Disclaimer: These books were received in exchange for an honest review, but all opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links at no extra cost to you.

Since I quit blogging so much, I have really spent a lot of time in artistic pursuits. I used to consider words my art, but I have really been branching into bible journaling and more recently straight up art journaling and mixed media projects. But I have a confession to make. I can’t draw for beans.

I mean, I guess I can. I did pretty good in art class in high school but I took WEEKS to draw a simple…well, anything. My bible journaling has primarily consisted of stickers and hand lettering and paint backgrounds for color and things like that. I was SO excited to get this set of books from April Knight — ScriptureDoodle and ScriptureDoodle: God’s Promises. These are not just another adult coloring book. They don’t even have anything to color. Well, that’s not totally true — I did color this:

I got 2 new books to review today from @worship_artist @scripturedoodle. I have no words for how awesome these books are! It’s like an art class for artistically minded folks who can’t draw. Yet. So excited to use these to be able to enhance my bible journaling. Now! @litfuse #reviewcomingsoon #bookblogger #scripturedoodle #biblejournaling #artclass

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Nov 22, 2016 at 4:55pm PST

But 99% of these books are straight up art instruction/guidance/prompts and practice. And they are fabulous! I was able to use them right away to do fun things in my IF Thankful devotional —

This morning’s devotion from #if_athankfulheart. Tickled with this one, too! I should have done more.. #hormones #biblejournaling #quiettimewithgod #illustratedfaith

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Nov 29, 2016 at 8:14am PST

The first book, ScriptureDoodle covers prompts on things like lettering, borders, fruit, measuring, prayer time, gifts, light, scripture cards & memory and more. The second book focuses more on God’s promises of grace, gratitude, power, forgiveness and our home. These books are both mini-art lessons, guided bible journaling, and devotionals.

The books are full sized softcovers and while they open pretty well, i might prefer a stay-flat or spiral binding for ease of use. The pages are bright and thick and with my Stabilo’s, I had a little shadowing, but since you draw on the same side of each page, your shadows end up mixed with the text on the facing page, not drawing space, so it’s not a big deal. I like the feel of the paper and the books as a whole really.

If you know of someone who is artistic and hasn’t really jumped on the bible art bandwagon, these would be a fabulous gift — and available on Amazon Prime’s 2-day shipping, in case, you know, you haven’t bought anything yet and need to :). They are also great for anyone who would love to bible journal but doesn’t feel artistic enough. I am adoring these and one will be packed in my suitcase on my upcoming vacay with some colored pencils while I sun myself sans kiddos :).

I highly recommend ScriptureDoodle and ScriptureDoodle: God’s Promises. These are not your average devotionals OR your run of the mill adult coloring book, spiritual or not. Part art class, part devotional, wholly encouraging and fun, they would be a fabulous gift for the woman in your life (or yourself :D).

The post ScriptureDoodles {Book Review} appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

I haven’t been doing a ton of blogging, but I have been diving into school, learning and reading on my own and even enjoying a few hobbies.  One is bible journaling and the other is turning into one of those planner weirdo’s on IG who have more than one planner and use it as an artistic outlet.

I’ve been bible journaling and using Illustrated Faith kits from their site & Dayspring since my miscarriage in spring — coincidence? I think not. As a natural extension, I’ve created this Traveler’s Notebook Prayer & Peace Journal and I wanted to share it with you.

If you are on mobile or email, you will need to click here to see the video.

I also wanted to share a sneak peek at the planner that I purchased through Kickstarter that I am eagerly waiting to start in the new year — It’s the Brilliant Life Planner, and though it’s intended for business running ladies, I think as a homeschool mom, I will find most of it just as relevant to me.  And it’s beautiful!

Take a peek at the free printable I got through the end of the the year here.

Do you like seeing videos? Would you like to see more, since I don’t write much? If so, drop me a line!

The post Bible Journaling, Prayer and Planner Peace — video style! appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

One of the things I mightily struggle with is trying to instill virtue in my kids. I have tried several different ways and methods of doing so and none of them have felt right or stuck with our family for very long.

I received a message from Monica Speach about her Catholic character program, Program for Achieving Character Education for Catholic Schools and Homes (or PACE). A few days later, she had sent over both the manual as well as the K & 3rd Grade workbooks.

PACE (Program for Achieving Character Education)

PACE is a character education program for Catholics. It could be used for other Christian denominations, but it does have a pretty prevalent emphasis on the Saints. You could skip it, but they are good Godly examples, no different that “regular” missionaries and such.

