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This is a re-post from last year (Aug. 2012). I thought some of my new followers would like it! ~*~ My sweet friend, Jill, was looking for a project to do with her kids while camping during the week of the Assumption and she asked if I had any suggestions. I told her I’d give it some thought and see if God inspires.  After some thought, God did inspire and I sent Jill this idea for a centerpiece for her picnic table. The bottom greens are meant to symbolize earth and the fluffy clouds symbolize heaven. So this centerpiece is meant to show the meaning of the Assumption -That  Mary ascended body and soul from earth to heaven! Mary was Jesus (God’s) mother. He would not have wanted his mother’s body to die and decay. So he brought her body and soul to His Heavenly Kingdom with Him! What you will need to make this centerpiece? a tall vase or jar some heavy rocks long sticks (2 to 3 times as high as the vase) flowers and/or greens Cotton fiber-fill Mary and Angels printable (below) paper clips or Christmas hooks water (for the flowers) Download the Images for this craft here: If you want your kids to be involved (like my kids were) send them out on a “scavenger hunt”. I told my kids to pick some pretty flowers, and some tall green grass, or any nice looking plants from the woods next to our house. (just not the poison ivy!)  😀 I also asked them to get a few small, heavy, rocks that could fit into the bottom of the vase. I helped them pick out sticks that were the right height for our vase. Now wash the rocks to get any extra dirt off them and place them into the bottom of the vase. This will help keep the vase from falling over since it will be top heavy. Arrange the sticks into a vase. It works best if you can put the bottoms of the stick between the rocks. Add the flowers and greens all the way around the sticks. The kids can help with this part. Now, give the flowers some water. Carefully, add the cotton to the top of the sticks. Try to make it look like a fluffy cloud. Print off the Mary and Angels pictures from our site. (Best if printed on stock paper.) Cut them out and tape a Christmas hook or paper clip to the back of each. Make sure the hook end is pointed out away from the picture. Now use the hooks to hang Mary and the angels onto the heavenly clouds. And there is our beautiful centerpiece!! What a great item to have on your table for the feast of the Assumption!! Mother Mary, Pray for us! God Bless. ~JenMarie

What does your guardian angel look like? Do you know your guardian angel’s name? Our guardian angels have been with us since the moment of our conception and they know everything about us, yet we know so little about them. Well, we may not know what our guardian angel looks like or what their name is, but we do know that God created them and they are to be our protector and guide through life. So I recommend that you talk to your guardian angel and thank him/her for all their help! I made a printable page for my kids to color and complete. This page is meant to get them thinking about their holy guide and protector. They can color and decorate the picture of the angel so it will look like what the child thinks their guardian angel may look like. Some people believe that guardian angels look like the person they are protecting. Do you think that could be true? Or do they look different? Let the child decide how they think their angel may appear. Then, after they have finished decorating the angel picture they can write the name they think God may have given to their guardian angel. There is space on the bottom of the page to write this*. * NOTE: The Church discourages naming your Guardian Angel. The area at the bottom of the page is for the child to speculate/guess what name *GOD* may have given to the angel.  It is NOT to encourage naming angels. Please, follow the church’s wishes. Thank you. Visit our download shop for these FREE Pages! There are three printable pages to choose from! One for older kids… "My Guardian Angel" No-Face Page for Older Kids: …and this page includes a face – for younger kids. "My Guardian Angel" With Face Page for younger Children: I also made a page for a few of my other kids to color: Download the Guardian Angel Prayer Coloring page here: All the Guardian Angel pages include the Guardian Angel Prayer. All of these pages are free for download above. Guardian angels are God’s wonderful gift to us. We need to thank them often for all they do to help us. And when you are feeling low or unsure of things talk to your guardian angel. They are always there and ready to listen!

