Seven Quick Takes: summer vacation!

1.  School wrapped up for the year after a short half-day on Thursday!!  The boys had dentist appointments that afternoon so Gemma and I went on a celebratory date.  We started with Eucharistic Adoration (I am soooo excited for her second grade year and the Sacraments that it brings), then off to eat ice cream at Braum's and she picked out a book about St. Teresa of Avila at our local Catholic bookstore.  We had such a nice time!!  Isn't she beautiful?  The first picture just captures her so well I think.

2.  That evening my hubby and I had a date (!!!!!!!!).  We went to Vespers at our Diocesan Cathedral and then spent the evening with the (around 70!!!!!!) seminarians of our diocese, various priests and about 300 people.  I am normally not much of a crowd person, in fact as we were walking in I was like, "Aaron!!!  We're going to have to talk!!! To people!!!!!!!"  But it was a positively wonderful evening catching up with people, some of whom we hadn't seen for years, and it made my heart swell with pride for the wonderful things that are happening in our diocese.  The number of seminarians (men studying for the priesthood) that we have here is astounding.  The Bishop even commented in his opening remarks that there isn't a Bishop in the world who wouldn't want to trade places with him. This morning there will be five young men ordained to the priesthood and last evening one to the diaconate.  God is good.  Sadly there is no pictorial evidence of our date.  OH well.

3.  We kicked the first morning of summer vacation off by turning our heater on, and it's running again this morning.  A little chilly for my tastes this time of year (I thought I was done with hoodies and sweats), but I won't complain.  It has been a gorgeous Spring in these parts!  And rain abounds, and looks like it will continue to abound for most of the holiday weekend.

  

4.  We signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library yesterday...the kids had been looking forward to this for weeks now!!  They revamped the program a bit this year and I'm really happy with the changes.  The kids have to do four reading inspired activities (there is a list to choose from) and then read 20 twenty-minute reading sessions.  This is sooooooo much easier than having to write 120 titles x3 on papers that have room for 50 books.  Even with Gemma writing her own titles last year it was still so tedious.  This is going to be good.

5.  I printed out our "Summer Schedule" a couple weeks ago and hung it on the fridge so the kids (namely Gemma) could start looking at it and know what to expect each day.  It's not incredibly rigid...I am trying to keep waking/eating/sleeping times pretty consistent and see that prayers/breakfast/chores are the first thing to happen upon waking. Everything else is just divided into tasks that need to be accomplished between breakfast and lunch, and tasks/activities between lunch and dinner with lots of free time for play.  We have a few planned activities, mainly Bible School and swim lessons...just enough to keep us out of trouble but not crazy busy.  I have added a few more chores for the kids.  Gemma is getting to be a huge help around the house and out and about!  I was worried about taking three to the grocery store yesterday, but I think it was easier than shopping with just the boys...she helped load and unload stuff, kept an eye on Clement...  She is growing into such a fine young lady.  I am amazed at how she has changed over the past year.

6.  Yesterday evening our neighbors invited us over for homemade pizza.  We have the best neighbors.  Who knew when we bought this house eight years ago, that aside from the house and neighborhood/park/walking paths etc. suiting us so well, we would also end up with the nicest neighbors in the world. 

7.  I know I mentioned this on Facebook, but it bears mentioning again.  I just finished a beautiful book on prayer entitled Prayer Primer and it was a gem.  I have read several of Fr. Dubay's books recently, they are all fantastic.  One of my favorite parts in this book was the section on Family Prayer, specifically the way it explained teaching/encouraging meditation for young children.  I gleaned plenty of good information from it for myself as well, particularly on the subjects of meditative and contemplative prayer. Well worth the read, and it is a quick read, I think I finished it in six days.

