Today is All Souls Day. A special day for us to remember those departed before us.For All Souls Day we made "sole" imprints (I'm a sucker for bad puns) and talked a little about death. I mentioned to my children that today we remember all those that have died. Monkey...
Lentils and beans and barley, these are my three heros for Friday Lenten meals. This Friday beans are taking the spotlight in a simple meal of black bean and corn quesadillas. There are many recipes online for bean and corn quesadillas (check out the recipe at...
Through the traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, which are an expression of our commitment to conversion, Lent teaches us how to live the love of Christ in an ever more radical way.~Pope Benedict XVI 2011 Lenten MessageThe time of Lent is drawing...
December 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas and it's the perfect day to teach your children who Santa Claus really is. The St. Nicholas Center is a great place to find information about St. Nicholas and ideas for celebrating his feast day. Also,...
Baby Jesus' manger is another Advent activity that can help your family prepare for the celebration of Jesus' birth.For this activity gather:something that can act as a manger like a shoe box or basketsome straw or pieces of yellow yarna baby dollAs Advent unfolds,...
The advent wreath is a popular advent tradition. It is often used in Christian churches and homes as a way to prepare for Christmas.An advent wreath has two basic components: the wreath and four candles. The wreath is commonly made out of evergreens (real or...
This morning I took a picture of our Jesse Tree. It's looking a lot fuller but we still have many more ornaments to add on. I'm really happy with the way it's coming together, but we are having some structural issues with the ribbons holding the ornaments - some are...
The only things Monkey likes about the Jesse Tree is the part where we hang up the ornament. We do our Jesse Tree in the evening as a family so Monkey is usually tired and has a nonexistent attention span. At first we tried to get him involved but not...
We are now on Day 3 of our Jesse Tree reflections! The first night was hilarious (and frustrating) so we changed a few things and modified our expectations. Things are going a lot smoother now. We use a variety of books during our reflection time. Our main books are...
Advent has begun and our Jesse Tree and Advent wreath are set up. I spent time organizing and preparing for Advent this year but I kept on getting this nagging feeling that Monkey was being left out in some way. So I gave it a bit of thought and came up with a...
I am so happy that I managed to finish our felt Jesse Tree. For some reason a bunch of our fabric stores closed so I couldn't find any large pieces of felt. I ended up buying the felt for this tree in a city 2,000 km away! (I was there visiting family). We won't start...
Today we celebrated the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Her life story has always inspired me.St. Elizabeth of Hungary is the patron of bakers - how neat is that! So I thought it would be fun to make some Hungarian rolls called beigli. These rolls are commonly...