Top 10 Tips for a Boy Going Away to Summer Camp for the First Time

Today, we dropped our youngest son off at a wonderful Catholic boy camp that he is participating in for the second year in a row.

I wish I could be there when he opens his bags tonight and starts finding the many paper hearts his sister and I cut out, wrote simple and silly messages on, and tucked into his clothes, his sleeping bag, his Bible... I am sure his expression will be priceless.

I am also sure he won't be expecting to have been "hearted", since last year I wrote him a full page letter for each day.

I do hope, though, that he will remember the Top Ten Tips for Camp that I included in his first day letter. 

I will share them here, followed by my closing words to him, in case you'd like to use them as a model for your own child as he goes off to camp.

Ten Tips for Camp

• 10. Use your Repel! Seriously. You don’t want bug bites ballooning up and you also want to try to keep ticks away.

• 9. Speaking of tick, tick check often and well, please. Seriously, buddy. Those things can be so tiny and hard to miss and they also can be damaging. So, do use your eyes and hands to do thorough tick checks, and, if you find one on yourself that you cannot get off, go see an adult for help.

• 8. Initiate new friendships while enjoying your current ones. Have so much fun with A and whichever other friends might surprise you by being there. Also, make new friends. Learn about where other people are from, what they are like, what they do. It can be such fun to build relationships with people from different places.

• 7. Have fun! And, if you find that you’re not having fun, go find some. So many opportunities await you…

• 6. Be courageous and take chances - but be careful, too.  With unwavering courage, try new things and enjoy learning more about other things - archery, shooting, sailing, crazy camp foods...Whatever opportunities arise, as long as you can tackle them with virtue and safety, go for it! This is your time for adventure and growth. Embrace it, even if it means being the first one to step forward…

• 5. Yet, don’t be afraid to step back or away when you need to. Sometimes we all need a bit of space, a time to pause, some sleep or just time to be. So, if you feel like you need to recharge, rest, think, pray, pause, rest, sleep, as long as it’s an appropriate time to do so, just do it. It’s totally okay, too. It’s even wise.

• 4. Don’t forget to shower, brush your teeth, and change your underwear. Momma didn’t buy you all those new undies so you could wear one pair all week and, trust me, your bunkmates and new friends will appreciate it if your breath is not terrible and you don’t smell. God gave you one body only - take care of it!

• 3. Did I mention have fun? Yes, I know I did, but I cannot help but to mention it again. I am just so excited for you that you get to have this opportunity. I never had an opportunity like this as a child and your brother and sister have yet to have one either. This week is a special thing. Enjoy it fully!

• 2. Know that we love you! Whole big, great big bunches. Dad, Mom, Luke, and Nina all love you, and Mommy will be praying your Guardian Angel watches over you well and that you grow in stature, wisdom, and joy while you are there - but not too much. You’re already growing too fast for me. Yes, Son, you may be becoming quite a young man - venturing away to camp for a week and all - but you’ll always be my little boy, I love and treasure you!

• 1. Unwrap the gift of the precious present you are living and, even if only for a few minutes each day, jot down some of your memories - things you are loving about camp, challenges you’ve faced, funny things, thoughts, emotions, beautiful and cool things you notice… whatever stands out strongly in your mind each day. I cannot wait to hear about it all. 

I have no doubt you will experience great blessings and adventure this week! You’ve always loved being outside, noticing nature, laughing, playing, and adventuring with friends… You’ve got a great heart and are affable. You’ll be being led by some fantastic men of faith. 

Oh, Son, I am just so excited for you and for the way this week may help you grow in relationship with Christ, others, yourself, and nature. Part of me, of course, wants to slow down time and keep you young forever. Another part cannot wait to see what comes next for you.

Enjoy this week without parental rules, siblings, chores… Praise God for the blessings of it.

I love you whole big, great big bunches!

Mom

P.S. Are you having fun yet???  Go have fun!

