Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Stations of the Cross

When we moved we were left wondering where we could set up our Stations of the Cross grottos in our new "old" home.  My little daughter came up with the idea to place them on the windows we just replaced in our homeschool room. Our lights have a dimmer in there thanks to my husband's buddy Jon Forred. It was absolutely beautiful with the votives lit. Here's our Stations and how we had them set up in our old "new" house.

I have the Holy Heroes Stations of the Cross CD, but I have it downloaded on our Chromebooks, so we listen to it on Amazon Cloud (I think that's what it's called).  I highly recommend the Holy Heroes Stations of the Cross CD, it's very dramatic with orchestra and sound effects, it's very moving and adults will enjoy it just as much as kids. You feel completely immersed, as if you are there on Via Dolorosa.

If you decide to make your own, start over the summer or in the fall before Christmas (you don't want to overload yourself with household/homeschool duties and a large project). MODG's first grade syllabus show this as a project for art- lucky for us we had already completed it. With all the illness we have been catching we could have never gotten them done this year. There is a set for sale by Illuminated Ink (same people who make those nice crafty Advent candles), it's around $50.

My kids do love doing the Stations, which I think is amazing as a mother because of the time it takes to do them. St. Pope John Paul the Great did stations frequently, every Friday throughout the year, and every day during the Lent Season. He's our patron Saint this year, so it's good to follow in his footsteps.










We adore you Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Wichita Art Museum

We went to the Wichita Art Museum quite a while back and I have been wanting to share these cute pictures, and I keep forgetting. They are free on Saturdays by the way. They do house and original Mary Cassatt too, for all you believers in classical education.


The large glass formation above them is quite a wonder 



walking over a plexi glass bridge with real glass art underneath your socked feet.






The bridge was definitely the highlight and they just wanted to crawl everywhere on it. You have to remove your shoes and there is a weight limit of course. You can see from under the bridge when you walk in the front doors to the museum. They really didn't find much else that interesting there, but they did get excited about some of the paintings- which I was glad to know their classical art lessons are sort of sticking with them.

Chair of St. Peter, Vatican Flag and Papal Key cookies

St. Peter's cookies anyone?


Every year my kids enjoy fashioning their own keys from sugar cookie dough. Looks pretty easy- and it is! Their cookies never burn either which is always amazing to me.





my edible ink prints pretty good and crisp- my camera on my phone takes horrible pictures- sorry!



sending some Vatican flags home with Grandpa- our Mr. Fixit!


doesn't the Vatican flag have sprinkles?



 Hope your Lent is going well!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Lilla Rose hair

Just thought I would share some pictures of my daughters hair. She's all natural curl- lucky girl! It makes it really easy to style since my finger just curls it. It takes less than 10 mins to wet and brush out her hair and style it every day. And now that we have Lilla Rose hair flexis we are having a lot more fun with it than a regular rubber band. They sell some other beautiful hair products and badge clips- have look for yourself!

French twist
(easiest and takes about 20 seconds)




Inside out or Reverse French Braid




Inside out or Reverse French Braid




Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Lourdes day! Tea party, crafts, rice krispies!

I am so excited I have pictures from friends to share!!









And Genna's final Lourde's Grotto creation







And our Lourde's rice krispie grotto we had for an afternoon tea, with surprise visitor Grandma! (Catholic Icing's idea for the Rice Krispie Grotto)






Ever watch this cute little movie? 


Today was freezing compared to the high 70s we have been experiencing! (Yea spring in winter-time).  It was the perfect day to cuddle up and watch.


Our Lady of Lourdes Pray for us!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

I have no idea where you all live...but if you can attend Fr. Philippe's talks- GO!

If you ever have a chance to go hear Fr. Jacques Philippe talk at a parish mission- go! But don't just go for one night, go for the whole thing- his talk is split into several nights- but it's the same continuous talk though if that makes sense- so he picks up where he left off.  Try and make the whole thing- you might miss something. It's worth it, even if the drive is longer- his schedule is here. I've taken my kids along twice now to two different parish retreats, one had child care and (they all caught the flu after it was done along with the other kids), and this last one they sat quietly and colored and played next to me in the church pew, (its amazing what can happen if you let yourself just go and not worry, the Holy Spirit will see to things.) Fr. Philippe speaks straight to the heart, and no matter what state of life you are in, his content will pertain to you....something he has to say will touch you or open you up more to the Holy Spirit to do it's work.
 His books are short and easy to read, he doesn't talk over your head. Read one of his short books as well before you go (at both parish missions they handed out his books for free), they can be completed in an evening after kids fall asleep.  
If you want to listen to a podcast from the first parish mission retreat I went on in 2013 click here (if it doesn't take you straight to his podcast, go to page ten on the menu it should land you close- the date is from 11/19/13, 11/20/13 and 11/21/13.)  He is somewhat limited in being able to visit with you individually since his English is not as good as his French! Don't forget to ask for his blessing ;)

Friday, February 6, 2015

Valentine card making

There seems to be nostalgia around here when we get out the big box of valentine's supplies.My mother in law shops at Hobby Lobby and so do we...so you can imagine what we have collected after a lot of good sales.  You wouldn't want to run out of stickers or doily's in the middle of some crazy card making! This was what we were not using below..lol, there was more we weren't using, I just didn't bother with it.


This is the mess we create every year. Making Valentine's for those sweet little old grandma's and aunties ;) and may be a few other special people. 22 home made Valentine's in all- we keep it as faith centered as possible. I haven't found St. Valentine stickers yet... but I have a sticker machine and I might be working on that soon. Next week we will work on our party stuff we will have with our friends.




I print off an image of St. Valentine and a prayer along with his feast day info- it helps people to know he was a real person.




We make cards for most major Feasts/secular holiday- like St. Valentine's, St. Patrick's, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Veteran's Day, all birthdays and baptismal days and this year we even participated in card making for the seminarians of our Diocese our friend Corrine set up- we even got responses from some of the seminarians. Corinne allowed me to bring in my ridiculous piles of stickers and card stock- it was great, I left with less! LOL- my mother-in-law is a card maker and she always finds and sends us the best card making/crafting supplies.

 I think we average about 3-4 hours making them- that's with all our little distractions. It's quite a labor of love in the end for me and them, it's hard to keep them on task and they get tired of card making. But every time at the end, we admire our beautiful cards and envelopes...lol They like to individually pick where each one is going. It's so cute how they fuss. I hope that the people who get them can feel how much love my kids put into them. 


Off to the post office with these- they should be on time!
 Here's my other Valentine's day posts below. Be sure and check Catholic Icing for her cute crafts-most of which we have done! There are also lots and lots of cute Catholic and Faith centered Valentine's out there on the internet you can print for your kids- it's sort of nice as opposed to the stuff we find in stores.

2014 V-Day
I will pick up your bandannas