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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

Happy St. Lucia’s (Lucy) Feast Day! Here are a few easy last minute ideas to make the day a little more interesting! St. Lucy Bundt Cake: Here is the recipe  we used; the only thing I changed was that I added green food coloring to the icing. I also added red sprinkles and a few white candles. St. Lucy Paper Crowns Click Here St. Lucia Paper Dolls from https://www.thebleudoor.com/1972decbetsy.htm St. Lucia Scissors Practice https://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/StLuciaScissorPractice.htm Have a blessed day!! ~Jen-Marie

Here are a some Wisemen Activities and Ideas Most of these are printable, a few are not. First Palette  has the temples for these Wisemen Here is a crown your kids can make and wear! Go to  DLTK  for the instructions I liked these, they are nice and easy! 😉 DLTK  also has a 3D star project: Click here DLTK  has this cute Three Wise Men Song, too! We always give our kids little gifts on the Epiphany. So I thought these were a cute and easy idea to wrap the gifts.(Sorry the website shut down) This cute craft idea came from:  Mollie’s Mom  I gotta try this!! Here’s a coloring page form Sermons 4 Kids  They have a great selection of coloring pages Be sure to stop by and see them all! The Wisemen page is  here . Making Learning Fun  has these pages: Here is a coloring page: Here is a magnet page: Dibujos Para Pintar  has these coloring pages: Here is a easy  crown craft  from our blog:

Wisemen Adventures ~ Days 17 to 19 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 17 Meeting new friends is always good, but these friends are a bit odd! Particularly the hairy one! I’m not sure they can understand a word he’s saying! Balthazar and Melchior are asking for directions. They had hoped that these strange strangers will have an idea of where the Infant King is hiding.  Sorry no luck, let’s see if Caspar fared any better…. Caspar has engaged in a friendly light-saber battle and he’s winning against two Jedi!!WOW! Way to go, Caspar! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 18 Balthazar and Melchior are checking out the pencil basket in our school room! That Balthazar is a spry older fellow! Look at him scale that basket! But, where is Caspar? Oh no, Caspar! It’s not a pool and that ruler is not a high dive! Don’t jump! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 19 Today we found them in the DVD cabinet looking through the movies! Balthazar and Melchior are looking for a clue as to where to find baby Jesus. They think they may have found something that could help. Caspar became distracted by Zoe in her tutu! He made himself a tutu from a hair-tie and a cut-up tissue! He really does like tissues! He is one crafty fellow! 😉 They don’t have much time left to find baby Jesus! Let see what happens tomorrow! Blessings till then! ~Jen-Marie

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

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! _____________________________

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.

I thought some of you might like to see the banners that my kids had done for their First Communion. This banner is one that was done by my oldest daughter, Rachel, 6 years ago. The background and all the parts I helped her cut out from various colors of soft felt, but she did most of it herself. At the time she LOVED sewing, so she did a lot of sewing on her banner. She used the string that you would use for cross-stitching. Rachel first sewed the rays of light that are coming from the host. Next, she sewed on the host and wheat. The lines you see on the wheat and the cross on the host are her large stitches. The stems of the wheat we hot glued down. She then sewed on the Chalice. We hot glued on the red string of sequins. She sewed on the grapes, which were just purple circles. The leaves were hot glued on and the leave’s veins she sewed. We also hot glued on some blue strings of sequins to the top and bottom of the banner.  The front may be beautiful, but the back is a mess! Since she used a softer felt on her banner (because she was sewing) we had to hot glue stiff cardboard across the top on the back. We also hot glued the string to the cardboard so she could hang it up. She was very proud of her banner, but she was rather tired of sewing by the time she was done! Want to see more banners? Click here to see banner #2 Click here to see banner #3 Looking for a few templates? You could use the printable from my Eucharist Art project God Bless!~Jen-Marie

Fairies have been all the rage the past few years and of course my kids don’t live in a hole so they know it!But instead of making little outdoor houses for fairies to live in we made MARY HOUSES!!! Okay, I have nothing against fairies and a little make-believe play, but it just seemed better to have my youngest girls play act about Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and Jesus than fairies! It helped to stretch their little minds and think more about what the Holy Family’s home-life was like. So out in our back yard stands a large tree that all 9 of my kids love to play around; a perfect spot for our little village of Mary houses! After collecting moss, stones, sticks, and flowers my little girls each built a home for their little Holy Family dolls. We had houses made from a nook in the tree’s root… It could be a Resurrection set, too! Sticks…… and rocks! Then they got to pretend play! Here is Mary and Jesus sleeping (with their eyes open)! My girls had lots of fun making and creating these little Mary houses!! Give it a try; create a Mary house with your kids!!! We had a BLAST!!!! ~Jen-Marie

I had two little ones receive their First Communion this past weekend and I just wanted to share our First Communion celebration cake with all of you! To make this cake you will need: 9″ round cake pan cupcake pan enough for 12 cupcakes with paper liners large sheet of heavy cardboard  covered in foil or a jellyroll pan ruler one box of cake mix made as directed enough white icing to cover everything (I used about 2 containers) yellow food coloring red food coloring chocolate syrup two or three red gummy bears toothpicks large sheet of paper or wax paper pencil If you decide to make the  cupcake sheep with the extra cupcakes you will need more… Click here for those directions.  Instructions: Trace the outline of the 9″ cake pan onto a large sheet of paper or wax paper.  Measure and cut the paper as directed in the picture below:     Make the cake. Pour half of the mixture into a 9″ cake pan and make cupcakes with the remaining half. Bake it as directed. After the cake is cool, use the paper template to cut the cake. Use the paper templates to decide what size cardboard or pan will work best to place your cake on. If you are using cardboard, cover the cardboard with foil. Design the cake on the pan as shown below. You will have a leftover piece of cake, eat it or share it with your help! 😉  Also, you may need to squish the rectangle section of cake so it’s the same height as the rounded edges of the chalice’s cup and base. Remove the paper from the *one* cupcake you are using as the host.  I often put my cakes in the refrigerator at this point to make sure they are stiff before I add the icing. (about a half-hour) Mix 7 or more drops of yellow food coloring into 1 1/2 cups icing. Spread it over the top and sides of the chalice. I also added a little bit of white icing in a few areas to make it look like the chalice as a light glare. Then I added red icing to the “inside” of the cup, so it looks like it has wine in it. Cut up the Gummy bears and stick them into the icing on the chalice to make “gems”. Add some icing to the bottom of the cupcake-host to help it stay in place. I stuck a toothpick in the top of the cupcake so I could use it to hold the cupcake while I covered it with white icing. Put it back in the fridge so the icing will harden. (about an hour) Now with a toothpick “carve” decorative details into the chalice and make a cross on the host. After you have added the cross to the host you can use chocolate syrup to the indentation so you can better see the cross. You may need to occasionally place it back in the fridge for a few minutes it the icing gets soft as you are working on it. That’s it your done!! Put it back in the fridge for a half-hour before you cover it with foil to store it. This will make the icing hard enough so it doesn’t get messed up when you cover it. Now, what do you do with the extra cupcakes??!?!?!  Well, how about making sheep!!! Click here to see how to make these cute little sheep! Just for fun… If you ever watched “Men in Black” you might like Joshua’s joke! Fluffy is now neurolized!!!  😉 ***BTW: If anyone is worried that our kids are watching questionable movies… My husband is  excellent at editing! He can take an (R) rated movie and turn it into a (G) or at least a (PG) rated movie!!! 😉  I just wish the movies didn’t need editing! 🙁 Hope you are all having a wonderful week! God Bless, ~Jen-Marie