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The feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary often fall on the first Friday and Saturdays in June and this year is no different. So I wanted to share a few files that I pulled out of a dusty old folder which I had saved on my old computer. (Don’t worry I “dusted” them off! 😉 ) A devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary was a BIG DEAL years ago. Now (at least in my area) these special days often seem to be overlooked and even forgotten. I’ve heard of schools that take time off from teaching to have the kids go to Mass every First Friday. That’s sooo awesome! ! It’s wonderful to see some schools do that! But if your kids are not lucky enough to go to a school that holds such a monumental sense of importance for First Friday or if you homeschool like me you need to be sure your kids understand the importance of going to Mass on First Friday, as well as, First Saturday. Here are the promises made by Jesus and Mary: About the Sacred Heart of Jesus{9 First Fridays} The authentic texts as found in the writings of St. Margaret Mary: (Jesus said) I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life. I will give peace in their families. I will console them in all their troubles. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy. Tepid souls shall become fervent. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection. I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart. In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour. About the Immaculate Heart of Mary {5 First Saturdays} Our Lady of Fatima asked that, in reparation for sins committed against her Immaculate Heart,  on the first Saturday of five consecutive months the Catholic: Go to Confession (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday) Receive Holy Communion Recite five decades of the Rosary Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary She promised that, whoever would ever does this, would be given at the hour of his death, the graces necessary for salvation. Isn’t that AWESOME!!!! Wow! What a gift Jesus and Mary have offered us! Most people would do these things if it meant they would win the lotto and these promises are far better than winning money! So we need to teach a devotion of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart to our children! But please explain to the kids that finishing the requirements that Jesus and Mary asked does not mean we can do whatever we want and still get into heaven. A person must still try very hard to be good. These promises are Jesus and Mary’s extra help to those who complete the tasks. They are not a heavenly assurance. An Activity to Get Kids Interested and Motivated I know that getting kids motivated can be a little difficult. So I made a few things to help you.  First: Here is a printable of the promises: Read these promises to the kids and explain what they mean.  Second: Here are a few printables for the kids. With these printables, the kids can create a chart to keep track of the First Fridays and First Saturdays which they have finished the requirements. Choose the one(s) you like best for your situation: Download all these Sacred & Immaculate Heart Pages: You may also like to a simple coloring page What to do: After printing out the above pages (one set for each child) have the kids color the Sacred and Immaculate  Hearts on the chart(s). They can also decorate them with whatever they want (stickers, glitter, or other fun items) Then as the months pass they can mark to months that they were successful at completing the requirements. Or you can make these printables into a craft if you wish! Have the kids color a simple paper plate with “rays of light”. Then color the hearts on the chart. Now cut out the hearts and glue them to the plate. Then glue on the months into the rays around the hearts. As they finish the months the kids can mark, high-light, or decorate the ones that they have completed.  These charts and crafts will help them to remember to go to Mass and pray with a prepared heart and holy spirit. Hang them in a prominent spot so they can serve as a good remember as the months pass. After they have completed the  requirements : After they have finished the requirements for 5 First Saturdays and/or the 9 First Fridays then you may award them a certificate of completion: You can have a big ceremony if you like!  But be sure to invite Jesus and Mary to the party!! God Bless! ~JenMarie

My kids love to give me weeds - I mean  flowers - during spring and summer! Some days they bring me so many flowers I don’t know what to do with them all!! Most of these floral bundles are tiny and cute. In fact they are so tiny they don’t fit in any of my vases. Most vases that stores sell are large vases for bouquets you receive through a florist. They just don’t work for the little bouquets that my sweeties hide behind their back and try to surprise me with! Really, a 3 inch tall bouquet just falls down into a deep 10 inch vase. It just doesn’t work! So what should I do with the tiny bouquets that are so lovingly given by my biggest, little fans? Maybe I can just secretly throw them into the trash? Oooh, if my young little fan club found out that I was throwing those flowers into the trash I would be in BIG trouble!! The feelings of my little crew would be worse than the way Naomi felt when Joshua fed Prince Charming to the dinosaurs!! Besides, if I did trash the flowers, I’d have to explaining to the little upset faces what happened to the beautiful posies my precious posy pickers picked!  What to do; what to do! My solution:  Votive candle jars! Many small votive candle jars are a nice size for my tiny bouquets of flowers!! This past spring, while I was at a yard sale, I found a set of 5 votive candle jars which were held in a small shallow basket. These have been working GREAT for holding my petite perfumed posies!!! The posy pickers are thrilled to fill up all 5 jars. I display the jars with their basket and my statue of the Blessed Mother and the infant Jesus. I added a few strings of pearls to make it look a little more royal for Our Lady.  The pearls really added a nice accent to the basket! It’s been such a joy!  Not only do I now have great little vases to display my tiny flowers, I’m also able to share them with my Mother Mary!! Can you get any better than that?!? Here’s another cool thing about it….They are easy to clean!! Love it! It’s nice that my kids can freely bring in flowers to give to Mary! That might be a nice new tradition for teachers to do in the month of May for Our Lady, too! Votive candle jars are easy to find at thrift shops or even a regular store in the candle area. Be creative! I like to think ”outside the box". Now, if I could get my hands on one of these: Click here to see on Amazon I could put a statue of Mary in the middle, where the large vase is. Then add little flowers all around, in the votive candle jars!! That would be sooo pretty! I’d just have to figure out how to add something to the middle to support a statue. Oh, well, just a thought….. Oh, by the way – for any one concerned – Prince charming was able to escape from his hungry captives.   He only sustained minor paint scraping and a disappointed Naomi who tossed him down when she realized the doll wasn’t actually hers. It was her sister’s – Abby! What a disappointment! Well, at least Charming got out with all his limbs intact! God Bless you and your family! ~JenMarie

