By Sun and Candlelight

Fresh Flowers and Bright Candles for May

In setting up our May altar yesterday, Earlybird and I scoured our yard for the freshest blooms ~ lilacs, bleeding hearts, azaleas, one single tulip and a few handfuls of dandelions. I'm happy to say the cats have not bothered this shelf, and so far, the lilacs have not caused too much sneezing. (Bill is allergic!) I then lit our tiny star candles, against the growing dark of May eve ... today I'll move them aside and we'll start adding found "spring treasures" to our shelf. 

And though it's a rather gloomy May Day here, Bill did not fail in his annual "task" of "washing my face with May Day dew." He's done this every year we've been married! There is a legend that a maiden who cleanses her face with May Day morning dew will keep a youthful complexion all her life. Or something like that, lol. I'm not sure how well it's working, but to be honest that's kind of beside the point ... what's sweet is that my husband remembers to do this every year. ❤

So I wish you all a Happy May, and a Good Tuesday Morning as well. I'm off now to "face" the day - revitalized by morning dew - and a good, strong cup of coffee.

:)

Our Easter Monday Mantel

Well, despite all my checklists and planning ahead, I just didn't have time to set up our "Alleluia" before Easter Sunday. Luckily though, we have a whole season to celebrate! So today I worked on this nice, quiet "day-after" activity ... it gave me time to think and refocus. :)

(And thanks to Mary Ellen for the inspiration!)

This spot (our nature shelf on most days), was our Lenten altar, if you remember ... the plain grapevine cross is now bursting with life (flora and fauna) and the bare mantel is now covered in flowers ...

(tulips from yesterday's dinner and forsythia from the yard) ...

... and candles ...

(My parents brought this back from Ireland for us.)

... and our lovely statue of the Blessed Mother ...

... with whom we REJOICE in the MIRACLE of EASTER!

Of course, I had much help putting this all together ...

;)

I'm still working on my Easter Sunday Recap post ... trying to pare down my pictures, because I took a lot of them! (As in ... we uploaded 445 images last night!) I hope to have that post up later this evening ... and I promise it will contain far less than 400 photos!

Hope you've all had a nice day ...

❤

Mexican on Monday

Today's Advent scroll read:

To celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we'll eat Mexican tonight!

Our favorite way to "eat Mexican" is by enjoying "taco potatoes" - which, plainly put, are just baked potatoes topped with taco filling. (Seasoned ground beef or turkey, diced bell peppers and tomatoes, shredded cheese and sour cream.)

I also made a special snack for the boys this afternoon, a recipe I've had in my files for a few years now, but had yet to try:

>> Pineapple Salsa with Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla Chips <<

Super easy and ridiculously good!

To make the salsa, I mixed a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple (drained), with 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice, 3 (ish) tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint.

It was sweet and chunky and delicious!

Then I took flour tortillas, brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar. Cut them into triangles and baked them on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350.

Done!

(Earlybird said this looked just like the sun. :) Might make a nice Solstice day treat!)

Now, the boys all loved the tortilla crisps, but were not overly fond of the salsa. Bill, however, liked it so much, he had a few spoonfuls over his tacos tonight!

(Also, I should mention, I found both recipes on the internet, at myrecipes.com.)

And before I go, here's the craft EB and I worked on together today:

(We also read The Legend of the Poinsettia, a lovely Mexican tale.)

We also observed the sunrise at 7:04 a.m. (with the mostly Full Cold Moon hovering in the opposite sky) ... as well as the sunset at 4:12 p.m.

Closer and closer we creep to that first day of Winter!

:)

Well, my friends ~ I hope your week's off to a good start. Thanks so much for stopping by today ... I will see you all again very soon!

*❤*

Afternoon Peace (if not Quiet)

A neighborhood friend came over to play, and as usually happens on winter afternoons - when the light fades and the shadows grow - the boys get hungry early and come looking for a snack. Well, it just so happens to be a special feast day today, so I just so happened to have baked a tasty treat - some rather appropriately named cookies. (Thanks for the idea, Sue!)

The cookies were lightly frosted and dusted with golden sugar - just right for a feast day as lovely as this!

Not surprisingly, the boys thoroughly enjoyed those cookies ... while I thoroughly enjoyed those few minutes of quiet! ;)

Then they were off to play again, and I was off to start supper, but my eyes kept drifting to those pretty windows and the beautiful sky beyond ...