Food-for-Thought round-up (3rd edition)

Pizza and Big Emotions - I liked this.  I have a three-year-old who has tantrums just like that, over the same type of things.  Like, seriously, I had to go back and make sure I didn't write the article, it was that eerily familiar.  And he's not being a bad boy.  He's just being three.  It is always encouraging for me to read something like this.  Keep the faith, Monica, the threes don't last forever.  And seriously, whoever invented the "terrible-twos" clearly did not have a three year old.  Two is hands-down wayyyyy easier than three (IMHO).

Study Finds Benefits of Delayed Cord Clamping - We've delayed clamping/cutting the cord with all three of our children, and will with future ones as well.  Not too much more to say about that, but I saw this and felt compelled to share.  I had no idea about this until my doc delayed it with our first and hubby explained why after the fact.  Since then we have been sure to specify in our Birth Plan.  

Anglican Prayer Beads - I had no idea any other denominations had "rosaries".  These look neat, and I really like the prayers that go along with them. 

Screen Rules - We're still several years away from this being an issue.  Currently we have a set time of day (after lunch) that the kids get to watch a few shows from OnDemand or the DVR, plus sometimes an episode of Little Bear before bed.  Any other TV watched is initiated/monitored by mom or dad, and the kids don't use the computer or any other electronic devices yet.  So much to think about...

Some info on Shingles Transmission -  I found this particularly interesting, especially since several people had expressed concern that my children with Chicken Pox could give them shingles.  This kind of puts that myth to rest.

What Happens When You Deprive Children of Scary Stories - A friend of mine shared these quotes with me when I put something on Facebook about being a little weirded-out after reading Hansel and Gretel to Gemma last week.  Sound off, I'm curious as to others' thoughts (and experiences) on this topic.  I think it comes down to perspective...those stories seem much stranger to an adult who lacks any sort of imagination (me) than they do to children whose entire days are often comprised of pretend-play and the like.

Unfinished Work - My sister shared this one, and it sums up my feelings about the Fourth of July and America in general fairly well.  I used to be so patriotic, and lately I just feel jaded and cynical about the whole political process.  I don't have the mental energy to hash all my thoughts out here now, but Simcha made some really good points.

Top Ten Feeding Mistakes Parents Make - This was interesting, although I definitely didn't agree with it all.  I thought the first two were pretty good.  I was pretty "traditional" with the way we fed Gemma and mealtime was miserable with her.  I was much more relaxed/open-minded with Kolbe, and haven't done really any purees with Clem and they both were/are great eaters as babies (we start limited solids around 7-8 months and Clem is just now getting to the point at 1 year where we'll give him about anything).  I go back and forth about milk, the two older kids drink quite a bit of it and I don't really limit it.  It doesn't seem to be a huge problem so thus far I've let it go.  And I definitely agree with the picky thing (that it is very normal with the toddler/preschooler crowd) and I think you just have to pick your battles on a day-by-day basis.  We have a "no thank you bite(s)" rule at our house for foods served at mealtime that kids would rather not eat.  And while I don't necessarily bribe with desserts, on the flip side of the coin if you are not "hungry" enough to eat a good dinner, you're not hungry enough for a treat either is my motto.  The "no banned foods" thing got me thinking too, because there are some foods and drinks that I will absolutely not allow in my house.  Kool-Aid.  Soda pop.  Processed snack junk like Twinkies and [most] crackers and potato chips.  That said I understand that there are birthday parties and school functions and such where my kids will have those things but as far as I'm concerned those foods are not welcome in our home.  Not even in moderation  ;-)  And the boundaries in the kitchen thing...at least at this point if my kids are hungry I will let them eat.  They know, though, that if it's bedtime or right before a meal their options are pretty much limited to "apples or carrots".  And I really don't have a problem with that, I mean, it's healthy, who cares if it's mealtime or if they fill up on it?!  I'm sure my tune may change through the years but that's where we are now.  At any rate, the article gave me some "food" for thought, haha.  Regarding kids and diet, I think Eat Healthy, Feel Great is a really good book that explains healthy food choices in a very kid-friendly way.  My kids (especially Gemma) really got a lot out of it. 

What are some of your thoughts on kids and diet? 

