Preparing to celebrate the Day of the Unborn {Preborn} Child - Videos of the Annunciation to Mary (celebrated on March 25, but for this year, March 26)

Tomorrow is the Day of the Unborn (or Preborn) Child. In the Catholic Church, we also traditionally celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation on the same day. This year, however, since March 25 falls on a Sunday, we'll be celebrating the Annunciation on March 26.

I already posted several resources one can use to celebrate this special day on my main mom blog, i.e. Truly Rich Mom. However, I wanted to post these videos here, too, so that I don't have to go searching for them on YouTube again tomorrow. :)

1. The Annunciation to Mary from iw on GodTube. (Click on the link to view the video on GodTube.)


2. These are short animated scenes (amateur, but cute nonetheless!)


3. This is TOO cute! :) It's actually a home video of kids acting out the Annunciation. :)


4. This is from Gloria.tv. (If it doesn't work here, you can view it here instead).


5. This is in Japanese but has English subtitles.


Besides watching these videos, we'll be reading Bible stories and books about the Annunciation, looking at pictures of Jesus in the womb of Mary and praying a decade of the Rosary (the first Joyful mystery).(The website http://unbornwordoftheday.com/ has some good images. Or, we could always go to Google.)

We'll also be praying for the babies in their mom's wombs and those who have died because of abortion. I have some plaster models of Baby Joshua, the pro-life "model" of how a 10-week old fetus/unborn baby looks like, and will take them out for the kids to see. :) We'll pretend it's Baby Jesus and pray over Him. We'll also be reading one or two books about how babies are conceived and born. :)

I'll also ask the kids to make a Happy FirstDay Jesus card or poster, as suggested on the Day of the Unborn Child website. If our budget permits, we'll get some cupcakes and ice them with blue and white icing, just like we did for Mama Mary's birthday last year.

Please pray that we'll be able to do all the things we plan to do! :) Thanks and God bless, everyone!

+ AMDG +

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Oct 7)

This year's Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary also falls on the First Friday of October - a double reason to celebrate! I am SO excited for our monthly ROCKERs meeting later at the Medela House! We will be treated to an interactive multi-arts and storytelling/ sing and dance along session c/o our friends at My Masterpiece Movement. Yipeee! Praise GOD ;-)

The kids and I will be going to New Manila by taking the FX to the LRT station, then we'll go by LRT (Light Rail Transit, or train in other countries, hehe) to Gilmore St. and walk to Medela House (the Medela Moms Beng and Maricel are Catholic homeschoolers! Awesome!). I'm sure we'll have lots of learning experiences along the way! ;-)

Since it's the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, we will also go to Mass at St. Pio Shrine (at least I am hoping we can!) and try to do one or two of the following activities (which you may want to do too, and don't forget to scroll down for some helpful videos):

- For TeacherMama: read and apply this article on "Exploring Mary and Motherhood"

- Do coloring of the Rosary / Mama Mary pages. The mom behind Family Feast and Feria has taken the time to scan coloring pages of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries here, and provides the link to the Luminous Mysteries too, which you can go to directly here. There is also a coloring page from Domestic Church here. You can also take a look at the one recommended by Catholic Mom here, Waltzing Matilda here. (Lightbulb moment! We can do this while praying the Rosary too! hehe).

How we celebrated Mama Mary's birthday

Photo from whenmomspeaks.com

Here is what we did aside from incorporating "tidbits" about Mama Mary's birthday in our homeschool lessons for the day (I had to report to work today though - thank God for my mother, who for us who are blessed to know her, consider her as a modern-day Mama Mary in many ways! She became "Teacher Lola*" for today.):

 - Cupcake decorating for Mama Mary's birthday "cake"
I brought home supermarket-bought cupcakes and blue and white icing (ready for decorating) from Goldilocks bakeshop and let Tim and his cousin Gabby (one of his FAVORITE playmates!) decorate them. Rysse and Gabby's brother (born a month apart, they love playing with each other too - when they aren't fighting over toys and books! haha!) participated in the fun by trying to decorate their own cupcakes too - though they ended up eating their share too early! haha!

- Candle-blowing ceremony for Mama Mary
After the kids were done decorating the 10 cupcakes, we arranged them on a plate, placed the plate in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lit and placed a single, white candle beside it, and sang "Happy Birthday" for our dearest Mother. The kids had lots of fun taking turns to blow out the candle!

- Eating and sharing the "cake"
Once we were done with that, the kids (and some of the adults present!) enjoyed eating the cupcakes! :-)

- Praying the Holy Rosary
This morning at the office we had a recollection focusing on "Moments with Mary" (one of the perks of working fulltime for our Catholic community) and I was reminded again of the power of God's grace manifested through the sacramentals attributed to Mary, one of which is the Holy Rosary. 