(I may not get a lot of quiet, but I do get my fair share of peace.)

:)

From a magnet on my refrigerator:

Peace.

It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.

It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

(Author unknown - but very wise.)

~**❤**~

I hope you all have a wonderful evening ~ may it be filled with a little peace, a little quiet ... and maybe a few cookies, too! 

Happy May!

 

Bring flow'rs of the fairest,
Bring flow'rs of the rarest,
From garden and woodland
And hillside and vale;
Our full hearts are swelling,
Our Glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.

~❤~

Isn't it lovely when May Day falls on a Sunday? I hope you all had a wonderful weekend ~ enjoying your family, your home, the newness of spring.

See you again very soon!

Friday Facts, Fun & a Few Photos

Happy Friday, my friends!

Today marks a very special day on the Catholic calendar: The Feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and announced the Lord's plan for her. ("Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ...") Her answer - her yes - became Mary's hymn of praise, the beautiful Magnificat ...

And nine months later we have Christmas!

:)

Our plans for today? Earlybird and I will paint and prepare a small pot for planting (some quick-growing radish seeds). We'll explore our yard and look for signs of new life growing ... and I'm baking an "angel" food cake to serve after supper with fresh blueberries and whipped cream.

It's also International Waffle Day! (As opposed to National Waffle Day which falls on August 24th.) This is a great day to have waffles for supper! We'll have ours at breakfast, though - Bill makes fantastic waffle dippers, but those are reserved for leisurely weekend mornings. Today we'll just have some Nutri-Grain toaster waffles, a favorite staple in our freezer. 

Well, I hope you all have a lovely day ... before I go, here are some random early spring photos from the past week or two ...

Thank you so much for stopping by ~ see you all again very soon!

Bringing in the May ~

“The moon shines bright and stars give light,

A little before the day

So God bless you all, both great and small

And send you a joyful May.”

(From a traditional English May carol)

**************************************

I'm still working on that May Themes & Plans post, but since May Day (and Ascension Day!) is upon us, I thought I'd share a few of our plans for today. :)

In the backyard ...

Look for dandelion puffs to blow (if there are any left after last night's frost!). Blow bubbles up into the sky. (I'll be mixing up a homemade solution, using a lavender-scented dishwashing detergent as the base.) Climb the play "tower" and watch the clouds passing by. Look for the corners of our property - and beat the bounds* in old English tradition. *I believe willow was traditional, but we'll use pruned forsythia branches. ;) In the northwest corner, I'll spend a little time tidying up the Mary garden.

At the craft table ...

Earlybird will do some blue, purple and white finger painting. The older boys will work on a small map of our backyard; on it they will mark the boundaries and note where we've found neat things so far this spring (like big worms, buried acorns and a mysterious tunnel). I'll be making a tin can May basket to set on our nature table (wrapping it with spring-shaded yarn). Then we'll fill it with whatever is blooming including branches of the Ascension flower (lilacs).

For teatime ...

I'll whip up some little meringue "cloud" cookies, and serve them with a fruity "May Punch." We'll read our Magnifikid for this Sunday's Mass, and the boys will start learning a new Marian prayer. I'll move the statue of Our Lady to our mantel and place some (silk) flowering vines around it.

And there's our day in a nutshell! I'll be back soon with more themes and plans ... but for now, a very Happy May, and many Blessings to you!

Simple & Lovely ~ Spring-in-a-Pot

Susan is this week's Fair hostess ~ her theme is Flower Pots. :)

Our gardening plans are still very much in the planning - rather than the planting - stage, and so I have no true pots (in the ceramic or cedar sense of the word) to show you just yet. I will eventually though, (fingers crossed), because we hope to do a good bit of container gardening on our deck this year ...

But for now, I would like to show you our very simple marigold seedlings. They perch cheerfully in the learning room windows, reaching for the sunlight, seemingly grateful for the dribbles of water they receive daily. Bookworm keeps a close eye on them, and in fact, just thinned the seedlings out yesterday. We planted these last month, on The Feast of the Annunciation, with plans to move the grown plants - aka Mary's Gold - to a simple Marian-themed garden in the spring. I have seen beautiful gardens done in large wooden containers, and this is what I first had in mind, a cedar barrel of some sort and size ...