There are three books heavily used throughout — William J Bennett’s The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass as well as The Book of Saints. The last is not required like the other two, as she includes web links, but I prefer to hand my child an actual book. I happened to have all 3 books on my shelf already, so I didn’t need to buy any of them to use her curriculum. But you should :).

Manual & Workbooks

The PACE manual consists of 10 virtues to be studied, one for each month from September through June. Each virtue consists of 10 items related to it:

• Quotations
• Definition (plus synonymns & antonyms)
• Stories
• Bible Passages
• Mary & the Saints
• Recommended Books (story and chapter, divided by grade)
• Discussion Topics
• Writing Assignments
• Enrichment Activities (art, music, nature, hands-on…)
• How to Practice the Virtues

While the manual can be used on it’s own, there is no schedule to help you use it on its own. I had a similar protestant version of something like this and just couldn’t get it done without it being laid out for me. Luckily, that is what the workbooks do!

Each month is divided into 5 days of activities. One month of 3rd grade (from the workbook) looked approximately like this.

Week 1
Monday – Quote & definition
Tuesday – Writing & Book
Wednesday – Story & Writing
Thursday – Bible
Friday – Enrichment

Week 2
Monday – Discuss & Book Reminder
Tuesday – Story (from BOV/TMC)
Wednesday – Book Questions
Thursday – Story
Friday – Enrichment

Week 3
Monday – Pick another Book
Tuesday – Saint
Wednesday – Define
Thursday – Writing
Friday – Enrichment

Week 4
Monday – Discuss the Book
Tuesday – Writing
Wednesday – Definition/Writing
Thursday – Book Questions
Friday – Enrichment

The PACE Manual is $26.95 and the workbooks are available for Kindergarten through Sixth Grade and are $12.95 each.

Using PACE

The Kindergarten schedule is very similar to third grade except there are activities like coloring something, a maze, etc. The workbooks are laid out by week and day of the week. It is designed for 5 days a week and takes a very short amount of time to complete. The K work can be completed in 5 minutes or less, the 3rd work in about 10-15 minutes, depending on how comfortable your child is with certain activities. Anything requiring writing takes my 3rd grader longer ;). And the Friday enrichment activities can take as long as you let them. Or not.

I have to admit that I am either extremely lazy or super efficient. Take your pick. I do not like to prepare, gather supplies, or anything of the sort. I have enough moving pieces to deal with in my life and planning out a non-primary subject is just more than I am willing to deal with. I jumped right in the day after it came in and then looked at it a little more closely during our break week.

Since we do school 4 days a week, I had to eliminate a day or double up on a day. I chose to eliminate the extra book for both girls on those days. Not only did I not feel like making extra library trips, but we read A LOT and have read most of the extra book suggestions already. If we had a suggested book, we would read it, but I wasn’t going to go out of my way for it. My third grader already has a ton of reading and I wasn’t going to add another chunk a day that she had to read.

I also cut out the enrichment activities most weeks because those fell on Friday’s and we have a light day on Friday’s due to afternoon Ice Skating and errands that need to be run that day. Life :). We did the rest, though.

My K likes the workbook and my 3rd grader did not complain about adding *yet another* subject. I enjoyed having discussions with my K and liked the stories and questions from BOV/TMC and the saints. It was a super simple way to introduce a subject and talk a little bit about it every day with out it being preachy and “you need to…” which is one of the problems I ran into with other programs. I need that scripted for me; it doesn’t come naturally.

Overall…

Over all, I like how PACE is laid out in the workbooks. The manual has good information, but I need it handed to me. For me, the workbooks are ESSENTIAL (or a lesson plan grid at the very least). If you are better at building your own thing and just need ideas, you might just want the manual.

We used it for a full 6 week term (so far) and I still haven’t managed to find the perfect place in our schedule for it. I hesitate to add it to bible/prayer time and morning time is packed. I’m hoping that I can give it more focused time and attention during the lighter Christmas Term, but I wanted to share it now so that you could peek at it to start during the holidays (like I am) or do something new when you go back to school in January. New year, new start and all that jazz.

I do think that it’s laid out well-enough and valuable enough to persevere in REALLY giving it the time that it’s worth (even if that is mostly in my own mind and attitude, because really, it doesn’t take that long) and finding a good home for it in our day. The kids enjoy the story, workbooks and discussions. And I think that doing more of the enrichment & additional reading that we have cut could be valuable time spent, too.

