Final push for Easter basket preparations!

As we head towards Holy Week, I am SO EXCITED for all of the upcoming liturgies! My CatholicMom piece for this month touches on this issue, and it has me all re-inspired and re-invigorated for the Triduum. 🤗

The other thing that gets on my mind at this time of the season is Easter baskets. I have always used Easter baskets as an opportunity for (in addition to the inevitable onslaught of chocolate) small, thoughtful gifts, often of a religious nature. That's getting harder with Henry, who is 13, and requested a new skin and screen protector for his Nintendo Switch for his Easter basket. 🙄 But I'll think of something!

Anne is still into cute Easter basket ideas (although, at nearly 8, I'm certain she's going to know that there's no way the Easter bunny came up with these ideas that sound *just like* the things she and mom like to look at together) and I thought I'd share them with you if you're still needing basket ideas with enough time for things to ship and arrive before Easter morning!

(1) Shining Light Dolls - I just love these things, AND they're having a sale from today through Friday April 12th. Use code EASTERJOY19 for 20% off your order! In addition to the dolls, they now have saint charms to clip onto bags or backpacks, Easter egg wraps, and flower seeds for your garden based on a Marian theme!

#forthewin

(2) Tiny Hands Food Jewelry - One of my favorite handmade sellers is Mei from Tiny Hands. She makes scented food necklaces and earrings, and they are DARLING! She has a scented chocolate bunny necklace that is PERFECT FOR EASTER. I ordered one for Anne! You need to get your order in by Saturday April 13th in order for it to arrive in time for Easter! I've tried her Necklace of the Month club in the past, and I absolutely loved it, I'm tempted to re-subscribe.

(3) Rosaries by Allison - My kids both love rosaries, and like their mom, never think that you can have too many. ;-) Allison is having a sale this month, 20% off, and her rosaries are perfect for Easter, First Communion OR Mother's Day! My current 2 favorites are the crystal copper cube bead rosary, and the light golden glow Holy Face rosary!

(4) Sweet Clementine Soaps - This is another favorite of mine in terms of homemade products, I order from her all the time. The Lush Succulent Soap Bar is perfect for Easter, and she had a bunny one that appears to be temporarily sold out. She always features seasonal scents, and makes bar soap, whipped soap, other bath and shower products, lotion, fragrance spray, lip balm, you name it. I ordered some soap for my kids, and a fragrance spray for Anne.

(5) Lenny the Lamb Scentsy Buddy - You all know how I am about Scentsy. ;-) And Lenny the Lamb is a perfect Easter basket addition if you're looking for a stuffed toy. He comes with a Scent Pak that you zip inside of him, in your choice of scent! I do have one tucked away for Anne. 😎

Those are my ideas! What do you usually do for Easter baskets! Any Easter morning traditions you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Thanksgiving week, and Advent plans!

Hi all! I am home on vacation for the entire WEEK. The children are in school, I am in my pj's drinking coffee and crocheting non-stop, and I am downright blissful about it. I realized this weekend that this semester really started to eat away at my spirit. I lost my passion for my hobbies and the creative endeavors that I derive satisfaction in. I felt down and downtrodden a good portion of the time, and on the whole I was just beleaguered. Over the course of the semester, I held onto my love of writing via our Autumn Prayer Journal Curators/INSPIRE series, and in November, my choreography endeavors and holiday crafting revived that dormant creativity within me just begging to come alive again. It feels really, really good.

And so on this wintry late November day here in WNY:

First snow!

I am excitedly planning several things. First, this winter, I am planning lots of new dance and crafting stuff. Stay tuned for all sorts of posts on those this upcoming season!

In that vein, here is my current work-in-progress that I began this weekend:

Gryffindor scarf for Henry! The pattern is available for free here.

It's Tunisian crochet, which is a totally new craft for me. You use a crochet hook to pull up stitches in a long row, then do a backwards pass to finish them off all at the same time. This uses the Tunisian Knit Stitch, which makes the front side look just like stockinette knitting, but provides a much thicker fabric on the back. It's fascinating!

And on the dance front...my mind is completely awhirl. I'm taking a choreography workshop at my studio that starts in January, the spring hafla is in April, and I'm contemplating going to an out-of-town workshop with a well-known dancer in June. Just thinking about it all makes me feel so  happy.

The other part of my planning process involves Advent. I have started compiling a few little somethings for the kids for the feast of St. Nicholas, and those have begun to arrive, like precious little St. Teresa of Calcutta here:

Shining Light Saint Dolls

Henry is getting St. Dominic Savio this year, he is still on his way. And I'm thinking that we'll definitely do an Advent series right here on this blog. I'm calling it "Anticipating Joy," and each week we'll have a theme and write in to each other with an anecdote about our week related to that theme. I'm going to be using Advent with St. Teresa of Calcutta, but I also have a new prayer journal and an additional devotional, and my theme could be inspired from any one of these. Your anecdote can be related to something you found in a devotional, or just something from your life generally. I'll probably post them on Wednesdays, I think that mid-week slot. Sound like a plan? We'll begin next week!

Speaking of next week, that is when I will be blogging again. I will be on blogging hiatus for the remainder of this week for the holiday, including Tea Time. But it's going to be a GREAT Advent and Christmas season this year, I just feel it, and I love that we're sharing it together. *heart*

What are your plans for Thanksgiving, dear readers? Mike and I are hosting our parents and my grandmother, so we're in full-on cooking and house cleaning mode. How about you? Write in and tell me all about it! And I'll be with you again next week. Until then!

