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

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

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

We did a number of fun “snow” projects this past week. Our Lady of Snows feast day was Aug. 5th, so I thought I have a bit of wintery fun with the kids!!Our Lady of Snows appeared to a man named John and his wife, as well as, Pope Liberius and sent snow from heaven to show the spot she wanted them to build a basilica.  With Mary’s snow in mind I thought the kids would love to make “magic” snow.  You may or may not have heard of a material called polymer. It’s a super absorbent material that can hold A LOT of liquid!!  I first discovered this material 14 years ago as a new mother with a daughter who had just fallen onto a toy and ripped her disposable diaper. That’s right. Polymer is the stuff inside disposable diapers (no not the stinky stuff)!! So as a science loving homeschool mom I just had to take the opportunity to explore this new found material. Sounds gross I’m sure, but the polymer in an unused diaper is no different than the polymer you can buy at your favorite homeschool resource site!! The big difference is price! You will pay over $5.00+S&H for a tiny bit of polymer when it’s sold as a “magic snow” science experiment! A disposable diaper – $.30! If you don’t use disposable diapers, buy one from a friend who does or pick one up in those vending machines in public changing areas. So yes, I’m using a disposable diaper in a project to celebrate Mother Mary, but if that seems odd to you please feel free to buy the same thing with the name “Magic Snow”.  : -D I’ve done this experiment with my kids for a number of years, and it never stops amazing me! As a warning: the first few times I tried this with the polymer from a diaper, the polymer was the tiny balls that were found in the diaper, but today the diaper “recipe” has changed. The polymer is now the cottony stuff! All diaper brands have different “recipes” so you may want to try this first with the brand of diaper you have before you would try this with a class. For our most recent experiment (this week Aug. 2012) I tried it with  Huggies and Luvs size 3 diapers. The polymer was the cottony stuff both times. Please note: Before starting this experiment please explain to the kids that God made science and we use God’s science to create neat things like the “magic snow”. But Mary’s snow was not a simple science trick. It was a miracle!! Only God can make snow to fall naturally from summer’s warm sky! Our “magic snow” is just a science trick! So to do this experiment remove the cottony material from a diaper.(it may be tiny balls in cheaper brands) Place it into a container, one that’s black works best. You can line a container with a black trash bag, too. Pour a cup of water onto the cotton. See how the Polymer soaks up the water and starts to look jello-y! Add another cup and the polymer gets even bigger and more jello-y. (You may need to stir it. We used a ruler) Let the kids touch it and feel it. Watch for the giggles and screams! I heard: “It feels like jello!!”, “It looks like ice!!”, “It looks like snow, can I make a snowball?!” (You can’t make snowballs -BTW!)  And my favorite response was “You guys have GOT to try this!!! It’s soooo cool!!” We added up to 8 cups of water into one diaper worth of polymer before we decided it was getting too mushy, but it was still soaking up the water!! Now a little bit of the gorgeous jello-y crystals are sitting on my cabinet with a picture of Our Lady of Snows next to it! The kids still walk by it and stick their fingers into it and giggle! By the way:  You can spread a little of the wet polymer out and let it dry. It turns back into cotton again. But it will take a few days or more depending on how wet it is! I imaging our huge bucket of wet polymer will take a long time to dry! 😉 Making memories is always fun!! God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

August 22 is the feast of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary! So my four youngest girls (Ages 3 to 8) helped me to make a few crowns for the statues of Mary which we have around the house. I’m going to show you one of the ways we sculpted a crown. Yes, I did say “sculpt”, but fear not, this is simple, clean, art fun!  It’s easy enough that my 6 year old could do it with only minor help, yet this can be challenging enough for adults to try, too! Just be as creative as your artistic level allows. 😉 You will need: pipe-cleaner (any color) foil (regular or gold) sharpie markers First you need to tear off a sheet of foil about 2 to 3 inches wide. Fold back the ends of the pipe cleaner just so it is slightly shorter than the foil. Place the pipe-cleaner into the foil, longways. Roll the foil around the pipe-cleaner so the entire pipe-cleaner is covered in foil. It should look like a long silver stick! Now place it on the statue you are going to place it on and measure it so it’s the correct size. Twist the end around each other to form a circle. Use another piece of foil to make the front of the crown. We folded the foil over the circle (half in front and half in back). Now sculpt the foil to look the way you want your crown to look. Use sharpie markers to make “gems” This is a picture of our first attempt. The pictures just don’t look as good as the real thing!! Foil is so hard to get a good pictures of!! Here are a few more we made. The girls and I had a fun time! The more crowns we made, the nicer they looked. I guess practice does make perfect! Hail Holy Queen enthroned above! Pray for us! ~Jen-Marie

