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Faith Necklace

September 13, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Crafts, Little Flowers, St. Catherine of Siena

My Little Flowers group has started their 2010-2011.  There are 27 girls ranging in ages from 5 to 8.  My returning girls are skilled crafters.  However, I wanted to gauge the skill level of the new LF girls.  This was the perfect craft, key tag necklaces.  I found my inspiration from another blog.

Faith key tag necklace

Craft Level:  1-2 (1 being the easiest)

Majority of the prep is done by the parent ahead of time.

Cost per craft*:  $.80/necklace  $21/30 necklaces

*this does not include the crafting tools

SUPPLIES

1 in circle punch

hole puncher

Xyron sticker maker or glue

Key Tags (Avery 11025) -  $8/50 tags  $0.16/tag

Sunflower pictures (represents the virtue of faith)

Faith Sheet on decorative yellow paper

Bright Yellow Ribbon (represents the virtue of faith) – $0.50/10 yards  $0.05/necklace

St. Catherine of Siena medal – $0.60/medal

STEPS:

1.  Print sunflower sheet

Sunflowers Sheet

1.a.  Cut out 1 in circles of your desired sunflower clip

2.  Print Faith Sheet on decorative yellow paper

Faith Sheet

2.a.  Cut out 1 in circles around “faith”

stickers for craft3.  Create stickers of the cutouts from steps 1.a. and 2.a.  I used the Xyron create a sticker tool.

4.  Adhere the stickers to the key tag.  Faith on one side and the sunflowers on the other.

5.  Punch a hole in the top of stickers where the original key tag hole is located

6.  String a pre-cut yellow ribbon through the St. Catherine of Siena medal and the created key tag.

7.  Tie a knot at the end of the ribbon, fit-to-size.

 

“Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see.”  Hebrews 11:1

Faith Cupcake

September 13, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Little Flowers, Recipe, St. Catherine of Siena

sunflower cupcake display

I decided to make this cupcake for Little Flowers Wreath I ~ St. Catherine of Siena and the virtue of faith.  I found the idea at Skip To My Lou.

SUPPLIES:

  • yellow cake mix
  • buttercream frosting
  • chocolate frosting
  • chocolate puff cereal
  • cupcake liners
  • Golden Yellow gel icing color
  • star tip for icing

DIRECTIONS:

Bake cupcakes as desired. I used a box mix of yellow cake.

sunflower cupcake design 1

Frost the middle of the cake with chocolate frosting.

sunflower cupcake design 2

Dip the frosted cupcake into chocolate puff cereal.  Save this step for later if you plan to refrigerate the cupcake.  If not, the cereal will loose it’s crunch and become stale.sunflower cupcake design 3

Using a star tip, frost around the chocolate top of the cupcake with buttercream frosting that has been dyed yellow using Golden Yellow gel icing color. 

Here is a great buttercream frosting recipe.  1 batch is enough for approximately 36 cupcakes.

Family Retreat

September 9, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Labor Day, Vacation

We spent our Labor Day weekend at Lake Tahoe with Godparents and Godchildren.

ice cold water * 30 ft jumps * row boat * sand castles * bubbles in the wind * hikes * paddle boarding * river rocks * family * relaxation * late bedtimes * picnics * fishing * canoe rides * birthday * sand * dinner co-op * Mother Teresa’s feast day * 18 children * 6 adults * family prayer nights * morning offerings * blessings

Tahoe Sept 3 - 6 2010 Documents

Make A Wish!

August 31, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Birthday, GFG, Papi

Sweetie turned 5 the day after Papi turned 3.  They both opted out of our birthday tradition, to have a date with mom and dad.  They wanted to continue their yearly pool party.  We have scaled back tremendously over the years – trying to simplify. 

Papi and Sweetie hardly got out of the water.  Although, Papi is the only toddler I saw get out to use the restroom.  I lost count after the 4th visit to the bathroom.  I couldn’t believe it, this from a boy who makes his mark on the carpet in our home.

