The Feast of Blessed Mother Teresa
September 5th is the anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa, and her feast day.I remember very clearly traveling to San Francisco in 1988 (when I was just 10 years old!) with my Grandmother to see Mother Teresa, at St. Anne’s Church, as she welcomed 11 new nuns into her order. I remember my grandmother telling me that, “one day this amazing little nun will be declared a Saint!” My grandmother passed away just a few short years after that trip. I am so thankful for those precious times we had together, and her amazing love for our Lord and His Saints that she shared with us grandchildren. I sure do miss her, and Mother Teresa always reminds me of my grandma!
You know, my very first “Saint Themed” blog post was on our plans for celebrating this feast last year. I followed that one up with a post containing pictures from our Tea-and-Craft. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but it amazes me how much our children have GROWN this past year!
This year, we spent the morning at Mass and Benediction, then picking plums at Father’s house. After that we had a few doctors appointments to go to, so by the time we got home it was after 3pm.
My kids were begging to make Indian Sweet Bread once again, but with so little time I had to improvise. Thankfully I had a package of our favorite uncooked tortillas from Costco in the fridge, so I just sprinkled them with sugar and cooked them like normal. They were GREAT! They were even better than our homemade ones from last year, and SO MUCH easier. I also made iced Chai Latte’s with Oregon Chai! Yummmm!!!!
After dinner the children colored the beautiful coloring pages from Charlotte, while listening to The Gospel on Five Fingers.
Every time the “Gospel on Five Fingers” was mentioned, Twinkle Toes would stop coloring, and say it as she counted on her fingers at the same time… “You did it for Me!” It was so very cute!
They devoured the Indian Sweet Bread while watching Mother Teresa: Seeing The Face Of Jesus
before bedtime. (It is available to watch instantly on Netflix, for those of you with memberships!)This coming week we will be reading Mother Teresa
, and the children will each be copying a quote or two of hers to add to their notebooks…
In my search for Wooden Folk, I did run across a bag of wooden spoons, and immediately remembered Alice’s Spoon Saints. Since the spoons were quite inexpensive, I purchased a bag. After deciding it would take too much time to make a wooden Mother Teresa, with the short time we had, we made a Mother Teresa Spoon Saint instead. It was quite easy, and turned out pretty good for our first attempt, if I may say so myself. I added a popsicle stick to the back, and told my boys that they could use it as a puppet. Captain replied, “Yeah!! Now all we need are some slums!!!” (They may have to use they little imaginations for that!)Picking Plums
Yesterday, after Mass, Father invited us over to his home to pick plums…
I am so glad I ran back into the house before we left to grab my camera! :o)
Wooden Saint Dolls
Since we are hoping to start Along the Alphabet Path this year, I spent a couple weeks looking at all the local craft stores for the little wooden peg dolls with no luck. Anyhow, I ended up emailing Tracy (which I should have done in the first place and saved all that gas!) and she directed me to an online store that carries all the little Wooden Folk and Puppet Bases. THANK YOU TRACY!
This evening, since we were celebrating the feast of Blessed Mother Teresa, I thought it might be fun try and make a “Wee Felt Saint” of Mother Teresa. I never did get around to making one… However, as I was looking to see if I could find an example online, I ran across these darling Wooden Catholic Dolls and Toys. I had never seen these before, and fell in love with them! They are so cute… Ahhh! If only I was even a little bit talented in painting or drawing… I will probably have to stick with the felt, unless I can talk my very talented sister into helping out! Maybe?!?!
That’s it… Just wanted to share! 🙂
“I Belong to God”
My children have all loved the Little Saints Pre-School Program. I love that they love it. 😉 No really, I do love it, it just initially took a *TON* of preparation. In fact, the first year I justified all the hours I spent cutting out flannel board pieces and card stock learning games, and $$$ I spent purchasing the recommended children’s books, by telling myself, “It’s worth it.. We will be using this over and over with all our children.” So, even though I would love to switch to using just the plans over at Serendipity this year, we will also be using Little Saints. Actually, I think they will work out pretty well together, if I follow each one loosely without trying to take on too much. In fact, the Little Saints program eventually introduces one letter per week anyways, and what better way to do so than with the Alphabet Path?
Even though I plan to attempt both this year, I decided to start out slowly. I think maybe in a couple weeks we will begin Along the Alphabet Path, and maybe do two weeks on, one week off, but I am going to see how this first month goes before deciding for sure. So, this week we just completed Week 1 of Little Saints. In the Little Saints Program, each week has: a Lesson Emphasis (this week it was “I Belong to God” and everything we do relates to the theme), Bible Passage, Poems, Storytime, Nursery Rhymes or Finger Plays, Songs and Circle Games, Music Appreciation, Art Projects and Learning Games.
Here is a glimpse at what we did this week:
I made these matching cards from various Catholic images that I found online, printed onto cardstock, and then laminated.
by Twinkle Toes
by Chiquita
We are looking forward to continuing next week!
Memory Lane Tag
Memory Lane…the tag that gets everyone involved. This comes from my cousin Meg. Be a good sport and play along (and YES, that includes all you lurkers out there!). Here are the directions:
- As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
- Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. (If you don’t have a blog, or don’t want to post, please comment anyways!)
Making Lunch Time Fun
Last week, while I was grocery shopping, I got distracted by the summer “clearance” table… Look what I picked up for less than $1.00 each.
Lunch Trays!I pulled them out today, and I must say, lunch time has never been so much FUN! My kids absolutely LOVED them!
