Happy Feast Day, St. Therese! + First Day of (FINALLY!) Restarting Homeschool with Kolbe Academy

It has been a while since I updated this blog! :) I've been rather tired because of my pregnancy (which is to be expected) and have only been updating my main mom blog regularly — mostly because I have sponsors/blog partners over there and giveaways, etc. Anyway, sorry about that!

Also, I know I said in my post dated September 8 that we'd be restarting the schoolyear with Kolbe Academy on that day... but lots of things happened this month that caused me to postpone actually using the Kolbe lesson plans. Tim wasn't feeling well the first week of September, then hubby got sick (he was down with dengue fever syndrome and a urinary tract infection) for almost two weeks, so my parents took in the kids for one week. So no "school" again for us! When the kids got back, I was preoccupied with preparing for our department's annual planning session and other work-related things, so we hardly had any "school" time again!

So now, here we are... the first day of October and St. Therese of Lisieux's feast day, too! We officially started with Kolbe's Kindergarten curriculum this morning, though we're mostly using Sing, Spell, Read, Write (Raceway books) for Language Arts. We covered the first lessons for Religion and Language Arts.

Anyway, just thought I'd share two videos we used earlier to "cap off" our homeschool {formal} lesson time! :) I found these through YouTube.

First is a video (very short though) of St. Therese. :) Wish we could get the whole video somehow locally here in the Philippines! :)


We are learning about the Blessed Trinity this week, from the Image of God: Who Am I? Kindergarten books. I found this cute video to complement our lessons. (OK, I admit I'm the one who liked this video more! Not the kids! Ha, ha!)


So there... Hope you find these helpful somehow! :) God bless!

Equipping Catholic Families.com's Cathletics Craft Kit Giveaway! :)

I love browsing the Internet for useful Catholic sites, especially for our homeschooling, and stumbled upon EquippingCatholicFamilies.com a couple of times before. Eventually, I was able to "meet" Monica McConkey, the mom blogger behind the site, through the Catholic Bloggers Network. :) I am so blessed to be connected to such great and active Catholic moms! :)

Anyway, Monica is currently hosting a great giveaway in honor of going "Back to Catechism Class," since the school year has just started for most people in North America. This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE, and the winners will get to choose a Cathletics Craft Kit (in PDF Download) from the 10 kits available at the Arma Dei Shoppe. More details below:

TEN Craft Kits to Choose from!

FOUR WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED!

Catechism Catcher ~ Catechism Cube ~
Catholic Family Calendar ~

Catholic Lingo Bingo (English or Spanish) ~
Color Me Catholic ~

Journey with Jesus through the Sacraments ~
Journey with Jesus through Confirmation

Lace-Up Missal (English and Spanish) ~
Spiritual Bouquet

The Cathletics craft kits are a fun and interesting way to introduce kids to the basics of the Catholic faith. :) You can read some reviews of the kits here. Monica is allowing winners to print out the kits for their personal use, or even for a whole class to use! :) Awesome, right?

To join the giveaway, please use the Rafflecopter widget below. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"Re-starting" Our Homeschool Year with Kolbe Academy!

Two months ago, I said we'd be enrolling with Kolbe Academy Homeschool. Well, today's the day we officially start using the Kolbe curriculum guide for Kindergarten, although we'll still be referring to the original curriculum that we started with in June from time to time.

Having said that, I do think there is much wisdom to fellow homeschool mom and blogger Blessie's decision to focus on reading, writing and arithmetic for this year. I think we'll pretty much do the same, but include religion, too. :) For science, we'll most probably just focus on reading lots of science-themed books and interest-led experiments. :)

I know we should be covering Filipino too — still need to iron out plans for those! (Yes, I'm pretty laidback like that, haha!) I don't want to pressure myself too much, especially since we're expecting again! :) (Yes, I'm preggy with Baby no. 3! Another homeschooler in the making! :)

I told myself I would HAVE to be more organized now that we're enrolled but well... it's already September 8 (Mama Mary's birthday! Yes, we chose this day to "re-start" our year because we want to consecrate it to Our Blessed Mother) and I still have lots of "to-do's" for our homeschool. Hopefully, I can finish everything tomorrow. (Wish me luck and pray for us! haha!)