Although ... a large terra cotta pot might do nicely, too. Especially if it is first embellished with the children's handiwork. And this brought to mind a craft we did over a year ago ...

I hope it's not considered cheating to link to a post from my past, but I think these fingerprint-ladyug pots would be darling for a Mary garden, one the children might tend to themselves. Here I show a small size pot holding a candle, but this could be done in the same way (without the ribbon) using a larger pot meant for holding plants out-of-doors. (I would think a protective shellac of some kind would be needed.)

In light of our recent beetle adventures, this might be a fun way to remember Our Lady and our ladies, at the same time. :)

Stop by Susan's later today for a refreshing dose of spring-in-a-pot, and mark your calendars for the next Lovely Spring Fair ~ it will run on April 30th at Paula's, and the theme is Windows. (And you all know how I feel about windows!) :)

Also, please stay tuned for more about our container gardens ~ a few more weekends and we'll be ready to plant!

Have a great day, everyone!

Cake and a Craft for The Annunciation

To be perfectly honest, I was a bit tired after yesterday's shindig, but I still wanted to do something special with the boys for today's Feast, The Annunciation of the Lord, (technically, a Solemnity, but a day to rejoice nonetheless). On this day last year we brought roses (and, ahem, rocks) to a nearby Marian statue, but this year I was determined to stay in. Between the rain and the snow, it was downright unhospitable for even a brief outing, so while the flakes fell fast and furious, and the boys finished their math, I got started on the cake.

Now, you're probaby saying to yourself, "She baked a cake? Didn't she say they had a whole bunch of desserts leftover from yesterday's party?"

(Well yes I did ... and we did (still do) ... but nothing Earlybird can eat, and I wanted him to have something fresh and festive for today. Besides, I love to bake.)

Anyhoo. I had wanted to try making homemade angel food cake, which is a traditional food for today, but at the last minute I realized I don't own a tube pan! (How can that be??) I wasn't sure if a bundt pan would cut it, so instead, I reached for a lemon cake mix I had on the shelf. So easy, and I kind of liked how golden it came out. :)

And with all the time I saved using a box mix, I made up some lemon whipped cream with EB:

(Picture by Bookworm.)

Then, I turned a Ziploc bag into a makeshift piping tube ...

And got fancy with the whipped cream ... :)

(More photos by my Bookworm.)

And we fished blueberries out of the fruit salad to place all around ...

All that was needed was a pretty centerpiece - so I plucked a few leftover tulips (aka "Mary's Prayers") and voila ~

A fun, yummy feast day treat!

As the boys ate, we read about the Angelus, and I showed them this famous painting. I also showed them the Daily Missal you see below; it has just come into my happy possession. It was printed in 1959 and belonged to my grandfather. (Thank you so much, Mum and Uncle George!)

Here's the lovely page for The Annunciation:

And then it was time to get our hands dirty!

I read a suggestion in this lovely book to plant marigold seeds on this feast. (Marigold = Mary's Gold.) The boys have been itching to plant something, so a few dixie cups and some potting soil later, and we were good to go! :)

Note the variety of Marigold = Crackerjack! Which of course, made his day. ;)

First we scooped the potting soil into the cups carefully:

Next we fished out the seeds:

And each of my boys prepared his own special cup:

Bookworm added the water:

And now the cups will sit in a window full of spring sun. (Once it returns!)

And there you have it, our day in a (rather large, chatty) nutshell. (Though I left out the part about the flock of wild turkeys that passed through ... that caused some excitement around here!) I hope your day was a good one, too. Good night for now ~ I'll see you all sometime tomorrow.

For my Friends at 4Real ...

A picture of the medal I found (or rather, the one that found me):

Isn't it neat when something so lovely finds its way into your life? :)

Tea and Crafts on the Assumption

Happy Assumption Day to you!

I realized just now that the first Tea-and-Crafts day I ever organized for my children was exactly a year ago today! I even titled the two posts precisely the same. :) Last year's craft was a bit more involved, while the snack was relatively simple. This year, just the reverse was true!

I knew we'd be a bit wiped after the long weekend away, so I wanted to make it easy. I began with the Magnifkid for today's Mass, and printed out some coloring pages from Women for Faith and Family.

