Oh, good! A simple Lenten Craft

We finally put together our Stations of the Cross candles today. This is something I've been meaning to do for awhile. I found this idea while perusing other great blogs for ideas for this season. I'm not sure how I found it, but I probably clicked on this blog first, then ended up here, and finally, it linked me to this great idea from the Tucker bunch over at Just Another Day In Paradise. One of those things, like, how did I get here??? Story of my life! One of the things that is different than the link is that I printed out the Stations of the Cross here which were very nice and child-friendly.

I lit the candles, and the kids took turns holding up the coloring pages while I read each Station. Than the child holding the picture got to blow out the candle for that Station (their favorite part!)

A little cluttered up there!

Daddy got home in time to help...B wants to crinkle the coloring page!

Carrots!

CAM 2009! Mount Aventine

Sunday evening brought us to Mount Aventine.

On the MGS forum:

We trekked south today after an event at church. There were a few cars in the parking lot, but none of them turned out belonging to cachers, just dog walkers. The kids enjoyed walking along the path, playing tag and catch with a ball they found early on in the hike. Coming around the bend in the road bringing the mansion into view through the trees was quite a site. The view only got better as we went around the back of the house. We walked down the hill (some of the kids rolled down ) to the edge of the woods and sent the big kids in to look for the cache. Joz and B-Rad had it in hand in no time. They all enjoyed finding some good stuff inside and then ran down to the bottom of the hill. It was quite windy but what a great view! Once again, another great CAM location! We have really been enjoying the CAM hides this year and don't expect to be disappointed by any of the remaining four. We took lots of pics of the view and the kids in front of the house and on the trail. We will upload them to the gallery soon. Seven down, four to go! TFTC!


Mount Aventine is #7 of 11!

Living Stations

Ryan and I see it 2 different ways, as 2 individuals should. The dear woman who was in charge of putting together the Living Stations this year at CHA mentioned how she didn't have many men sign up. I said I would ask Ryan if he would like to do it, so when he walked up, I asked, and he did the ol' shruggin' his shoulders "Sure". (I thought he was going to decline). Ryan says that I already committed him to doing it, and I was just asking him again. Either way, he did a great job as the "good" criminal in Stations 10-13.

CAM 2009! Blockhouse Point

Saturday afternoon brought us to Blockhouse Point.

On the MGS forum:

We went for this one late Saturday afternoon. Momma got her hair did earlier in the day. (Yes, despite Bigg Daddy's grumblings, some things are more important to Momma than geocaching!) Too bad it was a crummy day. The rain was spitting down on us, the path was thick with mud, and the fog was thick with...fog. After parking, we loaded up the babies in the double jog stroller, and headed down the trail. Bigg Daddy noticed that one of the tires was flat! No worries, he filled it with air. Less than a quarter mile in, our 3 year old, Seany, decided he wanted to be carried, so BD put him on his back, while Momma pushed the babies. The GPSr tricked us into going the wrong way at the split, but we quickly turned around, and went up, up, up, the right trail. We all kept our eyes peeled for horses on the trail, hoping to pass one so Rayzor could get a pic for his photography class assignment. No horses, just smelly evidence that horses had been there. Rayzor made the find on this nice big cache. The kids traded goodies and had some snacks. We didn't have much of a view of the river because of the thick fog. We posed for a group shot and headed out, anxious to get out of the rain. We stopped to check the other cache along the trail but fussy babies were ready to go. Once again, we passed Janji, Sima68, Tripmeister and Pasquali on the way out. We apparently share a CAM strategy and expect we will run into them again. Nice to see you all again! Although the weather was crummy, we enjoyed this park and nice trails. The kids had fun exploring off the trail as we went and the trail worked well with our stroller.


Blockhouse Point is #6 of 11!

CAM 2009! Hall Creek

We decided to go to Hall Creek Tuesday evening!

Located in Hall Creek Natural Resource Management Area. Hall Creek is a hunting area, but the cache is located in the Safety Zone. The park opens half an hour prior to sunrise and closes half an hour after sunset.

This area was once the location of a Ferry carrying crops to Baltimore. Cache overlooks the Patuxent River and Prince George's County.

On the MGS forum:

CAM fever brought us out for this one on Tuesday evening. We had fun this past weekend and were ready for more after resting on Monday, plus this one is only about 40 minutes from home. This is a great park! The kids had fun goofing off and playing tag along the trail and then running down the hill towards the water. They ran past the cache so we had to call them back up. I think they were more interested in getting to the water than the cache, but then finding a big, well stocked, kid-friendly cache changed their mind. Our swag bag was empty (we need to hit the dollar store!) so we left a $5 in exchange for the goodies the kids grabbed. We posed for a group pic, using the timer feature on the camera and were off to explore the waters edge. There were a couple of fishermen but otherwise we had this great park to ourselves. Rayzor took some photos of the sunset on the water for his photography class assignment that came out well. They have been added to the gallery. On the way out we stopped for the other cache in the park and a few more in Dunkirk before hitting Ledo's for a great dinner! Overall, this was a simple, but pleasant CAM cache. The park was fun, the cache was full, and the sunset on the water was a treat. Great pick for CAM!




