Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Wordless Wednesday - 34 weeks!!


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Feast of St Luke - 2016

We have a Feast/Nameday today in our house!!

This sweet little guy gotta take the day off school and play all day.  Tonight for dessert, we even had little paint palettes, since St. Luke was not only a Gospel writer but also a painter.  He is said to have painted an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa.




++St. Luke, pray for us!!++

Monday, October 17, 2016

Lego Halloween Challenge - October 2016 - Week 2



Max and Pookey have been building away this past week for their Halloween Lego Challenge  It's so nice to give them a little structure and theme to focus their building on.  I think they are liking it too! Here's what they have created this past week.....


Oct 9 - Build A Bowl Of Candy



Oct 10 - Build A Ghost



Oct 11 - Build With Only Orange Bricks



Oct 12 - Build A Haunted House



Oct 13 - Build A Black Cat



Oct 14 - Build A Graveyard



Oct 15 - Build A Jack 'O Lantern

(Max was so sad he ran out of orange bricks to make this)


Keep on a building!!  Two more weeks left!  
Until next week...


(And if you missed the original post with info and where to find the daily printable calendar, click here)

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Wordless Wednesday - Who Does This Kid Think He Is???


Monday, October 10, 2016

Litany of the Saints for YOUR Family

We love our saint friends and pray to our patron saints regularly.  After we pray our Morning Offering right before breakfast, we ask each of our patrons to intercede for us throughout that day.  We also read about feast days of other saints and LOVE our peg doll collection.  And we especially love our patron saint peg dolls, which sit on our dining room table circled around our Easter Candle to serve as that reminder that they are in Heaven rooting for us all throughout the day.



 I found out about a sweet mom (Gina), who belongs to a Catholic blogging support group that I also am part of, who is going to be creating custom Family Litanies and selling them on her Etsy shop, Other Side of the Fence.  She is busy mother of 6 kids - who spends her days chasing messes, fighting Siths, baking apple cake, navigating tween years, and mortifying her children by singing along to Justin Timberlake's new jam. When she's not cooking or teaching math facts, she's grossing myself out buying cow hearts for homeschool science lessons. I love how she has found a special way to keep sane and that is through creating, whether sewing or photography or digital design.  And we all get to benefit from her inspiration and work!!   She shared with me, "Since we're often calling upon the saints to carry our prayers to Christ (because who doesn't need some extra help in prayer?), I was inspired to create a family litany of saints."   And what a blessing she is and these custom Litanies can be to so many families!!!  



Gina was kind enough to offer a few of us bloggers a chance to receive and review these Litanies before they became available on her Etsy site.  Of course, I jumped on the chance because of our devotion already to our patrons.

Not only are her Family Litanies beautifully made, but it can become both a new devotion for your family and serve as that visual reminder of these Heavenly Helpers who are constantly interceding for us.

You can buy either a print that she creates, prints and will mail it directly to you.  (This is what she did for me)  -OR- you can buy the downloadable copy and she will create it and email it to you to print on your own.  I asked her for some tips on both ways, so you can present them and hang them in your own house.   Here are the tips she shared with me:

"The prints will be designed to fit an 8x10 frame. I recommend any frame that you like best! A large black frame with a mat will be beautiful on a wall, or a frame 8x10 sized is perfect on a table top or a wall.

If printing on your own, always choose a high-quality cardstock for the best results. Many people have great success printing at home, or taking a file to a local office supply store to have the print finished with their copy services."

Gina was sweet enough to ask if I wanted any certain colors or accents, so know this option is also available!!  So, get your list together of your family's Patron Saints (name saints, Confirmation saints, or just your favorite saints as a family), and head on over and order your own Family Litany of Saints.   She is making these available on her site starting today and will only have a limited number available because of the time it takes to make them and keeping the balance as a busy momma.   So don't hold off, head on over soon!   She is also offering **free shipping** for the first ten orders!  This will not only make a nice addition for your own family, but think of the blessing it could be to gift this to your family/friends!!!

