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by | Dec 29, 2022

Some pictures on Facebook…

… can make this momma quite NERVOUS!

Here is a picture I took from my kitchen window this morning:



There was actually another sweet little baby deer to the left, but I couldn’t get my camera to take a good picture through the glass with the flash and it was too dark without, so this was the best shot I got.


Here is a picture one of my neighbors posted on Facebook:



He was only about 20 yards from their home…
which is just up the road…

Personally I prefer the deer (and even the turkeys!) and pray that this guy stays OUT of OUR yard. However, hubby and I are pretty sure we been hearing him (or others) at night. Ugh!

Ok, so now that I have been completely freaked out, I am headed back to the kitchen to make some Rose Punch for with dessert. I’ll be back later tonight to post a few pictures of our St. Therese Feast Day Celebration.


A Novena to Saint Therese beginning on her Feast Day

Start with:

Saint Therese, flower of Carmel, you said you would spend your heaven doing good upon the earth. Your trust in God was complete. Listen to my prayer; bring before God my special intention…

Pray for me that I may have something of your confidence in the loving promises of our God. Pray that I may live my life in union with God’s plan for me, and one day see the Face of God who you so ardently loved.

Saint Therese, you kept your word to love God and to trust the world to that loving providence. Pray for us that we may be faithful to our commitment to love. May our lives, like yours, be able to touch the world and bring it to peace.

DAY ONE

Loving God, you blessed St. Therese with a capacity for a great love. Help us to believe in your unconditional love for each of us.

DAY TWO

Loving God, you loved St. Therese’s complete trust in your care. Help us to rely on your providential care for us in each circumstance of our lives.

DAY THREE

Loving God, you graced St. Therese with a capacity to see your hand in the ordinary routine of each day. Help us to be aware of your presence in the everyday events of our lives.

DAY FOUR

Loving God, you taught St. Therese how to find a direct way to you through the “little way” of humility and simplicity. Grant that we may never miss the grace there is in humble service to others in family and neighborhood.

DAY FIVE

Loving God, you graced St. Therese with the gift of forgiving others even when she felt hurt and betrayed. Help us to be able to forgive others who have wounded us, especially…

DAY SIX

Loving God, St. Therese experienced each day as a gift from You, as a time for loving and through others. May we, too, see each new day as a single moment of saying yes to Your will in our lives.

DAY SEVEN

Loving God, St. Therese offered to You her frailty and powerlessness. Help us to see in our weakness and our diminishments an opportunity for letting Your light and Your strength be all we need.

DAY EIGHT

Loving God, You shepherded St. Therese with a gracious love and made her a tower of strength to people who had lost faith in You. Help us to be unafraid to pray with confidence for the many in our culture who do not believe they can be loved.

DAY NINE

Loving God, St. Therese never doubted that her life had meaning. Help us to understand our possibilities for loving and blessing our children, our elderly parents, our neighbours in need, and for priests throughout the world.

To conclude this novena: Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.

Celebrating Michaelmas ~ 2009

Here are a few pictures that were taken yesterday around our home
on the Feast of Michaelmas!

St. Michael’s Waffles (though I ended up using a mix)
with Homemade Blackberry Syrup for Breakfast

A few activities from The Great battle for Heaven, stories from The Angels, and a lovely St. Michael candle from Saintly Soaps which arrived just in time!

Coloring Pages of St. Michael while listening to

Michaelmas Day Cupcakes
St. Michael atop a stack of Devil’s Food Cupcakes
complete with swords for stabbing the devils!

Dinner consisted of Apple Chicken, Steamed Carrots, Angel Hair Pasta, and Sparkling Blackberry Izze Drinks.

And finally, stabbing those cupcakes…

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host – by the Divine Power of God – cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits, who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Michael the Archangel ~ Pray for us!

O little Thérèse of the Child Jesus…

… Please pick for me a rose from the Heavenly gardens
and send it to me as a message of love.

