Birthday and frozen 2

It was Joch's birthday and everything fell in place beautifully. Thank God for him as a gift in my life. Planned to visit Trafford centre, shopping, had meals out and came up an idea to watch Frozen 2. To me it was a big surprise and we cut the Annu's homemade cake and had a good day. The day was packed with so many homeschooling activities, nativity practice, catechesis and so on.

Into film

The season of  Into films was going on this month till November 22nd. Every year we tried to watch some movies. Children enjoyed a lot.This time both little ones went to watch 'Peter Rabbit' in . Movie  was really good and myself enjoyed too.

Cecilia-patroness of music

The story of St Cecilia is very captivating. Beloved St Cecilia, virgin and martyr believed to gave up her life in third century. It is said that Cecilia 'sang to God in her heart ' on her wedding day, desiring to live for Christ alone.With the help of an angel, cecilia converted her husband and both died as martyrs. She is known to be patron of musicians. In art , she is portrayed as she is playing organ, or lyre.

        
 ''Let me sing to the Lord for His goodness to me'' Psalms 12:7

A line from fifteenth century story of Saint Cecilia explains how she became the Western patron of music .
She loved everyone no matter whether they are poor or rich and helped anyone in need and knew that all are children of God. 

After daily reading of the story of Cecilia, thought of making blondies which was of first time.Geo was helping along with Theresu.Then once it was made it was decorated with some chocolates for indicating piano keys.It was a blessed day in our family, we had a visit from one of the famous musician from India, who wrote many christian music

Brownies ended up some cracks but tasted good..

St Cecilia Pray for us.

St Martin of Tours

Charity does not only mean giving people food and clothing:it also means giving them a smile and a good word. He went to leper and hugged him saying ," Jesus is suffering in you brother''.

It was the feast of St Martin's on November 11th. The story of a Roman soldier who became a Christian and later in a bishop. He famously gave half of his beggar and then had a dream in which he saw Jesus wearing it.

It was amazing to hear that when he died in the month of November , a strange and wonderful thing happened. All the coldness and gloominess of autumn disappeared, and for three days everything was as bright and beautiful as if had been a saint; the holiness of his whole life is a proof of that. He was a brave soldier who decided to share the light and truth of Christ among pagans.

There is a tradition of carrying lanterns and procession in the streets in Germany and other countries and serving sweets for children.

We tried to make lanterns using jam jars , modge podge, tissue paper and read the story of St Martin and toasted some marshmallows.

   

Lego land visit

It was great day out for Geo and Therese to visit Lego land. They really love Lego and enjoyed making cars, driving, activity, climbing , watching movies and so on..

  

All Saints day

Children got opportunity to dress up along with Marian voyage procession on Blackpool sea side on All Hallows eve.  Theresu dressed up as St Maria Goretti, Geo as St George, Annu as St Faustina and Mich as St Dominic savio.The day was All Halos Eve which day used to commemorate all saints gone before. .
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     It was All saints day on November 1st and we commemorate with joy the saints, men and women, who have gone to heaven and are now enjoying with God for ever. There was another opportunity to celebrate the feast day. On  All Saints day, we were all gathered in Derby, many homeschoolers prepared to come to celebrate the day...children coloured banners ,attended Holy mass in their costumes..came home and did guessing the symbols, introduced their dressed up patron saints, some games on guessing symbols of the saints, guess  jars...and had mini feasting.

Annu dressed up as Margaret Clitheroe and rest of them dressed up as saints of the previous day.

                   St Mary Alacoque, Margaret Cltheroe ..

 There are many traditions for this day, making pumpkin pie, making soul cakes, going from house to house begging for soul cakes, in return for the prayers for loved ones who have departed. Another thing can be making a lantern out of a pumpkin, carve a Christian lantern. Another day for the family to have a walk..Children can out scenes or dress up from the lives of different saints.

 Tried to do some games with children , annu helped me and she prepared different symbols of saints to identify and everyone found out nicely.

               Cup cakes prepared by  Saum's children.

Geo is trying to colour his costume for St George's costume.

 All saints pray for us 

Autumn and saints

The month of October opens with two saints who are great favourites among faithful; St Therese and St Francis. They have such a universal appeal that they embody a profound and simple radicality in their faith. Finally , it is autumn, we are having harvest festivals....


At home, it was feasts of some children  and we had a little treat and feast . On the Feast of St Therese, Theresu and Geo decorated our altar with fake roses and decorated with St Therese cards with glitter,listened to her wonderful story. I had a miracle, thought usually St Therese in her story , she promised to send roses from heaven and I thought let me try and hope for a rose. By evening 10 pm, to my surprise and my prayers heard from heaven I truly believe. My husband received a rose from the place where he went for a course. He in fact brought for our little Theresu , however I realised that it was my wish and prayer that day to St therese to have a rose flower. Thank God.

Following that weekend, we went to Walsingham, Marian shrine for the pilgrimage as part of Marian Voyage and great experience. It was tradition to walk bare foot from slipper chapel and I felt bit ashamed to walk since many from our group was not doing. To my surprise, Annu's boots broke and I gave up mine for her and ended up walking barefoot and I did it as a penance.

 It was another beautiful weekend , mich went for Piano competition as part of Syro malabar church and he got an opportunity to attend a two days conference on 'Youth in Business' , Manchester which run by an Australian team. It was a nice experience for me too and prompted me to start my own business which I have to work on it.

The second week of october was a caravan holiday for ours and Thomas family. Took a break from our school and stayed in Sunnyvale holiday park in North wales. Children  enjoyed being together , in swimming pool, chattering, playing outdoor and so on..Beautiful place with lots and lots of amazing beaches, pebbles, sands, caves and so on. WOW... so great beaches. ..wish to come back again. From there our journey continued to St David's cathedral. What a wonderful place to visit...

 

Visiting St David's cathedral was so beautiful though we were not expected to visit. David was live

 in Wales. He was a prince born to a royal family. He was a monk and an young man, travelled from place to place telling people about Jesus and set up new monasteries. I the picture of St David, he carries a dove, the time to choose a new leader for the church of Wales- someone with strong faith.  The place was thronged and everyone came and speak...no one could be heard. Someone said to send David which he didn't want to be new leader. However, he was at last persuaded to come. He took his place on the mound of clothing and prayed to God. A white dove , the sign of Holy Sp

irit, came and sat on his shoulder. then, when he spoke, everyone listened and was convinced of his wisdom and and made him the leader.

On the way to cathedral and its surroundings with bell tower, canals, 

Inside the cathedral 

Very very old Welsh Bible and Mathematica principles preserved in the library 

                                                       St David's poem