Explaining abortion to kids is hard. My kids just couldn’t understand why someone would want to kill a baby! So the best way I could explain this to them was by using bugs! Weird, yes, but it worked. I told them this story: As a child I loved to play in the woods. I loved seeing all the beautiful flowers and trees, I loved all the neat colored rocks, and all the little creatures that God created. But I was like any child. If I found a strange unfamiliar bug it scared me and I would kill it. I often saw a bug that looked like this: So as a child, this “mini alligator-like” creature freaked me out! Confession time: Sadly, I killed a lot of those little “alligator-like bugs”. Several years ago, I ordered a batch of ladybug larva as a school project for my kids. The day they came in the mail was an eye opening moment! As you may have already guessed those little “alligator bugs” were really ladybug larva! Oh I was heartbroken! Had I known as a child that those bugs were ladybug larva I would never have killed a single one! What does this have to do with abortion? Well, after I told this story to my kids I explained that some things may look bad or gross to people but to God it is beautiful and it’s meant to turn into something wonderful! Many moms and dads can be scared of a baby. They may not know how to take care of it, or they may be afraid of how they will have to change their lives because of it. Or they might believe that a baby will cost too much. Whatever the reason is they can’t see what God plans for this new little life. They only see fear, but if they could see what God has planned they could see that God has a wonderful and beautiful plan for each baby, just as He does for us. So really these moms and dads just don’t realize what they are killing. Just as I didn’t realize what I was doing when I killed the “alligator-like bugs”. To see more images of the larva, pupa and ladybugs… Click on the images to enlarge them: Just like a caterpillar which is meant to turn into a butterfly, babies are meant to grow into beautiful souls! God has a beautiful plan for these little lives. Give life a chance! It can be beautiful! Here is the art project I created for my kids to help reinforce this idea: You will need: Printable Pro-life pages – FREE download below! crayons or colored pencils scissors regular/larger sized stapler or tape Download this Pro-life Craft here: If you like a simple coloring page just print out page one of the download above. If you want to make a 3-D art picture print both pages. If you are making the 3D picture color both sheets: Then, cut out the shapes on the second sheet. The edges are extra wide for easy cutting. Now, Staple the cut parts on top of the matching part. Bend and curl the top parts so they pop off the page. October is Pro-life month!Teach kids about this and help them to see that God has a purpose for all people, even those that are not yet born! Our youngest son at 6 months old. ********** Please, remember to pray to end abortion!  And get “God’s Little Army” (the kids) praying, too! *************** 7 Pro-Life Posts Today I’ve joined in with a wonderful group of Pro-life Catholic ladies! They have all posted a wonderful pro-life post. Please stop by their blogs to check them out! Chris from  Campfire and Cleats Jennifer from  Catholic Inspired Monica from  Equipping Catholic Families Birgit from  Designs by Birgit Melody from  Blossoming Joy Nancy from  Small Things with Love

The feast day of the Exaltation of the Cross is such a meaningful feast day, but it’s so often over looked.  It’s a feast day that reminds us that Jesus was victories over evil! Jesus told us in John 16:33  Jesus was victorious over sin and if we strive  to live for God and follow all that He asks of us, we will enter heaven!  The cross is a sign of Jesus’ victory! That doesn’t mean we automatically will get to heaven, it means that Jesus has unlocked door. It’s up to us to open the door by showing God that we love Him. We need to give God our mind, soul, heart, and body. We need to do our every deed and action for Him! Each time we look at a cross or a crucifix we should remember that we need to give our lives to God because He gave His life for us.  Here are a few things you might like to do on this feast day: Be sure you have a cross or a crucifix in every room of your home.  Be sure your kids know and understand how to make the sign of the cross. (Visit The Catholic Toolbox  for a few coloring pages and ideas to help with this.) Say the Stations of the Cross in your home, school, or at church. Make a sacrifice to offer to Jesus as a sign of love to Him and others.  Set up a special altar for the day. Place a crucifix in the center and decorate around the crucifix.  I like to decorate around the large Crucifix that hangs in our dinning/school room. Here’s a picture of some of the ways I’ve decorated mine: For this design, I used shiny foil paper and decorated the wall. This is colored paper cut into flower shapes  I decorated this with the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, which I had made. See this post  for a similar project.  I also added a (wire edged) ribbon and bow.   There are countless ways to decorate around your Crucifixes! Be creative and have fun! Let your kids decorate around the Crucifix in their bedroom! Adhesive putty is great for this!! You can get it in the stationary section at Wal-mart! Enjoy! God bless! ~JenMarie

