It's okay to be less than perfect

Here it is, the last Sunday in Advent.  Are you feeling tinges of guilt over all the projects and things you didn't get done during the season? Or is your list still rather long, hoping you can finish the baking, Christmas shopping, card writing, Christmas crafting and gift wrapping before next Saturday, Christmas Eve?

I know my list is too long, and I will need to rewrite it so it's more realistic and do-able.  Also, I really need to focus on what's important--attending Mass each day, getting to confession, spending more time reading the Bible and meditating over the wonderful gift God gave to us in Jesus. 

Check out Tsh Oxenreider's article: Plan Your Peaceful Christmas: Embrace Imperfection for inspiration on just letting go and being in the moment with Christ!

Favorite Free Find: Free Christmas Music Downloads

Did you know that Amazon is currently offering "25 Days of Free Holiday Music"?  Each day, they upload a new holiday song from a variety of popular Christmas albums.  You can download the MP3 file for free, to put on your smartphone or MP3 player. Some of the current free songs include Greensleeves by Mannheim Steamroller, Ave Maria by Celtic Women, O Holy Night by Leigh Nash and Adeste Fideles by Bing Crosby.

You can get the free downloads here

I think I'll surprise my husband by adding some holiday tunes to his Nano, which he listens to every day on the train as he commutes to work!

Advent Glass Block Decoration

I admit it--I'm on a mission to decorate my home for Advent this year!  Usually, my only Advent decorations are our purple table cloth, a rather plain ring that serves as our Advent wreath, our Nativity set and a few statues or figurines depicting St. Nicholas and St. Lucia.  I've felt the need to add more liturgical purple to our home.

So, after I made the Immaculate Conception glass block decoration described here,
I wondered how I could use the second glass block and the purple and pink mini lights to create a decoration for Advent.  So I went back to the internet, searching for some sort of Advent picture--perhaps an Advent candle? Maybe symbols from the Jesse tree?  No, nothing seemed quite right, until I found a silhouette image depicting Joseph and Mary's trip to Bethlehem.  The phrase "waiting in joyful hope" immediately popped into my head.  I copied the image into my desktop publishing program and played a bit with the text until I came up with an image that seemed to represent Advent to me.  I then printed two copies of the image and attached it to the glass block using Mod Podge, like I did for the Immaculate Conception glass block project. (You can see a quick photo tutorial here.)

After the Mod Podge dried, I threaded a string of purple lights and a string of pink lights through the pre-drilled opening in the glass block.  Since each string has its own "on" button, I'll turn on the purple lights on the first, second and fourth weeks of Advent, then turn on the pink lights for the third week of Advent.
 
Here are a couple of photos of the finished product. Unfortunately, my camera can't really capture the true purple color. But it will give you an idea of what the decoration looks like:

The "Waiting in Joyful Hope" image I created on my computer

Illuminated by the pink mini lights (unfortunately, the purple lights were too dark to photograph, although not too dark to illuminate the image.)

It really was a quick project; waiting for the Mod Podge to dry was the most time consuming part!


I still have one more set of pink and purple mini lights left.  Now I'm waiting for some heavenly inspiration on how to use them, perhaps incorporating the O Antiphons!


I'm participating in Skip to My Lou's "Made by You Mondays" blog hop.  There are tons of wonderful ideas over there; check it out if you have a moment:

Simple Craft Project for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

On one of my trips to Hobby Lobby, I picked up two of those narrow glass blocks that have become so popular for holiday decorations.  I planned to use them with some battery operated mini lights I had obtained at an after-Christmas clearance at Target.  (I was able to pick up a package of blue lights, and two packages each of pink and purple lights.)  I knew I wanted to make some sort of inspirational/Catholic decoration with them, but didn't know what.   I was secretly hoping our Lord would inspire me with some ideas, and He recently did!