Anyway, we'll just officially start off the "new" school year with Kolbe by celebrating Mama Mary's birthday (pretty much like how we did last year) and going to Kindermusik class and maybe a short "opening ceremony" this evening. I'm still going to call our "school" The Kingdom-seekers Academy, even if we're under Kolbe! :)

To God be the glory! :)

Bible Memory Verse for July 2012: Inspired by Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel ;)

We "rowed" Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel last week (does three out of five days still count as "rowing" though?!) and have also taken on this Bible verse for memorization and application (I got this idea from another homeschool mom's blog post about what they did when they "rowed" the book — but I've forgotten the link, so I'll just add it when I can find it, LOL!):

Image source here.

I am amazed at how Tim has been able to recite this when I ask him to — though he does not do so word for word yet, but he always manages to say the gist of it. :) I just hope and pray that he, and the rest of us in the family, will really strive to live by this verse, and Matthew 6: 33, of course, which is the anchor verse for our homeschool. :)

To God be all the glory!

When God calls you to homeschool, He will provide for all your needs.

We are not a high-income family. Like many Filipinos, we struggle to make ends meet and pray daily for God's provision. Though we are not blessed with a combined salary of at least P40,000 or more, we are still blessed. And yes, we ARE blessed more than millions of Filipinos (and people!) all over the world. We are blessed in so many ways, though maybe not materially. (Though I still consider us to be materially blessed!)

When it comes to our homeschool, I do wish that we had more sometimes. However, I know that it is not the curriculum or the books that matter the most, but our faith and our character. I do know, too, that when God calls you to homeschool, He will provide for it.

Source.

This has been proven in our own lives — fellow homeschoolers and even non-homeschoolers have so generously shared their resources with our family and have pointed us in the right direction whenever we look for affordable or free materials. I cannot even begin to thank the Lord for them, these people, some of whom hardly even knew us before, who sent us books and other things for our homeschool. Indeed, God is amazing!

And how true are these words:

Source.

May you and I always rest in the knowledge that God loves us and our spouses and our children very much and that He will always, always provide for us! ;)

P.S. If you need more encouragement on how God provides, read this article on Daily Focus here. :) It's very inspiring! :) (Just to clarify though, we're not AOP homeschoolers, tee hee!)

More Information about Kolbe Academy Homeschool (via Teacher Mommy Blessie)

I mentioned a while back that we'll be enrolling with Kolbe Academy Homeschool in the U.S. soon (our target is to do so by this week!).

We made the decision largely because we need a guide-of-sorts (to make sure we're not "straying" too far from the "required" curriculum and standard of education needed for Tim) and also because Kolbe is a good, solid, Catholic, Ignatian home school provider, highly recommended by many fellow Catholic homeschoolers. Also, it has a much more flexible "schedule" / school year, especially compared to local homeschool providers — you can enroll any time of the year, as long as the previous school year is already finished.

I also took into account the experiences of fellow Filipino homeschoolers who are enrolled with Kolbe — one of whom was instrumental in helping convince me that Kolbe is the way to go for us at this point in our family "cycle," i.e. Teacher Mommy Blessie of the Nanay Notebook. :)

I am sooo grateful to Mommy Blessie for her help in so many things — from advice as a work-at-home-momma to homeschooling advice, and even help with my main mommy blog. She is really living up to her name, I tell you! :) (Blessie = Blessing! He, he!)

Anyway, Mommy Blessie has come up with a few useful posts regarding Kolbe Academy that  you may find useful, so here are the links to those:

First Week of Homeschool with Kolbe Academy
Kolbe Academy Homeschool: How Much Does it Cost?

