Happy Friday, friends! I’m glad you could join me! Here are this week’s favorites.

Since I have seven faves, I’m also linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes.

(Note: Revolution of Love is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

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This Week’s Fave Activity

Decorating the House & Prepping for Advent

Yesterday, I spent the day decorating the house and setting up our Advent activities. (This extra week between Thanksgiving and Advent really gave me a boost, since I’m usually really behind!)

I shared the process on Instastories and many of you asked for the links to various items I used. You can find them all here – https://revolutionoflove.com/favorite-advent-traditions-2017/. What are your favorite Advent activities?

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This Week’s Fave Advent Activity with the Kids

Letter to Baby Jesus

This remains not only a fun activity for my boys, but one of the most popular posts on my blog. Instead of having the boys write the traditional letters to Santa, I put together a simple form letter that I could print off and give everyone in the family to fill out.  We decide on a spiritual we’ll work on during Advent as a gift to Jesus, who we will especially pray for and what presents we hope to get to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. When they were done, they folded up their letters and put them in their shoes for St. Nicholas to deliver to Baby Jesus.

If you’d like to print of a copy of the Letter to Baby Jesus for your little ones, I posted the PDF here. Also, I made a second version for those who don’t want the Santa aspect. It can be found here. 🙂 For the full post, click here – A Favorite Advent Tradition: A Christmas Letter to Baby Jesus (Instead of Santa)

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This Week’s Fave App

The Christmas List App

Now that my Advent items are ready and my house is almost decorated, I am ready to tackle the Christmas shopping. For the last few years I’ve been using The Christmas List App.

I keep track of my gifts and categorize them by groups – family, friends, school, etc. I have shopping lists organized by store. I set a budget and keep track of my progress. I am usually always about the paper and pencil, but in this case, I love this app!

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This Week’s Fave Movies with my Kids

The Grinch and Ralph Breaks the Internet

The popcorn has been flowing with two movies in two weeks. I was dragging my feet with The Grinch, but it was cute and funny. The Grinch was more grouchy than down-right mean, but it still worked. We all enjoyed it. Besides, it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Christmas. What more could you want? 😉

I was not a huge fan of the first Ralph movie. There was nothing wrong, it just didn’t grab me as something I’d watch twice. However, I did enjoy the sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet a lot more. Maybe it was all the funny social media references or it could have been the show stealing Disney princesses, but I actually had fun and enjoyed it as much as my kids. Thumbs up on both movies.

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This Week’s Fave Online Shopping Destination

Etsy.com

I am a huge fan of Amazon, but this year I bought a number of unique gifts from Etsy shops. If you are looking for some new shops to browse, check out Blessed Is She’s Catholic Holiday Gift Guide. Many of my favorite shops are listed in there! Here are some of the gifts I bought this year:

Marian Journal Set and Stickers by Be A Heart

Mother of Our Savior by Brass & Mint Co

 Punch the Devil in the Face Mug by Just Love Prints

Verso L’alto Embroidered Baseball Cap by Just Love Prints

FOREVER ONE BLESSINGS for Mr. & Mrs. by My Saint My Hero

Adore Him Red Beaded Bracelet  by Pink Salt Riot

God Walks Among the Pots and Pans by Rose Harrington

Sacred Heart & Immaculate Heart Pouch by Someday Saints Designs

Sacred Heart Pin and Print Bundle by Wild Hope Co

There are so many other great gifts to choose from! Check it out.

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This Week’s Fave Christmas Album by a Male Artist

The Advent of Christmas by Matt Maher

We love listening to Matt Maher and were excite to see that he came out with a new Christmas album. It is already a family fave. My favorite song on the album? The catchy rendition of Hark the Herald Angel Sing.

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This Week’s Fave Christmas Album by a Female Artist

Behold by Lauren Daigle

There are two new amazing Christmas albums this year! I love Lauren Daigle’s voice and her new Christmas album is a welcome addition to our collection. My fave song on the album? The toe tapping Jingle Bells.

Okay, all this talk about Christmas albums makes me wonder, what are your favorite Christmas albums? Mine include the above two and…

• The Best of Bing Crosby – The Christmas Collection: 20th Century Masters 
• The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole
• Christmas by Michael Buble
• Christmas Offerings by Third Day
• Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer by Relient
• Dawn of Grace by Sixpence None the Richer

Those are my favorites of the week! What have you been enjoying?

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify. 😉

Are you ready to link up?? Here are the rules.

