Celebrating Fitz & Alex: Their Sacrament of Baptism

 I must be nuts, because Saturday over 40 people packed into our little Pre-War cottage…Doesn't that make it sound fancy? I feel like it does…and we brunched and celebrated Fitz and Alex entering the Catholic Church.

After months of "putting it off," terrible, I know, I finally just booked it. Surrounded by love, Fitz and Alex received their very first sacrament!

The party was a blur. I know I had fun, and I think everyone else did as well, since we ran out of food and booze by about 3 p.m.

I knew the crowd we were inviting was a eatin' and drinkin' crowd, but sheesh, we killed a nugget tray, chicken salad tray and 14 bottles of champagne in three hours.

St. Therese, that idea to have both a candy bar for the little kids and a mimosa bar for the big kids was a great idea!

Gave everyone a lot of energy when it came time to get the glitter chalk out!

I ran around the night before and the morning of like a crazy person, and I am so, so, SO thankful my best friend from forever (and art school grad! and newly minted godmother!) was there to help. She did the most beautiful flower arrangements cobbled together from things purchased at Costco, Walmart and Winn Dixie.

I wasn't emotional like I thought I would be, and I wasn't as stressed as I thought I would be (during the party at least). I was completely at peace, and that 10000% has to do with my continued prayers to Mary's intersession for a successful sacrament and reception.

 Plus I had dove shaped cookies, so the Holy Spirit was on my side!

Maybe I have this mother thing down?

Maybe not.

I can't wait to share my faith, and our wonderful Catholic Church, with Fitz and Alex.

__________________________

Party details:

Invitations, menu cards, thank you cards: Shelby Berry

"Party Wares": cross confetti, mantle banner, plastic ware, napkins, balloons, etc.: Party City, Costco & Michaels

Serving pieces: My momma's stash!

Glittered champagne flutes: IKEA, with glittered stems of course!

Dove shaped cake pops: TK Cake Pops (they ship!)

Dove and Cross cookies: Ellen Hamilton (she ships!)

Chicken Salad Sandwich tray: Chicken Salad Chick

Chicken Nuggets: Chick Fil A

Fruit, Salad, Cheese: Costco

Candy Buffet: Party City & Fresh Market

**Photographs by the talented Shelby Berry**

St. Patrick's Day 2015

I love me a holiday. I mean, I am all about them. Normally I decorate my door, dining room table and mantle and use fun paper plates and napkins for the duration of the holiday season. However, this year, my St. Patrick's Day stuff stayed in a box until Sunday. #fail

We've made up for it though, using my cutesy shamrock napkins for every meal since, and I was still able to teach one of my absolute favorite lessons of the Faith Formation year, St. Patrick's Day! This past Sunday the third installment of Miss Jessica's class learned all about the life and times of St. Patrick, while having some fun along the way.

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As with years past, we filled out a worksheet sharing a few facts about St. Patrick. New this year was a video clip I found on some Pinterest round up, I think. It's from "up North" so my kids giggled at the narrator's accent the entire time, but it was a nice, succinct video that introduced a little of St. Patrick's history.

We made spoon saints again this year, and I finally got a picture! Personal victory!

Love this St. Patrick made by sweet KTH

The kids did great, as per usual! I was able to get all the supplies for all 22 of my kids for about $25 using a coupon at Michael's. Just my luck the paper wasn't on sale this week... I got the 12X12 pieces of green and yellow paper, then using my paper trimmer cut them into four separate pieces to pass out for the vestments. Instead of glitter this year we used metallic puffy paint and that worked out really well. There was a ton less mess.

Since St. Patrick is known for using the shamrock in the Irish countryside to teach the Trinity, and the Trinity is a concept we work on all year, I incorporated it into the spoon saint project. Just as a shamrock has three leaves but is one plant, God is three persons in one. The kids really seemed to get it—I was so proud! We wrapped green pipecleaners around three fingers and twisted them into a shamrock shape. It's so simple!

All you do is loop the pipecleaner around your first three fingers, wiggle the fingers free and bend the circles into place. Some kids struggled with this, and I ended up doing a lot of them for them, but some kids got it quickly and were able to help their friends. I loved seeing the team work!  I used the same somewhat crappy word search as I did in the past because I just flat ran out of time to make my own. It's not terrible, it's just not exactly what I would like for the lesson. There's always next year.

Hope your St. Patrick's Day is filled with all the blessings of St. Patrick, and a little Irish luck.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Dear Fifteen Year Old Jessica:

Well, you’re going to make it.

That’s the most important thing you need to know. Ten years later, and you’re still standing. You’re still a hot ass mess. You’re still a terrible driver. You still have terrible handwriting. Mallory is still your best friend. There are many “stills.” Life is going to go through so many not-the-same-as-it-was moments, little changes and big F’ing huge ones.

