The Amazing Effects of Prayer

I've been searching for MONTHS to find a Catholic Mommies group in my area. Since I couldn't find anything, I decided to start one on my own. In November, I finally approached the pastor of my parish church. It took until January, but we got it started. We've already had many bumps in the road, and many trials, but I KNOW that God wants me to do this.

Anyways, the first week, we had one mom show up. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for that meeting, and I hope that didn't deter her (the kids had just been recovering from bronchitis, croup and an ear infection). She seemed into it, but I haven't seen her since. Then, the second week, an Aunt, who babysits her nephew came. I was a little better prepared, with a bible story and a 10 Commandments project, but note to everyone...CHECK THAT YOUR GLUE STICKS ARE NOT DRIED OUT before you bring them to a function where you will be glueing!

Week 3, NO ONE else showed up. But, I was prepared and my kids and I did the activity we had planned. I didn't read them the story again, as I had read it to them earlier in the week since it was "A" week. We read Tomie dePaola's Angels, Angels Everywhere. On Little Saints group day, we did the "A" is for Angels activity from Catholic Icing. The kids went a little crazy with the stickers, but they sure do love stickers. (I had to zoom in on the actual artwork because their names were written in the corners.)

Junior's...

 Princess'



Anyways, week 4 (yesterday). Again, NO ONE shows up! Well, (so, I had this REALLY long post written and it didn't save, so I'll have to just use a shortened one!)

So, week 4. NO ONE showed up. The Feast of St. Blaise was the day before, so I read the story of St. Blaise to the kids and had them color a picture of him from Waltzing Matilda.

My New Year's Resolution was/is to go to Mass one day a week in addition to Sundays. And of course on all the Holy Days and special Feast Days. St. Blaise's Feast day was on Thursday. My kids were EXTREMELY well behaved! Anyways, as I'm packing up the diaper bag to leave, a man comes over and hands me something and says "this is for your Mommy group". I said "Thank you! Thank you so much!" I didn't have time to look at it just that second, and I don't know if I would even know the man if I saw him again. Anyways, when I got to the car, I looked and it was a $100 bill! Now, I have been praying about starting a Meetup.com group, but just haven't had the funds. God had definitely heard and answered my prayers! This man was a vessel for God. I now am able to start a meetup group (which will hopefully bring in more mommies) as well as have leftover funds for supplies, snacks, and anything else).

GOD LISTENS!

Happy Saint Brigid's Feast Day

(Yes, I know it was actually yesterday, but naptime is just about the ONLY time I can ever get on here.) :)

For St. Brigid's Feast, we read St. Brigid's Cloak by Bryce Millligan, as well as a short story in Twenty Tales of Irish Saints.

We also made St. Brigid's Oaten Bread from Catholic Cuisine...

  

 

and colored a St. Brigid coloring page from Waltzing Matilda...

We were going to make this St. Brigid's Cross from Family Fun (thanks for sharing Catholic Icing!), but we just ran out of time. We may still make it today.

Overall, we had a WONDERFUL fun-filled day!

They've all emerged!

All 5 of our butterflies have emerged! We put some sugar water in the bottom of their "garden", and it was so awesome to watch them "drink" with their tongues. I'm so thankful the kiddos were able to experience this life cycle (and miracle) first hand!

 Watching from the ground...



Butterflies, Butterflies Everywhere!

It sure is a good thing we had hubby move the butterflies over to their "butterfly garden". No sooner did we get them over than they started "hatching"! The first day two broke free of their cocoons. As of today, 4 of the 5 have emerged! (Sorry for the cruddy pictures again. These were also taken with my phone.)

Here are some of our yellow & black spotted ladybugs

Art Study

In Elizabeth Foss' Alphabet Path curriculum, she also incorporates art work into a study. With my two, we can't get extremely indepth with the art, but we did discuss colors that the artist used, and what medium Princess thought the artist used (Junior was off doing something else and had NO interest in art. LOL). Then, she re-created the painting herself. Since we are on "A" week, we used Paul Cezanne's "Apples" painting. I'd say Princess did pretty well for a 3-1/2 year old.

Paul Cezanne's "Apples"

Princess' Rendition

My Family Cont'd

Another project from our My Family Unit from our Little Saints preschool program. The kids loved using pictures of themselves to make a photo montage of our family.

I Believe in 1 God!

A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for a fun project to do for my church's Mommy Group that I'm trying to start. Since January is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus, I came across this activity on Catholic Icing. She created a program for her pre-school co-op, which I LOVE! I have added that into our curriculum as well. We are now slowly working our way through 3 different curriculums, choosing the things I think are the most fun for my little ones. 

This craft is based on the number one, and the Nicene Creed: 

 Sorry the pics are a little fuzzy, hubby took my car to work this day and my camera was in there. All I had was my cell phone. =(