The Last Two Weeks Have Changed Everything

Friends, it's time for a heart to heart.

Over these past few weeks I have been processing a lot of life.

First semester was off to a rocky start in our home as I tried to figure out how to homeschool with a mobile little person who likes to mess with my stuff. (Picture removing all of the letter tiles from my perfectly organized white board, tearing pages out of my teachers manuals, and trying to eat my science experiments... she's not destructobaby, she's just a baby.) What used to be a solid, 3 hour homeschool day with 2 hours of mommy time during everyone's afternoon rest turned into a drawn out 5 hour homeschool day that took up a 7 hour timespan, with no 2 hour afternoon rest... because that gets eaten up with laundry, phone calls, dishes, etc.

As I've been praying about/processing through/weighing options on exactly what changes need to be made, two significant events have happened.

1. I attended an incredibly intense retreat.
2. I attended an incredibly clarifying conference.

Both of these events have taken place within the past few weeks and I was waiting for them to come and go before making any final decisions on what exactly God is asking of me.

Here's the bottom line. My life is too full. Way. Too. Full.

So, it is with sadness that I say, my days of blogging at Catholic Missionary Family are soon coming to an end.

I have enjoyed sharing my family's adventures, curriculum plans, liturgical celebrations, and missionary life here on the blog, but it is time to bring this chapter to a close. I plan on cleaning up the blog and making it a resource site, so you will still be able to access the homeschool plans and liturgical resources that I have already posted. (I'll be referring to them as well. :)

Part of this decision also has to do with the influx of requests that I have been receiving for speaking engagements, interviews, product reviews, etc. I never dreamed that God would take a talk that I gave for a $35.00 thank you card 5 years ago and turn it into a flourishing ministry. Being a Catholic speaker was never my plan and each time I thought that God would stop opening doors for me to speak, He did the opposite and flung them open even faster. (Please pray for 3 major projects that are currently in the works... one is an upcoming talk that I'm giving to 5,000 women at SEEK, and I wish I could share the other two, but it's not time yet!)

I still have a few more posts that I want to get up, so stick around for those! My plan is to completely step away from the blog at the end of this year and transition to using my "free time" for speaking. You can keep up with me at the focus blog where I will continue to write and if I can ever be of service as a speaker, please contact me through my speaker page! (I speaking on all things dating, marriage, motherhood, and femininity.)

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Your comments, emails, and affirmations have meant so much to me. Blessings to you!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Assumption 2014

I've always enjoyed the Solemnity of the Assumption. The event itself must have been so peaceful. I've always imagined Mother Mary, surrounded by those who love her Son, laying peacefully in her bed and then, much to everyones wonder, rising into heaven. What an incredibly joyous celebration must have followed there. There might have been balloons, but I can't say for sure. 

A ballon launch for Mary's Assumption. More on that later.

I decided that it was about time for Baby Peanut to get more involved in liturgical events, seeing as she is 9 months and has been slacking in this department with her lack of fine motor skills. So we made her a cloud to play with for the Assumption.

It was love at first squish.

Later in the kitchen we made more clouds for the Assumption party were headed to that evening. Ours aren't nearly as pretty as the ones at Catholic Cuisine, but they were made with 8 year old love!

I also snuck in a favorite tradition of incorporating fruit and herbs on this Solemnity because it's a traditional day for blessing your fruit and herb harvest. Having no homegrown fruit or herbs to claim as my own, I bought raspberry lemonade and threw some mint into it.

That evening we headed to some friends' house for an Assumption party! I am extremely thankful for our liturgical nerd friends. Without them our children would know we are odd. (Thank you to 39 week pregnant Sarah for hosting! I can't wait to light my birth blessing candle for you!)

The pentacle of the party was the Assumption balloon launch, which reminded us of Mary's rising into heaven.

At first there were oohs and ahhs as they watched the balloons drift off.



Then there were tears from the little ones when they realized that their balloons weren't coming back.

I imagine it was the same way for Jesus' disciples. They probably marveled at Mary being assumed and then cried tears as they realized that their time with her on earth had come to and end.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Feast of St. Clare Movie Night

St. Clare is the patroness of the media therefore, we had a family movie night to celebrate her Feast Day!