Thanks again, Mommy Blessie, for your help, support, prayers and patience! :) May the Lord bless you and your family, especially your new addition to the family — coming out very, very soon! :) *Virtual hugs*!!!

We're enrolling with Kolbe! :)

I've recently been having "discussions" via email with Teacher Mommy Blessie, who is more known for her Nanay Notebook blog. She has helped me with so many things and answered so many questions... thank you for your time, Mommy Blessie! :)

Anyway, I know I already posted about what our curriculum for this year looks like, so you may be wondering what "enrolling with Kolbe" means. Well, after much prayer (yes, we've been praying about Kolbe since last year) and taking into consideration the DepEd K-12 curriculum that's now in place, and everything else, we've decided to enroll Tim for Kindergarten in Kolbe for the following reasons:

• According to many Catholic parents I know who are using or have used Kolbe, it is one of, if not THE best Catholic Classical home school curricula available. We won't be buying any books from Kolbe for now, though. I hope to borrow some and also still use the books we already have. It's a good thing they are very flexible that way.
• I like that they emphasize the important role of the parents in educating their kids (as do other homeschool providers do, too, of course) BUT reading their section on the "Principle of Subsidiarity" also helped us decide on it.
• Kolbe has been using a K-12 curriculum from the very beginning. I want to be "safe" in terms of evaluation and record-keeping since Kinder is required by DepEd in the Philippines now. Also, I'm sure family members and friends who still have doubts about our homeschooling won't be so "fearful" or "judgmental" anymore when they hear that Tim is officially enrolled in a US-based homeschool. ;)

"Isn't it expensive though?" some people may ask.

Well, according to Mommy Blessie:

"If you're enrolling Tim for Kindergarten, you'll spend about $150 since it's his first time to enroll and he's your first kid. Then there's the Overseas Family fee of $35-40. And a $5 charge for credit card payment. So expect to shell out around P8,300 if you are paying in full. 

If you opt for the five-installment plan, you'll only pay 

• $30 (tuition)+$40 (overseas family)+$5 (credit card service charge)=$75 (P3,200) upon registration, for your first installment;
• then $35 dollars (P1,500) on the month you start schooling, for 2nd installment;
• and three more $35 on the three months after that, for your third to fifth installment."

Hubby and I have some upcoming projects that I am confident will be able to cover this amount. We trust in God's grace! :) Besides, P8,300 isn't so bad compared to shelling out P60,000 for a progressive preschool education, right?! (Take note though, please, that saving money is NOT the main reason why we homeschool — and it shouldn't be for other parents, too!)

Anyway, this statement by Mommy Blessie also made me think that Kolbe is the best way for us right now:

For working moms like us, I would recommend Kolbe over (another homeschool provider) because, from my experience, Kolbe's customer service is much more prompt and accessible, and the quarterly exams they provide means you don't have to send so much documentation on your child's work. The quarterly exams are enough to validate your child's grade -- an invaluable convenience, in my opinion. 

So, Kolbe it is, then! :) We're still going to retain our homeschool name, though: The Kingdom-Seekers Academy. Teehee! To God be the glory! :)

P.S. Pray for us, please?! Thanks! Blessings on us all! Mama Mary, pray for us!

A blessed Easter to all! {We're going on a treasure hunt!}

Image source here.

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15: 55-57)

Although our Lenten and Holy Week plans and promises did not all go according to what we had hoped, we are nonetheless grateful for how God has brought us to this wonderful day — Easter, when we celebrate Jesus' rising from the dead! :) Thank God we have 50 days to celebrate this beautiful, blessed occasion!

Here's a peek at what the kids will be getting today at our "Easter Treasure Hunt," which we will have during our planned Easter party later at Lolo Mon's house. We'll be having lunch with my dad, my youngest brother and our young "family" members from Timor Leste, who are here for the Youth for Christ International Leaders Conference next weekend:

I reused the plastic Easter eggs we bought last year for our Resurrection Eggs set and placed different "goodies" in each egg — the pink and purple ones are for Rysse and the green and blue ones for Tim. I also bought some Catholic items at our local St. Paul's store.

