Catholic Mamas - June/July

[BMG580]

Happy June to all of you! Hope your summer is getting under way and is full of fun plans for your families.

[wolfmom]

Hope you all had a good pentecost! Thanks for starting the new thread charbeau.

My kids are doing so well and I am looking forward to the end of the week when we are done with the 'school year'. DD graduated from preschool and my oldest's last day is Friday. (we homeschool)

Also my tenth wedding anniversary is next week. I am so proud of my husband and so happy that we have come thru the last 10 years stronger than when we started!

peace and health,

[moonshoes]

Originally Posted by wolfmom

Also my tenth wedding anniversary is next week. I am so proud of my husband and so happy that we have come thru the last 10 years stronger than when we started!

peace and health,

Congratulations! Marriage is an incredible vocation.

I haven't been very active on this thread lately, but this EAster season was absolutely amazing. The Holy Spirit has truly been at work in my life and DH, our whole family actually.. I am continuing to grow and deepen my spiritual life and am so glad God has blessed me in so many ways. I hope to be more active on this thread this month, as I am trying to surround myself with other Catholic women, even in cyberspace!

[jest]

Happy Anniversary, Jenny. My DH and I just celebrated our 12th Anniversary yesterday!

I found out that my parish will be doing a Catholic "vacation bible school" for a week this summer. I checked out the curriculum they are using and it is indeed Catholic. It is for age 4 through 6th grade and it is Mon-Fri from 9am-Noon for one week only. I'm thinking of sending my 4-year-old, but I have one hesitation...he has never been to day care or pre school (and we plan to homeschool) so I am wondering if 3-hours for 5 days in a row will be too much for him. I know that only my DH and I can decide what my ds can handle, but just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and how did your little one do. I know it will be fun for him and he'll learn things about various Saints, I'm just worried that it will be too much for him to go every morning for a whole week. Also, it is $50 for the week (they charge less for additional kids in the the same family), does this sound about right to you? Thanks for any input.

[xekomaya]

Originally Posted by jest

Also, it is $50 for the week (they charge less for additional kids in the the same family), does this sound about right to you? Thanks for any input.

It does sound about right. They probably have a couple paid "counselors" + supplies to pay for. I used to work at public school day camps and they charged more than that even 5 years ago.

Most 4 year olds have not been to school yet - maybe some preschool but maybe not, so I think anyone that would want to work with them should be very understanding. Perhaps you can speak with the director and let him/her know if your ds is having a hard time they should call you. And if he doesn't like it and really doesn't want to go, you don't have to keep sending him. My guess is that if he gets through Tuesday, he'll have enough friends and look forward to enough activities that he'll make it through the whole week.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Octave of Pentecost. I'm finally getting DH to come to the TLM and we're actually starting to make friends in the community which is really nice. There are some homeschoolers and other familiies. I even saw a woman tandem nursing in the pew :

[Peppermint]

Hi mamas, I am hoping that by subbing now I can keep up here .

VBS- Can you offer to volunteer to help out? If not, I'd just talk to the person in charge about staying until he gets comfortable. Is it K4J VBS? those are great!

We also just celebrated our 10th Anniversary

I am looking forward to a big fat pregnant Summer and a Sept. baby:

[brooklyngirl]

Hello Catholic moms!

I've been off line for a bit.

I've volunteered with our VBS for the past few years. The first year my son just stayed with me as I lead a group. The next year they tried a pre-school group and that didn't work out so great. After that they went to mixed age groups. I think that worked best for everyone since the 4 year olds were treated like the prince and princess of each group.

I would give it a try if you could be close by. He has always loved it and looked forward to it. Our VBS is a joint effort between 4 parishes and it has really helped us get to know the Catholic youth in our area.

[jlpumkin]

Hi ladies! We are in the midst of VBS this week. I am teaching the preschool room and having a wonderful time. Our VBS is during the day, only one child comes from a child care environment. All others have yet to start school. Everyone is doing fabulous. I do have one child, who is actually older with special needs, who did not want to stay the first 2 days. But Mom didn't push it, she just kept trying. Today he stayed and had a blast. I think he's having a wonderful VBS because Mom is just following his lead. Granted, our VBS is free so Mom didn't need to be concerned about throwing away money if he didn't warm up to the idea.

[Katwoman]

Hi!

The first year my DD1 did VBS she asked me to stay with her. I hung around in background unless she wanted to sit with me. Nobody minded. Perhaps you could do something like that?

I volunteered last year and most kids did fine with 5 days in a row. Although some of them where pretty antsy by Friday. A couple of them didn't come on Thurs because it was too much and they needed down time. They came back on Friday. It's pretty low key at this age group.

