Another great post

I am just amazed on how God speaks to me through the words of other Moms here on blogger. I invite you to go read this post over at Getting Down with Jesus.

Perfect People

There is this song on my blog music player called "Perfect People" by Natalie Grant. It reminds me that there is no such thing as perfect people. Even though we appear to be all perfect. We all have done something wrong in our past and though we try to hide it and patch it up like it never happen, we will never forget it happen.

I was reading 2 Samuel where David tried to hide his sin after committing adultury with Bathsheba. Then he ended up killing her husband. David a man annointed by God to be king of Israel, was a big time sinner. Yet God forgave him, when David repented.

We all have done something that we have tried to hide. But the truth always comes out. Nothing is secret to God.


"For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible, nothing is secret except to come to light." Mark 4:22

When I was younger, I wanted to be the best at everything. I wanted to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student. I tried my best to be good at everything. I socialized with good friends, I dare not hang around the wrong people. I thought I was better than them at times. Which is wrong. I see myselft now, how I was then, and I compare myself to one of the Pharisees.

And now I admit that in many ways, I hurt many people with my words and actions. I turn people away, because of their looks or because of who they hanged out with. Little did I know of the things that God was showing me. He was sending people to me that needed to hear his word. I turned them away. I did not listened carefully to God voice and his plans for my life.

Yesterday, as I was reading a post at Coming Clean: Confession of an Inperfect Parent it came to my memory all the times that I have blown it. Yes, I have. And I am truely ashamed and have repented many times of my past mistakes. And I know deep in my heart that I have been forgiven. I do not need to bring them up again and torture myselft with the past. It is done, I have repented, I have been forgiven.

But our enemy, brings our mistakes back into our memory, over and over. He reminds us of all those things, brings us back remorse and unforgiving thoughts. And we let him. We let him depress us and make us feel unworthy of God's love.

Do not believe the lies sisters and brothers. Put a stop to the devil, whose only purpose is to come and destroy our peace. Replace your negative thoughts with positive healing words.

I was forgiven, I am healed, I am loved by God. I am a child of God. A friend of Jesus.

The word of God is such a powerful tool. A healing, comforting way of removing all that junk from our life. That is why I daily spend some time in the scriptures. I meditate on them. What ever I feel that God is saying to me, I write it down in a journal. I remind myself during the day, what I have learned.

I am not a perfect wife or perfect mother. But I try my best to be the best I can be, not to receive admiration. But because I want my children to learn good things, and to put them to practice. Yes we do make mistakes, but we also learn from our mistakes. God's grace is so aboundant in this house.

I invite you to read the lates blog at Coming Clean, Melinda is an amazing person and I have learned so much from her. She has invited a guest to post in her blog and I was inspired by her post to write this post today.

Tomasita

All this morning, I have been working on my cloth doll. I searched my inventory of fabric and decided on what fabric to use for the body. The face and legs are made of felt. I cut out the pieces. For the body I chose this vintage skirt and cut the pieces for the body and arms.

And here she is all put together. I did not think of taking pictures of the process. Perhaps next time that I make another doll. This is my practice doll. I did a few of mistakes and had to fix them.

Daughter asked, what will I name the doll? I do not know. We looked at the calendar to see what Saint name was celebrated today. St. Thomas Aquinas. Well, lets call her "Tomasita"


Next I will be working on the Saints Dolls. Want to make stuffed dolls of the Saints. Using some of the ideas from Waltzing Matilda and Paper Dali. I want to make St. Therese, St. Francis of Assisi, and Mother Theresa.

Found a doll!!

It is not the same doll, but is similar. I will use this to help me make my own doll. Hopefully one day I will find the original doll.

A Cloth Doll

I am the one on the left, the one holding the doll is my cousin.

A Cloth Doll

When I was a young child, I remember playing with a cloth doll that my Grandmother had. What made the doll interesting to me was that her apron or dress was able to come up to her face and behind it was the face of another ethnic doll. I think it had about three different faces with different dress.





I always wanted to have that doll. When my grandmother passed away, most of her belongings stayed in her house. My aunt who was the actual owner, kept some of the things and some she gave away to relatives. The rest where stored in a room of the house. Later my aunt sold the house to another uncle. My uncle fixed part of the home and has made it into a guest house, since is right next to his house. Most of the furniture is still there. Some has made its way back to our aunt's house here in California.





