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

Happy All Saints day!!!I thought I’d share a display I made with my kids today! During our art class today we made these cute twisted trees and pumpkins! See the instructions for this tree at  Pikadilly Charm  and the style in which I made the paper pumpkins is similar to these . And then I printed off a few pictures of my kids in there saints costumes and we stood them around our trees! I used a paper clip to stand the photos of the kids. Just unfold it and tape one end onto the photo as pictured below. We have a whole parade of saints!! Click image to enlarge it The kids are just loving it!! 😉 Hope you are having a blessed feast day! ~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

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! _____________________________

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

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

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

Here is a simple craft to color and create for the Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25)! Download this Annunciation Craft Here: Just print the free PDF file (found above) onto stock paper or heavy paper. Color it and add a prayer list inside the blocks. (Using Crayons? Add the prayer list first and color over top with light colors. If you are making this with small children you may need to write the list on the back.) The list can be anyone you want to ask Mary to help and protect. Then cut along the outside edge of the shape. Fold along the lines marked with the arrows and stand it up. Now place it on a table or altar. Have a blessed Solemnity of the Annunciation! ~Jen-Marie

Some days I feel like my kids are second-class homeschoolers. Almost every other homeschooling family I know is paying to put their kids in some kind of music class.  Weather it’s piano, guitar, viola, or flute, they are paying for these super expensive music lessons. Sadly, our family is unable to pay for music lessons for all 9 of our kids. So I signed-up our kids for our parish’s children’s choir. Unfortunately, since our kids were the only ones to join, the choir soon disbanded. I was in the choir as a teen and I’ve been told I’m a good singer, so my husband and I asked our parish priest for a few extra music books like those we had at the church. We started singing Mass songs each evening with the kids. My oldest became quite good at singing a capella  and I’ve been very pleased with her growing talent – especially since she learned from an amateur vocal teacher (me). Singing church music is a great way to teach kids a few basics, but I was looking for another way to teach music that would help them to understand music history, vocabulary, as well as, learn a little about how important music is. Many of the early composers played their music in Catholic Churches and they built the foundation of the music which the Catholic Church uses today. I thought it would be interesting to learn about the lives of these composers. The has a number of books about these early church composers, as well as many other famous composers. I tried one of these book sets out last year. For our first year we choose Bach . The main book is a story book which tells all about Sebastian Bach . The story is cute and draws you into Bach’s world. It tells about his childhood, his family, and his career. I also bought the companion CD which has samples of his music. These samples are meant to be played during many different parts of the book. The CD not only includes the MP3 music samples, it also includes printable coloring pages and sheet music (not that my kids can use the sheet music!). The study guide was also a great help. It gave a short synopsis of the reader, discussion questions, a timeline, plus, some other interesting facts. I used this set it for all my elementary level (grades 2 – 7) kids.  It was an easy read for the older kids and too hard for the youngest, but understandable as a whole. When I first introduced this book and CD to my kids they were very unhappy with the idea. They seemed to think that it was going to be “boring elevator music”, but by the end of the book they were sad it was over. I’ve seen a change in their attitude about music. It opened their ears to hearing the heart and soul of the sounds that these composers put together. It’s even more uplifting when one of the kids gets excited and points to the name of a familiar composer in the Mass music book at church! 🙂 Here are a few notebooking pages which I created to accompany this book and the music: Music Appreciation: Listening to Music This is a free worksheet which allows kids to write down the background information (e.g.: the composer, type, year composed) of a piece of music which they are listening to. Their is also space for the children to write down their thoughts about the music. It can be used along with the or along with ANY music appreciation program. Note: If we couldn’t find a exact date that the piece was written we just wrote the years of the composers life spanned. Music Vocabulary Worksheets My kids used this sheet to write down any music related words they didn’t understand. Usually, they were unfamiliar words which were in the story about the composer. Once we finished reading the chapter or paragraph we looked them up and wrote down the definition. The kids drew a picture of the idea/item if they could. Download the Music Appreciation and Vocabulary Sheets Here: This year I plan to have my kids read about Joseph Haydn and Beethoven.  There are many different composers to choose from: Sebastian Bach …….  ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Motzart ……………….  ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Joseph Haydn ………  ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Beethoven ……………  ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Franz Schubert ……… ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Johannes Brahms …  ( Reader ) ( CD ) ( Study Guide ) Check out all the other music books by Opal Wheeler : HERE No, these books are not the same as learning to play an instrument, but they are great books to teach music history. And I plan to use them until the day we can actually afford to pay for guitar or piano lessons. Then, on that day, we can stop searching YouTube for free lessons! 🙂  Hey, YouTube is a great resource for free lessons. Just don’t expect to get professional results! How do you teach music to your kids? Till Later, God Bless, ~JenMarie

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

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

St. James the Greater, who was one of the sons of Zebedee, is celebrated in high honor on July 25th (in the new and old calendars). He is, of course, one of Jesus’ apostles and is attributed to being Jesus’ first apostle. He is the brother to John (the ”disciple whom Jesus loved”) and is know as ”the greater” – not because he was smarter or better but because he was larger then the other James (James the lesser). He had a full life and brought many souls to Jesus. Read more about him here and here . For his ornament, we used the  ”Cross of St. James” image. This symbol is a mix between a cross and a sword. The cross is for Jesus, and a sword represents the instrument used to behead James at his martyrdom. To create this, I first drew the ”St. James Cross” on red sheet of felt. Then I cut it out and flipped it over. Elizabeth glued it onto a off-white oval with the drawn side down – because it was kind-of messy looking. Using a brown permanent marker, we lightly outlined the plan side of the cross to add a little bit of interest. Then, we added a threaded loop of silver thread. Because July 25 is the feast day for two well known saints, Elizabeth and I created two ornaments for the day. St. James, pray for us. ~JenMarie