Garden of the Good Shepherd
Last year, inspired by Charlotte, my family really enjoyed using Tomie de Paola’s Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Album to Count the 50 Days to celebrate the Easter season.Normally it retails for $19.95, but right now you can purchase it for just $3.00 from Liturgy Training Publications. Shipping is rather high, but it is still cheaper than purchasing it from Amazon
, plus you can order a few extras to give away, like I did last year! 😉In a thread over at 4Real, Anne (who just made an amazing Jesus Tree) suggested making a homemade felt Garden of the Good Shepherd as well. I would totally *love* to do that, but I am not sure I’ll be able to this year. We’ll see!
Even though it is early, I went ahead and updated my sidebar with links to our Garden of the Good Shepherd posts from last year. I may update them and add a few new activities when it comes time to do them this year, but I thought I’d link them anyway.
Our Lenten Calendar ~ 2009
I finally finished making our Lenten Calendar this morning, just before Mass. Yes, it is almost identical to last year’s calendar, but that is what my children requested! ☺
WoW ~ Week 7
My Summary:
- Week Seven Weight Loss/Gain: -2 pounds
- Inches Loss/Gain: -.5 inches
- Overall Results: -7.5 pounds and -7 inches
To see everyone’s stats, or to join in the fun, head on over to Regina’s!
Shrove Tuesday
Today was Shrove Tuesday, also known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Pancake Day. It is also the last day of Ordinary time, with Lent beginning tomorrow on Ash Wednesday.
You know, I realized on Sunday, when Father reminded us all of the requirements for Fasting on Ash Wednesday, that this will be the first Lenten season since 1999 that I have been required to Fast!! It has been awhile!
Well, I have still not been able to get over this cold, and today it has gotten worse, so to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, and enjoy the end of the “Carnival” season, I canceled (most) school for the day and let my children play, watch movies, finish up their St. Valentine’s Day candy, and just have fun!
Inspired by Melissa, my children made butterfly and eagle masks.
I thought they turned out so cute!
I had hoped to use the traditional recipe Melissa used, but instead we baked a quick and easy version of the Mardi Gras King Cake using a package of Cinnamon Rolls. It was very easy, and Twinkle Toes was able to make it mostly by herself!
For dinner we had my Grandmother’s Crepes (which call for LOTS of eggs and milk, making them perfect for Shrove Tuesday since traditionally all fats, eggs, and butter had to be given up for Lent, and pancakes, or waffles, call for all these ingredients), with bacon, orange juice, and another King Cake on the side! Yum!!!
Well, I am going to sign off so I can finally put the finishing touches on our Lenten Calendar. How’s that for waiting till the last minute?! 😉
I hope you all have a very blessed Ash Wednesday! God Bless!
Real Quick…
…I wanted to share one more picture from Sunday.
This simple breakfast was shared by Tracy during our First Communion Celebrations Fair at Catholic Cuisine! Rascal *loved* it, and it was so very easy and doable even at the last minute! Thank you Tracy!
A First Holy Communion
Quinquagesima Sunday ~ February 22, 2009
“My First Holy Communion!”
Our Family and our First Communicant with Father
(Right before Mass we found out that this was Father’s First time to give someone their First Holy Communion! Isn’t that neat?!)
“Adoremus in Æternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum.”
(Let us for ever adore the Most Holy Sacrament.)
“The body of our Lord, Jesus Christ, preserve my soul unto life everlasting! I possess Him Who gives Eternal life. With firm and confident Faith, I believe, O Jesus, that Thou hast words of eternal life. Thy Flesh is meat indeed. I have received Thy sacred Body. Thou art truly present in my soul, my Lord and my God; Thou art most intimately united in me. Oh, how can I sufficiently adore Thee! Thou art my God — I, thy unworthy creature; Thou, my Father and Savior, hast taken pity on me: Thou lovest me, it is Thy delight to be with me. How can I, my Jesus, thank Thee for this grace! Magnify the Lord, my soul, for He hath done wonderful things to thee! Sweet merciful Jesus, vouchsafe to look kindly upon my poor and pitiful gratitude.” ~ Excerpt from First Communion Thanksgiving Prayer
in Jesus Make Me Worthy
“My son, your sins are forgiven.”
“And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”Even though I call our second son “Rascal” here on my blog (he can be a little stinker at times), he is such a sweet sensitive little guy. I remember back when he had just turned two and hubby and I had put our 3 children (at the time) to bed, Rascal would usually talk or sing himself to sleep. Well, I heard him talking in his room, so I peeked inside and then called hubby over look. He was kneeling beside his little toddler bed talking to Jesus, on the cross above his bed, and telling him “I’m two!” while holding up two of his little fingers. I let out a little giggle, which Rascal heard, and he jumped back into his bed.
