What a week!  My oldest daughter started Driver's Ed classes this week and it's been a stressful experience so far for various and complicated reasons.  So when life throws me a curve ball, sometimes the only thing I can do is go into survival mode and try to figure things out with much prayer, patience and perseverance.  Which means things like blog life are put on the back burner until I can breathe again and think straight.  Since I'm updating my blog, it means I'm breathing and thinking a little bit easier, which is always a blessing! 

It's been a week since I last updated my corner of blog land here when I posted my daughter's 11th birthday tribute post.  That post seemed like ages ago and it's only been a week!

Since it's getting late and I'm beat, I thought I would jump in quickly to share my Saintnook Team Spotlight Interview that was recently published on the Saintnook blog and on Saintnook's Facebook page.  Dominic de Souza, the creator of Saintnook, is featuring the team members of Saintnook and it was my turn to answer a few questions so others can get to know me better and learn more about Saintnook and what I do on the team.


So if you were ever wondering the answers to the following questions about me concerning Saintnook...

• 1. What’s your background?
• 2. What are your interests?
• 3. What do you blog about?
• 4. What do you like about Saintnook?
• 5. What do you do on the Saintnook team?
• 6. Who is your favorite saint?

...then be sure to read the following spotlight interview. 

"This is part of our Team Spotlight series, where we get to know each member of our team through 6 questions. We’re always looking for new team members!
Today we meet Tracy Bua Smith, homeschooling mom of 5 and cake-lover who has been a tremendous source of support and collaboration with Saintnook...  Continue reading

We will be attending a family wedding this weekend so we are looking forward to celebrating this joyous occasion with those we love.

Have a blessed weekend!

This post contains afflilate links. 

Tomorrow, March 19th, is the feast of St. Joseph!   We were listening to the Glory Stories CD about St. Joseph in the car today and one of my children asked me why is St. Joseph referred to as the "foster-father" of Jesus.  I told her that Mary conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (a mystery that takes faith to believe) and foster-father means that God chose Joseph to take care of Jesus while on earth.  That answer seemed to satisfy her for now... The Glory Story CD is a great one and it also has the story of St. Katharine Drexel!  It's on sale now too!  
St. Joseph is celebrated each year on March 19th and it's a "solemnity"!  What's a solemnity?  It's definitely not solemn as Kendra at Catholic All Year explains.   I really like this free printable Kendra created that lists all the solemnities celebrated during the liturgical year.  She has some great free printables about St. Joseph too!

For the past 10 plus years our homeschool group has celebrated the feast of St. Joseph. It's the highlight of the year for our group and it's one of the few times all our families, (including the Dads!) can gather together to celebrate such a wonderful Saint!

We usually have our St. Joseph celebration on the Sunday closest to St. Joseph's actual feast day so the Dads can join in. This year's party will be this Sunday, March 22, in the afternoon.  Sometimes we have a local priest celebrate with us and he leads the Litany of St. Joseph and sometimes we don't, but we always say the Litany as a group, with or without a priest present.

The same family hosts the gathering each year (Thanks DH and JH!). It's traditional to have a St. Joseph altar with 3 levels to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The breads that our homeschool group made a few weeks ago prior to the celebration will help decorate the St. Joseph altar. 

In 2011, I blogged about one of our group's St. Joseph celebrations and included lots of history about the altar and I have black and white photos like this one of when my Dad was a little boy celebrating St. Joseph's feast day with an elaborately decorated altar.   Our altar each year is not quite as decorative, but it's still beautiful. 

Yesterday was my husband's birthday and it was great to celebrate his life and love on his special day!  While I was driving home last night from picking up one of my daughters from her church choir practice I saw this beautiful "painting" in the sky on our street.   I call it "Sunset at Home" By: God
Stunning isn't?


After soccer practices and our daughters' choir practice we had some of my homemade chocolate cake with the yummy homemade cream cheese icing that I make often!  Here's some pictures of our family celebration minus our 19 mo. old who was already in bed.   In the right side picture is a framed picture of our children that I took while my husband was out of town last week and I had my children decorate the mat of the frame.  My husband will be putting this in his office at work. 

I must show you this darling photo of my husband and his twin brother in honor of their birthday today.   My husband is on the right sportin' the big black bow tie and curly hair.  Aren't they the cutest?  They bring our family and friends so much joy and laughter! 

Around my husband's cake are some of the shamrock treats we made for St. Patrick's Day. These are made the same way as the pretzel treats I make each year at Christmas.  Here's a close up of the sweet treats.

Here's how you can make them:
Lay out mini twist pretzels on a lined cookie sheet. Unwrap Hershey kiss, place on pretzel. Put in 350 preheated oven for 2 min. then push 3 green M and M's onto soft Hershey kiss. Add green decorating icing for stem.  I had to buy a bag of the Easter M&M's and pick out the green ones for the green shamrocks.  I was able to make about 16 shamrocks with what was in my bag.  Easy, fun, and yummy!  I bet you can't eat just one! :) 

I shared this recipe at Lisa's Try a New Recipe Tuesday Link-Up @ Home to 4 Kiddos


Today is Saint Patrick's Day!  I thought I would share about this wonderful and popular Saint via SaintNook, where the Saints are always online! 




To find out more about St. Patrick of Ireland, you can read his profile and biography. 

Be sure to view his Directory filled with links, crafts, recipes, books, DVDs! 