In the top picture you can see how I have the prayer corner set up this week. Joining our statue of the Blessed Virgin is a collection of seashells, a prayer candle, a holy card and a vase of summer daisies.

Now, for the snack I decided to touch upon the traditional blessing of fruits and herbs on Assumption Day. For tea, I made up an herbal iced punch ...

I got the idea for this from an episode of the Barefoot Contessa. On that particular show, Ina made an iced tea with Lemon Zinger and Red Zinger herbal teas, only she sweetened it with apple juice rather than sugar or honey.

For today's berry theme, I made up a pot of Wild Berry Zinger tea and served it over ice with a generous splash of strawberry juice. Very yummy, festive and fun - especially when seved with a ripe red berry on the side!

These tiny fruit tarts were ridiculously easy to assemble - I simply filled mini graham cracker pie shells with vanilla pudding (you could use yogurt here too) and topped each one with diced berries and a generous dollop of whipped cream. So good and cool - just right for this August day. :)

As the boys drank their punch, they worked on their coloring sheets and I read aloud from a favorite Tomie de Paola book, Mary: The Mother of Jesus.

Earlybird surrounded his picture with the planets, of course. ;)

Soon the boys were off to play and I was cleaning up cups and crayons. I hung up their work in our new learning corner:

Yes, I will be posting more about the new learning room corner very soon! In the meantime, I hope you all had a lovely Assumption Day and I wish you all a very good night.

Thursday Tea: Crafts and Crumbcakes

Wow, is it Thursday already? This week is flying by!

I admit I was a bit unprepared for our lessons this week, including our weekly tea. This past weekend was so busy with the holiday and all, I didn't do my usual planning ahead. Throw in a short week and a doctor's appointment and I was really off! But, enough excuses ~ between today's feast (The Visitation) and Sunday's (Trinity Sunday), there was much to discuss and celebrate!

Right after lunchtime, I prepared the table for our special craft/snack time - otherwise known as Thursday Tea:

I opened our Marian storybook to the pages about the Visitation, and I also opened Bookworm's Magnifikid for Sunday. I grabbed some supplies and showed the boys how to make construction paper shamrocks - symbols of the Holy Trinity.

Silly me, I had only set out green paper for the shamrocks. Crackerjack wanted red and Bookworm thought purple was a neat choice. All three boys set about tracing, cutting and taping, as I read aloud.

And before long we were ready to hang our colorful creations:

That's a branch I brought in from outside; I livened it up with a silk ivy vine.

We talked about the Visitation, and I asked the boys how it feels when we visit their Damee - more importantly, how they thought those visits make her feel? We thought maybe we could plan to do that more often, say once a month after Mass. We can plan ahead and make something nice to bring her, too - a craft or some goodies.

And speaking of visiting, we have our first house guest arriving this weekend! Bill's sister, fondly known as Aunt Ami around here, will arrive by suppertime tomorrow. The boys are quite excited - so excited they haven't even minded cleaning their room, which will serve as guest room for the weekend.

I was going to print out some of the neat activities I found here, but our printer is not working just now. That's all right, by this point we were ready for snacks:

I read in one of my favorite liturgical idea books that coffee cake is a nice treat to enjoy on the Visitation. It so happened we had three small crumb cakes on hand - and placed together on an Irish plate they looked quite like a shamrock themselves. (Not for long, mind you.) Just behind them is the small vase of freshly picked clover from our yard.

As we finished up our crafts and snacks, I thought about the very kind post that Cindy wrote today at Homeschool Blogger's Community blog, in which she linked to my learning displays. I resolved right then to wipe and polish the table, and put it all back in place for the morning. As you can see we're beginning a dinosaur study just now.

I'm trying to be better about keeping this table neat looking when not in use (and right after use) because lately we've had to take our meals around the kitchen island due to an overrun dining area. Plus I really like having it all arranged and (hopefully inspiring) with books and simple decorations that reflect the season or holiday hand. Above the dinosaur encyclopedia (a gift from Uncle Matt this past weekend) is our liturgical masterpiece for May (to be replaced tomorrow with June's selection). Off to the left and right along the windowsill stand the books we are using this week (as well as a few dinosaur toys - CJ's contribution). Also hanging up on the window at left are some newspaper clippings - I don't normally hang them up in this way, but they did get the boys attention.