Yes, ever since he was baby he has loved Our Lord dearly. When he turned five he began serving Mass on Fridays with his older brother, in addition to “playing Mass” at home. He has been anxiously awaiting being able to receive his First Holy Communion, and more recently has had a great desire to make his First Confession.
Back to November… We knew that Rascal was ready to make his First Confession, but we weren’t sure what we could do. We had tried to put him in a First Communion class last September, but since he had not been in the program the year before as well, the DRE placed him in the younger class, and said that he would have to wait until next year. It’s a long story which I would rather not go into, but I’ll just leave it with the fact that we didn’t have very many options, and had been considering taking a trip to visit one of my brother-in-laws! 😉
Well, I had the opportunity to speak with a new priest in our area, whom I was able to meet with right before and after my miscarriage. I brought up Rascal and his desire to make his First Confession, and he said he would see what he could do. To make a long story short shorter, I received a call from him on Friday afternoon saying he could do the First Confession and First Communion Sunday morning!!!
OH!!!! WOW!!!! Even though Rascal was ready, I wasn’t! 😉 I would need to invite our family and his God-parents, find a suit, find the First Communion tie (which would take until right before we had to leave on Sunday), order a cake, buy a gift, and so on, and I would only have Saturday to do so (which was already filled with other plans!)! But, how could we say no?!?! Rascal was SO excited! And I had a panic attack! 😉
So, yesterday morning, bright and early, Rascal made his First Confession and then received Our Lord for the very first time! He has just been glowing ever since!
I do have a few pictures to share, but right now I need to take care of Captain and Twinkle Toes who both came down with a fever last night. Hum, my children all got sick right after our last First Communion too… Hopefully this time won’t be as bad, and I will be back soon!
Getting Ready for Lent
Can you believe that Lent begins this coming Wednesday?! Are you ready?? I’m not, but I am slowly getting there.
Our Jesus Tree is ready to go! It was so nice to just pull it out of the closet and hang it on the wall, versus the countless hours I spent putting it together last year. Yay!!!
I also just purchased and downloaded the *brand new* Lent Faith Folder from Faith Folders for Catholics. I was so excited when I received the email tonight announcing that it was available, especially since my boys *loved* working on the Advent Faith Folder. Right now, my printer is busy printing out the 114 pages that came with the download… It looks like it is chock-full with great content!
I’ve also been gathering all of our Picture Books and CD’s for Lent, and I placed an order for The Way of the Cross for Children. We are planning on attending the Stations of the Cross each Friday after Mass, but I am sure this DVD will be a nice addition for the rest of the week!
OH, and I still need to put together our Lenten Calendar. I have quite a few things I need to get done first, so it may not happen until Monday… We’ll see. =)
Building a Ziggurat
This year the boys have been studying Ancient History. Even though we haven’t had a whole lot of time to devote to History this year, the boys have really been enjoying listening to the books and starting their own Book of Centuries.
They have been begging to do another History art project though, so the other day I handed them Old Testament Days: An Activity Guide
A ziggurat was a terraced pyramid several stories high. It is thought they were first built around 2500 BC by the ancient Sumerians, who lived in a region which now forms part of southern Iraq. The ziggurat was the tallest and most important building in a Sumerian city. The temple priests would walk up long rows of stairs to get from one level to the next.
Anyhow, it ended up being fairly easy to build. Here are the materials we used:
- Empty rectangular boxes of a variety of sizes (we used a tomato sauce box, a cereal box, a hot cocoa box and an empty box of tea)
- Glue (we also used a bit of tape)
- Paintbrushes
- Craft or Tempera paint, brown
- Measuring Spoon & Cup
- Cornmeal
- Permanent Marker
The boys stacked the boxes and, with daddy’s help, hot glued them together. Next they painted the boxes brown.
After the first coat was dry, they made a mixture of cornmeal and paint (1 TBS of cornmeal to every 1/8 cup of paint) and added a second coat which gave texture to the walls of the ziggurat. When it was all dry they added stairs up the side and a door at the top.
The boys had a lot of fun building their ziggurat, and they are already asking, “What can we make next!!??”
The Holy Sacrifice
Our friend Marc has just created another beautiful video titled The Holy Sacrifice. He has put together a series of images and video set to the hymn “Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium” by St. Thomas Aquinas.
I may be just a tiny bit partial since all of the priests pictured in the Consecration photos are very dear to us (plus he even included the picture of our oldest son just before he received his First Holy Communion!), but isn’t it wonderful?!?
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