When I inquired on the doll, no one knew what had happen to it. I have tried searching for an identical doll but I have not been successful. I do not know the name of the doll or who made the doll. Since I have not been able to find a replica, I thought perhaps I can do one doll myself. Of course it will not be the same but it will be made by me, and I will be able to share it with my grandchildren. I have a picture of the original doll, but on the picture you can only see the back part of the doll. So I will have to rely on my memory to make my doll.

The year of the Priest

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I became interested in the idea of displaying the liturgical colors in my home and learned that you can do this with a simple display of a cross dressed in the vestments that a priest wears during mass.


There are many different ways you can do this as you can see from the blogs I mentioned. I wanted to make it a little different. But still following the same idea. I looked for a coloring page of a priest so that my Priest display will have a face. I decided to use Miguel Pro. Over at Paper Dali they have a coloring page of Miguel Pro. You can make paper dolls with them and they have different outfits. Well here is the idea that I came up with using the coloring page from Paper Dali.

Father Miguel Pro with vestment
The Alb

I made the alb from a pattern that I got at St. Nicholas center. It is a pattern for a costume of St. Nicholas . You can download the pattern in PDF form. It took me a while to put it together. I used felt fabric. Since I have so much from Christmas projects, I might as well make use of it.

For the stand, I used popsicle sticks glued together with hot glue. I then glued the cut out of Fr. Miguel Pro on the stand. To make the alb fit over it, I folded the arms . The felt fabric made it possible for the arms of the alb to stay up.

Since this year is dedicated to the Priests, what better way to teach my children about priests and the liturgical colors used in the Catholic Church.

Liturgical Colors in the home

As I was searching for some activities for my children to do this week at home. I came across some great blogs of Catholic Moms.

I was introduced to "Father Pine". It is a siloutte of a priest with his hand lifted like the shape of the cross. And dressed in colorful vestments that represent the liturgical colors of the year.

My sister has been using the liturgical color in her own home. She has a big cross on top of her tv armoire. Every liturgical season she changes the drape on the cross according to the specific liturgical color. I have been wanting to do the same at my house.


Thanks to Jenn over at Wildflowers and Marbles for sharing this idea with us. You can see more ideas at this other blog Catholic Icing.

Walk for Life

This morning there will be a Walk for Life in the city of San Francisco. People from all over Northern California and other parts of the state will be coming together for one cause defending life.

Last year, I took part of this amazing walk. My first year attending a pro-life event. I was amazed on how many people where there. This year, I will not be able to attend physically. But my prayers will be with each and everyone there.

The reason why I am not attending, is that we did not plan ahead to go this year. And I was invited to a baby shower from husband's family side. What great way to celebrate today than at a baby shower. Life is such a precious gift. From beginnning to end. It is a gift from God that only he can take away.

For those of you able to attend, I will be praying for a bright sunny day. We had rainy weather in the Bay Area all this week. Hoping this will not interfere with any of your plans. Last year, it was a cold cloudy day. There were a few sprinkles but that did not stop the thousands of people that showed up to show their support to Life.

More pictures

Here are more pictures taken this week with my digital camera. Remember that I had told you husband purchased a new camera to use at work. And he gave me his old camera. I am so happy with it, because I just take the picture and right away I can share it with family via email or my blog. I also have myspace and facebook. But since I got familiar with the blog world, I rarely use those places. Well, Myspace more often, because most of my family have myspace. I get to communicate with them our update on what they are doing at the moment.

My sister is planning her sacramental marriage. I found out through her updates. I am happy because she has been married for seven years now and had not blessed her marriage in the church yet. We are all so happy for her and her family.

Back to the pictures, here is my knitting basket. I have a few skeins of yarn and a the book on how to crochet.

Next, this is the nativity scene that Mom let me borrow. The infant Jesus is the one I've had for a long time. He is dressed in a doctor's suit.

This is my prayer corner, on top of the buffet, you can see my favorite image of Jesus, Our lady of the rosary and our favorite Saints, St. Martin de tours, St. Martin de Porres, St. Jude, and St. Anthony. I have the candle on during the day and turn it off before bed. The rosary on the wall is a gift from my sister's compadres( god-daughter's parents).

And here is the newest addition to the family. Son's infant Jesus. Dressed in white and red with baby hat. All made by my dear Mother. Notice the pattern on the dress, a rose.

