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This is how my family counts down the days to Christmas. On Dec. 1 our image of Mary and Joseph starts to travel to Bethlehem. It moves along the numbers which are taped to the wall. They are traveling toward the stable. On Christmas Eve they are just above the stable. I put ours up high out of little kids’ reach, but you wouldn’t need to have it so high for older kids. This idea can be simple and easy. You could simply print off the numbers and star I have created along with this lovely coloring page  found on SuperColoring.com . Then, color the picture or just cut it out and use it to move along the numbers. Move it down by one number each day. That simple! The Art Project: OR if you like a bit more of a challenge, here’s how I made mine: I say “challenge” but it’s not really as hard as you may think! You will need: Glue scissors the Mary and Joseph coloring sheet light blue paper dark blue paper purple paper black paper sandpaper or brown paper stars (can be hole-punched, sequins, stickers, or drawn) The numbers to tape to the wall Painters tape to add the numbers to the wall  Picture putty works well for the Mary and Joseph image so it stays sticky each day as you move it. Cut out hill shapes from the sandpaper. Layer them on the bottom of the light blue paper. Add a half-circle sun on the horizon.  Layer the different colored paper, using wide strips.  Make the black area the biggest, and dark blue area bigger than purple and light blue.  Add a few dark blue strips to the top of the light blue area. Add a few light blue strips to the dark blue area. Add a few purple strips to the top of the dark blue area. Add a few dark blue strips to the purple area, and purple strips to the black area, Now cut the whole picture into a half-circle shape. Trim all the edges. Then add the stars. Cut out the Mary/Joseph picture and glue it on. Note : You may need to put a large book on top of it till it dries so the sandpaper stays down. It’s so much fun watching Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem! Have a blessed Advent, ~Jen-Marie

Lacy over at Catholic Icing had a yummy idea of how to explain the Holy Trinity to kids by using a Snowman as a model. I love the idea of the three parts of a snowman (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) creating one God! Sadly my new healthy diet does not include those delicious powdered doughnuts!!  So I thought I’d share the Snowman Trinity Art project I did with my homeschool Art Co-Op. A few weeks ago, I was searching for a project to help teach the kids in my class about light direction and value I found this fun art idea at a lovely art blog called  For the Love of Art . The snowman, representing the Holy Trinity in its three parts, shows the light direction through its shadows and shading with the dark blue paper as its medium value. Here’s a step by step on how to draw this: On dark blue paper, use white to show the light areas anddark blue to show the dark areas. (A crayon, colored pencil, or oil pastel will work) Look at the finished snowman: Notice the light side and the shaded side of the snowman? Notice the shadow on the ground? You can see which direction the light is coming from. Here’s another one: He’s too cute! Okay, my oldest daughter and son went a little crazy on me! I guess the Holy Trinity could hold some of those signs!?! (My kids read a little too much “Calvin and Hobbes”) Well, I think they got the point! And they had a great time! It was easy for them to do! Even the kids who have a hard time learning art did a great job! Give it a try and have fun! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

We played a game at our All Saint’s day party a few years back called “ Simon Peter Says “. It’s just like “ Simon Says ” but Simon wears a miter and is called “Simon Peter” in honor of our first Pope. Simon Peter tells the other kids to kneel and pray, genuflect, make the Sign of the Cross, lie prostrate, along with the normal Simon Says commands. I don’t use this game at our All Saint’s parties anymore now that the number of kids has gotten so large, but it works well just for fun on our family game days! We made our miter from a large white shipping envelope and gold-trimmed ribbon. Enjoy! God Bless, ~Jen-Marie

Thank you for all your prayers! The surgery went very well.  They had a hard time waking me up after the surgery. Then, I couldn’t keep anything I tried to eat down. So the first 24 hours were rough. I’m feeling much better now and I’m ready to go home!  Of course, I must consider that my belly will suddenly have a gigantic target on it when I see all my little darlings! You know how young children have a built-in sensor for an adult’s most tender spots, and then they have to pounce on it!! 😉 By God’s grace, I was able to keep my one ovary. So I won’t go through early menopause, I’m very happy about that!   Thanks again for all your prayers! And in a few weeks, I hope to be conquering the world….or at least my “Things I need to do” list! 😉  May God bless all of you for your kindness! ~Jennifer

Here is another felt doll/statue! It’s Our Lady of Lourdes and she’s perfect to make and/or display on her feast day- Feb 11th. This doll/statue is a project that will require some assistance from older crafters who can use a hot glue gun to add the gold trim to Mary’s veil.  Or if you sew, you could sew it on, too! Materials: white felt dress * (see felt cutting instructions) white felt head covering  * the head covering for this doll is floor-length so don’t follow the pattern. Make it long enough to cover her head and reach to her “feet”.   wooden old fashioned clothespin 6-inch piece of blue ribbon gold ribbon for the edge of the head covering 2 tiny roses for her feet ~we used the gold ribbon to make them, but you can buy some.  wooden ring (to help the doll stand, if it needs help) Hot glue *Felt Cutting instructions: Materials: After cutting out your felt pieces, push the round clothespin head into the small head hole in the dress. You may need to add a drop of hot glue at the upper chest and upper back of the doll clothespin to keep the dress from sliding down the clothespin.  Example: Pull all the dress parts down against the clothespin and tightly knot the ribbon around its waist. You may need an extra hand to hold the dress down while you knot the waist ribbon. Make sure the extra is hanging in the front of her. (as pictured on the completed doll) If the dress is too long, cut it to the correct length. If the opening on the sides of the dress are showing, hot glue it together.  Example: Add hot glue to the top and sides of the dolls head and cover the top of her head with the head covering. Note: You may have to cut a slit in the back of the veil, (from the bottom of the veil up to the head)  so it will lay down properly. Then hot glue the back of the veil down in a way so you don\’t see the cut. Now, cut the front of the veil so the corners are rounded. Add some hot glue to the front edge of her head covering/veil and add the gold ribbon. Now for the final touch add two mini roses to the bottom edge of her dress, as pictured. If the doll has trouble standing on it\’s own hot glue a wooden ring to the bottom to stabilize her.  Now you’re done! I’m sure she’s beautiful! May God bless you! ~Jennifer

