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When I think of Christmas some of the things I think of are starry skies and sparkly lights. Often times that’s what you see in nice nativity scenes and pictures. Without the stars and the lights, Christmas might seem a little less magical. Yah, I know they are not the point of Christmas, but they do seem to help make the season feel more special. My 9 year old daughter, Elizabeth, helped me to create this starry sky in a bottle to add to our Christmas décor. It’s just perfect for sitting behind a small nativity!   Elizabeth did most of the painting in this project. She not only had fun doing it, she did a great job! You need: Bottle (We used a large wine bottle) Set of battery powered lights   -10 to 20 sized set (I bought ours at Walmart for $2) Mod Podge Blue food coloring drops Disposable bowl Paint brush wood skewers (optional) twine /ribbon (optional) (Walmart has well priced twine) Wax paper (optional) Pour about a half cup of Mod Podge into a disposable bowl. Add about 10 drops of food coloring. If you are using a large bottle, you may need to make 2 or 3 times that much. Using your paint brush mix the color into the Mod Podge until it’s one even color. You want the color to look like a medium blue. It will dry darker.  Stand your clean bottle onto the wax paper. Paint the bottle with the blue Mod Podge. It looks best when brushing from top to bottom. Be sure the bottle is totally covered, except the bottom. If the blue Mod Podge runs onto the wax paper it should be easy to peal off the wax paper when it’s dry, but you may wish to wipe away large amounts.  Let the bottle dry. Then, you may want to give the bottle another layer of blue Mod Podge to make it a darker blue.  If you want to store your blue Mod Podge till later place it into a zip-loc bag and store in a safe spot.  After you have painted the bottle with several layers of blue Mod Podge, it’s time to add the lights. I added two wooden skewers (criss-crossed) into the bottle so the lights didn’t just fall to the bottom of the bottle. Then I added the lights.   Once the last light was in the bottle’s neck I ran the light’s line down the outside of the bottles neck and tied it down with some twine. I made a bow with the twine on the front. The light’s line was run down the back so you can’t see it. The battery box was hidden behind the bottle and sitting on the table.  Now it's sitting on my window sill with a small Nativity.   It’s such a glowing and beautiful sight! Note: Sunlight will bleach the food coloring if it sits in the sun for a few months. Wishing you all a blessed Feast of the Epiphany! ~JenMarie

Last week my sister gave us a *NEW* book – Bambinelli Sunday: A Christmas Blessing !! My kids don’t often see *NEW* books!! Being a frugal mom who acquires all our family books from thrift stores, yard sales, or our local library, brand new books are a rare sight! So my kids were very impressed at the shiny new cover of this wonderfully illustrated book! Bambinelli Sunday is about a little boy who makes his own little Jesus out of clay. He and his Grandfather take it St. Peter’s square where it would be blessed by the Pope on this special day! Well, my kids were excited to read this cute book!! And that excitement spilled over into creativity! My kids and I decided to make a few Bambinellis of our own! Our little Jesus figures are not as fancy as the ones on the book, but they are easy enough for most kids to create! If your children are older or extra creative they may like to make their little Jesus fancier. We made our little Jesus figurines from salt dough, because my air-dry clay had dried out from the last time we used it. Air-dry clay will keep much longer and make a nicer figurine. The air-dry clay is also nicer if you have mice in the house like we had when I was a kid! 🙂 But the salt dough is easy to make and always on hand. Plus, it’s cheaper. So, fell free to choose the art-media that works best for you!  To make your own Little Jesus, you will need: Air Dry Clay or salt dough Salt dough Recipe:  1 cup white flour1/4 cup salt1/3 cup water Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable tooth pick cooling rack acrylic paint brown yellow light blue peach or tan paint brushes First create the base of the manger. Make an oval shaped ”bowl”.  Then make the hay. Make a flat pancake like circle and cut it into a ”sun” . I used a toothpick to cut the points into the edges.  Lay the hay into the manger, still keeping the bowl-like shape. Next make baby Jesus. Form an oval shaped ball that is smaller than your manger and hay. Be sure the ball is slightly flattened on the top and bottom. Use a tooth pick to make a circle for a face and the eyes and mouth. When using the toothpick to make the face, poke into the dough/clay don’t scrap it. If you scrap the clay/dough it will create a rough edge. Poking it will make it smoother. Place baby Jesus into the manger, on top of the hay. Place your baby Jesus onto a cooling rack for a few days to dry (both salt dough and air-dry clay take a few days to dry.). If you are using salt dough and you are in a hurry you can bake the figures in the oven at 300 degrees F till they are mostly dry (about an hour depending on the size of your figure). I don’t recommend this unless you keep a close eye on them as they bake. Sometimes the figures can start to puff, and that can ruin the look of your figure. Once they are dry you can paint them with acrylic craft paint .  I recommend you start from the bottom and work your way up. First paint the manger – brown Then the hay – yellow Jesus blanket – light blue then paint his face in peach or tan If you get too much paint in the eyes or mouth of your baby Jesus use a toothpick to open the holes up again.  Then, let it dry. If you like you may want to cover it with a sealer like Mod-podge or an other craft sealer. My kids had a grand time making all their figures!! Here are a few finished baby Jesus figurines! You may also like to read the book, Baminelli Sunday !! Personal  thought on this book : This book is super cute and we enjoyed it, but I do wish the little boy in the book was shown apologizing for a few things he did that may have hurt others. But the book gave me a opportunity to talk to my kids about the proper way to handle things when they make a mistake. ~*~ I thought it might be nice to have our parish priest bless our Bambinellis! It might give the kids a thrill!! But if you decide to get yours blessed, remember to bury them if they break. Don’t throw blessed items in the trash! Burying old, broken blessed items is a great family event. I save our broken, blessed items in a special cabinet and when I have a larger amount (every few years), we all take them outside to bury them. It teaches kids to respect sacred items, even when they are broken.  Hope you all had a blessed Bambinelli Sunday!! ~JenMarie

