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As Lent moves along, kids (and grown-ups) forget that it’s still a time for sacrificing. I see my kids (and myself) lapsing on the sacrifices. So, to get us all back on track my kids and I made a “cross tree” as a reminder to keep it up.  Our tree is full of  “no complaint crosses”. Each cross has a task written on it. These tasks are things the kids should do without complaint! The key point here is “without complaint”. I don’t know about all of you other moms out there, but my kids will do the task given to them after they voice their complaint! I remind them that Jesus took his sufferings without complaint and we all need to do our daily duties without complaint, too!  Each of the crosses have a daily duty listed on them. The daily duties are things that we have to do each day, but they are things that we should do without complaint. Some of the things that we wrote on the crosses were: “doing our chores”, “helping our brothers and sisters”, “brushing our teeth”, “cleaning our room”, plus, things like “no wining, instead asking nicely”, or “no complaining about others”, “don’t complain when you are bored”, “no complaining about the temperature in the room” (that’s a hard one for me) etc… We easily added 20 crosses to our tree. It was a great reminder for the kids to keep the Lenten sacrificing in mind throughout the day and to not complain about the things we can do as a sacrifice for God! How we made our tree: I printed the crosses onto purple paper. (purple for sacrifice) Just cut a piece of purple construction to a size that will fit into your copier. I printed the second and third pages onto red paper.(red for Christ’s Passion) The kids made a list of daily activities, which they should do without complaint. I wrote them on the crosses for the younger kids and they hung them on the tree. We made our tree with sticks and an old glass jar filled with rocks (to weigh it down). They can even add a cross whenever they think of another situation when they shouldn’t complain. Download Preview: Download the Tree Ornaments Here: I think kids need to be reminded that complaining is not good. And hopefully I won’t have to say, “I’m sure Jesus never complained to his mother when she asked him to sweep the floor.”  lol! Really, my kids are pretty good kids! But we all need to be reminded to do our daily duties without grumbling – even me! May God Bless the remainder of your Lent! ~Jen-Marie

This post contains 2 downloads... Be sure to get both!! We’re having a little fun learning about the Conclave!! Conclave Reading Comprehension First, I made a reading comprehension printable about the Conclave and the way a new pope is elected. The comprehension print-out  also has a page of questions and an extra page of fun facts! I made this to suit my 3 to 6 graders, but it can be used as a guide for younger grades. It’s also acceptable for higher grades. Here is the first of 2 downloads on this post. It's the Reading Comprehension Pages: Conclave Smoke Craft After reading the above print-out we made this craft; It’s a model of the smoke stack/chimney on the Sistine Chapel, which signals to the people outside whether or not a new pope has been chosen. This model of the Sistine Chapel’s Chimney includes a puff of white smoke and a puff of black smoke! This is the 2nd download on this post. Download the Chimney Stack Smoke craft here: I hope this helps you teach your kids about this amazing time in history! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

We said a sad good bye to Pope Benedict XVI this past week. It broke my heart, but I have high hopes that he didn’t leave unless he was sure a grand man was going to replace him. Before long, the Conclave will begin and a new pope will be chosen. I am planning to have a small party in honor of our new pope. I made a few things for my kids to have and do at our party. Here they are: Learning about the Papal Insignia This printable explains the symbolism in the Papal Insignia. I made one in color to show to the kids and one that that they can color. I also made one in color! Download the Papal Insignia Pages here: God Bless Our Pope Hats/Miters I plan to have my kids color the miter, cut them out and wear them. Just staple (or tape) the strips to the miter and staple the ends together. Download the Miter page here: St. Peter’s Square and Papal Flag Cupcake Toppers Just print out the printable page, cut out each image and tape the top of a toothpick to the back of each. Download the Cupcake toppers here: Pass the Papal Keys Game Keys are a symbol of St. Peter and the “keys to the Kingdom” They are also a symbol of the pope! Peter passed the keys to the next pope after he died and each pope has passed them to the new pope who was chosen after him. Draw a set of keys on a yellow balloon and let the kids pass “the keys” to each other. If you have older kids who know some past popes, have them say a name of a pope when they touch the balloon. Simon Peter Says Game This is a game I have talked about in an old post click here to read about it. Still need to teach about the Conclave? Reading Comprehension Printable It’s a great *easy* way to teach kids… click here  to learn more Conclave Smoke Craft Click here for the printable and to see how to make it Till next time, God bless, ~JenMarie

