An Alphabet of Saints :: B is for Blocks

by | Jan 28, 2013 | , , , , | 21 Comments

Snuggles’ Alphabet of Saints Blocks
I mentioned back during “B Week” that Snuggles and I began Brushing Paint on Building Blocks!    Since the girls and I made an Alphabet of Painted Saints to go along with their journey Along the Alphabet Path I wanted to come up with something for Snuggles that was just for him, but also tied in the saints from the book An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.   I thought a set of Alphabet Blocks would be perfect!  
Cupcake’s Alphabet of Saints Blocks

Originally I had hoped to make eight sets in various colors/designs to give as Christmas gifts, but ended up with just three, Snuggles’ set plus sets for two of our dear godchildren, since my “extra” time was so limited in November and December. I do still have a fourth set in progress for Rose since she loved these blocks so much! In fact, one day she snuck into my bedroom, snatched a few blocks while I was on the phone and then hid under Captain’s desk with them until I found her… Yes, I’m hoping that she will find her very own set (made with rosy pink-uh paper of course!) inside her Easter Basket this year.

Supplies:

  • 1 1/2-inch square wood blocks (I used 13-16 blocks for each set)
  • Sandpaper
  • Scissors
  • Acrylic paint
  • Mod Podge
  • Paintbrush
  • Decorative paper
  • Alphabet Letters
  • Sponge

Directions:

1. Sand the wooden block with sandpaper to prepare them for painting.

2. Paint the blocks with the color(s) you’ve selected. Allow to dry.

Snuggles’ and Cupcake’s sets were painted white
Bear’s set was painted in multiple colors

3. Cut the Alphabet Letters and Decorative Paper to squares measuring just under 1 1/2″ each.

Note:  I used the alphabet saint letters from Catholic Artworks, using a CD that they no longer carry.  I’ve been told that all these letters and much more are included on their updated CD titled Teach Me to Discover the Saints which is also available from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts. Unfortunately they are not a free printable.  Also, the images are very large on the CD.  I resized them to the correct size that I needed for these blocks in Word, creating the document that you see in my supplies picture.  I am sorry that due to copyrights I am not able to share it with you all.  However you can customize this idea with any letters, stickers, or embellishments of your choice!

4. Glue the paper to each side of the block using all-purpose Mod Podge. Allow the glue to dry.

Note:  Using 13 blocks I started with letters A-M on the fronts and then continued with letters N-Z on the backs (in order with N on the back of M and Z on the back of A).  Since I had room for three extra blocks in the box for Cupcake’s set I added a few extra vowels and consonants for her to use in creating her names.

5. Very carefully, to prevent the printed alphabet paper from smearing, paint another coat of Mod Podge all over the block to seal. Allow to dry.

Note:  After having plenty of blocks stick to my work surface I finally started placing them on top of my paint bottles to dry, which worked nicely.

This is what my husband patiently put up with on our bedroom dresser most of Advent!  

6.  All Done!   I also found a nice little wooden box at Michaels which held the completed blocks beautifully… I was only able to find one so I’m hoping that I can find more the next time I make it back to the craft store.  

The picture book An Alphabet of Catholic Saints to go along with these blocks is available from Amazon! 

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

by | Jan 26, 2013 | , , , | 14 Comments

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. ~
{pretty}
I placed my pretty St. Agnes statue on my kitchen island on her feast day this past Monday morning…
I also pulled out the ingredients to make Agnesenplätzchen (St. Agnes Cookies) from Cooking with the Saints, but ran out of time before we had to leave for town.   Even though her feast day has passed, I think I might make them for Sean and the kids this weekend anyways.  
{happy}
After picking up Sean at the airport yesterday afternoon (YAY!!!!!) we all headed to meet up with friends at the the rink to go ice skating!  Happy, happy day!  
{funny} 
Our little cowboy just loves scooting around on his bull.  
 He also enjoys hanging out inside my book baskets…
{real}

Somebody was mad, and refused to look at his daddy, when we picked him up at the airport…
However, it didn’t take Bud long at all to forgive him for being gone for three weeks!

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Well, Hello There!

by | Jan 24, 2013 | | 25 Comments

How’s your week going?  Better than mine, I hope!

