Trinity Sunday

In preparation for Trinity Sunday, we spent some time talking and reading about the Trinity yesterday.

It's a difficult idea to explain and understand (three Persons, one God), but Big Brother assured me that he did understand! When I shared this story with his godmother, she said that it's her belief that kids do understand these mysteries better than adults due to their innocence and pureness of heart.

Whatever the reason-- innocence or immaturity-- it warmed my heart that such a big idea was so readily accepted and embraced!

We made these simple mobiles as the final part of the discussion:

When we played outside, we found many clovers in the yard. The boys seemed to find a great deal of pleasure from such a simple plant representing a BIG person-- God!

This morning we made rolls in the shape of clovers as well.

I wanted to note that the mobile pattern came from the Who Am I? series at Catholic Heritage Curricula. We are picking and choosing from several resources for religion this year (with an emphasis on living the liturgical year), and what I like about this program is that the same content is adapted for a span of ages.

Flames of Pentecost Cupcakes

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2: 1-4)

The Paschal season comes to a close Sunday with Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. There are many simple ideas out there for celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit with children, and for several years I’ve been wanting to make these cute treats. They have the added bonus of being seasonal too!

Flames of Pentecost Cupcakes with sliced strawberries “flames” to represent the tongues of fire!

Pentecost is not as easy to explain to children as Christmas or Easter, but is certainly a day worth celebrating!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23, 25)

Heavenly "Jell-O" Treats

“So then the Lord Jesus…was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)

The Ascension of the Lord is celebrated 40 days after Easter, and this year that was yesterday (although some move the feast to the seventh Sunday after Easter, two days from now)! Either way, it’s not too late to include these tasty treats as you celebrate the completion of Christ’s redemptive work.

While this is not the healthiest snack for kids I’ve shared over the past few posts, this is an improvement over Jell-O (which contains artificial flavors, sugar or artificial sweetener, and dyes), and can be adapted by substituting your favorite juice. Leave out the whipped cream, and this is a perfect snack for a hot afternoon!

Note that this recipe does still use gelatin, but agar-agar is a good vegan substitute.

Heavenly Jell-O

Ingredients

4 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1 cup cold blueberry juice

3 cups blueberry juice, heated to boiling

Heavy cream, for whipping

Directions

1. Sprinkle gelatin over cold juice in a large bowl; let stand one minute.

2. Add hot juice and stir until gelatin completely dissolves.

3. Pour into 9 x 13 pan or individual serving cups.

4. Refrigerate until firm, about three hours.

5. Enjoy with whipped cream!

The effect of a blue sky and white clouds isn’t evoked as well with the blueberry juice as blue dye, but the taste is heavenly!

For more traditional food celebrating the liturgical year, I recommend A Book of Feasts and Seasons and All Year Round.

Signs of Spring

The first signs of Spring have arrived in our little home! Because our life revolves around the seasons of the Church and the rhythm of the liturgy, the first sign of coming Life is not the first daffodil or the return of our backyard birds, but the transition from Ordinary Time to Lent.

I love all the seasons in our corner of the world, but I have to admit that the tail end of winter and early spring is a bleak time. The snow is old and dirty. The exposed grass is brown, and the sky is gray. It is fitting that the Church is also stripped and bare during this time. On Ash Wednesday we are told, “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.” We hide our Alleluia, and the statues and crosses are draped in purple. In our house, the winter ornaments that adorned the festivity stand are put away, replaced with grapevine, bare of leaves and reminiscent of His Crown of Thorns.

Then, slowly, the sky lightens. The first shoots appear. The rain washes away the last of the snow and the grass is greener. The time draws closer.

Finally, the world bursts forth in bloom, and the Church bursts with rejoicing, "Christ is risen! Alleluia, alleluia!”

I was switching our festivity stand/nature table over from Easter (spring) to summer yesterday and realized I never posted pictures of the Lent to Easter transformation. You can see what it looked like during Lent here.

Easter morning, it looked like this:

He is Risen and the vines have come to life!

Our chicken family hiding amongst the greenery:

And a rabbit or two:

The shelf with more signs of spring:

Sadly, I didn't take any picture of our other Easter decorations, but I will next year!

