"The 12 Pains of Christmas"

Saturday, December 20. 2008 - Feast of Saint Dominic of Silos



A friend, her children, and her children's friends made this hilarious video! Make sure you watch it to the very end. Oh, an adult performed the third day.

The 12 Pains of Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bXRXq0RHLE

Reviews

Hearthside Homeschool Reviews has a great post on some books for children on cleaning (reminds me a bit of FlyLady). If my children knew about these books, they would beg for them to save them from my lectures on how they don't help out around the house! LOL!

Shrink Art

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 - Feast of Saint Bibiana

Queen Lucy is using Seton's Art 7 for Young Catholics (It is now "Art 6", but we have an older book). A recent lesson was on stained glass. One of the assignments was to color a picture of the Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven, and her Holy Child.

I had the bright idea of putting it on vellum or something else that is "see-thru" to hang in the window, then I remembered something from when I was a child - Shrinky Dink!

I got some Shrinky Dink Frosted Rough and Ready. I placed it over the picture, shiny side up, and traced with a black permanent marker (I simplified the smaller details). On the rough side, Queen Lucy used her colored pencils. I then trimmed off the excess plastic, punched holes in the top (regular sized hole puncher), put the picture on a cookie sheet & put it in the oven (per the directions on the SD package). I have a window in my oven door, so Queen Lucy and I watched in awe as the large piece of plastic melted, shrunk, and rolled up - uh, oh, I thought all of her hard work was ruined! But I remembered that the directions said it will flatten in the last 30 seconds.... so we waited. Suddenly, it unrolled! After it cooled, she checked out her finished project.

(I scanned this, and it looks much better in real life.)

Now all that is needed it to thread ribbon through the holes, and hang it.

Things we have learned:

***Sometimes it will stick when it rolls up, but it can be reheated, gently pulled apart, then left in the heat to unroll the rest of the way.

***The finished product stuck slightly to the pan, and left some of the permanent marker on the pan. I have read suggestions to use a non-stick cookie sheet, foil (shiny side up), parchment paper, or a paper sack (the oven does not get hot enough to burn it.) We are going to make Christmas ornaments, and will try the other suggestions.

***The softer the colored pencil the better (I guess they blend better, leaving less blank/uncolored spots). We are also going to try permanent markers.

***Plastic #6 (not the foam kind) can be recycled from various sources like food containers, to be used as shrinkable plastic. I have not tried this yet because I am confused about whether or not it emits gasses when heated, and I do not want to possibly contaminate the oven I cook our food in.

*** There are many projects on the internet - Google "shrinky dink" or "shrinkable plastic".

Excellent quote!

From one of my favorite authors!

Democracy put "man" on a pedestal; feminism put "woman" on a pedestal; but neither democracy nor feminism could live a generation unless a "Child" was first put on a pedestal, and such is the significance of Nazareth!
-Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Your oxymoron for the day - "Knights for Obama"

It seems there is a group out there, consisting of some (very few, I pray) Knights of Columbus who support Obama. They are "resisting church pressure to make abortion the primary issue that should drive Catholics' votes...." according to an article on Beliefnet.

For those who may be unaware, the Knights of Columbus are a Catholic men's pro-life group.

They need our prayers.

I rescued the Blessed Mother! (sort of)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - Tuesday in Easter Week

I was passing by a thrift store, and found a statue of the Blessed Mother. She has some nicks, chipped paint, and her hands are missing, as is the head of the serpent. The owner said she was going to through it away, but thought that someone would want it. I rescued it for a dollar!

It's 15 inches tall & looks to be well made. You can see a metal support where one hand used to be. I am no art expert, so perhaps someone can help me identify it/tell me what I have. And perhaps someone can advise me on how to repair it.

*** I know it is Our Lady of Grace. I would like to know about the statue itself - it's history, artist, age, etc. (I included close-ups of imprints on the base.)

Christus resurrexit!

Monday, March 24, 2008- Monday in Easter Week

Lent is over, and we are now in the Easter season. Forty days of sacrificing ended, followed by a day of celebration. We went to a beautiful and reverent Sung Mass, then to my mother's for a feast.

This is the beautiful High Altar at a Novus Ordo/Traditional Latin Mass parish where we attended the Easter Latin Mass (notice they had moved the table - which you will see in later pics).

These are the young men who served the Mass with Father. In this picture are two seminarians, a soon to be seminarian, and a new member of the Catholic Church; as well as King Peter in front on the right of Father. By the way, for the first half of Mass, King Peter's surplice was all messed up, and I was mentally straightening it. Not ONE of those young men noticed! LOL!

Finally, here is Queen Lucy with King Peter.