To keep in touch with Gina and all the lovely things she shared about her family, faith, and homeschooling, head on over to her blog, Someday Saints





Sunday, October 9, 2016

My Sunday Best {{volume 3}}: In Which I Look Like A Pumpkin

Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks!!!  A little over 3 weeks until we get to meet our little princess!!  We can hardly wait!!  :)

We have now entered into cooler weather here in the Midwest, so I had to get out some long sleeve shirts, pants and my favorite knee highs.  Oh!  They feel so good with my nasty varicose veins.  I chucked the compression hose after a few days this summer because of how uncomfortable they were.  But knee high socks?  I can totally do those!!!  :)

So, here I am looking like a pumpkin in my orange maternity sweater with my favorite maternity denim skirt.  Also posing with me is my sweet Rose, the only one still in church clothes.  (didn't remember to take the picture until right before dinnertime).



Hop on over to Rosie's blog to join in on or view the other mommas sharing their Sunday Best, by clicking the image below....




Lego Halloween Challenge - October 2016 - Week 1



The kiddos, mostly Max and Pookey, have been loving the Lego challenge so far.

Here's their week one creations, along with a few extra builders that have built and shared their creations as well....

Oct 1 - Build A Witch's Hat




Oct 2 - Build A Bat




Oct 3 - Build A Zombie Village




Oct 4 - Build A Cauldron




Oct 5 - Build With Only Black Bricks




Oct 6 - Build An Orange Moon




Oct 7 - Build A Creepy Forest


Oct 8 - Build A Skeleton



Keep on a building!!  Until next week...

(And if you missed the original post with info and where to find the daily printable calendar, click here)

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Turning 2 and What We Love About YOU!!!!!



TWO years old, my sweet little Yoda!  How can that be?  I think I ask that every time a birthday rolls around.  You young'ungs keep growing older and changing so much from year to year, it's just amazing as a momma to sit back and see it all.  Like our Mother Mary, I am so blessed to treasure and ponder these precious memories and milestones in my heart (Luke 2: 19) as the years go by.  Even though you are now two and we have another young'un on the way, you are still our little guy and have us wrapped around your finger.  You are most definitely the most spoiled with all these hearts and hands to hold and love on and snuggle you!!

As a tradition here on Raising Young Ones, we like to list the things we love about our birthday kiddo, and the number of items we list are the number of age you are turning.  With you turning two, I knew it would be hard to ask everyone and give them a turn in sharing what we all love about you, since their are 9 of us and only two items to list.  So, I'm cheating a little and asking each person to share TWO things they love about you.  So here we go....

#1

  • Your intensity in everything you do/want  (Daddy)
  • How you teach me daily to sit down, rest, pause and take in all my blessings - while I snuggle and love on YOU  (Mommy)
  • Your little dance moves  (Fone)
  • I love rocking you.  (Mario)
  • You are my little snuggle buddy (Melody)
  • That you really cute when we play hide-n-seek  (Ariel)
  • When we play big legos with you (Max)
  • You are so cute  (Pookey)
  • Cuz you hugged my friend, Amelia  (Rose)



#2

  • Your wave (Daddy)
  • How you love me so much and make me smile  (Mommy)
  • How you are a mini me  (Fone)
  • I love reading books to you.  (Mario)
  • You can be so naughty and get into trouble, but it's impossible to get mad at you because you are so adorable  (Melody)
  • You are really cute pretending to be animals and monsters  (Ariel)
  • I love you because you climb onto me when I'm sitting in the chair (Max)
  • You pretend to eat really cute when we play pretend food  (Pookey)
  • That you plays peek-a-boo to me  (Rose)


Half of the pictures we have taken over the last two years are with you in them.  Okay, maybe it's more like 80-90%!  ;)  So, we have to include some of our favorite pictures with you over the last year....




















++Thank you, Lord, for Yoda!!  Please bless him today on his birthday.  Help him feel your love. And please help him feel your presence all throughout the next year!!++