Advent 2012

Below you will find a list of our 2012 Advent Picture-Book-a-Day selections (listed in order starting with 12/2...many of them correlate with feasts and such)...some new ones and some favorites!  It is getting more fun (and more difficult at the same time) to narrow these books down each year.

Click HERE for reviews of our 2011 books. 

We will also be reading a selection from Advent Storybook each night before bed.   

We will read a daily meditation from O Radiant Dawn as a family each night at dinnertime (I have very high hopes for this book).  I plan to use selections from Celebrating Christmas and Celebrating Advent with the Jesse Tree (even though we aren't actually doing a Jesse Tree) for morning prayers with the kids, plus some extra resources for the Advent Feasts.

We also have our Advent Chain that I ordered from Autom this year to count down the days to Christmas.  I read through the activities on each link as I was putting it together last night and was very pleased...most of them we will be able to do.  This accidental find totally exceeded my expectations.  I hope they offer these every year.

Looking forward to a peaceful, prayerful Advent.  

B is for Bethlehem
Christmas in the Barn
The Friendly Beasts
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
A Special Place for Santa
Great Joy
Mary
Under the Star: A Christmas Counting Story
Cock-a-Doodle Christmas!
The Legend of the Poinsettia
The Lady of Guadalupe
A Christmas Story
Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Usborne The Story of the Nativity
Christmas in the Big Woods
Off to Bethlehem
Silent Night: The Song and its Story
On This Special Night
Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey
Four Friends at Christmas
Room for a Little One
The Little Drummer Boy
The Christmas Story (Little Golden Book)

Litany of a child

Thanks to the persistent inspiration I've gotten from my friend Kansas Mom, I have finally added a litany to our morning prayers.  I really wasn't looking to add more to our morning prayers, but at this point in our lives morning prayer time is the most "relaxed" prayer time of the day (I am sure this will change next year with the advent of Kindergarten, but I am trying to make the most of it while I still can).  Our before meal prayers are basic, we usually only prayer after meals during Lent and Advent, and I will be completely honest, by the time bedtime prayers roll around I am just ready for everyone to be quiet and go to sleep, so the idea of adding something to them kind of sent me into a cold sweat. 

Anyways, we are reading about a Saint each day during morning prayers for the month of November so I decided to add a litany of saints after our prayers.  We each say our name saints, our parish patron, the saint we read, and any others Gemma (or Kolbe) think of.  Yesterday Gemma asked if she could pray for daddy's saint so I said, "sure go ahead".  In complete and utter prayerful seriousness she proceeded to say, "St. Honey -- pray for us".  I'm still smiling at that one.

The magnet

After enduring massive amounts of ridiculously annoying fighting ... daily ... over whose turn it was to blow out the candle after prayers, I have found a solution.  The magnet.  I have a "G" and a "K" magnet, and whichever magnet is on the side of the fridge denotes whose turn it is, and I switch them out each day/time we light the candle.  This has cut down on every last shred of fighting, believe it or not.  I guess it's hard to argue with a magnet.  At any rate, I am pleased that our prayer-time now ends a bit more peacefully than before. 

A favorite Morning Offering

I thought I'd share this prayer, in case anyone else would like to use it.  I know Lent is a nice time to start new prayers/prayer routines.  In order to give credit where credit is due, this is from the prayer book Every Day is a Gift that I received from a dear friend.  The book does not list an author for this specific prayer.

Prayer to Bring Christ into Our Day

Lord Jesus,

present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar,

help me to cast out from my mind

all thoughts of which You do not approve

and from my heart

all emotions that you do not encourage.

Enable me to spend my entire day

as a coworker with You,

carrying out the tasks that You have entrusted to me.

Be with me at every moment of this day:

during the long hours of work,

that I may never tire or slacken from your service;

during my conversations

that they many not become for me

occasions for meanness toward others;

during the moments of worry and stress,

that I may remain patient and spiritually calm;

during periods of fatigue and illness,

that I may disregard self and think of others;

during times of temptation,

that I may take refuge in Your grace.

