7 Jesse Tree Quick Takes

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Hello, my name is Sara, and I'm a Jesse Tree Junkie.  I fell in love with the Jesse Tree as a new Catholic when I got these books at a homeschooling conference, so I would know "how" to celebrate liturgical seasons.

---2---

The same year I came into the Catholic Church we moved to the Atlanta area in the fall.  We knew nobody and had no money, because we still owned a house in VA, so the kids and I had plenty of time to make our first set of Jesse Tree ornaments out of salt dough.  We painted them with food coloring, sealed them with Mod Podge.  We put up our artificial tree at the beginning of Advent and began the tradition of doing a Bible reading every night and hanging one ornament.  When we finally put the rest of the Christmas ornaments on on Christmas Eve, or a few days before, I was in love.  There was our beautiful Christmas tree, with ornaments carefully chosen during the early years of our marriage, interspersed with salvation history.  It was all there from the Creation of the Earth to the Fall, to the Sacrifice of Isaac....all the way to the Annunciation.   It made so much sense to me!

I heart the rustic look of these, but we have so few left!

---3---

We eventually sold that house and were able to purchase a smaller, 5-foot tree to use as the Jesse Tree.  We also made a new set of ornaments out of Crayola fast-drying clay last year to replace the broken, original ones.  It was very easy to work with, and we painted them with acrylic paints.  No Mod Podge this time because it makes them a bit sticky and the paper they're wrapped in every year sticks to them!

I'm sad to say that when I unwrapped these just now, for your viewing pleasure, they are all bumpy, as if we sprinkled salt on them.  Not happy, Crayola, not happy.

---4---

This year, one of my friends put together a Jesse Tree ornament swap.  Finally!  I've wanted to do one for years, you know, where you make a zillion of the same ornament and everyone else does the same and then you swap so everyone has a complete set?  They turned out so cute!

---5---

I printed out these from Michele Quigley, today.  I've hesitated over these the past couple of years because I didn't think they would come out well on the printer, but I tried one page and they look great.  

---6---

And, we have this set from Illuminated Ink which is very cute and doable.  I think we have 2, maybe three of these!  I don't know why I bought 2, but Meg won one in one of their old coloring contests.  I brought 2 of the "trees" upstairs yesterday, and I know there's a third because it makes a great place to hang my earrings and bracelets!  ;-) 

---7---

Aaaannnnd, finally, I have instructions for cross-stitching a set of ornaments   One year, when I was into stitching, I planned to make one ornament per day of Advent.  I think I finished one.  And it took more than one day, so that set doesn't technically exist.  

Please tell me there is help for someone like me!  I like to think that my excuse is that with 6 kids, I can send each of them out into the world with a set and I will have done my duty as a Mom.  What do you think?  Tell me about your Jesse Tree or which ornaments you would choose!

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{pretty}

You probably think I'm crazy, but pretty this week is the ginormous wasps' nest that my neighbor cut off his tree.   It was hanging right over the path to our back yard, and he finally cut it down now that the wasps are gone.  Where do they go?  South for the winter?

Anyway, he was going to throw it in the woods, but I thinks it's simply stunning and I asked if we could have it.  It's got to be 18" from top to bottom---slightly less now that we've crushed the bottom by setting it on the ground.

Honestly, isn't that one of the most stunning things you've ever seen?  It's a gorgeous work of one of God's amazing creatures.
{happy}

I found a nice, sturdy caddy at Goodwill for our Advent books.  Or whatever books.  Right now, it's holding all of our Advent and Christmas books, but we can always use something to hold books in this house!  It perches upon the stone hearth now that it has received a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Versailles (same green as the island in the background).
{funny}

Cousins who are close enough to get close to each other.   I love these boys!
{real}

Picture credit

That about sums up how I've been feeling lately.  Holiday stress, humiliations, hurts, and hormones all combined to make me feel like that ^ , and to want nothing more than to curl up in a ball in my room and avoid the world----my family, my friends, my blog, my responsibilities.  Everything.  Thankfully, God is always calling us to Him, and I know that what I really feel like doing isn't an acceptable option.  I have to keep trying to overcome my feelings to do His will, which is good, because it actually helps those feelings go away sooner.  The flip side of that is that You Know Who capitalizes on that self-pity and tries to draw you down into despair.
One thing that helps is trying not to think of Self.  This prayer kept coming to mind, and I think I'm being asked to pray it more often.   Pray it.  Period.  Because, quite honestly, it's one that I have actively avoided.  ;-)

Litany of Humility Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.From the desire of being loved... From the desire of being extolled ... From the desire of being honored ... From the desire of being praised ... From the desire of being preferred to others... From the desire of being consulted ... From the desire of being approved ... From the fear of being humiliated ... From the fear of being despised... From the fear of suffering rebukes ... From the fear of being calumniated ... From the fear of being forgotten ... From the fear of being ridiculed ... From the fear of being wronged ... From the fear of being suspected ... That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I ... That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease ... That others may be chosen and I set aside ... That others may be praised and I unnoticed ... That others may be preferred to me in everything... That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should… (from EWTN.com)

Twinkie Lamentations

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"And the prophet said, cast ye your countenance toward the Walmart, and follow thy heart to the junk food aisle, for there the snack cakes are distributed in a manner wonderful to see. For the munchies are upon you, and the hunger is deep. Look with wonder upon the gifts you have been given. Of the puffed cheese and popped corn, you may eat, but not the HoHo. Of the jerky and Nutella and Doritos you may have your fill, but not the Twinkie. Of the potato chip, plain or barbecue, ranch or sugar coated, you may eat, but not the Donette. Of the oil based snack of dubious origin you may eat, but not the Ding Dong. Though your craving be deep, think not of the little chocolate cupcake with the white squiggle thereupon. For the punishment is upon us and Hostess is no more. And the people wept."

Lamentations 8:11-20

Did y'all see this?  I thought it was hysterical, so I had to post it.

My Disney-watching kids, Meg and Pippo, have been begging me for ages to buy "fat cakes" which are really pink snowballs---I'm not sure what their real name is---but they call them fat cakes on the Disney channel.  Good mother that I am, I bought HoHos and Ding Dongs and Snowballs for them since they have been deprived all their lives.   We They ate them for breakfast at the rest stop on our trip to Virginia.

We did not have any Twinkies since Target was sold out when I looked, and I remember them fondly, but no one enjoyed their breakfast that day.  It kind of surprised me that my sweets-loving family did not like them, but no one seems to be sorry that Hostess is out of business now.  We regret it from an economic standpoint, not a dietary one. 

Tell me, did you go out and buy Twinkies and stuff for the last time?