For Sunday, I hope to make an upside-down pineapple cake, an idea I got from the book I mentioned above. I've never made one before, but I found an easy recipe here (we'll nix the cherries and use an organic vanilla cake mix). The three pineapple rings placed together will symbolize the Trinity - and the cake will serve as a delicious after-soccer treat. :)

Well, thanks for stopping by, my friends. I hope you had a wonderful Thursday!

Flowers for the Fairest

The Loveliness of Marian Devotion is up today at my friend Helen's blog, The Castle of the Immaculate. A perfect hostess for this fair, Helen has gathered a loving bouquet of blossoms with which to crown Our Lady.

I am honored to be part of Helen's Fair and I just love the sunny daisies she picked on my behalf! :) Thank you Helen for a beautiful post!

What a lovely way to end the Marian month of May, and there are more Loveliness Fairs on the way. Please see this post at Elizabeth's for all the details.

The Loveliness of Gardens

My friend Jennifer will be hosting tomorrow's Loveliness of Gardens Fair, and naturally I  hoped to take part - nature is so near and dear to my heart. But you see, I'm not really much of a gardener - not for lack of trying mind you, but perhaps for lack of time and experience? The lovely thing about gardening, though, is you get to try again every year. The warm damp soil beckons, the nursery doors open for business, and the seed catalogs sing their siren song. I buy myself a new pair of gardening gloves and dig in once again ...

My maternal grandfather was an amazing gardener and so I had the privelege of growing up knowing the joys of a home garden - the corn, rhubarb, strawberries, tomatoes, roses, dahlias and clematis ... and oh, the list could go on! One thing my grandpa taught me (one of the many) was that you could garden anywhere. My grandparents' home is on a lovely though small piece of land - certainly not country, and actually not far from a busy city.

That did not stop Grandpa - he gardened as if there were no tomorrow. And we all benefitted from his endeavor. I would like to adopt a similar spirit, and turn my own small suburban yard into a haven for flora, fauna and family alike.

Now, two things I'd like to do for Jennifer's fair - talk briefly about my gardening plans for this year and share with you all a post from last year's garden journal, Marigolds for Mama. I hope that's not cheating, but I don't have many garden photos to show just yet this year!

Do you know I have not been over to that blog in months? I made my last post on August 24th, when I talked about Late Summer Hues. According to the last line of that entry, I had hopes for posting more about the "turn of the seasons." Well, time got away from me, and I ended it there. It was fun to read back over the blog, remembering things that grew and things the children did.

The following group of pictures was posted on May 15, 2006; the post was entitled, A Peek in Mary's Garden. In a corner of our yard, nestled beside a small potting shed, beneath the bowers of the flowering cherry, we have a semi-shady flower garden. Last year we added an Our Lady of Grace birdfeeder, and I was inspired to find out more about Mary Gardens. I just love how many plant varieties are named for Our Lady, and I was even more pleased to discover we had several kinds in our yard!

Here's a little tour:

*Lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) ~ Ascension Flower*

I grew up with lilacs (they grow bountifully on my parents' property). They always bloomed magnificently right on Mother's Day when vases full of them would adorn our family brunch. We have them all over our yard too, but I must admire them on the outside nowadays, as I married a man who is severely allergic to these beautiful blooms!

According to legend, lilacs are known as the Ascension flower, and that would be of course because they bloom right around the date of this feast (which this year is May 17th).

*Our Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)*

I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember much about this plant, but I found some lovely information here.

*English Daisy (Bellis perennis) ~ Mary-Loves*

I absolutely loved these tiny pert flowers, and of course, I love that the plant's English. I will be buying some more this year.

*Spearmint (Mentha spicata) ~ Our Lady's Mint*

The spearmint grew well last year, and I will have to watch for its return, as it is a perennial. (Now where did we tuck it?) I would like to add more herbs to the garden this summer and do more with them too - perhaps learn how to dry them/preserve them and how to turn them into little gifts and things.

*Our Red Azalea ~ just pretty in its own right!*

This bush right now has just the tiniest red buds on it. It is out front by our walkway and blooms beautifully each year. I forgot just how beautifully!