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas Day! Our family had a lovely day with lots of sweets! I\’m sure a few of my upcoming posts may seem a little out dated for those of you who don\’t celebrate Christmas past the 25th of December, but here at our house we celebrate all 12 days of Christmas. We create a huge amount of our Christmas crafts and treats, from Christmas-eve until the Epiphany (Jan. 6). So, if these seem out dated because you are packing away the tree, feel free to just bookmark or pin these posts for next year! On Christmas Eve, my kids and I made a few homemade ornaments from glitter foam and old Christmas cards (from last year).  It was very easy and fun for the kids and we loved the sparkly glitter foam, which made very little mess. The kids gave a few away to relatives on Christmas and hung the rest on our Christmas tree.  To make these ornaments we glued a few religious pictures on glitter foam using regular white glue.  You may need to hold the picture down for a minute if it wants to curl. Then we used silver glitter glue to trim the edges of the pictures. After that we added a few glitter star shapes to the edges. The stars we used were similar to these . After the glitter glue dried we poking a hook through the foam and hung them on our tree!  They turned out so nice and sparkly, and they were very easy to make! So, keep those old cards and make a few ornaments next year! Please, pray for me I’m always in need of prayers. ~JenMarie

Youth groups?! No, I don’t run a youth group, but if you look around my house you would think I run a daycare! So why do I care about ideas for youth groups? Well, a few years ago my oldest two daughters were looking forward to joining our parish youth group, but our parish youth ministry fell apart the same year that my oldest was old enough to join! Bummer – what horrible luck. I was asked if I was interested in helping to keep the group running, since I had the only kids in the parish that were willing to show up to the meetings, but I decided against it. You see, we attend Mass at a ”dying parish”. In other words, most of our parishioners are retirement age. There are very few kids in the parish and there are even less teens. It’s hard to keep a youth group running in a parish with such few youth. Plus, at the time when I was asked to help, I was very pregnant with our 9th baby, and I felt like a beached whale. I already had a full plate. But that doesn't mean I never plan to try my hand at running or helping with a youth group. I hope that in the future when my youngest few kids are old enough to be easily managed I’d like to start our parish youth group again or maybe join in with the youth group that is available in a neighboring parish, which is 45 minutes from our home. So I’d like to start posting some ideas that I feel may be helpful ideas for youth ministry. That way if I ever have an opportunity to help with a teen group I can look back through some of these ideas as a reminder of past thoughts. And I don’t think you’ll mind gaining a few ideas for your youth ministry, school, or homeschooling group, too.  I stumbled onto a video on YouTube while I was trying to look up a song my kids liked on our local Christian Radio Station. When I saw this I immediately thought ”WOW, that is sooo cool!!” (Is it still okay to use the word ’cool’?) ”This would make an awesome youth group project!” After I saw this one, I found LOTS more on YouTube from other groups! They are really amazing you should check them out! There are a number of videos on YouTube which show other groups’ performances! They are all amazing! So how did they do it? The kids all wear black, from head to toe, BUT they wear white gloves. Then they stand in front of a black background in a dark room. An ultraviolet fluorescent light (A.K.A. black light) is strategically placed in front of them facing up. Some groups recommended placing a second light above facing down. These lights need to be positioned so you only see the white gloves reflecting the light.    Now the kids need to come-up with hand signs to put together during a song. And practice, practice, practice! I asked a former electrical purchaser (now Electrical Project Manger) ,whom I’m married to, where to buy these UV lights and he said they can be found at any electrical shop or on-line. This is a great way for teens to preform and raise funds for pilgrimages or trips. Is your youth group looking for a fun new way to raise money to take a trip to the next World Youth Day? Or maybe it could be a nice way to get the kids to preform for local retirement homes as a service project. So get your group all decked-out in black garb and take the white gloves for a spin! This looks like it could be as much fun to create as it is to watch!! Have a blessed day! ~JenMarie