September 8th is Our Lady's birthday and Sept 12th is the feast of ”The Holy Name of Mary”! I thought I’d share the ”M” cake I made to celebrate these feast days last year. This cake is very easy to make if you have a 13 x 9-inch pan you can create it! If you want to make an ”M” cake, first bake a cake in a 13 x 9-inch rectangular pan. After it has cooled cut it long-ways into 3 even sections. Then cut one of the 3 sections in half. (see picture below.) Place your cut shapes onto a jellyroll pan or foiled cardboard sheet. Create a ”M” shape with the cut cake parts. I trimmed a few parts off to make it look a little more like an ”M”. Then, add icing. I added a few drops of blue food coloring to white icing for ours.  Next, I decorated it with some icing flowers. I also added coconut around our ”M” for the coconut lovers in my house. It was a great cake to celebrate our birthday party for Mary! This would be a fun cake to make if you are teaching your kids about the letter ”M”, too! ”M” is for Mary! May Our Lady shower you with God’s Grace! ~JenMarie

Blessed Easter to you all! Here is the cookie display I made for our Easter party! The kids just LOVED it as they squealed and jumped for joy! It was easy to make! I just made a batch of No-Bake Cookies and stacked them in a cave shape.  I also made one really big cookie for the rock that covered the opening to the tomb. I used green colored coconut to decorate around the tomb, and Jesus is a little statue of our Resurrected Lord that I had on hand. (*See below if you don’t have a statue) Here is the recipe for the No-Bake Cookies…. Here is the recipe for the No-Bake Cookies…. No Bake Chocolate Cookies 4 c. sugar 6 Tbsp. cocoa 1 c. milk 2  sticks of butter 1 c. peanut butter 2 tsp. vanilla 7 c. Quick oats Combine sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter in saucepan. While stirring, bring it to a boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until peanut butter is melted in. Add the oats. Stir until well mixed.  Combine sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter in saucepan. While stirring, bring it to a boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until peanut butter is melted in. Add the oats. Stir until well mixed.  Use tablespoon to drop onto wax paper and allow to cool. (About 3 hours) Makes 3-4 dozen cookies. After making the cookies and letting them cool, I stacked them on to a large plate and formed a cave-like structure.   Here are a few pictures: Really the pictures just don’t do it justice. It looked really neat! If you don’t have a statue you can use a picture of Jesus cut out from a magazine or printed off the internet. Here is one I had, but you might be able to find a better picture on the net. Download Instructions and image here: This free printable image is also used for the ascension cloud craft! If you print or find an image of Jesus to you can add a paperclip to the back to make it stand – instructions included in download. This ideas would work well as a cake too!! Just add chocolate icing and green coconut!! Hope you all have a blessed Easter Season! ~Jen-Marie

A few weeks ago I shared the craft which my daughter (Rachel) and her teen friends created. That craft was the Saint Medal Necklaces. Today I want to share the other craft they created at the party. This one was a simple little wooden box which the teens decorated.  It was a great jewelry box to hold those necklaces!! You will need: Wooden box (A.C. Moore or Hobby Lobby will have them for about $1 each) Picture of Jesus (we used stickers) ”Jesus is our True Treasure” saying ( HERE is the ones I made for ours) Lots of stuff to decorate the boxes: Paint (acrylic paint would work. We used some fabric paint, too. They worked very well.)Glitter Glue, Sequins, Gems Stickers, etc…. The first thing Rachel and I did was to paint the boxes. We did this before the girls came so they could just have fun decorating them. unpainted boxes  I wanted to make this easy, so we watered-down some dark brown paint (1 part paint : 2 parts water) Then we just dipped the boxes into the water/paint and gave them a ”mud bath”.  🙂 We ”bathed” them till they were covered all over – inside and out.  Then we laid our treasure boxes on a ”beach towel” (a rag) and gave them a ”sun bath” until they were dry.  It only took about an hour to dry in the sun. That gave them a nice tan color! 🙂   I\’m not promoting sun bathing or tanning here! But ya know,  wooden boxes can\’t get skin cancer!! I guess wooden boxes don’t need Vitamin D, ether! Well, after they were dry and done soaking in the sun, they were ready to decorate!! The girls came up will all kinds of ways to decorate the treasure chests!! Note the Monstrance on a few of them! – Nice! Although they were all different, each one included a picture of Jesus, as will as a label that read: ”Jesus is Our True Treasure!”  I liked the \”gold coins\” glued to the bottom of this one! (They are sequins.) This one is painted with gold paint – it\’s hard to tell in the picture.  This one has some neat gems on it!! I decided to make these with my youngest four girls, too!! They had a blast!!!  Of course they were not nearly as neat and clean as the teen girls were!  It\’s amazing what a mess paint and sequins can be in the hands of a four year old!!  But she had soooo much fun! I didn’t mind a little clean-up!  And she has been showing-off her ”Treasure Box with Jesus” to everyone!! later!! May God bless you all with a great weekend!