Crafty Christmas plans & saint stories on 4th of July weekend...

I'm back at work after a perfectly *glorious* three day holiday weekend. Can we all have a moment of silence while we emit a collective groan?

Mew.

I am, however, hanging in there. I have more search committee obligations tomorrow which will keep me from blogging, so we'll be on a Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule this week, just so you know. And my thoughts are awhirl with all kinds of stuff. So...highlights!

Fireworks. Every year, prior to the big event, I regret having the kids stay up until 10 pm just to be able to watch them ("HENRY, stop touching my hair!!), but then I am glad that I did. We had a wonderful time, and built some lovely memories.

As well, my daughter is at a very adorable age. :-) For whatever reason, she has adopted St. Bernadette as her very favorite saint of all time, and so I ordered her a felt St. Bernadette doll from one of our favorite saint Etsy shops. St. Bernadette made her big arrival this weekend, and immediately began hanging out with her fellow saints:

Anne and the saint dolls. Sounds a bit like a budding rock band. ;-)

Our Lady of Czestochowa and Guadalupe, respectively, are quite tired over there on the left. But that is St. Bernadette in the center, and Anne LOVES her. She carries her around with her everywhere and it is absolutely precious. I'm already getting excited thinking about which saints I'll order for both her and Henry for the coming winter holidays

#ALLTheCatholicNerdExcitement

I also spent quite a bit of time knitting. This is that time, every year, wherein I get Christmas in July fever and go wild making lists of what I want to make this upcoming fall and holiday season. I'm currently working on a knit-along shawl that is due by the end of the month, so I devoted all of my crafting time this weekend to that:

Those are going to be leaves, which will become visible once blocked. Hopefully.

I made good progress (now on repeat 7 of 11!) and it inspired me to start my annual Christmas in July panic session: should I create my holiday crafting list?! This will cause me to panic even more, so OF COURSE I should!!

:0

This is what I came up with:

• Projects currently in the works that I'd like to finish by early fall. This includes the knit-along, 1 baby gift, a random lace scarf, and 1 in-progress poncho that I'd like to wear for the New York Sheep and Wool festival in October: Total of 4.

BOOYAH. I can totally finish all that by early October.

Christmas gifts 2016:

• Secret Santa gift for my knitting group exchange.
• A dress and amigurumi Cardinal for Anne.
• New socks for Henry.
• 2 surprises for Mike.
• Requested shawl for my good friend Irena.

Total of 8 gifts. This is slightly less BOOYAH'ish, but I still think it's manageable. The operative word here is *think*.

What I worry about is that this list usually, ahem, EXPANDS as time flows into the fall. I get all ambitious, and decide to cast on additional gifts, plus random sweaters and accessories (I have my eye on a gigantic entrelac wrap kit, SOMEBODY STOP ME!), and all yarn hell breaks loose. We'll see what happens. I may need an accountability partner in this endeavor, I'll keep you posted. ;-)

Does anyone else have their fall and winter crafting list set up? If you do, CONGRATULATIONS, you're as anal as I am, and that means that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. :0 Do share your list with us!

How was your 4th of July weekend, dear ones?!

Tea Time with Tiffany #41 - Special Holy Week edition!

All! So nice to be with you on a special (rushy rushy! though not in terms of length ;-)) Holy Week edition of:

Today I talk about adventures with my kids in a Palm Sunday procession, my experiences at the outset of Holy Week (Sacrament of Reconciliation! SUCH a good thing), and the religious handmade gifts I picked out for the kids' Easter baskets. I LOVE supporting handmade sellers, and all of my recommendations are below!





**To subscribe to the audio version of Tea Time with Tiffany, just search for it in iTunes or use this link to subscribe via Feedburner in your podcatcher of choice.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• 54 Day Rosary Novena
• Divine Mercy Novena
• Palm Sunday decor at my parish.
• Henry's St. Maximillian Kolbe doll and rosary:

• St. Luke's Brush on Etsy
• Rosaries by Allison on Etsy
• Anne's St. Kateri necklace:

• Mary's Prayers on Etsy
• Saints for Girls: A First Book for Little Catholic Girls

Long show notes today, but that's a wrap! How is your Holy Week going? What are your Easter plans and traditions? Do you have any projects that you'd like to suggest to me for this upcoming spring and summer season, i.e. novenas or other prayer endeavors, podcast topics, blog topics, anything creative that comes into your brain that you'd like to collaborate on? Do write in and let me know!

In fall planning mode, and new saint dolls!

Hello all, and happy Friday! It seems like I talk about saint dolls a lot on here, doesn't it? One would think that I have a bit of an obsession with them or something. ;-) I do love saint dolls, both for myself and my kids. I always order them early, well before Christmas and the feast of St. Nicholas, since they are handmade and take time to paint and ship. This year's round one features the following...

*drum roll*

Aren't they precious?! On the left is a rose rosary box for Anne, so not a saint doll, but it's beautiful, yes? It's what she asked for. In the center is St. Kateri, and yes, she is for me. :) She is currently residing beside Our Lady Star of the Sea on my desk, and both of them seem very happy to have company, and to have made the others' acquaintance:

She is just perfect for me, I think. And of course, on the right is St. Nicholas, and he will be gifted to Henry. I'd like to get Anne the wood nativity set from this shop, but it's $$$ :) and I'm waiting to see if there will be a fall coupon code coming up. Well worth the money, for sure, but any little savings helps. Especially since there are roofing guys currently at our house. :-\ I'm grateful we were able to get this done before the weather turns, and the house really needs it, but holy budget blaster, right there.

