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Okay, tomorrow is my big day. I have surgery in the afternoon. As for today, I started fasting after breakfast!! Yes, that’s correct, it’s 30-hour fasting for me! I’ve had several people tell me that can’t be right, but I triple-checked. So, if I make any silly mistakes while typing this I have an excuse! 😉 While I was preparing for this surgery over the course of the last few weeks I decided it was time to re-pot those poor old inside plants that were in desperate need of a bigger pot! After all, I’m likely to forget to water them over the next few weeks after the surgery, and they would die from lack of water in those tiny pots. Well, my husband,  my mother, and many of my friends say I can’t do anything simple…I think they are trying to compliment me! (I think!) So, being me, I had to spice it up a bit!  I took a wire hanger and cut off the hook. I bent it into a heart shape on the top.   Then, I twisted the bottom together and cut off the ends. I pushed the bottom into the dirt close to the stem of my newly re-potted Rose Mary . Then I took two-branched and wrapped them around the metal heart shape: one around one side and the other around the other side.  I added a little statue of Mary, which I had bought a while back at the dollar store.    And that’s it! Now I’ll have something pretty to look at while I recover! ☺ May Mother Mary help me these next few days! Please, pray for me and my family in this time of struggle. God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

Noreen at “ Rosary Mom ” has graciously given me the Liebster Blog Award! Noreen is such a sweet lady, who is always ready to hand out a kind word or two! (Except to those who would kill our sweet unborn babies!!) She truly desired this award and I’m honored that she thought of me to pass this award to. Thanks so much Noreen!  Now it’s my turn to pass it on with these simple rules: Add the award to your blog. Thank the giver with a link back to them. List your top 5 picks and let them know they\’ve been given an award by leaving a comment on their blog. Hope that your followers will spread the love to the blogs you\’ve spotlighted. My picks are: Erika at  Raising and Teaching Little Saints Gardenia at  My Little Flower Holly at Three Sided Wheel CeAnne at Sanctus Simplicitus Tiffany at Family at the Foot of the Cross ***These are all Catholic bloggers who witness to the faith in their daily lives. They try to bring their family and those who read their blog closer to God and to a better understanding of the Catholic faith.  There are many blogs out there that are deserving of this award, and I’m sure these ladies will all pass this award to other blogs who are also just as worthy of this honor!  God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

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

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

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

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

Last year my kids and I made a Prayer Chain of People to pray for during Lent. This year I decided to go a little simpler. The days have been very busy and I didn’t feel we would have the time to make all the little people again. (Although, many of my kids were complaining that they really wanted to make all those people again! I told them that we’d try to make them again next year!) This year I made a list of people to pray for and I added that list to a paper chain. We will remove one of the chain’s links each day and pray for the people who are mentioned on that link. The neat thing is it doubles as a count down to Easter! I used the following image at the top of the Prayer Chain. I added a few sheets of decorative purple paper to make it look nice! Download the Lenten Prayer Chain here:

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

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

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

My younger children are at the ”alphabet learning age”. So when I was asked to review the book by Tracy Sands I thought it might fit in well with my lesson plans for the school year. I was a bit surprised when the book showed up at my door since it was not what I was expecting. Many younger kids like stories or rhyming poems. This book is not an easy read book and you cannot sit down and read this book straight through to your child(ren). I found a page (a letter) a day to be plenty for kids to handle. Plus, each page/letter needed discussion time and/or activity time to reinforce the thoughts and ideas. is meant to teach about Jesus, prayer, and the Bible. Each letter is used as a spring-board to teach children many different simple religious concepts. These ideas are very basic and easy to understand, but coming from a Catholic perspective this book is kind of disappointing. This book IS CHRISTIAN. While I saw nothing wrong with the information in the book, I personally would have loved to see more in depth Catholicism in the book’s teachings. I did see many Catholic symbols and ideas peaking through some of the teachings and images, which makes me think the author/illustrator is or was Catholic.  I can see that this book would work well as a teaching tool to reinforce religious concepts as children learn their letters. Although, I personally would add a more Catholic twist to the information given. Also, it could be used as a discussion starter when teaching kids of many ages.  From an artistic standpoint I thought the letter images were beautiful.  The author/illustrator, Tracy Sands , did an awesome job making the images look interesting. Although many of  the letters were not easy for my younger kids to make out, the kids did have fun trying to find the letter shape in the picture. My kids enjoyed the ”Seek and Find” section under each letter image, too. Personally, I found the ”Symbology” section in the back of the book particularly interesting. You can see some of the information on the image’s symbolism and it’s meanings  here on their website.   I was also sent a CD which included 5 songs, including the Christian Alphabet Song . If you feel having a song to go with the book would be helpful than this is an added bonus. Although, the CD only has 5 songs, it is reasonably priced.  Visit website to read more about this book and the other items they sell. NOTE: I was given a free copy of this book and CD in exchange for an honest review. I make no profit from this review.  God Bless. ~JenMarie