Did You Miss One of Our Top 10 Faith Posts of 2021?

Happy 2022!  May the new year bring joy and peace to your heart, home, and homeschool.

As my family and I look forward to all the opportunities ahead of us, I am also taking a look back at some of the ways we've lived, learned, and celebrated our faith. As I do so, I thought I would share forward our Top 10 Faith Posts of 2021 in case you would like to revisit a favorite post for inspiration, find one you missed, download a free printable, etc.

I pray that as you scroll through our Top 10 Faith Posts, you will find inspiration to continue to live and grow in faith with your family in 2022. 

Top 10 Faith Posts of 2022

~10~

This is the time of year when Advent/Christmas books are often on sale. You might like to pick these ones up. We enjoy them - and have shared a short list for each week of Advent.

~9~

Is it me or does it seem that some years the liturgical season of Lent seems to creep up so quickly after Christmas?

These 15 Ways to Prepare for Lent with Kids - and the ideas and traditions they include - might inspire you to be ready this year!

~8~

We had such fun putting together and performing a semi-spontaneous Christmas Epiphany Play last year and enjoyed doing so this year, too.

If you'd like a no-rehearsal, audience-participation play for next Christmas and Epiphany, feel free to use the one we shared.

~7~

Advent traditions are a beautiful thing, but as kids grow and life changes, some traditions seem to get forgotten, lost, or, at the very least, tweaked. Others, hold fast. 

This year, I asked my kids what their favorite traditions are so we could be sure to honor them this year - and to share them to, perhaps, inspire you.

~6~

Celebrating All Saints Day has been a long-time living-the-liturgical-year tradition here and we've ended up trying out a lot of games, activities, and themed-eats. This year, we shared our favorite five. Maybe they will become favorites for you, too.

~5~

Sometimes a motto read in a book for a Catholic mama's book club ends up getting passed along on a hike in the woods and, then, gets passed along in a blog post, which, oddly, becomes a top 10 in popularity for the year. This was one of those times. 

What mottos or tidbits from mama-reads have you passed onto your growing kids?

~4~

It was a delight to end up being asked to be on the judging panel for this past year's Mary Garden Contest put on by the Museum of Family Prayer.

The contest is an annual one, so you can look for it this year, too. Winners from last year can be found on the Museum of Family Prayer Facebook page.

~3~

It always surprises me what posts find their way into the top 10. Sometimes it's the ones where I am simply passing forward information, like in this one with it's prayer too beautiful not to share. 

It's truly a lovely, little short prayer taht I think you will appreciate.

~2~

As my children get older and our school-work-life balance gets even fuller, our efforts to live the liturgical year sometimes slip. Simple eats like the ones we enjoy on Saint Padre Pio's feast day draw everyone to the table to celebrate though.

What simple eats bring your teens to the table on feast days?

~1~

Have You Read Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers? You Must! It is truly a gem! I am so glad a local Catholic mama book club I sometimes participated in introduced me to it. It's an inspiring and practical read that you can access for free!

***

As I've said before: Please never be shy about making any requests for content you'd like to see here! Like many folks who share online, I have more ideas in my head than focus and time to share about them all. So, I like to tailor what we share about here to what you'd most like to see. I can only do that if you let us know.

Please leave a comment here, let me know via social media, or just tell me next time you see me (since some followers here actually know me in real life, too!)  We love feedback! 

Oh, and if you'd like to browse past Top 10 collections, find them here.

May God bless you a yours 2022 unfolds.

Did You Miss Any of our Top 10 Faith Post in 2020?

Happy 2021!  I hope your year has started with many blessings.

Ours sure has. Some challenges, too, of course. But, many blessings as well.

One such blessing is the promise of the year ahead and all the opportunities there may be to live, learn, and celebrate our faith - and to share some of what we do here in case it helps you.

The other day, as I was looking back in order to plan forward for upcoming liturgical living, I realized I had never checked in to see what my most popular sharings of 2020 were.

