Lent, Easter and all the way to Pentecost Posts (updated for 2015)

I was determined to be prepared for our Lenten Journey this year (2015) but sadly the closest I have come is to preparing is looking at this blog post and updating it.
So tonight I will be planning how we will journey along this road to the Glorious Easter Celebration.
I'm not sure what we will do as a family or even what my own private intentions on growing  closer to our Lord will be but hopefully it will be a very fruitful journey for us all.

From 2014- It has been a week since we started our Lenten journey this year and already I can say we have experienced quite a few challenges or if you prefer opportunities to grow in love for our Lord and to look to him for strength and help.

In fact we have tried to not only give up things this lent but to increase our prayer life as well and I confess that it has been a sacrifice perhaps more than we anticipated to stay strong in these areas along with the added opportunities that have come our way.

However I trust that this will be a time of refining through the fire and as such a time of much joy as we Enter into the Easter season.

As I look through the past posts I would like to share this updated view of our life as we share the Liturgical journey from Shrove Tuesday through til the celebration of Pentecost.

As I was preparing this it is apparent that some years I have been able to post more than others and I can only say this reflects my commitment here as well as the commitment to my family and as such not every year will be represented on this blog. For even though we celebrated together as a family it was not important enough or time just slipped by without ever sharing in this space and thus we have some gaps that can only be filled through my mind memories and personal photos.

However here are our memories as recorded her in this space thus far:

BOOK LISTS-
Lent and Easter book list
Amon's Adventure- daily read aloud for the family (2014, 2013)
The Bronze Bow (our 2015 read aloud)
March Liturgical Books
April Liturgical Books

SHROVE TUESDAY/MADI GRAS/CARNIVAL-
Hiding the Alleluia 2014
Felt Mardi Gras Masks- Tutorial Part 2
Felt Madi Gras Masks - Tutorial Part 1

Shrove Tuesday/ Fat Tuesday/ Madi Gras:
Shrove Tuesday/Madi Gras 2013
Our Shrove Tuesday/Madi Gras Celebrations 2012
Perfume Eggs (Calazane Eggs)  Tutorial 2012- a traditional activity for Carnival
Our celebrations in 2011 - including cake ideas, food and activities
Shrove Tuesday 2010

Ash Wednesday 2014
Ash Wednesday: Ideas and a reflection 2011
 Ash Wednesday: 2010 and 2009 a reflection

MAKING LENT MEANINGFUL- activities and prayers
Lenten Countdown 2014 - Pockets full of Love Calender
Preparing for Lent and some Feast Days 2013
Lenten Quest 2011- our goals for  the Lenten season

Salt Dough Crown making 2013
Salt Dough Crown of Thorns - Tutorial

Preparations in the Home Post:
Including Salt Dough crown of thorns, hiding the Alleluia, Weekly Lenten Candle Log,

Making Present for God Beads/Sacrifice Beads to use for Lent

Stations of the Cross - how we pray this in our home a post from 2012

Stations of the Cross Box:  Simple Homemade version to be used in the Stations of The Cross for small ones each Friday

Paschal Mystery Eggs (Resurrection Eggs) - Home made version

Making a homemade Benjamin's Box based on the Book Benjamin's Box

Calvary Crosses- we make these and put them up every year. Last year they were very large...life like.

Felt Pocket Eggs Tutorial 2012- this can be filled with a little present or chocolate eggs

'Crack me Eggs' tutorial 2012

Making a Felt  Easter Bunny  2011- Tutorial

Egg Decorating 2009

ST PATRICK DAY-
St Patrick's Day Celebrations in our home 2014
St Patrick Celebrations 2013
St Patrick Celebrations at home 2012
Happy St Patrick's Day to You 2012
St Patrick's Prayer 2011
Making Leprechauns for St Patrick's Day
St Patrick's Day 2011
St Patrick's Day 2010
St Patrick's Day Plans 2010
St Patrick's Day 2009

ST JOSEPH-
Solemnity of St Joseph in our Home 2014
Solemnity of St Joseph 2013
St Joseph Day 2010