Can you guess what are inside these eggs? LOL! I think the sticks pretty much give it away! (Lollipops! Tee hee!)

I bought these little books about stories from the Bible (OK, they're kind of NOT related to Easter, but we don't have that many choices here in the Philippines!). Then, I taped Easter eggs to the covers of the books, with each egg containing a one-peso coin. :)

These eggs contain small glow-in-the-dark statues of the Sto. Nino (for Tim) and of Mama Mary (for Rysse).

The last and greatest "treasure" in our hunt will be these VCDs of Saints Stories with holy picture cards of the Resurrected Christ, the Holy Family and St. Therese (for Rysse) and St. Michael (for Tim, they didn't have a St. Timothy card at St. Paul's). The Easter eggs contain a jelly candy each.

I taped the eggs to the kids' favorite snack foods - choc chip cookies for Tim and cheese crackers for Rysse. The eggs contain, again, one-peso coins. :)

We don't have Easter baskets, so I'll just ask the kids to use the bags they got from the CFC Kids for Christ International Kids Village we were blessed to attend last year to gather their Easter treasures. :)

Last-minute additions :) I tried to make a cross out of lollipops, after reading this post about symbolic Easter baskets for Catholic children. How I wish we had Catholic stores that sold Catholic-themed candies and goodies like those featured here! :) 

It's not too late to have a Christ-centered Easter activity for your families, friends! :) Here are some useful links:

Symbolic Easter baskets from Three-Sided Wheel

Catholic Easter basket ideas from Shower of Roses

Easter ideas from Catholicmom.com

While we're at it, let's include the whole family! :) Here are 50 Ways to Celebrate Easter from The Word Among Us website. :) 

P.S. This Easter Sunday, the kids are going on a treasure hunt and we'll be having a simple party. But our only prayer is that they discover the greatest treasure of all, i.e. the Resurrected Christ, alive forevermore! Alleluia! :)

Updates on the Kingdom-Seekers Academy :)

OK, so I haven't been very consistent in chronicling (is there such a word? haha!) our homeschool days on our Kingdom-Seekers Academy blog. Huhuhu! :(

SOOOO.. for the sake of ease in posting updates et al, I've decided to just record everything here. AS MUCH AS I CAN. Please pray for me, LOL! :)

May God be glorified in everything we do! :)

Freebie Friday: Stations of the Cross Coloring Booklet from Catholicmom.com (and a request for prayers!)

It's already the third day of Lent and I'm so far behind on the preparations for our Lenten activities for the kids! :( Huhuhu!

Thankfully though, there are oodles of free Lenten resources online that I can just print off on my parents' printer (we're still saving up for our own - pls. do pray with us that we can purchase one by May or June!).

One of these is Catholicmom.com's Station of the Cross coloring booklet. You can find the link here.

Or you can click on the image above to get the link.

I hope this year, Tim (and Rysse, who is frustratingly-yet-amusingly in a "I don't want to pray, don't like Jesus because He died" phase, LOL!) will learn to appreciate the wonderful things Jesus has done for all of us through "simple" things and activities like these.

I find some consolation in a recent conversation I had with Tim, when he said that he loved his cousin, Ate Gabby, more than his sister (I didn't know what to say, it seemed logical to me since he and Gabby play together more often and are closer in age). Right after he'd said that, he said, "But I love God the most, He's the most important, right, Mama?"

*Sighs* Keep praying for us, please? Though statements like the one above make me go, "Another reason I love homeschooling, Lord!," lately, I've been having a hard time with our "schooling," and, to be honest, have even inquired at a few progressive preschools for the next school year (which, in the Philippines, starts in June). So I/we really need your prayers! :)

Thanks, everyone and have a happy, holy Lent!

+ AMDG +
Tina

Unschooling and Catholicism - Yes, it's possible!

