Sponsor Love :: Quarterly Update & Current Specials
Please welcome my new sponsors:
Rycraft Cookie Stamps
My favorite Rycraft product is the 2″ HEIRLOOM COLLECTION Terra Cotta Cookie Stamp! They are available in eater square or round, are available in colorful glazes in over 400 designs, and come with FREE recipes! The Rycraft Cookie Stamps are not just for cookies. Browse their website for more additional ideas as well!
Catholic SchoolhouseBring unity to your homeschool by creating a Domestic Catholic Schoolhouse! To support you we have made the chapter art and science books available to you, as well as other resources as we are able. Catholic Schoolhouse goes beyond memory work–it is a comprehensive scope and sequence; a foundation to build a true one-room schoolhouse for your family.
Sacred Heart Books & Gifts
Lindy Meyer and her family purchased Sacred Heart Books & Gifts and it is remaining open!
“We’ve been working hard to rebuild the inventory and have the products you need available on our website. We recently added all curriculum books from Memoria Press as well as all of the Ignatius Press Critical Editions. We are currently working on the books lists from Memoria Press and Mother of Divine Grace. Always know that if you are looking for something that isn’t listed you can always give us a call or email and we will be happy to order it for you. We’d love to hear from you about what products are most needed. Send us an email and let us know!”
A special THANK YOU to all my continuing sponsors!
Prayer Pillowcases
... more than just a pretty place to lay your head! Prayer Pillowcases are a practical way to bring Catholic art and prayer into your home and inspire family and friends. Honor a special occasion or make any occasion special with the gift of a joyful, lasting (and personalizable) Prayer Pillowcase!
We’re always working on new designs and hope you’ll visit us soon to see all the beautiful ways we can help your loved ones grow in prayer this Lent.
Catholic Child“After 22 years of building a well trusted “go-to” on-line Catholic store, CatholicChild.com, Joseph and Leane have felt the call to focus on their beautiful prayer pillowcases. With their desire to keep Catholic Child as a family run Catholic business, we are truly blessed that they would entrust us with the opportunity to take the reins and continue the legacy…” Read more about the MacKinnon Family and their vision for Catholic Child here.
American Life League’s Culture of Life Studies Program (CLSP)
On February 20, the Culture of Life Studies Program will offer a free online pro-life workshop to help moms like you use stories to teach pro-life values to your children. Head on over to prolifepicturebooks.com and secure your spot!
Shower of Roses readers can always save 20% off their entire order using the code: ROSES20
Gail’s DesignsGail’s Designs has been creating unique, elegant jewelry and cherished rosaries since 2009. Gail has been an artist for most of her life and is grateful for her faith and being able to make elegant jewelry and cherished rosaries for people of the Catholic faith.
Behold Publications, LLC“Behold Publications, LLC is more than just a publisher! Family owned and operated since its founding in 1999, we have developed great Catholic clubs like the Little Flowers Girls’ Club and Blue Knights Catholic Boys’ Clubs for Catholic girls and boys ages 5 and up.”
Peanut Butter & GraceThe mission of Peanut Butter & Grace is to help Catholic parents raise children who know and love Christ and his Church. We do this by providing digital and print resources that assist parents in forming their children in the faith within the daily life of their family. All of our products are made for Catholic parents—either to use themselves, or to hand to their kids.
Check out all the new titles available including: Stations of the Cross for Children, Mission Christian: February-March (Lent) and The Catholic Family Book of Prayers
Kolbe Academy All three of our high schoolers are currently enrolled with Kolbe Academy and working towards the Magna Cum Laude Diploma. In addition to all the benefits of enrolling, I really love the flexibility that Kolbe offers and that we can continue tailoring our curriculum to our family’s preferences and our children’s needs.
Robin Nest Lane
Specializing in high quality veils and mantillas for ladies and girls. Robin is a Catholic mother of 15 ( 7 with Our Lord ) who spends her days serving, loving, praying, and sewing. Robin started making veils for her daughters and wanted to share with others. She truly loves creating veils to serve Our Lord!
Lisieux Nail Polish
Lisieux Nail Polish is a young Catholic company with a passion for sacred scripture, church traditions and the New Evangelization. We love our Catholic faith and decided to bottle some of it up so women could always have a holy reminder with them and a new and fun way to share the Catholic faith with others. We chose nail polish because it is the only cosmetic you can enjoy without looking in a mirror. All of our nail polishes are named after Biblical events, saints or Catholic traditions. We also really enjoy celebrating the liturgical year and feast days so, in addition to our regularly stocked polishes, try to have special edition polishes around popular feast days.
