St Catherine of Siena and a word for the year.

Faithfulness. 

After time in prayer and thinking about what I want to do this year, I have chosen St. Catherine of Siena as my saint for the year and faithfulness as my word. 

I have chosen faithfulness because I want to be more faithful to God, my vocation as a mother and wife and all the things that God is calling me to. 

It is my hope this year also to be a bit more faithful to blogging and following the bloggers that follow me. I do post a bit more at Facebook so that has limited my posting here but I want to do both this year. 

St Therese

46 years ago, I was due to be born on the 3rd of October. My mother and father chose the name Therese Angela as the feast of St Therese was on the 3rd and the feast of the Guardian Angels on the 2nd. I was born on the 1st and years after I was born, the feast of St. Therese was changed to the 1st. Since my parents named me after St. Therese, I did have a small devotion to her and asked her often to intercede for me but I didn't really realise just how holy her life was.

A couple of times, I started reading her autobiography but  found it hard to read and just a bit too fluffy.  

In 2001, we moved away from family and friends for a job that Steve got with Catholic Education. The year was really tough on us. We were adjusting to living away from family and friends, Tom got type one diabetes, Amelia was born and Steve found teaching very difficult. It was a year full of challenges for us.

I was feeling quite annoyed with God and kept on asking him why we were dealing with so much. I cannot remember how I came across St. Therese's autobiography but I remember thinking that I should try and read it one more time and that maybe I could get something out of it.

The story touched me profoundly. I realised just how holy St. Therese was and that her little way was indeed something that could help me live a full life. I knew that been named after such a holy person was a real gift. I also realised just how rich the Catholic church was with patron saints to give us good examples in living the faith. They are just like big brothers and sisters encouraging us and leading us by example.

Thank you St. Therese for your little way and for being such a good example in living a life for God Thank you also for your intercession for my family and me.

Therese.

Patron Saint Meme.

Thanks so much Leanne for tagging me for the Patron Saint Meme. 

When I first read the meme at Leanne's blog, I thought it was the same one I had done back in 2008. I went back and looked in my archives. I found that the meme I did in 2008 was a bit different. There was something in common with both meme's though.

They were both in August. I remember thinking I could post from the archives and do the meme on the same date as I had back in 2008. On that Monday I posted a Smart Martha Post but I didn't do the meme. I know I intended to do it that week, but from reading this post, I remember just how busy life got for us around the end of August and then the meme was forgotten.

My fist meme that I did on August 22 2008, can be found here.

That meme asked:

What picture would I use for my holy card, should I make it to sainthood, and of what cause(s) would I want to be patroness of?


The new meme asks

Assuming you are a saint, and your cause has been executed, your miracles confirmed, your date on the calendar established, all that is required is select that of which Holy Mother Church will name you Patron(ess).For this meme, you must name your patronage and then tag 5 other people who would like to play along. Link your answer to your nominator's post.

 So back in 2008, I thought I could be the patroness for mothers that hated washing and that a photo my uncle had taken of me when I was about 8 or 9 could be my Holy Card

Now still in 2011, I think I still would want to be the patroness for mothers that hate washing. I still hate it just as much as I did back in 2008. I know that I need someone in Heaven praying for me that I can move that mountain of washing each day. I am probably more organised with my washing now though than I was then.

I am tagging the following 5 people for this meme:

Esther from A Catholic mom in Hawaii 
Easter from Passionate about life

(These two ladies were the ones that originally tagged me for the patron saint meme back in 2008. I wonder if they think their patronage should be the same now too).

Nancy from Be Not Afraid
Therese from The Musings of a mom.
Suzy from Scraps of Sunlight.

Quick 7.

-1-

Netball.

Tomorrow morning the girls have games first thing in the morning. Amelia plays at 9.00 and Brigette at 10.00. At least it will be over early and we should get a lot of other things done.

-2-

Sewing.

I have traced most of the pattern that I was frightened to sew. Looking at the pattern, it doesn't seem as frightening and the instructions make more sense. I am hoping to finish tracing the pattern tonight and get it cut out tomorrow morning. (If I can get up early enough).

-3-

Musical Theatre.

This year, Madeline, Brigette, Tom, Amelia and Christopher are all in musical theatre. It takes up a lot of our time but they all enjoy it a lot. On Sunday, there is going to be a sewing bee for it so I am going along to help sew some of the costumes.

-4-

Pumps.

Christopher is having a lot of trouble with his pump breaking at the end of the tubing. I think he is just too rough with it. I think he will need to have the pump put in a backpack where he cannot touch it. I am the one that operates the pump all the time anyway so there is no need for him to have any access to it. I hope I can work out a pattern for a backpack fairly easily. Tom had one before but they were way over priced so I am going to have a go of making one before I buy one.

-5-

Joseph.