Hall Creek is #5 of 11!

Assignment #5

CAM 2009! Gillis Falls

Gillis Falls was our last CAM cache on Sunday.

CAM 2009-Gillis Falls is located in southern Carroll County. The drive to the cache passes through farmland, small towns, and forest. The nearby stream, Gillis Falls is a quiet spot to stop and have lunch. There are 3 existing caches nearby.

On the MGS forum:

As we were loading up to hit the trail, we saw someone stabbing trash from afar. It was redlights doing some CITO! We geo-chatted a bit, and he warned us about the thorns with the kiddos. We love the fact that cachers are always looking out for other cachers. We knew, with the help of the clue, what we were looking for. We walked past the trail to gz, so we turned around. As we were getting close to gz we ran into gr8caches and 2Lovies. We geo-chatted and Mrs. 2Lovies admired Joz's buttons! We posed for pictures and headed back to the family truckster. We thought we could do one more CAM cache, but it was getting too late. We did 4 this week-end. It wasn't as much as many, but each one was special, each one was hard-earned, and each one was enjoyed by the adults and children of this party of eight.

Gillis Falls was #2 of 2 CAM caches on Sunday, #4 of 4 CAM caches for the week-end, and #4 of 11 overall!

CAM 2009! Fort Frederick

Sunday afternoon brought us to our favorite CAM 2009 cache so far, Fort Frederick.

On the MGS forum:

We pulled into Fort Frederick on a beautiful Sunday. The big kids jumped out and started playing tag. They usually do that while we are loading up our gear and figuring out things with the babies. As we gathered information coming out of the Fort, we ran into BJ&Snurt. It was nice talking to them and as we were slowly finding out the needed information, they graciously let us go ahead of them. We walked up to gz at the same time and our kids found it! right away. At this point, Baby Bennett was a little fuss-fuss, so BJ worked her grandmother magic and had him giggling and laughing in no time...Amazing! We posed for pictures and parted ways. This was our favorite so far...cool fort, beautiful landscape, lots of area to run, and easy hike! Of course, we turned this cache into a fun lesson! Bigg Daddy ran into Hitech MD and J.T. from 3's Company briefly, and also the 8Searchers and Hostanut! We were all excited to see the 8th Searcher and he was SO cute all snuggled up in the baby carrier! We chatted about our CAM game plans and then were on our way to Gillis Falls!

Fort Frederick was #1 of 2 CAM caches on Sunday, #3 of 4 CAM caches for the week-end, and #3 of 11 overall!

CAM 2009! Fifteen Mile Creek

Saturday afternoon brought us to Fifteen Mile Creek.

This cache is located in Green Ridge State Forest, near Fifteenmile Creek.

Green Ridge is the second largest of Maryland's State Forests consisting of a 46,000-acre oak-hickory forest. It is located in eastern Allegheny County, approximately eight miles east of Flintstone off I-68 at Exit 64.

The forest is located in the Ridge and Valley Province of the Allegheny Mountain chain. The average annual precipitation is 36 inches, the lowest in the state. Town Hill, Green Ridge and Polish Mountains elevation varies from 475 feet at the Potomac River to 2,039 feet on Town Hill. Magnificent views of the surrounding landscape can be seen from Point Lookout, Banners, Logroll, Warrior Mountain and No Name Overlooks. Rich in history, the forest was once the site for the Carroll Furnace, originally built as part of a steam powered saw mill in the 1830's.

On the MGS forum:

When we arrived, Janji, Tripmeister, Sima68, and Pascali were on their way back to the car. We asked them about the terrain, to see if the jog stroller could handle it. They told us about the stream crossings, so we wisely kept the stroller in the family truckster. We decided to wear a couple of kids for this one. Before we started, we ran into Hitech MD and J.T. from 3's Company. We geo-chatted a while and parted ways. As we started out, we ran into Ladybug45 from Delaware. She decided to join us. We warned her about our slow-goings, but she just chuckled and seemed happy to be walking with a group. She radio'd Mr. Ladybug, who was waiting in the truck for her, reassuring him that she ran into another geo-family. Amazingly, the time flew by as we walked and geo-chatted with a cacher who we felt we knew, but had never met before. Our 11 year old son loved this one, something about a boy and a crik. We found the cache, posed for pictures, and headed back. Our son spotted the rusty car, and we all tried to think of ways that it got there. We ran into Team Yinyang, Boo Team, and Shady on our way out. That was it for us on Saturday. 2 down!

