7QT-Advent Edition

I'm participating in my first 7 Quick Takes Friday newly hosted by Kelly from This Ain't The Lyceum!  It's a fun way to recap the week and talk about some fun and random thoughts and activities!   

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St Andrew's Feast Day

We celebrated St Andrew's feast day on Sunday November 30th and had a blast learning more about St Andrew and beginning Advent!  We made the adorable St Andrew craft from CatholicIcing.com, said our prayer for the Advent wreath, started the St Andrew's novena, had a yummy fish dinner and open our first of our Advent storybooks!

Opening our Advent books (and yes it was Packer's Sunday as well!)

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Advent Homeschooling

We are taking a nice break from our regular homeschool lessons with Seton to relax this Advent!  We went to the library and got a huge stash of books, turned on the fire, snuggled up on the couch and wasted almost 2 hours in holy leisure reading with the kids (I think that's a record for the longest time we ever sat and all read together)!  That's what I call enjoyment!

 

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Instagram Fun

Having just joined the blogging world, I decided to also dive into Instagram as "ChildrenoftheChurch!  I am starting by participating in CatholicSistas Advent Photo Challenge!  It has been so much fun! 



 

 

 

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Time flying by - Preserving Memories

 

I don't know about you, but sometimes doing crafts with little ones is EXHAUSTING!  I have tried making it easier on myself by really organizing our homeschool room and all of our craft activities, but it still takes some major energy on my part sometimes!  This canvas is something we made last Christmas which was one of those exhausting crafts but now I am SO glad that we did it as I was so excited when I pulled it out of our Advent/Christmas boxes!  Our baby was only 6 months old and preserving those sweet baby hands and feet are so precious!  I know it will be a treasured piece in our home for years to come!





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Advent Reflections - A Date Night

 

We just moved back to our hometown after my husband finished his one year medical fellowship this past July.  After 4 crazy years of medical school, 3 years of residency and 1 year of fellowship we are really trying to set our marriage as a priority and really set aside specific time for it!  We have been trying to go out on more dates, we took a trip away from the kids (which we hadn't done in YEARS) and we when we can't get out we try to have date nights at home!  This past week we went on a fantastic date night listening to a talk about Advent from one of our favorite Jesuits, Father Larry Gillick, from our alma mater Creighton University.  Stay tuned for a post ALL about his amazing talk!

The Beautiful Advent wreath at our church!





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A Christmas Concert

Our middle son Connor is taking the Littler Explorer's class at the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center.  The learning center is great resource here in our community for homeschool families where we can take our children one day a week for extra activities and classes.  It has been wonderful for our family as our oldest son is taking Tae-kwon-do and our middle son is taking a Little Explorer's class which is basically just basic preschool story and play time!  It has been great to help him socialize and interact better with others his own age! 

Last night they had their open house and Connor's class sang "Away in a Manger" and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".  He has been practicing every day for weeks and was so excited.  He is the clown and dramatic one of our family so this was right up his alley!  He was simply adorable and I was a proud, proud momma!

Seriously, he is the cutest kid!

Singing "We Wish you a Merry Christmas"

"Away in a Manger"

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Getting ready for St Nicholas's Feast Day

We are having so much fun learning about Advent and St Nicholas this week!  We have been doing different activities all week learning about St Nicholas, reading our books, we wrote our letters that we leave out to Jesus on the eve of St Nicholas's feast day, and have been watching the St Nicholas movie with Veggie Tales and CCC's Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa!  Our boys are so excited to put their shoes out tonight and to go to their St Nicholas party tomorrow with our homeschool co-op!

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My Advent Reading List

One thing I have always loved to do is read!  I was totally one of those people who would plow through a book in one setting, so let me tell you when I had kids it was a big change to not have as much free time for leisure reading.  Well, now that our oldest child is almost 5 years old I think I have finally figured out how to add some quality reading back into my life! 

First of all, I have joined book clubs!  One of my dear friends started a women's book club many years ago and thankfully the group has stayed together over the years and we have read through many books and studies!  We currently are reading Mary:  A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother.  It is a fantastic study, which I especially am loving that we are doing over the Advent season to help me reflect on the nativity.  I also am participating in Well Read Mom which is a wonderful book club that has groups that meet all around the United States who all read the same books at the same time.  This year is the "Year of the Spouse" and I am really enjoying it and learning many graces.

This Advent I have started my own reading and reflections which has really helped me focus in prayer during this blessed season.  Our youngest children wake up early (usually around 5am), and I have learned to get quiet toys and activities for them so that I can take some time to have a cup of coffee and take time for myself to read and pray.  This Advent I am reading:

1.  Blessed is She Advent Journal:  This is a beautiful journal that gives you the daily readings, which I am following along in our subscription to Give Us This Day!  It also gives reflection questions and ample space for journaling and personal reflection. 

 

2.  Joy to the World:  How Christ's Coming Changed Everything (and still does) by Scott Hahn

 

I love Scott and Kimberly Hahn's books and have read many of them so when I saw this book was published I knew I had to get my hands on it!  Thankfully it has not disappointed me and I am loving it!  An excerpt from the book says:

 

"The family is the key to Christmas.  The family is the key to Christianity. ... The truth of Christmas begins with a family.  The events turned historically on the decisions of a husband and father, a wife and mother.  We know of these events only because that mother pondered them in her heart and chose to share them with her son's disciples" (Luke 2:19, 51). 

