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Ah, computers, love’em, hate'em… I both’em! This past week I had a horrible time fighting with my computer. It caught a ”bug” and took ”sick leave”. Now I’m playing catch-up on my emails, Etsy , etc.  So these photos are almost a week and a half old. Well, better late then never! Here are 7 quick takes on the past week and a half: ~1~ May Altar Here is our Mary-May Altar this year. ~2~ Tea Party Fun and Decor I posted about our Marian Tea Party invitations and decorations a few weeks ago and here are some photos of this years party. Of course our Marian Tea Party was beautiful and the girls LOVED it, again!  Our Marian center-piece: ~3~ Tea Party Smiles Naomi (5) Abigail (7) ~4~ Tea Party Food Our Ladybug Cookies In honor of Our Lady’s Bug! Click here to see how we made Our Lady’s Bug Cookies ~5~ Tea Parties and Boys We girls discovered the true reason that boys are not often invited to tea parties. My husband and all the other male members of the family had a ”guy party” in the next room, but my 3 year old son wanted to join in the tea party with the girls. I think I need to train him in the Art of Manners!! He was more interested in making odd noises, gulping tea, and picking at the girls! Well, I guess every tea party needs a little comic relief!  😉  ~6~  First Communion for our 6th Child Here is Miss Hannah after her First Communion – So excited! Six kids down and 3 to go! Abigail will have her First Communion next year! Wow! Time flies!  This is my daughter Hannah with my niece. They shared the special day! After the The First Communion Mass we celebrated with a Special cake. ~7~ Practicing to be a Bride’s Maid  The First Communicants had to be at church early, so I took Hannah and Elizabeth in the car. My husband, Jon, brought the rest of the family later. I had to laugh at the way Elizabeth helped Hannah get into the car and get buckled-up. Then Elizabeth helped her out of the car and into church. She was being very protective of Hannah’s veil and white dress. The way she treated her was just like a bride’s maid would treat a bride! Well, Hannah was the bride of Christ, so I figured Elizabeth was the volunteer bride’s maid! Too, CUTE! Aren’t they beautiful! 🙂 One final note — An update on my Endometriosis—- After trying a few other options with no success, I decided to take the advice of my OB and get a shot that shuts off my ovary for a few months. It creates a temporary menopause as it stops my ovary from producing estrogen in the hopes that it will shrink the Endo. I received the first of 3 shots 3 weeks ago. So far I’ve seen no change, but the doctor said it could take a month before I would see any change.  I’m trying to eat as healthy as I can (aside from the tea party treats!), and warmer weather always seems to help my condition. So I’m LOVING the warmer spring sun!  I want to thank every one for your kindness and prayers. I know God is helping me through this and I’m finding peace with everything. Please pray the shots do as the doctor and I hope. If they don’t I feel I may need to have my last ovary taken out in the fall. But if the shots do work I should be well enough to hold off on a surgery for a year or more. I hope, for the sake of my children and husband, that God will give me all I need, whether it be in health or peace or both.  Thank you again and God Bless. ~Jennifer

St. Mary Magdalene’s feast day is July 22 (New and Traditional calendars) The story from John 12:1-8 tells us how Mary Magdalene anointed the feet of Jesus with expensive perfume. So for her liturgical ornament Elizabeth and I decided to make a perfume bottle (an older style). We used light blue felt, and a light blue permanent marker. We folded a 2×3 inch rectangular piece of light blue felt in half and cut half a perfume bottle shape from it so that it could be opened into a full bottle. Then we added a light blue marker outline and glass-glare. The shaded-outline really makes it ”pop”! A silver threaded loop was added to hang it on our Liturgical Tree.  St. Mary Magdalene, pray for us! God bless. ~JenMarie

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born Jewish (Edith Stein).  She converted to Catholicism and was baptized at the age of 31. She later became a Carmelie nun. Only a few years later she was taken to Auschwitzgas by the Nazis and killed in a gas chamber on Aug. 9th 1942. She is celebrated on Aug. 9 (new calendar) – the anniversary of her death and entrance into heaven. Read more HERE and HERE . Because of her Jewish background, Elizabeth and I made a Star of David and added a cross to the center. We made 2 identical yellow triangles and over-lapped them to make the star. We outlined them with a black sharpie marker. Then we used two small brown felt strips to make a cross in the center of the star. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us! ~Jen-Marie and Elizabeth (Crafting Buddy)

