Little Flowers for St. Therese

Needless to say, St. Therese is my FAVORITE saint! She has always been there for me when I have asked for her help, especially during a few difficult times of my life.

Today was her feast day, on the Traditional Catholic Calendar. This is the calendar that is still used by the Tridentine Rite. It is the calendar that was used by the Church before the reforms of 1955-1962. It is also the one that my brother-in-laws, who are priest with the FSSP, follow.

I surprised the kids this morning by making them little miniature éclairs before they woke up, in honor of St. Therese. They were a favorite of hers, as Dawn mentioned. Since we were heading to town for a Little Flower meeting this afternoon, we had them with breakfast.

I thought it was so cool that my oldest DD has her first Little Flower meeting today. She was so excited, as you can tell in the photo! The boys have been in Blue Knights for the last year, as well as participating in various sports, but this will be the first extra curricular activity that I have ever put her in. She really enjoyed it!

I wish I had the St. Therese Glory Story CD. It would have been nice to listen to on the trip to town today. We borrowed it once from a friend, and the kids were asking about it. It is on my list of things to purchase someday... Maybe by next year.

A Special Day.. for more than one reason!

Today, October 2nd, is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels.

It is an extra special day at our home since it is also the Anniversary of our wedding, 8 years (and 5 kids) ago today!

I was just surprised with a beautiful arrangement of flowers that my husband had delivered... Don't you just love it when you have fresh flowers to decorate your kitchen table!

Anyways, the kids and I started out our afternoon of angelic activities with a couple books about angels:

The first book we read is a favorite around here. It was illustrated by a guy that was also at Christendom College during the year I spent there, Ben Hatke, and is titled Angel in the Waters. You can actually read the book online (if you don't own it) here.


We also read the selection for today from Catholic Mosaic, My Guardian Dear. It is a story about our Guardian Angels and tells of God's love in giving each of us an angel of our very own to guard and care for us.

After our story & discussion time, the kids sat down to do some coloring (a picture of angels attending Mass) and copy work (The Guardian Angel Prayer--of course).

Meanwhile I headed to the kitchen and baked a couple Angel Food Cake's, one for our tea time and the other for my husband & I after we get home from dinner. My mom graciously offered to watch our kids so we could go out for dinner, a rare treat indeed.

Every visible thing in this world is put in the charge of an angel.
-St. Augustine

Don't you just love the fall?!?

There is just something so comforting about a fire in the fireplace... It makes you just want to cuddle up on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea, or around the coffee table with a board game and a bowl of popcorn. I must admit, it is one of my most favorite times of the year!

Number Fun

 

This weeks "Little Saints" Pre-School theme has been Number Fun. We have enjoyed reading a number of picture books from our personal library... We liked them all, but I would have to say that Over in the Meadow and Caps for Sale were the favorites. The kids would listen to those over and over.

They also did a craft with numbers.. I gave them a number of things to decorate the numbers with, along with some glue and boy did we have a mess on our hands by the time they were through!

Nothing that the vacuum wasn't able to take care of, and the kids all had a great time as well. We may not be getting to all 3 Little Saints Art projects each week, but 1 is better than none, right?!?

Some Good News...

I am SO excited!!! The libraries will be open in November! Yay!!! Check out the article here. 

(Update: link removed) 

Novena to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, 

please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens 

and send it to me as a message of love.

O Little Flower of Jesus, 

ask God today to grant the favors 

I now place with confidence in your hands...

 (mention specific request)

Saint Therese, 

help me to always believe as you did, 

in God's great love for me, 

so that I might imitate your "Little Way" each day. 

 

Amen.

What happens while I'm busy baking...

My 2 year old got her hands on a blue stamp this morning while we were baking cupcakes.

Somebody knows she's in trouble! 

She sure is cute though!

Catholic Mosaic, Crafts, Coffee, Cocoa and Cupcakes!

Today we finally had a chance to read Peter Claver, Patron Saint of Slaves for our Catholic Mosaic study. St. Peter Claver's feast day was actually on September 9th. But better late than never, right?!

We all got comfortable on the couch and read the story. I just love the reading selections that Cay has used in her book. I would have never found some of these books on my own.

The kids helped me make chocolate cupcakes for our tea (which will actually be hot cocoa) this beautiful fall afternoon.

 

We have company coming over so we will save our treats to share. We displayed them on this awesome cupcake rack we just got from Michael's with a 40% off coupon!

The cupckaes are not quite diet friendly, so I will satisfy my cravings with a cup of this:


(Thanks Regina for the recommendation--it's absolutely DELICIOUS and only has 30 calories!)

The kids moved into the school room and colored their pictures of St. Peter Claver and did a bit of copy work from the book.

"The slave of slaves I'll always be. My soul won't rest until you're free."
- St. Peter Claver

St. Peter Claver, pray for us!

A Goal for the New Year

Well... today I am beginning yet ANOTHER diet, in an attempt to shed the byproducts of the last THREE pregnancies! I finally decided to go back to Herbalife. I was on it 5 years ago and was able to lose over 30 pounds in approximately 6 months. If I could do that again, by New Year's Eve preferably, I would be SO happy!

It's not all that bad either.. Today I had a Mocha Chocolate Protein Shake for breakfast and a Pina Colada Protein Shake for lunch. I am eating my Yummy snack of a Chocolate Peanut Protein Bar now and later will have a "healthy dinner" of Chicken, Salad and Steamed Veggies and Red Potatoes.


I can handle any diet that allows Chocolate and Coffee ~ no wonder it worked last time :)

Please tune in to EWTN on Sep 14th!

I just received this information from my brother-in-law who is a Deacon with the FSSP.

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is going to be front and center on EWTN celebrating a Solemn High Mass at the Shrine Altar of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery on September 14th to kick off the implementation day of the Holy Father's recent Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum granting permission to all priests to say the Traditional Latin Mass.

SOLEMN HIGH MASS
EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE ROMAN RITE (90:00) LIVE
Celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass from the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.
Sept. 14 8:00 AM - Live
Sept. 14 6:00 PM Encore
Sept. 15 12:00 AM Encore

Make sure to tune in and please spread the word!

More Details can be found here: http://www.unavoce.org/news/2007/TLM_on_EWTN.pdf
and here: http://www.ewtn.com/tv/index2.htm

It would also help tremendously if EWTN were given positive feedback on the broadcast. Although many at EWTN, including the nuns of the Shrine, are delighted that we are saying the mass there, there are some on the production side of the business that are not so enthusiastic and are consenting to this somewhat reluctantly. So the more positive feedback EWTN receives on the Latin Mass the more they'll be inclined to do more Latin Mass broadcasts in the future.

EWTN's contact information:
emal: viewer@ewtn.com
smail mail:
EWTN
5817 Old Leeds Rd.
Irondale, Al. 35210-2164
(205) 271-2900