We are rapidly coming to the end of this month, and I just realized I never published this post! Here are the beautiful things we celebrated this month:

This month we are celebrating:

1st- May Day – you can see back posts here  and here

10th -Mother’s Day

May 10-May 13th- Rogation Days – you can see this back post, “A Rogation Heart”

May 14th- Ascension Day – here is a post about celebrating this feast with children

May 24 –

May 25th- Memorial Day

May 31st- The Feast of the  Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Other things on my mind:

• De-cluttering and deep cleaning with natural cleansers
• De- cluttering and painting the garage
• Spring tales for children and puppetry for small children
• Gardening
• The lake and the pool. Our son is sailing quite a bit with Sea Scouts, and the season is open!
• Spring menu planning!
• Screen Free Week is May 4th to 10th!   Here are some real-life strategies for reducing children’s screen time. As adults, we often need to reduce screen time and social media time and I am making that a habit focus for May.

These are a few of my favorite things for small children:

• Hiking on The Feast of Ascension, watching clouds
• Making Pentecost crafts
• Gathering for May Day and dancing around a May Pole!
• Making crafts for Memorial Day, this year decorating our own front porch and walking in the neighborhood since I doubt there will be parades of any kind!
• Pedal toys – trikes and bikes!

These are a few of my favorite things for grades-aged children:

• Seting up playing in the water and sand
• Observing all the dragonflies, bees, and butterflies
• Calming rituals for rest times and the end of the day.  I strongly believe that children ages 8-13 still need earlier bedtimes and I work very hard to make that happen. Calming rituals and rhythm are soothing for sleep!

These are a few of my favorite things for teens:

• Spring cleaning and spring decorating of the home, gardening tasks
• Spring cooking, making special treats for The Feast of Ascension and Memorial Day
• Planning surprise May Day baskets for neighbors, and doing things to serve others.
• Picnics at the lake or park with #socialdistancing
• Later night walks in the warm air – great time to talk after the smaller children have gone to bed

These are a few of my favorite things for myself:

• Celebrating our family with family meetings and family game night.
• Celebrating our marriage with a night out on our anniversary -34 years on May 31st!
• Vigorously moving 5 to 6 days a week, whether that is through yoga, hiking, at the gym, or whatever I choose.
• Drinking lots of water and herbal teas.
• Daily Compline from The Book of Common Prayer
• I made notes for who I am praying for in my phone with One Note and it has helped me immensely to stay on track and not forget!

This year, I really looked at dividing my year more quarterly, so I am already looking ahead to these last two months of the second quarter as a bit of a personal challenge, and figuring out what kinds of things I would love to see happen in July, August, and September. The year is flying by!

I would love to know what is on your mind for this month of May.

Many blessings,

Carrie