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St. John the Baptist is another Bible saint. Read more about him  here . Our St. John the Baptist is dressed in a fleece like material that I bought at the local craft store. It looked like a type of camel skin. I also used a brown t-shirt (about the same color as the “camel skin”), a piece of twine around his waist,  a plastic grasshopper(locust) and a large stick for his staff. Here is a picture of the parts and how I cut them.Click the picture to enlarge it. The next pictures are to show how I pieced the costume together.I used a safety pin to fasten the skirt around his waist. Then added the top part over one shoulder.And wrapped the twine around his waist to keep it in place.

December 8th is the feast of the Immaculate Conception! Did you know that Our Lady of Lourdes introduced herself to Bernadette as “The Immaculate Conception”!? So what does “The Immaculate Conception” mean? It means that Mary NEVER had a sin on her soul. It means that when St. Anne conceived Mary, Mary was created without the stain of original sin on her soul. God prepared Mary’s Soul to be worthy of being the Mother of God. Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is often called the “New Eve”, because she was created without sin just as Eve was. But unlike Eve, she was willing to follow and trust God throughout her life, Sadly, Eve choose to sin later in life. Because of Mary choosing to never sin, Jesus was able to be born and later died to save us from our sins! Because “The Immaculate Conception” choose to remain sinless and because she said “Yes” to God, we are all able to enter heaven! We had a very big day for St. Nicholas, so I decided to go lighter for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I hopped over to Catholic Icing for Lacy’s Immaculate Conceptions coloring page . Lacy added some wonderful symbols to her picture, too. (an apple tree, a serpent and three rays of light) Read more on her blog. Thanks, Lacy, for sharing your talents. My 4 younger girls had a great time coloring this wonderful picture. They did a great job!! St. Anne looks good with purple hair don’t ya think!?!? 😉 ~*~ Praying you all have a blessed day! Oh and don’t forget to go to Mass! It is a Holy Day of Obligation. ~Jen-Marie

Here’s a simple Crown of Thorns. It’s perfect for decorating during Lent or if your kids or RE class is performing a passion play. It’s made from brown construction paper and can be sized to whatever size you like. This technique is often used to make a crown of thorns with blesses palm branches (see below), but you wouldn’t want to let kids play with blessed palms!  Although, the palms would be great if you are only looking to make a small crown of thorns for decoration. You will need: Brown paper (I used a 12 x 18-inch sheet to make mine) Scissors Stapler I cut 12 x 18-inch paper into 4 long parts Cut one of the sections into three parts but leave them together on one end. Now braid it! Have you ever braided hair? If so this will be easy! If you are new to braiding you might what to try it with string or hair first. Paper braiding can be a bit tricky. I’ll see if I can explain braiding… You always use one of the side strips to cross over the middle one and the middle strip always changes. Always switch the strip that you use to cross the center one. First, the right strip crosses the center one, then the left strip crosses the NEW center one, which is actually the strip that was on the right. Now the right strip, which was the center strip in the first step, crosses the center and so on… When braiding paper: Flip the strips of paper as it crosses the center strip. (The top of the strip is now the bottom) -As shown in the pictures below. (Don’t flip the first two times you cross the center strip – because it doesn’t work!) If you don’t flip the third strip and those after it, the paper will just curl up as you braid and that will be difficult to manage. Also, make sure that you don’t try to make the braid tight or the paper will rip. Staple the ends.  Make as many as you need to get the size crown that you want. Now staple the end of one to the end of another. Staple them together to make a circle Snip small “thorns” in the edge of the braided strips. Cover the entire braided wreath with these points. You may need to curl the thorns out so you can better see them. The braiding may take a little bit to figure out, but once you can braid paper this project is easy!! Here is a picture of our Lenten cross with the paper crown of thorns hanging on it. You can also make a crown of thorns with a palm. This is the same technique as the Paper Crown of Thorns, the only difference is you tie the two ends together. God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