Help me to remain generous and loyal to You this day

and so be able to offer it all up to You

with its successes that I have achieved by Your help

and its failures that have occurred 

through my own fault.

Let me come to the wonderful realization 

that life is most real

when it is lived with you as the Guest of my soul.

If you are looking for a book (for yourself or to give as a gift) with short daily meditations, I would highly recommend Every Day is a Gift.  My friend said it jumped out at her because it had the same name as my blog, and I'm so glad it did.  It has been a nice, simple addition to my daily prayer routine, with its concise (a sentence or two) Scripture verses, reflections and prayers.

"P" week

"P" week was a week of "P" foods at our house.  We made pancakes TWICE.  And, I let Gemma help both times.  Which is big.  I'm, um, not a huge fan of help in the kitchen.  At least not help of the four-year-old variety.  But it's good for her and good for me so here's to pancakes and "P" week.  We also had homemade pizza for dinner one night, and daddy made a punkie (pumpkin) pie for a special treat!!  Like I said, lots of yummy "P" food!!

To the right is Gemma with our Museum ABC book.  We use this book at Circle Time on Friday mornings for our weekly "art study".  I keep this pretty simple.  Each letter has a theme (P was for peacock, for instance) and then four famous works of art centered around that theme.  We compare and contrast each of the pictures, talk about colors, shapes, lines and textures, similarities and differences, and Gemma chooses which picture is her favorite and explains why.  I bought this book at the recommendation of a homeschool mom friend, and am so glad I did.  It really is a great addition to our Letter of the Week library.

We did a religion craft/activity for "P" week that I'm really excited about.  We made a prayer cube.  I got the idea from our Catholic Icing Preschool Curriculum book.  Instead of using a styrofoam cube and construction paper though (as the CI book suggested), I got a small wooden cube from Hobby Lobby for $.99.  Gemma helped me think of the title of prayers to write on each side of the cube (and I came up with some new ones for her to learn).  We ended up with Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Heart of Jesus, St. Michael prayer and Memorare.  Then Gemma colored each side of the cube with non-washable markers, and there you have it.  Now, each morning when we pray for our sponsor child from CFCA we roll the cube to see which prayer to pray.  I am also looking forward to using this during Lent when we pray our family intention each night after dinner.  This should be a great way to introduce some new prayers, as Gemma doesn't yet know the St. Michael prayer or Memorare.  I am contemplating making another one sometime with prayers like the Apostle's Creed and Acts of Faith, Hope and Love.

Some of our favorite "P" books were:

If You Give a Pig a Party

Puppies are Like That

A Pocket for Corduroy

If You Were a Penguin

Curious George and the Pizza

Curious George at the Parade

The Poky Little Puppy

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade  This book was so cool.  I think I could do an entire blog post just over it.  Suffice it to say if you are studying parades, or looking for a good book for Thanksgiving week, this is a gem.  It was informative enough that I'd recommend it for any preschool or grade school-age child.  Heck, I learned a lot.  The illustrations were fun and funky and it was just nice having something historical and true rather than just your run-of-the-mill picture book.

Book review: Blessings Every Day

For Christmas, Gemma received the book Blessings Every Day: 365 Simple Devotions for the Very Young (Catholic Edition).  I was really excited when I found this book, I prayed it would be just what I was looking for...and it was!!  I love it when that happens.  We use this now every day with our Morning Prayers, and it works just perfectly.  It really is geared to the 3-5 year old crowd just perfectly.  I mean, really spot on.  I don't have to dilute anything for her; it's just perfect while not being too "fluffy" either.  Each day starts off with a verse from Scripture, then a devotion/meditation, and then it ends with a two-line poem that sums up the devotion.  It really is great!  The only thing I wish it had was a prayer to go along with each devotion, but it has been a good opportunity to start working on spontaneous prayer so I really can't even complain about that too much.  If you have a toddler or preschooler in your life, I would very highly recommend this book. And if you're not Catholic, there is a non-Catholic edition as well.  Check out my friend Mary Elizabeth's post on Family Prayer as well for some great book recommendations and ideas for incorporating prayer into your daily family life.