Lent is the perfect time to get you and your family into the habit of saying a daily rosary! If you start saying the Rosary as a sacrifice during Lent, you can keep going even past Lent!  That\’s how our family started saying our daily Rosary together. That was about 7 years ago and I have to tell you, the blessings that God has showered on us have been amazing! I can really feel that God is helping us during our everyday life when we are saying our daily Rosary! In the past 7 years we had a few weeks when life was extra busy and our Rosary was forgotten. During those times when we neglected to say our Rosary, I felt that the devil was at me more and the kids seemed more agitated! Saying the Rosary really does seem to help us all in our everyday life!  So I highly recommend saying a family Rosary!  I know life may seem busy already, I feel that, too! But I’ve seen how God ”pays you back” in other ways. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not instantaneous. It takes days, weeks or even months, but God always seems to help us more if we pray our daily Rosary. No, He’s probably not going to send angels to do your work like he did for St. Isidore, but I’ve seem small changes that have made a BIG difference in my life!  It just takes trust! Trust that the best thing to do is this one thing for God and that God will not leave you alone. He will help you if you are trying to live a holy life. Always remember, you fight his fight and he’ll fight yours. I’m sure many of you are asking yourself: ”How can I say a Rosary with so many little kids?”  I totally understand how you feel. I said that to my self many times. I have 9 kids, ages 14 to 1. Well, here are a few of the tricks I found helped to make our daily Rosary happy and more peaceful. __________ 1. Pick a time and stick with it Pick a time of day that works for you…after school, before dinner, etc. and stick with that same time each day. If the kids learn to expect it they will not feel as upset about it. A set time will help them mentally prepare. We normally say the Rosary at one of two times each day: We often say it at 3:00 (Jesus’ Hour) when the little ones are tired. The Rosary often helps them to fall asleep.  If we can’t say it at 3:00 due to an appointment or other conflict, we say our Rosary at night after the kids have had their night time snack and the little ones are ready for bed. 2. Have Rules: Be sure the kids know what you expect of them. Tell them each day before you begin. They will need a daily reminder until they are in a groove and just know what to do. If they don’t obey the rules during the Rosary, take away a privilege. For example: After our 3:00 Rosary my older kids have their daily ”free-time”. So they know they have to be good during Rosary to receive that ”free-time” privilege. If they are not good, they give 20 minutes of that free time to me to do extra chores. (I’ve never had to actually enforce that -I’ve only needed to tell them and they were good!) It’s very important that the room you are praying in is clean. It should have no toys, books, or other things that could distraction them. The bigger kids must stay sitting or kneeling. The little ones must stay laying down, sitting or kneeling. Allow the younger kids to have a pillow and blanket, too, but no toys or books -unless they are rosary books! It did take a few days to get them to understand the ”no toys, stay sitting” rules!! I just had to keep bringing them back to the room and taking toys. Be strong, don’t make a fuss. Just bring them back and sit them down and begin to pray again. You can say, ”It’s time to pray”, but you must remain calm. Once the Rosary becomes an everyday event the kids just learn to except it. Now my little kids just lay down and often times they fall asleep. 3. ”Family” Rosary – the whole family – Really? I know I say ”Family Rosary” but personally, we don’t pray as a ”family” everyday. My husband is often not with us. I’m sure many families have this same problem. Moms, I feel it’s better that we say a Rosary without dad than to not say a rosary at all. My husband says his Rosary as he drives home from work, but we do say our Rosary together, as a complete family, on Saturdays and Sundays. Do your best to make it a daily family event, but worse case, just get as many family members involved as you can! 4. Pray with a DVD: Years ago when we started saying the Rosary as a family we used Rosary DVDs. It helped the kids to learn how to say the Rosary and the images helped them to stay focused. It was great to begin this way. I was able to keep praying as I ”trained” the kids. Plus, the older kids didn’t need to stop and wait as I chased down a toddler! 😉 We got the DVDs from EWTN, but they might be cheaper somewhere else. The DVDs I found to be the best ones for kids are: ”Rosary in the Holy Land” (The one in the picture is different than mine, but I guess it’s the same.) For Holy Land Rosary Link ~Click here! ”The Holy Rosary” -it’s the one with the stain glass window pictures. Click here to buy it from EWTN Note: The Rosary DVDs which are made special for kids are often too distracting and seem to make them think’s playtime!! (all kids are different, so you be the judge of what works for your kids.) 5. Pray with Pictures: We also have pictures of each of the 20 mysteries. They are 8×10 inches in size so you can put them in a poster frame or in plastic sheet covers and place them in a 3 ring binder. Just turn to the correct picture for the Mystery you are reciting.  For 20 Mysteries Prints ~Click here! We also have small Rosary books to help them follow along.  My little ones like to compare the pictures in the Rosary book to the pictures on the Stain Glass DVD! For example, they see the Holy Spirit in the picture on the book and they find the Holy Spirit in the pictures on the DVD. It can keep them calm for awhile!. Pray with Scripture: Sometimes we will read scripture verses before each Hail Mary. This helps the kids have something to think about during each prayer.  ”Rosary of Praise” or ”Scriptural Rosary” are good books to use for this. 7. Think outside the Box!! – Other ways to pray. We have also said the Rosary on the drive home from different events. A few times we have loaded the kids in the van to say the Rosary while trying to get a baby to sleep. It might help to get an Audio CD for your car or van. We have said the Rosary while walking outside around our house. The kids find this fun, as they follow ”Mamma Duck”! If you don’t want to go outside, then walk around inside. If your toddler seems very wild, try putting him/her in a stroller and pushing the stroller around as you pray. If you don’t have a room large enough try pushing the stroller back and forth. This has often worked for many of my young kids.  We also like to pray with our Pro-life Giant Rosary. Click Here  for this printable giant Rosary to build as you pray. 8. Distracted Kids? If you’ve been saying the Rosary for a little while and the kids seem to be loosing interest, change the way you say the Rosary. In other words: if you have been using a scripture book, switch to a DVD or try walking around the room. Making a switch will help them refocus. 9. Other thoughts: It might help if you start saying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy first, then after a few days/weeks switch to the Rosary. Try taking turns: Give each of the kids a turn leading a decade of the Rosary. If you plan to buy or make Rosaries for children, I recommend ”all-twine knotted Rosaries” or rosaries made from string. Any Rosary with medal loops are very easy to break. 10. Try these Printables: I made a few sheets to help my kids during our Rosary. (I'm always trying new things to keep them interested) These are the sheets to use as you pray - Click here Print them out and laminate them (or use plastic sheet covers).  Then the kids can use them to follow along as they pray. They can use a dry erase marker to fill in the rosary beads on the sheet as they pray each prayer.  ** Click here ** to read more and download them for your kids! __________ If you are considering trying to say a daily Rosary together as a family, I hope this can help you to get you started. –For God will surly bless you if you try to pray the Rosary! Till next time! ~JenMarie

