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I love saint medals! I kind of have a collection.  Funny thing is, I always wear the same medal around my neck -24-7. My mother gave it to me when I was about 8 and I’ve worn it since.  The rest of my medals are in a box packed away. But I decided it’s time to make use of some of them, and I thought I’d share a few of my ideas with all of you. Perhaps something will inspire you. 1. Use Medals as Zipper Pulls They could be used on purses, coats or jacket zippers. 2. Ceiling Fan Pulls A few months ago one of our ceiling fan pulls was accidentally hit. It swing up and hit the light fixture breaking the glass. So I removed all the heavy pulls that came with the fans and replaced them with light-weight saint medals. -No more broken light fixtures!!  3. Curtain Tie backs Use them to decorate your curtain tie backs. 4. Decorate Candles I found this idea on Pinterest.  -from DustyLu And this is from Tiffany at Family at the Foot of the Cross 5. Use them to decorate gifts and cards 6. Decorate Baskets 7. Hang them on your key chain 8. Hang them on the ring that keeps your kids flash cards together 9. Hang them on spiral ring notebooks 10. Use them to create a bookmark (with two medals and a ribbon) These are all great ways to have a constant reminder of God and the way we should live. The images of the saints can speak of their story even when we are just doing our daily duties. Do you have another idea on other ways to use and decorate with saint medals?  Feel free to share your idea in the comment area. God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

Just wanted to share a cute Advent idea! This year we decided to decorate our tree for the Advent Season! Our tree is decked out all in purple: purple balls, purple bows, and purple tinsel! I also made large purple letters to hang on the tree. The letters spell “PREPARE”. (I know they kind of look white in the picture, but they are purple.) Why Purple? Well, purple is the color of sacrifice and preparation.  And that is what Advent is all about – preparing yourself for the coming of Christ! One great way to prepare yourself is through sacrifice! Maybe doing extra things to help others or giving up a favorite food! So yes, Advent is really about prayer and sacrifice, not celebration! We as Catholics are meant to start celebrating the coming of Christ on Christmas, not before. I know that’s hard, we struggle, too! But it’s a challenge I feel is important to help us build a stronger relationship with God. Since the Christmas season doesn’t actually start till Christmas, I thought this Advent Tree idea was a perfect idea for our family. I first learned about this Advent tree idea at Tracy’s blog “ A Slice of Smith Life “, hop over and visit Tracy. She has a great blog! The kids love our Advent tree! I even bought pink ornaments to add to the tree for the third week of Advent. We plan to redecorate our tree Christmas Eve, and cover it with our typical silver and gold star-shaped ornaments! But for now we wait and prepare for the coming of Christ! Click here to read more about our Manger. Hope you are all having a blessed Advent! ~Jen-Marie

I’m most likely getting this out too late for most of you to use it, but I thought I’d post it anyway. This is a coloring activity for Advent. My oldest daughter, Rachel, drew the coloring pages with the Advent Wreath, the manger, and Baby Jesus. She had hoped I’d share them with all of you. For this coloring page activity, the kids can color the Advent wreath, candles, manager, flames, and Jesus. Then they can glue one flame to a candle each week. On Christmas day they can add Jesus to the manger! I’d like to thank my second oldest daughter, Rebekah, for coloring the Advent wreath and Jesus images.  She did a great job, as always!! 😉 We accompanied Rachel’s coloring activity with our family’s Advent Prayer Chain.  The Advent Prayer Chain doubles as a countdown to Christmas! If you want to make one, too, you can access our free download below. Print it onto colored paper (I used red and green). I cut construction paper down to a regular size sheet of paper and placed it into my printer. Worked great! Then cut on the dotted line to make the strips, which you will need to create the chain.  We used a stapler to attach the ends together as we made our chain. We turned the prayer intentions to the inside.  Each night as we are saying our evening prayers we remove a chain link and say an extra prayer for the special intention listed on that chain link. Download the printable prayer chain here: Since Advent is so short this year, there are more chain links on the printables that you will need. So just pick the prayer intentions you like best and use those to make your chain. Hope you have a blessed Advent! ~JenMarie

