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Last year my two 4th graders were learning about the Making of the Thirteen Colonies. We were reading Book 2 of ““. The book included a simple timeline. So I created this timeline page for my kids to use so they could create their own timeline notebook. Each of the pages includes a section for them to write the topic of the timeline. It also has writing blocks so the kids can write the date and a little about the historical event. The kids also “finished” drawing the line from the writing blocks to the timeline line which is in the middle of the page. We placed our timelines in a 3 ring binder and added a cover page to the front of the binder. Then the kids could add a page as they work their way through history! There are two versions of this timeline. One runs side to side on a vertical page and the other runs side to side on a horizontal page. Each as a cover to match the direction of the pages you choose. I first made the horizontal timeline page, but the vertical pages seemed to be easier for my kids to understand, as they flip from one page to the next. Choose whichever you like best: Download the Timeline Sheets Here: These are great pages to use if you are creating mini biographies of famous people like the saints, and they work well when learning about any topic of history – Church history, US history or world history. These were great to have last year and I plan to use them again this year as we work through book 3 and 4 in the “A History of US” set. Hope you are having a great school year! God Bless. ~JenMarie

Saint Gregory the Great is the patron saint of teachers. He is one of the four great doctors of the Latin Church and his feast day is Sept. 3 on the new calendar (March 12 on the Traditional calendar). He built 7 monasteries and is know for his contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office. He was also pope from the 3rd of September in 590 to his death on March 12th 604. Read more about him HERE . The ornament for Gregory the Great consists of a book with a quill pen, a Papal Tiara with the three crowns, and the Holy Spirit.  We made it with maroon, yellow, light brown, white and off-white felt. Plus, we used brown and black permanent markers on the book pages, as well as, the quill pen.  We used gold glitter glue on the yellow crowns (on the Papal Tiara) and we added a few drops of red glitter glue to add ”gem”. Later we decided to add a Holy Spirit. (Ya, we make this all up as we go along! Just bear with me!) We glued all the parts onto the light brown felt and we added silver glitter glue around the Holy Spirit.  St. Gregory the Great, pray for us – especially us mother who homeschool or those who are teachers! We have a big job and always need help! God Bless, ~JenMarie

St. Matthew, Apostle, evangelist, and martyr, is the patron saint of bankers and accountants. His feast day is Sept. 21 in the new and traditional calendars.  Because he wrote the Gospel of Matthew, we added a book to his ornament. We added the money bag because he is the patron saint for those who deal with money.    To create this ornament we used charcoal, tan, maroon, white and gray felt. We used a hole punch to make the coins. If your hole punch is not 100% sharp you will need to cut out the uncut sections, and that easy to do. We used brown and black permanent markers to add details to the white ”paper” and the money bag.  St. Matthew, pray for us! God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie sand Elizabeth

Our Lady of Sorrows is remembered on Sept 15th. This is the day we remember the 7 major sorrows which Our Lady would have experienced during her life. They are: The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15) Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50)  Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17) Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30) The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37) The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47) Read more about this feast day HERE . Today I want to share the liturgical ornament which depicts the heart of Our Lady of Sorrows. The heart was cut from red felt and lightly outlined with a purple permanent marker. The 7 swords were made from gray felt. The flames were cut from yellow felt and decorated with orange and red permanent markers. After everything was glued down, we also added gold glitter glue to the flames and red glitter glue to the heart where the swords ”pierce” the heart and around the outer edge. Lastly, we added a gold-thread loop to hang it on our liturgical tree. Our Lady pray for us, may we endure our struggles with grace and peace. God bless you all! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Vincent, was a priest and founder of  ”Ladies of Charity” which eventually became the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent had a special place in his heart for the poor, particularity poor children. He is the patron saint of all charities. His feast day is Sept. 27 in the new calendar and July 19th in the traditional calendar. Read more about him HERE and HERE . St. Vincent’s ornament depicts an adult’s hand (St. Vincent’s hand) giving bread to a child’s hands – to symbolize St. Vincent’s love and care for poor children   To create this ornament we used light blue, tan, peach, and medium brown felt. We used brown permanent marker to add detail to the bread and blue permanent marker to add detail to the blue background. (the bread looks dark in these pictures -not sure why- but it is lighter in color than pictured.) St. Vincent de Paul, Pray for us! May our hearts be filled with a burning love to help others! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth PS: Happy Anniversary to my sweet-honey! We’ve been blessed with 17 years of wonderful marriage! To read our love story visit: ”Written by the Finger of God” Update: It looks like her blog is now gone.... We posted it HERE .

