Rosary Mom: Link Up

Showing posts with label Link Up. Show all posts

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hot Summer Nights

Source

During the month of July, you can read great inspirational advice on how to strengthen your marriage over at

Jen's Enter Under My Roof. Here's an idea of what she has in store for you in discussing

Marriage, Passion, Love & Faith:

IGNITES ON JULY 1, 2013

Marriage. One of the greatest gifts we've been given, yet - sometimes - one of the things we take most for granted. This July, spend 30 days with us as we bring you a different article each day focused on real life marriages, passion, love, and faith. We've pulled together some of the best in the business, including Marriage & Family therapists, published authors, counselors, clergy, and everyday people just like you and me to share experiences (both good and bad), talk openly about passion and sex, discuss how God sets the example for us in our marriages, and more. We'll be sharing our amazing line-up of authors beginning on July 1 and will publish a different article each day from a new author on marriage.

We'll be exploring things like:

• Making it through tough times

• The natural stages & progression of marriage

• Including God in your marriage

• Ideas for alone time

• Being married to a non-Christian

• Celebrating anniversaries

• Falling back in love with each other

• The intimacy of spending every night with “the one”

• What the Bible says about marriage

• Keeping the passion alive (or where to go looking if it's missing)... and more.

We'll be updating this page with the amazing contributors on July 1 and linking,

each day, to their article.

How to stay updated:

Like Us on Facebook

Follow on Twitter

Check Out on Pinterest

Subscribe to Jen's emails

On July 1st, there will be a chance to check out Summer Nights Date Night Link Up. You'll be able to add your own ideas as well on how you like to share alone time with your spouse!

Thank you to Jen and her church for organizing the collection of articles and ideas to remind us all that when we marry, it is a Sacrament and blessed by God. Even though it's hard, we must remember to who we made our promises to when we married!

Blessings,

Noreen

Monday, March 25, 2013

St. Patrick's Jello

I found this fun idea to make Shamrock shaped jello snacks on Pininterest and I pursued it at Mommy I'm Hungry!

Put the above three ingredients together, use this:

and you will get this:

Here's a level view showing how the whipped cream rises to the top:

The recipe is simple:
Layered Jello Knox Blocks
from Group Recipes

4 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
3 pkgs (3oz) Lime Jello
3 Cups boiling water
1/2 pt whipping cream

In large heatproof bowl mix unflavored gelatin with Jello.
Add boiling water and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved -- about a minute or so.
Stir in whipping cream.
Pour into a 13x9 inch pan, cover and chill until firm, about four hours or overnight.
The cream will rise during chilling to form a top layer.
To serve, cut into squares or rectangles of desired cookie cutter shapes and size for finger food treats. Place each piece between cut wax paper, and keep chilled until serving.

This can be done with any flavor and cookie cutter. It was a fun and good treat for kids and adults alike!

I've linked up with Try a New Recipe by Home to 4 Kiddos. There are many recipe posts to check out. Thank you Lisa for your link up party! Another new one for me is In and Out of the Kitchen by Feeding Big and More. Thank you Cynthia and Dawn!

Blessings,

Noreen

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Rosarymom Keep Love in Lent

"I’m participating in the Keeping LOVE in LENT Blog Link-Up 2013, hosted by Erika of Raising Little Saints, Tina of Truly Rich Mom and Monica of Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices, prayer and good deeds, and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a GRUMBLE. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of link-up entries.”

KEEPING LOVE IN LENT!

I was excited when I heard about this Link Up for a couple of reasons.

This Cross I Embrace: Keep LOVE in Lent

I could be inspired by what others are doing within their families to focus on the ultimate sacrificial gift of love. God sacrificing His only Son for us... for me. Truly a humbling moment that I want to imprint on my son's heart.
I could learn what other churches are doing to instill Love during Lent in their congregations.
Lastly, I could gather ideas for how to teach my first graders in a meaningful way that they will remember when they're outside of church, to Keep Love in Lent!

Now what I would like to share is what I am doing to Keep Love in Lent. I'd like to say that I thought and prayed about what I'm doing but to be honest, my parish priest asked me to be part of a core group of members in a newly formed ministry. Once I said yes, it took on a life of it's own. I'm part of my church's Peace and Justice Ministry and our first goal is to encourage our fellow parishioners to participate in Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl Campaign.

We've been participating in this program for years, but this year, we'd like it to impact our parishioners as individuals and also collectively, as a church.

We want it to be less of a perfunctory act and more of a meaningful act.

We want to show how fortunate we are as Americans and how less fortunate some Americans are and especially the third world countries.

The CRS website is asking for participants to register their rice bowls and they offer a calendar of ideas of how to connect the poor with Peace and Justice.

I am also working on compiling a list of Charitable Works within our surrounding area to either volunteer, pray or donate. Once I started looking, I learned of other denominations who have weekly dinners for the poor, the many opportunities to pray at an abortion clinic, to volunteer and rock babies at a home for mommy's and their babies, to donate your shoes to Soles4Souls, volunteer at Feed My Starving Children, and bring baby items to a women's center...etc. There are many charitable activities to get involved in!