It was wonderful then for the kids and I to pray the Rosary together with my parents (after such a loong time, especially since we don't live with them anymore!), and brother and his kids. (Hubby was at a Thanksgiving Event for our community's "Build My House" project, heading the Logistics Committee).

To my delight, our almost 5-year old son Tim occasionally led us in praying the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, and would even lift up his own intentions when my dad would offer up prayer intentions before each decade. (Of course, towards the end, he was already getting restless and asking me "Are we almost done Mama?" hehe). Praise God!

All in all, it was a great way to celebrate our dear Mother's birthday, and bond with extended family members too! ;-)

I'll be posting pics from my dad's camera soon :-) hehe.

Once again, dearest Mother Mary, thank You for your love and for saying "YES" to God's will! May we imitate you in all we do! WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday Mama Mary!

(We're incorporating Mama Mary's birthday into our lessons for today. I have work *huhuhu!* so the kids will be at my parents' place. I've prepared the lesson plan for my mom to implement. Check it out here if you like. We are praying for God's leading regarding my work situation right now. Please do pray with us! Thanks! Godbless all!)

Activities for other special Catholic events in September, especially Mama Mary's birthday

Besides the Feast Day of Blessed Mother Teresa, there are a couple of other memorable events coming up this September, namely Mama Mary's birthday (or Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) on September 8, The Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14 and The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15. Exciting huh?! ;-) 


Let's take a look at what two of my favorite Catholic mommy bloggers have posted with regard to ideas and activities for celebrating these feast days:


First of all, may I just say that Lacy is really one of my favorite Catholic mommy bloggers?!! She is so blessed with creativity and resourcefulness, and I always refer to her blog for crafts and activities that highlight the beauty of the Catholic faith. Here is her compilation of ideas (from other amazing Catholic moms!) for celebrating Mama Mary's birthday:

So the most obvious idea for celebrating this feast day is to make a birthday cake for Mary. Anything blue is a great idea since that's Mary's traditional color.

Ways to celebrate the Assumption of Mary (from Catholic Icing)!

As usual, Lacy over at Catholic Icing has some wonderful ideas on how to make the Feast of the Assumption of Mary meaningful and fun for our kids. (I didn't have time to prepare for any of these - grrr! - but I will try to at least print out some coloring sheets for the kids to commemorate this wonderful feast day. *But I don't have a printer pala! hahaha.* Maybe I'll go over to my parents' place! hehe. Happy Feast of the Assumption everyone! ;-) Mama Mary, we love you! Pray for us!

Anyway, here is Lacy's post:

Assumption of Mary- Are You Ready to Celebrate?

on Friday, August 13, 2010

The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary is on August 15. FYI- Jesus Ascended into heaven. Mary was Assumed into heaven. Hence the "Ascension of Jesus" and the "Assumption of Mary". Guess Jesus could do it on his own, and Mary was abducted alien style. Ok, only kidding about the 'alien abduction' part. :-)

Here are some ways to have fun in celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary! (Man, what a mouth full!) 

Who loves free Catholic coloring pages? I do! And these ones 

from St. John's Catholic Church are some of my favorites!

This coloring page of Mary's Assumption is just beautiful.

Over at Catholic and Loving It, they made this great

Marian Cake for celebrating the Assumption of Mary.

If you're looking for food ideas, you could try

Cloud Cocoa, Cloud Meringue Cookies,

Cloud Souffle, or Cloud Cookies! 

Also, here are some ideas from my Ascension of Jesus post. I love this
jello dish because not only is it clouds for the assumption, but
it's blue to symbolize Mary, too! :-)

I wish I would have had the time to pull off a craft for this one- maybe next year. Anyway, enjoy the coloring page and say good bye to your diet for this one!

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Freebie Friday: Catholic Lesson Planner for Homeschooling plus Divine Mercy Sunday ideas from Catholic Icing!

Look what I found: a free Catholic Lesson Planner for Homeschoolers! Yipee! Just what I needed! (I am SO disorganized! Waaah. How are we ever going to "formally start" homeschooling?!) Need to get me a printer now! Bwahahaha. To download the Planner, please go to this link. :-)

Also, since it's Divine Mercy Sunday this Sunday, hop on over to Lacy's blog at Catholic Icing for some wonderful ideas for Divine Mercy and St. Faustina crafts and activities! :-)

Also this Sunday, our beloved Pope John Paul II will be beatified! Check out this link for ideas on how to commemorate this wonderful occasion! :-)

Last but not the least, MAY is Mama Mary's month! :-) Lacy has come up with some great ideas for that as well. Check them out here!

Happy Homeschooling to us all! :-) (And LORD, please grant this homeschooler the organization and peace of mind and patience she needs to accomplish all she needs to do! Amen!)