Tea with St Anne Link-up ~ Creating a Domestic Church! {Plus, an update about my situation}

St. Anne. What kind of person was she when she was on earth? I imagine she was a hard-working, prayerful mom, who tried each day to run a home full of order, as well as, spirituality.  So with St. Anne as my inspiration, I decided I wanted to do a monthly link-up that centers around the Domestic Church!

This would include any post about Catholic decor, crafts, and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization, or any other post that can help Catholic families find a more faith-filled-center in our everyday life.

So grab your tea and a comfortable chair. Then share with us what works for you and your family and check out what other Catholics have to share with you. Hopefully, you’ll find something that can help you and your domestic church!

I plan to open this link-up on the 22nd day of each month and it will be open for 10 days. So add your link below…

A personal Update: About my Domestic Church and this Summer….. Many of you know very little about me. I’m not really a secretive person, I just don’t like to talk about myself, but I feel I need to talk about myself just so no one panics at my future absence…

Almost four years ago my husband and I moved into a country home. A dream this farm girl had since the day we bought our first home in the suburban city. But to obtain that dream we bought a home that was in crazy bad shape!! In order to get the land, we sacrificed a nice house. To quote my second born, “Do we have to live in that dump?” Now, our first two homes were in need of repair, and my husband did an awesome job remodeling them, so this move didn’t sound too bad. Well, little did we know what we were doing! The past 4 years have turned out to be a huge struggle; the house was far worse then we thought!!!

 Day after day we fixed plumbing problems, replaced broken windows, siding, the roof, cleaned out all the hidden trash that was left to rust and rot all over the land, and we painfully remodeled each and every holey, moldy, room! The house was also a bit small. All 10 (now 11) of us have been eating and homeschooling around a dining room table made to fit 4 people with no elbow room to speak of. So we decided that even though the existing house was still in bad shape we needed a larger dining room and a few more bedrooms.

We started an addition 1 1/2 years ago. My Handy Hubby has been doing much of the work to save money and he’s still working on it. At that same time, my health was getting worse and I have had 3 surgeries and a baby (c-section). Because of home construction, a new baby, and my surgeries I’ve felt this past school year was not the best. But God has been pushing us along and things are starting to look-up! The addition is almost finished!! The house is starting to feel like home. And since my surgery in January I’m a new woman!! I’ve gotten so much accomplished in my domestic church!! I hope to finally be able to unpack my wall hangings and decorate this home the way I’ve been hoping to do for the past 4 years. During this summer I hope to hit things hard and fast! So, with all my plans in mind, I’m taking a vacation from blogging for a month (maybe more).  What do I have planned?

1. Finish out the school year and win it back!! 😉

2. Help my Handy-Hubby finish that addition!

3. Move into that new addition (Our tiny dining room will become a kitchen extension, the living room will be our new dining room, and the new addition will be a bigger living room. Plus the two new bedrooms!!! Yah!!

4. Plant a garden!!!! Finally!!!

5. Clean our 30×100 foot shed. Toss out all the former homeowners’ stuff and some of ours too! Wooo, that will be fun!! 😀

6. Finish cleaning up all the junk the former owner left laying all over the land!

7. Build a deck?!?! Or is that too ambitious?!?

8. I could go on, but I think that if I finish all that I will be doing really well!!!!

So I will be a busy bee for the next few months!!!I will not be posting in the next month, after that, I’m not sure.

Please pray for me! May God grant that I finally get my life back in order and hopefully my domestic church will feel more like a domestic church again!

Thanks for any and all prayers. Until later, God bless. ~Jen-Marie

Now it’s time for a Link-up Party!!!

 I do plan to open this link-up on the 22nd day of each month and it will be open for 10 days. 

The Rules:

• Please, add a post about Catholic decor, crafts, and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization, or any other post that can help Catholic families find a more faith-filled-center in our everyday life.

• Link to me on your blog/post so others can come and join in too! You may use one of my buttons if you like, or just make a text link of your own.

Link-up No longer working... Sorry.