All right, so happy saint doll order is in. I was off yesterday with Mike and the kids at a local amusement park, and during the inevitable line waiting I was doing some thinking about fall planning for work and this blog. Before I get into the nitty gritty, I thought I'd point out that I, you know, bravely went to an amusement park. ;-) I used to love amusement park rides back in my youth. I was fearless about riding roller coasters. Now? I am a total WET BLANKET at amusement parks. :0 Rides either terrify me or make me feel pukey, but I soldier on, because my kids love them, and it's not fair for me to pass off my fear to them. They should be able to go and enjoy, and they do. I do still love a few rides, like the Scrambler, Tilt a Whirl, and Sleighride, which I know doesn't make a lot of sense, because many people get nauseous on those rides and cannot go on them. Every time we're there, someone throws up on the Tilt a Whirl and it has to be closed for maintenance.  :0 But it's never me, because I LOVE that ride. Swirling within spinning is just a total thrill for me; I love the sensation and I don't feel fearful or nauseous at all. Go figure, right? So I went on those with the kids, plus the little hot air balloons with Anne, and otherwise sat around letting them go on what they wanted. Mike rode the roller coasters with Henry, as he still enjoys those, and thank God for that so that I didn't have to sacrifice myself. ;-)

So anyway, back to the original topic. Fall plans. The semester starts up here at the university on Monday, though my kids don't start school until the day after Labor Day. What's in store?

Well, I did (aside from a concluding paragraph) complete the short article on Catholic fiction that I was fixing to write. I need to send the abstract in to the editor, and then edit and ready the manuscript, because (hopefully!) she's going to want to see it. So that summer work goal was met, thankfully.

I start teaching and all that jazz on Monday. I'll probably have a video post dedicated to that topic coming up in a few weeks. I'll be busier, for sure. Which got me to thinking about blog plans for the fall...

And so, yes, I have plans! :) I think what I'd like to do is have a 3 post per week plan. Monday or Tuesday, a longer, amusing, family/life post. Wednesday or Thursday will be a Tea Time video post. Fridays will be for lifey posts too, perhaps a bit shorter than the Monday post. I could also write about Catholic topics on Fridays, maybe some Catholic Nook posts when inspiration strikes, or Advent-related goodness as we approach that liturgical season. I'll still do 7 Quick Takes sometimes, but not every week. I do like those posts, but not all the time. We're free floating spontaneity and inspiration over here at Life of a Catholic Librarian. ;-) I'll obviously pop Catholic Book Club posts up on Wednesdays when those dates come around. And stay tuned for podcast news, because I'm hopeful that something will be ready this fall!

What do you all think? What are your favorite type of posts that I write? How would you like to see me structure a posting schedule? All very loosey goosey, mind you, nothing has to be etched in stone around here. But it's nice to have a general expectation, I think, for both you and me, of what will come each week. I'd really love for you to chime in on this, have at it in the comments!

A family fun weekend of epic gardening fails, saint doll arrivals, & potty refusals, settle in!

Hi all! Gosh, it's been a busy week. A pretty good week, mind you, though I have to admit that I feel a little what I term "wimpy." That's what I call it when a person feels a bit fragile, a tad vulnerable, not feeling 100% physically. There are a multitude of reasons:  the kids going back to school soon, the semester starting up and subsequent work craziness descending on both Mike and I in just a few weeks.

*sniffle*

So I'm hanging on to my 54 Day Rosary Novena like a life raft and trucking on. I think I'm also going to pray the St. Monica novena this year, which begins next week. More details on that to come!

At any rate, some fun stuff from the weekend to report in to you about. I know, I know, it's Wednesday already, what took me so long?! :0 I do what I can. ;-)

This weekend I spent lots of quality time with my cute Mike, and our ever unpredictable offspring. First up we have the Very Serious Henry:

This is his version of smiling :0

And the Ever Sassy Anne:

"I'm about to go hide this puzzle piece, so that the next time I ask Mommy to do the puzzle with me, she will think she's losing her mind!"

For the most part, Henry was low maintenance this weekend, as he usually is. Our daughter on the other hand...you know, she's 4. Mass these days? SO MUCH WIGGLING. It doesn't help that the Children's Liturgy of the Word program is on summer hiatus until after Labor Day, so she's in the pew with us the whole time:

"MOMMY. Why is Father Joe doing THAT?!"

"Shhhhh, we need to whisper, Honey, or better yet, wait until after Mass to talk."

"I *AM* WHISPERING, MOMMY!!"

"He's getting things ready for Communion, Sweetie."

"I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! RIGHT NOW MOMMY!"

"Anne! You are SO LOUD!" That would be a beleaguered, long suffering Henry.

#funtimes

In a thrilling discovery, though, after we got home: an Amazon package was awaiting me! Given that it was Sunday, I was rather surprised. I quickly squirreled it away, as I knew it contained a future feast of St. Nicholas gift for Anne. Last week, Shining Light Saint Dolls was having a sale, and thus I procured Our Lady of Guadalupe for Anne. When I had a moment to myself, I pulled her out and found her levitating:

Apparently her journey was a little rough. :0

But after a soothing session with me, she was as good as new:

It seems that their Amazon store is a bit cleaned out now following that sale, a bit of a bummer. But their Facebook page mentioned that they are restocking with new dolls, so keep your eyes peeled! These are nicely made, plastic dolls for smaller children. I have a beautiful wood St. Nicholas doll on order for Henry's feast day gift, so everybody is receiving a saint this year, like usual. ;-)

After I tucked Our Lady of Guadalupe away, Mike and I trudged out to our poor, beleaguered garden. To say that we do not have green thumbs would be the understatement of the millennium. We usually manage to keep a few tomato and pepper plants alive until the fall each year, but this year we got a little overambitious and also planted cucumbers and small melons.

