollar Store. It wouldn’t be hard to find a few friends to split an order with!
Amazon
Old-Time Easter Animals Stickers.
We don’t generally put a whole lot of candy in our children’s Easter Baskets – they usually end up with plenty from their Easter Egg Hunt. I do like putting in a Chocolate Cross each year and sometimes (when I can find them) the little Lindt Chocolate Lambs.
This year I am planning on making my own candy to include in the baskets. I already have the mold to make Easter Lily Lollipops and I also decided to order a larger cross mold (I currently only have this small cross and bible molds
To tie in each of my Children’s Patron Saints, I have decided to include a Hand-Painted Wooden Saint for each of them. Inspired, back in 2008, by the Wee Felt Saints used in the Alphabet Path, I decided to paint our own Alphabet of Saints. My children just love these little dolls and really enjoy playing with them! Along the way I have added a few others to our collection and this past year I painted a couple larger saints for Rose’s first birthday. I have purchased/been given a few saints that I will put in the baskets this year, in addition to painting a couple more myself. I have found Woodworks LTD to be a great place to purchase the little wood people and wooden toy parts.
I am often asked whether or not I would be willing to sell any of my little saints. You all are so sweet, but, to be honest, I think you’d be much happier with the darling dolls from Catholic Folk Toys, St. Luke’s Brush, or St. Anne’s Pixies – these (real) artists are able to add so much lovely detail to their dolls, unlike myself. If I ever find the time to paint some (very plain and simple) extras, I will let you know!
Another option would be to make your children darling Saint Dolls using Amy’s Crochet Saint Patterns or Charlotte’s Saints ‘N Stiches. Or you could always order the cute little Saint Softies from Saintly Silver.
Various Holy Cards, Holy Traders
We usually include one small toy in each of the baskets. This year, for the girls, I picked up the Calico Critter Lambrook Sheep Family and the matching baby twins. 
A Trip to the Ocean
Seven Quick Takes :: Birthday Edition!
) with a Chocolate Mousse Filling and Chocolate Ganache on top. Yum! 
It took a little while to light all 38 candles! I never have cared for the number candles, and insist on using the correct number. Sorry honey! 😉
I wish this picture wouldn’t have turned out blurry, I love it!
(I was using a slower shutter speed without the flash…)
It’s always so much fun to take all the candles back out of the cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! WE LOVE YOU!
{this moment}
Under Attack
I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to teach my children how to make Popsicle Stick Grenades yesterday… I tried, but I just couldn’t keep this idea to myself, after Beth shared a link to the instructions.
My boys have been having a little too much fun! Their latest creation is a “Popsicle Stick Bomb” – made by very carefully tying a whole bunch of “grenades” together with a shoelace and then swinging it towards mom the moving target. I think it is time to set some “Grenade Free Zones!” 🙂
On St. Patrick’s Day
I did say that it might be awhile before I was back to post pictures, but I really didn’t think it would take until Monday early Tuesday morning! It’s been just a little bit busy around here. 🙂
Since I am still up, waiting to change over the laundry, I thought I would upload a few pictures starting with Rose picking out the marshmallows from her first bowl of Lucky Charms – a breakfast “family tradition” that my children insist on each year for St. Patrick’s Day!
We were so excited that Erica and her family were able to spend a couple nights at our home, and that we were then able to join them for an overnight trip to the coast. What a blessing to be able to spend sometime with their family before they leave this week to move Down By the River. . . or somewhere like that. 😉 What an adventure they have ahead of them! Thanks to one last change of plans, I picked up the three oldest treekids late this evening last night to spend the night one last time before they fly out on Wednesday morning. My children are going to be so excited when they wake up and find their friends here in the morning!
On the Feast of St. Patrick
Tho’ Erin may claim thee, the world knows thy fame.
The faith of our fathers is our treasure, too.
How holy the thought, that they learned it from you.
Thru crosses and trials its fire burns bright,
they show us the way, and the truth, and the light.
Great Saint! Intercede that we always may be
devoted and loyal, true children of thee.
Our love and devotion be ever like thine,
our thought be of Jesus, our heart be His shrine.
And when to the end of life’s path we have trod,
be near us great bishop, anointed of God.
It’s been a fun morning, complete with magically delicious cereal and shamrock cinnamon rolls! Right now I am printing out some Life of St. Patrick Coloring Pages while my little ones watch our St. Patrick DVD.
Later this afternoon the kids are planning on reading some of our books and making a few treats, while I bake some Irish Soda Bread and prepare our Irish Beef and Guinness Stew. Yum!! I’ll be back sometime with pictures, but we have company coming tonight, and they may end up staying until tomorrow, so in the meantime. . .
Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Orderliness
On the last Friday of February we had our 4th Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting for Wreath III. I was so busy preparing for the upcoming birthday party we were hosting, that I never did get around to posting any of the pictures from our meeting! It was based on the virtue of Orderliness and St. Zita, and we were so blessed to have one of our dear local priests come and give the talk to the girls. Father was able to stay afterwards to visit that night, have dinner with our family, and learn how to play our favorite board game
We read the story of St. Zita from the Teacher/Member Guides and Amy also read some of The Saint Maid of Lucca from Legends and Stories of Italy
For this meeting the girls focused on organizing their notebooks, if needed, and adding to their Wreath III Virtues Apron. We ran out of time at our last meeting to add anything for the virtue of Initiative, so they all made Shrinky Dink
The girls each colored in the Black-Eyed Susan, the flower for initiative. Then, after cutting them out, and punching a couple holes in each corner, we placed them in the oven according to the directions. We thought we had some major fails, but after returning our “destroyed” recipe cards, and flattening them with a metal spatula as they re-melted, they actually ended up turning out!
The Nun Run :: 5K (Run/Walk)
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