Update in Pictures

Here are some pictures of my adventures in knitting and crocheting. The projects are in their genesis, hopefully in a few weeks, I will show you the finished projects.

This first picture is the small purse, I did using the Afghan stitch, next to it is the start of a knitting project probably will be a scarf.

Second picture, I made a home for my needles and hooks,

following a pattern from a sewing book.
Here is the loom that Mom gave to me.
I am making a scarf for my daughter.


Here you can see the stiches completed.

And here is the prayer shawl, not yet completed.

Almost done with one ball of yarn.
You can't see the stiches well in this picture.

It almost looks like the size of a square pillow.

I still have more to go, but I am praying it will not

take me years to complete. LOL

I am hoping that I do not get bored with my projects and forget them in a corner. I need to remember that I am doing this to bless others. By praying over them and meditating on good things for each person. Not only will they be blessed with a gift, but I will be blessed by spending more time in prayer.

I realized yesterday, that Mom has blessed so many people with her gifts made with love and dedication. I still have those blankets she did for my children. They are treasures for me. And hope I get to do the same for my grandchildren when the time comes.

Hooked on knitting

I continue to learn the basics of knitting on my own thanks to youtube. I been looking at the different videos and the different techniques and practicing and practicing. I have paused the prayer shawl project for a while until I get know well what I am doing. I think knitting is easier than crochet once you get it going you just can't stop.

I'm amazed on myself how much I have learn in the last few days. But other work needs to get done here at the house. My son's room is still a nightmare. Toys everywhere, clean clothes all over the floor and this morning he could not find his shoes or backpack.

Daughter's room. Well, you can walk through from the door to her bed. Even though there is also clothes on the floor, barbie doll stuck in one corner. Her closet needs some work too. The problem is the TV. Kids spend to much time on tv. And when I send them to clean their room, the excuse is, " I have to do homework." And on the weekends, they just want to have fun and cleaning a room is boring.

But I have to fight the urge to just go in there and clean those rooms myself. My kids have to learn to keep their rooms clean and learn how to clean them well. Not just pile things in one corner and hide behind a curtain. Or under the bed. Put everything in the closet, close the doors and hope Mom does not find it. Please! When will they learn!

Is frustrating to repeat, over and over, hang it up, put it back as soon as possible. Dirty clothes go in the hamper not on the floor. I sound like a broken record.

If any one has an idea on how to get kids to clean their rooms without being asked and keep them clean, please let me know. I have tried all kinds of things and they work for a while and then become old and boring to my children. Daughter is 11 and son is 7 . Hopefully they will grow out of this before they get to be teenagers.

Quick update

I have been teaching myself how to crochet with this book I bought at Michaels. So far I done well. I finished one project. a small purse for my cell phone. I am crocheting a prayer shawl for someone who has leukemia. I am praying that the recipient be blessed physically and spiritually. I have been reading a lot about prayer shawl ministries and what they do to bless others in need. I thought that it will be something good for me to do. And at the same time improve my prayer life. It is a very relaxing technique. I pray the rosary along with a CD or while it is broadcast on EWTN or the radio. It is about 30 minutes and even though it seems I have not done much in my project, it is been a blessing to me.

I share this with my mother. She says that she has been praying during her knitting time also, lately and she is amazed on how much quickly she finishes her projects. Wow. Why had I not heard of this before? I could had done many prayer shawls already and blessed so much people. I love helping others, and I have been asking God to show me where he needs me. I think God has given this idea to me to start doing something that will bless others as well as bless me.

How will I be blessed? I will be spending time in prayer. I will be giving away something I have done with my own hands. And It does not cost much. For a ball of yarn (1 skein) about $2.50. My friend only used one ball of yarn to make a long scarf. I think that I will be able to make a shawl with two balls of yarn even though the book says you need more. I know that the Lord will provide.

I better, get to blessing my house. It is a rainy day here in the bay area. Husband will be home any minute. And he hates that I spending time on computer. After my daily home blessing (chores) I will sit down to continue knitting. Have a very blessed day.

Prayer Shawl

About a month ago over at Getting Down with Jesus, Jennifer wrote a post about a prayer shawl. Yesterday, when I was looking for the loom at Michaels, I saw a book that said, Prayer Shawl Ministry. I opened the book and was reminded of Jennifer's post. I did not purchase the book. Instead I bought another book that teaches how to crochet and included crochet hooks.

