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Labor & Delivery Readiness

by Filed Under: 31 Days, Pregnancy 5 Comments

Here are some misc. items that I like to complete prior to labor, in addition to the birth plan.

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JOYfilledfamily Homebirth Supplies

Homebirth Supplies – Checklist that I use to prep for my homebirths.  I like to list everything that I think I will want/need so that I can be certain that it is rounded up prior to labor.

Baby's Call List

Baby’s Call List – Template to use for contact info for those who should be notified at onset of labor/delivery.  This is a great task to delegate to your children.

Labor Door Sign

Door Sign – I printed several copies of this sign to post in my hospital room when I delivered baby #5, desiring for a home-like birth in the hospital.  Mission accomplished! 

Birthing Prayer Intentions – I create a list of all the prayer intentions of those who have requested prayers so that I can be certain to take them into labor.  I post the list in a prominent location so I (or Dad) can recall the intentions while in labor.

Labor Playlist – The playlist is a culmination of meditations, prayers, and music that I gather to have on hand in the event that I need help relaxing and/or setting my eyes on God.  I don’t always use this resource but I feel comfort in knowing it’s an option.

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This post is included in my pregnancy reflections. You can find the other posts of my 31 Days here.

RMGS St. Valentine’s Bake Sale

by Filed Under: Bake Sale, RMGS, RMGS 2012-13, St. Valentine, St. Valentine's Day 5 Comments

Here is a picture recap of the RMGS St. Valentine’s Bake Sale.  It was held on Sunday. February 10, 2013 after each Mass.

Feb Bake Sale Flier

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The RMGS St. Valentine’s Bake Sale was huge success!

Praise God for the lovely hospitality of the members of RMGS, help of moms (especially one who offered to coordinate the meals at the last minute), and the generous support of our fellow parishioners.

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Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, pray for us!

RMGS ~ Hospitality & Humility ~ Baking

by Filed Under: Baking, Hospitality, Humility, RMGS, RMGS 2012-13 1 Comment

~RMGS mission is to help young girls grow in faith, virtue, and service, through hospitality, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.~

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Rosa Mystica Girls’ Society met for our sixth meeting of the 2012-13 Session on the second Sat. of the month, February 9, 2012. There were thirty-eight girls in attendance.  We have two meetings remaining.  The next meeting will be another baking lesson (emphasis on pastries) and the following meeting will focus on gardening.  We will close the 2012-13 Session with a May Procession.  m106meeting snack

The girls were introduced to a new skill, bread making. 

mp2090145 bread in oven

Lesson:

Father B was teaching the Confirmation class and could not join us for his regular lessons. Father did grace us with his presence during the bread making segment and for closing, Angelus.

mP2090172father's bread instruction

Father gave a simple lesson on French Bread, the Lost Bread.

mP2090178father grinding wheat v2

He also gave a great demonstration on the hand grinder.

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We briefed the girls on the virtue of humility.  They brainstormed examples of humility and pride. 

“The virtue by which a Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good. Humility avoids inordinate ambition or pride, and provides the foundation for turning to God in prayer. Voluntary humility can be described as ‘poverty of spirit.’”   (CCC 2559, 2546).

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Prayer of Humility for Children

Author unkown

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me.
Help me to look for what is good in others and forget what is bad in them.
Help me to put others first and not worry if I’m not picked or am ignored.
Help me not to seek approval and not worry about being the center of attention.
Help me not to be afraid to be afraid of not being liked or worry about being hurt or not believed.
Help me to look beyond myself, even if it’s not my turn, and to help others.
Deliver me, Jesus, from all of these and make me as holy as I should be.
Amen

Bread Making:

mP2090123bread making station

The bread making lesson was led by Mrs. L and her future RMGS member, M (her 3 year old daughter).  Mrs. L has perfected the art of bread making using home-ground unadulterated wheat.

mP2090139breadinstuction

Mrs. L rounded up the girls around her baking table to give them an up-close demonstration of bread making. 

m107basic bread making steps

She reviewed the simple steps for making a batch of bread that will yield 3 large loaves, perfect for the large families.

