Gladdest Hours

On Being Sensitive AND Catholic

Madeleine (almost 8) has always been quite sensitive.  Intense movies or stories, too much blood-and-guts just aren't her thing.  Fine.  Completely understandable.  

Erika (age 6.5) and Dorothy Jo (age 5), on the other hand, aren't so squeamish.  Things just aren't so "scawee" and "eewwwy" to them.  

Erika was reading and talking about how St. Peter was crucified upside down.  Madeleine was sitting next to her, trying very hard to ignore all words, pictures and thoughts about the subject.

Erika:  "I wonder what was worse, being crucified upside down or regular -- like Jesus?"

Madeleine:  "Erika, would you pul-EEEZE put that book away and stop talking about that?  I feel like I'm gonna throw up."

She got up from the table and walked into the kitchen, holding her stomach, and said, "Mom, would you please tell Erika to stop talking about all that?!!!  Ugh......sometimes being Catholic makes me wanna VOMIT!"  

Tea for the Feast of Saint Therese

We celebrated the Feast of St. Therese yesterday, Oct. 1, with a Tea Party! 

The hosts of the tea party were very excited for their three special guests to arrive.  In the meantime, they busily prepared!   

Here is the welcome sign:  

The table: 

On the menu: 

• Tea
• Cream Puffs / Eclaires ~ Said to be Therese's favorite treat.  

Here is "The Little Flower" watching over us from the center of the table: 

And, the girls all looking very lovely, ready for tea!

 

There were Gemma and Isabel......sisters extraordinaire! All beautiful in their pretty dresses and curled hair!   

And, does anyone recognize the young lady holding Baby-Jacqueline?  Look closely.  It's Violet!  Yes, Violet!  Such fun to meet someone so famous!  We've been having so much fun with Meredith & Company!  We hope that they'll be staying in our neck-of-the-woods for....say....oh, the next TWENTY years!  

After tea time, the girls wrote one or two prayer intentions on the Rose Petals that were scattered on the table.  

St. Therese wrote: "I have given nothing but love to God and he will repay with love.  After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses." 

Everyone went outdoors to create their own shower of roses:

They did this for 20 minutes or so.   The person in the middle would say, "St. Therese" and then everyone else would say, "Pray for us!" and they would all toss the petals in the air.  Twenty minutes!  Who knew?

Thank you, St. Therese, for your graces showered down upon these sweet little girls this day!

Have a Blessed St. Nicholas Feast Day!

This Dec. 6 is a bit more quiet than last year's celebration, but loads of fun, nonetheless.  We've been reading our collection of St. Nicholas day books, doing read-alouds from The Real Saint Nicholas: Tales of Hope and Generosity from Around the World and singing the St. Nicholas the Saintly song. 

We began making our Speculatius cookies on Sunday, mixing the dough.  We rolled them out on Tuesday, frosted them red on Wednesday (the 5th)  and we'll do the white part today.  We make them look like the cookies in The Baker's Dozen. 

Last night, the girls left their shoes out, and the holy bishop filled them with chocolate gold coins and a couple other little presents.   He also leaves a little letter each year, that gets saved for our family scrapbook.  This year St. Nicholas tried to print that letter on white paper, because he must have been exhausted at 10 pm.  But, one of the other saints, upon arriving back from the gym, said that wasn't acceptable.....it HAD to be on Christmas paper.   (Good grief!) 

We'll have a tea party this afternoon, gorging on our giant cookies and hot chocolate and then do a few St. Nicholas puzzles and have some on-line fun. For dinner we'll have the annual German sausage and roasted potatoes.   But, before that dinner.....we're off to see if #5 is a boy or girl! 

Tonight Pete dresses up as the loving patron saint of children and talks to the girls about how they can be "good."   They will also unwrap Uncle Ivan's gift as we'll need it for a trip later this month!  Thank you, Uncle Ivan!

St. Nicholas, pray for us!

Busy Little Nuns

You have GOT to see these two posts from Margaret at In The Shade Of The Old Oaks:

• Feeding the Hungry
• Another Busy Day at the Convent

For some reason, there is just something so sweet, hysterical and loveable about 2 little Chinese sisters pretending to be nuns.