I return home and forgot I do not have any yarn to start my learning lessons. "Forgetful me". I went back to the store and bought some yarn in these colors: red, green, white, purple and blue-green. I started learning the first stiches. It did not seem to hard. Somehow I already knew this, I just had never put it to practice. Remember my dear Mother taught me so many times before.

The single stitch was to tight for me to work with, so I took it all apart and started again with the half double stitch. I started working with the purple yarn. I had already decided I want to make the prayer shawl and give it to my sister.

I started the foundation chain with 4o stiches. Why 40? Lent is coming up in a few weeks, so I think it is the perfect number to start. The number 40 has a very special meaning in the bible. Moses spent 40 years in the dessert. Jesus fasted 40 days after he was baptized.

This morning, I woke up around 4:30 am. I read the novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots. Then read the readings for today and meditated on them for a while. I decided to continue working on my prayer shawl. A few rows after, I became so moved by what I was doing. God spoke to my heart and told me the person I should give this shawl to. She is a girl that has leukemia. Her parents attend the same parish that I attend. I heard about her story through her parents.

I took a break from my knitting to prepare breakfast for my kids. It was already 7:30 am. I will continue with my knitting during the morning rosary on ewtn. In fact I will be working on this project while praying the rosary. And when it is finished and before presenting it to its recipient, I will ask Father Greg to bless it.

So here is a picture of what I have accomplish so far. And I hope this will be the beginning of many blessings.

knitting and other crafts

I am not a crafty person. I have a sewing machine and I use it once in a while to create fun things like gift for my family, dress for my infant Jesus, home decor. I have always wanted to know how to knit. My mother loves to knit lots of things. She showed me one time but never have made it a hobby like my mother. She has always been so creative. She is does not know much English but she knows how to do stiches from the books and makes beautiful baby covers and clothes.

Now she is working on a loom knitter. She was introduced to the loom knitter by my sister's mother-in-law who lives in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She brought one of those loom knitters from Mexico and she started making scarfs for all of us. I saw her working on her project this New Years eve. I just can't believe how easy it is to knit with that loom knitter. I want to start on my own project. So I went to my local Michaels store to find the loom knitter. I had seen them before, but never had the intentions of buying one. Unfortunately, I could not find the looms at Michaels.

I call my Mom, to ask her where can I get one. She said that my sister just got a package from her mother-in-law. Wow. I can't wait to start making my first knitting project. My Mom is also making dresses for or infant Jesus to wear this year. My son wanted to dress his infant Jesus as a the Child Doctor. There is an icon of the infant Jesus dressed as a doctor, that my sister gave to me when I was in the hospital. My sister found a doll's doctor outfit at the dollar store and sent it to us. The outfit was too big for my son's infant Jesus. Son was not happy. He wants to dress his infant Jesus now, and all the outfits I had made for my infant Jesus are to big for his infant Jesus. But Grandma Lupe is coming to the rescue and she is making her grandson a dress for his infant Jesus. I thank God that my Mother lives here in California just an hour away from me. Even if she lived in Mexico, I will make sure to get her a computer with a camera, so that I could talk to her everyday. One of my friends does that with her mother via facebook. The benefits of the internet.

I have made lots of great friends on blogs. Thank you to becomewhatyouare for always leaving uplifting comments. You definately deserve the best Mom award.

Christmas Homemade Gifts

Remember, that I told you about those homemade gifts I was struggling to finish. Well now I want to share them with you. My sisters and Mom were very happy with them. I think that I will start on my gifts earlier this year. I already have some great ideas for my nieces.

This is the gift bag that I used to give the gifts in. I did not make this bag. I believe it is an Avon product. I receive the bags from a local charity group.
This felt doll of Mary, was the first project idea, I wanted to do for the gifts.
I got the idea from a felt project book. There is a pattern for all the nativity scene,
and I was planning to make them all but I thought it was a little difficult to do just one.
So I decided to just do Mary and Baby Jesus.


This St. Nicholas pattern, I got from a St. Nicholas website. I decided to make it more interesting by adding some felt to the card board.