*Ferns (Asplenium rutamer) ~ Our Lady's Hair*

I've never had much interest in ferns. I remember years ago Martha Stewart did a huge article on them, and still I couldn't see it. Then I discovered an expansive fern patch growing by our back fence, and realized just how lovely they are! Soft, woodsy, shady and kind of ethereal. I'm sure there must be fairies living here. :)

*Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabalis) ~ Mary's Heart*

My grandfather had an enormous bleeding heart growing behind his house. Ours is still pretty small, but it already has some blossoms this year. I think of this plant as old-fashioned and sweet, but I will always love it for how it reminds me of my grandpa. To me, its branches are reaching out, laden with love.

Well, now that I've shared some photos of last year's garden, if I may keep your attention a shade longer, I will list some of my garden hopes this year (I will call them hopes and not plans and I think they will have more likeliness of coming to pass):

• First I am going to re-read some of my favorite gardening books. By far the best of the bunch are by Sharon Lovejoy, and later today, I'm going to pore over Sunflower Houses, Hollyhock Days and Roots, Shoots, Bucket and Boots - take lots of notes and imagine.
• Next weekend we will stop at the nursery for plants. Up here in New England we are nearing our last frost dates. My grandpa always waited for Memorial Day to set out his tomatoes and other summer plants. I shall do the same. (Fortunately our local farm, and favorite plant resource, opens that holiday weekend.)
• We will be tending to the garden plots until then. Adding some compost and airing out the soil.
• We garden organically, so it is time to brush up on our natural remedies. Actually we've found the birds and toads that inhabit our yard help immensely with the insects. Not to mention, the atmosphere. :)

This year I envision:

• Containers for the deck which gets full day sun.
• Vegetables: tomatoes (plum for sauce, cherry for snacking), Kentucky Wonder beans (for Dad), and, of course, zucchini!
• More herbs (basil for sure) and some edible flowers like nasturtiums.
• A rose bush or two ~ a variety that will bear lots of rose hips in the fall.
• A clematis for the lattice on the potting shed.
• Our raspberry bed is doing wonderfully! The plants are all growing and sprouting gorgeous green foliage. Last year we enjoyed gold and red raspberries by the hand-fulls after supper each evening. This year I'd love to grow enough to make jam!
• Our lavender bed is also doing well. It's part of a small knot garden out front. The bed needs to be pruned and cleaned up a bit. I hope to harvest lots from this patch.
• Sunflowers (giants!) and morning glories along the front fence.
• This fall, I hope to plant LOTS of bulbs including snowdrops, crocus and daffodils.

And ... well, I"d better stop there, because this list is getting pretty big! I guess I'd better get cracking. Well, just writing this post has got my juices flowing ... I can hardly wait to read Jenn's Fair tomorrow! I have not yet decided if I will revive my garden blog, or stick with posting here and at The Nature Corner (I know, how many blogs can one woman keep, right? Three might be pushing it!)

I wish you a joyous Sunday and a beautiful growing season ... may there be a garden in your heart all summer long!   

The May Altar: Part II

Here's a look at our May altar, which we set up in the corner of our family room. Since May is Our Lady's month, our display has a Marian theme - lots of flowers, and lots of blue! To give you a bit of perspective, here it is at a distance ~ and please excuse the still unfinished woodwork! (Summer project #1!)

Here it is a bit closer up:

In the center, standing on a pedestal is our family's statue of the Blessed Mother. On either side are small vases filled with forsythia in bloom - hopefully we'll be able to change them up as more flowers come into season.

Around the perimeter of the pedestal is our all-purpose grapevine wreath (the one that served as our crown of thorns). I have zero experience decorating a wreath, but I added some silk flowers for a colorful touch. We chose forget-me-nots (Our Lady's Eyes) and lavender, which, according to Mary's Flowers, "... was said to be one of the plants most loved by the Blessed Virgin because it represented purity, cleanliness and virtue."

We draped a garland of petunias (Our Lady's Praise) along the front of the display, and nestled painted wooden letters (spelling out BLESSED), lavender silk roses and candles in between the blue blossoms.

Even closer:

The candles are plain glass votives (less than $1 at the craft store) embellished with a bit of sheer ribbon (much like the Advent and Angel candles we made some time ago). I adhered a short length of ribbon to the back of the votives, and set a plain white tealight inside. It's hard to tell from the photo, but they are very pretty at night.

Tucked further in are two holy cards - I plan to rotate Marian images throughout the month. Here is Our Lady of Guadalupe on the right ...

