What We've Been Reading - February 2016

"What We've Been Reading" is a series here at Children of the Church to both keep track of what we are reading and to share with others what we have been reading in our home.  Reading is such an important part of our daily lives and also our homeschooling journey.  Thank you for following along and please feel free to share what you have been reading as well so we can all learn together!

February 2016

Children's Book List (Our children are 6 years, 4 years, 2 years old, baby):

• Chapter Books
  • The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
  • The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
• Children's Stories
  • The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown
  • A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry
  • How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
  • Frederick by Leo Lionni
  • Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus by Peter Sis
  • Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
  • Pumpkin Moonshine by Tasha Tudor
  • The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
  • Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle
  • Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
  • Usborne Illustrated Stories for Boys
  • Usborne Illustrated Adventure Stories 
• Catholic Mosaic Books
  • Brigid's Cloak by Bryce Milligan
  • The Holy Twins by Kathleen Norris and Tomie dePaola
  • Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda
  • Children's Stations of the Cross by Susan Brindle
  • The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• Explore the Continents Booklist + Extras (Europe)
  • The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola
  • Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans
  • The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
  • Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
  • Angelo by David Macaulay
  • Europe by Mary Lindeen
  • A True Book Europe by Sandra Newman
  • The Madonnas of Europe - Pilgrimages to the Great Marian Shrines of Europe by Janusz Rosikon
• Homeschooling Books
  • Bigger Stories for Bigger Folks (CHC)
  • This is Our Family (Seton)

My Book List:

• Divine Mercy for Moms:  Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina by Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet
• Rediscover Jesus by Matthew Kelly
• St Robert Bellarmine by Shaun McAfee
• Eucharistic Adoration:  Holy Hour Meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ by Charles Murphy
• A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God
• Hail, Holy Queen; The Mother of God in the World by Scott Hahn
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
 

One Whole Year of Love

As far as I can tell, it was one year ago today that you were born.

 

Born from nothing into something.

 

From two halves into an amazing whole.

 

One year ago today that you sparked and

started shining and growing and changing our lives.

 

They say that the first year goes quickly,

that the changes that occur in that year are astounding;

from newborn to walking, talking wonderful toddler.

 

But I'm talking about the real first year. 

From single cell to a smiling, laughing, cooing,

hugging, snuggling heart stealer.

 

I've had one whole year with you, my dear son. 

A whole year of the most wonderful love I could ever know.

 

Happiest of happy birthdays to you my happy baby.

 

 

 

"Before you were conceived I wanted you,

Before you were born I loved you,

Before you were an hour old I would die for you.

This is the miracle of love." -Maureen Hawkins

 

 

Celebrating Ryan's Baptism Anniversary

We were able to celebrate another Baptism anniversary today and as our son Ryan gets older it truly has been something he has been looking forward to!  He has the date memorized and has been counting down the days for weeks so that he can celebrate. 

 

 

We went to Mass this morning and after mass he proudly walked up to our Priest to tell him that it was his Baptism Anniversary.  He was so excited to receive a special little prayer.

When we came home we got out his Baptismal Candle to light and say a prayer together as a family.  Ryan REALLY loves candles right now so he was so thrilled to have this special candle out.  He was even more thrilled to receive the Holy Heroes 2016 Paschal Candle as one of his little gifts for the day.  He also loved his brother's Prayer Pillow that he received on his Baptism Anniversary this past year, so bought him one with his current favorite prayer, The St. Michael Prayer.  He was thrilled to have this prayer in an awesome Army print! 

 

 

Baptism is such a beautiful gift to receive in our Church!  We thank God for all of the graces that he gives to us through this wonderful sacrament!

Ryan's Baptism - February 28, 2010

 

Baptismal Anniversary Prayer

Remember this, Ryan
You have been washed
In the saving waters of baptism
And anointed with holy oil.
Place on your head and in your heart
The sign of the cross of salvation.

Loving God,
You created all the people of the world,
And you know each of us by name.
We thank you for Ryan
Who celebrates the anniversary of his baptism.
Bless him with your love and friendship
That he may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace.
May he love his family always
And be ever faithful to his friends.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

 

With Ryan's Godmother - Our dear friend Callie

 

Read about how we have celebrated other Baptism Anniversaries below:

 

Connor's Baptism Anniversary 2014

Connor's Baptism Anniversary 2015

 

Luke's Baptism Anniversary 2015

 

The Hour of 3 o'clock

It is 3am and the baby wakes up to eat.  I nurse him and shut my eyes for a while and hear the pitter patter of little feet around 4:15am.  It is our 2 year old wanting to cuddle.  I put him back to bed and try once again to shut my eyes.  5:15am our 4 year old is awake and ready to start the day.  I walk downstairs and make the much needed pot of coffee.  I pour a cup and curl up in my favorite chair for my morning prayer and devotional time.  I breath in the graces that God is granting me for the day and am feeling energized.