Tuna balls!  I can’t begin to tell you how much my kids and I like these! I started making these for Lent more than 8 years ago, and they are still well loved! My kids love the taste and I love the versatility!  They are a great on-the-go meal! Easy to eat in the car or when we’re out of the house. I can make a batch the night before a trip, put them in the fridge, and before we leave I put them into a cooler with a few other munchies, like carrots or crackers. It’s an easy to eat meal that’s ready to go! Plus they aren’t too messy for kids to eat!  Sometimes, when we are at home, my kids like to dip them in warm tomato sauce or cheese sauce. And I personally, love them in a salad! (see below) They are also a fun, easy, healthy, snack for toddlers! When they are hungry just hand them a ball from the fridge! My one year old calls them ”Happy Balls”! And they do make him happy!  😉 Tuna Ball Recipe: 6 cans of tuna (drained and crumbled with a fork) 3/4 cup ranch dressing or mayonnaise  or sour cream  (we try all of them) 3 eggs  1 cup bread crumbs (I use Italian ~ I used crushed corn flakes, too) 1 cup graded Parmesan cheese 1 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese Mix all ingredients together. Make sure the large pieces of tuna are crushed and well mixed.  Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place them on a greased jelly roll cooking sheet ~OR~ If you are in a hurry, you can press the mixture into a 13×9 inch greased pan, or two 8×8 inch pans. (But the balls bake nicer and more evenly) Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes; until the cheese is bubbling and they are getting brown. They will be a lightly crisped on the outside and softer in the middle. The balls are better eaten warm but they are also very good cold. This recipe will make about 100 balls (100 balls doesn’t go very far for our family of 11! We often make two batches!) Note: I’ve kept them in the fridge for over a week with no problem.  Tuna Ball Salad ( My Favorite) Break up 4 to 5 tuna balls into chunks and add it to a plate of lettuce.  Drizzle the lettuce and tuna ball chunks with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Sometimes I add Swiss cheese pieces! YUM!  I hope you like them as much as we do! Have a blessed Lent! ~JenMarie