And, simply because it's so much fun to see these little girls in action, here is Little House in the Shade of the Oaks. 

Thanks, Margaret!  You only post occasionally, but when you do, they are marvelous!

Question of the Day

"Mom, who's the Patron Saint of Itchy Bottoms?" 

Anyone want to guess what kind of a day we've had around here?

ETA: Mary informed me that there may actually be a Patron Saint for the above-mentioned problem.  How about Patron Saints of skin diseases, rashes and eczema. ? 

St. Patrick's Day

Getting ready to watch the Irish Dancing on Saturday at St. Alphonsus' Annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast:

My Sister ~ On Paper

I found these words written in "small girl writing" (small girl being Madeleine) on a sheet of paper the other day: 

• Lent
• Doll
• March
• Saint Cecilia (Little-Flower-Group's saint of the month)
• Piety (Little Flower Virtue of the month)
• The Lord is my light and my salvation (Psalm refrain for Sunday Mass)
• Senta Kay (as in "Auntie Senta," my sister)

Wow! Auntie Senta ranks right up there with her favorite toy, the Psalm Refrain, St. Cecilia, the liturgical season, the month and Piety. 

Shape of the Week

Any guesses?  Come on.....just GUESS! 

We're a bit heart-crazy around here these days.  And, these are only the ones that have NOT been distributed yet.  You'd think they'd get tired of this.  They don't.  They just keep working on the SAME thing day in and day out, which is FINE with me.  Pete thinks it's becoming a bit obsessive; I tell him that I keep hoping for a bit of their focus and ability-to-stick-with-ONE-thing to rub off on me.

We've also been reading some books for the Feast of St. Valentine:

Saint Valentine, by Robert Sabuda

Saint Valentine, by Ann Tompert, Kestutis Kasparavicius

And, memorizing the ejaculation, "Jesus, make my heart like unto thine"

On Wednesday, we'll color, cut and paste our pictures of the Sacred Heart , and renew our Family Consecration to the Sacred Heart .

My Valentine

I have a little valentine

That someone sent to me.

It’s pink and white and red and blue,

And pretty as can be.

Forget-me-nots are round the edge,

And tiny roses, too;

And such a lovely piece of lace –

The very palest blue.

And in the center there’s a heart,

As red as red can be!

And on it’s written all in gold,

“To You, with Love from Me.”

      ~Mary Catherine Parsons~

St. Valentine, Pray For Us!

 

Nicholas the Saintly

We had our St. Nicholas Day Party today.  Nine little girls (ages 4-7) and four older brothers who were helping and "in and out."  I love St. Nicholas Day, and have made it a grand celebration in our house for religious reasons as well as cultural ones....Pete's father came to America from Germany in the late 40's as a young man. 

We're all set up and waiting for our guests~

Working on some St.Nicholas puzzles~

Mrs. McGill, my lovely neighbor who is a retired 1st grade teacher, reading The Baker's Dozen and Saint Nicholas to the party attendees~

And, then......knock, knock, knock...

THIS brought the 4 boys in from playing football:

  Nicholas the Saintly wanted to know what we were up to.  So, we told him about this, puzzles and Mrs. McGill's storytime.  We sang this song.  We bowed our heads in prayer and the children asked St. Nicholas to pray for:

• ~a grandfather
• ~elderly people who are alone
• ~children who don't have a mommy or daddy
• ~children learning to read
• ~pop-pop (grandpa) who just passed away
• St. Nicholas, pray for us.

St. Nicholas reminded us to be good, because it's almost Baby Jesus' birthday!

He handed out bags that Madeleine, Erika, Dorothy Jo made, with a few gold coins and other goodies from our saintly friend. 

The girls sleep, while their shoes eagerly await this beloved saint who adores our dear little ones!

We hope you all have a blessed St. Nicholas Day! 

O Saint of love,
            be a guide for us
            in our lives, we pray,
      that we may
            create joy for each other,
            as you have done for so many.

From St. Nikola an der Donau, Austria

"The Song of Bernadette"

I can always tell when the girls have been watching "The Song of Bernadette" while I was out.  I come home and find 3 little French peasant girls wandering around the house.

