April Shower of Photos :: Day 27
…enjoying Spring!Garden of the Good Shepherd ~ Week 6
I can’t believe how fast the weeks have been flying by! We are already starting week six! The theme for this week in The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter
I haven’t had much time to try and come up with ideas for this coming week… Plus, the weeks just seem to keep getting harder! Just what kind of crafts and activities can you do for bride and groom with little ones?? Well… I wish I had better ideas, but here is what I have come up with just the same:
The City Gate : Read Revelation 21:9-14
- Make a Heaven’s Gate Collage
- Listen to Oh What a Beautiful City
- Since the above song mentions “twelve gates,” one named for each of the apostles, you could read about the apostles! We will probably read Apostles of Jesus
by Father Lovasik.
- Color the Gates into Heaven Coloring Page
The Temple : Read Revelation 21:22-25
- Make Cathedral Cookies or Church shaped Stained Glass Window Cookies
- Color page of Church in Spring
- Do the EWTN Kids Build-a-Church Activity (To get to this, sign into EWTN kids–it’s free!–then go to The Diego’s house, then to Javier & Manuel’s Room, then click on the box with a church on it. My kids LOVE this game!)
Hallelujah! : Read Revelation 19:6-9
- Listen to the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”
- Make Hallelujah Hats
- Make an Angel Food Cake, in honor of the heavenly choir!
- Have an Italian dinner in honor of St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast is April 29th! I’m planning on making Pasta Santa Caterina from Cooking with the Saints
.
The Thrones : Read Revelation 22:1-5
- I can’t think of ANYTHING!! Hum…. I know… I will take down the kids Puppet Show Tent and pull out the King, Queen, etc, puppets and let them put on a Royal Puppet Show! That should be fun! 🙂 (I’m sorry I can’t think of anything else!)
The Bride : Read Hosea 2:18-20
- Deliver Marian May Baskets since it is May Day!
The Groom : Read Revelation 19:6-9
- If I was going to be home, I would make Tuxedo Brownie Cups for snack time! But, since I will be gone… I will try to pre-make these for hubby and the kids.
The Crowns : Read Isaiah 62:3-5
- To keep it simple for hubby… Take the kids out to eat at Burger King!
- This Crown Cake is really cool though!
Thanks again, Matilda, for getting us started on this!!! If anyone else has any more ideas, I would love to hear them!
Hope you all have a wonderful week! God Bless!
April Shower of Photos :: Day 26
Captain ~ Age 7(Wearing his Godfathers old cowboy hat!)
Making Progress
Thank you everyone for your encouragement! I am not done, but I am making progress!
Now, before I show you some more photos, I want to defend myself in regards to that HUGE mess. My closet is not a “typical” closet. First of all, I was moving around tons of furniture this past month, which caused many things to become homeless. Secondly, one of the drawbacks to our home, is that it has very little storage space. We don’t have a basement. We don’t have an attic. (I do have a small storage closet in the school room, where I save baby clothes… I’m so thankful for the school room!). Our garage isn’t the greatest… It is detached from the house, and it is filled with lizards, black widows, rattlesnakes and bats, so I am totally scared of going out there. (We hope to finish it off and seal it up, but in the meantime, I only store our Christmas items and camping gear–carefully sealed up–and that’s it!) Then to make matters worse, none of my children’s bedrooms have closets. We were given my sisters old armoire for the girls room, and my hubby put closet organizers along one wall of the boys room, but it just isn’t the same. So, basically my closet has become the storage place for everything that doesn’t have a home in our house.
So, that said, I am very excited about my progress, even if I’m not quite done.
Here is a quick look in the door, and behind the door. Ah! So nice to be able to open and shut the door without anything in the way. There is still quite a bit of stuff that I wish I didn’t have to store in my closet, but there really isn’t any where else for it. For example, that big plastic tub has all the kids snow gear in it. Where else can I put it??