!

Next thing one knew, we had vines climbing up our fence and attacking the other plants. Bad, so bad. And apparently grape tomatoes think that they can just take over the world by spreading their leafiness over top of the entire garden and sucking up all the sunlight. It wasn't pretty.

I felt guilty (because Mike loves those tomatoes) but I encouraged him to take one of the tomato plants out. We would still have one tomato plant, but there was no way anything was growing with the wild, feral situation we had on our hands. So he did, and also beat back the other plants a bit. And now the remaining tomato plant looks like the garden version of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, and the melon vines put out some sort of liquid that gave me hives. So you could say that things are not going all that great back there.

On the up side, we found two gigantic cucumbers hiding amongst the forest-like conditions:

Anne dancing with the cucumbers...which naturally, she would not eat :0

...and we are getting a nice crop of sweet banana peppers. The bell peppers, not so much, but you can't have everything. I wish I had asked him to take out the melon plant instead, but there really was no way to even GET to it with the way that the tomatoes were growing.

#sigh

In other news, Monday morning found me strengthening my resolve as I entered Anne's room to get her up for the day: I was going to push the issue of her heading to the bathroom first thing upon getting out of bed. Anne has been potty trained for a few years now, but through the night? An absolute OCEAN of pee pee. So we still buy diapers and she wears one overnight. Lately though, she's woken up dry a few times, so it got me to thinking that she may be moving towards being able to go through  the night. Only one thing gave me pause: her bad habit of "not having to go pee, Mommy!" when she first wakes up:

"Anne Honey, the entire WORLD needs to use the bathroom when they first wake up. You are not going to be the lone exception."

"BUT I DON'T *HAVE* TO GO MOMMY."

Standoff!

I wanted to push this a bit, figuring that if she develops the habit of peeing right when she gets up, she may start to be dry on most mornings. If not, so be it. I know that some kids take a long time to be able to go through the night. But this is a bad habit that needs remedying, regardless.

So Monday morning I pushed the potty, and Anne pushed back. No potty, no sir. As expected, tears became involved in this process, as well as a refusal to even get dressed or cooperate with a single thing that I asked of her. Eventually, I went downstairs, and Mike volunteered to take a turn.

Next thing I knew, I heard the toilet flush and see a cheerful Anne coming down the stairs, fully dressed. When it was Daddy, you see, she was willing to pee and cooperate. An inadvertent Good Cop/Bad Cop situation. ;-)

For the remaining time until I left for work, it was clear that Mike was The Favored Parent. She bustled about, fetching him a napkin and offering to get him juice.

*narrows eyes*

Yesterday morning was more of the same, but today we had a good experience, and she cooperated without too much complaint. We'll see how this turns out.

So dear reader, any nighttime potty success stories you want to share? Are you a gardener who wants to shed some light on my abysmal gardening skills? :) Have you got your saint doll list together and ready for the early ordering season?! Do chime in!

The Church Triumphant: Spotlight on St. Blaise

It's the last Thursday of the month (how did that happen?!) hence it must be time for The Church Triumphant! This month I chose to focus on St. Blaise. I've been mentioning him quite a bit on the blog, and his feast day is approaching on February 3rd. Plus, I've always been fascinated by the ritual of the blessing of throats surrounding his feast. What's that all about?

SO. I went and did a little research on St. Blaise to prepare for this post *adjusts glasses* He lived during the fourth century, and we all know how martyred saint stories went back then, unfortunately. Which is to say that grotesque, horrific-sounding methods of torture and execution abounded. Lovely, I know. :-\ So, we had poor St. Blaise here, and he was a physician and bishop. Part of his legend is that animals would approach him for healing, but would not disturb him if they found him praying. The authorities at the time weren't quite so considerate, and discovered by them in prayer, he was arrested for being a Christian. While in prison, he ministered to his fellow inmates and during this time performed the act for which he is most well known. A child began to choke on a fish bone, and St. Blaise saved him by extracting the bone. Hence, each year on his feast day, we invoke the intercession of St. Blaise against all ailments of the throat.

Following this endearing scene, St. Blaise was martyred. He was thrown into a lake to drown, but that didn't work out the way his persecutors imagined it would. Hence, they beat him (wool combs were involved *shudder!*) and then beheaded him. Because he was a physician, he is also the patron against all sorts of diseases and afflictions, and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. In his iconography, he is depicted holding two blessed candles, which are used in the throat blessing ritual, and with a child, wearing the vestments and mitre of a bishop.

This year, I really wanted to pray the St. Blaise novena with my kids. He is a patron for children, and I thought it would be a lovely tradition to pray the novena using their intentions, and then observe his feast day via the blessing of the throats. I even got all Catholic nerdy on them and bought each child a St. Blaise saint doll in commemoration of our efforts. Henry's is painted wood:

St. Blaise, created by the talented Gary at St. Luke's Brush

And Anne's is felt:

St. Blaise, created by Saintly Silver

Both dolls have arrived and are ready to go, and we're all excited about getting our throats blessed, but... Well, as things often go in Catholic parenting world, the best laid ritualistic plans often go awry. First, I forgot to pray the novena prayers with them on what should have been the first day, but no matter! We started the next day. Anne was all excited to light our votive candle and settle in for prayers, but Henry was very busily doing his best to distract and annoy her the entire time we were attempting to do this, and the prayers for this particular novena are a bit on the long side for kids to sit through. Neither had a compelling intention to offer when the time came, and the whole thing felt a bit like a bust. So, what I've been doing is each day asking St. Blaise to please intercede for my children, and have left the novena situation at that. :) We will observe the blessing of throats (Henry at school on the feast itself, Anne and I most likely on the closest Sunday, that's how my parish usually does it), and I will give them each their dolls with some explanation of how St. Blaise came to be the patron of throats.