Joseph is walking with one of his feet turning out. We are noticing it more now that he has been walking for a few weeks. He pulls it around in an odd way too. Next Tuesday we are seeing the doctor and seeing if he thinks we need a referral on for it. Prayers for him would be appreciated.

-6-

Second Term.

Second term only has another three weeks to go. We will have two weeks holidays and then term three will start. I cannot believe we are already half way through the term.

-7-

St Ann.

I have a picture of St. Ann on my sewing table now. Steve is going to put it on the wall in there this weekend. Honey found out that St. Ann is the patron saint for sewers. I am going to be asking for her intercession a lot when I do my coat I think.

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't forget to drop over to Jen from Conversion Diary for other people's quick 7.

Tania's pumpkin Tea Cake.

Today I made a pumpkin tea cake. Tania gave me the recipe in my last post.

This cake looks delicious. I would tell you how it tastes but I am taking it to share for supper tonight. Our parish is having Kathy Evans talk about her healing from brain and lung cancer through the intercession of St. Mary MacKillop.

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Tea Cake:

25ogms butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
2 eggs
1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup milk

Icing:

60gms butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mixture:
Beat butter and sugar together. Add grated orange. Add eggs 1 at a time. Add mashed pumpkin and coconut. Stir in sifted flour alternately with milk. Grease a deep 20cm round cake tin, use greased paper on bottom of tin. Pour mixture into cake tin and cook in a moderate oven (180 -200C) for 1 1/4 hours.

Icing:

Mix all the ingredients together in saucepan in stove. Ice cake and sprinkle with coconut.

First day back.

Today was our first day of term two. We got of to a bit of a rough start but I was happy that the children got everything done that I planned for the day.

We are revamping Tom and Amelia's spelling program. They did a progress test and I was a bit disappointed with their results. I have always wondered how to teach spelling and struggled with the program I have written for them both. It is one of the hardest areas of their curriculum for me. I am getting a new program from IEW called The phonetic zoo. From the reading I have done about it, this program has much more success in teaching children spelling and retaining the information. What I find with the spelling we do at the moment is both Tom and Amelia do well in the test I give at the end of the week, but they are not retaining the information long term. That is the main goal so I need to do a revamp. I am glad I have found a program that I can try for this.

We are going to be doing a unit of work this term on the Saints. The children have all chosen a saint that they will study.

Tom is studying St. Matthew. Amelia is studying St. Helen and Christopher will study St. Christopher.

We will also be learning about Divine Mercy Devotion and St. Faustina.

Our time table is still the same as I posted last year except for kindergarten pickups.

Feast of St. Joseph

Happy feast day Joseph.

We had pancakes, bacon and chocolate milk for breakfast this morning to celebrate Joseph's feast day.

We haven't really celebrated the children's saint days much before but I am going to make more of an effort to do it now.

Some special gifts.

I have a great internet friend. Her name is Honey and she has been a great encouragement to me and my children.

I love reading Honey's blog. It is about a death in her family so it isn't a happy blog but it is a blog full of hope. I feel that hope everytime I visit it.

Honey read on my blog about my gift from Shelly and offered to send me her daughters statues.

Today we received the statues. Two statues of St. Joseph. St. Joseph has been such a special friend to us. We asked him to pray for us when Steve was at a crossroads with his job and when we were looking to buy a house here.

Both times our prayers were answered beyond our wildest dreams. Steve has a job that is well paid and has fantastic hours. Our house has been made perfect with all the renovations we have done over the last few years.

As well as the two statues, we also received three beautiful dolls for Amelia with a high chair for two of them to sit on. They have taken up residence in our home school room.

I wanted to post some photos of all the gifts but at the moment, my upload cord seems to have gone for a walk. Hopefully I will find it soon and upload them all.

Thanks so much Honey for your generosity.

Mary MacKillop.

Soon Australia will have it's first saint.

Saint Gianna.

Last year Saint Gianna was my patron for the year. When I was given the name, I really didn't know much about her. I knew that she had died because she was unwilling to have an abortion that would have saved her life.

Gianna had 3 children without any complications but then when she was pregnant with her 4th child, she developed a fibroma on her uterus. The doctors gave her three options to treat this. The first option was to have an abortion. The second options was to have a complete hysterectomy and the third option was to have the fibroma removed from her uterus. Even though St. Gianna knew that the removal of the fibroma could result in further complications, she opted for this to preserve the life of her child.

After the removal of her fibroma, Gianna experienced more complications but she was clear for the entire pregnancy, that if it came down to saving her life or the life of her child, they were to choose the child's life. Gianna was willing to sacrifice her life.

This had a great impression on me. I know in the general day to day running of our house that it is hard to sacrifice small needs for my child, much less give my whole life up for them.

I am so thankful for the Saints in Heaven that interceed for us and that we can read about. In reading about their lives we can see their heroic virtues and strive to be like them. They are really like big brothers and sisters encouraging us in our faith journey.

You can read more about St. Gianna here and here