The feast day of Christ the King always falls on the last Sunday of ordinary time, before Advent begins. On this day we celebrate Jesus as Creator, Savior, Head of the Church, and Ruler over all the Nations! This truly makes Jesus King of the Kings! Although His throne does not sit upon the Earth, He will remain King over the world for all time. Praise be to Christ the King! I created this simple art project for my kids to make for this wonderful feast day, and I thought I’d share it with all of you: You will need: Jesus is King printable (Download below) green and white crayons Pencil or a black crayon 6 to 7-inch lid to trace a circle blue paper black paper scissors glue stick glitter/glitter glue, sequins, and/or gems (all are optional) Print out this free printable: Trace or draw a 6 to 7-inch circle on the blue paper using a pencil or black crayon. Use the green crayon to add some green to the circle to make it look like the earth. Don’t be too picky about this since most of it gets covered by Jesus. Cut out the images and “Jesus is King of the whole world!” words from the printable sheet. Glue down the earth, the Jesus image, and saying as shown above. The children can “crown” Jesus now if you wish or say a prayer and have them all “crown” Him all at the same time. Use the white crayon to add dots for stars on the black area around the Earth and the letters. It will look similar to this one above. Stop there or you can take it a step further: Have the kids decorate the crown with glitter/glitter glue, sequins, or gems. Jesus Christ is King! And may God bless you all! ~Jen-Marie

Okay, this was not what I planned to do today! But with a little help from my 8 year old, it kept the little kids happy while I worked with the bigger kids and finished up some school! I saw Tiffany’s post over at Family at the Foot of the Cross this morning and I showed it to, Elizabeth, (my 8 year old) she was sooo excited and jumped right on it!! So with my 8 year old in charge of craft time with the little kids, I hopped into a school day. She handled the little kids okay…I had to step in a few times to help, but the tilmas turned out great!! Feel Free to use this download if you need a coloring page with Our Lady: Check out the directions to make this at: Domestic-Church.com Hope you are all having a great day! God Bless. ~JenMarie

Wisemen Adventures ~ Days 17 to 19 This is our Elf on the Shelf Alternative: If you missed the first few post click here to learn the whole story! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 17 Meeting new friends is always good, but these friends are a bit odd! Particularly the hairy one! I’m not sure they can understand a word he’s saying! Balthazar and Melchior are asking for directions. They had hoped that these strange strangers will have an idea of where the Infant King is hiding.  Sorry no luck, let’s see if Caspar fared any better…. Caspar has engaged in a friendly light-saber battle and he’s winning against two Jedi!!WOW! Way to go, Caspar! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 18 Balthazar and Melchior are checking out the pencil basket in our school room! That Balthazar is a spry older fellow! Look at him scale that basket! But, where is Caspar? Oh no, Caspar! It’s not a pool and that ruler is not a high dive! Don’t jump! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 19 Today we found them in the DVD cabinet looking through the movies! Balthazar and Melchior are looking for a clue as to where to find baby Jesus. They think they may have found something that could help. Caspar became distracted by Zoe in her tutu! He made himself a tutu from a hair-tie and a cut-up tissue! He really does like tissues! He is one crafty fellow! 😉 They don’t have much time left to find baby Jesus! Let see what happens tomorrow! Blessings till then! ~Jen-Marie

The search continues… Searching for Jesus ~ Day 11 Today we found the wisemen searching through the knick-knacks above my kitchen cabinets. This one was hard for the kids to find since the kings blended in with the stuff so well! That made it interesting! Balthazar and Melchior have teamed up to look inside of the tin cans. But Caspar has his eye on that fun little antique car!  Good thing we hid the keys, or he might have taken it for a spin! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 12 While looking for baby Jesus in our mini pool table, Caspar was still having a grand time! Balthazar and Melchior are likely to get hit with a ball as Caspar makes a shot! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 13 Ah yes, the junk drawer! We all seem to have one! It’s the drawer that holds all the little broken things that need fixed and other stray items that need a home.  Balthazar and Melchior are digging through ours looking to find the infant King. Caspar seems distracted by the idea of finding a new staff No luck again, maybe tomorrow will be better! Until then, ~JenMarie