Ah! Summer! My kids and I just finished our school year. I spent the last two weeks working on our end of the year, PA required, portfolios and the kids just had their teacher interviews. She said they all passed ”with flying colors”!  (*My sigh of relief heard here!*)  Well, now I’m looking forward to summer and hitting my summer ”To Do” list! (It’s a loooooonnnng list.) But first I thought I\’d take this evening to sit and relax as I enjoy the awesome feeling of completion. While I relax I\’d like to share a fun project that my younger kids and I did this past school year. Last October, my 4 youngest girls (ages 4, 5, 6, and 8) and my 9 year old son read the book by Leo Lionni. It’s a cute little book; and as the kids and I read it I couldn’t help but see the symbolism of the Body of Christ which shown through this story.  I\’m not sure if the author is Catholic or even Christian, but he hit the reality of being part of Christ Body very well in this story.  Explaining the Story and How it Relates to Us Being Part of Christ\’s Body I found this book to be a great way to begin explaining the idea of the Body of Christ to children. It was a great spring-board for conversation with the kids. If you notice at the beginning of the story Swimmy is playing with his friends and they are not working together. So as the big fish swims up to them he can easily gobble up the red fish and move on. Now Swimmy is left all alone. He begins to explore and sees many wonderful creations that God has made. When he stumbles onto an another school of fish he teaches them to work together as one body to create a more powerful force which other fish will respect.  Just like Swimmy and his friends we are better if we stick together as one body, the Body of Christ. We are meant to work together, play together, and help each other. As the Body of Christ we are meant to go out in the world and not fear the world.  We are not meant to hide in the ”seaweed” as the red fish did before Swimmy taught them to work together. Also, the more who join us the stronger we are and the better we can serve others and help one another.  Being Creative After Reading the Story I also created an art project for the kids to do after we read the book .  If you notice the illustrations in the the book are filled with texture, so I made a project that mimicked the texturing idea. You will need: the fish printable ~ printed on light blue or white paper crayons Items to rub and show texture like: pipe cleaners cardboard cut-outs small rubber bands artificial leaves First allow the children to color the fish red and/or orange. Then I laid a handful of small rubber bands on the table and laid the fish paper on top. The kids used the side of a blue crayon (without the wrapper) to rub the area around the fish. The rubber-bands should create a ”water-like” texture. I cut out several hilly ground shapes which were cut from stiff cardboard (from a cereal box). Then the kids placed them under the fish paper on the bottom and rubbed them with the side of a brown crayon to create the ground under the water. We made seaweed shapes with the pipe cleaners and placed them under the paper to  rub and create seaweed on the pictures.  We also used the artificial leaves to create some of the seaweed, too. That’s it! Hope you find this book as fun and fascinating as my kids and I did! Now I’m off to plan for the next school year. (I gotta order some books!) A homeschooling mom’s work is never done! I’m sure many of you understand! 😉 God Bless! ~JenMarie

Here is an old favorite of mine….My kids and I made these last summer and I saved the pattern. I thought with the feast days of the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart coming in June it was time to share the pattern with all of you. These are made with the Perler Beads which you can buy at your local craft store . To make these, you will need the melting plates that are shaped like a heart and a six-pointed star. Start by making two hearts according to the patterns. Then make two flames. The flames should be basically the same but take out the cross when making the flame for the Immaculate Heart and fill the cross area with yellow. Different shades of yellow mixed together look nice. The sword is only for Our Lady’s heart.  Melt the beads, which you placed on the melting plate, just as the bead package directs. Remove them from the plates just as you normally would. Then it’s time to melt the flame to the heart: Place the correct flame over top and matching heart (as pictured). Sandwich the flame and heart between two melting/wax paper sheets and melt the two parts together with your iron; just as you would when you melt the beads. You may need to add more pressure on the iron to get them to help them to stick together. Do the same with the sword.  They will look a little squished on the backside where the two parts are fused together. Because these will only look nice from one side, so be sure you melt them so the nicer sides are on the good side. This is the back of the hearts. Note how the flame and sword over-lap the heart. Download the Heart Pattern Here: Hope you all have a great day! God Bless, ~JenMarie