I Fell in Love with Mr. Lawrence (Jennifer-Marie’s Side of the Love Story) I grew up in a Catholic family and I went to a Catholic school / high school. By the age of 17, I had dated a few fellows. The guys I dated were sweet and kind (mostly), but no matter how much I thought these young gentlemen were nice I just didn’t feel that I was meant to be with any of them for the rest of my life. It all felt wrong. I wasn’t sure why it felt wrong, it just did! Sure I could marry one of those guys who were nice and kind to me, but I felt God was calling me to something more! So I began to look into a religious life.  It was my senior year in high school and my Catholic high school had a few requirements before graduation. In early October I was required to go to a retreat. While I was at the retreat I told the liberal nun who was in charge that I wanted to be a nun. She began to tell me that I needed to do more soul searching and that I may realize that I was wrong. I was a heart broken confused teen! I felt like God left me on the doorstep with no way to see in the dark. For a few weeks I prayed! I prayed and prayed and prayed!! Finally, just as I was about to give up, I noticed that my bookmark-stuffed Saint’s book, which was laying beside me on my bed, had slid onto the floor and landed on it’s pages. A single prayer card had fallen out. I picked up the card. It was an old one that I had for many years. My mother had found it in one of the horse-hair plastered walls of our Civil War era farmhouse, which my dad had remodeled. My mother had given it to me many years earlier, but I never really looked at it very closely. Today, it caught my eye. It was a holy card of St. Gerard, the patron saint of mothers. I opened the saint book to look up this unfamiliar saint, and I found his feast day was Oct. 16, which was that very day!  I was stunned!  I realized that God was trying to tell me that I was to get married and be a mother! But I was shaken by the thought of marriage since I just didn’t feel comfortable with any of the guys I knew. I told God, I trusted Him, but that he would have to help me find a good guy to marry! In truth I thought God would take years to pull that *AWESOME* guy out of his “miracle hat”! But God does things at his own speed: sometimes fast and sometimes slow!  This time I’d say it was fast!  My high school also required service hours for graduation. My aunt directed me to my much older cousin, Sr. Paula Mary, who was our parish’s Director of Religious Education. Sr. Paula Mary was also the 8th grade RE teacher. She asked if I would be her teaching assistant. So I started helping Wednesday evenings as a teacher’s assistant. She was a sweet nun with more years behind her than ahead, and she taught me so much about life. I enjoyed helping her with her class. It was only after a few months of helping that my service hours were complete, but I continued to help for the rest of the school year anyway. In January, Sr. Paula asked if I would teach the high school class for the evening. She said “Mr. Lawrence” was sick and couldn’t make it. Well, I can tell you I was not thrilled about this idea. Keep in mind I was only a senior in high school myself so I was going to be teaching kids that were only a few years younger!! But I could see she really needed some help, so I took on the temporary position as High School RE Teacher! Now, I had never met “Mr. Lawrence” and had no idea what I was walking into. So when the class of 3 kids came in I asked them where they were in the book. They all seemed confused!! They told me Mr. Lawrence never used the book! WHAT!!! My mind was going crazy! What RE teacher doesn’t use a book!!!! Well, I improvised and did what I could to teach a random chapter in their religion book. Needless to say, my view of “Mr. Lawrence” was not one of any value.  A few months later I was walking down a flight of steps and passed a bearded fellow who I figured to be in his late 20’s maybe 30’s. He smiled nicely and he seemed so sweet. Figuring he was way too old for me, I put him out of my mind. A week or two later Sr. Paula introduced me to “Mr. Lawrence”, who just happened to be the bearded man I saw in the stairway!! I finally met the high school RE teacher who didn’t know how to use a book!!! Sister Paula is a wonderful lady!! I think she was up to a few tricks, because she seemed to take every opportunity to put “Mr. Lawrence” and I together! And she made it a point to inform me that “Mr. Lawrence” was 22 years old, and only 4 1/2 years older than me. It was obvious Sr. Paula was trying to get us together, and after she joked with “Mr. Lawrence” about his girlfriend he made it very clear to Sr. Paula and I that he was 100% available. A few months later Sr. Paula, put “Mr. Lawrence” on the spot and asked him to take me to my senior prom!!  She is one bold nun!!! He turned 5 shades of red and asked me if he could take me the movies instead. And so our relationship began, and this time everything felt right! It truly felt like love and “Mr. Lawrence” seemed like the kind of guy I could spend the rest of my life with! “Mr. Lawrence”, Jon, is now my best friend. He’s not just sweet and kind, he’s my other half. He makes me feel complete and he makes me feel like I’m worth something. If I need help he’s there to help, even if that means doing laundry or dishes. He’s always there to make me laugh on a bad day, and he brings such a joyous feeling to our house. Our 15 years of marriage have been very full, I discovered I was pregnant just 8 weeks after we were married. We now have 9 kids whom we homeschool. Jon, has been working with me every step of the way. He tells me every day that he loves me (even if I act shy about it). I can see his love in all he does! He has tried to provide myself and our kids with only the best. Without complaint he goes to work and when he comes home he works at repairing our fixer-upper house. We are not rich in money, but we are rich in love! He is my best-friend and I thank God for him every day! And just to set the record straight….”Mr. Lawrence” DID end-up taking me to my senior prom!!! Here’s a picture to prove it! BTW: I understand his teaching style now. He figured books and teens  are not a good mix,  so he didn’t directly use the book with them.  😉   -It’s all good!  I even let him teach our kids religion now!!  Here is Sr. Paula Mary at our wedding… (She was the lector at our wedding, too!) Yes, “Mr. Lawrence” is beardless here.  I asked him to shave it for the wedding. My mistake!!!! But, WOW, it made him look younger!! Searching for Mrs. Lawrence (Jon’s Side of the Love Story) Like all good love stories, this one begins with a single young Catholic man full of attitude and empty of hope. This fellow in many ways was an average 20 something kid. He stopped going to church when he got to college. He thought he could do whatever he wanted and it would turn out okay. Cocky. Insensitive. Selfish. A real “catch” for any young faithful Catholic girl! And even though he thought he was “the man”, there was one thing he was at least humble enough to admit that he needed: a good woman. In the garden of Eden, God had said it was not good for man to be alone and this guy (who didn’t know his Bible yet) instinctively knew that all too well. Yet date after date, he could never find one to come back for seconds and his youthful hope vanished. As tragic as his dating story was, his life path would fall victim to his own pride. In college, he was a Math major and a fairly decent one, too. He loved the beauty that Mathematics had. The rules, the harmony, the peace. But taking it for granted, he left college early in pursuit of a faster path to fortune. But like all too goods to be true, it fell apart rapidly. One of the surest signs that you are on the wrong path is when everything turns bad quickly. But pride doesn’t admit mistake. It doesn’t stop and ask for directions. It keeps going. There’s no going back. Onward and upwards. Full steam ahead. In the cake of life, it’s a recipe for disaster. Pride doesn’t just come before the fall. It’s normally there for the whole trip. And you pay the tolls. So after ruining his career choices and squandering his life options (sounds like a prodigal son, doesn’t it), this sap ended up flat on his back, angry, and alone. While he had once been poised to seize academic opportunity, he was now positioned to finally admit he made mistakes and ask for help. The dark and despair of life can either destroy you or make you open to God. Grace would have it’s day with this one but the battle was far from over. Realizing that one is wrong and asking for forgiveness doesn’t undo bad choices. God respects the bad choices as much as he does good ones. So this sap had to play the ball where it lied. He made the bed, now he had to sleep in it. He dug the hole now he had to get himself out. No matter how you metaphor it, he was where he put himself. Accepting his new lot in life, he took whatever job he could to help work off his college debt and the debt he built up with his parents. And it did work. He rapidly paid off his creditors and found stability. But attachment to sin would not go away that easy. Self Centeredness is a subtle idol. It’s not obvious like addiction to cigarettes. But it will certainly keep you from being with God. Scripture says that you cannot serve two masters. There can be only one. And I sensed that mine was keeping God from sending me what my heart most desired. A woman. If I was in the wrong frame of mine and not committed to the right course, I would not be able to properly handle being with the right young woman. I would wreck that relationship just like I messed up everything else. Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Or choose to change. Something had to give. Self Centeredness got the boot. I gave my life over to the Blessed Mother. I told her that I had nothing to lose. If giving her everything didn’t work, I could always take up where I left off and be no worse off. A small price to pay. Up to this point, I had started going to church again. One day, our pastor suggested that the people of the parish should do more. I thought that was a good idea so I prayed about it. In short order, my mom asked me to help her teach her religious education class. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I thought I was praying for other people…okay, put your body where your prayer was. I signed up to help. In three short weeks, they needed someone to take over teaching the high school class and I was the only one who could do it. Double Grrrrrrrr. This was not going as planned. Mental note to self: be careful what you pray for! Trying to be faithful and still thinking that I could do anything, I agreed. After a few months, it was unbelievable! Bad that is. I was frustrated and burnt out. I hated the kids. Hated myself for taking the position. Lots of pain and suffering. Thankfully I got horribly sick and missed class one week! Ah, there is a God and he is merciful! They got some poor unsuspecting teacher’s assistant to take over for me but I didn’t care.   It was around this time that I gave my life (such as it was) to Mary and I started noticing this very beautiful young lady at Sunday morning Mass and Saturday morning Mass, too. Wow. Cute and devout. What a combo! My mom thought she was too young for me but I still kept my eye on her. I noticed her at Religious Education, too. She did look young enough to be a student but she didn’t act that way. Mature and sweet, she was very charming. I eventually came to realize that she was the helper for the nun who was my old six grade teacher way back when I was in school. She seemed old back then, too. But I guess the saintly ones always do. And if there was one thing I didn’t think she would ever do it was help me get a girl. Ah, but grace has it’s way. In time, the helper, the nun, and the sap where walking down the hallway together after class (sounds like the beginning of a joke). The helper mentioned in passing that she wasn’t going to her senior prom that year because her date cancelled. I being the great guy that I was, tried to be helpful and say just the right thing to this really cute girl. “Ah, don’t worry. I didn’t go to my prom either. No biggie.” Not very sensitive but I was shooting from the hip. The nun, with a twinkle in her eye, acted on behalf of heaven and said, “I got an idea, why don’t you take her to the prom?” Wow. Five years out of high school with zero desire to go back and I now was being asked to do something again that I didn’t feel like doing. I stammered a little bit and the nun gave me a temporary reprieve. “Don’t tell her right now. Make her wait.” Whew. The girl was cute but I wasn’t ready to invest in a tux and hang out with some high school kids for a night. But destiny wouldn’t let me off the hook that easy. One of my female co-workers thought it was a great idea for me to take her to the prom. I pulled out every lame excuse I could but then she hit me with the something I couldn’t defend against. “Don’t you want her looking back on this time and remember you as the one who was with her?” Wow. I was dead in the water and sinking fast. I ran up the white flag and surrendered. Stick a fork in me, I’m done. I took her to the prom…and had a great time! Fifteen years and nine kids later, she’s as cute as ever and no less devout! Thanks, Blessed Mother! I can’t believe it’s been 15 years! God has truly blessed us!