I think gingerbread houses are fun, so I bought a pre-made kit that included the house parts and the icing. I thought it would be fun for the kids to help make a gingerbread house! But then I read this post at Mrs.Domestic Bliss about creating a Gingerbread Nativity and I thought that was the best idea! So we made a gingerbread stable and added a small plastic nativity!  It was our Christmas table display and it looked so cute –that is until we ate it! 🙂(No, we didn’t eat the plastic Nativity figures – although, my 2 year old would have!) The kit made this easy! All we had to do was cut out half an oval into one of the peeked ends of the house. Yes, this was a delicate job which I did while the kids watched with wide eyes. My 4 youngest daughters took turns saying, ”Carefully, mom, carefully!”, as they watched me saw into the gingerbread with a knife. Then I assembled the house as instructed in the box. We did add the Nativity pieces and hay to the inside of the stable before we added the roof.  Our hay was actually yellow coconut. You can create the yellow coconut by placing a few handfuls of coconut into a seal-able bag along with a few drops of yellow food coloring. Then shake it until all the coconut is yellow.  The little Nativity which I used was one that my grandmother gave me when I was young. I saw one on Amazon that looked like it might work for this… here . But any small set would work. Or you could used printed and laminated pictures of the Nativity figures and stand them with glops of icing. I bought the gingerbread kit at AC Moore (with a coupon). It looks similar to this one on Amazon (but AC Moore was MUCH cheaper).   Here is another one, too. We loved this and we hope to make one again next Christmas!! Although I think we might get a little more creative with the design! Christmas blessings to you all! Please, pray for me! ~JenMarie

The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord is an extra special day at our house. Not only is it the feast of Our Lord’s Baptism, it is also the anniversary of our son Joshua’s baptism. He shares this special day with Our Lord. Eleven years ago, we told my husband’s uncle, who is a deacon, that we wanted to have our newborn baby boy baptized on the first available Sunday. And the first available Sunday happened to be Jan. 12 the feast of Our Lord’s Baptism. We thought that was wonderful, especially since Joshua was one day shy of celebrating the same birthday as Jesus! 🙂 Here at our house we celebrate baptism anniversaries like birthdays – but without the gifts. After all, the day we were “born” into God’s family is a VERY important day! So we had a party to celebrate Jesus’ baptism, as well as, Joshua’s. When we celebrate the kids’ Baptism Anniversaries, we don’t have lit candles on a cake like you would on a birthday cake. Instead we have the kids light a votive candle at Church. So this morning, Joshua lit his own little candle after Mass.  It’s a simple family tradition, but if our children’s Baptism Anniversaries don’t fall on a Sunday, we just have the child light the candle on the Sunday closest to the Baptism Anniversary. I’d prefer to go to daily  Mass on that special day so they can light the candle, but sadly life is often too crazy and we can’t get to weekday Mass. Later, at home, we had a small party. My oldest daughter made cupcakes and I made the decorations. Elizabeth and Rebekah helped to decorate. And it all looked so sweet! Download the Holy Spirit Drops Here: For best results I recommend printing these onto photo paper. The images made very nice cupcake toppers and party decorations! Just print the PDF out, cut out the images, and tape them to strips of ribbon to make decorations. Or you can tape them to the top half of toothpicks to create cupcake toppers. They can be stuck in the tops of cheese cubes or sandwiches, too.  It’s so easy and yummy! Here at our house, cupcakes are a special treat! All the kids love them! Now if only my 2 year old, Caleb, could figure out the difference between cupcakes and muffins! He just can’t seem to figure out what the difference is between them.  So after having mom correct him time after time he invented his own word: “Cupkins”!!  (That’s a mix between the words “cupcake” and “muffin”.) Now that was smart, I can’t correct him anymore! And  why would I want to stop him from saying such a cute made-up word!? 🙂 Everyone thinks Caleb’s creativity is sooo cute, but my older kids sure don’t like my cupcake-creativity! They think I’m crazy for eating my cupcake like this: I think it’s the best way to eat a cupcake! First, I rip off the bottom of the cupcake and I place the bottom (up-side-down) on top the icing. That creates a cake sandwich with the icing in the middle. It’s less messy that way. Otherwise, I might look more like Caleb does in the picture above! 🙂 But my teens seem to think that I’m a lunatic for eating cupcakes that way! Oh, well, I guess I might grow out of it someday! But I didn’t today! 🙂 God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! ~JenMarie