Sleightholm Folk Art “Welcome to Sleightholm Folk Art, formerly known as Audrey Eclectic, a unique collection of American folk art created in the heart of the Oklahoma prairie. My inspiration comes from faith, folk lore, family and good books.”
You can read more about Heather’s work here.
Almond Rod ToysAlmond Rod Toys makes Saint Blocks that are just the right size for little hands and can be used for imaginative play, building, stacking or collecting. The front has a print of original watercolor artwork. The back has a quote or a prayer chosen to inspire little ones and the one that cleans up behind them. The saint’s name, feast day and patronage are also listed; just enough to be a reminder and an inspiration for further learning.
Shining Light Dolls
Saints are an amazing part of the Catholic faith; they show us what it means to live the life of Christ no matter who you are, what time in history it is, or where in the world you live. They are our role models!
Perfect for Easter Baskets! All Marian apparitions featured in our award winning board book now available! All TEN of the new dolls are now available on Amazon!
Catholic Cuisine ApronsAll of our aprons are embroidered, not screen printed, giving them a rich, elegant, look! Our durable 100% cotton-twill aprons, with soil-release finish for added stain protection, provide ultimate full length cover and comfort.
Visit the Catholic Cuisine Apron page to order!
Candlemas Day, Fair and Bright
O Blessed Mother, the sword is already in your heart. You foreknow the future of the Fruit of your womb. May our fidelity in following Him through the coming mysteries of His public life bring some alleviations to the sorrows of your maternal heart.
Traditionally called Candlemas, candles are blessed at Mass on this day to help us remember the words of holy Simeon who called the babe in his arms, “A light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel.” Luke 2: 32.
We also decorate cookies! I actually wasn’t home this afternoon and evening (a few of us ended up going to Ranger’s last out of town basketball game of the season) but that didn’t stop the kids from making our Candlemas Cookies with Drip Plates.
I left the supplies (and my camera!) on the counter and our oldest daughter took care of the rest. I loved looking through the pictures she took when we got back home.
Brigid and the Butter
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| Brigid and the Butter: A Legend about St. Brigid of Ireland |
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| Ostheimer Black & White Cow, Calf Drinking and Lamb Standing • St. Brigid from Catholic Folk Toys |
Stacks of Books on Epiphany {Little Christmas}
For a number of years now we’ve been giving our children Stacks of Books for Christmas or Epiphany. As our home library (and family size!) continues to grow the stacks for each child have started shrinking. Last year there were four books in each stack and this year we decided on three for each of our children, saving any extras for Easter which is going to come up so quick this year.
Captain (age 17) received Battlefield Chaplains, John Flanagan’s newest release The Caldera from the Brotherband Series, and Peanuts Mad Libs.
Ranger (age 15) received The Hobbit Movie Trilogy: Heroes & Villains Coloring Book, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-191, and The Perfect Blindside.
Twinkle Toes (age 14) received Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest.
Chiquita (age 12) received The Chronicles of Narnia Pop Up, National Geographic Guide to the Night Sky: A Stargazer’s Companion, and the (new and improved!) Spiritual Journal from Holy Heroes.
I had actually purchased The Chronicles of Narnia Pop Up (from Ebay I think) last spring for her 12th birthday to go along with the Chronicles of Narnia themed party but completely forgot to give it to her. Such a neat book!
Snuggles (age 10) received Picture That: Knights & Castles (Exploring History through Art), John Ronald’s Dragons: The Story of J.R.R. Tolkien, and On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.
I’ve been catching this little guy wide awake in the middle of the night as he reads through The Lord of the Rings series… He is currently reading (and loving!) The Two Towers. (Hard to believe I was ever worried about his reading just a couple years ago!) He was so excited when he unwrapped this picture book about J.R.R. Tolkien and immediately read the whole thing, ignoring all the chaos around him.
Rose (age 8) received Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Pride and Prejudice Seek and Find.
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| Still searching through the pictures! |
Bud (age 6) received Winter is the Warmest Season, Mr. Ferris and His Wheel, and The Seven Silly Eaters. He loved all three, but Mr. Ferris and His Wheel (the story and all the gorgeous illustrations) was definitely the favorite.
