The Perks of Home Education

 This. I just love! One of the fantastic perks of  Home Education. When the weather is lovely we take our lessons outside and soak up that beautiful sunshine our Good God made for us. We can also bring to life what we are learning about. I just love the Builders of the Old World, it's one of our read aloud

books. In the chapter we were reading, we discovered the first paintings and had the perfect chance to make some prehistoric art ourselves with some charred leftovers from our fire pit!

This copy is from my childhood. I am not sure where to get it now. My dear mother saved so many of the books she loved from our homeschool days and passed them along to me! I am so grateful because of the fond memories I have from the times she taught us. I hope my children have wonderful memories too someday.    

There is just something so cute about tiny little toes...

Sts. Joachim & Anne Pray for Families Desiring Children

The journey of infertility and secondary infertility is a long and hard one. When my husband and I were married we really wanted to start a family right away and it was so discouraging that we could not get pregnant or stay pregnant. Finally, a couple years into our marriage we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl! Then ensued 3 years of secondary infertility. I am not sure which was worse the first round or the second round! So many mixed feeling about why did it happen before and it's not happening now, what's wrong with my body, why can't I do this! The stretch of infertility grew this third time around reaching nearly 4 years, but we are due in October with our first baby boy! We get the comments from people: wow you spaced that out great or perfectly. But no! That wasn't our choice! This ultimately reminds me that God is definitely in control and not us. When I was little about 12-13 years old,  I used to just pour over the old testament especially Proverbs and the Psalms and here is a verse that pops out so perfect for this and any other situation where we have all these ideas about how stuff is going to work out. “Many are the plans of the human heart,
but it is the decision of the LORD that endures.” -Proverbs 19:21

A perfect couple to turn to are the holy parents of our Blessed Mother Mary, Sts. Joachim and Anne! They were good God fearing people who deeply loved our Lord and prayed fervently for His will to be done. Back in their day it was shameful not to be able to have children and people even looked upon you like it was completely your fault and some side effect of personal sin if you were barren. What an awful trial to endure with such love and devotion to our Lord and people still scorned you just because of something not in your control! I can't even imagine.

Little is known or revealed about their lives, but they were finally granted in their very old age the blessing of a beautiful child, St. Mary who would become the Mother of God! One of my favorite books is titled the Mystical City of God by venerable Mary of Agreda a 17th century Spanish nun who this work was revealed to by Our Lady. It gives a wee bit of insight into the lives of these two great saints. You can find part of it in Audio and e-book for FREE at Mystical City of God.org Volume one (the Conception of Mary) contains quite a bit of information on the life of Sts. Anne & Joachim. Mostly how they lived in love for God and each other. It is a beautiful example that any married couple can follow and not just those suffering from infertility.

One of my favorite books and this was my grandmother's copy that she gave to me...

Sts. Joachim and Anne, lift up to our Lord the petitions of families desiring the blessing of children. You waited so patiently and long for an answer to your prayers, please ask for others suffering like you for the Grace to endure and accept God's decision in their lives. Amen

The Struggle is Real, but Rejoice in the Lord!

I doubt whether there are many perfect model mammas out there in the world. I certainly am not one of them, but if you are I am really happy for you and would hope maybe you could share some words of wisdom for the rest of us completely human ones! I strive and try my best to be that super mommy, but at the end of the day I still have laundry to do and maybe dishes too. I also have more than likely lost my cool a few times and get discouraged that after a great job cleaning my beautiful children have undone what took me a good while to accomplish in just minutes. At the end of the day we say our family prayers and I sink into bed asking Jesus to help me do a better job tomorrow!

All this week I wanted to get to daily Mass and it just didn't happen. I have one night owl todler that just wont sleep resulting in a real challenge to wake come morning, another older challenging one, and a baby on the way that is making getting things accomplished even more difficult. I am reminded by an old testament verse to rejoice because I serve a good and loving God! That wonderful God gave me my little blessings and when I look and see the simple joy in their smiling faces all the struggling and imperfection in my vocation melts away.

         "Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!”– Nehemiah 8:10

So if you feel the struggle is REAL too just remember that rejoicing in the Lord is our strength. A smile is contagious and so is a cheerful heart and even thru our struggles we can choose to be cheerful. Jesus came to show us the way and that way was paved with struggles. Don't beat yourself up if you are not the perfect super mom, because our Lord loves you and will carry you through your struggling imperfect day and even give you the all Grace you need to try and do better tomorrow!


                                                                                                                             

Children's Scapulars & FREE Coloring Page

I just finished up illustrating a cute saint image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and started thinking about how cute it would be to make it into a children's scapular. I like tiny scapulars for kids but most of them don't hold up very well for long, so I set out to make a sturdy one.

The strings are sturdy para cord at about 12 inches, just the perfect size for little ones. I have sewn around them 2x with a straight stitch ensuring the strings are well attached and then added a decorative blanket stitch in different color choices. You can find them in our shop  on Etsy at SaongJai

And here is a FREE coloring page for OL Mt. Carmel! You can find the whole collection of FREE coloring pages here!

Catholic Preschool Printables SALE

 

So how many of us out there wish there were awesome Catholic letter practice pages for our little ones? I know that I was one, but searching I found there were limited cute Catholic products on the market. You can find this amazing printable on sale right now over at www.etsy.com/shop/saongjai or by clicking on the SALE picture.

 

This amazing printable set of over 60 pages is on super sale right now until May 6th 2016! A-Z letter practice, numbers, colors, and coloring pages are included. The best part is that unlike a workbook where you only have one page for the letter being practiced the printable allows you to print as many of that letter that you want. There is still more greatness about this because a limited home use license is granted to you so you can print it out for as many kids and as many years as you need it.

 

Saints and Blesseds From A to Z a Children's Book

I am so excited to share with all of you the latest creative effort I have been plugging away at. A children's ABC book of saints. I am delighted to be illustrating these cute adorable saints and blesseds, bringing them to life for little children. Here is a small preview of the book.

Saints and Blesseds from A to Z by Aleesa McCarthy | Make Your Own Book

 

Attend the Catholic Conference 4 Moms Feb 20th

This Lent I am adding in some things to deepen my relationship with our Lord and not just cutting out some goodies or enjoyment. I think adding some great spiritual reading, a little extra time for prayer, and maybe a retreat. Have you heard of the amazing Catholic Conference 4 Moms? Well I went last year from the comfort of my own home and it was great! How often do you think you want to just get some spiritual refreshment but you either don't live anywhere near where a retreat or conference is taking place or also don't know how you would fit it into your schedule? 

There is a great line up of speakers and it's all professionally filmed for your viewing pleasure at the convenience of your internet capable device on February 20th. And there is more great news, I have a coupon code for you to use to make the already ridiculously reasonable rate of $14.99 even more affordable so use the Code HANDMADE when you click here to check out at Catholic Conference 4 Moms.

We gave a beautiful birthstone bracelet and custom patron saint kids Rosary set to the Catholic Conference 4 moms so they could give it away to someone who attends their online conference! Maybe it will be you...