Celebrating All Saints' Day

 I was on the committee for the All Saints day party, one of the games we made was Saint Paddle Dice.  Sam made the dice and paddles for me and then the girls helped modge podge the saints on to the dice and paddles.

 Our first celebration was at home.  All Saints Day was on a Friday so we had meat. We do not ordinarily eat meat on Fridays as it has always been a tradition of the Church to abstain from meat on Fridays.  So believe me St. Lawrence grilled steaks were awesome on a Friday.  Meat always tastes better on a Friday. If you don't know what I mean then try not eating meat on Fridays :D

 St. Isidore's corn. In case you wondered what happened to all the corn we froze this summer.  We are enjoying it.

 St. Gabriel's trumpets (visit Catholic Icing for fun ideas for All Saints' Day!)

 Heavenly Clouds. This is actually a cheese dip a friend told me how to make. You take a container of already made cheese dip, whip in 2 bricks of cream cheese and some garlic (or dried garlic) and you have a nice fluffy dip.

 St. Cecilia's piano keys and more trumpets (actually chocolate peanut butter bugles)

 St. Therese the Little Flower's... flowers.

 St. Peter's fish.

 St. Brigid's milk... this time chocolate. Chocolate milk comes from brown bunnies.

 St. Elizabeth of Hungary's bread.  This actually was day old subway buns given to us by a friend of mine, truly a St. Elizabeth.

 St. Isidore's candy corn and pumpkins... but note that the pumpkins were all eaten.

 2 days later we had our homeschooling group's All Saints' Party. Here are the Saint Paddle Dice.

 www.CatholicPlayground.com has AWESOME coloring sheets. I made some into holy card size as well.  Do go and check them out!

 Lots and lots of door prizes.  Note:  always put names on the tickets for door prizes...! Whoever came up with the idea to use numbers isn't a mother, that much I know.

 Aren't these decorations adorable.  Mums in pumpkins.  Totally cute.

 Frodo's St. Francis used with an animal toss game.

 Lots of fun minute-to-win-it games fmor the older children.

 Ticket cash-in for prizes.

 Fr. Rick came to enjoy some of the evening.

 Is this cute or what? St. Jerome's Vulgate Translation Bible.

 Vice pinata, hit with the virtue stick.

This and That

 Kili loves going out for a walk, yet another outdoor kid in our household.

 Frodo carved and painted this figure for a friend of his.

 I definitely could not figure out this picture... notice the bottle.

 One of the kids had put him on the table and taken his picture sideways.

 The barn project continues....

 The correct siding came.

 Someone once told one of my boys only hillbillies don't wear shoes.  I know so many children who don't wear shoes, the world must be full of hillbillies.

 My little lamb.  Better than being a wolf in lamb's clothing.

Our priest celebrated his birthday. This was Emily's drawing for him.

 Happy Birthday, Fr. Alex!  Our (small) homeschooling group had a birthday party for him.

 It's finished!  (on the outside)

 Still needs walls and water and stalls and whatever else goes into a barn.

 I'm thinking this would make a really nice dining room for my children.

Can't you just picture a nice dining room?  If you can't then you will totally never get my blog :D

 Aragorn decided to close in our porch which will be a great place to play in the winter.

 Nothing fancy, just closed in. Well... it's not done yet. And of course when we got to the point of putting in the last window, one of the children (thinking dining room comments) smashed the window by knocking a board  on it.. or something. Of course no one did it. Weird. Because we didn't buy it broken!

 Galadriel sorting out the good rubble from the bad.

 Frodo's Tenochtitlan Aztec Temple where the Catholic Battle took place to rid the idea of human sacrifice.  

 Merry and Pippin (with some design help from Frodo... it was the "family" division) did a rendition of the Legend of St. Brendan.

 Fr. Rick was the judge.

The end.

Snoozing

Sausage

 The sausages pigs are getting bigger.

They're due to be thought more as bacon and sausage than pigs in December.

Life... the Way It Is

 A handful of us had a going-away dinner for a friend of mine that I've known for 22 years.  We have attended all the same parishes, sung in all the same choirs... and now it's time for her to move on.  Ho hum.  Then again.... the internet makes for a very small world.

 Good-bye my friend! Come back and visit often!

After a very delicious Italian dinner I came home to an oddity that only "The Race that Knows Job" will understand.  (Do you know Job?)

 The boys had headed over to do chores when there was a big bang and there was no steering.  It might be noted that steering your vehicle is an important part of being able to drive a vehicle.

 This thingamajigger is suppose to be connected but had become disconnected.

 This picture I just added for the effect. The mirror was already loose.

 It's this thing that is rather important to driving a car. I guess the conversation went something like this:

Hey, Sam, get back on the road.
I can't.
Boys are always full of words. I had expected them to say they were screaming or something. But now, they just remained calm as if it is normal to lose one's drive shaft while driving.

 It might be noted the week before grandma had given Sam a St. Christopher medal to put in his car. Always keep the saints close, they are our true friends.

 Generally when you drive a car you don't carry this thing with you.

 I am very curious, any mechanics out there, is there always cardboard inside this thingie-necessary-for-driving?

 This is where they had their fun.

And this is the web of vines that caught them down in the culvert.

As I got the full story, which really is only, that the drive shaft (I think?) split in 1/2 while driving.... anyway, I said, "Well, boys, this is just a reminder for you. If you have anything on your souls, this might be a good time to get yourself cleaned up!"

Thankfully no harm done and he just needs a new thingie to hold the wheels together. Got any spare parts for a small truck lying around? :D

So I ask, are you of the Race that Knows Job?  In case you need a hint... Job is an Old Testament biblical figure.

Hobbit Meal

In case you are all set... and excited.... for the Hobbit Extended Edition to come out tomorrow, November 5th, here is a great website for your Hobbit meal planning.  Lots of great ideas. :D

All Saints Day

On the Feast of All Saints' Day we celebrate OUR Feast Day.... so long as we are in the state of Grace, it's our feast day anyway. If any of us is not in the state of Grace then we must get ourselves to confession to re-join in the ranks and forces of God's Army!  Jesus, in his Infinite Wisdom as God made Man, left us with this great Sacrament.  He loves us so much, He gives us chance after chance after chance to show Him that we love him.  "Come back to Me!"  The Communion of Saints includes:
The Church Triumphant - those who have already earned their Heavenly Reward
The Church Suffering - those who are suffering the hell-fires of Purgatory, purging themselves of all the temporal punishment due to the venial sins they did not make up for on earth
The Church Militant - those on earth who are in the Battle of the Lord, in the state of Grace, working for the Reign of Christ.

I had read a lovely little except in my Missal regarding Christ the King that I find fitting for the Church Militant in a wonderful little explanation:
The royalty of Christ rests upon a twofold basis. He is our King by right of birth and by right of conquest. The first refers us to the personality of the Son of God, whereby, in His divine nature as God and by virtue of the hypostatic union, He is the sovereign Lord and Master. The second places before us the God-Man coming down on earth to rescue fallen man from the slavery of Satan, and by the labors and sufferings of His life, and passion, and death to win a glorious victory for us over sin and hell.

And, as a friend of mine said, "Saints keep right on riding."  That's the heart of the Church Militant on earth.  We keep going.  Onward Christian soldiers!

Viva Cristo Rey!