Last week in pictures

Last week was a week of wonderful feasts and an amazing astronomical event. Here is our week in pictures.

~Super Blood Moon~

Last week was also the beginning of BigBoy's foray into altar serving...

He's the one snuffing out the candle that's twice as tall as he is!

This week is one of my favorite weeks in the liturgical season, but it also sneaks up on me just about every year. This year, Miss Cupcake became aware of feast days and quickly picked up on the concept of special feast day treats. After Michaelmas, she pretty much woke up every day asking what special treat we were making that day. A quick recap...

~Feast of St. Michael~

Blackberry Jam for Michaelmas... the Smuckers turned out to be the favorite in the blind taste test.

~Candy Roses for St. Therese~

OK, this is a real rose. Not candy.

 Candy roses made with her big sis, Rain. 

~Angel Kisses for the Feast of the Guardian Angels~

These are just a simple meringue cookie recipe, not the pepperminty ones I made last year. I made some with M&M's inside and some with crushed peppermint sticks sprinkled on top. 

~Wolf's Paw Cookies for St. Francis~

Left over chocolate chip cookies were turned into Wolf's Paw cookies using some melted chocolate and white chocolate chips. Rain made these to celebrate St. Francis, her Confirmation saint. 

Reading a story about St. Francis with Sunshine 

Cupcake's new glasses came in. She tells me she's seeing better and I'm hoping that the convergence we were seeing will go away. Personally, I think she looks just so darn cute in her glasses. Like a teeny, tiny little librarian. 

Our Lady of the Rosary is coming up this week. If you are looking for some coloring pages, you can find them here. 

Feast Day Round Up

It's been a busy week with some major feast days to celebrate. Our celebrations used to be more elaborate, but as my kids have grown older, they've become more subdued.  I think that's only natural, but sometimes I feel guilty about my littler ones. Are they missing out by not celebrating the way we used to? I think I need to try to make a few things a little more festive, but I like this more relaxed pace too. It's such a balance, isn't it?

September 29th (Michaelmas, Feast of the Archangels, The Professor's Confirmation saint)

Blackberry jam spread on homemade bread

This is some Blackberry Cobbler jam that I ordered for Sean a while back from the winery that we visited on our honeymoon. The kids prefer plain blackberry jam.

October 1st (Feast of St. Therese the Little Flower, special friend of Sunshine's and Confirmation anniversary for Sunshine and The Professor)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with super easy Frosting Roses

My babies 6 years ago.

October 2 (Feast of the Guardian Angels, special friends to all of us)

Angel Kisses (peppermint meringue cookies)

October 4th (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Rain's Confirmation saint)

Pot Pie Soup over at Catholic Cuisine… Rain is going to spoil us with some of her Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread today!

St. Therese Coloring Pages

October 1 (New) and October 3 (Trad.)

St. Therese coloring page (as a child)

~ click here ~

St. Therese coloring page (in habit)

~ click here ~ 

Simple Celebrations :: Feast of St. Therese

Have you seen Jessica's Apple Roses this morning? Go peek at them, they are adorable! Her version was very simple; mine was not quite as simple as I would have liked. I didn't have any puff pastry on hand so I thought I could use a scone recipe that I have turned into quick cinnamon rolls before. It worked OK except that I forgot this recipe has a tendency to spread out as it bakes. 

And because the dough warmed up as I was rolling them, the later ones didn't hold their shape as well as the first ones. Our roses definitely looked like they fell from Heaven, but they were still lovely and delicious and made the house smell like fall!

Sunshine, who has developed quite a little friendship with St. Therese, put together our table decoration using some roses from our own rose bushes outside.

Happy Feast of St. Therese! 

Dear Little Flower, help me to always believe as you did, in God's great love for me,  so that I may imitate your "Little Way" each day.

Simple celebrations: St Therese

The Feast of St. Therese...

First we gathered up a collection of little Thereses. These are not all the ones we have, just the ones we chose for our table decoration. We read from one of our books and had a great discussion about how as a child, St. Therese had to battle her impulsive side. As a mom with two teenagers and a "tween" in the house, we talked about how she could be a powerful intercessor during those moments when their emotions want to rule their actions. These are the kinds of talks I love with my kids. As they get older, our celebrations turn from cookies and coloring pages to a deeper understanding, developing a personal relationship and connection with our heavenly friends.

But then again, cookies are always a good way to begin a conversation! :)

BTW... my husband deserves the credit for this treat. I sent him to the store and said, "Find something edible that looks like a rose." He brought back these lemon creme cookies.
 

My St. Therese Story

...because Margaret asked!

There's a Chris Rice song called Smell the Color 9 and it starts like this:

I would take no for an answer,
Just to know I heard you speak,
And I'm wondering why I've never,
Seen the signs they claim they see,
A lotta special revelations,
Meant for everybody but me,
Maybe I don't truly know You,
or maybe I just simply believe...

I think of that song when I think of my relationship with St. Therese... the "maybe I don't truly know you" part. I've heard amazing stories of people who received roses from her in the most miraculous ways. I've heard people recount with wonder in their eyes how they received a rose from her in a very simple, but completely certain way. I never was one of those people.

I used to think I was too cynical. If a rose showed up in a magazine I would think, well, it was going to be there whether I was saying a novena or not. If I saw a rose in a grocery store I would think, well, they always have roses no matter the season.  I figured I must have been saying the prayers wrong or I just wasn't worthy of any kind of sign. See, the problem was not St. Therese. It was clearly me, I concluded and at that point, I kind of gave up asking St. Therese for anything.

Until last year.

I read on Jessica's blog about the Mystical Rose Novena to St. Therese to who's intercession she credited the conception of her little "Rose". Wanting another child so deeply, especially after losing one, I made the decision to ask St. Therese for her powerful intercession but not to ask for a sign. No roses! I made that explicitly clear in my prayers. But even though I wasn't looking for one, deep down I still wanted one. I know because I started pouting towards the end of the novena to my husband. "I really thought that by not asking for a sign, that maybe then, I might get one." (How childish, I know, but it's true.) I complained to Sean a few days in a row until my even-keeled, easy going Husband finally looked at me and in his kindest exasperated voice said, "I think you need to look outside your front door where you have two rose bushes that have been bursting forth with blossom after blossom all winter long!"

That novena ended on the great feast of Our Lord's birth, Christmas Day, and that, according to all scientific calculations, is when Cupcake first came to be! 

And that is when my rose bushes finally slept for the winter.

A Rosey Feast

Sunshine chose the red velvet cupcakes in honor of the anniversary of her and The Professor's Confirmation.

Thank you, dear Jessica, for the inspiration!

 For dinner: 

Penne Rosé

You can find the original recipe over at Catholic Cuisine. I altered it by swirling my homemade alfredo sauce with some pre-made marinara sauce. It kind of looks like a rose, don't you think?

St. Therese, pray for us!

Feast of St. Therese the Little Flower

 Jessica has the best collection of feast day ideas. Go be inspired!

If a coloring page is more your speed they can be found here and here.

I might be back later with pictures of our feast day celebration, but with one child on the couch with hives, I'm not holding my breath. (Nothing serious, his body always does this when he gets a virus.)