My Direct Order from the Pope

Back in 2002, I was attending World Youth Day in Toronto. My husband and mom took care of my 3 kids and I attended events all week in the city.  My  friends and I tootled around Toronto as tourists in our own town. We had our printed schedules, but some of the most memorable moments seemed to happen by chance.

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Keeping the Love of Jesus… in Lent!

                                         

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What is your most unique or satisfying Lent ChallengeLeave a comment below!
We’d love to hear from you!


Take away something…but add something too!

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Hey Frankie…it’s a Snow Day!

Hi Frankie,
Sorry I haven’t been writing so much this week, but I’ve been pretty busy playing in the snow.You see, last Friday was a “snow day” which meant my older siblings were home from school because the buses were cancelled and most people were just staying home.  It was good to have them home, because we had a lot of work to do!

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Revolving Rosary… PRINTABLE!

***2015 Update: Deluxe Version of the Revolving Rosary Craft Kit

Available NOW: Mysteries of the Rosary with the Kelly Saints

6 different templates, fully illustrated with Kelly Saints, 3 distinct crafts including the Illustrated Revolving Rosary…with a few new surprises!

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Happy Saints Valentines…for 2013!

=&0=& say=&1=&=&2=&=&3=&I used my craft punch to make a circular window in the front of the cards to view the Saint on the inside.  We wanted to match up the Saints with the kids’ names…but except for =&4=& for Juan, =&5=& for Lauren and=&6=& for Frankie, we just don’t have Saints for most of the names of kids these days.  Bridget was happy to give ‘pretty girl saints’ to the girls and boy saints to the boys.Last year’s =&7=& looked like this:

I just love the excuse to sneak in Saints in place of Spongebob, Angry Birds, Barbie or whoever the commercial valentine packages feature.  Every chance I get…I like to remind the kids of these
Superheroes in Holiness!

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All for JESUS Lent Challenge

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I thought a neat way for both of our families and our readers to tackle Lent together would be for a good old fashioned All for Jesus Lent Challenge. Hey Frankie, just so you know, there are PRIZES!

So basically, every week people could choose their best =&1=& or a special chore they carried out, keeping Jesus’ Sacrifice in mind =&2=&.  They would visit either your Mom’s blog or my Mom’s blog and enter their weekly challenge after they completed it.  At the end of Lent, you (Frankie) and I could randomly choose a couple entries and those people would win a free download link to their choice of one of my Mom’s=&5=&=&6=& Now, just so all the nice people know…we’re probably going to be a little biased when we pick the winning entries. =&7=& People can enter by 1.  joining the link-up below =&8=& 2.  they can leave comments below that include the words=&9=& along with a =&10=& of the challenge that they conquered =&11=&(in case they win!).

My mom will probably add the first one in the link-up, but it might be kind of lame, because we’re just getting started (and she also doesn’t want to win in place of anyone else=)

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Year of Faith Tumble Tower

Another Converted 2 Catholic Classic Board Game 
brought to you by
Equipping Catholic Families!

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In honor of the Year of Faith, I decided to take
our family Jumbling Tower game
and convert it to Catholic!

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New Release: All Season Prayer Bank!

Every Lent, I start out with a lot of plans, to give up things, to do extra things, to clean closets and give away clothing and toys we don’t need, to go to weekday Masses, to bring out our =&0=&or the =&1=&and actually say the prayers as a family, to be strict about meatless Fridays and for all of us to walk around hand in hand and cheerful, but praying and fasting, all the time. This pretty much never works. School is busy, kids’ activities don’t stop, at least one family birthday sneaks in and usually our March Break happens, bringing with it at least 2 significant Feastdays. There are also usually Catholic conferences requiring immediate planning as well. I inevitably give up munchies … and end up getting just plain grumpy, with not a cheezie, cheeto or chocolate chip cookie in sight.In addition to a few things I have in mind for this Lent, I’m hoping to lead my family in a deeper commitment to prayer. At =&2=& we have just released our latest,=&3=& =&4=&.

This Cathletics Craft Kit offers instructions for a unique hand-made prayer bank to hold a collection of classic Catholic Prayers and Saint devotions.
When I say that the paper craft kit has been expanded, I mean it! 
It now features a cool envelope template, lots of clipart, 74 special prayers with graphics, along with over 25 prayer card templates for you to add your own prayers, composed at home, school or Church!  The little heartfelt prayers that our kids come up with are the best…and will be cherished for years to come!

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A Letter to Frankie about the All for Jesus Lent Challenge

Hi Frankie,

Nice to hear about your plans for Lent.  I like your =&0=&(wow, do you get to hold a candle?!?) and I think the counting to 40 after Grace before Meals is a simple, but pretty effective idea. I’ve been insisting on leading Grace for my family these days, but I think that they suspect that I don’t really know all the words.  I don’t think I can quite count to 40 (maybe 11, with a couple jumbled numbers?) but I bet one of my older sisters or brother could lead that.

Well, I showed you in my last letter some of the things my family has done for Lent in the past.  I like how your family does so many different things and you try to make them a habit for the rest of the year.  I suspect that our family will try to do one or two things…maybe even a different focus for each week in Lent.

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Adam’s got mail! Frankie’s Guide for Lent

=&0=& here’s Frankie’s latest letter over at Catholic All Year:=&1=& read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!
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