Only 43 more hours, until my husband is home again… Not that I’m counting or anything!  😉

I had such great plans for this week, to celebrate the feast of St. Agnes, have a Tea for Our Lady of Altagracia, finally move on to D week, catch up the laundry, organize the school room and do a little planning for the second half of our school year which begins next week, and finish up some blog post drafts, but that was not to be…

It has been a rough week around here!

Monday I had an appointment with the allergist to try and figure out what it was that made my throat swell right before Christmas (I’ve had other facial swelling before, but never my throat) and then again shortly after.   I opened the paperwork just before leaving and realized that the appointment could last from 1-3 hours depending on the testing and results.   They weren’t kidding and I was very thankful I took Twinkle Toes along to help with Bud.

I had suspected an allergy to our outdoor cat, who loves to sneak in the house to scare me warm up, so I was tested for that along with a whole panel of other things and everything came back negative.  So I no longer have a good excuse to get rid of the cat we get to keep the cat!  (Twinkle Toes was thrilled! And, I admit, was somewhat relieved too, just because our kiddos love Ferdinand so much…)   The diagnosis ended up being the same one I was given years ago: idiopathic neurotic angioedema.  The two most common triggers of this happen to be stress and infection.   I had a sinus infection at the time my throat swelled, though I didn’t know it at the time, so it all makes a little more sense now.   It was just very scary!  The good news is that angioedema is very controllable with Zyrtec and I just need to recommit to carrying it with me all the time.   (I’ve gotten bad about that over the years.)   This type of condition rarely requires the need of an EpiPen, though I do have a prescription for something a little stronger, should I ever have a more serious episode.  Thankfully the sinus infection is gone, and as for the stress, I don’t have much of that in my life, right?  lol

After the doctors appointment we went to get something to eat and to run a few errands.   I somehow managed to bend a prong on my wedding ring so I dropped that off at the jewelers to be repaired, spent my Gymbucks at Gymboree, and picked up some groceries at Trader Joes.  We then headed to Costco to stock up on more groceries since it had been weeks since a trip to town.   What a job, but the kids were thrilled to finally have some more food in the house.

I was hoping that Tuesday would be a calm day, but no such luck.   We woke up to trash all over the yard (thank you raccoons) and no water (thank you freezing cold weather).   Of course the first priority was to make some coffee so I headed out to the well house to see if I could thaw the pipes with my hair dryer.   Hours later I gave up and melted some ice from the freezer. Anything for a cup of coffee!

In the meantime, as we continued to try and troubleshoot the lack of water, despite it warming up outside, my Dad (an electrician) walked me through taking apart the control box so I could text him a picture.

He wasn’t happy with the results – I guess those copper heads shouldn’t have been touching and something had tripped the breaker – so he headed up and brought along some water with him!  Yay!

After reseting the breaker and testing the electrical wires the pumps still wouldn’t run and we also found out the holding tank was empty – which means the pump was most likely not working for quite some time, especially considering I hadn’t been using much water on Sunday or Monday.  It was then time to call the pump guys!

Around 3:30 they arrived, along with my sister to take the girls to their Irish Dance Class, since I needed to stay home.  They finally discovered that the pipes coming up from the deep well were the ones that had frozen, and once they got the ice thawed and opened up the restrictor we finally had water running back into the holding tank.  It  also ended up being a very good thing that the breaker had tripped, preventing the deep well pump from burning out.   That would have ended up being much more expensive… Anyways, by 5:30 we finally had running water in the house! Hooray!!

Today wasn’t as challenging and I finally have had some time to start cleaning house from the past couple days, get ready for the tutor tomorrow, and clean out the detached garage in the rain.   Yep… the garage was definitely not on the list for today!

Of course, after weeks of cold but dry weather, it finally started to rain this afternoon right when I had the glass company scheduled to replace the cracked windshield on Sean’s car.   Thankfully, with the boys help, we made enough room to fit most of the car inside and the windshield is fixed!

Sigh... I think I need a nap.  And a Zyrtec!  😉

{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: 35th Birthday Edition

by | Jan 18, 2013 | , , | 21 Comments

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. ~
{pretty}
Pretty birthday flowers from my husband, who is still in Arizona on training… Only one more week until he will be home again!
{happy}
Despite Sean being out of town, he and my family made sure I had a very happy birthday!  The kids decorated a cake and even took pictures of the process.   My Mom came over the day before with a gift card to my favorite coffee drive through, a new book I’ve been wanting to read, and a Cobb Salad from my favorite restaurant, since she was leaving for Hawaii  early on the 16th to go help my sister for a few weeks.  (My sister has been really sick and spent some time in ICU recently.  Please keep her in your prayers!) 