Sweetie swam till her eyes were burning.  She didn’t even care to open her presents (at the pool). 

bday pool 2010

They both opened their presents at home.  They were delighted with their new treasures.  Sweetie received a lovely costume jewelry necklace that she was so pleased with.  However, she did not know where she was going to “put it.”  Sparkles immediately offered, “you can put in my jewelry box.  You can have it.  It’s your present.”  My heart leaped.  Sparkles ability to be detached and give at anytime always proves to be a great witness to us all.

I give thanks for our children (GFG) and each day You grant us.  I pray that all of our GFG walk in Your light and be filled with Your JOY. 

100th In Review

August 31, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Blessed Mother Teresa, Crafts, Mother Teresa of Calcutta

We celebrated Mother Teresa’s 100th birthday with great JOY & simplicity.

indian fried bread

Indian Fried Bread – Catholic Cuisine

 stuffed mother teresa joymother teresa 100th bday celebration JOY Mother Teresa Embroidery Pattern – Waltzing Matilda

Mother Teresa Novena

3rd Day

“I Thirst”

“Follow His footsteps in search of souls.  Carry Him and His light into the homes of the poor, especially to the souls most in need.  Spread the charity of His Heart wherever you go and so satiate His thirst for souls.”

~ Mother Teresa

4th day

Our Lady Will Help You

“If we stand with Our Lady, she will give us her spirit of loving trust, total surrender and cheerfulness.”

~ Mother Teresa

God Speaks In Silence

August 27, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Blessed Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Novena

“In the silence of our hearts, God speaks of His love; with our silence, we allow Jesus to love us.” ~ Mother Teresa

We are starting a novena to Bl. Teresa of Calcutta today, Aug. 27.  It will end on September 5, her feast day.

© Photo by Michael Collopy

Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(August 26, 1910 – September 5, 1997)

Beatification – October 19, 2003
Optional Memorial
September 5th

NOVENA TO BLESSED TERESA OF CALCUTTA

Prayer to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Prayed each day of the Novena

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta,

you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you,

and so became the light of His love to all.

Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request).

Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too,

may radiate His light and love to others.

Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for me.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for me.

“Jesus is my All in All”

~~~

Complete meditations for this novena can be found here.

The bolded quotes are Mother Teresa’s words.

~~~

First Day – Know the Living Jesus

Thought for the day:

“Don’t search for Jesus in far lands; He is not there. He is close to you; He is in you.”

Ask for the grace of an intimate knowledge of Jesus.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Second Day –Jesus Loves You

Thought for the day:

“Do not be afraid – you are precious to Jesus. He loves you.”

Ask for the grace to be convinced of Jesus’ unconditional and personal love for you.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Third Day – Hear Him Say to You: “I Thirst”

Thought for the day:

“Just think! God is thirsting for you and me to come forward to satiate His thirst.”

Ask for the grace to understand Jesus’ cry of thirst.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Fourth Day – Our Lady Will Help You

Thought for the day:

“How close we must keep to Our Lady who understood what depth of Divine Love was being revealed as she stood at the foot of the Cross and heard Jesus cry out: ‘I thirst.’ ”

Ask for the grace to learn from Our Lady to quench Jesus’ thirst as she did.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Fifth Day – Trust Jesus Blindly

Thought for the day:

“Confidence in God can do all things. It is our emptiness and lowliness that God needs and not our plenitude.”

Ask for the grace to have an unshakeable trust in the God’s power and love for you and for all.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Sixth Day – True Love is Surrender

Thought for the day:

“Allow God to use you without consulting you.”

Ask for the grace to surrender your whole life to God.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Seventh Day – God Loves a Cheerful Giver

Thought for the day:

“Joy is the sign of union with God, of God’s presence. Joy is love, the normal result of a heart burning with love.”

Ask for the grace to find joy in loving and to share this joy with all you meet.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Eighth Day – Jesus Made Himself the Bread of Life and the Hungry One

Thought for the day:

“Believe that He, Jesus, is in the appearance of Bread and that He, Jesus, is in the hungry, naked, sick, lonely, unloved, homeless, helpless and hopeless.”

