We were sent a beautiful book that helps children pray along to the Rosary; Mysteries of The Holy Rosary, The Life of Jesus and Mary which is written by Jane Morrone and Heather Lean with illustrations by Yorris Handoko.
This book shows how to pray the rosary and portrays each of the mysteries of the rosary in beautiful illustrations. The images are a great visual aid to meditate while praying, very helpful if you tend to get distracted like me!
October is the month of the Rosary, and would be a great time to start (or restart) this beautiful family habit. Lord knows our world can use all the prayers right now. I have fond memories of saying the family rosary at 7pm while growing up. My parents would yell out "Rosary!" and whomever was home and wanted to join in would come down to the living room and pray together. We aim to do the same with our kids, though we are certainly not as diligent as we could be and are trying to recommit for the school year. Last night, we had a late dinner after a bunch of sports practices and games, and I played the rosary from the Hallow app on a bluetooth speaker as we ate. Not perfect, but we're trying like the "practicing" Catholics we are :)
Thank you all for your comments on the chores post. We've had some discussions with kids and made some improvements and lowered expectations as needed. Swim teams started this week, so we're at the pool from 4:30-6:30 most nights which means easy dinners for growing kids. I'm seeing lots of oatmeal, eggs, fruit with nuts, protein shakes, and chocolate milk in our future snack choices. After dinner chores are back baby, and we are trying to implement some help cooking meals. The teens truly are busy and such good kids, and I need to have realistic expectations for them. JP is getting a pass until he takes the MCATs this Saturday (yikes!) then gets a job and and then he'll contribute more or pay rent, his choice. I know I'll miss these days when they are gone, just trying not to lose my marbles along the way :)
Looks like a really beautiful book. We should look into getting that or something like it for Rae and Kay. They do like learning about their faith. We've hit a stumbling block at the new Catholic school with Rae saying half the girls don't like her (there are only like 7 or 8 girls in the grade). I told her to try harder, that they haven't known her long enough to not like her. Nothing is ever perfect, and I do think she contributes to the issue by not being very self assured or awake or something. We listen to a rosary podcast and have shared it with the kids, but Reg, as far as I know is the only one how listens to it. We've never done a regular family rosary. I like that idea. Glad the chores and expectation adjustment seems to have helped. Good luck to JP on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful book! Thank you for sharing. We have two volumes of Illustrated Rosary series here (https://www.amazon.com/Glorious-Mysteries-Illustrated-Rosary/dp/1947986066) that I keep in our mass bag. They are so helpful for the kids, and for me too, honestly!
ReplyDeleteHave you come across the Saints Around the World book by Meg Hunter-Kilmer? It's geared for young elementary age kids but honestly I enjoy reading it too. She came to our church once for a book signing and my kids were beside themselves (they love the kids episodes of her podcast, Hobo for Christ).
So glad you've found a better solution for home life. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm never going to land on the "perfect solution" for the end of all time. As kids grow and life changes (month to month, even!) we constantly have to re-work our expectations. It's kind of exhausting to have to make those decisions again and again and again but ultimately so important to make sure we're accounting for all those variables!
For my part, we have NO evening activities going on right now (which is like, unheard of for us for the past 3 years). I have finally had the time and energy to follow the house cleaning schedule I used to do regularly. When I was ready to pop with Elizabeth, we hired a neighborhood friend who cleans houses to come every 2 weeks and I kind of let everything slide beyond the bare minimum. She still comes but doesn't do a deep clean so the only time the house gets thoroughly clean is when we have company. The past few weeks I have been doing my normal rotation of cleaning 2 areas per day when I'm off work and 1 smaller area per day on a work day, and Nick has commented multiple times that I'm on "a cleaning rampage." I said "This is just what I used to do all the time before we were running around to kid activities every night!" We had to re-work our kid chore schedules for the school year too -- I now have the older girls rotating dining room cleanup every night (clearing table/wiping table/wiping down high chairs/sweeping the floor), then doing their own laundry on Saturdays. And I'm sure it will shift again once we get into basketball season.