Monday, September 8, 2014

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - reflecting on love while at Mass with spirited children, and fall crafts...

Aren't they precious? :0 Anne helping her daddy mow the lawn yesterday afternoon following Mass. Anyway, happy Monday, everyone! I'm back from a beautiful fall weekend, filled with both challenging children and lovely free time. Let's discuss. :)

It was a beautiful Mass yesterday, late in our season of Ordinary Time leading up to Advent, with the readings focused on loving our neighbor. At our parish, the music ensemble was back from summer hiatus, the bulletin was filled with information on the parish groups and events starting back up, and fall was definitely in the air. Anne was *very* climby - on the pew, down the pew, down on the kneeler, under the pew, swinging from the end of the pew (!). I restrained and distracted her as best as I could. There were a lot of other children there, which helped, since she spent a lot of time clandestinely spying on them.

Henry was very quiet and good, as he always is, but now that he's a bit older and receiving communion, I've been working to instill more reverence into his routine at church. Genuflecting before the tabernacle, praying after receiving the Eucharist, things like that. I can tell that he doesn't like it when I point these things out to him, which makes him not want to do them all the more, so I try and restrain myself when possible and lead by example.

But I'm Type A, so it's not easy. ;-) And I take my promise and desire to raise my children in the faith very seriously. Keeping with our theme from the readings for this Sunday, teaching my children the faith is a duty, but it is a duty that I truly love. I love my faith, and I hope that that love shines through to my children and makes them want to emulate it.

Both children really love the seasonal Catholic traditions that we practice in the home, so I was thinking that Advent may be a good opportunity to light a fire under Henry without his really knowing it. :) In addition to the fan favorite activities of Advent calendars and the Advent wreath, we could start a small prayer tradition. Perhaps I could take Henry with me to Adoration for Advent? I'm toying with some ideas, but a major liturgical season is always the perfect opportunity to introduce a new routine and tradition. I will keep you apprised of my ideas on that front as the season draws closer.

In crafty news, with the NFL season also starting yesterday (I don't count that ridiculous Thursday situation the NFL insists upon :0) I was feeling very much in an autumn mood. While Anne napped, I worked on some seasonal jewelry. I just love seasonal items, the craft store is one of my favorite places to be in the spring and fall. This, of course, from the woman who made Easter egg earrings, after all. ;-) And so, as a sister to the infamous egg earrings, come ta DA! Acorn earrings:

I love them. :) I wore them the whole day yesterday. I also made an autumn-hued rosary bracelet:


I need a cross charm to hang from it, that's enroute, but the Ave beads are a Swarovski pearl mix called "Maple" and I paired it with tiny copper crystals and an olive crystal Pater bead. I love how it turned out.

How was your weekend, everyone? Leave me a comment. It's Monday, and I could use a pick-me-up. ;-)

1 comment:

  1. I was at my cousin's wedding. The baby girl of my other cousin was amazingly behaved for the entire day - she even watched the fireworks! I think that baby is single-handedly responsible for tricking a lot of people into thinking babies are easy-peasy!

    On a less cheerful note it was a civil wedding and I heard the new wording for the first time - marriage is now legally the union of 'two people' in the UK. Made me very sad.

    The jewellery is fantastic. I make rosaries and religious necklaces/bracelets sometimes, and I love things that are a bit creative or individual.

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