Instagram Photo taken by my sister Julianna
My Aunt came over and made dinner and drinks for everyone, including my Dad, brother Brian and his family (who surprised me with a gift card to our new Trader Joe’s!), my sister Julianna, my brother Kevin, and my youngest brother David (who turned 17 the day before my birthday, which was the age I still was the day he was born!).  It was such a fun night!  
Me and My Seven Sweeties
David, My Dad, My Niece, and My Kiddos
Way too many candles… 
Of course, the kids made me wait until after I had blown out all the candles to open the gifts that Sean had left in their care.   The girls had helped him pick out some new perfume, and the boys helped pick out a gift at Best Buy!  I’m so excited!!  I’ve been balancing the laptop on top of the treadmill to help me get through all the time I’ve been spending on there, and this will be so much better!  Yes, they really did spoil me this year!
So tired, but very happy and very blessed! 
{funny} 
No, I’m not going to show you the picture of my blowing out all those candles! 😉
On Tuesday night, the girls and I stopped at a few different stores to look for a special cake pan I wanted to try and find at the last minute.  I had thought that I would make myself a gluten free persimmon spice cake, and this was a good excuse to buy that beautiful cathedral bunt pan I mentioned  wanting to purchase for the next feast of St. Thomas Becket!  We didn’t have any luck finding the pan locally and I ended up just asking the girls if they would like to pick out decorations to decorate their own cake for me instead!   They had so much fun making their selections, and then I couldn’t believe it when we got home to find the very pan we were looking for sitting on the porch, sent as a gift from a very sweet friend!   So, I had two birthday cakes this year!  And it was a good thing too, with all the family that ended up coming over… We only had a couple pieces left! 
A couple days before my birthday my sister Julianna asked what I wanted “if money wasn’t an option…”  I told her, “to not be turning Advanced Maternal Age!” 😉   In an effort to help me feel younger, she filled a box with healthy treats including Organic fair for life Dark Chocolate, Coconut Water, Rain Water, Trident Vitality Gum, and Refreshing Burt’s Bee’s Lip Balm!  
{real}

My sister, sister-in-law, and Twinkle Toes took more pictures, but the rest just make me want to go climb back on the treadmill!  Yikes!  Instead I am going to show you a picture from my 1st birthday.  (You can see more childhood birthday memories here.)


I showed this picture to the kids the other night and they all thought that Bud looks just like me as a baby, if you ignore the dress and the bow!  What do you think?

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Announcing the Winner…

by | Jan 18, 2013 | | 10 Comments

It took me longer than I thought it would to sort though all the comments and make entry slips for the giveaway! I think next time I will need to go back to numbered comments and a random number generator to make it a little easier… Nevertheless, it is always so much fun to hear from you all, and extra thanks to everyone who shared a favorite resource, organizational tip, or motivational quote!  I made sure that two entries were included in the giveaway for each of you!  I’m sure I will be revisiting those comments again when I need a little more inspiration.  That comment box is filled with so much great advice!

Since Rascal volunteered to help me fold all the entries I asked him if he would like to choose the winner.  After reading so many of your comments and realizing that the 2013 Saints Calendar & Daily Planner is out of stock everywhere I was really wishing I had more than one to give away… Next fall I will try and remember to post a reminder when the new 2014 Saints Calendar comes out in September, and maybe even host another giveaway.  

Congratulations to Shane Pruitt!  

Please email me at jessica(dot)showerofroses(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and I will mail the Saints Calendar from the postoffice on Monday.  Thanks again to everyone who participated!  

UPDATE:  Please contact me by Wednesday, January 24th or I will need to choose another name.

Made with Love :: A Birthday Cake for Mom!

by | Jan 16, 2013 | , , , , | 33 Comments

Last night my girls had so much fun shopping for a few supplies to decorate a cake for me this year, after I wasn’t able to find a cake pan I was looking for at three different local stores… (More on that later!)  This morning the big boys borrowed my camera and the girls kicked me out of the kitchen!  Everyone helped while Bud napped and I had some quiet computer time with my cup of coffee. I just had to hop back online to share a few of the pictures I found on my camera, along with the completed cake and a picture of seven of my greatest blessings!