I don't have any nice statues, prints or decorations for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I knew my daughter and I would be doing some special things to celebrate this year, so I was searching the internet for a nice picture/painting of the Immaculate Conception. I stumbled upon a   beautiful stained glass image of the Blessed Mother and immediately thought of my glass block and blue mini lights.

So I copied the image to my desktop publishing software, sized it to fit the glass block, printed two copies of it, and then decoupaged the copies to the two flat sides of the block with Mod Podge. Here are a few photos of the work in progress:

I brushed Mod Podge on to the glass block.

I placed the image over the Mod Podge, carefully using my fingers to remove any air bubbles.

After the Mod Podge dried on the back of the image,  I sealed the front of it with two coats of Mod Podge. It looks cloudy when wet, but Mod Podge dries clear.  I then repeated the process for the other side of the block so the image appears on both sides.

I threaded the blue mini lights through the pre-cut opening in the glass block, then turned on the lights.  Here is the result:

My camera couldn't quite capture the proper shade of blue that peeks through the image; its not quite as stark as this image.  It is so pretty!  Even my husband (who isn't too crazy about religious art) said it was beautiful.

I've seen these same blue mini lights at Target this year, so if you are interested in making a craft like this, check out the Christmas light section at the after-holiday sales.

I also made a similar decoration for Advent.  Will post about it tomorrow!

Advent Meditation with Children: Isaiah 9:1 (plus a craft idea and template!)

Public domain photo courtesy of PDPhoto.org

I love sharing the meditation on Isaiah 9:2 (or Isaiah 9:1 in some Bibles) with the children in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium. It is the passage that says "The people who walked in darkness, have seen a great light."   This passage and its meditation have enthralled me since I first heard it in my Level I CGS training nine years ago.  I decided to share it with my catechism class this last week.  I'm never sure how the class will react, since they are so used to "workbook/textbook" religion and seem to do best when we are physically moving around.  We haven't done a meditation yet and I wasn't sure how they would react.  However, their rapt attention and responses showed me that this passage speaks deeply to all children!

Thought I would share some bits and pieces about the meditation, in case you would like to try it with your children or your catechism class.  This isn't quite the same presentation as I would give in the atrium because the classroom setup isn't as conducive to that presentation.  For example, I'm not allowed to light candles in our classroom, so I need to tailor the presentation a bit because of that.

For the meditation you will need a Bible, a painting of the prophet Isaiah and a handmade prayer card (8" x 14" or larger is good) that also says the verse (see my example below).  If you are doing this at home, you will also need a candle, snuffer, matches and place to put spent matches.


With my catechism class, I began the meditation by telling the kids we were going to do some "deep thinking and pondering" today.  I don't usually do this in the atrium since the kids (except the newest, youngest ones) are used to doing meditations.

We discuss darkness--what does the word "darkness" mean?  What does it mean to be "dark"?  We might turn off the lights and ask if it is dark.  (In our room, it wasn't because there was some light streaming in from the windows.)  I ask them to cover their eyes with their hands.  Is that dark, or do they see some light peeking in?  I ask them to close their eyes and then cover their eyes.  Is that dark, or do they still see some light?

I ask them to imagine darkness with no light at all.  How does that feel?  Scary?

We then discuss "light" -- what it means and what it is.  When I think the children have a good grasp of the concept of light, we compare "darkness" and "light" and I ask them how each situation makes them feel. 

I then pick up the picture of the prophet Isaiah while telling them that today we are going to read a Bible verse about darkness and light.  I explain to them that it was written by a man named Isaiah, who was a prophet. I show them the picture of Isaiah and we talk briefly about prophets and prophesies.

At this point in the atrium, I would light the candle and pick up my Bible.  I would then slowly read the passage once:


"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." 

I then sit quietly for a few moments to give it a chance to sink in.  I then tell them I also have a prayer card that has this Bible passage, and show them this prayer card:

I re-read it slowly and we discuss darkness and light again.  I follow the children's lead, asking questions based on their answers. For example, in Wednesday's catechism class they thought the "great light" might be the sun, or perhaps a bright star like the star of Bethlehem.  I sprinkle their responses with comments like "I wonder?"  Or I might say "what else could the prophet be saying?"   I never really mention Jesus but do emphasize that Isaiah's prophesies were inspired by God.

