My Patron Saint for 2010

The Blessed Mother is my patron Saint for 2010...I know, I have already written about how she chose me. :)
But... I have been thinking about the Visitation. Our beautiful Mother goes to Elizabeth to stay with her and help her.
Don't you think we all need more of what the Visitation is all about? Again our beautiful Mother teaches us by her example of simple love. Love for others. Love for Her Son. Love for God. Love for us!
Our world, 2010, is missing so much of that caring and selfless giving.
Our generation is missing so much love.
Just think of our children's and grandchildren's generations. Hopefully we work toward changing this real soon!

When I was a child, neighbors and neighborhoods were part of my extended family. I knew if a neighbor spotted me doing something I probably shouldn't be doing (didn't happen often :) my mom would hear about it... and I never wanted to disappoint or hurt my mom.
Now most people do not even know their neighbor's names. Hmmmm...this got me thinking a bit more than I had planned on thinking for 9:30 at night.

And what about friends? I mean real friends. Have you been following what our beautiful Blessed Mother so wonderfully taught us to do? How are your friend relationships going? How have you shown love for your friends lately? I mean that special woman to woman sisterly love.
Sisters in Christ.

Mary
Jesus, I trust in You!

Our Little Dog Charlie

Well, I think our little black dog had a type of 'break down' yesterday. I think our usually noisy home is just too quiet when we are all gone during the day. He loves our children so much...
Yesterday we came home to find the upstairs hallway a mess!
He had ripped up a box filled with seashells that I had used for a book unit at school and had broken a lot of the shells. They were crunched up into little pieces on our hallway carpet.
He has never been destructive before, although he usually takes our shoes out of our hallway closet while we are gone and places them in different places around the house.

You can tell his anxiety rises when he sees us put our shoes on our feet. Poor little Charlie. I think we are going to try leaving a radio on for him on Monday. Maybe the silence is too much for him.
Anyone have any ideas for us? We can't put him in a doggy daycare. We have no extra funds for that idea.

On a different note, I went into my classroom this morning and looked at my white board in the front of the classroom. My students had left me a beautiful note. It said, "Mrs. __________, we love you!" They all signed the board.

Wonderful Jesus,--Thank you for placing me where you need me to be and blessing me with these beautiful children. Thank you for reminding me of my beautiful blessings. I never want to take them for granted.

Mary
Jesus, I trust in You!

Well, I'm home...

Our fifth blessing has had a fever. This is the third full day. IB takes it down for six hours and then it goes back up again. So far none of the other children have it.

I'm making pork and baked beans for dinner. Oh...and bread. Bread machine bread (not my own ground wheat bread) but still home baked bread. My house smells just like my Ma's used to smell.
It's days like these when I am home and not working that I miss my parents the most.
Pray for Meri Claire Ma and Dad.
And me too. :)
Mary
Jesus, I trust in You!

Found it!

I found the Lenten Cross activity! It is similar to a Jesse tree for Advent but the Lenten Cross follows the Messianic prophecies through the Old Testament and matches each with its fulfillment in the "Crucifixion narrative. The children enjoy listening to the Bible passage and then creating the illustration to go along with it.
It is from Domestic-Church.Com.
Check it out for your families. Last year I made ours out of posterboard and used 3x5 index cards for each day's illustration.
Email me if you have any thoughts or questions. I am going to do it both at home and in the classroom this Lent.
Check out the website too. It is loaded with great things.

Mary
Jesus, I trust in You!

Lenten Cross Activity

I'm looking for a Lenten project idea that I did with my children in our home AND with my students in the classroom. I can't find my material!!!!
Can anyone help me??
I have searched the web and haven't found anything. It was a bit like a Jesse Tree for Advent except that the scripture passages led up to the Resurrection. I placed each scripture passage on an index card and all of the index cards were glued onto an outline of a cross which we hung on the wall.
It was an awesome project.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Please help me out if you have any ideas. I would really like to do this again with all of the children.
Thanks.

Mary
Jesus, I trust in You!