 

By the time I am finished with my morning prayers our whole house is awake and going.  There is breakfast to be made, showers and dressing to occur, beds and rooms to be tidied, and chores to be done.  We kiss my husband goodbye as he goes off to work and start our day plans.  We learn, play and explore.

 

By noon lunch time comes and hungry little ones gobble down their food and chat about the randomness of life.  At 1pm the little ones go to bed and school time starts with the older ones.  We learn about Jesus, explore the world, and read about great adventures.  By the time we are finished we hear little ones cries or coming down the stairs as their nap time ends.

 

3pm.  We made it here.  It's been a good day, or maybe it hasn't.  Either way, 3pm comes and I have usually been up and giving for about 10-12 hours by now.  I am getting tired, but I still have hours of play, dinner to be made, being excited for my husband to return home, bath time, stories, bedtime and more. 

 

3pm.  That hour that as mothers we feel like our day has gone on forever, but we still have so much of our day left. 

 

3pm.  The hour that Christ died on the cross.  He died for our sins.  He died to give us everlasting life.  He was too exhausted to carry on, He followed God's plan for Him, and He handed His life over to God.

 

 

Jesus understands the cross.  He understands what crosses He gives to us in our daily lives.  Each of our crosses look and feel different for each one of us.  But each of us are hearing the same thing from Jesus if we listen, "I am here.  I want to help you carry your cross.  I love you."

 

3pm.  The hour that we have the opportunity to make a choice.  We can grumble, and complain, and be exhausted.  We can fall apart, start yelling, and feel stressed. 

 

Or, we can meet Jesus at the cross. 

 

We can stop, literally stop, right where we are and meet Him there at the cross.  We can say a prayer of thanksgiving for what has occurred so far in the day and ask for Jesus to give us grace to continue to carry our crosses throughout the rest of the day.  We can trust in Jesus, that He will help us through those difficult moments, those stressful moments, those moments of pure exhaustion. 

 

The best part is understanding what happened after that horrible hour of 3 o'clock when our Savior died on the cross, and that is the beautiful gift of the Resurrection.  Jesus was resurrected from the dead and is living again with each one of us, right now, today.  He is here to get each of us through our own hour of 3 o 'clock, and help us with each of our own crosses.  The big question is, are we ready to meet Him there at the hour of 3 o'clock!     

 

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Eucharistic Miracles of the World

We were blessed to be able to attend St. Gerald's Parish Mission of the exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles of the World this week.  If you are a local reader, today is the last day of the exhibit at St. Gerald's Parish and it continues until 10pm today!  They also are wonderful and have childcare set up so that you are able to spend some time at the exhibit free of "distraction"!  Although after I went through the exhibit on my own my boys still wanted to quickly go see what I was looking at and were amazed, especially by the relics!

 

I am always trying to learn more about our Catholic Faith and I feel like whenever I do learn more I am always amazed at the depth and richness of our Church!  At this exhibit they had over 100 accounts of Eucharistic Miracles from around the world.  It was truly amazing to read these stories and hear of all of the miracles that have occurred over time and are still occurring in the present day.

 

If you want to learn about the exhibit definitely check out this book The Eucharistic Miracles of the World!

 

They also included in this exhibit relics of a few very famous Saints including St. Therese of Lisieux, St Jude, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Francis of Assisi and more.  This part of the exhibit was very special to see and study especially since St. Elizabeth Ann Seton holds a special place in our lives (and is the name sake of this blog!).

 

 

 

 

The church also had Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration occurring during the same time as the exhibit so we were able to spend a little bit of special time with Jesus!  This was such a special activity during Lent.

 

The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Today, February 22nd we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.  This feast commemorates Jesus's choosing Peter to sit in His place as the servant of the whole Church!



Image Source

To celebrate this feast day we read today's Gospel from Matthew 16:13-16

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"  They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

We then made our own version of replica chairs to celebrate St. Peter being our first Pope and for all of the other Popes!  The kids thought this was the most amazing thing EVER and had lots of fun picking out candy that would work best!  I love their creativity and understanding because our 6 year old picked out Sour Patch Kids so that someone (the Pope) could sit on the chair and our 4 year old picked Sweedish Fish to add since Peter was a fisherman!  We used Twix and Reese's bars to make our legs and seats of the chairs and put them all together with Vanilla frosting!

 

We also celebrated today as a Saint Name Feast Day for our youngest son Peter!  St. Peter's feast day is on June 29th, but we decided that he can be extra special like St. Peter and also celebrate on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter as well!  We love to do little things on their Saint Name Feast Day so Peter got a new little Mary Rattle! 