I don't define myself strictly as an unschooler since we've been attempting to use a curriculum lately, but during the earlier days of homeschooling, I didn't realize that we were actually unschooling in a way. Now, for those of you who may be thinking: "Huh? What in the world is UNSCHOOLING?," you may find the links on this page useful.

Image source here. (Disclaimer: The blogger whose site I got this from says she's a "free thinker," so I don't know if she believes in God. Just being clear that I'm not "advocating" free thinker-ism [if there's such a term, LOL]. Of course, God loves ALL people and it's up to Him to make the final judgment.)

Actually, come to think of it, what we've been doing these days could be classified as unschooling too, especially since I still haven't been able to "land" my dream "job" of becoming a fulltime stay-at-home mom. It's been a real struggle for me to plan our lessons and implement them, and most days I end up letting the kids play to their hearts' content, and make up for the seeming "lack of lessons" by reading more books as usual during bedtime. ;-)

In this light though, I am really grateful that I've stumbled upon the Unschooling Catholics blog and have even joined their yahoogroup. (Though right now, I'm more of a silent member, hehe!)

Homeschooling our children is still one of my top priorities now, and I find it really exciting that God is showing me different ways of how my fellow Catholic moms and our fellow Catholic families make it work. ;-) At least I know that there are lots of options out there for us who feel and believe that we are called to homeschool our kids - thank You, Lord! ;-)

So if you're interested to see how unschooling and Catholicism work out for the family's best, try going over to the Unschooling Catholics blog! ;-) They have a list of Catholic unschoolers' blogs on the right sidebar of the blog page, which you may want to explore too. ;-)

Here's to Catholic homeschooling, whatever "form" or "style"! ;-) + AMDG +

Our Epiphany House Blessing Kit :-)

I know that it's not the Feast of the Epiphany anymore and that we actually JUST celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which means the Christmas season (16 days all in all for this liturgical year) is really, really over! (I am having mixed feelings about this! hehe!) But I still wanted to write this post anyway! ;-)

Last Saturday (Jan 7), while I was on my way to the St. Pio of Petrelcina chapel to attend Mass with hubby (it was our sixth wedding anniversary, marking almost 11 years of being together!), I received a text message from my friend and fellow Catholic mom Buding (she's the one who gifted us with our Jesse Tree last year!). She told me that another Catholic mom and pro-lifer, Amelia, wanted to share the blessing of having an "Epiphany House Blessing Kit" with us! :-)

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't too familiar with what that actually was - but God's timing is truly perfect! After getting home from Mass and our anniversary date, I saw Catholic Icing's resident mommy blogger Lacy's post about it on her blog! :-) Needless to say, I WAS SUPER EXCITED to get our kit! ;-)

It arrived earlier today (errr.. yesterday actually) just before I left the apartment for work. I.SO.LOVE.IT! ;-)

My favorite part of the kit is the sprig of greenery - a nice touch! ;-)

This piece of paper explains the reason behind the custom or tradition of blessing our homes at the New Year.

"Even as the chalk fades, we remember what we have written in our hearts."

Amelia even sent this sweet note to accompany the kit! ;-)

"In the love and service of Christ, Amelia" Oh, thank You Lord, for using Amelia and her family! :-)

Holy Water and Holy Chalk :-)

We wanted to do our house blessing (or rented apartment blessing, to be more exact, haha!) with the kids when we got home from our household prayer meeting ("household" is the term used in our Catholic charismatic community, Couples for Christ, to refer to our couples' support group) but they were already asleep when we got home. So.. we'll have to wait till tomorrow.. umm.. I mean later, Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time, to do so! ;-) A blessing is still a blessing, right? ;-)

I'm hoping the kids will be as excited as I am! ;-) Haha!

Thank God for wonderful fellow Catholic parents and families, who allow the Lord to use them to bless others! ;-) Special prayers for the Alba and Dee families! ;-) May God bless you abundantly so that you may continue to be instruments of God's love, faith, joy, hope and peace this 2012! ;-)

Ideas for Celebrating Advent: Preparing for His Coming!