So. :) Does anybody else have a devotion to St. Blaise or enjoy his feast and the blessing of throats? Are you doing anything special with your kids? Do tell me all about it in the comments.

Saint themes for kids! St. Francis de Sales novena, and adventures in not-so-perpetual Adoration chapels...

Happy beginning to the St. Francis de Sales novena, everyone! :) This novena starts today, and runs through January 23rd. It is perfect for anyone with an intention regarding teaching or writing. Do pray along with us! If you have an intention that you'd like me to include in my own prayers during this novena, just leave a comment on the novena page linked above. :)

Before I get into the saint theme business, I wanted to mention my winter Ordinary Time goals in general, since the novenas are a part of that. I have a weekly Adoration goal, and so far things are going great, but I tell you, the perpetual Adoration chapel I go to isn't making it easy for me. :0 I mentioned that it was closed over the holidays, which is totally understandable. I stopped last week, no problems whatsoever, so I was lulled into a sense of confidence.

*ominous music plays*

Tuesday I hustled out to my car early so that I would have time for a holy 15 minutes prior to heading home. I zoom to the chapel. I park. I walk briskly to the back door of the church near the Adoration chapel. It is locked. I peek inside the window kind of creepily. Right! There is another door along the side. I've been outside for a whole 30 seconds by this point and am getting cold, so I start to hightail it to the side door. As this was ongoing, another car had zipped into the parking lot and made a big sweeping motion to back into the parking spot that I was currently transversing. I was already in the middle of the spot, so it's not like I could go anywhere except to hurry to the other side. Which is what I did, making a "sorry!" face as I did so, but they still nearly mowed me down. :0 But I made it to the side door unscathed, and...it too was locked.

!

This time I wasn't at all subtle about peering in the windows, and I saw a large sign hung on the chapel door saying that it was closed "for construction in the church hallway," whatever that means. So that was a huge bummer, but it did open back up yesterday, so I stopped then. No zoomy cars in the parking lot, so all was well. I love Adoration. It's not like I ever see visions or hear voices when I'm in there or anything, but I feel like the rest of the week following that is just smoother and it's more clear to me what decisions I should make along the way. So, that's going well. :)

For the kids, I mentioned this "saint theme" idea I had. Henry mentioned that he'd like a St. Stephen wooden peg doll to add to his collection, so I've made St. Stephen his theme for the year. :) What I plan to do is read his story with Henry throughout the year in all of the various saint books that he has, and then gift him with some St. Stephen sacramentals as a way of remembering his example. I'm going to ask my favorite Etsy saint doll artist, Gary of St. Luke's Brush, to paint him a St. Stephen doll. He doesn't have a current listing for St. Stephen, but he'll custom make whatever saint you ask, and it would be similar in style to this handsome St. Francis de Sales:

I also have a St. Stephen rosary for him, created by Allison of Rosaries by Allison:

Anne's theme is Our Lady of Lourdes. She's a huge fan of Our Lady (Our Lady Star of the Sea is a real favorite of hers), so I thought this would be a nice one for her. We'll read her story, and she'll receive a felt Our Lady of Lourdes in her Easter basket (shop is Saintly Silver on Etsy):

And an Our Lady of Lourdes rosary:

I'm planning to emphasize these feast days this year, so December 26th for St. Stephen, and upcoming February 11th for Our Lady of Lourdes. In fact, I'm planning on praying the Our Lady of Lourdes novena and trying to include Anne in that as much as I can, I will report in on how that goes. :)

I have some other saint ideas for the kids this year, the first of which involves the feast of St. Blaise, February 3rd. I will devote a whole post to St. Blaise in about two weeks, just after his novena starts on January 25th!

What are your saint traditions with your kids, or that you grew up with? Do report in the comments. :)

Favorite saints: baptismal & confirmation namesakes, whimsical patronages? :)

Morning all! *weak smile* I'm soldiering on through my week. Due to the lost keys catastrophe of yesterday, I popped a keyring from my car keys onto my temporary office keys featuring two of our recent popes. I figure a pope keyring *has* to provide the good mojo such that I won't lose them again.

As I browsed Catholic keyrings yesterday, I got to thinking about how much devotion to the intercession of the saints means to me, and how I have worked to instill that in my children. The kids really seem to gravitate toward stories of the saints and the wacky things they encountered in their lifetime. :) St. George battling a dragon, anyone?

So I thought I'd make a list of the saints that are important in my life, and find out which are important in yours. :) It's always good to learn about new saints, in my opinion, or learn more about someone you never paid much attention to. I'm a big fan of lists, so let's get all organized here, I'll break out my librarian ways.