Last year my kids and I made a Prayer Chain of People to pray for during Lent. This year I decided to go a little simpler. The days have been very busy and I didn’t feel we would have the time to make all the little people again. (Although, many of my kids were complaining that they really wanted to make all those people again! I told them that we’d try to make them again next year!) This year I made a list of people to pray for and I added that list to a paper chain. We will remove one of the chain’s links each day and pray for the people who are mentioned on that link. The neat thing is it doubles as a count down to Easter! I used the following image at the top of the Prayer Chain. I added a few sheets of decorative purple paper to make it look nice! Download the Lenten Prayer Chain here:

I have always loved the ocean. Although I have never lived very close to the ocean, I have always (even as a child) enjoyed painting pictures of the ocean. I feel that God is portrayed so well in an image of the ocean: for God is unending, wide reaching and can be peaceful, yet powerful!! -For He is Almighty, and yet a loving Father! Have you ever heard the phrase ”Stella Maris”? That is Latin for ”Star of the Sea”. This name has been given to Our Lady. Many sailors have prayed to ”Stella Maris” to ask her to pray for protection. What a beautiful thought: Our Lady watching over theses men and women as she asks Jesus to calm the storms and give these faithful travelers safe passage across the wild waves in the ocean. Even as we travel through our daily lives we can ask Our Lady to intercede for us and ask Jesus to guide us and protect us as we journey on our way through life.  For Mary’s love is a wide as the ocean and she would be willing to ask Jesus to help all those who have requested her intercession. Jesus will listen to His mother! I have created a craft that depicts Mary asking Jesus to protect travelers on the ocean.  Our Lady Star of the Sea ~ Candle or Bottle Craft I made two versions of this craft. One is made from an old spaghetti sauce jar and holds a candle. The other is in a empty wine bottle. Depending on how you like to decorate, you may like one version over the other.  You will need: a jar (wide mouth) or bottle (with cap) candle / tea light ~ if you are using a wide mouth jar sand (dry) small stones different sized sea shells Mod Podge and brush clear-glitter nail polish (optional) twine or raffia hot glue picture of Mary (click here) Print out the correct size image to fit the bottle/jar you are using. Cut out the image and place it in a sheet of scrap paper. Using a brush, lightly cover the front of the image with Mod Podge. Place the image face-side against the bottle.  Be sure to pay attention to the bottle’s seams. The seams should be on ether side of the image (So you can see the image clearly.)  Press the image down onto the bottle. Start pressing from the middle of the image out to the edges, so you don’t get air bubbles. Then you can roll the bottle over a folded towel to help press the image down.  Now you are ready to cover the back of the image with Mod Podge. Cover the whole image and the very edge of the image. This will help to hold it in place and seal it. Allow that to dry. Once the Mod Podge is dry you can add a little glitter nail polish to the edge of the image. This is optional. I just liked the look it created. Plus it helped to insure the image doesn’t peel away from the bottle.  Then I added some twine to the neck of the wine bottle. (as pictured) I wrapped the twine around the wide mouth jar several times to cover the ridges in the glass cap area. After I added the twine, I hot glued an arrangement of shells and a medal on to the twine.  A Stella Maris medal would be great!! I added a little glitter nail polish on my shells to make them glitter, too. Now it\’s time to add the sand! I rolled up a sheet of paper to make a funnel and I poured in about a cup of sand. This will create dust inside jars with tall necks, like a wine bottle.  This dust will eventually settle, but some may rest to the sides of the jar. This dust can be wiped off with a long bent stick (I used a bent skewer) Tape a piece of tissue to the end of the stick.   The spaghetti sauce jars didn’t seem to collect the dust so this won\’t be necessary if you are using a wide mouth jar.   Then add your candle (if you are using a wide mouth jar), stones, and shells.  You will need a long lighter or a lighting stick to light your candle.  Don\’t forget to put the cap/cork on your wine bottle!  Our Lady Star of the Sea, Pray for us! Ask Jesus to protect us in times of hardship and keep us in His care.