Advent is upon us! But what exactly is this blessed season all about? Let's take a look at just ONE of the definitions of Advent, from Catholic.org:

The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.

During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.

© Liguori Publications Excerpt from Advent - A Quality Storecupboard The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer

And what better way to prepare for His coming than starting (or for some families, continuing) our own Advent family traditions? 

Here in the Rodriguez home, we're excited to do the following:

First up is the Advent Calendar from the Story of Christmas book set I bought at Fully Booked in Gateway Mall (I don't usually buy new, expensive books but I made an exception for this one!) 

You can also buy this on Amazon.

More WONDERFUL All Saints' ideas from Catholic Icing!

I have really got to hand it to Catholic Icing's Lacy - when God created her, He must have breathed an extra dose of Catholic creativity into her soul!

Meet Catholic Icing's Lacy, with her 3 kids Lydia, Julian and Violet! God bless you abundantly for your amazing contribution to Catholic families everywhere! ;-)
*Photo from  http://catholicicing.blogspot.com

Check out her latest posts on making All Saints' Day fun and exciting for everyone, especially the kids!

Ideas for crafting an All Saints' Day bucket (a wonderful alternative to the Halloween pumpkin buckets)

Easy food party ideas for All Saints' Day - something I hope we'll be able to use for our Nov 4 ROCKERs All Saints' Day party

Saintly soda for All Saints' Day - Lacy is totally AMAZING! She thinks of everything! ;-)

Printable All Saints' Day games - I want to do this for Nov 4 too! ;-)

Cutest All Saints' Day cookies - Makes me want to go out and buy an oven so I can try baking these! hehe! ;-)

I really hope and pray that more and more Catholic families would make being Catholic FUN and EXCITING for their kids, especially here in the Philippines! ;-) Thankfully though, God placed Catholic moms like Lacy in the world, who are willing to share their ideas for free on the Net! ;-) God bless her and all other moms like her! ;-)

How to keep the HALLOW in Halloween AND Ideas for All Saints' Day

This post is inspired by one of my favorite Catholic mom bloggers of all time (Lacy of Catholic Icing and Catholic ABC's preschool curriculum - just got our copy a few days ago, the same day we had our first official field trip to an exhibit on Blessed John Paul II!).

That's me holding our copy of Catholic ABC's! Yahoo! Praise GOD after 1 month plus of waiting!  ;-)

Halloween is just around the corner, and I hope to be celebrating it with our kids in a more meaningful way, compared to last year.

Last year we celebrated Halloween for the first time in the Philippines and the kids went trick or treat-ing at Valle Verde 1, where hubby's aunt lives. ;-) 

Tim was dressed as a knight (I kept telling him he was St. George, but  he didn't quite appreciate it. This year though, he is excited to be dressed up as the dragon-slaying saint, so we'll just be recycling his costume and adding a few more touches. Like a sword and shield maybe.
Rysse was dressed as an angel upon the request of her aunt, hubby's sister (she bought everything!). :-) Don't know if she'll be the same this year BUT if I have my way, I want to dress her up as one of those saints who were royalty. She is after all very fond of princesses now. If not, I would love to have her dressed up as her patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux!

Borrowing from one of Lacy's posts about Halloween, let's check out what the word HALLOW really means:

Definition of Hallow: Hallow is a word usually used as a verb, meaning "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate".[1]  The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.[2] In modern English usage, the noun hallow appears mostly in compounds in Halloween and Hallowmas. Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is a shortened form of All Hallow Even, meaning "All Hallow's Eve" or "All Saints' Eve".[3] Hallowmas, the day after Halloween, is shortened from Hallow's mass, and is also known as "All Hallow's Day" or "All Saints' Day".[4]

Preparing for our "official" first field trip - “Beatus: Embracing the Holiness of John Paul II" Exhibit

I was so psyched when my friend and officemate Ate Alma (who also happens to be a food blogger) told me about this ongoing exhibit at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, featuring Blessed John Paul II. Entitled “Beatus: Embracing the Holiness of John Paul II" it features photos and certain relics of the late Pope, probably one of the most well-loved Popes of all time!