Upon doing so, I quickly saw that among our most-visited posts were a combination of faith-related and review /giveaway ones. That made total sense, since, again in 2020, that is mostly what I found time to share.

In case you missed any of the Top 10 Faith Posts from 2020 - or just want to revisit a favorite post for inspiration or its free printable, I collected a linked list here for you.

I pray that as you scroll through our Top 10 Faith Posts, you will find inspiration to continue to live and grow in faith with your family in 2021. 

Top 10 Faith Posts of 2020

~10~

Perhaps the Lenten art, music, and poetry ideas that I prepared and shared for our AMP club last year can help you as you plan forward for this year's Lent.

~9~

We enjoyed celebrating St. Angela of Merici on Jnuary 27 with easy eats and conversation. 

Now is a good time to put simple eats on your grocery list in preparation for celebrating St. Angela of Merici this year!

~8~

Free printable copywork and journaling sets are helpful on saint days and any day.

If you missed our one for St. Bonaventure, get it here.

~7~

Celebrating Mama Mary and gardening are both worthwhile endeavors. Combining the two can be a fruitful delight. Perhaps, you might consider making an edible Mini-Mary Garden this year.

~6~

Pizza toasts are popular eats in my home. Retelling the story of the Passion as we make them makes them into liturgical living eats. Perhaps you'd like to do the same this Lent.

~5~

I got a message requesting the creating of an Act of Faith Copywork set and was happy to create and share one. 

Now, this year, my kids will be using this free handwriting printable to help prepare for their confirmation. Maybe yours can, too.

~4~

Saint Valentine's day will be here before we know it. Perhaps you' enjoy going on the same Nature Scavenger Hunt we did. Get a free printable hunt sheet.

~3~

Our Lady never lets us down. 

Help your children learn the short Memorare prayer so they can fly to her whenever there's a need!

~2~

It surprised me to discover that my request to join me in praying for wayward children became such a popular post. 

It broke my parenting heart to be in a position to make such a request, and I continue to appreciate and offer prayers to St. Augustine, St. Monica, and St. Ambrose on behalf of my child, myself and you and yours, if you need them, too.

I am confident our prayers are heard and, in the end, all will be well!

~1~

Prayer is such a vital part of life - formulaic and spontaneous.

It appears many appreciated the free Apostles Creed prayer copywork set I made. I pray that using it helped your children grow in handwriting skills and succinct, solid understanding of our faith!

If there are other Catholic prayers, quotes, or material you'd like me to create and share as free printable copywork and journaling sets, just ask. I am always happy to help as I can!

In fact, please never be shy about making any requests for content you'd like to see here! Like many folks who share online, I have more ideas in my head than focus and time to share about them all. So, I like to tailor what we share about here to what you'd most like to see. I can only do that if you let us know.

Please leave a comment here, let me know via social media, or just tell me next time you see me (since some followers here actually know me in real life, too!)  We love feedback! 

Oh, and if you'd like to browse past Top 10 collections, find them here.

May God bless you a yours 2021 unfolds.

Did You Miss any of Our Top 10 Faith Posts for 2019?

As we wind down 2019, I pray that it has been a blessed year for you and your are looking forward to a faith-filled 2020! 

If you're planning ahead for ways to celebrate faith as a family this year, perhaps scrolling through our Top 10 Faith Posts from 2019 will inspire you.

This year, when I took a peek at Analytics to see what my top 20 posts shared in 2010 were, I discovered that a large portion of them were faith-related posts. (There were a few popular review /giveaways ones, too.)  

So, today, I thought I would share our Top 10 Faith Posts from 2019 so that if you've forgotten an old favorite, your memory might be jogged, and, if you missed a popular post, you might discover it now.

I pray that as you scroll through our Top 10 Faith Posts of 2019, you will find inspiration to continue to live and grow in faith with your family in 2020.  