St. Anne. What kind of person was she when she was on earth? I imagine she was a hard-working, prayerful mom, who tried each day to run a home full of order, as well as, spirituality.  So with St. Anne as my inspiration, I decided I wanted to do a monthly link-up that centers around the Domestic Church! This would include any post about Catholic decor, crafts, and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization, or any other post that can help Catholic families find a more faith-filled-center in our everyday life. So grab your tea and a comfortable chair. Then share with us what works for you and your family and check out what other Catholics have to share with you. Hopefully, you’ll find something that can help you and your domestic church! I plan to open this link-up on the 22nd day of each month and it will be open for 10 days. So add your link below… A personal Update: About my Domestic Church and this Summer….. Many of you know very little about me. I’m not really a secretive person, I just don’t like to talk about myself, but I feel I need to talk about myself just so no one panics at my future absence… Almost four years ago my husband and I moved into a country home. A dream this farm girl had since the day we bought our first home in the suburban city. But to obtain that dream we bought a home that was in crazy bad shape!! In order to get the land, we sacrificed a nice house. To quote my second born, “Do we have to live in that dump?” Now, our first two homes were in need of repair, and my husband did an awesome job remodeling them, so this move didn’t sound too bad. Well, little did we know what we were doing! The past 4 years have turned out to be a huge struggle; the house was far worse then we thought!!!  Day after day we fixed plumbing problems, replaced broken windows, siding, the roof, cleaned out all the hidden trash that was left to rust and rot all over the land, and we painfully remodeled each and every holey, moldy, room! The house was also a bit small. All 10 (now 11) of us have been eating and homeschooling around a dining room table made to fit 4 people with no elbow room to speak of. So we decided that even though the existing house was still in bad shape we needed a larger dining room and a few more bedrooms. We started an addition 1 1/2 years ago. My Handy Hubby has been doing much of the work to save money and he’s still working on it. At that same time, my health was getting worse and I have had 3 surgeries and a baby (c-section). Because of home construction, a new baby, and my surgeries I’ve felt this past school year was not the best. But God has been pushing us along and things are starting to look-up! The addition is almost finished!! The house is starting to feel like home. And since my surgery in January I’m a new woman!! I’ve gotten so much accomplished in my domestic church!! I hope to finally be able to unpack my wall hangings and decorate this home the way I’ve been hoping to do for the past 4 years. During this summer I hope to hit things hard and fast! So, with all my plans in mind, I’m taking a vacation from blogging for a month (maybe more).  What do I have planned? Finish out the school year and win it back!! 😉 Help my Handy-Hubby finish that addition! Move into that new addition (Our tiny dining room will become a kitchen extension, the living room will be our new dining room, and the new addition will be a bigger living room. Plus the two new bedrooms!!! Yah!! Plant a garden!!!! Finally!!! Clean our 30×100 foot shed. Toss out all the former homeowners’ stuff and some of ours too! Wooo, that will be fun!! 😀 Finish cleaning up all the junk the former owner left laying all over the land! Build a deck?!?! Or is that too ambitious?!? I could go on, but I think that if I finish all that I will be doing really well!!!! So I will be a busy bee for the next few months!!!I will not be posting in the next month, after that, I’m not sure. Please pray for me! May God grant that I finally get my life back in order and hopefully my domestic church will feel more like a domestic church again! Thanks for any and all prayers. Until later, God bless. ~Jen-Marie Now it’s time for a Link-up Party!!!  I do plan to open this link-up on the 22nd day of each month and it will be open for 10 days.  The Rules: Please, add a post about Catholic decor, crafts, and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization, or any other post that can help Catholic families find a more faith-filled-center in our everyday life. Link to me on your blog/post so others can come and join in too! You may use one of my buttons if you like, or just make a text link of your own. Link-up No longer working... Sorry.

Hello friends, fellow bloggers, and anyone who is interested, I just wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a break from blogging for a while. I’m tying up all my loose ends and packing away my glue gun. I will be going in for surgery on January 12th and I need to use my free time for the next month to clean house, organize, and make/freeze meals before my upcoming surgery and recovery. If I finish up my “To-Do List” early, I may be back before the surgery but for now, I’m going to be busy with other things. Just so no one will worry unnecessarily, I’ll quickly explain my situation: Sadly, I need to get a hysterectomy. After years of seeing multiple doctors and trying multiple alternatives to correct my problems, my husband, and I have decided enough is enough. I’ve mourned terribly at the thought of not having more children for God, but I need to be a healthy wife and mother to the family God has already so graciously given me. This surgery will require at least two days in the hospital, but it could possibly be 5 days if I have scar tissue on my bladder. (which the doctor said is a possibility), plus 6 weeks recovery. My sweet mother will be helping to watch our 9 kids. Our kids are well behaved, but our baby, who’s 7 months old is very attached to me. So this will make things a bit harder for him and my Mother. Please, pray for them, too! So I’m going to take this minute to wish you all a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year! May you  all truly  find Jesus during this wonderful season! _____________________________