Grace (7 months) received Jonah and the Big Fish, All Creatures Great and Small, and Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind.
Celebrating Epiphany
January 6th: I haven’t been baking much this Christmas, at least not since recommitting to 100% AIP on the 1st, but there will be a crown shaped king’s cake for Epiphany! #thanksforthehelpgirls
Happy Epiphany! 👑✨ {we are saving the cake for after Mass tomorrow since one of the boys had a high school basketball game over at the coast and didn’t get home until really late tonight – but we still had plenty of Christmas treats and a family movie night}
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| Stacks of gifts from the Wise Men – also saved for after Mass |
Seven Months
or you can rejoice because thorns have roses…”
{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: forty
It’s not easy to make a beautiful cake without any grains, gluten, dairy, nuts, seeds, eggs, or sugar (basically just using vegetables and/or fruit with some honey or maple syrup) but this is the third year in a row that our girls have made one for my birthday! This year they decided on a Raspberry-Coconut “Cheesecake”. I’m still enjoying the leftovers! 🎂😍
I’m a hard one to surprise with anything, but my husband had all sorts of surprises for my birthday this year including beautiful roses, an appointment scheduled at a day spa for a facial on (last) Saturday afternoon, and three tickets for me and the older girls to go see Sense and Sensibility opening night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival!
I joked that I wanted to go sledding so the kids could take a picture of me coming down the hill while they hold a sign that says “over the hill and picking up speed!” 😉 It’s been a very mild winter here though and we hadn’t had any snow within driving distance. The ski resort hasn’t even been able to open yet due to lack of snow… (We actually woke up to a light layer of snow this morning! It was slushy and has already melted but the kids were so excited.) Instead we ended up taking the kids miniature golfing and had the whole golf course to ourselves!
After golfing we ended up going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I didn’t think it was funny when our waiter made me sit up on a saddle and then announced to the whole restaurant “This is Jessica. She is celebrating her 40th birthday today!” On our way home we told the story to the young barista at the coffee drive through. He responded, “No way! You don’t look that old!” Ummm, thanks?
I haven’t had a chance to get my hair cut since last March and it had gotten really long and dry/scraggly. My mom and dad surprised me with an appointment to get it cut and highlighted on Saturday with a new hairdresser. She even curled it for me! Even after getting over six inches cut off it’s still long but feels so much healthier.
Life is the Most Beautiful Gift of God
From the archives: Culture of Life Studies Pro-Life Prints is a fun and engaging hands-on way to teach children more about the dignity of every human life! You can read all about it in the archives: Day 1 – Preborn Babies, Day 2 – I Am Unique, Day 3 – Helping Others, and Day 4 – Praying for Others
New Year’s Daybook
Outside my window…
Happy New Year! We haven’t had any snow yet this winter, unlike the major snow storms we had last year, but on New Year’s Eve we were surprised at midnight with quite the fireworks show over at the neighbors. We had a great view from our front porch!
I am thinking…
How did I keep up with blogging when our last babies were born?! I have been slowly working on this post since New Year’s Eve and keep asking myself that question… I guess back then we didn’t have three high schoolers with all their extra activities, the babies were easier and slept better, and I wasn’t working outside the home. I miss blogging and am hoping to figure out how to make a little more time for it each week. In the meantime at least there is Instagram for sharing little snippets!
When she started pulling herself up on Christmas Day I told the other kids not to encourage her – I’m not ready for this yet – but there is no slowing this one down!
Celebrating the liturgical year…
The celebrations have been extra simple this year, but still fun and memorable. Here are a couple pictures I shared over on Instagram.
From the kitchen…
I went back to 100% Autoimmune Protocol on January 1st. It’s time to focus on getting my health back after a really hard year. It has been really hard, especially the first week, but so far I’ve been able to stick with it without cheating at all! I think I had started to rely on sugar for energy and that has been an adjustment. I am now tired all. the. time. but at least it’s forcing me to rest a little more!
Tigernut Butter
Ingredients:
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup palm shortening
1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp Himalayan pink salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions:
Place ingredients in either a high powered blender (I use the Vitamix) or a food processor.
Blend or process until it looks like a creamy nut butter. You may have to stop and scrape the sides during blending/processing. Enjoy!