LAETARE SUNDAY-
Laetare Sunday Celebrations 2014
Laetare Sunday 2013
Laetare Sunday 2011
Laetare Sunday Ideas and Information
Laetare Sunday/ Mothering Sunday 2010

Passion Week 2009 :  figures for a play

HOLY WEEK-
Celebration Palm Sunday 2014
Celebrating Palm Sunday in our home 2012
Palm Sunday 2012

Palm Sunday Ideas and Activities 2011
Making Palm Crosses Tutorial 2011

Palm Sunday 2010 - including how we made palm crosses for our home
Palm Sunday  (no plans just image)

Holy Week Activities 2013
Spy Wednesday 2013 (In Holy Week)
Holy Week Ideas 2012
Holy Week Activities 2011- stacks and stacks of ideas for Easter in this one post
Holy Week Plans and Activities 2010
Thoughts for Holy Week 2010

TRIDUUM-
Passion Sunday Celebrations 2014
Passion Week Actitivites and colouring 2014
Passion of Our Lord Videos to watch on line 2014
Maundy Thursday: Figures for  play for the younger children with hand painted apostles
Holy Thursday 2012
Last supper 2010
Last Supper Tradition or Seder Meal 2010- Script for family meal included

Holy Thursday,  Good Friday and Holy Saturday 2013-  celebrations in our home
Holy Thursday and Good Friday 2012 - celebrations in our home
Holy Thursday and Good Friday 2011 - hot cross bun recipe, Easter cookies and crack me eggs

Good Friday Information
Good Friday 2014 - Sourdough Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns recipe too (different to the one below)
Good Friday 2010 - including Hot Cross Bun recipe
Good Friday 2009 

From Mary's Point of View - a hymn
Reflection 2011

Holy Saturday and Resurrection Cookie recipe 2012
Resurrection Cookie Recipe within this post (for Holy Saturday Night)

Making a Felt  Easter Bunny  2011- Tutorial

EASTER-
Easter Egg Hunt 2013
Making Easter Egg Baskets 2013
Easter Table Decorations 2013
Easter Day in our Home 2013
Easter Family Photos 2013
Blessed Easter 2013
Making Simple Easter baskets- Including the making felt butterfly's for the resurrection theme

Easter in our Home 2012
Alleluia Christ is Risen 2012

Holy Saturday and Easter Table 2011
Christ is Risen 2011
Easter Celebrations 2011

Easter Table 2010
Easter Day 2010
Making a Lamb Cake 2010

Easter Table 2009
Easter Celebrations 2009

THE ASCENSION :
Our Original Plans 2009
Celebrations 2010
Plans and Scenes in our Home 2011
Updates in 2012
Actual Celebrations 2011

PENTECOST:
Celebrating in 2013
Celebrating in 2012
Celebrating in 2010
Plans for Pentecost posted in 2009

Blessings to you and your homes,

Candlemas and St Brigid Celebrations

As it happens most years for us the start of our formal learning after the Summer break happens around the time of the feast days of Candlemas and St Brigid.

This year proved to be no different for us except we had an interesting start with our Vellvin being lain up after a fall from a car and her injuries resulting from that.

This made our  start to the new year of formal learning  a little more complicated due to the trips to hospital and doctor appointments, x-rays etc as well as her care impeding our ability to follow any schedule at all to start with.

We seem to have come around though and although I haven't in the past year especially had much chance to actually share the feast days we have celebrated I am hoping to do so this year.

For we have continued to do this I just have not had time to document them.

 So we celebrated both Candlemas/The Presentation of Our Lord and St Brigid together, and not on either of those feast days but a day or two late.

Naturally we had to have a St Brigid Day display and we used our background and candle from pat years as well as our cows from various children.

 I knew we were going to have candles, of course we usually do, but this year I wanted to try them floating in water with the doves that symbolise the gifts that Mary and Joseph offered at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple around the bowl of lighted candles.
I really was happy with the result and the children loved them.

 Traditionally we do lots of colouring and word searches as I read aloud from our books and this year was no exception.
I did find a couple of new pages that I loved, but can't find the link to now sorry.