If you have a homeschool mind but your kids are in public school, PACE could be a great afterschool/weekend activity for any Catholic home. It would reinforce your values, introduce some good stories and read-aloud & discussions and help shore up skills your child is doing in school.

Do you use a special virtue or character formation curriculum in your homeschool?

The post PACE – Program for Achieving Character Education for Catholic Schools & Homes {Curriculum Review} appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

I have quit blogging for the most part these days, originally due to health reasons, but now I’m just enjoying the slower pace of life. Occasionally, though, an opportunity comes through that I can’t pass up.  When I got an email from Tyndale about reviewing Gratitude: A Prayer and Praise Coloring Journal, I could not pass it up. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I am loving bible journaling and coloring to foster a little creativity in my busy days.

Not only am I loving bible journaling and adult coloring, but I love to spend a few minutes with some devotionals, too.  Gratitude is one of my favorite choices for a few reasons.

First, it is GORGEOUS already.  I can color and doodle.  Or not.  Check out this quick video where I flip through the book.  Forgive the little babbles in the background.  Feel free to mute; I don’t say much anyway

It is quick!  The devotions are super quick — just a paragraph — with a bible verse and room to write or doodle.  And while I like to be creative, I am more about words and color than drawing and doodles so i love that’s more lines to write than blank space to doodle.  Because I also like to follow the rules and I would feel compelled to draw in blank spaces :).

The quality of the books is fab!  It was a rustic-ish hardcover (by which I mean you can see the cardboard inside…they didn’t cover the edges, too.  The pages inside are beautifully printed, the colors are vibrant, and the pages are thicker than normal paper.  I can’t quite tell, but I’m pretty sure the binding is sewn also, which I like much more than glue because it’s harder for pages to fall out over time.

There is a tiny downside, though.  Because this is a journal and not a coloring book, there is printing — and space to color — on both sides of the page.  And the pages aren’t quite thick enough for markers if you want it to be colored fully.  I used my Stabilo Point 88 finetipped markers and they bleed through pretty good. Or bad. Whatever — it’s more than I would like.  So I switched to my Prismacolor Premier colored pencils (Crayola colored pencils are a GREAT budget alternative).

The other downside is that the drawings are incredibly detailed.  Since my eyesight is terrible, I have a hard time coloring that detail.  Not only do you need to keep your pencil sharpener handy for the tiny spaces, but you need to keep your eyeglass prescription up to date and a good light source, too :).

BUT, that being said, none of those would keep me from buying this.  It is positively gorgeous whether or not you color in it, and I would venture to say that I will probably work the devotions more than color it, because it is SO gorgeous to in it’s own right and life is crazy busy.  I would highly advise this as a gift to anyone and it would be perfect for your own devotional life during November (Thanksgiving!) or Advent.

The post Gratitude: A Prayer and Praise Coloring Journal {Book Review} appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

August is still in ordinary time, but it has a few of my favorite feast days AND a holy day of obligation.

Here are a few major Catholic feasts, memorials and solemnities in August.

8/1 – St. Alphonsus Liguori
8/6 – The Transfiguration
8/15 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Holy Day of Obligation!!)
8/18 – St. Helen
8/22 – The Queenship of the BVM

Do you have any favorite feasts or saints days in August?

The post Living the Liturgical Year – August appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for your support!

My daughter has been growing up before my very eyes.  She is 8 going on 12, riding her bike around our neighborhood, making friends with the kids, going the “corner store,” and having her first friend conflicts.  Frankly, I’m not ready.

I’m not ready for her little heart to be broken. I’m not ready for her to encounter the mean girls in the world. And I don’t want to throw her to unknown wolves who may hurt her. And I am not the heart to heart kind of mom. I wouldn’t know where to start. Luckily, I don’t have to know how to have hard or important conversations.  Trish Donohue’s new book, Between Us Girls, does it for me.

Between Us Girls is a slim little book consisting of 27 walks and talks for moms & daughters.  Each walk is divided into 4 parts:

1. The Garden – describes God’s vision for how things should look.
2. The Weeds – how sin messes up his vision.
3. The Hill – how Jesus died to make up for sin, and
4. The Field – practical ways to apply what we’

Each walk is short, around 5 pages long on average.  It’s intended to be read aloud and has lots of places to talk with your daughter and tell her your stories and invite her to share hers with you. There are lots of references to bible verses that you are to look up and discuss.

The topics discussed on your walks include things like words, feelings, friendships, work, gratitude, clothes, and protection of innocence.  The topics cover nearly every hard topic I can conceive of talking about right now and some I will save for later.