 

It was such a fun and simple way to celebrate The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter!

 

Explore the Continents - History and Geography an Update!

We are loving the Explore the Continents History and Geography program from Catholic Heritage Curricula.  Read about what we have done so far with the program HERE and HERE! 

We continued with Exploring the Continents studying Australia.  This was such a fun continent and country to learn about!  We studied the animals, the famous places and the history.  Books that we included to deepen our learning and fun included:
 

Katy No Pocket by Emmy Payne

Possum Magic by Mem Fox

Koala Lou by Mem Fox

The Old Woman Who Loved to Read by John Winch

Introducing Australia by Anita Ganeri
 



 

It was a lot of fun to learn about St. Mary Mackillop who is Australia's first Catholic Saint! 

 

 

We love our zoo and had so much fun exploring all of the Australian animals including snakes, kookaburras, wallabies and more! 

Next, we moved on to Europe!  This continent is so rich in history and Catholicism so there is so much to learn.  Our booklist for Europe includes the following:

The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola
Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
Angelo by David Macaulay
Europe by Mary Lindeen
A True Book Europe by Sandra Newman
The Madonnas of Europe - Pilgrimages to the Great Marian Shrines of Europe by Janusz Rosikon

 

It has also been fun to study Saints from Europe as their feast days occur in the liturgical year including St. John Bosco from Italy, St. Brigid from Ireland and Our Lady of Lourdes from France!

 

 

We also love all of the review games included in the Curriculum and playing with our globe and using our World Map in our Homeschool Room!   

 

 

 

O Holy Spirit

Music has always been something that calms me, centers me in prayer and is also a great way for me to praise God.  Marian Grace continues to be one of my favorite music artists and lately this prayer and song "O Holy Spirit" is one that I listen to or sing many times each day.  I wanted to print it off to put it in a predominate place in my home and wanted to share it with you as well!

 

 

 

A Fresh Take on Dinner - Hello Fresh Review

Do you remember when I spoke about getting through the first month with a newborn?  We were so blessed to receive so many fantastic meals from family and friends and my husband was so sweet to hire a cleaning lady to come every few weeks to free some extra time up for me!  Our youngest is now just three months old and we finally feel like we are into a pretty good groove and routine again!  Yet, one time of day still ends up being kind of stressful and crazy sometimes; DINNER TIME!  I was looking for something to change things up a bit and my sister recommended Hello Fresh! 

 

Hello Fresh is a website that delivers healthy and delicious meals right to your door with all of the pre measured ingredients and recipes included!  They have many different choices for how many people are eating in your home, any dietary needs (vegetarian, dairy free, gluten free, etc) and how many meals you want delivered per week/month.  We tried out the Family Box (for families of 4) for one week and had a lot of fun!

 

The following is what we received for our first week, the pro's and con's and don't forget to make it all of the way to the end to get $40 off your first box to give it a try!!

 

Italian Spiced Chicken with Tomato Rice &

Roasted Green Beans

 

Pan Seared Pork Chops with Rosemary Grape Salsa,

Sweet Potatoes & Roasted Brocolini

 

Shrimp and Lemon Risotto with

Roasted Zucchini and Parmesan

 

 

• Con's:
  • We ordered the family box meant for 4 people and for our family of 5 people eating dinner there was not enough meat.  We added a few chicken breasts and pork chops to each meal to have enough for our family.  (We could have added more people to the cost but the servings of vegetables was enough for our family).  I will also add that our family does eat quite a bit of meat as even our 2 year old can finish his own chicken breast/pork chop.
  • More expensive than typical cooking/eating at home ($35/meal for a family of four getting 3 meals per week)
• Pro's:
  • Trying new recipes and going outside of the box with cooking
  • No meal planning needed
  • Convenience of delivery to our home
  • Healthy meals
  • Having fun cooking new things with the children
  • Meals are pre-packaged and conveniently all together and ready to go
  • Ability to save favorite recipes to have sent again
  • Options to have a mix of vegetarian meals during Lent (or abiding by other dietary restrictions)
  • All meals were prepared/cooked within 30 minutes
  • Flexible option to get meals weekly/monthly and even "pause" orders when they are not needed
  • Cheaper than going out to eat as a family

Overall, we had a fantastic time trying out Hello Fresh and I can see times when it might be really great to use for our family.  When we are really busy with kids activities, etc it would be fantastic to have everything planned and put together for us.  Also, I could see using it while on vacation if we were staying somewhere with a kitchen where we could cook dinner as a family.  This would be a much cheaper option to mail the box to the location rather than eating out.  I also really loved to expand my cooking from my typical meals that I make and have everyone try a few new things!

 

Click HERE to get $40 off your first box!!!