The kids really outdid themselves by turning our living room into a theater.

Tickets were even purchased with homemade money. (Special guests Grammy and Pop Pop were able to join us!)

And in the middle of the movie we took an intermission to get refreshments at the concession stand.

I think we just started another fun feast day tradition!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Solemnity of the Ascension

For the Solemnity of the Ascension today we had a picnic, which is a long standing tradition in many parts of Europe.

It's also a bonus if you can have that picnic atop a mountain, because Christ ascended from a mountain.

We have a lot of those around here, so that wasn't hard to do.

(He's either pretending to be Lewis Meriwether or looking for Christ in the clouds, you choose.)

For our meal I pulled out some traditional and symbolic fare.

During the middle ages it was traditional for people to eat birds on Ascension Day because Christ flew to heaven. Rather than cook a whole bird, we had chicken sandwiches. In Italy it is traditional to eat grapes because Christ is the first fruit of all men.  So, we ate grapes. And for dessert we had vanilla pudding, which represented the white clouds that Jesus ascended into.

And now we interrupt this blog post for a cute photo of a baby.

After dinner we ventured out for a little "adventure hiking" as Pal calls it.

Everyone was throughly exhausted by the end of the day, and that's how we know we had a successful outing.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Bean's First Holy Communion

Yesterday Bean made her First Communion. What can I say, it's a Sacrament, how could the day not be blessed?

To add to the already joyous day, much of our extended family was there to celebrate with us, the weather was beautiful, and our small family reception was a success.

After all of our time preparing for this day, Bean was beyond excited to finally receive Jesus in His flesh and blood.

I was very thankful that Bean was able to wear the veil that I wore at my first communion. Yes, I still have my late 80's dress. Yes, the sleeves were too puffy to even consider having Bean wear it.

When given the option, Bean wanted to have a party just with her family, so we kept things fairly simple. The projects Bean made during her preparations served as the decorations and I ordered Subway for our lunch.

We did however still pull out the china and silver and had my dear friend make us gorgeous chalice cookies.

After lunch we played baseball... naturally...

And opened up some very special gifts.

Bean's Grammy made her a beautiful and intricate cross stitch and we took the small crucifix that the priest who did her first confession gave her and had a friend turn it into a rosary.

We are so happy for our little Bean, what a beautiful day it was!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Easter 2014: In Pictures

He is Risen Indeed!

Easter 2014: In Pictures - Because I'm too tired to write something intelligent about today, but I still want to remember this lovely, blessed Easter.

Insert your favorite what-is-the-baby-saying line here. "Umm, I have a question, when will we be done?"

Peanut liked her baby leggings... well at least she liked the packaging.

Hiking with cousins.

Just for the record, we did go to church and hunt for Easter eggs, but I didn't really get any pictures of those events.

I hope you had a blessed Easter Sunday!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Good Friday 2014

"Behold, behold, the wood of the cross, on which is hung our salvation. Come let us adore."

On this Good Friday the big kids and I were able to pray the Stations of the Cross while hiking to the top of a mountain at a local shrine dedicated to St. Francis Xavier Cabrini. It was moving to see hundreds of the faithful making the way along side us. The young couple climbing the nearly 400 steps on their knees, the teenaged boy weeping manly tears at the 12th station, the family praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the foot of the crucifix, this are the images I want my children to have of living the Triduum as a child.

The inspiring view at the top of the mountain.

When we arrived home shortly after 3:00 I had the kids shroud all of the images of Christ throughout our home, just like they do at our churches. This is a tradition we've held since our first, and only, Easter before Bean was born.

And I was happy to see, that after weeks of sacrificing, our crown of thorns only had one lone thorn, which I believe has already been pulled by a pair of little hands.

In the morning we made a chocolate crown of thorns out of almond bark and pretzels, which will be eaten of Easter. While we made it we didn't eat any of the chocolate, not even the melted goodness on our fingers. For a five year old, this is a real sacrifice. On Easter I'll fill the center of the crown with dyed eggs and turn it into a nest to remind us of new life.

