Another Pretzel Recipe Over at Catholic Cuisine

Along with a different recipe, they also offer a little explanation on how pretzels got their name and why we traditionally eat them during Lent. Check it out, it is pretty neat!
http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/pretzels.html

Lenten Center piece

The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, seems to be the night we always plan out our Lent. This year our discussion included reading the article by Fr. James Farfaglia at http://www.catholicexchange.com/ entitled Getting Serious About Lent. Then each child decided on a positive and negative thing they would do for Lent.

The oldest three kids chose to give up all computer and Internet games. It may not sound like a lot to some, but my kids really look forward to the little time they get to play on EWTNKIDS.COM , PBSKIDS.ORG , and LITTLESTPETSHOP.COM. These seem to be the safest and best sites, I've found that have fun and educational games. Our second youngest daughter, who doesn't get computer time, yet, decided to give up chocolate. I was surprised that she came up with this all on her own. She just turned 3 in January.

For the positives, the kids came up with all sorts of wonderful goals. Everyone is going to read their Bible at least 15 minutes every day. We will pray the family rosary at least twice a week (this is a challenge since dear hubby is gone very often in the evenings for night meetings). The kids wanted to return to visit the nursing home residents again at least 4-5 times during Lent. They also want to make a more conscious effort to be more polite and courteous to one another. My hubby and I added that the kids also work on right-away obedience. They have become a little lax over the past few months.

Lots of things to work on, but we love a challenge!To remind ourselves of what we need to work on, we put a list in our cupboard where we see it frequently.

We also made a Lenten Center piece out of salt dough. We made the crown of thorns together and the kids had lots of fun putting in the tooth picks. As the kids fulfill their Lenten promises they get to take out a "thorn" (toothpick). Once they have taken out all the "thorns" they will glue a silk flower over each whole left by the "thorn".

I got this idea from Adele over at www.journeytotherese.blogspot.com/

Here is the Salt Dough Recipe:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

Water

Mix flour and salt together in large bowl. Mix just enough water in to make a stiff clay. (Warm water works best to dissolve the salt.) Knead the dough until smooth to remove any air bubbles. Split dough into three parts and roll each part into long rope. Loosely braid the three ropes together and then shape braid into circle. Make sure to connect the ends to one another. Stick toothpicks into the circular braid loosely by wiggling them a little after they are in position. This way they won't be embedded too deeply and you will be able to pull them out intact.) Bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour until dry and light brown.

Our other Christmas Parties...

This was one of our best Christmas' ever! I think because we prepared for it better this year. By that, I don't mean that I went shopping on Black Friday, bought tons of presents, or even made a mountain of Christmas cookies ahead of time. We prepared for Christmas by focusing more on Advent during Advent and waiting to celebrate Christmas during Christmas.

We had a wonderful day with Nana and Aunt Olivia on Christmas Eve. We all relaxed at home and opened presents slowly. We had time to put the "some assembly required" toys together and even play with them. The favorite toy from Nana and Aunt Olivia was a wooden kitchen set for the girls.

Christmas morning we found that Santa had brought each of the kids a present and a stocking full of goodies. We read our Christmas story out of the book The Lord Jesus by Father Lovasik and sang "Silent Night" as the kids placed their baby Jesus in the manger. The toys from Santa were all a hit. Mass on Christmas went very well! We were asked to take up the offertory and the kids were so excited to assist in this way at Holy Mass. The music was beautiful, the homily was rather safe, and the kids behaved almost like angels (notice I said almost!). I felt like this was a little reward for not getting so stressed about Christmas this year and really preparing spiritually.

We really tried to use the Liturgical Calendar my dear hubby created and the books In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez. These really made a difference in helping me to focus on what was important. Making an effort to go to confession more frequently during Advent also helped. I hope that we can continue to go more frequently throughout the new year.

The last pictures are of the kids and their cousins at my brother and sister-in-laws home. We celebrated with my side of the family at their home the weekend after Christmas. Again, I was so pleasantly surprised by how well things went. There wasn't nearly as much drama as in past get-togethers. Even the homily at my brother's church was excellent, probably one of the best I have heard in a long time from a diocesan priest. As my son reminds me, today is the sixth day of Christmas, 6 more blessed days to go. Merry Christmas!

Goals for the New Liturgical Year...

Some people make New Year's resolutions. I have never been one of them. This year, or at least this Liturgical year, I find myself needing to be one of them. I must get more organized! All this clutter is creating even more chaos. I have determined that the Liturgical Calendar my dear husband made for our wall will be the catalyst that will help orchestrate this massive undertaking.

1. I plan to systematically use the wonderful books, Catholic Traditions in the Home and Classroom by Ann Ball and A Year with God published by Little Way Press. The kids will hold me accountable if they see our activities written down on the calendar.

2. I plan to put my older daughter to work! She needs to take a more active role. She'll be starting 4th grade in January. Until now, I have not made her help out much or mentor the younger kids. I was too afraid that she would resent the fact that I had asked her to help her younger siblings. Today I realized I've been wrong about this. When I received a phone call this morning, she stepped in, without being told, and helped her younger sister with her reading. I was so proud of her and she was so glad to have helped. Now I feel bad for depriving her of the satisfaction she gets from helping others. Plus, this helps me!

3. I plan to utilize the Internet and all the vast resources it offers for keeping younger kids busy. I have found this website helpful for free preschool papers: http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/tips-for-home-schooling-multi-aged-children-printable-worksheets-for-preschoolers I use the ABC teach and enchanted learning pages the most.

4. Last, but not least, I want to stay home more! We need to simplify and slow down. I want to enjoy the time I have with my kids. I want to have the time to interact with my kids without having to rush out the door to yet another activity. The rush, rush, rush of doing so many activities has worn me out.

Lofty goals, I know. I think a fellow home schooling mom who is expecting her 13 child said it best, " We are trying to get our kids into Heaven, not Harvard!"
God bless!

Liturgical Calendar

To my surprise, my husband has decided to put his talents and knowledge of auto-cad and computers to good use in creating a liturgical calendar wheel for the upcoming year. The current liturgical year will be ending on Nov. 29, 2008. The calendar he is designing is similar to liturgical wheel calendars you can buy at www.ltp.org/ . His, of course, is less colorful than the ones you can buy, but will be more practical for our needs because he has left more space on each day for us to write in special events like birthdays, lector schedules, and our home school groups First Friday activities. One advantage, of dear hubby being a civil engineer, is he has a very large printer at the office where he can print a really big version of this liturgical calendar wheel. I am not so thrilled about the large calendar taking up so much space on the wall, however, I am excited that we will be more organized about celebrating the feasts days throughout the church year.

I was first introduced to the liturgical calendar wheel by the book A Year With God, Celebrating the Liturgical Year published by Little Way Press and distributed by Catholic Heritage Curricula. This book can be ordered at http://www.chcweb.com/ I believe it is written by Theresa A. Johnson. The reasoning behind the celebration of these wonderful feasts can be best summarized by the following quote from Pope Pius XI:

"...people are instructed in the truths of faith and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectively by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned amount the faithful: feasts reach them all. The Church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart and have a salutary effect upon man's whole nature."



I think this is especially true for children. The more children attend Mass, hear about the heroic lives of the saints, and experience our rich Catholic Traditions and traditions, the more they come to understand the joy of being Catholic. I want my children to experience this more than I want them to memorize the names of dinosaurs, planets, or famous dates in history. If I can succeed at building a firm foundation of love for Christ, His Church, and His friends, the saints, then I will have given them the best gift I could ever give them, next to life itself.