Ask for the grace of a deep faith to see Jesus in the Bread of Life and to serve Him in the distressing disguise of the poor.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Ninth Day – Holiness is Jesus Living and Acting in Me

Thought for the day:

“Charity for each other is the surest way to great holiness.”

Ask for the grace to become a saint.

Recite the prayer to Blessed Teresa

Centenary Reflections ~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

August 26, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Blessed Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa of Calcutta

mother-teresajpg-ca8ec59e8830241d_large

by Joseph A. Corrado

Posters have appeared in churches and senior citizen centers around Hoboken in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa.

MOTHER TERESA (1910–1997) was born in Skopje (present-day Macedonia), and joined the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin in 1928. She left the Loreto order in 1948 to begin the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. Her service to the poorest of the poor became her life’s work. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was beatified in 2003.

Prayer to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, longing to love Jesus as He had never been loved before, you gave yourself entirely to Him, refusing Him nothing. In union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, you accepted His call to satiate His infinite thirst for love and souls and become a carrier of His love to the poorest of the poor. With loving trust and total surrender you fulfilled His will, witnessing to the joy of belonging totally to Him. You became so intimately united to Jesus your crucified Spouse that He deigned to share with you the agony of His Heart as He hung upon the Cross.

Blessed Teresa, you promised to continuously bring the light of love to those on earth; pray for us that we also may long to satiate the burning thirst of Jesus by loving Him ardently, sharing in His sufferings joyfully, and serving Him wholeheartedly in our brothers and sisters, especially those most unloved and unwanted. Amen

Collect

God, who called blessed Teresa, virgin
to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the cross
with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor,
grant us, we beseech you, by her intercession,
to minister to Christ in his suffering brothers.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

 

RESOURCES

Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center – Official Site go to the bottom of the screen to stop the music player before selecting this link

Mother Teresa of Calcutta – EWTN

Mother Teresa Biography – Vatican

Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others – New Book by Mother Teresa

Misc. News – View From The Domestic Church

Prayer Card

Coloring Page 1– Waltzing Matilda

Coloring Page 2 – Waltzing Matilda

Children’s Embroidery Pattern – Waltzing Matilda

Paper Doll – Paper dali

All Saints’ Day  –Mother Teresa of Calcutta – Blossoming Joy

Food Ideas & Crafts – Family at the Foot of the Cross

Mother Teresa Tea – Catholic Cuisine

VIDEO – AUDIO  go to the bottom of the screen to stop the music player before selecting these links

Mother Teresa You Tube

Mother Teresa’s Commencement Address and Press Conference, delivered at Thomas Aquinas College in June of 1982. 

“You and I and every single human being in this world is a child of God, created in the image of God, created for greater things, to love and to be loved. That is why today we have so much suffering in the world because we forget that we have been created for greater things, that we have been created to love and to be loved. So it is very necessary for us to pray, for prayer will give us a clean heart and a clean heart can love. For the fruit of prayer is love and the fruit of love is service; and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the giving.” 

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Holiness is not the luxury of the few.

…Holiness is not the luxury of the few. It is a simple duty for you and for me. Take the trouble to keep your family together. Let peace, joy, unity and love be always there. Bring prayer, bring the rosary into your family. Bring the consecration to the Sacred Heart into your family and you will free the love and joy and presence of Christ right there in your own heart and the hearts of your family.

And pray for us as we continue our work. For as you know, we have consecrated our lives to sharing God’s love and compassion to the poorest of the poor, to people who have nothing, who have nobody. Our sisters are now all over the world — God has blessed us with many vocations. I hope some of your sons and daughters will join the Missionaries of Charity and give that love and joy to many more people. 

~ Words of Mother Teresa © Mother Teresa Center of the Missionaries of Charity

LMC 11 29 2009

Father Sebastian Vazhakala ~Superior General of priests of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity and founder of the Lay Missionaries of Charity

Full Of Thanks!!!

August 25, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Birthday, GFG, Papi

Today, August 24 was a joyous celebration.  Papi turned 3.  We have much to be thankful for. 

papi 2007 collage

Unfortunately, we kept the celebration low key.  Papi and sweetie, once again, opted out of our birthday tradition. 