Our Lady of Snows feast day is Aug 5 – AKA: St. Mary Major. You can also read about OL of Snows HERE and HERE .   Elizabeth and I decided to make a snowflake out of felt so we could use it every year. You will need white and light blue felt. If you have white felt with glitter now would be a great time to use it! To create this ornament we cut out a circle from the white felt.  We folded it and snipped out several larger and smaller holes as we worked our way around the whole circle. If you try to cut it like you would a paper snowflake it can be difficult because the felt is so thick. So we just cut small areas at a time. It’s not perfectly symmetrical, but it looks cute!  After the snowflake was cut, we added a light blue felt ”M” for Mary! 🙂 After all it is Mary’s snowflake!  It was a cute addition to our Liturgical tree! Our Lady of Snows, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

The feast of Our Lord’s Transfiguration is Aug. 6th. Read more about it HERE . We used yellow and white felt. First we cut out a Jesus shape from white felt. Then we cut a yellow oval which was just bigger than our white Jesus. We cut out long and narrow triangles from the yellow oval to make the rays. We used an orange permanent sharpie marker to add more interest on the yellow ray-oval. Then we glued Jesus on the rays and added a thread loop to hang it on our Liturgical tree.  Have a blessed day! ~Jennifer and crafting buddy, Elizabeth

St. Philomena is a early church saint and is called "The Wonder Worker”. While we really don’t know much about her we do know that she was young and was martyred (after several tries). Most of what we know is learned though the MANY miracles that are attributed to her after her body was found in the ancient Catacombs. Her after-death story is an amazing one and I highly recommend you read about her. I have read the book and it was a wonderful book! My daughter, who took Philomena as her Confirmation name, read and loved it! A few on-line reads are  HERE and HERE  (see the bottom of the page). Her feast day is Aug. 11 in the historical calendar. Elizabeth and I decided to use a few of the symbols that were found on St. Philomena’s tomb. The symbols were an anchor, 3 arrows, a lance, a palm and a lily. We only used the anchor, an arrow, and a lily.  We cut an anchor from gray felt, an arrow from dark brown felt, a heart for the lily from white felt, and a yellow and green flower parts. We used off white for the background circle. The lily was created with the parts shown below. The upside-down heart was folded and glued around the yellow and green strips so they formed a lily (Hot glue works best.). These were all glued onto the off-white circle. We also outlined the anchor with a black sharpie marker. If you have never read about St. Philomena, I do recommend you take a few minutes to read about her. She is an amazing saint! St. Philomena, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

Today I want to share a watercolor art project tutorial, which I used to teach my kids. Okay, I have to admit that my kids complained when I said the word, “watercolor”. But in the end they said they had a lot of fun and were VERY happy with how the paintings turned out! Since it’s Lent, I wanted to create something that was focused on the season. A Good Friday project just seemed to be perfect! Download the instructions here: You will need: Printable Instructions (Download above↑) half-sheet of light blue construction paper Note: half sheets are easier and less intimidating for kids to work with. Note: light blue paper is easier for kids who are just starting to learn this skill. This way they don’t feel the need to fill the paper. paint brush with a fine point cup to fill with water Watercolors needed: medium blue black brown green purple yellow A few tips before starting: The more water you add, the softer the color. The less water you add, the darker the color. If you add water to the paper the colors will “bleed” further and easier, but the painting will be lighter. The paint will be lighter in color when it’s dry. So the colors you see while it’s wet will change when it’s dry. Add water to the colors you are going to use. Squish the brush into the paint to make the top layer soft and liquidy. Be sure to rinse your brush in a cup of water before you switch to a new color. To make the hill, add green arched lines across the bottom of the paper. Try not to paint above 1/3 of the page so you have room for other things on your painting. Add brown paint in and around the green. You may need to add more green, too. Use a brush-full of plain water to blend the two colors together. Add paint and blend with plain water till you are happy with your hill. Add black to the top of your page. Make the paint thick on the top and get thinner as you move toward the hill. Adding straight lines going across from side to side works best. Now add purple to the sky. Be sure to add some purple to the black and also add some to the area below the lowest black line. Next, add blue. This should be added in the black area, the purple area, as well as, below the purple area. If you wish you can use more plain water on your brush to make the colors blend together. Now, add the crosses. Dark brown or black works best. Be sure it’s thick paint and has little water so you can make thin strokes. Practice on scrap paper first.  Add a dark brown or black edge to the hill, under the crosses. FOR YOUNGER KIDS: Young kids can use a marker after the painting is dry. You can add some lightning, with some thick yellow paint. Be sure to have only a little water in the yellow paint, so you can make thin strokes. Try it on scrap paper first. FOR YOUNG KIDS: Young kids can use marker to make the lightning, just be sure the painting is dry first. This is my daughter, Hannah, (age 8) painting her picture. Below is her finished picture: Here are a few more pictures of the finished painting my kids made. They all have different designs and focuses! Each one has it’s own unique beauty! Top left to right – Jacob age 12 – Rachel age 15Bottom left to right – Elizabeth age 10 – Joshua age 11 This last one was done by my 5 year old, Naomi. She used a lot of water so her painting is very soft looking. We used brown and yellow markers to make the crosses and lightning. Okay, I hope I explained that well enough! Have fun trying this, too! And remember this is a painting of Good Friday, so if the painting looks a little messy, it adds to the sad feeling of the painting. Please pray for me and I’ll pray for you. God bless. ~JenMarie