Elizabeth, my Liturgical Ornament making buddy,  dressed as St. Clare of Assisi. We already had the costume from when she dressed as St Therese . The only thing new was the monstrance.  To make this costume we used: habit from THIS nun costume — a few more options: HERE : HERE : HERE The long black nun rode was actually used by her older brother for a St. Peregrine costume. brown robe like THIS or THIS  – OT is cheaper HERE tan sheet or material (light weight) string for cloak (we used a shoe string) monstrance (which we made – I’ll be posting instructions for this in the future) We used the nun habit and the brown robe for the main part of the costume. We created the cloak by folding a tan piece of material over a string and then tie it (loosely) around her neck. Our St. Clare was kind of camera shy, but I took the opportunity to get a good picture of the monstrance. 🙂  I will post instructions for this later. St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us. ~JenMarie

My little Naomi, had the hardest time deciding who to dress as for All Saints day. I was very surprised when she finally decided on St. Catherine of Siena – but what a cute little Saint Catherine she is! To create this costume we used: white robe – like THIS white veil which was just a small sheet white string – we used a shoe string rosary mock turtle neck grapevine wreath – just big enough for her head washable marker for her hands (stigmata)  I personally thought that getting the wreath was the worst part of make this costume. I had to find just the right wreath for her to wear – so she felt comfortable. St. Catherine wore a crown of thorns, but even a grapevine wreath can be a bit uncomfortable. So take your little one to the store with you when you go and test them out.  The rosary was looped through her waist string. The washable red marker was used to make the stigmata. And my little lady – made one silly little saint! Unlike St. Clare  she was NOT camera shy! St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us. ~JenMarie

Joshua is dressed as St. Rocco (AKA: St. Roch).  To create this costume I used: brown robe – like THIS or THIS   – OT is cheaper HERE twine, rope, or other string stuff dog – like THIS walking stick with a small rag-sack tied to it (optional) This costume is fairly simple to compile. It’s just a brown robe tied at the waist and a stuffed dog. The walking stick is optional. Ours is just a straight stick with a white scrap piece of material tied to the top. It’s filled with a few paper napkins to make it puff out.  Really the dog is what makes the costume. St. Rocco, pray for us. ~JenMarie

The Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun is Oct. 13th. In honor of the occasion I wanted to share an art project which centers around this amazing miracle. I asked the kids to image what they think the ”dancing” sun may have looked like to the people who were standing in the crowd on that rainy October day. Then they created some wonderful pictures. Read about Fatima and the sun miracle HERE . To create this you will need: yellow construction paper (Cut onto 8 x 11 inch page – if you want to add it to a 3 ring binder-art-portfolio.) black construction paper crayons  scissors glue Using your crayons, create your ”dancing” sun scene. Leave a little extra room at the bottom for the crowd of people. Using a white crayon, draw the heads of the crowd onto the black paper. You need to make 2 or 3 layers of heads.  The layers should have different heights so they can all be seen. Range the heights from 1 inch to 2 inches. Also create a few pointing and/or praising people. These will be added to the crowd to make more interest and diversity.  Cut out all the people and make sure they all have a white out line. This creates a sunshine look on their silhouettes. It also make them easier to see.  Glue the layers together and then glue them on to the bottom for the sun picture.  Add the extra people. Glue them between the layers. You may need to cut off some of there body to make them fit.  If you have cut the yellow paper down to a regular sheet size you will need to cut off the extra black parts along the edges.  Here is an example of a finished project, and below are the few of the projects my kids made. May you all have a blessed day! ~JenMarie