And on the left is St. Joseph, Our Lady's spouse; I took this picture on Tuesday, his feast day.

As a final touch, we set out some of our books for the month. And now we'll just keep the flowers fresh and light our candles at sunset. This spot might be busy, perhaps a tad overcrowded, but it's filled with many bright and happy things!

May Day in the Afternoon ...

There's just something about May Day - it can be hard to get your head in the game when your day starts with baskets of flowers and damp bunches of clover shaken all over your face. ;)Yes, the tradition continues, and honestly, I think my skin feels a bit softer!

Today was so beautiful, too. Spring perfection - sunny, soft breeze, 70 degrees. Every shrub and tree that can flower is doing just that it seems.

But ... we did manage to get a little math done before lunchtime, and we shared cookies with Uncle Matt who stopped by. Then it was on to the preparations for Crackerjack's CCD class. It was his final class today, though not a regular class, but a group rehearsal for First Holy Communion. Talk about chaos! But that's another post. For now, I'd like to show you the tiny May posies we made for CJ's teachers.

We had been poking through our craft bins and came across our healthy stash of paper towel and toilet paper tubes.

"What can I do with these things?" I asked myself. A few lightbulb moments later, I had pulled out the materials and we set to work.

We painted the tubes in soft colors, and made a copy of several holy cards (mostly Marian, one St. Agnes and one St. Joseph). We pasted the image onto a small golden doiley - you know how I love doilies! - and taped it all onto the tube (once the paint dried). I then stuck a small circle of self-adhesive felt to the bottom to make a base. Hole-punched sides were threaded with thin ribbon and then the tubes were ready to fill! Which we did, with bunches of forsythia from the garden. I'm glad forsythia is so scrappy and easy to grow - it brings such happy, exuberant color to the spring landscape. Save for the dandelions, it's the only thing blooming in my yard right now.

In the picture below you can see how the posies turned out; they are standing up next to gift bags for the teachers. (Here's a little tip - right now all the card stores are carrying a wide array of religious gift supplies for spring sacraments; these are great to stock up on and have on hand for any gifts you might need for your pastor or religious friends.)

In addition to CJ's three teachers and Sister M., the head of the religious education department, we also prepared a posy for our pastor. His was painted green and had St. Joseph for an image (whose optional memorial was today, btw). (As it turned out we didn't get to see Father, so we'll save his for Sunday after Mass.)

Once the bags and posies were filled and ready to go, we turned to CJ's banner. It needed a few more touches and lots of glue to hold everything in place. Here's how it came out:

CJ chose the colors and images; I cut and glued. He loves doves (and asked for two, not just one), and, of course, the color red. He also chose the Chi-Rho symbol after paging through a coloring book we own. He was very happy with how it came out and so was I! By the way, we used self-adhesive letters, and I used Fabri-Tac to adhere the felt shapes - it worked beautifully. We had to drop it off at the parish office where it will be kept until his First Communion Day. We'll keep our fingers crossed everything stores well (i.e. not too many sequins fall off, lol). The banners will hang from each child's pew on their special day.

Well, we're still putting the finishing touches on our May altar - I will post some pictures tomorrow. Oh, and in our rush today, we forgot to have blueberry pancakes - a must for any Marian feast! But since the whole entire month belongs to our Blessed Mother, we'll have plenty of time to partake. :)

Have a lovely night, my friends. See you in the morning ... 

The May Altar: Part I

I'm not entirely sure what we're doing yet ... but we have all these lovely materials and a bare fireplace mantel ... so stay tuned! :)

Proud to be ...

a Catholic Mother Online. :)

I've recently added a new blogroll to my righthand sidebar ~ see the lovely picture of Mary, accompanied by a scrolling list of blogs owned by Catholic mothers? What a wonderful group, growing everyday! If you're interested in joining this blog roll, please click here for more information.

Now I'm off to arrange our May altar, glue the last bits of felt on the First Communion banner and make a few more May cups, too. I'd better go rouse the boys from their sweet sleep so we can get the day underway ...

Happy May!

'Tis the month of our Mother
The blessed and beautiful days,
When our lips and our spirits,
are glowing with love and with praise.

All Hail! to thee, dear Mary,
the guardian of our way;
To the fairest of Queens,
Be the fairest of seasons, sweet May.