I’m very curious to find out what is inside the gift Sean left with the boys… They are making me wait until I have blown out my candles to open it! 
Pink Roses from Chiquita

A beautiful bouquet of flowers just arrived from Sean (I miss him so much!), we are headed to town for a few treats, and my Aunt Bridget is coming over in a couple hours to make dinner for us all!  I’ve closed the comments on the giveaway and will draw a name tonight or tomorrow morning, after I have had a chance to finish printing and cutting all the entries!  🙂

A Few Changes and A Saints Calendar Giveaway!

by | Jan 14, 2013 | , , | 206 Comments

I have mentioned before that I use a few different planners each year… One for school work and plans, one for our out of the home appointments and schedule (which stays in my purse most of the time), and this Saints Calendar that resides on my desk next to the computer which I use for looking up saints feasts days and planning our upcoming feast day celebrations.   Every Christmas my dear father and mother-in-law send both Sean and I a new copy of this planner. 

This past year I ordered an extra with the intention of offering it to one of my dear visitors here at Shower of Roses as a Christmas/New Year’s giveaway and never did have the opportunity to write the post. (Which is usually the case with about half of the posts I have swimming around in my head at any given time…)  Even though the year is already well underway, and even though this planner really begins back in September, I’m still going to offer it as a giveaway. That is, if anyone is interested.    

Not only does it include the calendar for Sep 2012 – Dec 2013, it also has 70 beautiful illustrations of Saints and their biographies.  The Saints or Feast for Every Day of the Year according to the New, Traditional and Historical Calendars, Alphabetical Lists of Saints’ Days and Feast Days, Patron Saints, The Doctors of the Church, and The 14 Holy Helpers, and more.   It is one of my favorite resources and has been for years! 
If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for this Saints Calendar just leave me a comment on this post letting me know.  In fact, since I am working on trying to organize and stay motivated this month, I’ll give you an extra entry for sharing your favorite resource, organizational tip, or motivational quote.  I need all the encouragement I can get at the moment!   🙂  

Also, did you notice the changes here at Shower of Roses?  I spent some time this past weekend, inspired by Charlotte, updating the blog layout.  I created a new header, added some personalized social media icons, and changed the layout to have a wider, two column, sidebar on the right, eliminating the left sidebar to help reduce the “clutter.”  What do you think? 
I’ll leave the comments open for the giveaway until Wednesday morning, which happens to be my birthday.   I always enjoy birthday giveaways, even if I don’t enjoy getting older!  😉
UPDATE:  Comments are now closed!  Wow!! Thank you all so very much for the wealth of inspiration you have shared!  I guess there was a little bit of interest in a copy of this planner…  I’ll be back soon to announce the winner!  

Christmas Day in the Morning

by | Jan 14, 2013 | , , , | 17 Comments

I am so thankful for my husband! I always realize just how much during times like right now, when he is gone for weeks and I have to try and keep up manage without him. He really helps so much around our home. I was so exhausted, and not feeling very well, following Midnight Mass on Christmas that he told me to just rest while he took care of filling all the stockings, setting up the rest of the nativities, laying baby Jesus in the manger, and placing the children’s gifts under the tree. We hadn’t gotten home until around 2am and he didn’t get to bed until nearly 5am, which was when I woke back up nurse the baby and then snap a few pictures.


He did a lovely job and had even surprised me with a new heather grey Christmas nightgown of my own (we always give the kids new pajamas on Christmas Eve) which is so comfy and cozy!  We were able to sleep for a couple hours before we started hearing the pitter patter of lots of little feet skipping, hopping, and running down the hallway, while whispering “Should we wake them up?”  “No, not yet! They will wake up soon!” and lots of “Merry CHRISTMAS! It’s Christmas!!”  Around 7am, or so, we finally got up and headed straight for the coffee pot out to the family room! 

.: Stockings :.