Here are a few sites that have some great  Holy Thursday – Last Supper – Passover ideas. If you are looking for some ideas and activities to make Holy Thursday more interesting for your kids check-out these links: Monica at is offering a free sample of her book. The free sample has some great Seder Supper ideas! Here is another great resource for Maundy Thursday Jessica at has some cute ideas! Check them all out! has a great unleavened bread recipe. Jamie Jo at has her kids wash each others feet See this post here . Here are a few coloring pages from Holy Bible Coloring pages: You might like the diorama we have listed on our blog: Agony in the Garden Here is a charoset recipe we learned from our local church\’s prayer group: Easy Charoset 2 cups applesauce (unsweetened) 2 cup finely crushed/chopped pecans 1/2 cup of honey (or less – add to taste) 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 cup of chopped dates and/or raisins (optional) Mix all the ingredients together. Chill and serve cold with matzah.  May you have a blessed Holy Thursday! ~JenMarie

Just a few days ago I was talking to my oldest two daughters about how having a Santa on the top of a Christmas tree is a sign of how people focus on the wrong thing at Christmas.  Later that night I went to the Dollar store. While I was there finishing my Christmas shopping, I saw a cute little Santa tree topper sitting there with his 3 identical companions.  In an instant, a *Catholic Inspired* thought popped in to my head and so I bought one and brought it home. Needless to say I totally confused my teen girls as they questioned why I bought a Santa tree topper! Oh, they should know me by now, but I had to assure them that I was not adding it the top of our tree! And then I gave that Santa tree topper a Catholic Inspired extreme makeover: From Santa to St. Nicholas!! With a little bit of red and white felt, small and medium sized gold ribbons, and gold pipe cleaners, I was able to take this $1 Santa tree topper and turn it into a St. Nicholas doll!  Abracadabra! The kids think I’m magic Mom! 😉 And the only thing that I had up my sleeve was a hot glue gun! Ouch!! Oh, no, not really, that could hurt! And no magic, only God’s inspiration! 😉 Here are a few pictures of what I did to inspire you if you find a Santa you would like to “convert”! His hat was just red felt cut into a miter shape, and trimmed with gold ribbon. For the bottom I added a triangle shaped piece of white felt over top the red and trimmed it with gold ribbon. (I burned the ends of the all ribbons so they don’t fray.) His staff is three gold pipe cleaners twisted together. All felt and ribbons were hot glued down, because I’m not very good at sewing! Kids are easily amazed! And mine were totally amazed! 😉 Hope you are all having a blessed day! ~Jen-Marie

A few weeks ago, I was telling our kids the story of the day my little brother and I got lost in the snow covered woods as we looked for a mini cedar tree. We lived on a 60 acre farm with lots of woods, and I had this crazy desire to put a small tree on our dinning room table and decorate it! Ya, I was crafty back then, too! 😉 So after telling my younger brother about my plan, he grabbed a shovel to tag along! (I was about 10, he was 8)  So the two of us wondered through the woods in search of the perfect little tree to do the job. After searching and searching we began to realize we had no idea where we were! Well, fear not – I used my knowledge of the sun to find the way back home! But it was a day I’ll never forget! Well, after sharing my story with my kiddos, my 8 year old daughter, Elizabeth, had a fetish with the idea of having a Christmas tree in her bedroom! I told her I didn’t recommend that she wander through our woods to find one! But I wandered through the Christmas section of Wal-mart and found a few miniature, sparkly Christmas trees – and I didn’t even get lost!! 😉 These little trees were made to be used in one of those miniature Christmas villages. I bought 4 trees, at a dollar a piece, and gave one to each of my youngest girls.  They decorated them with sparkly pipe-cleaners and pony beads. I helped to hot glue the parts and pieces down.  They just loved them and now they each have a tree in there bedroom. Little Naomi (with mom’s help) discovered that they worked great in her doll house as a Christmas Tree for her dolls!  Such a simple joy and without the fear of getting lost! 😀 Hope your Christmas Season is joyful and peaceful! Blessings, ~Jen-Marie