I really like this book, the topics and how it is laid out. Personally, I plan on using it to do bible journaling with my daughter.  I find bible journaling works best for me when I have a bible study to use as a jumping off point.  My daughter is the artistic type and loves to do artsy things with me (and artist I ain’t, so don’t be intimidated!).

I would recommend this to anyone who has young daughters and struggles with being the mother they need or having Godly conversations.  I can’t wait to dig into Between Us Girls with my daughter!  What a great resource for special mom & daughter times.

What are your favorite mother-daughter time activities?

The post Between Us Girls {Book Review} appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

In July we are still in ordinary time and while summer might be the ideal time to live the liturgical year as a family because many obligations disappear, summer seems to be FULL of busy.

Either way, there aren’t a lot of feast days, memorials, or solemnities, but there are a few days to note.

7/11 – St. Benedict
7/14 – St. Kateri Tekakwitha
7/16 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel (and the Brown Scapular)
7/26 – St. Joachim & Anne

Do you have any favorite saints or feast days in July?

The post Living the Liturgical Year – July appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

Disclaimer:  This book was received in exchange for an honest review.  This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you.  Thank you for your support!

I received a lovely new scripturally based adult coloring book for review before I left for vacation in April. I have to admit that I am VERY late in posting this and I apologize. I had some health issues pop up around the time I received this book and I am just now feeling semi-normal, but still on the light side of things.

ANYWAY.  I took Live Free: An Adult Coloring Book with me on vacation. Here is the nitty gritty. Live Free is a smallish adult coloring book. It has 19 new testament scripture pages to color + 1 old testament page. There is also plenty of material to color on the title page and in the introductory pages.

My first page from #livefree by @mafeinberg . Such a beautiful quote! And forgive the sloppy… I was trying different watercolor pencil techniques . #scripture #watercolorpencils #bookblogger #reviewcomingsoon

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Apr 5, 2016 at 3:34pm PDT

One of the things that I like about Live Free is that it has pretty thick pages. Over the course of the testing period, I used watercolor pencils and a water brush, brush markers (Sakura Brush Tips), and Staedtler pens/markers. I had no bleed through and I didn’t note any shadowing. I didn’t even see the print from the other side of the page.

The illustrations are primarily floral with some geometric designs. One of the things that I found difficult about it was that the script was pretty detailed and it was really hard to focus on them to color them. My eye sight is pretty crummy (legally blind w/o glasses) and it was pretty difficult to do neatly.

Each verse in Live Free was selected for meditation on what God wants you to be (so that you can Live Free, knowing what he wants for you / from you. Get it? Okay, moving on…) The facing page is lined and has the verse as well as the translation of Bible used. The same Bible verse is used in the illustration on the opposite page.

Inspired to do something completely different and non-perfect in my newest bible coloring book today. My NSRV had the greatest translation of this verse! #livefree #bookblogger #reviewcomingsoon

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Apr 7, 2016 at 11:46am PDT

The idea is to pray, reflect, journal and doodle on the verse given. I did do that for the first time ever while I was working through this book and I loved the result so much that I recreated it and put it in the bible that I #biblejournal in.

One of the things that I didn’t like about this particular book was the theme. I read all the verses in Live Free and then read them all in one of my two preferred Bible translation, the one I do my bible journaling in — NSRV — so that I could get a little context around them. Some didn’t seem to be anything close to the particular translation used in the book. That kind of frustrated me because I like to use things as a springboard and to be able to dig deeper, but in my translation, some of the verses didn’t really sound anything like something that would make me free, which was the theme of the book. It kind of fell apart there for me. I did a few verses, but it wasn’t a resource that I fell in love with for bible/journal/God time.

A little bit of #snow flake irony. I colored this by a pool on the hottest day so far. #livefree #springbreak #florida

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Apr 11, 2016 at 4:10pm PDT

Overall, it was an okay book. The pictures were lovely and paper quality was awesome. It was more than just a coloring book and prompted you to read, journal, reflect and even doodle on the bible verse. And I did! And I loved what came out of that time and that’s not really my brand of creativity. I like to be creative within the lines ;). But the theme was really kind of a stretch so that was a bit disappointing. If you are looking for a book with lovely detailed illustrations for your quiet time with the Lord, this might serve your purpose well. If you don’t have a favorite translation, this would work well for you too. If you are the kind of person who likes to springboard into bible study, this might not be the resource for you.

Do like to do art in your quiet time with the Lord?