~10~

I love sharing lesson ideas, inspiration, and plans, especially when they combine our Catholic faith with outdoor time like this one for a Blind Listening Walk to remember the Holy Spirit.

If you're ever looking to connect lessons or outdoor activities to liturgical year, please just contact me through a comment here, or on our Facebook page and I'll be happy to see if I can help!

~9~

We are hit and miss with copywork here, so I sometimes try to fire us up again by making free copywork printables as I did with this St. Andrew Novena coppwork.

If you're ever looking for copywork to go along with a specific feast day, just let me know and I will whip up a printable if I can as a blessing to your children, my own, and whoever else stops by to download it.

~8~

I was surprised to see that a quick reflection I shared on truth, beauty, and goodness was one of the more popular faith posts that I wrote in 2019.  It warmed my heart to see that a reflective memory post was appreciated by others, since sometimes, although I started this blog in part as a place to journal family homeschool memories, I wonder if anyone ever really cares about such things.

I am delighted to see some still like to simply walk the journey together.

~7~

Our family continues to enjoy exploring art, music, and poetry with friends during once or twice a month AMP Club meet ups, and I am even happier when our meet ups dovetail with celebrating the liturgical year. Amplifying my delight even more is when I can share forward, as I did with our St. Francis of Assisi AMP plans, which, I now see, many of you appreciated, too.  Hoorah!

~6~

I have a confession to make: Using the free 3-2-1 Examen printable that I shared here did not become a journaling habit for my children as I had hoped. However, we do still do an oral 3-2-1 Examen more nights than not, and I am glad to see that folks reading here are interested in Examen resources, too. 

~5~

We have so enjoyed celebrating St. Joseph's Day with friends through the years and sharing about it here!

This year, we shared 4 Simple Steps to Planning a St. Joseph Table and, it seems, many were interested in those. I would love to hear about or to see pictures of your celebrations if you used inspiration from here. 

~4~

It appears that we're not the only ones seeking Catholic community since the 3 Truths of Building Catholic Communities was high on our Top 10 Faith posts of 2019.

I pray your Catholic community is thriving! Please let me know if I can ever be of help with providing tips, resources, or ideas specific to your needs.

~3~

My children are already growing out of some of our yearly traditions, but one Lenten tradition they still love is going egging on Spy Wednesday using a free printable that they helped design. Perhaps your children would enjoy doing the same!

~2~

My children and I did not get to all the ideas I put together for celebrating St. Jospehine Bakhita, so I will be looking up my own post for reference come February. I hope you find some inspirational liturgical ideas there, too.

~1~

How perfect that as I share this Top 10 Faith Posts of 2019 collection right before the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, the top post is 31 Ways to Celebrate Our Lady! I pray some of the ideas inspire you as you head into the new year while honoring Our Holy Mother Mary.

We pray you have a wonderfully blessed New Year and that, as you move forward with celebrating it, you are not shy about sharing requests and suggestions with us.

 
For, as always, we have more ideas and things happening here than we have time to write, so we'd love to spend the time we do have for blogging sharing whatever might bless you most. Do let us know which posts you've enjoyed and what you'd like to see in the future. 

May God bless you a your 2020 unfolds.

Did You Miss Any of Our Top 10 Faith Posts of 2018?

Happy 2019!  If you're planning ahead for ways to celebrate faith as a family this year, perhaps scrolling through our Top 10 Faith Posts from 2018 will inspire you.

Again this year, as we tallied our Top 20 most popular posts of the year, we noticed that there was an almost 50-50 split between faith-related posts review /giveaways ones.  Today, then, we share our Top 10 Faith Posts from 2018 so that if you've forgotten an old favorite, your memory might be jogged, and, if you missed a popular post, you might discover it now.

I pray that as you scroll through our Top 10 Faith Posts, you will find inspiration to continue to live and grow in faith with your family in 2019.  