And here are some ideas, I came up with, inspired by God of course. The brown thing with a hole on it, is actually a door knob holder, with pockets to hold cell phone and keys. I gave this to my brother-in-laws and one in gray and brown, to my younger sister. The advent candles, the flames have velcro behind so they are removable.



I used a coloring picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe to cut out the pattern for this craft.
I did not have more gold felt, so I only made two.

Just this morning I was quickly reading some of the blogs I follow. Charlotte over at Waltzing Matilda has a great idea for Saints. Charlotte is an artist. She has some great coloring pages of Saints. I have been using her coloring pages to introduce my children to the lives of Catholic Saints. My son loves to color and he also loves to draw. He is very artistic, according to his teacher.

I thought I can use the ideas from Charlotte's friends and do some felt dolls of Saints. I have plenty of material that I bought over the holidays. Thanks Charlotte for sharing your patterns with us and the wonderful ideas that your readers are doing with them.

3 Wise Kings

Today is the feast of the 3 Wise Kings. Most Latin American Countries celebrate this day as it was Christmas Day. More gifts for the children. And the traditional bread of the Kings.

It is a tradition in Mexico, to keep your nativity set on display until February 2, which is the day of the presentation of the Lord. On January 6th, the kings bread, is cut and each member gets a piece. Within the bread there is a small plastic baby that represents Jesus. If you get the baby, you get to host the party on the 2nd of February. That is when the nativity set is put away, and the baby Jesus is sat on a chair and dressed in a dress or outfit of your choice.

I will like to know what traditions you have and remember from your childhood. I remember, that I always got a gift for Christmas and from the 3 Wise kings. Even when I was much older, and still at my Parent's house, I will get money or clothes.

Husband does not care about traditions. I have always been the enthusiastic one, getting everything ready for the celebrations. I wonder what kind of childhood he had. He is the youngest of nine children. Raised in a small town in Mexico.

I was the oldest child of five. I lived in the border city of Juarez. Came to California in 1981. Practically have lived most of my life here in California. I have lots of family here and in Mexico. My Father always wanted us to remember our roots and not forget our Mexican traditions. And we want our children to learn about our ancestors and also about our Mexican traditions. Well, I have to go do my nightime routines. Clean up the kitchen and living room. Before I go to bed and meditate on some prayers, and write in my journal. Good night.

Getting back on track

Over the Holiday, I got a little sidetracked. I did my best to leave this house as clutter free as possible before the New Year celebration. Most of the laundry was done and kids rooms were perfect.

This weekend, when I returned from my three day vacation at Mom's house, the clutter returned. There is stuff all over the living room sofa, coffee table and floor. The kitchen counters and table are also full with stuff. I wonder where this all came from?


So I must get back to my daily routines. I have my grocery list ready and my menu for the week done. I am off to the grocery store. Coming back to spend 15 minutes on each room, getting rid of those spots where clutter tends to accumulate.

My goal for this week is to slowly remove all the Christmas decorations and place in their storage bins back in the attic. Time flies quickly during the holiday. It seems like I just took the decorations out and now I have to put them away.

For those of you who know about the Flylady system, I have been trying this system on an off for almost two years now. And it works if you are consistent. But I am such a big procrastinator. I stop doing my daily routines and I back to a messy home. Having your kitchen nice and clean makes so much difference in my house because the room looks much bigger when the counters are clean and clutter free. This month's habit is to shine your sink. Read more about it at Flylady.net.

Have to go now, to grocery store. Have a great day!

Happy New Year

I hope you all had a great start this new year. I spent three great days at my Mom's house. We had a great New Years eve celebration. My sisters, Mom and I watched Movies all night and had some wine after dinner. We watched a movie about Father Pro. A martyr killed during the Mexican revolution. We also saw a new movie about the appararitions of Mary at Fatima. And then we saw another movie called "The perfect Gift".

On New Year's day we attended the evening mass. Then we went back home and had dinner. Saturday morning, my daughter joined my niece at her first Little Flowers Girls Club meeting of this year. They learned about St. Cecilia. They did a craft and said prayers. I love spending time with my sisters and Mom. We are always doing something that is learning about our Catholic Faith.

I returned home on Saturday. I wish I lived closer to my Mom's house so that I can visit her every day. Three days is not enough for me. But I must come back home, because children are starting school on Monday.

Well, I will be posting more on the coming days. We have more celebrations this month. And I want to share with you some of the great plans for this year.