My kids and I have been having fun this week making “snow” to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Snows  Click here to see my post about Our Lady of Snows. This project is fun, simple, educational, and pretty!!!!Can’t get much better than that! My older kids and I have made these crystal snowflakes a number of times, but I thought it was time to share this awesome science/craft project with my younger kids! This project is also nice when teaching kids the science behind dissolving, crystallization, and molecules. You will need: 2 white pipe cleaners (for each snowflake) string a pencil, ruler, or stick a jar or tall container Borax (20 mule team) (3 tablespoons for each cup of water) Boiling water (enough to fill the jar / container) a towel Create a snowflake shape with the two pipe cleaners: Tie a string to the top of each Use the pencil/ruler/stick to hang the snowflake in the jar/container. Be sure the snowflakes don’t touch the bottom or sides of the jar. If you have more than one in the jar, be sure they do not touch each other. Check that they will be totally covered by the borax/water mixture. Now remove the snowflake and stick which holds it. Add one cup of boiling water to the jar at a time to see how many cups it takes to fill the jar. Add 3 tablespoons of borax for each cup of water. Stir until the borax is dissolved.  (Remind the kids that eating Borax will make them sick.) Place the snowflakes back into the jar.  (My kids added a few rocks to the bottom of the jar to collect the crystals that form on the jar’s bottom.) Allow them to sit for 12 to 24 hours. (The faster it cools the better.) As the water cools the Borax will crystallize on the snowflakes and the bottom of the jar. Then remove all the snowflakes, rocks, and crystals. Lay them out on a towel to dry. These are the crystals that collect on the bottom.Save those for my next post!It’s an art project for toddlers. A crystallized rock close-up A crystallized snowflake close-up After they were dry we used them to decorate around an image of Our Lady of Snows on our bulletin board! All my kids enjoyed this, but my younger kids loved the crystals, and my 8 and 9 year olds were fascinated with the way the crystals formed! Our Lady of Snows, pray for us! God Bless. ~Jen-Marie PS. Don\’t forget to take a look at Our Lady of Snows “magic” snow post Science fun for all ages!

Because St. Martin had a habit of giving his cloak to the poor he only has half a cloak. It’s a fun story…Read about St. Martin of Tours here . The silver/gray armor was bought, but the cloak is just a piece of red material. The “skirt” was hand made. I used a old belt, and leather-like material which was cut into strips to create this Roman apparel. Super-glue worked great for getting the two leather-like materials to stick together. The white under skirt was just a piece of white material. I also create gold circles on the skirt strips.I used a cap to make an indentation on the end of each flap, so I could use it as a guide to make them all the same size. Then I used gold fabric paint to make the gold buttons.

St. Francis of Assisi is such a awesome saint. Did you know there is a statue of him in Italy that always has at least one living white dove sitting on it all the time! He also had the stigmata! Read more  here . Our St. Francis has a white dove on his shoulder which I bought at the local craft store. I wrapped his hands with scrapes of white material and used a red sharpie to make the blood.  I purchased the brown robe.

St Dorothy (Patron of gardeners)Our little St. Dorothy is wearing a simple dress and an apron  with a shear pocket.The pocket is full of roses and apples. You could just put the roses and apples in a basket, if it’s easier. She is also wearing a rose and ivy wreath on her head, secured with hair clips.Read more about this saint  here.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Our Lady Of Mount Carmel is wearing a dark brown robe, a light brown clock, and a white veil and crown. She’s holding baby Jesus and a scapular. Read more about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel  here .