Morning Prayers

Morning Prayers have been a work in progress at our house since I started saying them with the children about a year-and-a-half ago.  I finally feel like I have a good balance of something that really works for us so I thought I'd share.  I'd love to hear others' ideas as well! 

I like to have our prayer candle lit (we have a church votive that correlates with the liturgical color each day/season) and the saint of the day card on the table when the children come out for breakfast.  If Gemma asks about the saint of the day I will tell her a short story about him or her.  She still seems a bit young for our saint stories books.  We also have a weekly saint who's name we invoke each day from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  This saint correlates with our letter of the week.  After we finish up with breakfast and see daddy off we begin our prayers at the kitchen table.

• Sign of the Cross (I've really been working with Gemma on doing this correctly)
• sing monthly song (a traditional/seasonal [when applicable] hymn I choose and we sing all month, except for Saturdays and Marian feast days when we sing Immaculate Mary)
• Morning Offering (children's version with actions: Our Father in Heaven, I give you today, all that I think and do and say. Amen.  -- This was the same morning offering I said as a child!)
• daily Guardian Angel prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book
• daily prayer (this can be a variety of things ranging from the opening prayer for Mass that day if it's a special feast or saint, the morning prayer from MagnifiKid, a prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book, a Psalm or the Memorare on Saturdays or Marian feast days).
• sing monthly song again
• Sign of the Cross
• invoke weekly/daily saint(s)
• weekly Scripture memory Verse (when we started doing weekly verses I used a passage from the Responsorial Psalm from the previous Sunday and this worked very well.  Now that we've started our homeschool preschool, we're using the weekly verse from the Catholic Icing preschool curriculum that correlates with our letter of the week.  I like this because it has us moving around the Bible a lot more, Old and New Testament.)

After prayers we sing our day of the week song, Gemma does the weather chart and we have our circle time.  At the end of Circle Time we say this prayer, also with actions:

Jesus sees me when I sleep,

Jesus sees me when I play,

Jesus sees me all the time and cares for me each day. Amen.

Then we make the Sign of the Cross, invoke our weekly Saint (St. XX - Pray for us) and repeat our memory Verse one more time.

Pentecost

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Church, I wanted to share this beautiful prayer for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light, 

from Your clear celestial height,

Your pure beaming radiance give.
 

Come, O Father of the Poor,

come with treasures that endure,

come, O Light of all that live.

You of all Consolers best,

and the soul's delightsome Guest,

do refreshing Peace bestow.

You in toil are Comfort sweet,

pleasant Coolness in the heat,

Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, Light Divine,

visit now this heart of mine,

and my inmost being fill.

If You take Your grace away,

nothing pure in men will stay,

all their good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds and strength renew,

on our dryness pour Your Dew,

wash the stains of guilt away.

Bend the stubborn heart and will,

melt the frozen, warm the chill,

guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on those who ever more

You confess and You adore,

in your Sevenfold Gifts descend.

Give them Comfort when they die.

Give them Life with You on high,

give them Joys that never end.

Every Day is a Gift I

When I started this blog, it took me a long time to decide a name. I probably would have started it months sooner had I been inspired with a name. Silly I know, but that's how I roll. I finally came up with Every Day is a Gift (living each day as a gift as my URL) because I liked the reminder of viewing each day as a gift from God. As I've grown as a parent, I have found the "living each day as a gift" part to kind of have a dual meaning when looked at in the light of John Paul II's concept of self-donative love. But anyways, recently a friend gave me a daily prayer book entitled Every Day is a Gift. I was so excited, and thought it would be fun to share some of its meditations on my blog once in awhile. They are short but powerful.

This one is based on Colossians 1:24 "I find my joy in my sufferings for your sake. In my flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body, the Church."