~10~

Get Low-to-No Prep Symbols of he Holy Spirit Lesson Ideas

The ideas I put together for a Holy Spirit-themed co-op class I was teaching became a blog post, which became a help to many, it seems.

I love sharing lesson ideas, inspiration, and plans, especially about our Catholic faith.  If you're ever looking for any specific ones, just contact me through a comment here, or, better yet, through our Facebook page, and I'd be happy to see if I can help!

~9~

4 Things to Take Home from a Retreat

We were surprised to see that the quick reflection post I wrote after experiencing a wonderful retreat with Catholics Online was popular with others. We're not surprised, though, that the retreat was such a blessing.

Catholics Online is a helpful online resource and the speakers I enjoyed spending time with at the retreat are truly inspired people of faith.  If you're looking for great Catholic inspiration, content, products, and more, check out the Catholics Online directory.

~8~

Get a FREE Printable Holy Eucharistic Game Set!

Whether you have someone preparing for First Holy Communion or are simply studying the Eucharist, you might appreciate the free printable game set we created, used, and shared.

You might also enjoy our other First Holy Communion and game posts.

~7~

Enjoy FREE PRINTABLES for 2 Easter Nature Walks!

Nature study and themed-nature hunts are always a favorite for me, and it looks like others liked our free printable Stations of the Resurrection (or Via Lucis, Stations of Light, or The Way of Light) printables, too.  So glad!

You might enjoy our other free printables and Easter posts, too.

~6~

How We Plan Our Annual All Saints Day Party

All Saints Day is one of our favorite feast days to celebrate with friends, and we've become rather proficient at planning our annual local Catholic homeschoolers party.

So any people have asked how we do it, I finally wrote up a post to explain.  We also have loads of other All Saints Day posts filled with games and ideas.

~5~

3 Jars Can Help Your Children Remember to Pray, Fast, and Give

Our Pray, Fast, and Give jars have been a staple of our Lent and Easter celebrations for years, proving simple and meaningful.

We've also shared plenty of other Lenten traditions, ideas, and resources, so be sure to take a peek.

~4~

3 Ways to Celebrate the Assumption of Mary

The Assumption is always such a lovely Marian feast day to celebrate.  Find inspiration for celebrating it with your family and friends. 

You might also enjoy our other Mama Mary posts, too!

~3~

Get Ideas for 8 Marian Apparition Peg Doll Sets

Our Marian Apparition peg dolls have been finding regular spots on our liturgical shelf and at feast day celebrations.

We loved taking part in the swap, receiving beautiful dolls, and sharing oodles of related resources with you.

If you'd like to see our other peg doll collections, find them here. 

~2~

Get a FREE New Way of the Cross Nature Hunt Printable to Use This Lent!

We love free printables, and, obviously, others do, too.

Our second most popular faith post of 2018 proves that. 

So, if you didn't catch this post, click on through and print out a copy of our nature hunt printable to use during Lent this year.  While you're at it, feel free to check out all our Lent posts.

~1~

Make a September Prayer Shelf: Our Lady of Sorrows

We were surprised to find that so many people were interested in the prayer, links, and ideas that we shared along with a sneak peak at our September Liturgical Shelf. We are also grateful that, in seeing this was our top new faith post of 2018, we were reminded to get back to our initiative of creating liturgical shelf displays to help us recall each monthly dedication.

For, during Advent and the beginning of the Christmas season, we veered away from this initiative, choosing to display one of our nativity sets on our shelf instead of dedicating the space to the Immaculate Conception, but, now, this month, we may add something to remind us of the monthly dedication of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Creating these simple displays is a simple way for our family to stay focused on the liturgical year.  Perhaps you'd like to do similarly.

We'd love to hear which posts YOU liked best in 2018 and what you'd like to see us focus on sharing more of in 2018.  For, as always, there are always more ideas and things happening than we have time to write about, and we'd love to tailor what we share to what you'd like to read.  So, please don't be shy with requests and suggestions.  

May God bless you a your 2019 unfolds.