My oldest daughter (who is age 14 and has out-grown me!) wanted to be Kateri Tekakwitha for All Saints Day this year. Finding a modest Indian costume in a woman’s size is a difficult task. So we decided to try our hand at creating one from tan colored felt material. I don’t have a grand talent of sewing so our design needed to be simple.  Because this is made to fit my daughter I can’t give exact measurements, but I took a few pictures (actually it’s a lot!) so you could get the idea of how we made ours…. We used 3 felt sheets that measured 36 inches by 36 inches. Two of the felt sheets were used for the skirt: The other felt sheet was folded in half diagonally and made into the shirt: The only part that needed sewn was the bottom of the sleeves and in the arm-pit area. We didn’t even sew the sides – for ease of movement and removal. The two skirt parts were wrapped around the waste. The first one was pinned in the back. The second was wrapped around the waste and pinned in the front. This gave it a nice ruffled look. The top was then added. The pointed front and back covered our pins. Rachel did all the fringes and bead work. She added beads around all the edges. She also made the stick cross necklace and beads to wear around her neck. See another necklace idea here. And don’t forget the shoes…. How to make moccasins from flip-flops (Thanks  to my second oldest daughter for taking pictures.) The moccasins were fun! But please note: If you have a fidgety child don’t leave the child’s foot in the flip-flop as you work. My daughter is 14 and could stand 100% still as I used a glue gun around her feet.These were made totally from old flip-flops, light brown felt scraps, hot glue, string for lace, and Indian beads. Wrap a piece of felt around the front/top of each foot. Use a sharpie marker to trace around it. You must trace the bottom of the shoe edge. Cut it out. I flipped them over and switched the feet that I traced them from so you wouldn’t be able to see the marker line. Hot glue them to the side of the flip-flop. Again, don’t try this with the child’s foot in the flip-flop if you are working with a fidgety child. Wrap a long triangle piece of felt around the back edge of the flip-flop so each of the triangle’s side points wraps around to the front of the shoe. Hot glue it in to place by adding hot glue around the flip-flop’s edge. Fold the top of the triangle down and cut the top off. Use a string to sew through the two side felt pieces at the top of the foot. Tie it together. This creates a lace for a tight fit and easy removal. Cut off any extra felt that is hanging off the bottom. Cut fringes in the folded sides of the shoes. My daughter added beads to each shoe. Here is one finished with beads and here is the other one with out beads. They turned out great and she loves to wear them!! Her entire costume was fun to create and we are both pleased with how it turned out! Till later, God bless, ~Jen-Marie

Although I made this as a costume for my youngest son (age 1) It really is cute enough to make just as a decoration to hang out on Dec. 9 -12 for the feast of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Because my little guy is so small and will be growing out of it, I know I will use it as a decoration in the future!  🙂 Click here to read about Juan Diego. You will need: light brown felt an image of O.L. of Guadalupe appropriate size for the cloak / tilma (I used a coloring page that my 8 year old colored.) white glue a paint brush gold fabric paint (optional) artificial roses hot glue and scissors First, cut the felt into the size and shape you like for your tilma. Cover the back of your image with white glue. Place it glue side down onto your tilma and smooth it out. Now add more white glue to the top. Cover the entire picture and brush the glue off the edges, too. This helps to make the paper more pliable and stronger! Allow that to dry over night. After it’s dry you might have edges that could snag. Because mine was going to be worn by a toddler and I didn’t want him to be able to rip the image off, I trimmed the edge of the image with gold fabric paint. I spread the fabric paint over the edge of the image and onto the felt. This made the edges more secure and it looked really neat! Allow that to dry. (about 4 hrs. or more) Now I made a “cup” area on the bottom to hold the roses. I added a few drops of hot glue to the bottom area and pinched it together. I then arranged the roses and hot glued them in place. The next step is totally optional: I used a small straw hat as a counter weight…I tied the ribbons of the hat to the ribbons of the tilma. This worked well for my little guy so he could comfortably wear the tilma without having pressure around his neck. Isn’t he sooooo cute!?!?! The funny thing is that when he wears it he feels he needs to sit or kneel. So maybe I should make him wear it all the time to keep him out of trouble!! 😉 Thanks for visiting!! God Bless. ~Jen-Marie