She also shared wonderful bits of priceless info that I’m sure the girls will carry with them for many years to come.

m5P2090154ella measuring water for yeast

Each RMGS member had the opportunity to attempt a baking skill and take a turn at the hand-grinder or dough mixing.

mfinished bread sampling105

The girls were able to taste their creations at the close of the meeting.  The remaining loaves were saved for the bake sale.

Handouts:

AGENDA – Hospitality ~ Humility ~ Baking ~ FEB

Hospitality & Humility:

Baking:

  • Bread Recipe – created by Mrs. L
  • Handout based on Little Women Hospitality Baking Lesson – focus on Hospitality and the necessary steps for baking

Additional Humility Resources:

Wrap-up:

We reviewed the handouts that the helpers placed in each binder and encouraged the girls to grow in humility and share their new bread making skill with someone else this Lenten season.

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The girls created a St. Valentine’s note to express their love for Mother Church, our Priests, or any other related love.  The love notes would serve as décor for our bake sale and would be shared by all.

The meeting closed with the Angelus, led by Father.

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Thank you to the many hands who stayed around to help set up for the bake sale on Sunday. 

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Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, pray for us!

2013 Family Lenten Program & Lenten Resources

by Filed Under: Lent 2 Comments

Lord, help us to see in your Crucifixion and Resurrection an example of how to endure and seemingly to die in the agony and conflict of daily life so that we may live more fully and creatively.

You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human lifhttp://www.picophotos.com/giftoflove.htmle, as well as the tortures of your Crucifixion and Passion. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunities to grow as people and become more like you. Enable us to go through them patiently and bravely, trusting that you will support us. Make us realize that it is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully; for it is only by dying with you that we can rise with you.     – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

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We are ready (as can be) to enter into the desert, Lenten season.  We will be keeping things simple this Lent and following our same Lenten program as last year.

We seek to be fully immersed in a life of prayer within our current state of life so that we can grow an intimate union with Christ, foster the virtues of humility and charity, and properly purge ourselves of things of this world that have been hindering our union with Him.  We hope to model the Holy Family of Nazareth with the purpose of transforming our own family into a “true sanctuary of Love”.*

As always, my family has removed ourselves from all extracurriculars not related to the Church or our livelihood.  Our days will be centered around prayer.  We will refrain from participating in superfluous social events – leaving the home only out of necessity for our state in life, Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, and MASS.

All technology use will be kept to a minimum.  The TV that was used for videos has been removed from the home for the entire Lenten Season. My computer use will be reduced to an hour a day, after the kids are in bed.  Cell phones will only be used for communication purposes and will not be used in the home unless there is an emergency.  Our kids do not use the computer on a regular basis so that is a non-issue.

In addition, my family will recommit to a dietary lifestyle change that He has called us to follow, using our plan from last year.  The good Lord continues to give us the graces to move down this path so that we can have a complete restoration of health and be nourished with real food – all for His glory!

Lastly, we will continue to patiently wait for Baby G to arrive this Lenten Season.  His official due date is Feb. 17 but I usually go two weeks over.  I pray to joyfully embrace my usual long labor (avg. 30 hrs) and offer my crosses up for the intentions of Our Blessed Mother, cause of our Joy.

This Lenten season we pray for a complete transformation, total abandonment to God’s will, with child-like trust in His fatherly care, and readiness for service in profound humility after the example of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

We also pray that your Lenten journey be all that the good Lord wills for you and that you may joyfully cooperate with His grace.

+Ad Jesum Per Mariam+

*The foundation of our Lenten Program is based on the statutes that Dad and I seek to follow as LMC.

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Daily Family Lenten Program:2013 JOYfilledfamily Lenten Program Chart - family

  • Morning Offering
  • Angelus
  • Daily Readings – 1962 Roman Missal
  • Lenten Reflection – Bringing Lent Home with Mother Teresa
  • Angelus
  • Personal Spiritual Readings
  • Examen
  • Rosary – Meditations by St. Louis de Montfort
  • Compline

Daily Prayer Meditation & Intention:

  • Mon – Souls in Purgatory & End to Abortion
  • Tue – Holy Angels & Conversion of Family
  • Wed – St. Joseph & Godparents & Godchildren
  • Thur – Holy Eucharist & Pope Benedict XVI & Priests
  • Fri – Crucifixion & The Sick
  • Sat – Blessed Virgin Mary & Vocations 2013 Lenten Activity Chart JOYfilledfamily
  • Sun – Blessed Trinity & Poor, homeless, and those in great need