I’m posting this so you’ll have plenty of time to prepare for future Easter Egg Hunts! But keep in mind it’s still the Eastertide so feel free to have an egg hunt even though Resurrection day has past! My family had two Easter Egg hunts this past Resurrection day! But the second one was a HUGE hit!! We held it at night in complete darkness! The only lights that were on were the lights in the eggs! We told the kids that the glowing eggs are a symbol of Jesus as our guiding light and our Salvation!  To make the eggs glow we added finger lights.  Lights like these: Click here to see them on Amazon We hid our glowing eggs inside the house: in cabinets, under couch pillows, behind curtains and anywhere the light would only shine a little. The tiny amount of glowing light helped the kids as they searched for the eggs, but when they opened the cabinet doors or lifted the pillows the eggs would glow with a radiant light!  Our kids were allowed to keep one of the lights and an egg; the rest of the lights were saved so we could hide them in the eggs again next Easter!  They were thrilled!!! 😉 The kids had a super fun time!! And it was even fun for my teens! They are all looking forward to next year’s night-time Easter egg hunt!! May God bless the rest of your Easter season! ~JenMarie

Several months back a wonderful lady, Nannet, emailed me and asked me to create a craft that would teach kids all about the vestments that priests wear during Mass. Her craft idea didn’t sound too hard so I told her I’d give it a try.  I began to search for information about priests’ vestments, but I had no idea that there is so much more to vestments than meets the eye. My search for information turned into a big job! Priest vestments may seem simple, but in reality, they have a lot of history and in-depth meaning. After learning so much I felt that a simple craft just isn’t enough to teach kids about this interesting part of our faith! So I decided a mini book with pictures of the vestments would be a good way to help teach about the meaning behind each part of the priests’ vestments. So I created my very first e-book! This printable book is simple yet it’s stuffed full of interesting facts about the priests’ vestments. Each page tells about one part of the priests’ vestments. It’s nice for kids to take along to Mass so they can see the priest wearing some of the vestments pictured in this book, although most of the vestment parts are hidden. It’s a great help to get kids interested in the Mass. Vestment Craft {Change the Color} I also created the craft that Nannet asked me to make. It’s a great companion to the vestment e-book! With this craft, kids can change the color of the priest’s chasuble. On the back, there is a picture of the other vestments that a priest wears under his chasuble. Instructions for craft: Print page 1 of the PDF onto stock paper / heavy paper.  Cut out the two squares. Cut out the chasuble area on the priest’s vestments. The lines are extra thick for easy cutting. Staple the two squares back-to-back, but leave one side unstapled. Create a 4 x4 ½ inch square of each of the liturgical colors from colored paper.(red, white, green, and purple – you can do black, too, but that’s rarely used). Slide the colored paper sheets between the squares in the opening of the unstapled side of the squares. The color which you can see through the priest’s chasuble should be the liturgical color of the day. This color can be changed each day as the liturgical color changes. *OR* If you wish you can put the square images on a CD case and add colored paper to the inside of the CD case. Note: All printers print differently, so check the size before using a CD case. There are two versions of this craft: Craft with straight down stole Craft with a crossed stole Because it would be very difficult to cut the Faddleback chasuble, I have only created this craft with a Gothic chasuble. Vestment Coloring Page You also might like these coloring pages: Here are two coloring pages: Choose the one that better fits your parish! This ebook, printable craft, and coloring pages are all free below! Download the vestment crafts and coloring pages: Our Catholic faith is brimming with so much information and rich symbolism. The average Catholic (myself included) has no idea how much symbolism our faith holds! The truths we can learn from our faith are overwhelming, yet so many of us barely scratch the surface. I hope this helps you to see a little of this wonderful part of our faith! God Bless. ~JenMarie

I already posted about this craft on my Good Friday Post, but I thought I’d share the completed crafts my kids made: All you need is: Printable instructions - below a paper plate brown paper crayons scissors glue Download the instructions here: This craft is easy and fun to make. Just cut out a half-circle in the center of your plate and fold it up. Have the child color the plate.  My kids made them look like Calvary hill with a tomb at the base. I showed my kids a little about perspective. So we made our paths to the crosses wider at the edge of the plate and narrower at the crosses, so the crosses look farther away. Then, cut out strips of brown paper and form three crosses. Glue them onto the hilltop.  That’s it! Simple and fun!  God bless! ~Jen-Marie