[momtokimari]

Hi. I'm just popping in because I am considering checking out our local catholic church and I was wondering if there is anything I should know before I go in? Should I stop by before I attend mass? Will anyone be there? I'd kinda like to talk to the priest(s) before I attend so I know what is going on, kwim?

[xekomaya]

Originally Posted by momtokimari

Hi. I'm just popping in because I am considering checking out our local catholic church and I was wondering if there is anything I should know before I go in? Should I stop by before I attend mass? Will anyone be there? I'd kinda like to talk to the priest(s) before I attend so I know what is going on, kwim?

Hi Welcome!

What sort of things are you wondering? There have been a few threads about non-Catholics attending Mass (I'll dig them out for you if you're interested) and really the only thing to know is that you need to be Catholic in good standing to receive Communion, so you'd be expected to just sit in the pew during that time. Otherwise, you can follow the customs as much or as little as you feel comfortable. Would you like me to link you some resources to help you follow the Mass better?

I'm sure any priest would be happy to talk to you. They generally won't be in church before Mass, but they're typically available by appointment if you just call the rectory.

The only person you're guaranteed to find in the Church before Mass, is Jesus in the tabernacle. It's wonderful to go early and pray in the quiet before Him and you'd certainly be welcome to do that.

Ask any more questions you think of, and if you do end up going, I'd love to hear your first impressions!

[jlpumkin]

Welcome Momtokimari, I picked up the coolest little pamphlet for my mom at our last church. It was titled Mass etiquette - it wasn't so much an etiquette guide as it was a brief explanation of the mass and very brief reason why we do what we do and when, such as cross ourselves, kneel, etc. Many churches have similar literature available. If you decide to pop in you may want to check the info area for something like that. I know it helped my mom feel very comfortable visiting.

[BMG580]

Originally Posted by momtokimari

Hi. I'm just popping in because I am considering checking out our local catholic church and I was wondering if there is anything I should know before I go in? Should I stop by before I attend mass? Will anyone be there? I'd kinda like to talk to the priest(s) before I attend so I know what is going on, kwim?

I know this sounds funny, but I learned a lot of basics about the Mass from a children's book. It broke it down in a very simple, easily digestible way. Check your local library and see if there are any books for children or YA that have Mass/Catholicism as the subject.

I am a brand new convert, I entered the Church during Easter this year. I started attending Mass last spring on my own without having ever been before. I was confused by a lot of the bowing, kneeling, genuflecting, crossing, the holy water, candles, etc. - I was raised Protestant. I just joined in respectfully when I thought it was appropriate (ie. I kneeled during the Eucharist with the entire congregation) but I also didn't perform a lot of Catholic gestures for a long time like genuflecting or crossing myself.

Also, there are generally little missals in the pews that have the readings for each day that are said at Mass, and in them is also the order of the Mass, which I found incredibly helpful at first for keeping up with what was going on.

Keep us posted - very exciting!

[jlpumkin]

Just me again... I might be spending too much time around these forums I just placed an Amazon order. I'm very excited about 2 of the books: Parenting with Grace, which came about due to you wonderful ladies recommendations & The Exceptional Seven Percent: The Nine Secrets of the Worlds Happiest Couples by the same author. Anyone read this one? I'm very excited... our marriage could use a little boost. Hope this is it!

[DiannaK]

Originally Posted by wolfmom

Hope you all had a good pentecost! Thanks for starting the new thread charbeau.

My kids are doing so well and I am looking forward to the end of the week when we are done with the 'school year'. DD graduated from preschool and my oldest's last day is Friday. (we homeschool)

Also my tenth wedding anniversary is next week. I am so proud of my husband and so happy that we have come thru the last 10 years stronger than when we started!

peace and health,

congratulations! I love seeing happy marriage stories!

[jest]

Thanks for the VBS advice. I'd love to volunteer to help but I can't right now because I have a 15-month-old. I'm leaning towards sending my ds, but I plan to call the contact person this week to ask a few questions. Peppermint, it is not K4J, this is the program they are using: www.growingwiththesaints.com/aboutvbs1.html

jlpumkin: I never read "The Exceptional..." but I recently bought "For Better...Forever!" by the same author.

[Katwoman]

Just thought I'd stop by and say hi.

Been feeling a bit lonely and off these days. So I thought I'd drop by and see how everyone else is doing.

I hope everyone is well!

[momtokimari]

So, old habits die hard... I totally forgot that I was planning to go to church when I got up on Sunday morning. I remembered just at the time Mass was supposed to start and I didn't want to be late my first day. I'm going to go this week. I'll just have to set a reminder on my phone...

[Katwoman]

I do that when I change mass times. I always swear I'm going to remember and then I don't. I guess I'm a creature of habit.

[jlpumkin]

For us that first mass was the hardest... whether it be true procrastination or just life events it took us months to get there. We did eventually make it though. And loved it :