In our beautiful Catholic art, lilies are a common sight. They are symbols of purity. Many chaste saints, like St. Joseph and St. Philomena, are depicted holding these delicate beauties. They are often thought to be Mary’s flower, too. During the Easter Season, lilies are a common sight and they decorate many churches! I wanted to have a few lilies to decorate our home during the Easter Season as well as other special feast days. Sadly, artificial lilies are very expensive, so I thought I’d try to figure-out an easy-long-lasting way to make some of these gorgeous flowers. A paper plate was just the trick! 🙂  They were so easy that my kids picked up on the idea real fast! You can make two flowers from one paper plate, and the only other items I used were yellow paper, green paper, a yellow pencil, clear tape, and a stapler. Download the printable instructions here: First cut the paper plate in half. Next cut out 6 or 7 petals as shown in the picture. Try not to make the petals deeper than the flat part of the paper plate. Flip the plate so the petals are bending away from you. Color the center with a yellow crayon or pencil. Cut a 1” x 1 1/2”  inch strip of yellow paper. Make lots of thin slits in the paper, but make sure not to cut all the way through. Tape the yellow fringed paper to the center bottom of the flower. Fold the paper flower into thirds (some petals will overlap). Only press the folds on the bottom half of the flower. Tape it together. Open the flower and curl out the petals out, if needed. Cut out 4 long triangle shapes from green paper. Put one on each side of the flower bottom, pointing out. Staple the flower and the leaves together at the bottom of the flower. One or two staples should work. Now they are ready to decorate your home or school. Use them on your Easter table, around statues of saints, or to decorate during May for Our Lady! Have a blessed Easter! ~JenMarie

The original name of the ladybug is “Our Lady’s Bug.” It seems that during the Middle Ages, a plague of small insects (probably aphids) attacked the crops, threatening Europe with starvation. The people had recourse to Our Lady, and petitioned her to save them from this plague….. Finish reading this awesome story on Catholicism.org . In honor of Our Lady we have Ladybug cookies every year at our Marian Tea Party!! These ”ladybug” cookies they are yummy –No, they are not made with real ladybugs like my oldest daughter, Rachel, once thought when she was very little! But they are cute and fun to make! You will need: 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup butter (soften) 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1/2 square unsweetened chocolate melted.(I used chocolate chips ~ about 15 regular sized chips – I think) Mini chocolate chips for the bug’s spots Red Cookie Paint (OR – You could use red sugar sprinkles instead of the paint) egg yoke 1 tsp water red food coloring Blend sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs. Slowly add flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until well blended. Take 6 tablespoons of the dough and stir in the melted chocolate. Refrigerate the two balls of dough in different bowls for about an hour or until firm and easy to handle. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on a greased cookie sheet – 1 inch apart. Flatten them a little and use a knife to cut a deep line length wise down the center of each cookie. Create a head for the bug: Shape the chocolate dough into finger-tip-size oval shapes and add one to each of the cookies to form a head.  Make the ”red paint” by added 1 tsp of water and 5 to 10 drops of red food coloring to an egg yoke. Use a small spoon or clean (new) brush to add the red paint to the bug’s body. The cookie area will need to be flat so the red doesn’t roll off.  Press three mini chocolate chips (upside-down) into each side of the bug’s body.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes until lightly brown.  Makes about 3 doz. We also made these in the past without the ”paint”.  We just added maraschino cherries that had been chopped into small pieces: They were good this way, too, but a few of my kids didn’t like the cherries. Next year, I was thinking it might be fun to sprinkle them with red sugar and add the mini chocolate chips! Hope you enjoy these, too! God Bless. ~JenMarie