REFLECTION: Christ made me understand that I could save souls through the cross. The greater the crosses I encountered, the more ardent became my desire to endure them. -St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

PRAYER: Lord, in Your wisdom, You have given us the opportunity to suffer with Jesus. Help me to offer my sufferings for the salvation of souls.

The O Antiphons

One of the things I wanted to do during Advent was have a special focus on the O Antiphons. I just think they are beautiful. But I wasn't having a whole lot of luck finding good,concise resources for this. The book I have lists them individually with an accompanying picture, so this morning we just prayed the day's "O" as our prayer. Maybe next year we'll use the pictures and make some sort of display. But anyways, I was really wanting to find the verses that correlated with "O Come O Come, Emmanuel", I know I'd seen them listed by date in a hymnal before, but no dice. As I was browsing blogs this afternoon, I came across THIS and just had to share. It's exactly what I was looking for!! Daily prayers, songs, and pictures! All right in one nice printable document. Heavenly!! And here at Catholic Cuisine are some more neat O Antiphon resources and ideas. So there you are. May God truly be with us these final days of Advent, and may our hearts ever prepare for His coming. We wait in joyful hope.

Gemma around the house

I decided I needed to do a Gemma post, just to update on some of the things she's been up to. I will number them, because it helps my brain feel more organized that way. And heaven knows it's all about me. (haha, joking, for anyone who may be new around here and not used to me ;-D)

1. Playtime. She is getting really into independent play, and can keep herself entertained with minimal help from me all morning sometimes. Sometimes not (and that's fine too, we enjoy playing and reading together). But some days she just does great and that makes for good productive mornings for both of us. Her favorite thing is playing with her brown bear, bunny and baby. They do three things: eat, take naps and take baths. Time and time again. She uses a mixture of her things and my/Kolbe's things and it is just so cute to watch her little imagination at work. "Baby" seems to be at about the same developmental level as Kolbe currently. Funny. Here are some pictures of what she does. I just think it's so cute.
2. Drawing. She doesn't draw much, but once in awhile with either her magnadoodle or markers... or my pen. (which is apparently a super-cool thing to do. Now you know.) But she always draws the same thing. A bunch of circles with little dots in them. Every time. I am sure there is some deep psychological reason for why she does this, but I just think it's cute.
3. Eating. So she's never been terribly good at this, but that's nothing new. Some days are better than others. We roll with it. She seems to be maintaining/gaining weight and following a growth curve, and what she does eat is reasonably healthy so it works. Now that Koble is using the highchair she has decided that she likes to use it again sometimes too. As long as he doesn't need it at the time that's fine with me. I think she looks like a giant in it. And yes, for the record, she is dipping her quesadilla in ketchup. And the bib? All her request. Silly girl!
4. Beads. She built a "cage" for her fish. She loves these beads (they were mine as a child) and always uses them to build cages for things. Besides baby, et al, they are the other toy that typically comes out every day. I have taken a pretty minimalistic approach when it comes to toys, and I really like it that way (and the kids don't seem to mind either). It works.
5. Prayer time. She is very diligent about this and will even remind me when it's time for prayers, or just announce that it's prayer time and start getting our things out. I like that it is becoming habit. We finally got Kolbe his own Rosary (um, chew-toy) so he would quit trying to grab ours. She's done pretty well at letting him have it too, which kind of surprised me.
6. Helper. She continues to be a great help to me. I asked her to get diapers out of the dryer the other day and then kind of forgot about it. I stumbled over the laundry basket a few hours later to find that she had stacked them up in a neat little pile, all even and tidy. No idea where she gets it.
7. Singing/Music. No pics. Sorry! And no video either. I know, I know... Still in love with her Nursery Rhymes, but she has started doing this funny thing where instead of the regular words she will randomly substitute Kolbe's name. It is odd. But cute. We have split her music CD's into playtime and sleepytime music. "This Old Man" or "Mulberry Bush" screeching over and over on loop all night was just getting to be too much (for me, and I'm guessing for her too although she'd never admit it). She's doing fine with it though. Our favorite nighttime CD's are Sleep Sound in Jesus and Twila Paris' Lullabies. If you're looking for more good sleepy-time music, A Child's Gift of Lullabies and Jim Brickman's Hope have been other favorites at our house.