Today was the last day of my Novena to St. Therese. I was praying this novena for a special intention — particularly that this coming Christmas I will have a safe (and hopefully not too painful) delivery and a physically healthy baby which I will get to bring home to love and to hold. Yes, I was a bit more specific this time! Remembering “Love’s Delay, I wondered if I would receive a rose or not. I also wondered just where St. Therese would find a rose to send since I didn’t have plans to leave the house today, and the roses on my blog “don’t count!” 😉

Anyhow, early this morning, after finishing my novena to St. Therese, I found an email in my inbox from Gymboree. This is nothing out of the ordinary, considering most of my girls’ clothing comes from this particular favorite store of mine and that I am on their email notification list. The interesting thing about this email was that it was saying I could use my Gymbucks today, ONE DAY EARLY, since I recently signed up for their rewards program. This was a first! I hadn’t even started thinking about what I wanted to purchase with my Gymbucks… I had even made a “quick” trip to the Mall last night, but with less than an hour before closing, and Motherhood being my destination (on the other end of the Mall) to try and find a new outfit or two for this coming weekend, I didn’t have a chance to take a peek at their new Christmas lines.

Well, imagine my surprise and smiles when I clicked over to peek at the newborn baby clothes for Christmas and found that their whole newborn Classic Holiday Line was covered in ROSES!!!! I went on to look at the older girl lines to find that it is only the newborn baby girls clothing with the rose theme!

Thank you St. Therese!!!

I did have a super hard time deciding which dress to choose for our little “Christmas Rose” but finally settled on the Roses are Red collection with a Rose Cardigan.

“With sweet rosettes and a rich color, your baby girl is looking beautiful for her first holiday. Velveteen dress is layered with a rose ruffle tight and shiny patent shoes for an elegant finish.”

Won’t her little Rose Hat match perfectly!?! Now she is all set for Christmas Mass, that is if she is born before Christmas. (I have yet to make it to my due date…) Now that is one more thing I can cross off my Christmas list. =)

I also had enough Gymbucks to purchase a darling Rose Footed One-Piece as well.

Well, I had better get off the computer and get our day started… I just had to share my excitement with you all!!!

Novena to Saint Thérèse ~ Day Nine

(January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897)

Novena to Saint Thérèse

O St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own, speak a word for me to Our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were — to that Queen of Heaven “who smiled on you at the dawn of life” Beg her powerful intercession the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment…and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.

O God, who did inflame with the Spirit of Love, the soul of your servant Thérèse of the Child Jesus, grant that we also may love you and make you much loved. Amen.

DAY NINE

O St. Thérèse, seraphic virgin, beloved spouse of our Crucified Lord, you who on earth did burn with a love so intense toward your God and my God, and now glow with a bright and purer flame in paradise, obtain for me, I beseech you, a spark of that same holy fire which shall help me to put things of the world in their proper place and live my life always conscious of the presence of God. As I conclude my novena I also beg of you to secure for me the special favor I seek at this time…

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us.

Highlights from “F” Week

~ Letter Formation ~

In addition to their Modelling Wax letter F’s, the girls also worked on making the letter F using Wooden Pieces and they also really enjoyed this Coloring Page.

~ Fuchsia Fairy Coloring Pages ~

From this Coloring Book
(While looking at the Flower Fairies Alphabet book and listening to the CD!)

~ Picture Book Science ~

F is for Forest Fires and Firefighters

Books about Fires, Forest Fires, and Firefighters:
We went on an impromptu Forest Fire Field Trip and the girls then began working on a Fire Safety Lap Book as well as a few other fire related activities, which are all linked in the bottom of the Fire Safety Lap Book Post.

After studying about Fires, we moved on to
Flowers!

~ Picture Study :: Leon Bonnat’s Roman Girl at the Fountain ~

By Rascal
Using Museum ABC, Museum ABC Nesting Blocks, and Elizabeth’s pdf


~ F is for St. Francis ~


Our Painted Saint Francis for with

From our Collection:
Saint Francis of Assisi by Father Lovasik
Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi (we no longer own this one)
Saint Francis by Brian Wildsmith

From the Library:
Brother Francis and the Friendly Beasts
Saint Francis and the Animals
(I actually requested quite a few others, but didn’t really care for them and so I didn’t read them to the children. These were two that we really enjoyed!)


~ Crafts and Activities ~

F is for Forest Flower Fairy House
When the girls had finished their Forest Flower Fairy House I surprised them with a couple little Flower Fairies of their very own!

The girls also made Hand and Footprint Flowers. I wish I could have captured this project on video, you should have heard all the giggles!!

Handprint Flowers

Dip child’s hand in paint and stamp near the top of a piece of construction paper. This is the bud or flower part of the flower. Now stamp the child’s feet to make the leaves. Draw in a stem. Don’t forget to date it!