Wood Easter Eggs

I came across an idea for an alternative to the "traditional" plastic Easter egg hunt this that I thought was so simple, yet brilliant!

Wood eggs that the children can paint after the hunt! This will avoid both the plastic and the candy of the holiday-- not to mention creating a lovely keepsake!

We are definitely going to be doing this in our house, and I'm going to try to pitch the idea to my MOMS Club as well. At least we can mix the wood with the plastic, candy-filled eggs so each child can paint one or two. Since I'm hosting the Easter party/hunt/craft this year, I think it'll work!

Wood eggs of all different sizes, can be found here.

Lenten Calendar

Based on an idea from Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler.

Lenten Festivity Stand

Our festivity stand/nature table stripped down, as befitting the season.

Handmade Christmas 2008

Overdue, but I wanted to share this year's handmade Christmas gifts.

I embroidered the boys' handprints for my parents...

A wool felt Holy Family for a friend:

DH made a fridge for M's Elves and Angels kitchen:

My first try at dollmaking was a knot doll for N:

(I'm planning on doing a post showing this process soon!)

I'm so happy to be back into sewing. I'm currently working on another knot doll for a brand new baby girl and a wool felt Noah's Ark for my boys.

Epiphany

Though liturgically this was celebrated January 4, we are more traditional around here and celebrated Epiphany or Three Kings Day today to end our celebration of the Christmas season! We made an Epiphany cake (didn't get a picture before we dove in!) and the Magi joined our Nativity scene. (Thank you, Emma!)

We've been reading The Legend of Old Befana quite a bit in preparation for today. This is an Italian tradition and next year I'd like to expand on the legend and perhaps include a visit from Befana as well. The Last Straw and Story of the Three Wise Kings (this is out of print and can be hard to locate!) also joined our collection. I highly recommend all three! I've been using Catholic Mosaic as a jumping off point to many of our literature choices this season. Though the program is geared toward older kids, the books can be enjoyed by all ages on some level.

Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Days of Christmas

Unfortunately, the stomach bug did not release its grip on the "big boys" until last night, so our plans for the last three days of Christmas were shelved. My husband even took Sunday off from his church job and called in to his "Nine to Five" on Monday! Sick, indeed!

Instead, a lot of this went on:

Today, however, was a new day and the boys and I made my eggnog bread first thing this morning. It was one of the activities M. was looking forward to most during the 12 Days of Christmas, so we had to do it! I'm not sure any stores have eggnog left in their markdown cases but if they do, grab a quart and make this treat!

Delicious and the perfect morning snack!

Eighth and Ninth Days of Christmas

Forgive my late posts...

Our fun New Year's Eve turned unpleasant about 15 minutes before midnight, when our two-year old woke up vomiting. My husband had gone back out to see some friends from work, but he rushed home. Good thing-- the poor baby was up nearly the rest of the night sick and very out of sorts New Year's Day, so we didn't do much. (Thankfully, the baby avoided the bug.)

Later in the afternoon, we started to reorganize and clean in the playroom, but the patient conked out around 4 PM. He slept until 7:00 this morning!

M. was feeling better this morning (though still not 100%), so we were able to go to the birthday party of one of our little friends. He had a good time, but was not as energetic as usual and didn't even finish his piece of birthday cake! We came home to a package from Grandma with new slippers for M. and wool socks for me! We spent the rest of the day cleaning up (Dad tried out the carpet steamer!) and both boys hit the sack nice and early.

I hope we're back up to speed tomorrow for some more fun activities before the Christmas season starts drawing to a close!

Seventh Day of Christmas

We spent today preparing for a New Year's Eve party hosted by friends. We brought these tasty dinner rolls and shared a very delicious meal with about a dozen 5 month-3 year olds and their parents! It was a family party, so we rang in the new year promptly at six before hustling all the kiddos home to bed. It was a loud, rambunctious group (kids and parents!) and we all had a ball!

Some of the party animals getting ready...

Happy New Year!

A blessed, happy, and healthy 2009 to all of you!

Sixth Day of Christmas

Another wonderful day!

We went to our MOMS Club Breakfast Bunch in the morning with our cinnamon rolls. It was only a small group, and the boys both had fun with our friends!