I was about to share this on my family blog, but then I thought you all might like to see it here, since it is a Catholic inspired idea…Over the past few days, we were blessed with over 18 inches of snow. My oldest daughter, Rachel, and a few of my younger daughters, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Abby, made this amazing Mary and grotto out of snow! The grotto stands about 5 feet high! I think Mary looks cuter in real life than she does in this photo. It can be so hard to get a good picture of snow. The girls also made snow-flowers and put them at Mary’s feet along with a few evergreen branches. I was shocked when I looked out my window and saw this huge grotto in the yard! They did an amazing job! I asked Rachel if they could make it again with concrete, because I’ll be so sad to see this melt. Although I sure am looking forward to spring! Personal Update: I really don’t have an update. But since some of you were asking if everything is okay, I thought I’d let you know that I was unable to get to the doctor’s yesterday (Friday) due to the snow. The doctor was going to tell me the results of the test, but the appointment was postponed till Monday. Hopefully we won’t get any snow on Monday, too! Yup, I’m soooo ready for spring! Have a blessed day! ~JenMarie

Teach kids a lesson on how to become happy! This worksheet I made to help kids focus on thankfulness. The title of the page was “A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart.” The page is a great project for St. Valentine’s Day or any day!! With this worksheet, kids can write what they are thankful for on the main page. If you are using this for St. Valentine’s Day, I think it would be nice to focus on those who the kids love and are thankful for.   They can decorate around the list if they like. This image sample is from a past post. The St. Valentine’s day list could be people the kids love and are thankful for. Then, they can colored and cut out the “happy” heart and stapled it to the main page. Create flaps that open to reveal the things the child is thankful for. This printable activity is free! Download this St. Valentine's Day Happy Heart Page here: This Happy Hearts Page has a Thanksgiving Version . If you would like to download those pages they are available in this post: Click Here. Have a blessed day, everyone! ~Jen-Marie

I wanted to share a child’s responsibility chart that I made for my younger kids. It’s not exactly “Catholic” except for the prayer section, but since I feel prayer is the most important part of this chart I thought some of my fellow Catholic moms might like to see and maybe even use it. Yes, I called it a responsibility chart, but you could also call it a chore chart. Personally, I think the word “chore” sounds so unfriendly compared to “responsibility”, but you are welcome to call it a “chore chart” if you want! 😉 If you think that name change was bad, you should hear some of the titles we say to replace the word “school”!! My kids grumbled at me one day when I said “Time for school.” So to make them laugh I started trying to make up titles to use instead of “school”. It made them laugh for a day, not so much anymore. What do you think of these new titles for school? – “Learning Love”, “Brain Juice”, “Mental Enhancement”, “Educational Play” and my personal favorite, “Anti-Starvation Preparation” (That one is referring to getting a job when they are older so they can buy food.). Sorry for the tangent, back to the chart … I tried to make this chart usable for kids who are not able to read. So I have a picture for each section to help remind the kids what they should do. That way they don’t need to ask me to read it each time they look at it. The chart includes: combing hair, making bed, brushing teeth, praying, general clean-up and much more! I also have listed “Read with reading buddy.” which is just a reminder to have my older kids read with the younger kids. My kids each have a “reading buddy” – that makes things a little easier on me. But if you only have young kids then mom, dad, and/or grandma can be the child’s “reading buddy”.As for the school section on the chart, (Yes, I titled it “school” not “Educational Play”) I have extra charts just for school subjects that the kids refer to. The younger kids’ school chart includes simple concepts like colors and letters, while the older kids’ charts have more advanced topics like reading and math. I laminated these for my kids, one for each -except my older kids. Yes, of course, I expect my older kids to comb their hair, pick up their toys, etc. – I just didn’t make them a chart for it! Although some days I think I need to! 😉 After the chart was laminated I added magnets to the back so we could hang them on the fridge! That works really well for us! We use a dry erase marker to check off what they have completed each day.  Download the Chore Chart Here: Dry erase marker typically wipes off easily, but if your laminated sheets begin to get messy looking from the dry erase markers, just use a napkin and a few drops of rubbing alcohol to wipe the sheet off. That will normally make it look almost like new! Personal Update: SHOCKING NEWS! I did get to the doctor to get the test results about the lump/cyst which they removed last week. I’m not sure if the news is good or bad, but it was NOT something I wanted to hear. I have endometreosis ! I was truly shocked! Well, it could be a lot worse, but sadly, my pain is not going away anytime soon. It looks like I’ll just need to figure out a how to live with it. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers, comments, emails, and support! It has been so nice knowing I have such a great group of people praying for me and supporting me on this journey. Thank you, again. ~JenMarie

