Blogging has taken a back seat to real life lately. The change of the seasons finds me slowing the pace and making small changes to bring greater peace and beauty to our home and homeschool. For me, attempting to accomplish too much is a method proven to steal joy and peace. This blog is just a blog. It is not my life. It is not who I am. I am a daughter of Christ, a wife, and a mother. There are times I need to step away and “be.”
Here is a little peek at what I’ve been working on.
Yes, a real schoolroom! Obviously there wasn’t much staging with this photo (catty-wompus chairs and garbage on the floor) and there are few things more left to do before I call it “done.” I’m hoping to share about it sometime in the near future.
I do want to pop in and chat about October with you. This month is full of feasting and 2017 is especially meaningful as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun (October 13th).
Here are a few links as you think about the month ahead.
October Dedication: The Most Holy Rosary
October is the perfect time to pick up the Rosary if you haven’t already done so. It was my goal to begin praying a decade a day as a family starting this month. Today is the 9th and we are only just now tackling that goal.
Our family has never been Rosary groupies, but I have felt more called to this devotion lately. Since we are such novices, we are setting the bar low and sticking to a daily decade. My hope is that this simple step will eventually bloom into a full Rosary when we are ready.
Today, I met the children at their outdoor play and we discussed the basics of praying the Rosary: how to use the beads on a rosary, how to treat a rosary, what are the prayers, and what to think about as we pray. I told you we were novices! We then read about a painting of the Annunciation in Seton’s Rosary in Art before launching into our family decade around the picnic table. The sunshine mixed with our prayer time creating an idyllic fall moment.
I’m looking forward to reading The Contemplative Rosary by Dan Burke and Connie Rossini (two of my favorite authors). The Rosary is such an easy devotion to pray on a daily basis, but I want more than anything to explore its depths and not just say it to cross it off my daily “I’m a Good Catholic ” list.
A few other Rosary Links:
The Holy Rosary Audio from Holy Heroes – I purchased this a month ago, and, while we have not prayed with them on a daily basis, we have listened to them several times in the car. There is a scriptural meditation provided with each “Hail Mary” which makes for a lovely but lengthy (about 45 minute) prayer time. Our children love the stories at the end of each Rosary.
Rosary in a Month Challenge (with printable!) Here is a post and printable of how I tackled the Rosary in a month by slowly adding a new decade every week. I’m sorry to say I haven’t kept up the daily habit, but I did find the practice fruitful.
(October is also Right to Life Month)
October Feast Days:
- 1st St. Therese
- 2nd The Guardian Angels
- 4th St. Francis
- 7th Our Lady of the Rosary
- 13th The Miracle of the Sun
- 15th St. Theresa of Avila
- 16th St. Margaret Mary
- 17th St. Ignatius of Antioch
- 18th St. Luke
- 19th Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues
- 22nd St. John Paul II
- 28th Sts. Simon and Jude
The October Book Basket:
- Angel in the Waters (for Pro-Life Month) ^*
- Catholic Children’s Treasure Box (These are definitely an investment, but are so worth it and will become a treasured addition to your Catholic home library. There are several well illustrated short stories of St. Therese through the beginning books that teach little ones about the saint and Church teachings. The books also follow Wupsy, a Guardian Angel, and would be appropriate for that feast on the 2nd too!) ^*
- The Little Flower of Jesus (1st)
- Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux (1st)
- The Little Flower: The Story of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (1st)
- St. Therese and the Roses (Vision Series) (1st)
- St. Therese: The Little Flower (1st)
- Olivia and the Little Way and Olivia’s Gift (1st)
- A Book of Angels: Stories of Angels in the Bible (2nd)
- The Adventures of Loupio (4th) ^* (a comic book series our boys have enjoyed)
- The Good Man of Assisi (4th) ^*
- St. Francis and the Wolf (4th)
- St. Francis and the Proud Cow (4th)
- Francis Woke up Early (4th)
- Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi (4th)
- Brother Sun, Sister Moon (4th)
- Adventures in Assisi: On the Path with St. Francis (4th)
- St. Francis (4th)
- Clare and Francis (4th)
- Brother Francis and the Friendly Beasts (4th)
- Francis and Clare: Saints of Assisi (Vision Series) (4th)
- St. Margret Mary and the Promises of the Sacred Heart (16th)
- St. Isaac and the Indians (Vision Series) (19th) ^*
- Lolek – The Boy Who Became Pope John Paul II (22nd) ^*
- Our Holy Father, the Pope (22nd)
- Blessed John Paul II (22nd)
- John Paul II: Journey of a Saint (22nd)
- Karol from Poland (22nd)
- St. Jude: A Friend in Hard Times (28th)
(^ denote books we own or have read, * denote books our family enjoys, learn about the helpful habit of creating a book basket here)
All Saint Links:
Of course, there is All Saints’ looming large at the end of October. I am busy trying to convince Lilla that she should try out a saint other than St. Lucia for the 3rd year running. It is always a fun challenge for us to come up with our costumes from what we have on hand. I’ll be sharing about that at the end of the month too!