St Dymphna is the patron saint of those with mental illness. She’s wearing a royal-ish dress (She was a princess),  a crown and veil, and she’s holding a sword and a book.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico.  Read more Our Lady of Guadalupe  here. She wore a very beautiful outfit, which can be hard to duplicate. My second oldest daughter has asked to be Our Lady of Guadalupe every year for the past 7 years! I finally felt I could do it! And she looks great! The pictures just don’t to it justice!! Using a beautiful blue colored material, large star sequins, and gold ribbon we created this shimmering veil! I sewed a headband to the inside of the veil so it would stay on her head better. Her dress is a rose colored, twin size bedsheet. It’s wrapped in a toga-like style. My daughter is about 5 feet 2 inches and this made a floor length gown on her. First, turn the sheet so the long side is horizontal. Then line the center of the sheet with the center of the wearer’s back. Drape one corner over the opposite shoulder. Then drape the other corner of the sheet over the other shoulder. You should have the two sheet corners behind the wearer’s back. Tuck them in and safety pin them in place. Then fold the sheet down to cover the pins. I used more of the gold ribbon to tie around her waste. However a black ribbon is more correct. It’s high above her hips like Our Lady’s was. In case you missed it, I also just posted our little  Juan Diego Costume , too. Click here  to see the post with instructions on how to make this costume.