But in ten years you’ll see parts of the world you didn’t know were out there. You’ll fall in love. You’ll fall out of love. You’ll show yourself how strong you truly are.  You’ll survive driving down long dirt roads in the middle of nowhere scared out of your mind. You’ll realize how much you need your Momma. You’ll stop being such a complete pain in the ass to Mark and actually apologize and tell him you love him, because he deserves it. He’s just as much of your father as your Daddy is. You’re still standing because of them.

Dr. Engle’s advanced junior English class will change your life. Let it. You’ll write down everything and learn that writing will soon be the key to your future. Then one day you’ll meet your mentor, a little late in college but she will be there, and you will find your true career calling. You’ll become an interesting mix of pink fingernails and steel-toed boots. (Look up “logging” and “timber processing” on the internet, you won’t regret it.)

You’ll make plans with men, you’ll think you’re ready to change your last name, but then it will fall apart. And that’s going to be fine. You. Will. Survive. It will hurt like hell, but you will survive. There will be others, plenty of others you saucy minx, but one day, the most unexpected one will pop up and you’ll get butterflies.

You’ll quit that terrible smoking habit you seemed to have picked up, thank God. You’ll soon graduate from plastic bottles of vodka to glass bottles of gin. You’ll get too drunk. You’ll make stupid choices. You’ll have dance parties in your living room. You’ll be ok.

Finally, dear sweet naïve Jessica, hold on to your fire. You’ll lose it every now and then, but you’ll have it ten years later. That fire will push you and shape you and scare you but it makes you, you. Don’t ever forget that.

Remember to pray to St. Theresa, she is your Patron for a reason.

As Momma says: be safe, be smart and remember who you are. (No, she won’t ever stop saying that to you.)

I love you,
Twenty-Five Year Old Jessica

No Green Beer This Year

St. Patrick's Day (or St. Practice Day for the revelers that celebrated Saturday) for most people involved green beer (more green beer) and crappy food and things I pretty much earmark as an average day in the life of college me. 

I worked out at 9am on Saturday. I wore a green bikini to the pool Saturday afternoon. I GOT ABSOLUTELY TORCHED IN SAID GREEN BIKINI. It still hurts and I'm still cranky. I darkened my hair using my new favorite thing in the world, eSalon, before I went on a theatre and dinner date.

On the actual Feast of Saint Patrick, I did a little party for the baby Catholics. I spent a good bit of time last week trolling the interwebs, mainly Google; Pinterest has been overwhelming me in a bad way lately, for activities and crafts that would help convey WHO St. Patrick was and WHAT St. Patrick's Day really means to us Catholics. (Hint, leprechauns have nothing to do with it.)

Anyway, we did a word search as warm up and enjoyed donuts before praying the Breastplate of St. Patrick! The word search was okay; honestly, I will probably make my own next year.

Then we learned some quick "life and times of Patrick" while filling out this mini book. I loved this activity because my classroom has a SmartBoard and we were able to fill in the worksheets right on the screen. It was great.

Our final activity, which clearly highlights that I am infreakingsane, was creating spoon saints. I got the idea from Catholic Icing, my new favorite place in the world, who got it from Cottage Blessings.

The kids did great! I was able to get all the supplies for all 23 of my kidlets for about $15 using a coupon at Michael's. I got the 12X12 pieces of green and yellow paper, then using my paper trimmer cut them into four separate pieces to pass out for the vestments.

The glitter was an absolute F'ing disaster, but it made them happy and y'know whatever. (I'm pretty sure I still have gold glitter in my ear.) 

But in the end everyone was proud of what they made. I'm still kicking myself for not getting a close up of an actual spoon saint, but you live and learn right? There's anyways next year, because this is one craft I will be doing again. 

Lost Causes/Hopeless Cases

Thanksgiving night I was feeling overly full of food and drink, football and my family. As I mentioned a few days ago, I was also feeling a little blue. While I didn't wallow in my blueness on Thanksgiving I definitely noticed it. As I went to shut off my bedside lamp and get a few hours of sleep, I met my Momma at 6am to go shopping, I noticed a medal hanging from my lamp.

For those that are unaware, in the Catholic tradition medals of saints are worn to show a special closeness. For example, when I was confirmed I was given a medal of St. Therese of Lisieux, who is my personal patron saint. Medals of saints can also be worn of saints you feel a special connection, or request their special guidance. For example, St. John Neumann is the patron saint of Catholic schools, so a Catholic schoolteacher may wear his medal.

Anyway, dangling from my lamp was St. Jude Thaddeus' medal. I put it on that night have only taken it off to shower.

St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases and lost causes.

It seems fitting.

St. Jude, Pray for me that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in my necessities, tribulations and sufferings and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever. Intercede for us all, gracious, brother Saint Jude, and pray for us to the Lord our God in our daily toil and our necessities. Amen.

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