Here’s an activity I was able to squeeze in on a morning when my older kids were out and I was alone with my younger “bored” kiddos. My sister had just given me some peppers and with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk with the kids about the Trinity. Download Craft Instructions Here: Materials you’ll need: Download Instructions -if desired Pepper with three bumps (like a clover) green paint (I used acrylic/craft paint) green paper scrap paper or old bowl to hold paint knife to cut the pepper paintbrush green glitter (optional) Cut the bottom off the pepper. Make sure the cut end is flat and will sit without rocking and has no gaps if it’s set on a flat surface. Add some paint to a piece of scrap paper or old bowl and spread it out so it’s a larger area than the pepper and be sure it’s kinda thick. Dip the cut end of the pepper into the paint. Make sure all the edges of the cut area are covered in the paint. Now “stamp” it! My kids had better luck if they gently pushed down and gently wiggled the pepper at the same time. With a small paintbrush and some of the green paint, they added stems to each clover. They had lots of fun with this simple art project! I thought after ours had dried, these would have been a little extra fun if we would have added a bit of green glitter while the paint was still wet. It was too late…maybe next time! St. Patrick pray for us and God bless. ~Jen-Marie

This ring toss game would be a great game for an All Saints Day party or St. Valentine’s day!! This is a good game for big and little kids. It’s not as easy as it looks! You will need: 2-liter bottle (empty) sand to fill the bottle wooden dowel rod (about 2 feet long) painters tape or duct tape clear shipping tape red and black paint rings to toss (or large plastic lids) cardboard (for hearts) labels for rings and heart hot glue scissors paintbrush To make the heart, first, place the dowel rod into the top of the 2-liter bottle. Add the sand to the bottle, but be careful to keep the dowel rod as centered as you can while adding the sand. Use the painter’s tape or duct tape to tape up the top of the bottle and wrap the tape around the dowel rod to secure it. Paint the whole thing black. While that dries, cut two hearts that are big enough to cover the bottle. (Need one for each side). Paint them red. When the bottle and hearts are dry hot glue the hearts to the bottle. Add a label to the heart = “How Many Virtues Can You Add to Your Heart?” Now create and cut out the virtue labels to add to the rings and use the clear shipping tape to tape them onto the rings. ( I bought my rings at the dollar store, but if you can’t find any rings at the store you might be able to use some large plastic lids from oatmeal or butter containers. Just cut the middle out of them.) Now, let the kids toss the rings to see how many virtues they can add to the heart. If they get two in a row onto the heart have them take a step back! God Bless!~Jen-Marie

I made this for my kids so we could celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes feast day (Feb 11). It’s made with a paper picture of Our Lady of Lourdes, a half sheet of black construction paper, a bunch of cloth roses,  and a batch of “No-Bake Chocolate Cookies”!  YUM! These were my favorite cookies when I was a child and all of my kids LOVE them, too! No-Bake Chocolate Cookies 2 c. sugar 3 Tbsp. cocoa 1/2 c. milk 1 stick of butter 1/2 c. peanut butter 1 tsp. vanilla 4 c. quick oats Combine sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter in a saucepan. While string, bring it to a boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until peanut butter is melted in. Add the oats. Stir until well mixed. Use a tablespoon to drop onto wax paper and allow to cool. (About 3 hours) Makes 2 dozen cookies. After making the cookies and letting them cool, I placed a half sheet of black construction paper on a small pizza pan and placed Mary in the middle. You could glue her down to the paper if you wish. Then I arranged the cookies around the edge of the black paper to create a grotto. I added some roses at Mary’s feet and a few along the sides.  This works well for parties, too! (Like an All Saint’s Day party) They are easy for kids to pick-up and snack on! But I think a few of my little girls would say the best part is cleaning the bowl with their sisters! Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us!God Bless,~Jen-Marie

I created a Fire Safety book for my 3 oldest kids a few years ago, and I dug this file out of “moth-balls” for my two third-graders. When my older kids illustrated these books they had a blast!!  So I’m hoping Elizabeth and Joshua will enjoy this. too! How does it work? As they/you read through each page of the book the child can add an illustration to each page. This will help them to remember the rules of Fire Safety. My three oldest, Rachel, Rebekah, and Jacob, just couldn’t quit laughing as they drew funny pictures for this book! Yes, they take fire safety seriously, they just like drawing crazy pictures!! It’s always good to make learning and work fun! Download the Fire Safety Book Here: God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

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 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

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