*adjusts bun*

Baptismal saint: None, really. :( My mom used to iron her hair straight on an ironing board and wear bell bottoms, so this gives you a sense of when my parents grew up, and the cultural influence. :0 I read in a Catholic baby naming book that Tiffany is derived from Epiphana, and so I take St. Epiphana (an early martyr) as my patron and celebrate my feast day on the Epiphany. *halo*

Confirmation saint: St. Cecilia. I'll be honest: I picked her because I thought the name was pretty, and I never really loved my given name. :0 In fact, I was a bit annoyed when another girl in my confirmation class who was directly before me in the line to present ourselves to the bishop also chose Cecilia, and so I finally had my moment to choose a name for myself, and it was the exact same as the person I followed. *snort* Pretty superficial, but I was rather nostril-flarey about the whole thing. ;-) However, in time, St. Cecilia came to play a significant part in my adult reversion back to the faith, and I feel very close to her now, especially in November each year near her feast day. I feel like she looks out for me, and I'm very grateful to her and her witness.

Dominican name: Our Blessed Mother, which all Dominicans take as part of their name due to the order's devotion to her and the rosary, and St. Gianna Beretta Molla. She's not a Dominican, but her witness to the sanctity of human life is so inspiring to me, and fits with Dominican spirituality so well, that I wanted to honor her in this way.

Saints I have grown close to in my adult reversion years: This is quite a lengthy list, so I'll subdivide. #TypeA

St. Therese. Her "Little Way" really appeals to me as something easily applied to the everyday life of ordinary Catholics, whether they be religious or laypeople. She also comes into play again below, with regard to Anne. :)

Pope St. John Paul II. I adore this man. I've written about him in the past, and how his pontificate shaped my life and young adulthood. He was the only pope I knew for most of my life. *sniffles*

St. Kateri Tekakwitha. She is very key in my family's faith story. I've been to her shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY, and I hope to go back and bring the kids with me.

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This is a recent one, due to the rosary that captured my imagination of late. I've been praying with that rosary for a week, and thinking about the fact that we have power in prayer over spiritual dryness and darkness.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. I found her in my late 20's via some philosophers in my Catechism study group. This is the type of feminism I can really get behind. :)

St. Faustina Kowalska. I adore the Divine Mercy devotion and chaplet. It doesn't take very long to recite, and boy does it pack a punch.

St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. Mike and I watched "The Tudors" several years back, and ever since then these two guys, and their courage in faith, have a firm place in my heart.

St. Monica. Have a fallen away Catholic in your life? St. Monica is your gal. :)

Mike's namesakes: St. Michael the Archangel and St. Patrick. It seems to me that these are two strong saints to have on your side. :) St. Michael is also Mike's confirmation patron.

Henry's namesakes: St. Henry II, and the Biblical figure David (also my dad's name). Technically, Henry wasn't named specifically for St. Henry II, but I still count him as his patron. Mike had always wanted to name a son Henry, and so long as it was a saint name, I was cool with it. That's my rule: any child of mine *must* have a saint name. :0 This comes from the trauma of my own lack thereof, see above. ;-)

Anne's namesakes: St. Anne, mother of Our Lady, and also my mom's middle name. And St. Therese. Mike and I love the simplicity of Anne's name, and what a wonderful patron. I wanted her middle name to be Kateri, but Mike loved Therese, and how could I argue with that? :) I recently ordered her a St. Therese Saint Softie for her St. Nicholas feast day gift:

Saints I have come to know via my children:

St. Maximillian Kolbe. I think he is Henry's absolute favorite. We acquired yet another children's biography of St. Maximilian for our nighttime reading pile, and Henry just never tires of the bravery in his story.

St. Isidore the Farmer. I think it's the part about the angels plowing the field in his stead while he attended Mass that draws Henry to him so much. :) And he is Henry's gift for the feast of St. Nicholas this year:

St. Dominic Savio. This is a perfect role model saint for young boys. Henry loves reading about a saint close in age to his own.

St. Nicholas of Myra. Last year we started celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas, leaving the kids' shoes by the hearth, and we all loved it. I like emphasizing to them that *this* is really what Santa Claus is all about.

St. Lucy. Eyes being gouged out makes the story pretty fascinating. :) And the feast day thing with the crown of candles. This appeals to my belly dancer fire balancing sensibilities. :0

So, that's my list. Who is on your list? Expound to your heart's desire in the comments. :)

Dancing photo shoots, saint dolls & novenas - it's the "little bit of everything" post!

Happy Tuesday everyone! And I am in fact glad that it is Tuesday today. Yesterday was a bit crazy, although a fun day in the end. Let's procure our tea and get started. :)

Last night was super busy because Mike was teaching, I had a photo shoot to attend for my dance troupe, and Henry had a soccer game. Multiple grandparents had to be brought in as reinforcements to get all of this on track without a hitch. :) But it did all work out.

For my part, I headed out about 5:30 pm wearing my pink troupe costume and coverup. Dance coverups are really just caftans, a long, flowy garment of some sort to keep your costume hidden unless you are actually performing. My troupe has matching coverups in hot pink, so picture me leaving my house looking like Mrs. Roper headed out for a hot night on the town. :0 I can only imagine what my neighbors think I'm up to when they see me coming and going. But I didn't want to change at the venue, since we were taking the photos on the back patio of the restaurant Claire works at during the day. It just seemed awkward to have to worry about changing in their restroom, so I went already assembled. I got some strange looks as I walked through the restaurant to the patio, but it's nothing that I'm unused to, lol.

And we had fun. We took a boatload of group shots and one individual shot each. It's nice back there with a view of a small creek and waterfall over the wrought iron fencing. The weather was beautiful too, with mild temperatures, a clear sky with setting sun and just a gentle breeze. So we'll see how those turn out.