My oldest daughter, Rachel, (age 15) asked to have a sleepover-party with a few of her Catholic friends. She doesn’t normally ask for too much so I really wanted to make this happen. Aside from all our other fun party plans Rachel wanted a craft or two to do with her friends. I came up with two things for the girls to create and I want to share the craft that the girls absolutely LOVED!!!!!  My daughters and I all agreed that this craft is ”addicting”! We all just wanted to keep making them!!  These saint medal necklaces are perfect for Catholic teen’s parties, youth groups, or even All Saints Day parties! They would also make perfect DIY gifts!!BUT here’s a caution to those interested in making these: Be prepared to make more than one pendant, because no body could stop at just one!  To make these saint medal pendants you will need: Saint Medals (no jump-ring  is needed) Washers (We used ¼ x 1¼ sized. A box of 100 only cost $1.50 at our local hardware store.) Nail Polish (LOTS of colors – We bought ours at the Dollar Tree) Nail-art glitter or other glitter (We bought ours at the Dollar Tree, also.) Clear nail polish or clear glittery nail polish (A must if you use glitter) String (we used black waxed string we bought at A.C. More) Fun-Tak or other mounting putty (Found at Wal-mart in the stationary section *Or use super-glue if you prefer.) The first thing you need to do is paint a washer with nail polish. This is the fun part!!! Add glitter while it’s still wet, and allow that to dry. Once it’s dry coat it with clear nail polish (or clear-glitter polish) This will help seal the glitter in place. It also just makes it look more finished. Cut a string to the length you desire. We found that 24 inches seemed to work well. Thread the open ends of your cut string through the saint medal hole. Like this:  Add the washer to the looped end, like this:  Now thread the cut ends into the looped end, like this:  Pull it all tight, and keep the cut ends as even as you can. Center the medal in the center of the washer. The medal will pop out as pictured below:   Add a small ball of mounting putty to the bottom-back of the medal. Press the medal down against the washer to stick them together. You could super glue the medal down, but I wanted to keep the medals nice in case the girls wanted to change the backing that they painted. It should look like this: As for the cut ends of the string, we tied a loop in one end and a large knot in the other so it can be easily taken on and off. You could buy clasps to attach to the ends if you wish.  Here are some of the beautiful necklaces the girls made.(The pictures don’t do them justice! They are so sparkly and shinny!!) The example pictures above are only a few that my daughters and friends created. Yes, these are addicting!!!  I have a feeling we will be making more soon!! God Bless! ~JenMarie