Merry Christmas, everyone!! The time of preparation and waiting is over! And what a wonderful day our Lord has blessed us with! Yesterday, our Advent Tree bloomed into a Christmas Tree!! It’s filled with our kids Boyd’s Bear ornaments and sparkling stars, which our kids made many years ago. Our tree has been “baby proof” for several years now and I’ve grown quite fond of the paper stars and teddy bears! 😉 This morning, 3 presents  for each of our 9 kids (3 gifts each – in honor of the gifts of the Wisemen) surrounded our Christmas tree and the most important present of all  lay in our wooden manger. Jesus wore a bow and a tag that read: We also were blessed with a white Christmas!! We haven’t had one of those for 10 years. The snow started late Christmas Eve, and created a bit of a concern as to our ability to get to Mass in the morning. By the Grace of God we had no problem getting our 15 passenger, rear-wheel drive, maxi van out of the snow covered drive way! I hope and pray you all had a blessed Holy Day! And now that the wait is over it’s time to celebrate! So this week I’ll be sharing a few other things my kids and I will be doing in honor of Christ birth! Blessings to you all! ~Jen-Marie

Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar are still searching for Baby Jesus…. And now, here are the next three days of their crazy adventure: Searching for Jesus ~ Day 8 Okay, now who came up with this idea!? Balthazar, was it you!? I think these poor little guys are starting to get desperate!  Balthazar and Melchior used a rubber band to sling-shot Caspar up to the ceiling fan!! I guess for a better view?! I told you Caspar is daring! He actually let them talk him into that?!Now how is he going to get down?! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 9 Oh no! Using a string Balthazar and the camel lowered Melchior down to the ceiling fan switch and turned it on! It made Caspar fly off the fan and into the Christmas tree!!! Well that’s one way to get down! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 10 Balthazar and Melchior used their string to send Caspar a “life line”. Good thing Caspar had his staff to reach it!! Now he can climb out of the Christmas tree! Since they got out of that catastrophe, I think they can continue to search for Baby Jesus tomorrow!  Wishing you and yours a blessed New Year!! ~JenMaire

Happy feast of the Epiphany! What a blessed day! And I thought I’d share the craft my 8 year old daughter and I made yesterday. We made three glittery crowns and they made a great centerpiece for our table! It’s so simple, but it uses glitter! Now I know many moms hate glitter, but I love glitter! It’s such a fun way to decorate! Besides it’s Christmas time! You have to use glitter and be messy at Christmas or it just doesn’t feel like Christmas.  😉 So here’s what you need: 2 toilet paper tubes white glue  paint brush glitter scissors I also used a zip-lock bag for the glitter (to make it less messy) Cut the toilet paper tubes in half and cut out triangle shaped wedges at top of each half tube to make a crown shape. You need three crowns for the 3 kings! Paint white glue all over the outside of the crown. Roll the crown in glitter till it’s covered. I put my glitter in a zip-lock bag to help keep the mess at a minimum. Spread the glitter out inside the bag and roll the crown around in it. Knock off the extra glitter before taking it out of the bag.    That’s it! You now have a shinny gold crown! Now do it again 2 more times to make three crowns. We added LED tea-lights to the center of ours and placed them under our mini tree with our wisemen figurine.  It looked so neat as the light made the glitter shine off the table top! 🙂 Did I mention I love glitter! These crowns would be a great craft for Our Lady’s Queenship or the feast of Christ the King, too!

Let’s see what the three Kings are up to!!!They are still looking for the Infant Jesus! Here are the next three days…. Wisemen Adventures Days 14 to 16 This is our Elf on the Shelf Alternative: If you missed the first few post click here to learn the whole story! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 14 Once again Balthazar seems to be ordering Melchior to go out on a limb (or a stocking) to search for the infant Jesus! Caspar is more interested in seeing how far he can go as he balances himself on the stocking holder! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 15  The Wisemen know that Bethlehem means “house of bread” so they thought they would look for Jesus where we keep our bread – the fridge! Balthazar and Melchior spread out like to jam to cover more ground while Caspar readies himself to hide among the eggs and spring out at Melchior! I don’t think his white turban looks enough like an egg to fool Mel! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 16 Melchior is taking this searching seriously, and now he got caught in the tissue box!  Balthazar tries to pull him out…one tissue at a time! What a mess! Poor Mel, but at least his stuck in a soft spot!  Caspar fell in love with the soft fabric of the tissues! So he made himself a cloak! It’s very kingly and it matches his turban! I hope Balthazar and Melchior aren’t getting too frustrated with their failed search! Caspar seems to be having fun!! 😉 Let’s see how tomorrow goes! Blessings till then! ~Jen-Marie Meet Our New Patron Saint for the New Year!! Thanks to  Allison for helping us pick our family’s patron saint for the new year! This year our patron saint is  St. Genevieve ! And her feast day is today!!!! (Jan 3) Check her out she’s an awesome saint!!