Summer is in full swing and my 10 year old daughter, Elizabeth, has been complaining that she is ”bored”. Elizabeth is a very creative young lady, but it’s her creativity that often feeds her feeling of boredom. If she doesn’t have something creative to do she just looks lost and kind-of wonders around. So I decided to give her something to spark her creative juices. I asked Elizabeth if she wanted to make little ornaments that centered around the liturgical year. We have a ”tree” in our house which we decorate throughout the year. The changing decorations include: Saint Medals ,  Mary flowers ,    Catholic Snowflakes,   Lenten Jesus Tree ,  Assumption décor ,    and more! I thought it would be nice if the kids had an ornament to hang on the tree after we talked about the saint of the day. I told Elizabeth that she could use the stuff in my craft box which is over flowing with chenille stems (A.K.A pipe cleaner), pom-poms, felt, sequins, beads, etc.! That was almost too exciting for her to handle! She couldn’t wait to begin. Each of the ornaments that she (and I – if she needs help) will create will have a liturgical centered meaning. Most will be symbols of saints. Here are the first three she and I made. I did help her with these first few. She seemed to need a little help getting her creativity going. Now that she has an idea of what I was asking for, I'm sure she’ll be doing most of them on her own. But ether way it’s a great mom and daughter bonding time! 😉 All the ornaments will be added to this page: HERE I’ll post about our new ornaments as she/we make them. I’m not sure how often she/we will make one of these ornaments, but I’m hoping for at least 2 a month or even one a week -but no pressure. You can’t force creativity! It just has to happen on it’s own.  I’m hoping to get future ornaments posted *before* the saint’s feast day, but life is a bit crazy sometimes. (I’m sure that will be especially true once school starts again.) I’ll do my best to keep posting!  God Bless. ~JenMarie What do your bored kids do during summer break?

The second ornament Elizabeth and I made was for the feast of St. Benedict, whos feast day is celebrated on July 11 (in the NEW calendar). His traditional feast is March 21.  Scholastica’s feast day is celebrated on Feb 10.  These two saints are twins, so we just kept them together.  This ornament was made with maroon and off-white felt, black and brown permanent sharpie markers, half of a gold pipe cleaner, and a small plastic dove (optional). All the parts were glued together. Hot glue or a good quality craft glue will work. (I prefer the hot glue – it lasts longer and it’s quicker.) The book was decorated with the brown and black markers. Dots were all that was needed to make the ”writing” on the book. Marker details add a lot! The dove was a nice touch, but not necessary. The dove is really the symbol for St. Scholastica – not so much St. Benedict.  God Bless. ~JenMarie

St. Kateri Tekakwitha is a new saint who’s feast day is July 14th. Elizabeth had a hard time coming up with a symbol for this beautiful saint. So I helped with the design.  To create this ornament, we used dark brown felt, off-white felt, a black permanent sharpie marker, thread, small Indian beads, and glue. (We used hot glue, but high quality craft glue will work.)  Two strips of brown felt formed a cross and two feather shapes with black marker detailing were the decoration on the cross. We glued all the parts together. Then, using thread, we made a few beaded dangles and threaded them onto the feathers. To give the feathers more of a feather look we cut slits in the sides. Just don’t cut all the way through!  It’s just a small tribute to such a wonderful saint! St. Kateri, pray for us! Till later, ~JenMarie