Last year I posted about our ”Elf on the Shelf” alternative. If you don’t know about ”Elf on the Shelf”, he’s a long lanky toy elf who always finds mischievous things to do each night while the kids are in bed. Well, our family has a bit of a crazy side and that family tradition just seems sooo fun! But my Catholic side never wanted to make an elf the center of Christmas fun. Sure elves are cute, but I try to not make Santa or his elves a focus at Christmas time. While I loved the idea of a cute character getting into a bit of innocent fun each night, I didn’t like using an elf toy for this fun family tradition!   So,  yes I ”Baptized” the Elf on the Shelf idea!  At our house we have the three kings who are searching for baby Jesus each night! This tradition has turned into the talk of our Holiday conversations. The kids are thrilled! They ask about the Wisemen before they ask about a Christmas tree or gifts!  So of course we have to do this again this year!!  I want to explain this tradition better for those who weren’t following our blog last year: Our three Kings: Balthazar, Melchior, Caspar, and their camel (who my kids have named, but I’m embarrassed to tell you what it is) are a handful! They are on the search for Jesus!  Sometimes they can get into a bit of trouble as they struggle to find the Infant King.  Each night, during Advent till the Epiphany, my husband and I move the three wisemen to a new hiding spot and create a ”situation” for them to get into or out of. Then, after our kids wake up each morning, they try to find the three Wise Men. Most days it’s easy, but some days the kids have to search for awhile!  The only rule we made was that the three wise men have to find the Infant Jesus that belongs to their Nativity set. That’s just to make it more interesting, since we have many nativity sets around the house. Their special nativity set remains hidden in my bedroom until Christmas. Then, Christmas Eve we pull out the nativity and set it up in a special spot. The wise men continue searching for Jesus until the feast of the Epiphany!  These  three wise men  and the  Nativity set  are from Playmobil. (sold separately – I sound like a commercial)  I liked these Wisemen because they are poseable.  I do wish they were more poseable (like an action figure) but these work fine. Because they are poseable, it allows us to make them appear to be doing certain actions like, hold things, climb, slide, reach, etc. This makes them so much more fun!! Typically, we would think that the wisemen should be following a star, so you may be asking, ”Where’s the star?” That is a fair question. When we first started this tradition, we tried having the Wisemen follow a star, but it was hard to have them stay in a path and come up with places (on that path) for them to search.  Plus, the kids knew where the Three Kings were going to be and the journey seemed to be kind of boring. So we changed our idea a bit: Now the Wisemen jump around the house and the kids enjoyed searching for them each morning.  I was upset to lose the star, but we decided to play on the Bible quote: ”Where is the newborn king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to adore him.”  After reading that I figured the Wisemen were a little lost at some point even with the star to guide them. We told our kids that our house is like the city of Bethlehem and the Wisemen are searching Bethlehem for Jesus. We explained to the kids that it’s not 100% like the Bible, but we all found it more interesting and fun this way. Another change we have made since we started our tradition is the time our kings search. We originally were only going to do this from Christmas to the Epiphany, but the kids, my husband, and I were having so much fun with our new tradition that we started hiding the wisemen during Advent, too. Our family has been enjoying this new tradition and we are ALL excited to see our three little amigos start the search again! So prepare yourself for some upcoming posts as we share photos of our Wisemen’s Adventures!  I’m posting this a few weeks before Advent so you have a chance to buy a set for yourself. Our family has just loved this awesome family tradition! I encourage you to try it! The cheapest place I found this set was on Amazon. I hope you can join us! ~JenMarie