One other activity the girls did was make a Flower Fairy house out of a Flower!! Everyone, including me, has been having SO MUCH FUN with this BEAUTIFUL Blooming Flower!!

~ Writing the ABC’s on Little Hearts :: F is for Friendly ~

I was so excited when Kimberlee shared the lovely coloring pages her daughter illustrated for Writing the ABC’s on Little Hearts. Thank you Kimberlee and Lydia! My girls were so excited and really enjoyed discussing and coloring the pictures.
~ Serendipi-Tea time ~

We made a number of Fun recipes for “F” week!!

First we made some Fantastic Fudge!!
(Thanks Jacinta for leaving the recipe in the combox last week!)




Fantastic Fudge
12 oz. chocolate chips
6 oz. butterscotch chips (we used peanut butter chips)
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts
In a saucepan, melt first 3 ingredients. Remove from heat, add vanilla and nuts. Pour into foil lined square pan. Chill. Cut into squares.
You can be very creative with different Flavors of chips and nuts and dried Fruit!
Here is another super fun snack for F week:
Frog on a Lilly Pad surrounded by Fish!

Frog on a Lilly Pad

Tint some cream cheese blue and spread on an english muffin half. Put a slice of cucumber on top for the lilly pad. Put a gummy frog on top of the cucumber.

And one last snack we made, to tie in St. Francis, was
St. Francis’ Friendly Beasts Crunch!
(Barbara also recently shared another recipe for Critter Crunch that looks very yummy!)
St. Francis’ Friendly Beasts Crunch
1 cup animal crackers
1 cup teddy bear-shaped chocolate or honey-flavored graham crackers
1 cup small pretzel twists
1 cup yogurt-covered raisins
1 cup M&M’s
10 colorful ice-cream cones, if desired
Mix all ingredients except ice-cream cones. Serve snack in cones.
Store in covered container.

Note: This would be great to make next week for the Feast of St. Francis!

WOW!! Looking back at our week, it was no wonder I needed a nap on Sunday… Especially since we had so much other stuff going on last week including birthday parties and Little Flowers! This week, since we have a short school week, in order to incorporate a number of our Favorite Feasts, we will just be working on a Few more little projects to finish up “F” week, including starting a Flower and Plant Lap Book, which will carry over to next week’s Garden theme. In fact, I think I will rename our Flower Pot Cupcakes to Garden Gumdrop Cupcakes (using Gumdrops to make the flowers) and make them next week since we will be making so many treats this week already for the feast days, including cupcakes for today’s feast.

Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Notebook Page Downloads

Last year, as an addition to the plans from Ecce Homo, I decided to have my Little Flowers Group make notebook pages each month based on the Saint and Virtue for each meeting. I’ve been meaning to try and figure out an easier way to share the documents I created with those of you that would like to do the same, since I am not always the quickest at responding to email requests. Anyhow, I finally figured out how to share them using Google Documents and so, anyone who would like to use them with your own group, or even with your own girls at home as an extra project, is more than welcome to download a copy!

I will continue to add more links and notebook pages as we continue to have our Wreath 2 meetings this year, and if I am able to, I will try and add the links to my old posts for each meeting as well.

My girls have really enjoyed making these notebook pages. Their notebooks are turning into such nice keepsakes and are so great for reviewing the virtues, saints, and memory versus!

Updated 8/16/12:  I just added the remaining notebook pages for all four Wreaths!  🙂

Update 6/23/15: My documents are no longer available to download here at Shower of Roses. I’m currently working on revising all the documents (and creating documents for the new Wreath IV!) and they should be available soon directly from Behold Publications. 

~ Wreath One ~




~ Wreath Two ~



Mercy ~ Courage ~ Joy/Mirthfulness (spelling corrected in file)




~ Wreath Three ~

  

   

St. Therese the Little Flower ~ Pray for us!

Novena to Saint Thérèse ~ Day Eight

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus breathing her last (1897)

Novena to Saint Thérèse

O St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who during your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pity on me as I leave all things in your hands. Make my troubles your own, speak a word for me to Our Lady Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were — to that Queen of Heaven “who smiled on you at the dawn of life” Beg her powerful intercession the grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment…and that she join with it a blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death, and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.

O God, who did inflame with the Spirit of Love, the soul of your servant Thérèse of the Child Jesus, grant that we also may love you and make you much loved. Amen.