Back at home, Henry finished up his indoor soccer season, Mike got though another long Monday of teaching, and Anne colored with my mom, bossing her around the whole time about how to do it "correctly." :0 The night was a success.

Also on my horizon this week is Christmas gifts. I've been knitting, crocheting and beading like the mad women you all know and love. I've been working my way steadily through my list, but of course, the list has undergone some alterations. I will devote a separate post to that at some point. :) I also have a list of items handcrafted by others that I want to get the kids, which use crafts that I decidedly do not excel at. So, we're talking painting and sewing. I've been procuring those little by little since the summer. I have the wooden dolls I mentioned previously, and for Anne I bought a Saint Softie from Saintly Silver on Etsy. She arrived yesterday. :)

This is, of course, Our Lady Star of the Sea, one of my very favorites. :) She is terribly, terribly cute, although not nearly as large as I was expecting. I was thinking this would be something Anne could snuggle with in bed. Well, no. :) She's only 4.5 inches tall, and 2.5 inches wide, a very petite Mary! So this is more in the realm of a small saint doll rather than a cuddleable. But that's ok! She's lovely, and will make a cute stocking stuffer. The dimensions are right there in the description too, apparently your librarian can't read correctly in public. :0 (This is the standard size, fyi. There are in fact listings for larger softies). She's adorable, and check out the back:

A stitched on prayer! All of the dolls have individualized prayers on their backs. A lovely touch. This is *super* cute and a very nice gift for the Catholic child in your life. The owner does have a 5-6 week turnaround time because her shop is so popular, so if you want some for Christmas, better get started now. ;-)

So, I've been tucking all of these things away as the weeks go by. Next on my list is a nativity set for Anne, and I may get her one a wooden one via St. Luke's Brush. We'll see! But I'm excited.

Also! Tomorrow is the feast of St. Therese and we finish her novena up today! Has anybody seen any roses? I haven't, but I wait in joyful expectation. :) AND tomorrow I'm starting the 54 day rosary novena. So if you'd like to join in, have at it! We need to pray a full rosary every day for these 54 days, that runs tomorrow through the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. Who's in?

*beams*

On a difficult morning, gifts to help us remember the importance of intercessory prayer...

Morning everyone. This is always a difficult day each year, and as I was plotting out a prayer plan of attack yesterday :) the mail arrived, and I received some beautiful reminders of our faith and the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. Remembering that we can call upon their prayers brought me great comfort, and I thought I'd share what I received with you all, to perk us up a bit on a very somber morning.

I mentioned previously that I adore saint peg dolls, and I collect them and buy them for my children. Henry, in particular, likes to display his along with the small saint statutes we seem to acquire any time we're at a Catholic gift shop. Henry is a huge fan of the saints, and I had a proud Catholic mother moment when his teacher commented to me how well he does in their religion curriculum and always contributes interesting saint tidbits at impressive intervals.

#beams

I adore instilling a love for the saints into my children, and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to share this with them. A few weeks back, I placed an order with St. Luke's Brush on Etsy for a few new saint dolls. These are the friends that arrived yesterday :) and they and I had a little photo shoot in my office this morning so that I could show them to all of you.

For Henry's Christmas stocking, I chose one of his very favorite saints, St. Isidore the Farmer:

Isn't he amazing?! Here's a side view:

He is depicted carrying a scythe and a sheaf of grain. The detail is just spectacular. I'm so excited to give him to Henry.

For the family generally, to adorn the fireplace mantle, I requested a custom doll since the shop didn't include a listing for her: Our Lady Star of the Sea. The owner/artist (his name is Gary) is *extremely* kind and attentive, and got in touch with me to talk about the imagery to use in the doll. He messaged me a few days ago to let me know that Our Lady was completed, and that he thinks it's one of the best dolls he's ever painted. Given that I had already seen his gorgeous work, I couldn't imagine how this could possibly be even better :0 but I was pretty antsy with excited anticipation. Here she is:

She is *beautiful*! She has a gold star in the center of her nautical wheel, and is holding an anchor. On the sides, you can see the the edges of the anchor:

...and the lovely waves of water:

I am so, so pleased with the dolls. I have Our Lady Star of the Sea on my desk now, and just looking at her makes me feel soothed. Especially on a day like today, it's a wonderful reminder every time I see her to pray a Hail Mary and ask for Our Lady's intercession for peace in our world.

There is now a listing up for Our Lady Star of the Sea, if you or anyone you know has a devotion to her, like I do. :)

Let us all remain in prayer today as much as possible, and ask for the intercession of our family in heaven.

Catholic tchotchkes for everyone!

Happy Wednesday everybody! I've been writing book reviews on Wednesdays for the past 3-4 weeks, but sadly this Wednesday I didn't quite complete my current read, so that will debut a week from today instead. In case anybody wants to read along, my current review selection is Finding Grace by Laura Pearl:

This is a lovely coming-of-age story for Catholic young adults, TONS of interesting moral fodder in here plus interwoven inspiration from the saints - excellent! Look for all the details next Wednesday.

This Wednesday I have shopping on my mind, of the online variety, because is there any better way to shop when you're an introvert? I think not, dear reader. Since I am a person of the crafty persuasion (although if you ever saw me wielding glue in any form along with felt and uncooked macaroni or some other such three dimensional object you would doubt the veracity of that statement) I have quite a fascination with Etsy. I absolutely love handmade items, whether they are made by me or someone else. Every year I like to carefully choose some handmade gifts for my kids in crafts that I stink at am not particularly gifted. ;-) I like to tuck these things into their Christmas stockings, and as you know, I am a bit nuts about starting Christmas shopping right around the vernal equinox.