I’m not totally against celebrating Halloween (only against the celebration of gruesome and dark), but I’ve decided this year we are just going to observe All Saints. With Christian’s special epilepsy diet, I can’t imagine trick-or-treating would be much fun for any of us. I’m planning on raising the bar (slightly) on our family’s All Saints’ celebrations to compensate for any ensuing disappointments. We’ll see what my creativity (or lack thereof) develops.
In the mean time, here are some photos from years past and links for you to enjoy.
Our Family’s 2016 All Saint Costumes
Our Family’s 2015 All Saint Costumes
Our Family’s 2013 All Saint Trio
16 Ways to Celebrate All Saints as a Family
Here is to a blessed and holy October!
Another great book for October is “How to be Happy, How to be Holy” by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, published by TAN. This book discusses all the basic Catholic prayers and goes over each decade of the Rosary with lessons to be drawn from the mysteries and ideas for meditation. Some of these are simple enough that I am able to include them in talks with my four-year-old, but I can still learn a lot from them myself! I have gone back to this book over and over again for years.
I also want to add that routine is your friend for establishing the family rosary! Our family prays the rosary right after dinner each night, and it is as much part of our evening routine as dishes, pj’s, and stories. It is not always easy and rarely peaceful with little ones, but the routine it what makes it happen. Good luck!
Thank you for the great book suggestion. I just looked it up and it looks like Fr. Sullivan has many interesting titles I would love to read.
I agree that routine will be my greatest ally. Right now, I’m just trying to figure out what routine works for us in this season. I feel more called to the Rosary than does Husband. He leads us in a scripture and prayer time before bed, so I am left piecing together how the Rosary fits in the rest of our day. I love to hear from people (like you) who have made the Rosary a part of their life with littles! Very inspiring!
Hello! Thank you for the great posts !
I am Catholic mother of three – ages 5, 3, and 1. Also, I began my homeschooling journey this year!
We have always been “traveling rosary Catholics” for some time… saying it in the car on our way somewhere, or the odd time at home. It was not until this summer that I finally received tremendous grace to begin saying it every day – on my own!! Which is exciting because my husband always prompted and led it. It has been a couple months now of non stop, and I have the mysteries finally all memorized. Now, to begin memorizing the virtue attached to each mystery! that is my next goal!
Up until now we had been only singing one hail mary each evening at the end of night prayer with the children (CatChat hail mary), and we have tried doing a decade with them now and again. Today, as I was saying it out loud in the living room, my 5 year old wanted to follow along on his rosary, but I still would not expect him to sit through the entire thing. I think I’m going to keep saying it out loud every day for them to hear, and then really work on the individual prayers during ‘school time’.
Also trying to focus on something I read in “The Little Oratory” – not to focus on the kids during prayer (so they don’t think its directed at them).
Which might seem super obvious, but if your “teacher mode” doesn’t shut off easily like mine , then i’m slowly saying ‘ H A I L M AAA RRRR YYYY’ until they can catch up and catch on… oh boy.
I want them instead to experience prayer, and naturally start to imitate.
I’m not in a very great routine, but naturally it has started to fall around 3pm (which is usually when I would like to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet, so I have been swapping it out). My morning prayer is always after breakfast, but I would like to move it to earlier, then maybe the rosary mid morning, then chaplet at 3pm. (I really do like some of the suggestions of this in ‘Mothers Rule’)
This is making me think now!!!
You have some great thoughts here, Sarah. I agree with you wholeheartedly that our children should experience prayer – which many comes from us setting a good example. Finding a routine that works seems to be the hardest step. Once you figure that out, you can stick with it and make it a workable habit. For me, it is more important my children see me pray than to require it of them (although we obviously lead them in prayer throughout their day too).
You touch on something else important too – saying the Rosary is a GRACE. I’ve not always felt attracted to the Rosary, but knew God and Mary would lead me to it when the time was right. While we shouldn’t always wait to feel drawn to prayer before we pray, it is much easier to pray often/well/more when we are given the grace to do so.