And the top shelf is where I keep serving dishes that just won’t fit in my kitchen cupboards. Peter Walsh would disagree with this probably, since he says to keep everything in it’s zone, but our house was built in the 50’s and our kitchen is small. Some day we will remodel it, and add on a Dining room, but in the meantime they will stay there for now…
Here is a closer look at the shelves:
Looking at them all together like that, they still look cluttered, and I am sure there is even more stuff that I can get rid of, but I am SO EXCITED to actually have a couple EMPTY shelves!
Alright, now my clothes… A couple weekends ago I tried most everything in my closet on for hubby, and ended up getting rid of half of my clothes. I still have too much… at least too much that doesn’t fit! So, I hope to go through it again soon. It’s just so hard to know what to keep and what to get rid–especially when I have worn about 6 different sizes in the last few years! 😉
OH. I’m tired now! It was quite a workout running up and down the hall all day putting things away!
I’m so glad that I am almost done, and THANKFUL that tomorrow is Sunday. A day of rest!! 🙂
April Shower of Photos :: Day 25
Today the older boys went hiking with Daddy…
They hiked 3 miles total, and had a blast!!
Need: Encouragement
Earlier today I got to “meet” Jamie on the phone! She is even sweeter in person than she is online, and I was so glad to finally get to talk to her! She called to see if I had any crafts planned for the upcoming feast days next week.
Next week!! My thoughts are still on this week! 🙂
You see, regardless of how it appears, I am really not that organized. I am constantly trying to become more organized, and in fact, blogging really has helped me in this area. Reading posts by other bloggers, as well as organizing my own thoughts on the screen, has really helped! Not to mention, the endless resources available online… It all gives me hope that living an organized life is possible, and I am working hard towards that goal. However, I usually don’t start thinking about “what’s next” until we have finished our current projects, or at the earliest, the Saturday/Sunday before hand. So, I really wasn’t much help to Jamie. Sorry Jamie!!! The only thing I have planned so far for next week, was to hopefully make some Marian May Baskets to deliver on May Day, before I take off for the conference. That’s it.
Even that sounds like a lot as I continue dealing with my closet. Jamie said I might get more sympathy, if I posted pictures of my closet…
It’s just SO EMBARRASSING! :S
But, since I could really use some sympathy encouragement… I’m going to just post them, and hope that it doesn’t repulse you, make you dislike me, make you think too poorly of me!
…deep breath… here goes…
OK. Here is a photo of my closet back when I first began right after Easter:
OK. OK. It doesn’t look too bad in those pictures. But, try to picture the little carpet you can see filled in with even more stuff. I had to move a few boxes out of the door way to be able to take these pictures. Getting to my clothing had become a HUGE challenge. I got to where I was only wearing the same few outfits over and over.
In case you still don’t think it looks that bad, here is a closer look at SOME of the shelves back in March:
And THEN… For some reason, when I try to clean, everything ALWAYS gets messier… WHY IS THIS?!?! Does this happen to you?? Last Saturday as I was trying to clean… I decide to move everything on the floor out, and then I took everything off the shelves to clean them.
YIKES!!
Then when I hurt my toe… I tossed the rest of the stuff that you see on the floor in the closet to the left of the above pile. I wasn’t kidding when I said I had a mountain in front of my closet door.
Also, do you remember me mentioning that I was getting new furniture for my school room? Well… In order to move the new furniture in, I had to move out tons of stuff. I am still waiting for some of the bookshelves and so, in the meantime, my hallway has been lined with stuff. And we have a long hallway!
Last Saturday I was so tired of looking at it–and since we won’t be getting the bookshelves till May 9th–I decided to move the stuff to my room, and sort through it along with all my closet stuff.
My hubby was sweet and said, “Well… At least one mess is better than two!” Thanks hubby!
It’s frustrating though, especially since I had our room so clean for Easter!