It was truly amazing to watch the Holy Spirit work in the kids.  All the sudden, one girl's face lit up with understanding and she said "THE LIGHT IS JESUS!!"  And a boy's face lit up as he said "AND THE PEOPLE ARE US!!!!"

I will usually then suggest what a wonderful gift that God gave us when he gave us this light Jesus so we never have to walk in the darkness again.

At this point, one of the kids asked if we could sing the song "Christ is Light."  Again, the Holy Spirit at work, since this is a song I just taught them a few weeks ago.  After we sang it, I taught them another song, "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light."  But any song about Christ as the light of the world would be appropriate.

To finish reinforce the lesson, we did a very simple craft.  I gave the kids an electronic pillar candle (purchased for $1 at Dollar Tree) and a picture of Isaiah along with the Bible verse.  The kids removed the label on the pillar candle, trimmed down the verse to fit their candle, then taped it to their candle. After everyone was finished, they turned on their candles and we turned off the lights.  The effect of the light shining through the picture of Isaiah and the Bible passage was beautiful, and the room was filled with excited kids saying "cool!"  "awesome!"  (Much to my delight!)  We then sang our two "Light" songs again by candlelight.

Here are some photos of our electronic pillar candles with the Bible passage and Isaiah's picture on them:

 

If you would like to make this craft, you can upload the candle paper for free from here. 

If you try this with your kids, please share your results in the comments section.  I would love to hear about it!

Note:  If you have any problems with this upload, please send a note to me at caswrite at yahoo dot com.  When looking at the image created by Google docs, I can't tell if the original size was retained, or if Google docs reduced the size of the candle paper.

Free Printable: Advent to Epiphany Planner

Advent is such an exciting time, and there's always so much I want to do, see, read and make with my family. I usually go a bit crazy trying to fit it all in, or at least fit in the most important things.  I often see so many great ideas on the Internet, yet forget to do them!  This year I decided to create an "Advent to Epiphany Planner" to help me remember the special feast days.

The planner includes a block of several lines for each day from the first Sunday of Advent to the Sunday in which the U.S. church celebrates Epiphany.  Actually, I included a planner for the Feast Day of the Baptism of the Lord, because my family likes to celebrate that, too.  This year, it is celebrated on January 9 in the U.S.

Dates are included in each block; common feast days are listed, too.  Under the date is a section called "Theme."  Sometimes I like to incorporate some special themes during our homeschooling day. For example, on "Poinsettia Theme Day" we would read Tomie DePaola's "Legend of the Poinsettia," make poinsettia cookies, do a poinsettia craft, etc.

I also included spaces on each day to jot down:

- Special meals/snacks I would like to serve (like an all-white meal on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception),

- Activities we can do together as a family (like make a craft, look at the Christmas light display at a nearby park, or see the Nutcracker ballet)

- Read-Aloud Books (our favorite holiday books)

- Holiday DVD or video (we have a great collection of classic and newer holiday DVDs and videos, both religious and secular.  This will help me set aside time to watch them.)

I thought others might like to use this resource, so I uploaded a copy on Google docs, which you can download and print out to use with your family.   You can get it here.

If you use it, let me know what you think!

I linked this page to several link parties filled with terrific Advent ideas!  Please check them out:

1) The "Make Yourself Monday" link party at For Love of Cupcakes.   Click here for more great holiday ideas! 

2) A Ten O'Clock Scholar's Keeping Advent link party.  Click here for some inspiring posts about Advent!


3) Catholic Family's  Advent Festival of Links, which you can reach here.

Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent Link party

Kerry, at Ten O'Clock Scholar, is hosting a link party to share ideas on how to keep the Advent season.

Check out the ideas here