The car on the mountain!
Fifteen Mile Creek was #2 of 2 CAM caches on Saturday, #2 of 4 CAM caches for the week-end, and #2 of 11 overall!

Why I Stay Home: Faith & Family Live!

Why I Stay Home: Faith & Family Live!

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CAM 2009! Hoye Crest

We want to document our CAM (Cache Across Maryland) adventures this year. For those who don't know, this is a geocaching event, sponsored by the Maryland Geocaching Society.

Cache Across Maryland is a geocaching tour of Maryland. We have placed brand-new caches in various locations across the "Old Line State". To attend this event, you must find all of the CAM 2009 caches. Each cache will give you information (a letter) that will be important to finding the event location. Be aware that CAM participants logged an average of 1000 miles in their trek around the state in previous years!

The process for participating in CAM 2009 is as follows:

1. Go to http://www.mdgps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5385 for updated information about CAM 2009.

2. Full cache pages will be made available to all CAM participants on Saturday, March 21, 2009 sometime after 6:00 AM. This information will be posted on the MGS website, http://www.mdgps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5385

3. Find the CAM caches placed around the state. They are generally rated about 2/2 on the "star scale". No special equipment will be needed to find any of the caches. Each CAM 2009 cache contains a means of verification (a letter)--don't forget! Sign the cache's log book and make a trade if you wish. Please do not leave trackable items in CAM caches prior to May 2, 2009.

4. When you have found the CAM caches, send an e-mail to 2009CAM@mdgps.org. Each USERNAME needs to send an e-mail, so that the correct number of participation prizes can be brought to the final event.

5. At the end of April, a decoding key will be provided to allow you to determine the secret picnic location. This event site is somewhere in Maryland. The final event is not at the listed coordinates.

6. Bring your favorite potluck dish and your completed decoder card to the picnic on Saturday, May 2nd at 10:00 AM. This will happen rain, snow??, or otherwise.

7. You may log the individual CAM 2009 caches you have found, and this event, on or after the picnic date of May 2, 2009. Feel free to join us in our CAM Forums and share your experiences.

Our first CAM 2009 cache brought us to Hoye Crest on Saturday morning. We decided to go to the furthest one first, since we were in Cumberland anyway, picking up R at Pop's house.

Here is what we wrote on the MGS forum for CAM:

This was our first stop for CAM after starting out in Cumberland Friday night. We didn't see the pdf's, just the description that came with the gpx file in easygps, so we never saw the "no kids" attribute. This was a great hike that we are now proud to have accomplished, but are disappointed that a "no kids" cache was chosen for CAM, a fun, family-friendly event. The trail near the parking lot looked manageable for the double jog stroller we decided to use, but we definitely would've been better off without it. We only had our 4 boys with us: ages 11, 3, 18 mos. and 6 mos. The 11 year old hiked with no problems. Our 3 year old walked part of the way, and was pushed in the stroller with our 18 mo. old. Momma wore our 6 mo. old in the baby carrier. We ran into Mr. L2K near the top as he waited for Mrs. L2K. He gave us some encouragement and directional guidance. Once we got near the top where the path narrows, Momma told Bigg Daddy to go on ahead with Rayzor and she would wait at that point with the little boys. The SillyPatch family passed us at this point. Momma talked to Tripmeister, Sima68, and their crew before they went up the mountain. BD and R caught up with SillyPatch and shared in the find. We stopped for some pictures, grabbed our certificates, and were proud of our accomplishment. We ran into more cachers on our descent, including Shady (thanks for the kudos!). It's really fun meeting up with other cachers on the trails which doesn't often happen on regular caches.

R at the MD/WV border marker #3

R at the highest point in MD

On the way here, we passed by this interesting place, and decided to stop on the way back!


Hoye Crest was #1 of 2 CAM caches on Saturday, #1 of 4 CAM caches for the week-end, and #1 of 11 overall!

More Geocaching!

(Photography by Ryan, Amy, and R)

St Joseph

Nothing is known of St Joseph except what is said of him in the Gospels. He was a carpenter; he accepted the will of God; and he supported Mary and brought up Jesus. From the human character of his son we can see that he was a good and responsible father. Although he is not officially a patron saint, he is widely venerated as a patron of artisans who honourably do good work with the gifts God has given them, and of workers in general. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

H/T Universalis and Wikipedia

Our St. Patrick's Day

Ryan's masterpiece!