It's tougher to find Social Justice issues to get involved in. The overall idea is to remove root causes to improve structures in affordable housing, improving the education system, legal protection for the unborn, participating in a living wage campaign, promoting peace of advocating for international assistance.

What activities have you found in your community to focus on Peace and Justice

within our borders and beyond?

I would especially love to hear about what you're doing for Social Justice.

Source

"The conscience is called by this social teaching to recognize and fulfill the obligations for justice and charity in society." Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more. Luke 13:48

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSeGbMf4SHjGxxPne_MNhEFfInedofWg6RWdpdujU4wLIWlaZ_2r9OIsLDWRbPwKDSTUd3vh5w-CdkZJPFaGr_o9dfpo_eWZFOCMRFwEivDuGdR1tENHJhuRQO-8aUgBYtZIb6PbOppo0/s200/Keep_Love_in_Lent_2.jpg

Noreen

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Lenten Lesson Plan

During today's class, we focused on how "our sins are like thorns being added to Jesus' crown of thorns" during his suffering on Good Friday.

As an example of how "sin stains our souls", I used two bowls and two eggs.

In one bowl, I cracked one egg and mixed it up.

The second bowl had clean fresh water in it.

I held up the clean unbroken egg and told them "this clean egg represented our souls that were wiped clean from Original Sin at our baptism".

As we grow up, we commit sins and if we do not repent and ask God's forgiveness,

our soul looks like:

It didn't come out clear in the picture but it was yellow and slimy. Their reaction, "eewww!"

Perhaps next time, I will add a food dye to make it more of a visual impact.

After we repent from our sins and ask for God's forgiveness,

He wipes our souls clean in His divine mercy.

(I was unable to take pictures during our demonstration in class,

so I reenacted the steps with my son.)

We spent a good portion of class talking about sins, the difference between a mistake and a purposeful sin and then, we brainstormed activities we could do

to get our focus off of ourselves and onto others.

Next, I gave each child a small grapevine wreath and brown painted toothpicks to make their own crown of thorns to use during Lent. After our brainstorming activity, I told them that when they performed an act of charity, a good deed, a sacrifice or offered up a prayer;

they were to remove one thorn from Jesus' crown.

In an attempt to teach these words to my students, I had created Lenten words on a handwriting worksheet from ESL Writing Wizard and had my students practice writing out the words

as we talked about them.

I next showed them an excerpt from Greatest Heroes Legends, The Miracles of Jesus DVD

when Jesus healed people and forgave them their sins.

Greatest Heroes And Legends: The Miracles Of Jesus - DVD

Source

Through Jennifer's Lenten Link up over at Catholic Inspired, I "met"
Regina from A Living Garden and she has some great ideas to celebrate Lent.
I especially liked her Ash Wednesday bookmarks that she offers to her readers.
I downloaded it and printed it on purple cardstock for my students.

Lastly, we ended our class with story time. I read to my class The Tale of the Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt. They were really engaged to learn what happened to the three trees. It's a great story of how God can use you in special ways, even if you are a tree!
The Tale of Three Trees

It was a good class and I feel their understanding of how their own actions affect Jesus.
I told them our goal is to shower others with kindness because
Jesus' crown will be "lightened", and He will be smiling brightly with love at us.

I've linked this post up over at Jennifer's Catholic Inspired Lenten Link Up.

Blessings,

Noreen

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Keeping Christ in Christmas

Credit

"I’m participating in the Keeping Christ in Christmas Blog Carnival, hosted by Raising Little Saints, Truly Rich Mom and Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Jesus as the Reason for the Christmas season. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of carnival entries.”

This week in mass, our priest talked with passion about "Keeping Christ in Christmas" and had

a simple suggestion of doing just that.

He said "Love one another as God loves you."

That was the message of Jesus when he walked this earth speaking of love.

It's just as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago.

Our world would be vastly different if we obeyed the words of Jesus.

All we have to do is look around our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities and our nation to realize that we all fail in this mission.

We all fall short.

Miserably short.

The good news is, that Jesus knew it would be difficult for man, therefore,

he preached repentance "for the kingdom of God is at hand".
We have a loving and merciful God.

So, how can we keep Christ in Christmas?

By loving others.

Our family & friends.

Our neighbors & acquaintances.

Our co-workers & bosses.

Our enemies and strangers.

If we became a nation of people who loved as God has asked us to do,

violence would drastically diminish,

unwanted babies would be born and taken care of,

children would feel safe from bullying,

very few would be homeless,

poverty and hunger would decrease,

the need for war would not exist,

feelings of jealousy, anger and rage would dissipate,

feelings of loneliness, depression and hopelessness would disappear.

Love, we are called to love.
To keep Christ in Christmas we need to stop loving ourselves so much
and do a better job at loving others.

Remember to check out the other links for this great link up hosted by
Tina from the Philippines, Monica from Canada, and Erika from USA!

Thank you ladies for bringing us all together to celebrate the only reason for Christmas~
the birth of our newborn King!

Go and visit these other great posts about Keeping Christ in Christmas!

http://joyfilledfamily.blogspot.com/2012/12/christ-in-christmas.html