Family Lenten Activities:

  • Review personal Lenten program chart (daily)
  • Update the Sacrifice Bean Jar for sacrifices/almsgiving (daily)
  • Pick Almsgiving item out of the jar (Mon.-Sat. with an emphasis on Mondays)
  • Family service at parish (Saturday)
  • Adoration (Thursday)
  • Mass & Stations of the Cross (Friday)
  • Mass (Daily until baby arrives & Sunday)

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I will add more to the resource list throughout this Lenten season if I come across additional resources that I would like to use and/or share.  Please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.

Lenten Resources:

Lenten Activities & Resources for Kids:

Other Lenten Reflections & Resources:

Catholic Inspired

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Now it is only right that, before we arrive at that glory of impassibility and immortality which began in Christ, and which was acquired for us through Christ, we should be shaped after the pattern of Christ’s sufferings.  It is then only right that Christ’s liability to suffer should remain in us too for a time, as a means of our coming to the impassibility of glory in the way He himself came to it. ~ Meditations For Lent – St. Thomas Aquinas,  (1-2 85 5 ad 2.)

2013 Lenten Calendar

by Filed Under: Lent, Lenten Calendar 2 Comments

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk; But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. ~ St. Ephraem, Doctor of the Church (d. 373)  This prayer is often prayed with a prostration after each stanza.

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This calendar corresponds with the 2013 Liturgical Calendar – of the Extraordinary Form.

In order to keep up the character of mournfulness and austerity which is so well suited to Lent, the Church, for many centuries, admitted very few feasts into this portion of her year, inasmuch as there is always joy where there is even a spiritual feast…During the last few centuries, she has admitted several other feasts into that portion of her general calendar which coincides with Lent; still, she observes a certain restriction, out of respect for the ancient practice. ~“The Mystery of Lent” – Extraordinary Form (Tridentine) from Dom Gueranger’s “The Liturgical Year”

Purple 2013 Lenten Calendar EOPurple Print 2013 Lenten Calendar EO 

White 2013 Lenten Calendar EOVintage 2013 Lenten Calendar EO

*The calendar can be printed with a purple, purple print, white or a vintage background. The links to the calendar downloads are listed at the bottom of this post.

I print my calendar at Costco Photo in 16×20 ($5.99) for the family down stairs and 8×10 ($1.49) for bedrooms upstairs.  It can also be printed at home.

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The following prayers are also included on the calendar.

O Lord Jesus! who spent forty days in the desert without food or drink, and didst permit Thy self to be tempted by the evil spirit, give me, I beseech Thee by that holy fast, the grace to combat, during this holy season of Lent, under Thy protection, against intemperance, and to resist the suggestions of Satan that I may win the crown of eternal life. Amen. ~Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine’s The Church’s Year

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Prayer Before A Crucifix ~ En ego, O bone et dulcissime Iesu
Behold, O good and most sweet Jesus, I fall upon my knees before Thee, and with most fervent desire beg and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst impress upon my heart a lively sense of faith, hope and charity, true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends. And with deep affection and grief, I reflect upon Thy five wounds, having before my eyes that which Thy prophet David spoke about Thee, o good Jesus: "They have pierced my hands and feet, they have counted all my bones." Amen.

This prayer calls to mind Psalm 21, in particular verses 17 and 18, which concern our Lord’s Passion. A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful on any Friday of Lent or Passiontide who after Communion piously recite this prayer before an image of Christ crucified. On other days of the year the indulgence is partial.

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You may download and print the calendar for your personal use.  I only ask that you offer a decade of the Rosary for Priests of the the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).

***Please leave a comment stating how you plan to use this or any other Lenten Calendar.  Also, feel free to leave your suggestions for future calendars.***

Email me at JOYfilledfamily{at}gmail{dot}com if you prefer to have a JPEG file and/or PDF sent directly to you.  I will gladly send out the 2013 Lenten Calendar – JPEG file at any time in the Lenten Season.

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Catholic Inspired

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