 

Scott Hahn does such a fantastic job in all of his books bringing the stories that we know back to the facts in the Bible.  He discusses the genealogy of Christ, the roles and lives of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and angels and even an amazing part about the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple! 

 

I am also thrilled that Scott and Kimberly Hahn are having a Joy to the World Livestream this Friday December 5th at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT.  Come listen (I will be there!!!)

 



3.  A Eucharistic Christmas: Advent Meditations on the Presence of Christ:  I have been reading this book during my evening prayers and I love that unlike most Advent studies that this book continues for the entire Advent and Christmas season through Epiphany on January 6th.  It includes beautiful reflections, mediations and prayers brining the Nativity together with understanding that Jesus is still just as available to us today in the Eucharist.  Also, I know already just a few days into reading this book that it is going to make me fall in love with going to Adoration and bring a whole new closeness to my relationship with Jesus. 

My "Place" - The Prayer Garden

Do you have "the place" in your life?  That special place that just allows you to take a deep breath, relax and amazingly everything gets a little better?  I would love to say that place is when I am in mass, but with three little ones, it is still sometimes a stressful experience.  Thankfully our parish St Robert's has the most beautiful prayer garden, and in this place, I am in peace, our children are in peace, and God is THERE! 

 

Everything about it is amazing!  First of all it is gated, so with little ones I have no fear of them getting away if they are exploring or I am taking some quiet time in my own prayer.  During the summer they have beautiful plants and flowers, and now in the winter they just laced the evergreen trees with beautiful white glowing lights!  They also have different spaces with benches to pray before the crucifix or the beautiful statue of Mary.  They also have an outside stations of the cross which I know we will use a lot during Lent this next year!

 

I cannot even tell you how many times we have gone there since we joined the parish this summer when we moved back to our hometown!  When I have had a stressful morning at the grocery store we stop by before going home, when we are ending a nice day we stop by before or after dinner.  One thing that I love about homeschooling is that we can change things up with our daily schedule and location for learning.  There were many beautiful days this fall that we would just pack up a few books and head over to the prayer garden!  We would say our daily decade of the rosary and then read for a while.  Every Sunday after mass we cannot leave without our children wanting to go visit the prayer garden!  With no direction from my husband or I they run down there, go to the statue of Mary and start praying the Hail Mary.  We always all leave more calm, and more connected with God and each other. 

 

 

It has truly become "my place" and after I go I always find myself more patient, caring, calm, and ready to connect with my family.  After taking a special trip to the prayer garden tonight to see the new lights after dinner we were all ready to snuggle up on the couch for a fun movie night and popcorn!

 

A Thank You to Aaron Rodgers on his Birthday

You may think that a Thank You to Aaron Rodgers is a funny topic for a blog about Children of the Church, but let me explain.  I think that having role models are fantastic, especially for children!  I want each of our children to follow God, for my husband and I to guide them, for family and friends to love them and support them, but I also want them to have people to look up to!  For our oldest son Ryan, right now, that person is Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.  Some of you may not know that he is actually a faith filled man.  He is not outgoing about it like Tim Tebow, but Aaron Rodgers once said "I like the saying from St. Francis of Assisi, ‘Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words.’ I try to live my life in a way that reflects my faith in the Lord.”

So, today, on his birthday, I want to say Thank you to Aaron Rodgers for being an upstanding, hard working role model for our son!

Our son Ryan (almost 5 years old) has had a lot of different role models in his short life.  He loves firemen, mailmen, priests, doctors, police officers, but once he heard about Aaron Rodgers his little life changed!  We started homeschooling this fall, right at the same time that the football season was starting and at first I was frustrated that the Packers were taking so much of my son's attention.  All he wanted to talk about, read about, learn about was the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers.  I quickly learned that one of the beauties of homeschooling is being able to mold learning around our children's likes and dislikes.  We quickly started using football as a way to learn, and Ryan was completely engaged!  He learned how to count by 10's by learning about the yards of the football field, he knows how to read all of the numbers on the back of all of the players jerseys, he is learning how they need to work together as a team, and that there are consequences for when they do something wrong!

Ryan could, eat, sleep, and breath Aaron Rodgers!  When I had him do a project for our school assignment one day, he was supposed to trace his body and then color and talk about things that are special about him.  He wrote Ryan Rodgers #12, Packers and would only color in GREEN!  When he is out and about and people ask him his name his most common response is Ryan "Rodgers"!  Now, usually he is wearing Green Bay gear, so they quickly understand that he is a Mega Fan of Aaron Rodgers!  Talking about wearing Green Bay gear, he loves it SO much that when I finally decide that we NEED to wash his Green Bay Packer's outfits he will wait by the dryer for them to be done to switch right back into them once they are clean!

For Halloween, not only did he dress up as Aaron Rodgers for a few Halloween activities (and was thrilled when everyone commented to him how great he was doing this season!), but he also instead of carving a pumpkin insisted that he decorate it by simply writing "PACKERS" on it! 

