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

"Everyday Sacrament" book review

Our church started a book study a few weeks ago on an adorable book for moms - Everyday Sacrament.  How blessed our parish is to have the Altar and Rosary Society sponsor the study - they bought all the books and are providing food/drinks for each of our meetings.  Like I have said before, our church just has a beautiful way of meeting us all where we are (even us moms!!) and helping us feel welcomed and included in our church.

I have been in Mom's Groups before and done many book studies, but it's been a while.  Even though I'm a mom to a 14 year, I am still a mom to a 1 year old and a toddler, so I can still very much relate to even the younger moms in the book study.  These groups are always such a blessing and an opportunity to help us grow more in love with the beautiful vocation of marriage and the fruit (children!) that have been born from it.

The book is divided into seven chapters, and as you could probably guess by the title, each chapter takes one of the Sacraments and shares how we can find the Sacraments in the messiness and stickiness of everyday mothering...

Chapter 1:  Bathed in New Life - Baptism
Chapter 2:  Celebrating Grace - Confirmation
Chapter 3:  Broken for You - Eucharist
Chapter 4:  From Frustration to Forgiveness - Reconciliation
Chapter 5:  Helping to Heal - Anointing of the Sick
Chapter 6:  Everyday Vows - Marriage
Chapter 7:  Challenges of the Calling - Holy Orders

I'm hoping to share some highlights from the book as I read it.  It may be done a couple chapters at a time and a pretty short summary, but enough to tease you into getting it for yourself and the little nuggets of wisdom and encouragement from the author!  ;)

Baby "Bandit" Bibs

Sometimes baby #8 just needs some new things of his own, right?  I splurged and went shopping on amazon for some new bibs for Yoda.  They just don't make bibs like they used to, and the bibs with the velcro attachment just doesn't hold up.  I've found out after purchasing many different styles that a good bib MUST have the snap buttons to keep it from coming off.  We made it through with our last couple drooley babies with cheap velcro bibs because the snap ones were impossible to find.  And our drooley little guy is wetting his sleepers so much, I thought I'd do a quick search for "snap closure baby bibs".  What a pleasant surprise it was to find these absolutely adorable and might I add - super unique - "bandit" looking bibs!!  I didn't know which brand to buy, so I bought two different brands, both in the "bandit" style.  And, I absolutely love them already!  Cute as can be and going to work perfectly for keeping lil Yoda's clothes dry, although I'm sure he'll still go through a few bibs each day!

Drooley baby, he is!  

Cute bibs, they are!

Lent song for kids (and a review of Dogma Dogs)

 We bought this music CD a couple years ago, and just LOVE it!!  It takes the beauty of our faith and puts it to fun, great tunes for the kids to remember and sing to and dance to for years and years. 

**Right now, we can't get enough of the Lent song!  (see video below) 

**Two summers ago, a visiting seminarian at our church used The Trinity Song for our It's a Mystery: Trinity VBS.  It was such a good fit and became theme song for the week. 

**Have a child learning the Ten Commandments?  Then look no further - listen to The 10 Commandments of Mt. Sinai!!  (great for memorization)

**The Liturgy Song takes the liturgy of the Mass from the beginning to the end and explains it so beautifully! 

**And an all-time favorite in our house is Pharaoh, Pharaoh.  Once you hear it, you will know why it is a favorite.

**And many more songs that help you understand, learn, and teach our beautiful Catholic faith. 

++Thank you, God, for all the beautiful and fun opportunities you give us to learn and love our faith in You!!++