St. Patrick Prep

We've been getting ready to celebrate St. Patrick's Day tomorrow! We have shamrocks up all over the downstairs and a nice banner for our wall.  On the biggest shamrock we added cut-outs to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

I also made a paper bag puppet of St. Patrick using the tutorial over at Catholic Icing.  Addie will put her puppet together tomorrow.  She thinks he's so cute. 

We've been singing this super cute song all day, the kids love it! 

They will also help make some special green pudding (vanilla with food coloring... not a fan of pistachio), and we'll chow down on shamrock pretzels 

while watching this short Veggie Tales video.

St. Patrick's Prayer

May the Strength of God pilot us.
May the Power of God preserve us.

May the Wisdom of God instruct us.

May the Hand of God protect us.

May the Way of God direct us.

May the Shield of God defend us.

May the Host of God guard us.

Against the snares of the evil ones.

Against temptations of the world 

May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!

May Christ be in us,

Christ be over all!

May Thy Salvation, Lord,

Always be ours,

This day, O Lord, and evermore. Amen.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

You can find information about St Valentine here. 

The kids came downstairs this morning to find some special decorations.

The garland was made using an idea from Family Fun magazine.  Toilet paper tubes were painted (inside and out) with red paint and allowed to dry.  I then flattened the tubes to form creases and cut each tube in 4 pieces, making 1 inch circles.  If you push the top crease on the circles down it forms a heart! I then strung them with beads to form the simple garland. 

 Each of our downstairs windows has one of these heart snowflakes.  The snowflakes were cut from coffee filters and then glued onto tissue paper. On a window it has a nice stained glass effect.

For breakfast we feasted on special pancakes and strawberry milk while watching the Veggie Tales
 Silly Little Thing Called Love.

We will be delivering some Valentines today as well.  Addie had a great time coloring the hearts and using glitter glue, tracing her hand for the I Love You sign, putting on stickers, and dropping candies in between the layers.

We also made some special bouquets for their grandmothers!  This process was a little more involved and I'm hoping to get up a post about how to make them soon. The girls had a fantastic time with this, too.

The story of Saint Valentine is a legend, it is true.

But legends are delightful and very lovely, too.

The legend says Saint Valentine, imprisoned in a cell,

was thinking of his little flock he had always loved so well.

He wanted to assure them of his friendship and his love,

so he picked a bunch of violets and sent them by a dove.

And on the violet's velvet leaves he pierced these lines divine...

they simply said "I Love You and I'm your Valentine."

So through the years that followed, from that day unto this,

folks still send messages of love and seal them with a kiss.

Because a Saint in prison reached outside his bars one day

and picked a bunch of violets and sent them out to say

that Faith and Love can triumph no matter where you are,

for Faith and Love are greater than the strongest prison bar.

~ Helen Steiner Rice

Celebrating St. Brigid

Today is the feast of St. Brigid, one of the patron saints of Ireland, and a woman of extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for others.  There's a wonderful background about her here, and several books about her here.

Our day started with a cup of Irish tea and a fresh loaf of St. Brigid's Oaten Bread.  (Which is really wonderful, I have a love of all things soda bread.)

We also made some St. Brigid's crosses

 out of pipe cleaners using this tutorial.  Addie really had a wonderful time making them, being able to do most of it herself.

St. Brigid, brilliant star of sanctity in the early days of Irish faith and love for the omnipotent God Who has never forsaken us, we look up to you now in earnest, hopeful prayer. By your glorious sacrifice of earthly riches, joys and affections obtain for us grace to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice" with constant trust in His fatherly care. By your life of laborious charity to the poor, the sick, the many seekers for light and comfort, obtain for us grace to be God's helpers to the utmost of our power during our stay on earth, looking forward, as you did, to our life with Him during eternity. By the sanctified peace of your death-bed, obtain for us that we may receive the fullness of pardon and peace when the hour comes that will summon us to the judgment seat of our just and most merciful Lord. Amen.

Happy St Nicholas Day!

All powerful God,
you made St. Nicholas a bishop and leader of the church
to inspire your people with his teaching and example.
May we give fitting honor to his memory
and always have the assistance of his prayers.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever—and ever. Amen.


The kids and I are celebrating the day with hot cocoa, speculaas cookies, special books, and the Veggie Tales story of the saint.  When they wake up from naps later, daddy will be home and there will be special treats tucked in their stockings!

St Nicholas Day

Today... was a great day. (Unfortunately, our camera is dead so we had to make do with a phone camera, and all the pictures turned out blurry.)

We spent yesterday talking about St Nicholas, reading a book about him and trying to prep them for today. We hung their stockings and they seemed excited by their "big socks." This morning the kids came downstairs to advent music playing, stuffed stockings, and a lit tree with a special new ornament.
"Teh-yee Berrs!" (teddy bears) was the first exclamation of the morning. (They were really stuffed reindeer with tiny bags of mini candy canes but, close enough.) We said a prayer and then took their stockings down for them to go through. Aside from the stuffed animal they each got a clear bouncy ball with glitter in it, a mini board book and a little chocolate santa. The santas were eaten as soon as they heard they were "Chock-et!"
While they sucked on their santas we read The Saint Who Became Santa Claus.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast and later the kids helped to make Speculatius (German spice cookies.) I didn't have a special cookie cutter or the time to decorate them so we just made circles and they turned out well. Next time I might add a bit more cloves, I like them spicy.

We had a great time finding ways to make this day special (As the kids get older we hope to add a tradition of helping out at a local soup kitchen) and are looking forward to our kids growing up celebrating this great saint.