Celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Valentine This Week

'Tis the season for snow and saints days, I'd say.

Last week, we celebrated both St. Brigid Day...

... and Candlemas as a family...

... between shoveling and playing in the the feet and feet of snow we have had piling up.  

This week, if weather cooperates, we'll be hosting a small Our Lady of Lourdes celebration with one other family at our home, and, then, heading to a friend's home to honor St. Valentine with a group of folks from our local Catholic home education network.

However, because we're in the midst of a prolonged set of winter snowstorms and just about everything is thrown off by the need to shovel...

... and the desire to go out to play in the snow....
 

... I am keeping plans for this week's celebrations simple: 

An Easy Prep Our Lady of Lourdes Lunch "Tea"

It looks like our Our Lady of Lourdes liturgical tea menu will include:

• hot coconut-maple milk with cinnamon, which is fairly white, to remind us of Our Lady's purity (and will keep us warm if we've been out in the cold!)

• water, to remind us of the spring

• GFCF pretzel stick firewood to remind us of the firewood St. Bernadette was collecting when the apparition of Our Lady appeared to her

• blueberries to remind us of Our Lady, since one of her traditional colors is blue (and we like plenty of appealing produce power in our spreads!)

• sliced apple-pear, apple or pears, which are also white, reminding us of Our Lady's Purity (and keeping that produce power up!)

• cashews, which are whitish - again the purity theme - and are a much-loved protein for my kids

• blueish juice wigglers, for Our Lady's blue (and my children's delight, because they LOVE juice wigglers!)

• crepes, for France, where Our Lady of Lourdes appeared

• chocolate and/or cheese fondue with various fruits, vegetables and bread to dip in it, again for France (and because the other Mom is fabulous and suggested she could bring this fun dish!)

(Note:  Some of the links which follow are affiliate ones.  Should you click on any and make a purchase, we may receive small compensation at no extra cost to you.)


Activities may include:

• prayers to Our Lady.

• coloring or painting on printables of Our Lady of Lourdes from Catholic Playground

• reading Our Lady of Lourdes 

• watching Bernadette - The Princess of Lourdes 

• revisiting some of our favorite experiments with water from Amazing Science, Volume 1

Celebrating St. Valentine Twice

At the end of the week, we'll celebrate St. Valentine on our own with a family breakfast or luncheon tea, much likes those we have had in the past.

As a family, we'll revisit some of our favorite Valentine read alouds:

We'll also enjoy a group gathering at a friend's home with read aloud, refreshments and crafts.

How will you be celebrating saints (and snow, if you're buried, too!) this week?