Saints for May Calendar

Last week, a friend and I were discussing the saint calendar that I have in my living room. The idea originally came from Catholic Heritage Curricula's A Year with God. Our original calendar came from Lakeshore Learning Curriculum. A little over a year ago, after our dog chewed most of our month pieces and part of our calendar, I found a slightly smaller calendar at Joann's Fabric and Craft Store for a couple of dollars that fits better with my homemade saint pages.

We have a calendar that is published by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter hanging in our kitchen and we are parishioners at an FSSP parish. Therefore, I use this calendar as a guide for my family's wall calendar. After speaking with my friend last week, I thought that some families might appreciate it if I shared my saint pieces for May's calendar. As already mentioned, this month's pieces were made using the calendar published by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter as a guide. If I have made any errors, please don't hesitate to let me know.

If families are interested in using these pieces, I will try to remember to share them each month.

Download pdf of May's Saints

Heat Rises

Finnian: "I am hot."

Patrick: "Well, Finnian, you are wearing pants. When it is hot outside, you should wear shorts because heat rises."

Sugar Cookies and Icing

These sugar cookies are more like shortbread cookies. They are not very sweet which means sweet icing complements them perfectly. The almond flavor of the cookies and the sugary sweetness of the icing taste very good together.

Supplies:

• Cookie cutters
• #2 metal tip (we use Wilton, sizes vary between brands)
• Various other metal tips (optional, depending on how you want to decorate your cookies)
• Mixer
• Pastry bags and/or squeeze bottles (I would like these and maybe these.)
• Toothpicks and cornstarch*

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tsp. almond extract**
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 5 cups flour, sifted

Directions:

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Mix in egg, almond extract, vanilla, and flour. Roll dough into two individual balls and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill dough until stiff (about an hour). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough to 1/4" thickness on a well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (I prefer doing the latter). Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should not brown. Decorate when cool. The number of cookies will vary, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 Tbsp. meringue powder
• 5 Tbsp. water
• Gel food colors

Directions:

Mix all ingredients on low speed until peaks form. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. This icing is good for piping on the cookies. Store the icing in an airtight container.

We divide the icing into a couple of airtight containers and use the gel food colors to color the icing. We begin by piping the icing on the cookies. Once all the cookies have piping around them, we take some of the icing and thin it in separate containers.*** Place the thinned icing in the squeeze bottles to flood your cookies. Let the cookies dry thoroughly (we leave them overnight), and then decorate as you wish.

*We use toothpicks dipped in cornstarch to move stray piped icing. Clean toothpicks can be used to put a little color in the flooded icing. The toothpicks can be dipped in the gel food color or thinned icing and applied to the flooded icing on the cookie (we did not do that with these cookies).
**Lemon zest, lemon juice, or  lemon extract can be used with equally good results. That being said, my children prefer the taste of the almond cookies.
***Add one teaspoon of water to the icing at a time to thin it. If the icing becomes too thin, add a little powdered sugar.

Enjoy your cookie baking and decorating!

Wise Pondering

The other night during dinner, I mentioned something about wisdom. One of my children responded, "I would rather be a fool and alive, than wise and dead." Before I could say anything, Theresa said, "I would rather be wise and dead. If I were a fool and alive, then I would commit sins like fools do." Without missing a beat, my husband chimed in, "He who truly fears the Lord, has no fear of death."

I love my family.

Turning the Other Cheek

Sibling: "Patrick, your 'r's don't look right. They're supposed to be in the lines, not up there."

Patrick: "If you don't like my 'r's, then you should see my capital 'D's."

Me: "What's wrong with your capital 'D's?"

Patrick (showing me one of his 'D's): "Look."

It looked fine to me. Truth be told, Patrick's writing may be neater than the critics, but I'm not going to say anything. :)

Lighting of the Easter Candle

Elizabeth fell asleep on our way to Mass on Holy Saturday, so we laid her down in the pew and I stayed inside with her while the rest of my family went outside for the lighting of the Easter fire and the Easter candle.

As everyone processed back inside, the scent of beeswax filled the church and I was happy to respond, "Deo Gratias" to the "Lumen Christi".  The Easter Vigil always takes my breath away.

Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia!

Eastertide Daybook

I hope that everyone had a joyous and blessed Easter.

Outside my window...

The sky is blue and it is supposed to be another beautiful day. I think that it was in the 70s on Easter Sunday.   We are on Easter vacation this week and thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather.

In the kitchen...

Catherine made our lamb cake for Easter and did a much better job than I did last year. The boys used all of my wood skewers for arrows again, so we didn't have anything available to place a flag in the cake.

We finally made sugar cookies to give to friends as Easter gifts. I have been wanting to do this for a few years, but never got around to it. The children had a lot of fun making them and eating them. Yesterday, Elizabeth said, "Mommy, all those yummy cookies are gone. Can we make more?" Hopefully, we will have time to do so soon.

I am listening to...

Theresa talking to Kieran. He absolutely loves her. If he isn't in my arms or playing next to me, he is usually with Theresa.

I am wearing...
a jean skirt and a red shirt.

I am praying for...
my family. I am also praying for friends who are pregnant.

I am thankful...

for the beautiful weather and that we are on Easter vacation. The children have been helping in the garden this week. We also spent a couple of hours at the beach. Brendan, Theresa, and Patrick had fun skimboarding. I was very thankful to a young man who gave the children some skimboarding tips and loaned them one of his boards.

We were able to have our Easter egg hunt outside this year.

In the learning rooms...

Catherine is crocheting roses for Elizabeth. All of the children are enjoying the books that they received in their Easter baskets. The girls are practicing for their piano and violin recitals. Brendan wants to go skimboarding again. We're enjoying our vacation.

Living the Liturgical Year...

We were blessed to have Fr. Skeris visit our parish for Holy Week and Easter. On Palm Sunday, he chanted the Passion along with our pastor and our assistant pastor. He has an amazing voice. Once again this year, we went to the Triduum Masses and service. Brendan served as Crucifer on Holy Thursday. Kieran and Elizabeth slept through the Easter Vigil which allowed me to fully participate in the Mass. This Friday and Saturday are the firsts of the month and we will be going to Mass again. I love the Catholic Faith. Christus Resurrexit!

I am pondering...
these passages from Story of a Soul:

“As little birds learn to sing by listening to their parents, so children learn the science of the virtues, the sublime song of Divine Love from souls responsible for forming them.” (p. 113)

 “…joy isn’t found in the material objects surrounding us but in the inner recesses of the soul.” (p. 137)

I am reading...

Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux. I cannot help but wonder where my mind was the first time that I read this book. I remember enjoying reading it; however, I do not remember it being so rich in wisdom. I am thoroughly enjoying reading St. Therese's words.

Plans for the rest of the week...

We will be going to First Friday and First Saturday Mass.
We're going to visit with one of my husband's old college friends.

I will be getting ready to start teaching my children again next week. I have been doing a little reassessment, trying to determine how best to help each child spiritually and academically.

A picture thought...

Happy Eastertide!