SaintNook also has a great selection of videos, trailers, prayers and music on St Patrick of Ireland.

St. Patrick of Ireland has his own Pinterest board!  Check out his many beautiful images/statues!

The SaintNook team spends many hours with the Saints online updating their profiles and the site is a work in progress so be sure to check back in often either at the website or the SaintNook Facebook page!  

From St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer: 
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

May you have a blessed Saint Patrick's Day!

It's been an especially long and busy week this week since my husband has been out of town for work related meetings. 

Need I say more???  :)

I'm really not complaining because there are soooo many families who have spouses that travel ALOT, so my heart goes out to all the single parents out there!  

We are all looking forward to the man of the house coming home Friday evening and I can't wait for our 19 month old daughter to cling to her Daddy and never let him out of her sight :)

This week I have been working on entering resources for Saint Patrick and Saint Joseph into the SaintNook site where me and 3 other SaintNook team members work hard to bring the Saints always online! These two great Saints have their feast days coming up next week and we can't wait to share them with you through SaintNook!


So with my hectic week and SaintNook work, I thought I would stop in and just post about my blog feature at Catholic Sistas blog!
My blog was featured on Catholic Sistas blog this week!  I enjoyed answering the questions for the feature!  Head on over to HERE to read more about my blogging journey and find out a little more about me and my little corner of blog land :) 

This weekend our family will be going to the soup supper and Stations of the Cross at our parish on Friday evening and then on Saturday, March 14, our 7 year old daughter will receive her First Reconciliation!  It will be a blessed weekend! 

May your weekend be blessed!

This past weekend, my 10 year old daughter and 13 year old son had an out of town soccer tournament with their travel soccer teams. Due to a schedule conflict, I was not able to watch the tournament and stayed home with my 14 year old daughter and 19 month old daughter.  But, my husband went with our other 3 children to the tournament.

My 10 year old and 13 year old also each play on local recreation soccer teams.  My oldest daughter, age 14, also plays soccer on the homeschool soccer team and her team plays against private and Christian schools in our area.  So this Spring means soccer, soccer and more soccer!  Practices Monday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings.  Games during the week with the homeschool soccer league and on the weekend locally and out of town for my other 2 soccer players.   

Is your head spinning?  Yep, so is mine!? 

So when we aren't praying, eating, sleeping, or homeschooling, chances are my kids are kicking a soccer ball somewhere and enjoying every minute of it! I'm just so grateful for a super involved hubby and great mom friends who help get everyone to the right practice and game at the right time! 

I thought I would share a fun video and some pictures of our soccer "stars" for this post.  My real life is consumed with soccer so I thought blog life would get a "kick" out of this soccer post (pun intended) ;-)

This is a video my husband took this past Saturday night and this is what you could call getting creative with entertainment.  While the parents are heard in the background trying to figure out a place to go eat for dinner with a big crowd some of my children and other players and siblings thought it would be fun to try to get the cars driving by to beep their horns.  As seen on the video, the kids got very excited when a car actually did beep.  My husband said this entertained everyone for at least 20 minutes when parents frantically searched and called around for a place to eat dinner.  


Here is my 10 year old daughter's team resting in between games and then a (dark) group shot when they came in 2nd for their age group in the tournament!  Go Hurricanes!  My daughter is kneeling in the front middle.


Very proud of my soccer "stars"!  They work hard and have fun with their teammates while enjoying the exercise! 

If I'm not in blog land, chances are I'm on a soccer field trying to watch a game while also running after my 19 month old as she tries to dart onto the fields!  :)

PS: Today, March 9, is the feast day of Saint Dominic Savio!  When we read about him this morning during our Couch Catechism time, my kids were reminded again how young he was when he died...just 15!

Enjoy this beautiful graphic and information of Saint Dominic Savio created for you by SaintNook, where the Saints are always online!   You can follow the Saints online too at the SaintNook Facebook page by "Liking" the page! 


Hope your week is blessed!

Last Friday on February 27, some of our homeschool families met for our annual breadmaking afternooon in preparation for our annual St. Joseph feast day celebration that we have each year on or around St. Joseph's feast day (March 19).

We've been making the bread for many years now and have celebrated St. Joseph's feast day with an altar, food and fellowship for over 10 years now with our homeschool group! 

Each family brings homemade bread dough and then the kids shape the bread into various creations.  Some popular shapes are fish, crosses, ferns, a staff to represent St. Joseph's staff, pretzel shapes, monstrance, braids, crowns, and the spelling of "St. Joseph." We then bake it and freeze the bread to then set out the decorative breads on the St. Joseph altar that we have a few weeks following our breadmaking afternoon.

The annual St. Joseph feast day celebration is usually on a Sunday afternoon closest to March 19 so all the Dads in our homeschool group can attend this special and joyous celebration.


I blogged about our breadmaking tradition in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

For a history of St. Joseph's feast day and St. Joseph altars, be sure to read my post HERE that tells all about it, including black and white photos of when my Dad was a little boy and how he celebrated St. Joseph's feast day with very elaborate and decorative altars.


Here are some pictures of this year's fun and tradition...

This post contains affiliate links.

February 14th is just about here.  Do you have special plans for this feast day for Saint Valentine?

My husband and I are hoping to spend some time together on Valentine's evening while my older kids help watch our younger kids and other kids at our church for a youth group babysitting night.

Here are some ways to celebrate this special day in 7 Quick Takes hosted by Kelly at This Ain't The Lyceum.