Here’s a new Perler melting bead pattern! It’s the Holy Eucharist, chalice and grapes. Download this pattern ! Download the Perler Bead Pattern here: They are great projects to keep kids busy!! Hope you are all having a great summer! God bless! ~Jen-Marie

My oldest daughter, Rachel, (age 15) asked to have a sleepover-party with a few of her Catholic friends. She doesn’t normally ask for too much so I really wanted to make this happen. Aside from all our other fun party plans Rachel wanted a craft or two to do with her friends. I came up with two things for the girls to create and I want to share the craft that the girls absolutely LOVED!!!!!  My daughters and I all agreed that this craft is ”addicting”! We all just wanted to keep making them!!  These saint medal necklaces are perfect for Catholic teen’s parties, youth groups, or even All Saints Day parties! They would also make perfect DIY gifts!!BUT here’s a caution to those interested in making these: Be prepared to make more than one pendant, because no body could stop at just one!  To make these saint medal pendants you will need: Saint Medals (no jump-ring  is needed) Washers (We used ¼ x 1¼ sized. A box of 100 only cost $1.50 at our local hardware store.) Nail Polish (LOTS of colors – We bought ours at the Dollar Tree) Nail-art glitter or other glitter (We bought ours at the Dollar Tree, also.) Clear nail polish or clear glittery nail polish (A must if you use glitter) String (we used black waxed string we bought at A.C. More) Fun-Tak or other mounting putty (Found at Wal-mart in the stationary section *Or use super-glue if you prefer.) The first thing you need to do is paint a washer with nail polish. This is the fun part!!! Add glitter while it’s still wet, and allow that to dry. Once it’s dry coat it with clear nail polish (or clear-glitter polish) This will help seal the glitter in place. It also just makes it look more finished. Cut a string to the length you desire. We found that 24 inches seemed to work well. Thread the open ends of your cut string through the saint medal hole. Like this:  Add the washer to the looped end, like this:  Now thread the cut ends into the looped end, like this:  Pull it all tight, and keep the cut ends as even as you can. Center the medal in the center of the washer. The medal will pop out as pictured below:   Add a small ball of mounting putty to the bottom-back of the medal. Press the medal down against the washer to stick them together. You could super glue the medal down, but I wanted to keep the medals nice in case the girls wanted to change the backing that they painted. It should look like this: As for the cut ends of the string, we tied a loop in one end and a large knot in the other so it can be easily taken on and off. You could buy clasps to attach to the ends if you wish.  Here are some of the beautiful necklaces the girls made.(The pictures don’t do them justice! They are so sparkly and shinny!!) The example pictures above are only a few that my daughters and friends created. Yes, these are addicting!!!  I have a feeling we will be making more soon!! God Bless! ~JenMarie

My younger children are at the ”alphabet learning age”. So when I was asked to review the book by Tracy Sands I thought it might fit in well with my lesson plans for the school year. I was a bit surprised when the book showed up at my door since it was not what I was expecting. Many younger kids like stories or rhyming poems. This book is not an easy read book and you cannot sit down and read this book straight through to your child(ren). I found a page (a letter) a day to be plenty for kids to handle. Plus, each page/letter needed discussion time and/or activity time to reinforce the thoughts and ideas. is meant to teach about Jesus, prayer, and the Bible. Each letter is used as a spring-board to teach children many different simple religious concepts. These ideas are very basic and easy to understand, but coming from a Catholic perspective this book is kind of disappointing. This book IS CHRISTIAN. While I saw nothing wrong with the information in the book, I personally would have loved to see more in depth Catholicism in the book’s teachings. I did see many Catholic symbols and ideas peaking through some of the teachings and images, which makes me think the author/illustrator is or was Catholic.  I can see that this book would work well as a teaching tool to reinforce religious concepts as children learn their letters. Although, I personally would add a more Catholic twist to the information given. Also, it could be used as a discussion starter when teaching kids of many ages.  From an artistic standpoint I thought the letter images were beautiful.  The author/illustrator, Tracy Sands , did an awesome job making the images look interesting. Although many of  the letters were not easy for my younger kids to make out, the kids did have fun trying to find the letter shape in the picture. My kids enjoyed the ”Seek and Find” section under each letter image, too. Personally, I found the ”Symbology” section in the back of the book particularly interesting. You can see some of the information on the image’s symbolism and it’s meanings  here on their website.   I was also sent a CD which included 5 songs, including the Christian Alphabet Song . If you feel having a song to go with the book would be helpful than this is an added bonus. Although, the CD only has 5 songs, it is reasonably priced.  Visit website to read more about this book and the other items they sell. NOTE: I was given a free copy of this book and CD in exchange for an honest review. I make no profit from this review.  God Bless. ~JenMarie