St. Joan of Arc was a wonderful saint who fought for Jesus! She’s the Patroness of France. Read more here.  Our Joan is wearing a knight’s top (which we used for St. Michael last year) and a blue skirt. She made her banner…. First we printed off a picture of Jesus and two angels. (Ones I found in a Google search.) Then we cut a felt banner big enough to suit our Jesus and angel pictures. We used white glue to glue them onto the felt banner. We painted glued to the back of the pictures. Then we laid them in place on the banner. Then we covered the front of the pictures with more white glue to make them stronger. It worked well! After the glue was dry (over night) we used gold fabric paint around the edge of the Jesus and Angels pictures to make them less likely to pull off the felt banner. We made sure the fabric paint covered both the edge of the picture and the felt. We used white fabric paint to write “Jhesus Maria” on the banner. (that French for Jesus and Mary) We than allowed this to dry. (about 4 hrs. or more) We then used a red sharpie to make a border around the edge of the banner. (I wish we would have used blue) After finding a nice straight stick (you could buy one if you need or use a broom stick) we hot glued around it and folded the end of the banner over it. I made it so the stick was removable (for storage). St. Joan of Arc, pray for us!~Jen-Marie

St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians.  It’s said that as she lay dying, after her captors tried three times to behead her, she sang to herself until Jesus brought her home to heaven. Read more here . Our St. Cecilia is dressed in a simple pink dress and has a lace veil on her head. I made her harp from large electrical wire (romex) and duct tape. My hubby spray painted it with gold spray paint, but I think gold duct tape over top the regular duct tape would be better. After it was dry I added some strings. This would be a great prop for an angel costume or a David costume, too! St. Cecilia, pray for us!~Jen-Marie

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

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