DAY EIGHT

O glorious St. Thérèse, who, burning with the desire of increasing the glory of God, invariably attended to the sanctification of your soul by the constant practice of prayer and charity so that, becoming in the Church a model of holiness, you are now in Heaven the protector of all those who have recourse to you in faith, look down upon me who invokes your powerful patronage and join your petition to mine that I be granted the favor I seek in this novena…

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us.

Fire Safety Lap Book

This past week the girls worked on a Fire Safety Lap Book. We started the week with a Forest Fire Field Trip and then read lots of books on the topic before starting our lap book.

Books about Fires and Firefighters:

More Books about Forest Fires and Wildfire Firefighters:


For the cover of the Lap Book I just printed out the words Fire Safety — quick and easy! 😉

It was a simple Lap Book, but very effective. We discussed what to do when a fire starts in our home, escape routes and plans, meeting spot, our home address and phone number, fire alarms, what to do when on fire, how to treat burns, and more. Here is a picture of the inside of Twinkle Toes’ lap book:

Here are links to the mini books we used from Homeschool Helper:

Smoke Detectors Circle Fan Fold – When should you change batteries and where should they be located?
Four Steps to Fire Safety – Write and illustrate the four steps to fire safety.
Two Ways Out Envelope – Show the two ways out of each room in your house.
Firemen Matchbook Fold – Name some tools that firemen use.
Escape Route Center Fold – Draw your family’s escape route.
Meeting Spot Triangle Petal Fold – Choose your family’s outside meeting spot.
Getting Out Flap Fold – Answer the questions about getting out safely.
Emergency Layered Book – Fill in information you need to know in an emergency.
Stop, Drop and Roll Indexed Tabs – Illustrate how to stop, drop and roll.
How to Treat Burns Envelope Fold – Describe how to treat minor burns.

Other Activities and Resources:

Fire Safety Word Search
Children’s Fire Safety Activity Book (My husband brought these home from work.)
Forest Fire Prevention Coloring Book

Wildfire Education Links

It was a fun week and now my boys are asking when they get to do their own Fire Safety Lap Book!

Our Family

Sean & Jessica, Captain-25, Ranger-23, Twinkle Toes-22, Chiquita-20, Snuggles-18, Rose-15, Bud-13, Grace-8 and Joy-6 (blog nicknames)

A Little About Me

Hi! I'm Jessica, a Roman Catholic wife and home educating mother to our nine children. I was home educated myself, along with my eleven younger siblings. I have a special devotion to St. Therese, through whom I have been given much help and many blessings--the beautiful "Shower of Roses" that she has sent my way! Here I will record a few of the blessings I treasure. Please remember that what you see here is just a little glimpse at our lives, so please say a prayer for us, as we continue to strive for holiness.

My Other Blog: Catholic Cuisine

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Prayer of Mothers

Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.


Our Family

Sean & Jessica, Captain-25, Ranger-23, Twinkle Toes-22, Chiquita-20, Snuggles-18, Rose-15, Bud-13, Grace-8 and Joy-6 (blog nicknames)

A Little About Me

Hi! I'm Jessica, a Roman Catholic wife and home educating mother to our nine children. I was home educated myself, along with my eleven younger siblings. I have a special devotion to St. Therese, through whom I have been given much help and many blessings--the beautiful "Shower of Roses" that she has sent my way! Here I will record a few of the blessings I treasure. Please remember that what you see here is just a little glimpse at our lives, so please say a prayer for us, as we continue to strive for holiness.

My Other Blog: Catholic Cuisine

Please Visit My Sponsors…

This Week's Popular Posts

Shower of Roses Affiliate Links

All About Spelling
All About Reading
All About Reading Giveaways
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Our Advent & Christmas Books

Shower of Roses Gift Guides

Looking for Something?

looking-back

  • 2026 (3)
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  • 2024 (41)
  • 2023 (30)
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  • 2014 (227)
  • 2013 (238)
  • 2012 (308)
  • 2011 (297)
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Posts About:

Shower of Roses Alphabet of Saints

A Papal Unit Study & Lap Book

Shower of Roses Easter Gift Guides



All Saints Party Printables

All original photographs and written material are ©2007-2025 Shower of Roses. I'd love for you to link back to me, but please do not copy or take content from this blog without permission. Click here for my Copyright Terms & Conditions. Thank you for visiting!