The Clan

Making our own green beers

Corned beef and cabbage, Guinness beer bread

Assignment #4

Sign the Declaration~Kid-Safe Chemicals Act

http://www.kidsafechemicals.org/

St Patrick

He was born in Roman Britain around the end of the 4th century, and died in Ireland about the middle of the 5th century. As a missionary bishop, he endured many hardships and faced opposition even from his friends and fellow Christians. Nevertheless, he worked hard to conciliate, to evangelize, and to educate local chieftains and their families. He is remembered for his simplicity and pastoral care, for his humble trust in God, and for his fearless preaching of the gospel to the very people who had enslaved him in his youth. See the articles in Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

H/T Universalis and Wikipedia

Floor Baby

(enhanced with music)

MNCPPC Park Ranger Geo-Challenge

The Longest Nine Seconds of My Life: Faith & Family Live!

The Longest Nine Seconds of My Life: Faith & Family Live!

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An Impromptu Visit

We had planned on going to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Washington D.C. today, so that meant we would have to go to 9:00 Mass this morning. At 8:45 a.m. we still had 1 child sleeping, and we were not ready. Last minute change of plans...let's attend 10:00 Mass at St. Patrick's downtown and then go to the parade!


(Ray's Parade pictures to follow!)

Seven Quick Takes~3/14/09

1. I took E to the dr. on Tuesday. He's got some wheezing and is on breathing treatments (nebulizer) for the next few days or so.

2. Most every one of the kids has a cold. (We even missed our homeschool co-op :() S has it the worst right now, poor guy. I'm hoping they get better by Sunday. We were planning on going to D.C.'s St. Patrick's Day Parade.

3. We watched Jesus of Nazareth off and on tonight, mostly on. I really love this movie. Especially at this time of year.

4. I call Baby B my Floor Baby. He loves to play on the floor! Rolling and playing, digging his heels into the carpet to lift himself up. He just wants to go!

5. E was so funny today. I kept asking him questions and he would answer "YEAH". Do you want to go to sleep? Yeah. Is your shirt red? Yeah. That had us giggling.

6. I finished The Shack by William P. Young. I can't say that I loved it, I guess I liked it. I passed it on to Ryan and now he is halfway through. (The 2 of us have our own book club...HA!)

7. I've set up some lists and plans thanks to the inspiration of Elizabeth over at In the Heart of my Home. I used her guidance for the time online plan, made up our own meal plan for the week, and made up our own "spring cleaning" plan. She has a beautifully written article at Catholicherald.com titled Prioritizing for Peace that really put things into perspective for me.

Go check out more Seven Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!

Preparation

Well, I figured out where I found the idea for the "sacrifice jar"! It came from Karen Edmisten :) We've been working on some other Lenten projects, too. We got these ideas from Charlotte over at Waltzing Matilda. Here are the kids working on our table centerpiece...



Another idea was to wrap our religious items in purple ribbon...


Here is a picture of our plain wreath. J wasn't really happy with it, because of its "plainness", but it seems to suit the season.

Finally, we wrote down our prayer intentions and made a prayer chain...

We Marched for Life!

Tonight was the Maryland March for Life! We weren't planning on going, but decided to this afternoon. It was emotional for me. I was glad we were all there together. At one point I looked at Ryan and asked him if he thought 15 years ago that he would be at a March for Life voluntarily, and he just shook his head! The younger kids didn't "get it", but R did. It started with a Mass at St. Mary's in Annapolis, and then we marched! How fitting that afterwards, as we were walking back to our car, R turned to me and said "Thanks, Mom". I know why he said "Thanks". He said it because we were there, out, all together. He is a very grateful kid. But at that moment, after the Mass and the words said by Archbishop O'Brien and the walking, and the happiness on everyone's faces, I took his thanks to heart in a whole different way. And we held hands as we walked back to the car.

Family Lenten Project and Calendar

We've been busy this week with our Lenten projects. The first thing we've done is made a calendar for this season.

This was an idea we got out of the book Guiding Your Catholic PreSchooler by Kathy Pierce and Lori Rowland. Luckily, we were able to have a model of this, because of Jessica over at Shower of Roses. She has done the same calendar the past couple of years with her kids, too. If you click on the link to her blog, you can see that she explains what is on the calendar! Basically every day you pray, fast, and give alms. The prayer is the Children's Daily Prayer. They fast by taking one food from the cabinet for the poor each day.
The goal is to have a box full of food to give to a local food bank to help others. The last is giving alms, and on each day is written something to count, i.e. pictures or shirts. The number they come up with is the number of pennies that they put into a piggy bank that they've painted and decorated. The authors write that

"This daily exercise is an excellent way to take stock of all that we have to be thankful for, what excess we might be rid of, and what we are lacking in our home."

Finally we've also made a "sacrifice jar". Unfortunately, I can't remember which blog this originated from. Basically, whenever a child does a "sacrifice", they put a bean into the sacrifice jar, and on Easter all of the beans turn into jelly beans! B was all over this one.