8. Little Bear. We have several of these books from when I was a child, and have checked out several more from the library. She really likes these books and stories a lot. The other night DH and I were searching for something on the DVR and saw "Little Bear" so we curiously checked it out (it was part of the free OnDemand that we apparently get) and it was indeed little bear. THE Little Bear. There were a handful of 25 minute episodes of Little Bear, each containing four short stories (just as the books do). We really don't do any regular TV with Gemma (besides her and her daddy watching random clips of "funnies" (America's Funniest Home Videos) together for 5-10 minutes some evenings). We've showed her a few of the Little Bear episodes though, and she definitely thought they were pretty neat (as in, they held her attention and she talked about them later). They are well done in my opinion, and I don't mind letting her watch them occasionally. It's nice to know that they are available on the DVR.

9. Library. We have been making weekly trips to the library for awhile now. The girl loves her some books and we have found the library to just be such a treasure. I love being able to search their catalog online and request specific books (for instance, we have lots of Autumn/pumpkin/apple themed books coming up soon). And she enjoys the diversity. Currently in our baskets/on our end-tables are anything Seuss, various Nursery Rhyme books and this sweet legend by Tomie dePaola. I recently requested a new book from Sophia entitled The Temperament God Gave You and I am really looking forward to it. It discusses the four personality types from a Catholic standpoint. My husband and I talk often about personalities. I think that if more people had a better understanding of their own and others' personalities, we'd all get along better. But I digress. And this is getting super long.

Thanks for hanging with us! Now you are current on all things GEMMA!

Prayer and the Internet

The Internet. Great invention, yes? It certainly can be. I did a presentation for my Motherhood group several months back on how technology can play a part in our role as Catholic mothers. Or just Catholics period. Because it certainly has its place, but on the flip side of the coin, who of us hasn't just been totally sucked in? You log on to check your email, and 2 1/2 hours later you're not exactly sure what you've done, but you decide it's time to log-off and take care of, oh I don't know, things that actually need to be done like laundry and dishes and caring for children, only to realize you have yet to check your email. Yeah. Been there. But the Internet can and even should play an important role in our lives. If you'd like to read more about it, check out what the Vatican has to say here. I used this document as kind of an outline for my aforementioned presentation, and I really think it had a lot of good points. If you have a chance, I'd highly recommend giving it a read. Anyways, I've never been too much into the whole YouTube thing. Just another way to waste more time (as previously mentioned). However, a friend of mine posted this video earlier this week, and it really captivated me. And Gemma, too. I started playing it, and she came over and said, "mommy, I like that song," so she sat up on my lap and watched and listened. And has done so no less than a half-dozen times since then. I think we often forget what an integral part that music and the visual arts can play in our prayer lives, and this video (along with the Prayer discussion at our Motherhood group I mentioned in a post earlier this week) really reminded me of that. Prayer is so much more than just rattling off this or that memorized prayer, and it can involve all of our God-given senses. Even the sense of smell (ahhhhh, incense). Anyways, it really gave me pause watching Gemma watch this video. I mean, she was just enthralled. And I really was moved by the pictures of the Eucharist, it just kind of takes my breath away thinking about the universality of our Church and Jesus in the Eucharist and what-not, but to see it do the same thing for my two-year-old was really, really cool. The power of the Eucharist never ceases to amaze me. Happy Friday, everyone.