The post Live Free – Coloring Book Review appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

One of my favorite subjects to teach/learn with the kids is history. We have enjoyed Story of the World for a few years now, along with many classic stories from books like Little Stories of Famous American’s and 50 Famous People. This year, when TAN Homeschool emailed me about their new Catholic elementary history curriculum called The Story of Civilization, I LEAPT at the opportunity. They sent me an e-book copy of the book & test bank and they are FABULOUS!!!!

The Story of Civilazation by TAN Homeschool

The Story of Civilization is the first in a series of 4 books with one being released each year, starting with ancient history. Like the Story of the Bible series I shared last year, there is a text book, a test book, a teacher book, an activity book, an audio book and a DVD series to go with each. New with the history series is a timeline.

I have been using classics and Story of the World up to now but there is always some editing to be done. SOTW always has something that needs to be skipped, especially since I am working with early elementary students. Opposing viewpoints, in my opinion, are better saved for older students. Not only do I need to skip things, but then I need to add in my own Saint & church history. And I’m not expert enough to add it all chronologically :).

If you are #Catholic & like Story of the World, you will LOVE These! I got a free electronic copy of these from @tan_books a few weeks ago and devoured the first few chapters. My galley copies arrived today. I can’t wait to read more!!

A photo posted by Jen (@happylhomemaker1) on Mar 23, 2016 at 12:33pm PDT

From a Catholic mom perspective, I LOVE The Story of Civilization! It’s well written and very much in the style of Story of the World. There are stories of what life may have been like, making it more memorable. There aren’t a bazillion dates, which I personally don’t find as valuable as a general idea of sequence. It includes selections from period literature and tidbits like the Sumerians creating our measurement of minutes & hours.

The Story of Civilization also includes biblical history as a fact, rather than as just another myth or religious story on equal footing to any other. I also like that other gods and goddesses are mentioned but are not the main focus. In SOTW1 (which we just finished last year), it seemed to spend a lot of time on Egyptian gods and lore and on their religions, but less on Old Testament stuff. This is probably fine from a secular POV, but I much prefer The Story of Civilization as a faithful Catholic.

Like the bible curriculum, The Story of Civilization book/audiobook are intended for use in grades 1-8, so you can do multiple ages together. We do history with grades 2 & K4 and it works fabulously!

Story of Civilization Components

The Story of Civilization curriculum components cover just about every learning and educational style. CM homeschoolers will like the text and narration exercises. Auditory learners will enjoy the audio book & videos. Visual learners will enjoys the videos, timeline & worksheets. Kinesthetic learners will love the project ideas. They have done a fabulous job making this a well-rounded elementary / junior high history program.

The teacher & activity books include:

• Reading comprehension questions
• Narration Exercises
• Map Activities
• Coloring Pages
• Crossword Puzzles and Word Searches
• Craft Projects unique to each chapter
• Fun Snack Ideas and Recipes
• Science Projects that illustrate the lessons learned in the chapters

The ideal age range for the teacher & activity books are grades 1-4.

The test book consists of a two page test using multiple choice, T/F and a little short answer, making them better for older students (grades 5-8). The timeline folds up like a map. When unfurled, it is 36″x18″ and gives a great overview of how different pieces happen at the same time.

The videos are available for streaming and consist of:

• A 10 minute narrative review of each chapter
• A discussion of key figures
• Further explanation of historical events
• Engaging visual aids and graphics
• A short quiz to test their knowledge

The purpose of the videos is to introduce the material a little more hands-off so that you can change diapers or pull the toddler off the china cabinet. Or maybe that’s just my house :).

These are all available for preorder and should arrive in June or July.  Even if you are not a homeschooler, the dramatized audio book would be great to listen to in the car while going to lessons or on road trips. I am super excited about this curriculum and read it to myself during my vacation last month–because *I* enjoyed it!

Go check out the new Catholic History Curriculum at TAN Homeschool!!

The post My Favorite Catholic History Curriculum for Elementary — New from TAN Homeschool appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.

If you have always wanted to do more with the liturgical year but never seem to get around to it, this might just be your month. There is a veritable treasure trove of feasts this month which mark the end of the Easter season.

May is also devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary & there are several feasts in her honor this month.

5/1 – Queen of Heaven
5/5 – Ascension of the Lord (5/8 in most US dioceses)
5/13 – Our Lady of Fatima
5/15 – Pentacost Sunday
5/22 – Most Holy Trinity
5/26 – Corpus Christi
5/30 – St Joan of Arc
5/31 – Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Do you have any favorite Catholic traditions for May?

The post Living the Liturgical Year – May appeared first on Happy Little Homemaker.