Habemus Papam!

Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit

Well, we have a new pope! Our family is very excited about this. We were glued to EWTN all day last Wednesday and both kids started dancing around and celebrating as soon as we saw the white smoke. Thus far I am very impressed with Pope Francis. He seems like a very gentle, humble man who is also not afraid to speak the truth. Me likey! We need more of that nowadays.

Boog and Girlie, joyfully dancing

In honor of our new Papa Francesco we made an Argentine Pionono cake. Essentially, it's a jelly-roll style cake, soaked in hazelnut coffee and vanilla, then filled with home made dulche de leche (caramel made with sweetened condensed milk) and shredded coconut. It was divine!

Definitely NOT low-carb

In the mean time, we've accomplished quite a lot in school. Boog aced his quizzes on adding the number one, telling time to the hour, and short /a/. We've also celebrated both the Feast of Saint Patrick (this past Sunday) and the Solemnity of Saint Joseph (today).

Low-carb Irish Soda Bread

We had quite a low-carb feast on Saint Patrick's Day. Irish Soda Bread- made with Atkins bake mix and Splenda- Slow-Cooked Beef with Carrots simmered for hours in Guinness Stout, Dubliner Cheese, Blue Cheese Coleslaw, real Irish Butter, and Shamrock cookies and candies for the kids.

Wooden Saint Patrick Figure, hand painted by yours truly

One thing you will notice is that I have a lot of links to the various crafts, projects, etc, that I use. That would be due to the fact that I am not blessed with even an ounce of creativity. At all. But I do appreciate it when I see it. So once again I have snatched up an idea I saw elsewhere and done my own version of it. The cool little guy you see painted above is designed entirely by me, but the idea came from the fantastic Shower of Roses blog. I wish I had a miniscule amount of innovation that blogger does, but alas it is not to be.

Having a Saint Collection is a fantastic idea to help the kiddies not only remember the Saints but recognize them when they see them in art and iconography. I've also painted a little Saint Joseph to get our collection going.

Boog is very proud of his pasting abilities

So, our art craft for today, being the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, was to make a Saint Joseph altar. Essentially, we printed out the PDF at the link, colored and cut it out, then pasted it to the "altar" which is made of construction-paper-covered boxes. Saint Joseph, as most Christians will know, is the adopted or foster-father of Our Lord. He is the patron of fathers and families. The Church considers him a wonderful example of obedience to God as well as fatherhood and a model husband because he accepted Mary as his wife at the command of the Lord, and he raised Jesus as his own son. Saint Joseph is a very special man for taking such difficult circumstances upon himself. So we honor him on this day of Solemnity.

There is also quite the history of the Saint Joseph altar, which can be found here.

Have a nice Solemnity and Viva Il Papa Francesco!