The littles (we believe) have a mild case of salmonella due to a bad batch of eggs. 

We visited the zoo on Monday.

papi 2010 collage

Tomorrow we will celebrate Papi’s baptismal anniversary, Sweetie’s 5th birthday and our wedding anniversary.  I’m a bit overwhelmed but full of thanks!

***papi 2008 collagepapi 2009 collagev2 ***

Thank you Heavenly Father for the all the JOYs that you have brought to us through Papi.  We give thanks for Your abundant love – to bring us to our knees, to draw us closer to You.  We thank you for giving us the graces to persever and trust in Your providence.  Your mercy has overflowed unto us and we pray to follow You always.

School Is In Session…

August 21, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: GFG, Homeschooling

 …soon!  We have not officially started our school year.  We finished up in June and will start back up in September.  However, we have begun our usual school readiness – where we gradually add a couple of “school items” to our daily routine.  This is probably more for me than for the kids.  They’re always ready to school and in fact, they do but they don’t consider it school unless all the new school items are in place.  I on the other hand, need a gradual transition.  The transition helps me to  work out scheduling conflicts, rev up to an early rise time, train the littlest ones so that they’re somewhat used to a more structured day once school is completely in session, and lastly – I love schooling!
Really, I do!  Once, when Rose was about 7 she asked me, “mom, what did you want to be when you were a kid?”  I replied, “ a teacher.  I was always playing school in my home.  I would set up my bedroom for school and my stuffed animals were the students.  I even had a school-like chalkboard/whiteboard that was on rollers.  I loved pretending that I was a teacher.”  She quickly chimed in, “Mom!!!  Your dream came true…you are a teacher…you teach me at home!!!”
I had never put the two together like that before.  It was a consolation that I needed at that time and one that I often need to reflect back on.  God is good! 

2010 – 2011
Rose – 10/11  *  Sparkles – 1/2  *  Sweetie – K 
Papi – Pre-K  * Dragonfly – Teacher’s Pet

joyfilled gfg on desk
3 littles with chalkboard papi collage 8.5x11 sweetie collage 8.5x11sparkles collage 8.5x11rose collage
dragonfly and big sis collage

    Dragonfly is shaping out to be a lovely teacher’s pet. 

joyfilled gfg in desk with apples

previous 2 school years
2009 – 2010
Rose – 9/10  *  Sparkles – K/1  *  Sweetie – (whatever Sparkles does)  *  Papi – school mascot
I’m not sure what happened last school year (09-10), I did not take “school” pictures.  These pictures were taken at the start of the school year, a field to the Sisters of the Cross.  School 2009-10
2008 – 2009
Rose – 8/9  *  Sparkles – K  *  Sweetie – (whatever Sparkles does)  *  Papi – teacher’s pet
I love the uniforms.  So do the children.  In fact, when I asked the little ones to get a dress on for this school year’s (2010-11) pictures, they returned with their uniforms on.  Thus, I postponed school pictures. I would have moved forward but Rose does not have a uniform anymore and I wanted to have “free-dress.”school 2008-09

PHOTO WEEK

Baby Celebration

August 19, 2010 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Baby, Blog

Our little Dragonfly is 3 months old!

he has…

darling dimples…a sweet disposition…a soft goo…a head full of curly hair…the ability to sleep through the night…his sisters wrapped around his little finger…his brother anxiously awaiting to “fight”…a knack for fitting his whole fist into his mouth…us all on our knees giving thanks to God!

gio 3 mo JOY gio 3 mo v2 JOY gio 3 mo v3 JOY

~~~

Melody at Blossoming Joy is giving away a baby carrier. 

Check it out here.

(Photo source and other images here)

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Hi! I'm Lena, mama of JOYfilledfamily.
We are a traditional Catholic family striving to live for Jesus Christ in everything we do. We pray to completely surrender our will to His and to become His servants. Our mission of this blog is to share our JOY.

This blog serves as a journal of us making good memories, living the liturgical year, and our spiritual journey.

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