I have always loved the ocean. Although I have never lived very close to the ocean, I have always (even as a child) enjoyed painting pictures of the ocean. I feel that God is portrayed so well in an image of the ocean: for God is unending, wide reaching and can be peaceful, yet powerful!! -For He is Almighty, and yet a loving Father! Have you ever heard the phrase ”Stella Maris”? That is Latin for ”Star of the Sea”. This name has been given to Our Lady. Many sailors have prayed to ”Stella Maris” to ask her to pray for protection. What a beautiful thought: Our Lady watching over theses men and women as she asks Jesus to calm the storms and give these faithful travelers safe passage across the wild waves in the ocean. Even as we travel through our daily lives we can ask Our Lady to intercede for us and ask Jesus to guide us and protect us as we journey on our way through life.  For Mary’s love is a wide as the ocean and she would be willing to ask Jesus to help all those who have requested her intercession. Jesus will listen to His mother! I have created a craft that depicts Mary asking Jesus to protect travelers on the ocean.  Our Lady Star of the Sea ~ Candle or Bottle Craft I made two versions of this craft. One is made from an old spaghetti sauce jar and holds a candle. The other is in a empty wine bottle. Depending on how you like to decorate, you may like one version over the other.  You will need: a jar (wide mouth) or bottle (with cap) candle / tea light ~ if you are using a wide mouth jar sand (dry) small stones different sized sea shells Mod Podge and brush clear-glitter nail polish (optional) twine or raffia hot glue picture of Mary (click here) Print out the correct size image to fit the bottle/jar you are using. Cut out the image and place it in a sheet of scrap paper. Using a brush, lightly cover the front of the image with Mod Podge. Place the image face-side against the bottle.  Be sure to pay attention to the bottle’s seams. The seams should be on ether side of the image (So you can see the image clearly.)  Press the image down onto the bottle. Start pressing from the middle of the image out to the edges, so you don’t get air bubbles. Then you can roll the bottle over a folded towel to help press the image down.  Now you are ready to cover the back of the image with Mod Podge. Cover the whole image and the very edge of the image. This will help to hold it in place and seal it. Allow that to dry. Once the Mod Podge is dry you can add a little glitter nail polish to the edge of the image. This is optional. I just liked the look it created. Plus it helped to insure the image doesn’t peel away from the bottle.  Then I added some twine to the neck of the wine bottle. (as pictured) I wrapped the twine around the wide mouth jar several times to cover the ridges in the glass cap area. After I added the twine, I hot glued an arrangement of shells and a medal on to the twine.  A Stella Maris medal would be great!! I added a little glitter nail polish on my shells to make them glitter, too. Now it\’s time to add the sand! I rolled up a sheet of paper to make a funnel and I poured in about a cup of sand. This will create dust inside jars with tall necks, like a wine bottle.  This dust will eventually settle, but some may rest to the sides of the jar. This dust can be wiped off with a long bent stick (I used a bent skewer) Tape a piece of tissue to the end of the stick.   The spaghetti sauce jars didn’t seem to collect the dust so this won\’t be necessary if you are using a wide mouth jar.   Then add your candle (if you are using a wide mouth jar), stones, and shells.  You will need a long lighter or a lighting stick to light your candle.  Don\’t forget to put the cap/cork on your wine bottle!  Our Lady Star of the Sea, Pray for us! Ask Jesus to protect us in times of hardship and keep us in His care.

Here’s a new Perler melting bead pattern! It’s the Holy Eucharist, chalice and grapes. Download this pattern ! Download the Perler Bead Pattern here: They are great projects to keep kids busy!! Hope you are all having a great summer! God bless! ~Jen-Marie

Here is a fun and easy cake to make for St. Joseph’s Feast day! I “saw”  this cake over at Coolest Birthday Cakes and thought it would make a great cake for St. Joseph’s day! To create a cake like this, just make a regular chocolate cake in a 13 x 9 inch pan. Once it’s cooled, cut it in-half longways. Place one part on top of the other -spreading a little chocolate icing in the middle to keep them together. I used one container of white icing mixed with about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of peanut butter and a few spoonfuls of chocolate icing to create the tan colored icing.  (Too much peanut butter will make the icing VERY thick) Then I covered the cake with that icing mixture. Next, I added strips of chocolate icing to the peanut butter mixed icing. This will create the wood look. Make some straight lines and one or two “U” shaped lines.  I dabbed the short ends with chocolate icing to look more like cut wood. Download for the instructions and saw image: To create the “saw” I cut shapes from gray and brown paper. Then I laminated so it would with-stand the moisture from the icing. This saw is about 1 foot long. Or download the PDF Instructions with a saw image - above. Last but not least, stick the saw into the cake! If you are skilled at fondant icing I’m sure you could decorate the cake with that and make this cake even cooler!! 😉 Blessings to you all! ~Jen-Marie

Add a little Catholic flare to your St. Patrick’s day treats! Yes, I know it’s Lent, but how can you not celebrate such a great saint!! Actually, since St. Patrick’s Day falls so close to Sunday this year we are holding our celebration on Sunday – just so we can still stick with our Lenten sacrifices. Here are two different cupcake toppers to help decorate at your celebration, too!! Notice the cute little rainbows? They are just a few mini candy canes that we had leftover from Christmas. I stuck them into the cupcake to form the rainbow! The kids thought it was hilarious! The paper cupcake toppers are easy to make. Just cut out the images from the printable and tape the top half of a toothpick to the back. Then stick the bottom half of the toothpick into the cupcake! Easy fun! Download this style here: Download the rainbow Style Here: Hope you all a have a blessed Week! ~Jen-Marie