November Prayers

Every year I look forward to Autumn and then to the month of November and Praying for the dead.  In my head (LOL!) I have designed a beautiful mini-altar for deceased loved ones and poor souls to use during this month.  This will hopefully become a reality as the girls get older and can help! For now, however, this is what we'll use; it's a pre-school version of the the "Communion of Saints Project: Family Tree of the Church" from A Year With God.  We did this today; and, of course, it took ALL MORNING!  It's really NOT very complicated, but in between diaper changes, nursing, snacks, arguments over crayons and holy cards, separating and sorting the holy cards, learning to use the craft-scissors, and lengthy discussions about purgatory, saints, sacrifices, God's love, heaven, and the words suffering, militant, and triumphant (because EVERY 3,4,and 5-year-old should have a firm grasp of these words!!! hahahaha!)...it took some time.  But, it was well worth it. 

They each chose a holy card of Jesus or Mary....at the top.  The next row is the Church Triumphant...the saints. The next row, the Church Suffering....headstones colored with the names of deceased family/friends.  The next row, the Church Militant....pictures of those on earth. 

At night we'll light the candles and sing the Litany of the Saints, not the "real one" but a "small-fry-version" using the saints pictured and whoever else the girls mention.   Then list all those on the headstones and say "Eternal rest...." 

If I take a picture of this in a couple of weeks, I'm sure there will be a picture of a turkey, maybe a pilgrim, thrown in there somewhere! 

Opa and Oma are visiting and so are some SAINTLY FRIENDS

Look! They're here! Pete's mom and dad made it to our neck of the woods, and we are all having SO MUCH FUN!  This picture was taken right after Mass yesterday morning, then pumpkin carving and off to our All Saints Day Party.  I'll bet life isn't this chaotic exciting in Texas!  We had a few guest visitors: St. Therese the Little Flower, St. Rita, St. Lucy, St. Nicholas, and the Cure of Ars!                           

I was in charge of the Musical Saint Chair Game.  Bedlam? Pandemonium? Complete Chaos?  All of the above. But what else does one expect when you assemble 80+ little saints under one roof?

Cat Chat

  In preparation for next week's Liturgical Celebrations, I pulled out the Cat Chat CD - Amazing Angels and Super Saints yesterday.  We listened to it all the way through, stories and music, during "quiet time" (yeah, right...) and then got CRAZY and danced and sang all afternoon.  Just for the record, I'm not a big fan of much of the Catholic contemporary music out there, but this stuff is FUN! Ok...ok...so Moses, the cat, is a bit corny, but kids love it, and it's REALLY for THEM (not US, Perry)!  The girls also enjoyed some computer time at the Cat Chat website doing the concentration/memory games and the "Saints Quiz" from the "Activity and Game Room" of the website.  Here is an interview with Cat Chat producers.

Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi

We began our celebration of St. Francis’ feast day by reading these picture books yesterday: The Good Man of Assisi, The Song of Francis and the Animals, Circle of Days, The Small Miracle.

We started Saint Francis of Assisi: God's Gentle Knight and will finish it today.

We also watched the CCC Video, Francis: The Knight of Assisi. 

This morning we went to the blessing of the animals at church, came home and did this coloring page of St. Francis , after having a snack (almond rolls~St. Francis is often times associated with ALMONDS).  We also sang  Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace, put some flowers by our outdoor statue of him, and finished Saint Francis of Assisi: God's Gentle Knight.  Tonight we'll have mostacolli for dinner; it's said to be one of his favorite meals.

Pray for us, St. Francis!

Happy Birthday Blessed Mother!

It is our Blessed Mother's birthday today!  This morning we used this website - Maria Bambina to listen to the song, look at the pictures, and said a couple of the prayers.  The girls made a BLUE cake yesterday, to eat at tea time this afternoon.  Madeleine is making a construction paper one-decade-rosary for our centerpiece for dinner tonight, and Erika will trace and decorate the fleur-de-lis for a wall decoration.  Dorothy Jo is, well.....you know....just being Dorothy...talking loudly at the table while Madeleine works, strewing things around.  We'll use everything blue....tablecloth, napkins, and a couple of my Polish Pottery serving dishes! 

Jenn (Family in Feast and Feria) has a post about what their family is doing and some great links. 

Madeleine set up the table for this afternoon's tea.....