Holy Family Stockings for the Boys and Angels for the Girls
This year I didn’t buy much candy for the stockings, but they were all filled with lots of fun little gifts.  Actually many of these items would make great Easter Basket fillers as well!   (Can you believe that Easter is only 2 1/2 months away?  It falls on March 31st this year!)  I collect these gifts throughout the year, when I run across good sales, which makes it much easier to fill so many stockings!  Here is a peek at what the kids discovered this year… 
We are very selective with the movies that we allow our children to watch, and we have never had TV reception, but we do have a Wii.  It was actually my birthday gift one year!  I especially love that it is a great way to get the kids to burn off some energy when the weather is too bad to play outside. We don’t purchase many games, and the boys didn’t even know that there was a new Lord of the Rings game… Can you tell how excited the big boys were when they discovered it in one of the stockings?  (It was another Black Friday deal we found online!)  *One of the requirements was that they listen/read the book before playing the game and that the younger children are not to watch them play.  
And thanks to all the wonderful suggestions, they also found a couple audio books (Swallows and Amazons and The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings), books (Snow Treasure, Scramble! Tales of the RAF Bk 1, and The Good Master), in addition to dwarf hoods, a few new mini-figures, and a gift card to Yogurt Hut which we ended up using last night!
Twinkle Toes discovered the Anne of Green Gables audio, the Calico Critter Furbanks Squirrel Family, The Thirteen Days of Christmas, a pretty pink watch, a Swedish “St. Lucia” Doll, and some Burt’s Bees Lip Balms.  
Chiquita found the Little House in the Big Woods/Little House on the Prairie audio book, the Calico Critter Pickleweeds Hedgehog Family, The Family Under the Bridge, a North America “St. Kateri” doll, new journal, pretty hair clips, and a Yogurt Hut Gift Card. 
Rose discovered some pretty pink-uh pajamas, Cat Chat: A Christmas to Remember, Calico Critters Wilder Panda Family, Pink Rose Fairy Pocket Playsilk, pink Butterfly Wings, and a Scheilch Lamb and Sheep.  
As for Snuggles… He was so excited to find a some little lego sets, to go along with the Alphabet Path: D is for Dino, E is for Elephant, F is for Fire Engine, G is for Giraffe.  He also received a couple Mini-Figures, Miguel Pro CD, Ferdinand Train, and a few Cars.  
Bud found another board book, fabric book, socks, and bath Toys. 
We exchanged our Christkindl gifts before moving on to the rest of the Christmas gifts under the tree!
.:  Gifts for Captain and Rascal :.
Lego’s were the theme this year for the big boys!  They can hardly believe that there was a time that they were not interested in Legos, and preferred Playmobil.   It helped that they found a few themes that they especially love!  We got each of them three sets.  Captain received Seaside House (Creator), Barrel Escape (Hobbit), and the Sopwith Camel!  Rascal received the Lighthouse Island, An Unexpected Gathering, and Helm’s Deep (Lord of the Rings).  All of the sets, except for Captain’s Sopwith Camel have already been assembled!  

I’m still working on a system for storing the boy’s legos, and am hoping to hang a few more wall shelves in their bedroom soon. Usually the top of their dresser is covered with their creations and others are displayed on their bookcase.  The rest are in boxes in the closet.  I love Charlotte’s Lego Trays, but my boys have under bed drawers, otherwise I would have made some by now!

.: Gifts for Twinkle Toes and Chiquita :.
For the girls we knew we couldn’t go wrong with American Girl gifts, especially since their History study has revolved around these sweet historical dolls.   They each received a couple craft kits: Josefina’s Memory Box Kit, Kaya’s Weave and Tie Bracelet Kit, Kit’s Fabric Flower Kit, and Felicity’s Embroidered Pillow Kit.  I ordered Chiquita a Josefina outfit and Twinkle Toes a dress like Caroline’s.  And they were absolutely thrilled to find Caroline, Kaya (St. Kateri was canonized this past year after all!) and even Rose received a Just Like Me dolly, who she calls “Me-uh!”  I think we’ll name her Mia!  
.: Gifts for Snuggles :.