Ryan has started to learn how to write and spell in the past few months and he now goes around and labels everything in our home with "Packers" or "Rodgers"!  His bedroom door now says "Ryan Packers, Welcome"  I even found "Packers" on my box of wine the other day (seriously you guys, it's EVERYWHERE!)

Most little boys like to watch cartoons, but Ryan only wants to watch the Green Bay Packers, every day (thank goodness for DVR!)  We had an electrician over at our house one day and they were confused about the Packers game being on the tv, we had to explain that it is ALWAYS a game day at our house!  Ryan get's so excited on game days and takes the games SO SERIOUSLLY.  During the Packers and Dolphin's game this season Ryan was getting so worried that the Packers were not going to win that he started praying "Guardian Angel, please help Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, thank you, Amen!" 

Kids love to read silly stories and classic fairytales at bedtime, but Ryan's favorite is cuddling up with his Packers blanket and reading his Packers year book that he got from his Grama!  Ryan goes to the zoo as Aaron Rodgers, he takes walks, he dresses our dogs in Packers gear, and loves to play football in our living room so much that I think he is going to wear down our carpet!

For Christmas, when most kids ask for toys, all Ryan keeps asking for is a "White Packers Jersey".  He had received his green Aaron Rodgers jersey as a gift when we traveled to Wisconsin this past September with his grandparents and he was CRUSHED when the Packers had their first away game and he realized they were wearing different jerseys!  I'm sure that you could have guessed it by now, but just in case you hadn't, with his 5th birthday approaching, he is so excited to have his party theme be "PACKERS!" 

So, Aaron Rodgers, thank you for being such a great role model, and we hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Our Little Oratory

Have you read The Little Oratory yet?  It is such a wonderful book that gives practical ways to live your Catholic faith in the home.  This would be a perfect book to pick up to read during Advent or a great gift idea!  It talks about creating a space or "a little oratory" in your home, that is a place to focus on prayer and have constant reminders of the faith.  They give practical ways to take the time to pray the Liturgy of the hours, Catholic prayers and the rosary during every day life.  The book explains traditions and ways to orient your home to focus on God, his goodness and beauty and really living the faith between Sundays. 

 

When we moved to our home in July I had just read this book and knew that I wanted to find a place in our home for our "Little Oratory".  First we sat down and talked about what we wanted in a Little Oratory in our home.  We wanted it to:

• Be Peaceful (which can be quite difficult with Little Kids)
• Promote prayer
• Have a place to sit or kneel
• Be in a central place in the home
• Be private enough to be able to have quiet time but be big enough to be able to involve the family

I kept going through this list in my head and finally came to the conclusion that I really wanted to create two "Little Oratories".  It was very important to me that we had something in a central and predominate place in our home, where we would all walk by on a regular basis and be reminded to stop by, take a break, and pray or reflect, but I was having a hard time finding a place on our main floor to fulfill all our goals.

I ended up adding this first space, which is literally in the center of our home.  It is right between the kitchen and the living room and it directly down the hallway from our front door.  In this "Little Oratory" space we have a lot of our family and kids faith filled activities and books.  This is the only place I have toys on the main floor of our home and they are almost all religious toys (plus the big basket of building blocks to the right).  Some of our favorites include: Let's Go To Church Playset, the Melissa and Doug Noah's Ark Shape Sorter and our Busy Bible.  When I am making a meal the kids will sit and play with these toys or read a book together and we all really enjoy the space.

                                                                                                                           

I really do love our space on our main floor, but I was still looking for something more intimate and purposeful.  That is when I started reading about creating a home altar.  We have a lovely sitting room right off our master bedroom and next to my husband's office.  We decided to turn this space into our more intimate "Little Oratory".  These are some of the things we added to help it fulfill our goals. 

 

Be Peaceful:  It is so nice to have this space off the master bedroom because it can be the first place we go in the morning and the last place we are at night before we go to bed.  We added candles and our portable speaker that also help make it very peaceful.

 

 

Promote Prayer:  Have you ever visited the blog Catholic All Year?  Kendra Tierney is one of my favorite bloggers and one thing that she has done is create these beautiful prayer printables.  We have 6 different prayers framed around the windows in the room and they are a beautiful and wonderful way for us to not only promote prayer but also learn new prayers as a family.  Also my grandmother gave me her old daily book of saints and one of her old Bible's which I keep in the room and treasure.

 

 

Have a place to sit or kneel:  We found this amazing old church pew from a church in Southern Nebraska that was built in 1884.  The pew was a wonderful new house warming gift from our in-laws, and I know it will be a treasured piece in our home for years to come. We also have this framed art hanging over the pew which says "The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you."

 

 

Be private enough to be able to have quiet time but be big enough to be able to involve the family: Being off the master bedroom it can definitely be a quiet space when we want it to be.  This is where I usually go to say the rosary or study the current book study I am doing, Mary: A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother.  The kids also often join to say a decade of the rosary with me using the Toddler's Rosary Set from Veronika's Workshop.  They love to have a way to be interactive during the rosary.

Come check out other people's Little Oratory's here!