 Candlemas colouring are much harder to find but I was happy with these ones.

All the work is placed in the children's lesson books as a token of what we have learned for the days.
We consider Faith based learning a number one priority and so will 'ditch' the prepared daily plan in favour of Feast Day activities.

 I printed out this blessing for copy work. Although it is really hard to pick just one Irish blessing as they are all so wonderful.

 Naturally I could not find our copy of Brigid's Cloak this year but did read from St Brigid and the Cow's and Saint's Lives and Illuminations (St Brigid is a featured saint in this lovely book)

 After this we moved on to Candle making.
This year instead of making a whole heap of rolled candles for what ever purpose.
I proposed we each make one candle and use that as a special Birthday Candle to be lit in our Birthday Ring for each of us.

 Of course we read from the  New Catholic Picture Bible and then took turns rolling our candle and cutting out small decorations to put on the candles.
So we each have an individual and unique candle for our birthday celebrations.

 It is so lovely to see how the children really love to be part of the craft making for these days and we just love making candles.

 The small decorations we cut out with fondant cutters I had bought a little while ago. I think they were about $5 at K-mart :)

 For dinner we had a traditional soup/stew meal that we tend t eat regularly but always on St Brigid or St Patrick day.
It must be the Irish blood in us!!!!

 This feast day would not be complete without Irish Soda bread again a staple in our home and a recipe we love to use on a regular basis for our Irish Saints.

Last but not least we had a candle cake for sweets as the finale for  this double  Feast Day.
I am thankful for the help of our children always for these feast day celebrations.

Long gone are the days when I had only little children and I did all the preparations myself. These days I have lots of older helpers to prepare food and crafts if I need it, and really I think that is how it should be.

As they get older they can take a more active part in living our Liturgical Year and thus truly make celebrations of Feast Days a memory that now becomes a reality of living!

Blessings to you and your homes,
  

Solemnity of St Joseph 2014

Back to back feast days, well almost, this week mean we tend to do a far bit of extra reading and eating and celebrating in our home.

WE have been reading Amon's  Adventure during our lunch times together

St Joseph's feast day usually means we have these cream puffs each year

Aren't they delicious??

 

Of course the colouring pages and word searches again.

It was very hard for little ones to keep their little fingers off the cream puffs while we coloured and read too.

It is so lovely to see Arwen getting more precise with her colouring  and Trahaearn is joining in now a little more each time.

See how proud he is of his colouring. Naturally he now gets to eat some cream puffs now so I guess that is an incentive.

Happy St Joseph celebration to you!!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

St Patrick Day Celebrations 2014

St Patrick's Feast Day.....Hurrah!!!
What did we do to celebrate?

Well the first thing Moran did was to look for some clover as we have done in the past. Except it is much harder to find clover here than in our Tasmania house. Poor Moran looked all over with no success until we told her there was a small patch just outside the chicken coop.

 We decorated the house with some of out already made decorations from past years. We made nothing new this year.

 Colouring pages are a big hit in our house every feast day.

 Followed closely by word searches, mazes and crossword puzzles.

As the children work I read from our selection of picture books

 We had already read one of our St Patrick books at breakfast (so it is not pictured)

 Jamie O'Rourke is a huge favourite not only on St Patrick's Day but through out the year. Of course the Darby O'Gill books are fun for older readers but we could not watch the movie as Autumn had taken it to Sydney with her.

Moran was very patriotic and dressed her dolls in a semi green outfit each and then covered them with the clover she had picked.

Lunch was a traditional clover leaf sandwich using both cucumber and gherkin and the Irish flag using celery, cheese and carrot.

Moving on to dinner we  decorated the table and had

Corned Beef,mashed potato, cabbage and then a mixture of green, white and orange vegetables

Rogan made Irish Soda bread which we love and we had some left over for breakfast the next day.

Doesn't it look good!!!!

After dinner when everyone else went to bed and it was just me and my cup of coffee I decided it was time for a little Baileys Irish Cream and a browse through a good book.