The big boys saved and purchased a special gift for their younger brother.  He was thrilled!  He was also given a Dragon Knights Castle in addition to this Knights Lego Set.
He also received a couple wooden swords and a shield, and immediately the battles began! 
.: Gifts for Rose :.
In addition to her new doll, Rose also received the Grimm’s Wooden Fairy Tale Village!  I’ve been wanting to buy this for a long time, and finally found an amazing sale on it last fall.   I never did have a chance to finish the handmade gift I am making for her, so her third gift ended up being a sweet little Red Riding Hood Cloak that I had stashed away for next year’s birthday…  I’m considering a Little Red Riding Hood or Fairy Tale theme of some sort!  
.: Gifts for Bud :.

 I love Bud’s new chair and so do all the kids!  
Eventually I would love to get a second, or even a third… 

He was quite captivated by his new block set and stacking birds, and he enjoyed climbing on his new box of books… 
Bud enjoying the gifts from his godparents! 
Opening gifts from Grandpa and Grandma

After the children had opened their gifts I put my camera down and didn’t pick it up again all day.   We enjoyed the day together as a family and, after dinner, we drove out to my parents to deliver gifts and see more of my visiting siblings.  It was such a beautiful blessed day, and just the beginning of our celebrations for the Twelve Days of Christmas and the whole Christmas season!

Our Christmas Day Christkindl Family Gift Exchange

by | Jan 14, 2013 | , , | 8 Comments

We loved incorporating the Christkindl tradition into our own family traditions this year!  On the first Sunday of Advent we all drew names, and though out Advent we prayed and did special favors for that particular person.  We did our best to keep who had who a secret and we actually did really well!

We wanted to end with a Christkindl gift exchange, so that was a little challenging, since some of the children needed my help to get the gifts for their Christkindl. We gave them each an allowance to do so, but my hope is, as they get older, they will make gifts for each other… it just wasn’t practical this year, especially with our Advent birthdays.

I already knew that the Snuggles and Rose had each other, and had been helping them throughout Advent, and then I helped Rascal, Twinkle Toes and Chiquita with their gifts as well, but not until a couple days before Christmas. However, I still didn’t know who had me, that narrowed it down to Sean and Captain, and I really thought it was Sean!  (Though he did have me confused since I noticed him doing things for others throughout Advent too – Feeding the Cat for Rascal some mornings before work, beating me to putting the dishes away in the middle of the night so that Captain would find an empty dishwasher in the morning, bringing me home a coffee… I really wasn’t sure who he had, though I did know it wasn’t Captain!)  It was a nice surprise to find out that Captain and I had each other!!

Anyways, Chiquita started our gift exchange, carrying her gift (a box she choose to fill with little packages of lego mini-figures) over to Rascal.  Rascal then gave his gift (a set of Rebecca books) to Twinkle Toes.

Twinkle Toes had her Daddy!  She was so cute and reminded him of a few nights before Christmas when we were praying the rosary… Sean sometimes asks the kids if they have a specific intention they would like to pray for.  That particular night he asked Twinkle Toes and she responded, “My Christkindl!”  Sean went on to expand on that intention, praying specifically for certain things for that person (grow in virtues, etc) and he had no idea he was asking for those things for himself! Very sweet!!  And he loved the Latin Mass Missal Cover I helped her order for him, along with a Hershey’s candy bar.

Sean went on to give Chiquita her gift (a set of Kaya books).   (There was the surprise! I really did think he had me, ever since that hug!)  At that point we just had Snuggles, Rose, Captain and I!  I gave Captain Big Ben to build and he surprised me with a gift card to my favorite coffee shop and a hand-drawn picture to line the gift box!  Snuggles and Rose exchanged gifts next… then it was time for more coffee breakfast, before the kids began opening the rest of their Christmas gifts.  Gift opening aways takes quite awhile in our home!  🙂

Well, Hello There!

Well, Hello There!

by | Jan 24, 2013 | | 25 Comments

How's your week going?  Better than mine, I hope! Only 43 more hours, until my husband is home again... Not that I'm counting or anything!  ;)I had such great plans for this week, to celebrate the feast of St. Agnes, have a Tea for Our Lady of Altagracia,...

Announcing the Winner…

Announcing the Winner…

by | Jan 18, 2013 | | 10 Comments

It took me longer than I thought it would to sort though all the comments and make entry slips for the giveaway! I think next time I will need to go back to numbered comments and a random number generator to make it a little easier... Nevertheless, it is always so...

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-24, Twinkle Toes-22, Chiquita-21, Snuggles-18, Rose-16, Bud-14, 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.

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