The good thing is that I am being forced to deal with all of it. All of it. I have tossed over 10 bags of stuff and have taken 4 boxes to St. Vincent’s already. It is taking much longer than I hoped, but I am making progress…
So there you have it… Now, I better get back to work!
See you soon! Hopefully! 🙂
Lion Cupcakes for St. Mark
Well… Our cupcakes are made!! Thank you to Mary for the wonderfully easy recipe!!! They were such fun to make, and I’m sure the kids are going to love them!
The lion, actually a winged lion, is the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist, whose feast day is today. This symbol comes from St. Mark’s description of John the Baptist’s voice “crying out in the wilderness” upon hearing the Word of God (Mark 1:3). His voice is said to have sounded like that of a roaring lion. This lion symbolism also appears in a vision of the Prophet Ezekiel where four winged creatures represent the four evangelists (Ezekiel 1:10).I hope you all have a very blessed day!
Plans for the Feast of St. Mark
St. Mark the EvangelistThe feast of St. Mark is celebrated on April 25th. Don’t you just love celebrating the Liturgical Year? My kids sure do! Here’s a quick look at a few things that I will be incorporating into our day:
Prayer:
- Mass & Benediction (The boys serve each Friday.)
O Glorious St. Mark, through the grace of God our Father, you became a great Evangelist, preaching the Good News of Christ. May you help us to know Him well so that we may faithfully live our lives as followers of Christ. Amen.
Food/Snacks:
- After Mass we always have coffee with Father… I will bring along decorated
muffinscupcakes to share. I was going to make Martha Stewart’s lion cupcakes… But after seeing the adorable one’s Mary made, I decided to make hers instead. Aren’t they darling?!? - In the afternoon, we will have the other half of the cupcakes which we will decorate as palm trees for our 50 days of Easter.
- For dinner we will be having Risi e Bisi (Rice and Peas) served with Salad and Rolls.
Reading:
- Listen to the “Saint of the Day“
- Read St. Mark the Evangelist in Picture Book of Saints
- Read St. Mark the Evangelist in Saints for Young People Vol 1
Craft:
- Color pictures of St. Mark to add to our Liturgical Notebooks… We will probably use this one, the Lion symbol for St. Mark. Does anyone know of a better one?
Copywork:
Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ~ Mark 16:15
For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul? ~ Mark 8:36
I’d love to hear any plans you all may have. And if anyone has a better link to a coloring page, please let me know!
April Shower of Photos :: Day 24
I don’t have much time to take photos today… Last weekend I got frustrated with the dungeon my closet. I had started cleaning it, and as I was trying to get a gift bag off the top shelf, a huge plastic box fell and smashed my toe–o.u.c.h! It still hurts! And so, I basically threw everything out the door. The good thing is My closet is now clean, wahoo! The bad thing is, there is a mountain of paperwork and millions of miscellaneous items right outside the door, so you can’t get into my closet. Yes, it was a bad idea. I’ve been working on it all week, but have yet to put much of a dent in the pile. So, after school, that is my goal for today. Say a prayer for me!
I thought for today’s photo, since it happens to be my brother Sean’s 28th birthday, I would upload a photo from when we were kids.
It looks like I have very few pictures of Sean… This one was taken back when my parents had only the 3 of us… Me, Jennifer and Sean… and mom actually had our pictures taken! It is old (like us!) and scratched up, but I thought it was cute just the same.
Dragon Cakes for St. George
You must check out all the awesome dragons inspired by the totally creative Waltzing Matilda :
First you must go see Matilda’s own dragon, that she made for this year.
Then hop over to Knit Together in Love to see Amy’s.
After that, don’t miss Jamie’s at Lord, Make me a Saint. (Thanks Christine for the picture!!!)
OH! And you can see Tracy’s cake over at Pinewood Castle!
Aren’t they all so cute?!? What a pity to slay them!
My little brothers joined us for dinner, and helped dispose of our dragon! We had a blast! Thanks boys!!
If you posted about your St. George celebration, leave me a comment… I’d love to see it!
0 Comments