We also crafted our paschal candle today. While typically we would do this on Holy Saturday (because the paschal candles for our churches are marked and used for the first time at the Easter Vigil on Saturday night), we have guests coming for Pysanky tomorrow and I don't think we'll have time. Using an illustrated guide from FOCUS and these instructions from Catholic Culture we taught the kids about the candle as we created it.

And before heading out for a 7:00 Passion Service (which we had to leave early from, but at I'm glad we tried!), the kids pulled out the Resurrection Eggs. Bean put on a "show" for us by telling the story of Holy Week in her own words. It's nice to know things are sinking in.

May your Holy Saturday be blessed as we await for the stone to be rolled away on Sunday.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Holy Thursday 2014

Each year we try to truly engage in the Triduum as a family. Some of our traditions have grown and changed with our family, and others always stay the same. Here is what we have been up to on this Holy Thursday. 

For dinner we had sparking grape juice (regular grape juice with sprite - it's cheaper than a real bottle) and unleavened bread to remind us of the Last Supper. I was able to double this up with our 4th First Communion lesson on the Last Supper, which made for perfect timing!

A new addition to our plans was the serving of chicken noodle soup for dinner. I picked chicken to remind us of the cock crowing after Peter's denial. If I keep this up I'll have an entire dinner based on Holy Thursday in the next few years.

We also made a mound of hot cross buns for Good Friday/Easter. Tomorrow we'll eat them without frosting and on Easter we'll have them with frosting. Pal kept singing "hot cross buns, hot cross buns, see how they run" in an effort to combine the two nursery rhymes together. He thought he was awfully clever.

The real highlight of the day was the kids' new Last Supper "Lego" Set. I was blessed to get it for 1/2 off with our FOCUS missionary discount from Spiritus. The thought crossed my mind to give it to them on Easter, but it was just too appropriate to give it to them today.

The set is compatible with Legos!

At first the kids spent time reenacting the story of the Last Supper, but by the end of the day they were dividing up into teams for capture the flag... Judas was picked last.

Finally, making it to the 7:00 pm service tonight with baby Peanut, who usually goes to bed at 7:00 pm, was a huge blessing. The Triduum has officially begun, I pray that yours is fruitful!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Altar Decorations for the Solemnity of St. Joseph

For the past five years we have hosted a party on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, so I think we can now call it a tradition. When I told Bean that last night was our 5th party she said "Oh, so we've been doing this since I was three." She's right, that's crazy. Over the years I've added a little bit to our St. Joseph's Day collection and the results are below.

Our St. Joseph statue was purchased while on pilgrimage to France (I know a statue from Italy would make more sense). He sits in our living room all year long and gets a really special place on his feast days. The three boxes wrapped in red paper are used for the three tiers (for the trinity and three members of the holy family) of the altar. The bottom two are lidless shoeboxes so I can nest them into each other to save on storage space.

Throughout the altar I place red table tents with explanations for the various traditional items that can be found. For more details on these items check out my post on the altar symbols and their meanings.

Cream puffs are a non-negotiable must for any St. Joseph's altar. Don't even try to have one without them, the Italians would never forgive you.

I printed a set of St. Joseph Memory Match Playing Cards from Shower of Roses, backed them to red construction paper, and use them each year to decorate in various ways. The above cards have been clipped onto a medium sized clothes pin that is glued to a wooden stick. I then held the sticks up in a glass full of breadcrumbs, which is symbolic of sawdust because St. Joseph was a carpenter.

I placed another set in our lima fava beans. One day I will splurge and buy some real dried beans on Amazon because I can't find them locally anywhere.

Way at the end of the altar you can see our fake lilies. For a few years I could never find fresh, pure white lilies, so I went ahead and bought some fake ones. They work great for Easter as well!

I love my hanging tissue paper fans. Check out this tutorial to make your own, just don't add the bunny :).

And finally I made a pendant banner stating "Happy St. Joseph's Day". If it said "Happy Solemnity of St. Joseph" it would have been out of control long. Shanty 2 Chic is my hero for making the entire alphabet, numbers, and several symbols available to print for free! For the dot in St {dot} Joseph I had to print an exclamation point, then cover the top line with paper and make a copy. Whatever works!

Next year I hope to add some fun red and white straws and those real fava beans!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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