The exhibit opened on October 9 and will run until October 21 at the Gateway Mall Activity Area. Organized by the Diocese of Cubao and the Smart Araneta Center, it is part of the preparation for the celebration of the FIRST Feast Day of Blessed John Paul on October 22. 

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Teresa (Therese) of Avila

Today (Oct 15) is St. Teresa of Avila's Feast Day. She was a Carmelite nun, like St. Therese of Lisieux. However, based on her biographies like this one from Catholic.org, unlike St. Therese, she did not have a fervent desire to serve God at an early age:

"..she led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced that she was a horrible sinner. As a teenager, she cared only about boys and clothes and flirting and rebelling -- like other teenagers throughout the ages."

(I see she and I had A LOT in common when we were younger, haha!) Nevertheless, despite all her faults and struggles, God blessed her immensely, and truly shaped her to be holy and a saint (something we all hope to be one day, right?)

To celebrate her Feast Day today, here is a round-up of ideas from other fabulous, creative Catholic moms, mostly homeschoolers:

1. Make a St. Teresa of Avila Prayer Bookmark from Paper Dali

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).

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux (delayed I know! haha) and the Feast of the Guardian Angels

I was supposed to post these ideas for St. Therese's feast day yesterday but didn't get to as my mom and I went to visit my cousin who just gave birth, and give some breastfeeding support to her. After that, we went grocery shopping with the kids. It was a very rainy Saturday in Manila yesterday, and I hope everyone's coping with the typhoon well. Let's keep praying for those badly affected though, and still in flooded areas!

Anyway, here are some ideas for St. Therese's Feast Day, as re-posted from other wonderful Catholic moms' blogs and Catholic websites! (It's never too late to celebrate and teach our kids about St. Therese, who is one of my personal favorites, as we sought her intercession when I was pregnant with our 2 kids on mission! That's why we named our first daughter, Alyssa Therese :-) hehe.)

P.S. Please also keep reading to the end for ideas on celebrating the Feast of the Guardian Angels (Oct 2)! :-)

Ideas for Celebrating the Feast Day of St. Padre Pio (Sept 23)

St. Padre Pio has a special place in our family's heart now because we believe that it was through his intercession that my sister got pregnant, after waiting for almost ELEVEN years! (I wrote about that on Philstar.com here.)

Today (Sept 23) is his feast day, and here are some great ideas for celebrating it from Catholic Icing. (Forgive me, but I'll just copy and paste Lacy's post below, hehe). Thank you St. Pio for praying for us! Happy Feast Day!

Pray, hope and don't worry. - St. Pio of Petrelcina


Note: The Philippine Center for St. Pio has an official website here. It is a wonderful, solemn place to visit and celebrate the Eucharist. The chapel is located at E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave (C5). You can view the directions/map going there here.
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St. Padre Pio has a feast day coming up on September 23. If I were to rank St. Padre Pio on a popularity scale from 1-10, I would give him a 10! He sure seems to be a 'crowd pleaser', and there's no question as to why if you read about St. Padre Pio. The most famous thing about him is his stigmata. Well, that and his fist fights with demons and levitating and all kinds of crazy cool stuff :-) Anyway, here are some feast day ideas for celebrating with your kids:

Ok, call me crazy, but I love these Stigmata Rice Krispie Treats

from Family at the Foot of the Cross! 

My Little Flower made a St. Padre Pio Lapbook.

Get a special Fun Fact Sheet on St. Padre Pio for Kids

over on Catholic Online.

Waltzing Matilda has 2 St. Padre Pio Coloring Sheets!

These were colored by Keeper of the Keys. 

Find a St. Padre Pio Spoon Craft over on 

Cottage Blessings. He's standing with St. Francis here.