Our prayer cards

Last week at my Catholic Motherhood group the topic was prayer. We had a great discussion and all shared some of our ideas on family and individual prayer. I took a lot of good things away from the meeting, it was a real blessing. I have been intending for way too long now to type out some prayers to say during the day and take them to FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) to be copied on colored paper and laminated with their heavy-duty plastic; and this discussion was the nudge I needed to finally get it done. My brother-in-law, who teaches at a Catholic school, sent me the diocesan religion curriculum so I could double check I had the correct versions. If our kids are going to Catholic schools, I figure it would be wise to teach them the same versions of the prayers as the ones they are going to learn at school to avoid confusion down the road. I color-coded YELLOW (Morning Offering) for morning, GREEN (Acts of Faith, Hope and Love) for afternoon, and BLUE (Magnificat) for evening. I finally just memorized the Morning Offering myself, like within the past few weeks (it amazes me how much longer it takes to memorize things as an adult compared to when I was younger), and we'll be learning the Acts of Faith, Hope and Love and the Magnificat together, as those are prayers I never learned as a child. Here are our cards. If you are interested in making cards of your own, I would be happy to email you the document of the prayers typed out, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel! Just comment and let me know.

Learning together

I think I mentioned before that I'm starting to do some preschool/faith formation-type activities with Gemma. It's really fun now that she's getting old enough to understand those things. Anyways, we've been enjoying trying different things and seeing what we like and what does and doesn't fit for our family. Originally I thought we'd do a set time every morning that she and I would work together on things. I think she's just not quite old enough for that kind of structure yet, so we haven't been incredibly regular about that, but we do have all of our "school/learning"-type toys and manipulatives in the same place, and we enjoy pulling things out and working on them together here and there.

The prayer table seems to have been a really positive addition. It is a very visible sign of our Faith, and honestly it helps remind us to say our prayers. Gemma loves the candle (especially blowing it out), and knows that when it's lit, it's prayer-time. I found a neat little Rosary Book at our local Catholic store and we try to say a decade together each morning. Here was our table decorated for Pentecost. Gemma really liked the red candle, and was very concerned when she got up the following Monday morning and a green one was in its place. ;-D
"When you send forth your spirit they are created, and you renew the face of the earth." --Psalm 104:30

We also have a Scripture verse each week. I feel like as Catholics we have this wonderful gift in Sacred Scripture, and sometimes we rarely even open it, so hopefully this will help all of us to appreciate and learn God's Word - the Bible - a little more. I write our verse on a sheet of paper, and then read it to Gemma and let her help me decorate it. After that we hang it on the fridge and try to repeat it often throughout the week. Gemma's really surprising me at how well she can learn them. She does good at filling in the blank with the bigger words, and sometimes will even say an entire phrase herself. I'm trying to find a verse that goes with each Sunday's readings, and we get our new verse each Saturday. This also helps her prepare for Mass in her own little way. This week we talked about the Trinity and used John 3:16.
I have a bunch of the little St. Joseph's books (you can see the Holy Spirit one in the Pentecost picture above) from when I taught and I am SO GLAD I held onto them. They are really neat, concise little books with great pictures, and I seriously think there are probably 100 or more out there about many different Faith topics. I also organized all the saint and prayer cards I've accumulated through the years, and filed them in little ziploc bags by month, then I can pull each card out on its specific feast day and we have a little picture and saint or feast about which to talk.

Like I said, we're finding our way. I've enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to others/read others' blogs to help me along, and just wanted to share what is working for us. We are learning together for sure. They (whoever that is) always say the best way to really learn something is to teach it. Well, they're right.

May Day

We had some special May activities to celebrate the beginning of a new month and May Day. On Friday, Gemma decorated her May baskets (which were an envelope sealed and slit across the top, then whole-punched and tied with a ribbon for the handle) with some stickers and her new markers.
Saturday we delivered them to the grandmas and a few neighbors. I just picked up some four-packs of annuals at the store, and we split them in half and they fit perfectly in her little baskets. This way, the recipients can enjoy their flowers all summer long.
We also have made a little May altar on our prayer table, with the addition of a Mary statue, some flowers and some Marian prayer cards and booklets. I got a neat little Scriptural Rosary book for children, and Gemma seems very taken with it. I pray the Holy Spirit may always bless her with a zeal for prayer.