Here is a St. Lucy coloring page my oldest daughter, Rachel, created for her younger sisters. I thought she did a beautiful job!! She is becoming quite the artist!  🙂 Download the coloring page here: All thanks goes to Rachel for sharing her talents and taking the time to create this cute coloring page! Hope you have a wonderful day! ~JenMarie

Five years ago, my husband and I bought the house of our dreams or is it the house of our nightmares?!?!? We have had to fix or replace almost everything in or on the house – roof, floors, siding, plumbing, electrical, etc…  Everything has just been going bad – sometimes even after we have already fixed them!! During this past 5 year we have felt like the devil has been on our back. Everything we did just seemed to be met with difficulty. My father, who is a excellent carpenter and electrician, has been helping us on recent projects (since his retirement) and commented that he has never seen such simple projects turn into such horrible, time consuming problems. So after 5 years of dealing with these crazy construction catastrophes we decided it is time to fight back! We have had the house blessed after we moved in, but we wanted to do a little more than that.  So we decided to dedicate our home to St. Michael – and St. Michael’s feast day just seemed too appropriate! I found these prayers to purify & protect a home on this website:   HERE These prayers were originally published by order of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. They are wonderful prayers!  I printed them out so our kids (the ones who can read) could follow along as we prayed them.  My husband and I wanted to have a small memorial of our dedication. So we made a ”sign” to place in the ground in our front flower garden. We used a wooden cross stake and a laminated picture of St. Michael to create this sign. Jon (my husband) used a staple gun and hammer to attach the picture to the cross.  We chose a cross because of Jesus’ cross and also because to looks a bit like St. Michael’s sword, but you could use a simple straight stake or stick.  We only stuck the nails through the clear laminate sheet so the rain wouldn’t destroy the picture: So after attaching the picture to the stake, we read the prayers (as directed) and than all 9 of our kids and Jon and I took turns hammering the stake into the ground.  With St. Michael’s protection, we pray that we may have a better year. May our home be filled with God’s Grace and may our hearts be filled with God’s love. St. Michael, Protect us! ~JenMarie

Happy feast day of Bl. Mother Teresa! (September 5) I made a copywork sheet for my kids which includes a very nice quote of hers. “If you ever feel distressed during your day, call upon our Lady. Just say this simple prayer: ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.’ I must admit this prayer has never failed me.” — Blessed Mother Teresa I just loved this quote it’s such a real reminder that even saints had bad days and had to ask for help. So many times in my days I forget to ask God or Our Lady for assistance. Oh, how I need to remember!! Download this copywork page here: Anyway, here is a picture of the copywork sheet I made (download above): Mother Teresa, pray for us. ~Jen-Marie

This FREE DOWNLOAD is a copywork page with a quote about Our Lady’s Holy Name, Mary. This download contains three versions for: Beginning Writer Middle Writer Experienced Writer Choose the one that works best for your student! At the top of each page is an area for the kids to draw and decorate the Holy Name of “MARY”. The page reads: “Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.” -Saint Bonaventure It’s a perfect quote! See how it speaks of the power of Our Lady’s name! So this is a great copy-sheet for the feast of The Holy Name of Mary. (Sept. 12)Download these pages below! It’s Free! Download the Copywork Pages Here: So don’t forget to call Mary by her holy name whenever you need help! God Bless! ~JenMarie