I have a feeling that these are going to be a great asset this year. They will make it much easier to use up our dinner left overs as well as simplify portion size, resulting in healthier lunches, less waste, and hopefully less strain on our ever increasing food budget!
Todays lunch was rather basic, consisting of PB&J’s, applesauce, baby carrots, goldfish and juice, but you never would have known it by the smiles on my kiddos faces.
Isn’t that great?!? I love how all the compartments hold the food in place. I buy most of our food in large containers (Applesauce, Yogurt, etc…), and the compartments allow me to pour out each serving onto the tray without needing cups or bowls!! Less dishes is always a plus!
Today I was trying to brainstorm ideas for lunches and the possibilities are endless. Here is the basic list I came up with:
- PB&J, Tuna, Egg Salad, Meat or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- Cheese Quesadillas
- Mac n’ Cheese
- Any dinner leftovers: Spaghetti, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chili, Chinese Food, Mexican Food, Salad, etc…
- Fruit (Canned or Fresh)
- Applesauce
- Veggies: Baby Carrots, Broccoli, Celery Sticks, Cherry Tomatoes, etc.
- Popcorn, Chips, or Nachos
- Animal Crackers, Graham Crackers, Gold Fish or Pretzels
- Nuts
- Yogurt, Pudding, Cottage Cheese
- Cheese Sticks
- Cookies, Cupcakes
- Any more suggestions??
It’s funny… I am already looking forward to making lunch tomorrow! 🙂
Oh, and by the way, today went SO MUCH BETTER than yesterday! Ahhh, I really do LOVE homeschooling. I’m just bummed I didn’t have a chance to try and make that cake… Hopefully soon!
Morning Inspiration
Along with my cup of coffee, this was just what I needed to hear this morning!
And since I am sharing links, Charlotte has posted a couple more of her beautiful coloring pages over at her blog Waltzing Matilda in honor of today’s feast of St. Pius X and St. Gregory the Great. We will definitely be coloring these today! Thanks Charlotte!
First Day of School 2008-2009
What a DAY! I can not believe that it is only 9:45 pm, right now… I am exhausted!
Right about now I am sitting here reminding myself that the first week back in “school” is always challenging, and it does get easier, and I really don’t want to put the children “in school”… Am I the only one out there that starts the year off like this???
Our morning started out great and I got the children up and dressed and ready for the day. I had a hot pot of coffee brewing for myself and even made Belgian Waffles for breakfast, which was a hit! The kids had fun going through the basket of new school supplies on the school room table, which I had hoped to wrap up in Schultütes, but ran out of time. (My kids didn’t seem to mind.) My boys also loved their new student planners and got busy filling in their names, grades and various favorite “things” on the inside cover page.
I then had a call from the tutor saying she wasn’t going to make it this morning… My boys were disappointed, but not for long… They were thoroughly enjoying their new school books and supplies!
We spent the morning doing Language Arts (Handwriting, Phonics, Spelling, Grammar) and Math. Right Start Mathematics is GREAT! My children ALL loved it, and we are all looking forward to doing another lesson (or two) tomorrow. Math has been dreaded by both the boys and myself in the past, so this is wonderful.
We then took a break for lunch, and that was when things got crazy around here. My mom and sister (who had JUST gotten her drivers license… CONGRATULATIONS JoAnn!!!) stopped by with a birthday gift for Twinkle Toes. Snuggles seemed to be getting a flu bug or something, and had 4 dirty diapers. The children started bickering with each other. Blockbuster (a 20 minute drive each way) called saying our movie was due back TODAY or we would be charged for it. The library called to say I needed to pick up the rest of my holds since they had been sitting there for awhile. (They have been CLOSED!!) So, yep, it got hectic…
Somewhere in there we studied Religion and History. My boys had been begging to start History! They were not disappointed. Today they made covers for their Book of Centuries, listened to the Story of Creation from the Bible and a great picture book titled The Genesis of it All, and then colored a picture of Creation to add to their Book of Centuries while listening to Classical Music. The girls joined in, of course.
I guess, looking back, we really did accomplish quite a bit, even though we didn’t get to everything I had hoped. There is always tomorrow! Plus, that unexpected trip to town provided the perfect opportunity to visit the Taco Bell drive-thru for dinner. (Have you checked out their Value Menu? Not bad… We were able to feed our family of 7 for $6.98!) We finished the day with Ice Cream Cones for dessert (we had quite a few leftover) and a few read-alouds before bed.
Speaking of which, I need to get to bed myself! I hope that you all had a great day, with whatever it was you were doing… And if you have a spare moment, please say a prayer for me, that I can make it through this week! (If I recall correctly, the second week is always so much easier!) I will say a prayer for all of you! Goodnight, God Bless!
Pray for us!!!!!
Music Preferences
Me: “I think I am going to turn on some music while you boys color.”
Rascal: “Yay!!”
I then pushed the power button on our stereo and immediately the country music station came on… (I had been listening to it yesterday as I was straightening up the school room.)
Rascal: “Aaahhhh MOM! Can you please turn on some decent music???”
Alrighty then… Classical Music it is. (Like I was really planning on letting them listen to Country Music!) I’m sure Laura would be proud!
Speaking of music, don’t miss the beautiful Chant Cake posted by Anne (our newest contributor) over at Catholic Cuisine! It is AMAZING!!!
Deo Grátias!
On Saturday, August 30th, my hubby and I were blessed, through the sacrament of Baptism, with another beautiful Goddaughter, Madeleine Gloria.
“Baptism is the sacrament that gives our souls the new life of sanctifying grace by which we become Christians, children of God, and heirs of heaven…
…Baptism is necessary for the salvation of all men, because Christ has said: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
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