Not too shabby an end to a very busy feast Day
Happy St Patrick's Day to You!!!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Saint Nicholas Celebrations 2013

St Nicholas Day is one of the most eagerly awaited feast days in Advent for our family.

We tend to celebrate in many ways.

Of course the stockings have nothing to do with the excitement the younger children especially have for this day. Although I will admit that the hot chocolate comes in a pretty close second.

Our preparations start the night before with the hanging of the stockings I have made for the everyone.
Again this year we had difficulty working out where to hang them as we don't have the huge open fire place with had in our Tasmania house.

We solved our difficulty when one of the children suggested we hang them on a ribbon and secure them with a peg in readiness for the gifts to be placed inside

Poor little Trahaearn was a sleep already when this was happening so Autumn helped him hang his stocking.

Then most of the children went off to bed and the rest of the preparations began.

The first thing to do was to start making the Speculaa Cookies, (our recipe is here) as i needed time for them to cool down after to then be placed in to the stockings.

I decided that even though we made double the recipe that we would only cut out two per person for their stockings.

I really am glad they are such a simple shape to cut out and my trusty assistant Rogan was a fun to work with too.
It really has become part of any type of Feast preparations to have one or more of the children want to be part of helping me set up and it certainly is a lovely way to spend some individual time together.

Once they are on the trays it all starts to happen!!

On to stage two-
Making those chocolate Santa's into stately St Nicholas figures (how we do it here, although with much smaller figures)
Setting up in  a place to do this we started cutting out the paper Mitre for each St Nic

A box full of gold coins and potential ST Nicholas'-I was thrilled last year when I discovered for the first time large size Santas for only $1 at Aldis

As Rogan was finishing up the Mitres I started writing on the back of our traditional St Nicholas card I had printed out for each of us to keep in our special Feast Day boxes.

The empty stockings are about to be filled and this is the part Rogan has been looking forward to especially.

Only one thing remains before filling the stockings and that is setting the table and decorating it.

Doesn't  St Nicholas look fantastic?

Everything ready even though it isn't as decorated as I usually do. I'm pretty sure it was way past midnight by this stage due to a later bed time for little ones.

This year I put the St Nicholas card on the table instead of  in the stocking partly due to the missing laminator :)

Ta Da - the stockings are all stuffed.
Each year I usually end up taking something out of the packaging trying to fit it into the stockings.
We do keep the dollar limit to $10 each so finding things to put in can be a challenge too.

Bright and early, very early considering how late we went to bed , we were up to open the stockings. I am sure I remember in my sleep daze someone or two asking me even earlier if they could go downstairs 'just for a look?'

What was in the bags?
Hopefully something that each individual would love!

Each year not matter what the standard beginnings of a St Nicholas stocking are- speculaas, gold coins, an orange, Candy canes, and a St Nicholas card. This year I added a couple of smaller chocolates too.

Oh and these are my added presents. I just can't resist tea cups and these large ones are just perfect!

The next part of the day is the actual moving on to the Advent Study- Day 6 this year was obviously St Nicholas and these were the books we used this year.

I printed out (just a few as I often do way too may different varieties) of ST Nicholas activities to add to our work

Vellvin and Rogan were the directors of our play this year and they used The Bakers Dozen as the basis for the play, just to do something different.

Nearly all the children working on their activities as I read form the picture books.

Then dressing up for the play is as much fun as the actual play I think for the children- Moran was the old woman in the story.

A few extra parts were added so everyone could be involved - Arwen is a rich customer

When Stephen, Eden and Saxon were all home from work the play was aired.......

Freshly made Speculaas were needed as props, to be eaten at the plays end of course

The Baker and his son

The old woman

Vellvin was the narrator as well as a customer

It was a really good play and I loved that it was a different version than the ones we have had in previous years.
Good work to our children.

The rest of our evening passed fairly quickly and WITHOUT  the Hot Chocolate  to which I was shamefully reminded all weekend.

So on the plans for today will be the Hot Chocolate as part of our Advent Study - Candy Canes, Shepherds Crooks and Peppermint.

I pray you all had a most excellent feast day for ST Nicholas

Blessings to you and your homes,