The afternoon brought a visit from Grandma and Aunt Whit with some new books for the Sixth Day of Christmas and the boys' "Month Day" (12/29).

M. played outside with Grandma while Aunt Whit, the baby, and I looked through my new Joy of Cooking cookbook (we both were gifted one for Christmas!) and then taught Auntie Whit how to lanolize a wool diaper cover. We all made pizza to end the afternoon. What a great visit!

Fifth Day of Christmas

Besides being the Fifth Day of Christmas, today was a big day in our house because our older son turned 2 1/2 today and the baby is five months today as well! The little boys and I went for the baby's four-month well-child doctor's visit (we're a little behind!) this morning. He's doing perfectly (but we already knew that!) and weighs 16 lbs. 15 oz., has a head circumference of 43 cm., and is 27 inches long. He is a good sized baby, but much smaller than his older brother was at that age! He absolutely delighted the doctor with his smiles and grabbed her hand the instant it was in reach to show off his biting prowess. (He cut his first tooth about 10 days ago.)

We also ran into Target to pick up a birthday present for a friend's daughter and picked out a newborn outfit on clearance for M.'s baby as well as a stacking toy for both boys. I'll try to post pictures soon-- when there's some light!

When we came home, it was time to make cinnamon buns for our MOMS Club Breakfast Bunch tomorrow morning. Yum!

Fourth Day of Christmas

We didn't follow through with our plans for today. Cranky children and several brief power outages preempted our plans to take a long family walk (though that may have helped with the crankiness!) and make a batch of Snickerdoodles. We have plans tomorrow morning, but I'm hoping we can catch up with the baking in the afternoon. The cookies are a special request from my husband and I don't want to disappoint!

Third Day of Christmas

Today one of my dearest and oldest childhood friends came to visit! She's settled in Boston now, and it was wonderful to see her! She hasn't had a chance to visit in a year (I think?) and this was her first time meeting our new baby. She spent quite a bit of time here and we were able to catch up and share a good lunch of potato soup and maple gingerbread.

Before leaving, she left a treat for our boys: puppets! Our older son loves, loves, loves puppets and was immediately taken with these! The cow and lamb are the perfect addition to our collection, as we have a pig and a horse! She also gave them an assortment of finger puppets that I tucked away for a bad weather day when we need a pick-me-up. Thank you!

Second Day of Christmas

We ventured out into the crazed after-Christmas crowds today to pick up a few items at the mall, and to treat ourselves to our favorite ice cream from Coldstone Creamery.

I picked up a book a friend highly recommended (I love it, thanks!) and my husband needed new insoles for his shoes. While he was doing that, I popped into a toy store and thanks to a damaged box, was able to pick up this doll for a discount! I've been eyeing it for our son for close to a year, so I was thrilled! Never hurts to ask, and now this baby is a beloved member of our family! He's nameless so far (when asked what his name is, M. replies, "Doll!"), but is sporting "hand-me-downs" from both of our little ones. Sweet, no?

When we arrived home in a snowstorm, we decided it was the perfect afternoon for our annual Christmas movie. We do not allow our children to watch any television or movies except on Christmas when one is permitted. Last year we chose "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and this year, since How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a favorite read-aloud, and we were gifted a Grinch ornament for our tree, we had to choose this classic! M. was intrigued-- so much so that it reinforced my commitment to our TV-free lifestyle!

First Day of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

As you can see, the Blessed Mother and St, Joseph completed their journey around the Advent Spiral...

This year, we are celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas with something special each day: a trip, a small gift, cooking or baking special treats, visits with friends and family... My plan is to blog each day for you! As you can see, I'm already a little behind, but I'll catch up!

The first day of Christmas was a wonderful time spent with family! Our tradition has become to have a large brunch rather than "dinner." Here you can see my brother-in-law, my sister, and my husband manning the potatoes, waffles, and meat. I was in charge of omelets as well as running interference with the boys and grandparents. We also feasted on an Edible Arrangement my sister brought for my parents, apple crisp, and more cookies than we could count!

We shared some wonderful gifts:

A refrigerator for the play kitchen...

A special doll for cuddling and teething...

As the song says, "The weather outside was frightful, but inside it was so delightful!"

St. Nicholas Day