A few weeks ago, I posted about an ”Our Lady Star of the Sea” craft which I made (with a little help from my kids). That craft included a glass bottle or jar. We’ll I’m sure many of you are like me and don’t want your kids to have a glass jar or bottle in their bedroom! So, after my craft-lov’n, 9 year old daughter kindly asked to make one of the jar crafts for her bedroom, I decided to make a kids-save version of that craft.  You will need: images of Our Lady Star of the Sea Sand Paper (we used 150 Grit) Twine or Raffia glitter glue (silver) small shells white glue scissors pencil or pen with a point First decide on the size you want your finished craft to be. Choose the sizes in the files which are listed above. I made ours with the ”6 on a sheet” file so I could get a large number out of one sand paper sheet.  Six small images fit nicely on a regular sized sheet of sand paper. Cut the sandpaper a little bigger than the image(s) Oh, and in case you don’t understand why I’m using sandpaper: It’s to resemble the sand on the beach. We had a little misunderstanding at our house about that. 🙂  Cut the edge of our sand paper boarder to have a rough edge. (If you wish) Next use the white glue to spread glue the back of the Mary image and then glued it to the sand paper. If you would like to add a twine/raffia hanger to your craft now is the best time to do that. Use a pencil or pen to carefully poke a hole in each of the top corners of the craft. Be sure to leave plenty of space from the corner so it doesn’t rip. (Tip: I always do this on carpet – it’s much easier!) Tread your twine / raffia through the holes and tie a knot in each end to keep it from sliding back out the hole. I have decorations on the craft which is shown in these pictures, but believe me, it\’s much easier to add the holes and sting before the decorations!! 😉  Now, add your decorations!! This can be your way – your style! I added glitter glue around the edge of my picture.  Then I used more glitter glue to glue on a twine bow and small shells. My craft-lov’n 9 year old and her three little sisters each made one and had a blast! I’m excited with how sweet these look – my kids did a great job! They are now the newest decorations hanging in their bedrooms! All made with tender love and care! Our Lady Star of the Sea, Pray for us! Till next time, take care! ~JenMarie

Rebekah wanted to be Bl. Imelda Lambertini, but she did not want her picture posted, so Elizabeth said she would model the Bl. Imelda costume. Thanks Elizabeth! Blessed Imelda is an amazing saint that had more faith in her short life than most people have even after living 90 years!! Imelda wanted to be a nun at the tender age of 9. She was allowed to live with the Dominican sisters, but was not treated kindly by them. She desired to receive her First Holy Communion but was refused. At that time children did not receive their First Communion until the age of 14.  When she was eleven years old she attended the Ascension Day Mass with the other nuns. All the others had received their communion and Mass was over. The nuns were preparing to leave when they saw what appeared to be a Sacred Host hovering in the air above Imelda, as she knelt in prayer. The host was glowing with a remarkable light! They called for the priest. The priest give the Host to Imelda. Imelda was filled with such love that she died at that very moment! Read more about her amazing story here . Our Imelda is dressed in a white robe and had a white veil, which is actually a pillow case. I used a headband to create the look of a Host hovering over her head. To make this hovering Host, I folded a decorative foil paper in half (back against back) and cut out two star shapes like above.  I twisted two silver pipe cleaners together (to make it stronger) and then hot glued them on the back of the star shape, like in the above picture.  I added more hot glue to the silver pipe-cleaner and laid the other star shape on top making sure the star shapes covered each other.  I added a felt circle to each star shape, and used a black pen to make the cross. Then I wrapped the pipe-cleaner ends around a white headband. I also added a little bit of glitter glue around the host to make it look more interesting. It worked great!! She can comfortably wear a shining Host above her head! Bl. Imelda is an amazing young lady! I try to remember her as I go to Holy Communion! She has shown us how we take our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament for granted. Blessed Imelda, Pray for us!

Joshua wanted to be St. Raphael. You may remember St. Raphael from the Bible in the story of Tobit. Read more here . Our St. Raphael costume was fairly simple, It’s a red robe, blue tie/ribbon, angel wings, and a few paper fish hanging from the waist. I found a fish picture on-line and printed the image off (2 times). After cutting them out, I laminated them (to make them stronger) and I taped a string to them to tie them around the belt at the waist.   I used a red robe I bought on Amazon. Here are a few similar robes: Red Robe with King Crown Kids Maroon Nativity Gown (lg)   ****************** I bought the wings, also. Here are a few similar wings: Children’s White FEATHER ANGEL WINGS Small White Feather Angel Wings for kids Small White Feather Angel Wings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abby wanted to be Our Lady. She as been Our Lady in past years, but she has never been Our Lady of Snows! 🙂 About Our Lady of Snows A wealthy but childless Roman couple, John and his wife decided to leave their fortune to the Church. They often prayed to the Virgin asking for guidance on how their wealth could be put to use. The Virgin appeared to them on the night of August 4th and told them that she wished a basilica to be constructed on the Esquiline Hill. She would miraculously leave snow in the middle of the hot month of August on the precise area in which she wanted the church built. Pope Liberius also received the same message from the Virgin. The next morning John and his wife and Pope Liberius went to the top of the Equiline Hill which had been covered with snow. After they measured out the area for the basilica, the snow disappeared. Pope Liberius immediately called for the construction of the Basilica.  Learn more about Our Lady of Snows: Behold Thy Mother  { post 1  &  post 2 } Our Lady’s Promise Our little lady is dressed in a white robe and has a sparkly navy blue veil. The veil actually has snowflake shapes, but it\’s hard to see in the picture. I bought the fabric at Walmart. Around her waste is two different colored blue ribbons and snowflakes hanging from a string. The snowflakes are actually buttons I bought at the craft store.