It’s been hard to juggle working and home educating (and a new baby, and blogging, and, and, and…) but I’ve really enjoyed working for my Dad and brother Brian the past couple years! Sean and I (and the baby!) had so much fun at the Murphy Electric Christmas Party!
My mom loves giving everyone a family photo album for Christmas, collecting photos from all my siblings and putting them together in a book with a couple pages or so for each of the kids. The only problem is she doesn’t know how to make them and is always trying to recruit one of us girls to put it together… I made the album back in 2013 and then
My favorite page(s) ended up being the two page spread of all of us lined up from youngest to oldest, even though I look HUGE. When mom scheduled the reunion for the weekend I hit 37 weeks I kept joking that it was “Murphy’s Law” that I (as one of the few siblings that still lives near my parents) would end up in the hospital, but I made it though the weekend… Barely!
I am going…
Last April 16th my parents celebrated their 40th Anniversary! I was born exactly nine months after their wedding which means I’ll be turning 40 on January 16th. I didn’t think it would be a big deal but all of a sudden I’m a little emotional about that…
to figure out a way to get our oldest son to the Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat. Even though he’s not quite 18 yet (he will be this summer!) he was invited by the Director of Vocations to attend and would love to go. I wish it wasn’t so far away! (Update: He ended up getting a ride with friends and will even get to go to the 2018 March for Life in Portland. I can’t wait to hear all about it when he gets back home!)
I am praying…
for the repose of the soul of Joyce Sample, our dear Archbishop’s mother. She was such a sweet woman. May she rest in peace +
I am reading…
The kids all unwrapped this year’s stacks of books on Epiphany and I’ve been reading aloud some of the picture books to our little ones. So far one of the favorites has been Mr. Ferris and His Wheel.
Pondering these words…
from St. Alphonsus:
Around the house…
I’m just not ready to think about taking the Christmas decorations down yet. So cozy! We will leave the nativity up until Candlemas, but the tree is starting to dry out quickly and will need to come down soon.
I recently got to spend a little time (all by myself, which has been very rare this year) walking around one of my favorite towns and then (finally!) visiting the day spa for the last of the three prenatal massages Sean gave me last Christmas! Here are a few more pictures I snapped while walking around this historic little town. I owned the local phone book here once upon a time.
A little peek at last year…
The year of Grace! Born on the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, just two days after the death of her grandfather, our little “Grace” has been such a blessing. She definitely stole the show (and our hearts) this year making it into all of my #2017bestnine pictures including my sibling re-enactment the weekend before she was born!
- October 31st – Our Lady of Guadalupe 💙✨ {This favorite costume – made by her Grandma for one of her older sisters over 10 years ago- was a little big on her, but I’m pretty sure it will be too small next year so we made it work!}
- June 8th – Thank you all for the prayers! Our beautiful little girl is here! Everything went really well and she arrived at 1:56 AM this morning weighing in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches. God is Good! #deogratias #37weeks6days #countingthedaystojune24
- October 31st – Happy All Saints’ Day! Can you guess who our children choose to dress up as this year? Answers are over in today’s blog post with additional pictures. 😇🙏🏻✨
- December 8th – Our baby girl ❤️ #startedcrawlingtoday #sixmonthsoldtoday #feastoftheimmaculateconception
- June 10th – I could not be more in love with this little beauty! 💕 {New post over on the blog with all the details.} #threedaysold #number8bornonthe8th #countingthedaystojune24
- December 6th – Happy Feast of St. Nicholas! #wideawakeat3am #saintnicholas #orapronobis
- June 3rd – ALL of my siblings are in town this weekend for a Murphy family reunion! It’s the first time all 12 of us have been together at the same time in over 13 YEARS! I figured this would be the day I’d go into labor… #murphyslaw … but I made it and we were even able to get some family photos including a fun reenactment of one from 21 years ago! #ilovemycrazyfamily #firstbornoftwelve #sixgirlssixboys #37weekspregnant
- June 8th – A few more pictures ❤️ So grateful her Daddy was here for her birth. So was Grandma Murphy and Aunt Mary. I’ll share more later, after we get some sleep and introduce her to her siblings later today! 🌹#daddyshands #countingthedaystojune24
- August 21st, watching the solar eclipse – All Eight! 💙💙💗💗💙💗💙💗
Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!
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