I've been doing lots of browsing and favoriting of new shops and items, and so thought it would be fun to share my ideas with all of you. I'm certain I'll do another one of these posts prior to the holidays, since this is certainly not an exhaustive list of Etsy shops that I find intriguing. But below are a handful that I've either purchased from recently or am plotting a purchase from soon. Perhaps it'll give you some ideas, and you can leave me your own ideas in the comments!

I've written about saint dolls before, because I sort of love them. Henry has a small collection of wooden ones that he displays, and Anne also has a few. I think this is a lovely way of helping children to keep their favorite saints in mind to intercede for them when something is bothering them. The store that I have previously purchased these from is no longer open, so I was looking around for alternatives. Thus began my obsession with St. Luke's Brush:

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

I mean, did you ever? The detail is *exquisite*. And the selection is second to none. Every saint that immediately came to my mind could be found there, including my confirmation patron St. Cecelia, and my favorite guy ever, St. John Paul II. Here is Henry's favorite saint:

St. Dominic Savio

And she has a custom listing for any saint you want. She will paint it. A-mazing. I found several that I want for my desk at work. :0 Including that St. Kateri featured above, she's beautiful!

This store also carries hand painted rosary cases:

...and I fixated on this First Communion one right away for Henry. I haven't ordered yet, and hand painted items can certainly add up in price because of the sheer amount of work and talent that goes into them, but I plan to carefully select a few saints to purchase in the fall, and will report back in. :)

I also found a few store selling soft saint dolls, and I'm interested in these for Anne. My friend Sarah on Twitter brought Saintly Silver to my attention:

Lovely St. Therese of Lisieux

These are made from felt and are very reasonably priced. She has an excellent selection, and will also custom create any doll you like that she doesn't have listed.  These would make wonderful squeezeable additions to a child's bedtime collection. :)

I also found Sanctus Stitches and while a bit more expensive, check out the detail:

We can tell she is one of my favorites: once again, St. Kateri :)

Gorgeous! Anne could create all sorts of adventures for this St. Kateri, just as she would any of her other dolls. I am positively *itching* to order this.

For rosaries, I have recently purchased from the lovely Rosaries by Allison:

Our Lady Star of the Sea

...and she is just the sweetest and does a beautiful job. She has some gorgeous designs which you should zoom right over to go look at :) and she will custom design anything you like. I have a few Christmas gifts tucked away from this store. *shhhhhh...*

Finally, a secular addition that is absolutely adorable. Anne loves the apron that I wear when I bake, so this immediately spurred me into looking for a child's apron for her, because seriously? PRECIOUS! I ended up ordering her one from  Designs by Dragon Lily:

!!!

I mean, SO CUTE. She was having a Christmas in July sale when I ordered, so I picked out an angels and 3 Wise Men design for Anne that I know she'll love. But so many cute patterns and extremely reasonable prices. She also sells makeup bags, which I'm thinking of getting for myself.

So, now it's your turn. Do you have a favorite Etsy shop? Do detail in the comments. :)

Saint doll giveaway!

Fantastic giveaways are breeding like frisky bunnies this Advent, no? :) Allison is hosting a giveaway of a beautiful handpainted saint doll from Shining Light Dolls. My kids LOVE wood saint peg-style dolls like these, even Henry. He owns St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Patrick, St. Dominic Savio, & St. Michael, and built a little stand for them to sit on his dresser with Mike. :) Anne has a larger collection with Our Lady of Fatima with children, St. Therese, St. Anne, & St. Joan of Arc.

Go check out Allison's post to enter! I did!

I'm already started my Christmas shopping. No, I don't think I'm overdoing it...

This year, I've been in the holiday spirit for quite some time. Hopefully, this will carry through all the way to the actual holiday, but I'm optimistic.

Toward that end, like I mentioned before, I have already started Christmas (as well as pre-Christmas general winter gifts) knitting, and my list is trimmed down considerably from last year, guaranteeing (or at least I hope so) that I won't be a miserable, cranky knitter come Christmas day, stitching resentment into all of my handcrafted gifts. As well, I plotted some stocking stuffers for my kids, and I wanted to feature some of them today.

I'm all excited about these saint peg dolls that I bought from my friend Cam's etsy store, Sadie's Saints. (Photos below are from Cam's store; go check out her dolls!)

These are small wooden pegs that Cam has painted as different saints. If your child has a book of saints (in which the saints definitely sound pretty daring and swashbuckling) they can act out scenes with them, and place them on a shelf to admire when they're not in action. The details on these are amazing, they're just beautiful. I even bought one for myself!

For Anne, I got (the obvious) St. Anne:

And St. Therese:

For Henry, I chose St. Michael the Archangel (his wings are amazing in the back!):

And St. Maximillan Kolbe, his favorite saint:

This was a custom doll that Cam made because I asked her to! She hadn't pre-designed it.

For myself, I got Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha:

She's currently resting comfortably on my desk. :)

I just love these dolls, they're beautiful. Hank loves little figurines, so  I know he'll enjoy putting them on his bedside table. I don't want Anne to destroy hers, so I'll keep them on her shelf for a bit until she's older. But I plan to put them in their Christmas stockings, and I can't wait until they see them!

You can ask Cam to custom make you any saint that she doesn't have listed in her store, and she has packages wherein you can get a discount for ordering multiple dolls. Definitely check out her shop!