Our wise men have been keeping busy this past week! Never a dull day! My kids are having a blast! (If you don’t know about our Wise Men ADVENTures  click here  to learn more about our family tradition! )My teenagers have been helping to come up with some thoughts on where our men should search, but my husband and I have put them in place while the kids are all in bed. If my teens are up late I\’ll let them move the three amigos. I try to remember to move them each night, but I have to admit that I had to get back out of bed last night! Nothing like those fun thoughts that pop into your head when you are about to drift off to sleep!! 🙂 Had I not remembered to move them, I fear what may have happened in the morning!! Well, on with the search….. Day 3 They found the cookie cutters ! Melchior is thinking that the star might help them! I\’m not sure that\’ll work. Caspar is more interested in testing out a new staff! Well, the candy cane cookie cutter could look like a staff! Is the camel wearing a gingerbread man?!?!?  Day 4 On day 4 our wise men were going door to door at the little village that sits high on our window shelf!  Melchior is taking the search very seriously and checking out all the residents!  Caspar is taking a high position to look out over the \”town\”  and that school\’s bell tower is a perfect perch!  I guess Balthazar is taking a break. That front porch looks like a great place to sit! I sure hope he cleans up those cobwebs when he gets up! Yuck!! 😉  Day 5 After seeing the manger hanging at the top of the Advent prayer chain , the three wise men decide to scale the chain to get a closer look!  Wow! What skill!   That looks like a lot of work!  And all to find nothing!!! How sad is that!  Day 6 (St. Nicholas Feast Day) On day 6 the kids woke-up to find treats in their socks and the wise men meeting and greeting Saint Nicholas ! Melchior is asking St. Nick for directions, while Caspar is showing the camel the differences in the St. Nicholas\’ Crosier and his less fancy staff. Is Balthazar trying out our little saint\’s miter!?! He kinda looks like St. Nicholas now!!  We bought our cute little St. Nicholas here .  Day 7 A game of UNO ! Oh my, I guess we all need a day of rest and it is the 7th day!! Gotta love Caspar’s house of cards!  Day 8 Back to the search! That had to be quit a climb. How did that camel get up there!?!?! Wow! Super Camel!   Day 9 Maybe the infant King is in the mint plant!? That’s quite a jungle to search through!  That has to smell strong!  That\’ll clear the sinuses if they have a cold!! Caspar seems to have been distracted by the sight of the freshly falling snow.  To a little guy his size I image that is an awesome sight! Now where will they search tonight? Let me think….

For years I have bought Catholic calendar/planners and I have been rather upset each time. Everyone of them was incomplete. They have only a few of the major feast day listed and they each focused on the feast days of ether the traditional or the new Catholic calendar.    I’ve been looking for a calendar that lists all the feast days for both the new and old calendars. I also wanted it to have a complete list of the saints’ feast days for each and every day.   After buying a number of calendar/planners I started to give up hope of finding that planner that gave me all that I was looking for.  A few months ago, I found a Catholic planner on Amazon . This planner was published by Tan Books. I was very leery of trying it. I thought it would be just like the other planners I had bought. But since I needed a planner, I thought I would go ahead and try it.  When the planner came in the mail, I was thrilled!! To my surprise it was just what I wanted!!  Not only does it have both the old and the new calendar saints listed, it also has the Historical Saints Feast days! Plus, the saints’ feast days are listed for every day! The pages that list the saints feast days are nice to jot down any ideas I have for the day – like meal plans and other holy day plans, as well as, my appointments and activities.  It also has month-at-a-glace pages. These are always a help when I need to schedule a doctor appointment!   In addition to that, it has pages with saints and their feast days listed in alphabetical order. Plus, lists of patron saints, the 35 Doctors of the Church and the 14 Holy Helpers! There are also a number of pages that explain what the abbreviations in the calendar mean. They also explain about fasting, abstinence, Ember days and more!! It’s a great little resource! Then, there are the 70 saint illustration and short biographies! These are short easy-to-read stories that I have been reading to my kids as the feast day comes.  It’s a great size, too. It measures about 8 inches by 5 inches and it fits in my purse. It easy to take along to appointments and meetings! Really, I’m thrilled with this calendar/planner! It’s great! Plus, it was way cheaper than the other planners I’ve tried! If you are looking for a new planner for this coming year I highly recommend this calendar/planner! The calendar has 16 months – it started in September, 2013 and goes till December, 2014. So if you buy it now you can start to use it right away! Feel free to take a look and see what you think! Hope this calendar can help you as much as it did me! God bless! ~JenMarie