1. Create a post with your Friday Favorites.

2. Add a link back here so others can play along.

3. If you want to add the logo to your post, here is the html.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-10649″ src=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/fri_fave_logo_640.jpg” alt=”” width=”500″ height=”500″ /></p>

4. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. The link-up will be open for two weeks. Have fun!

Happy Friday, friends! I’m glad you could join me! Here are this week’s favorites.

Since I have seven faves, I’m also linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes.

(Note: Revolution of Love is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

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This Week’s Fave Liturgical Print

All Souls Day Prayer & Family Photos

For All Souls Day, I made a print using PicMonkey to display the photos of relatives who have recently died, along with The Faithful Departed prayer. We placed the photo on our little prayer table in the family room (next to where we eat) and we recite the prayer during our nightly family prayer. We’ll continue to do so for the month of November.

A couple people asked me about the print when I showed it on Instagram, so I downloaded the photo to Google Drive. You could download the photo template and use PicMonkey to make your own version, like I did, or you can simply print out a copy and write in the name of your loved ones or even tape their photo(s) to it. You can do it now and use it for the remainder of November or save it for next year.

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This Week’s Fave Photo Challenge

#rolgratitudechallenge

This month I’m focusing on being grateful, especially when I’m tempted to complain or focus on the negative. I’m doing a photo challenge for the month of November with no prompts, simply take a photo of something you’re grateful for and tag it #rolgratitudechallenge.

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This Week’s Fave Journal

Photo credit: CultivateWhatMatters.com

Lara Casey’s Write the Word Journal (Cultivate Gratitude)

I have long been a fan of Lara Casey’s Goal Planning and Powersheets, but she also has lovely Write the Word Scripture Journals.

Each day there is a Scripture verse for you to write. Writing it out helps to to not only remember it, but ponder it as you are writing. There is also space to journal or be creative. There are a number of different subjects for each journal (Hope, Joy, Prayer, Forgiveness, etc) but I chose to use the Gratitude Journal during November.

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This Week’s Fave Subscription Box

Feast Day Box

Subscription boxes are big these days and you can pretty much find ones in any subject matter. In our house, we’ve purchased boxes for planner addicts (me), Disney lovers (me and Bella), and football fans (Packers – Brian & Chargers – Andrew). I’ve seen some really nice Catholic boxes, but they would have suited our family when the kids were younger.

The Feast Day box is both fun and spiritually uplifting. Each monthly box contains food items to help you celebrate a liturgical feast and a spiritual item to help you prayerfully celebrate the feast. It’s the best of both worlds and I love it. You can find the box that fits your price range and family size. We subscribe to the Memorial Boxes.

Here is the October Memorial Box.

Here is the November Memorial Box.

The food treats were eaten and enjoyed. The book is being read  and the candle is lit during our night prayers.

The Thanksgiving Cornucopia box just arrived int he mail so we’ll be doing a box opening on Instagram this weekend. 🙂

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This Week’s Fave Spiritual Tool

Every Sacred Sunday Mass Journal

Of all the journals I have ever owned in my life, the Every Sacred Sunday Mass Journal has been the most life changing. I kid you not. I am the type of person who always absorbs information better when I am visually looking at it and not just hearing it audibly, so having the Mass readings is a must for me. Of course, I could have just followed along in the church missal, but with the journal I can underline, write notes in the margins and handletter favorite Psalms. The book also has a notes section, which I use to take notes about the homily. (No more zoning out or dozing off.) 😉 It’s really helps me to focus on the Mass, the homily and what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me. I have friends who can’t take notes during Mass because they are wrangling babies and toddlers, but they love the Mass Journal because it gives them a chance to go over the Readings before Mass, or after, so they can still be blessed by studying God’s Word. The 2018-2019 Edition is available to pre-order. I bought one for me, and Bella asked for one as an early Christmas gift. Love it.

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This Week’s Fave Non-Journaling Sunday Missal

St. Joseph Sunday Missal 2019

For the man and boys in our family, they don’t want a journaling Sunday missal. They wanted something small with the Mass readings. Brian has been using the St. Joseph Sunday Missal 2018 Edition this year and the boys really wanted to graduate from the Magnificat Magnifikid Missal, which we loved, into one like their father’s so Brian ordered a copy of the 2019 St. Joseph Sunday Missal for each of them. They only coast $1.99 at Amazon, so you can’t beat the price!

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This Week’s Fave Necklace

Jane Eyre Quote Necklace

When I posted a photo on Instagram, a couple of you asked about the necklace I was wearing. It’s from the etsy shop AnnaAzure.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books and I love this quote, “Wherever you are is my home – my only home.” They have a lot of many other great book quotes. Check it out.

Okay, that’s it for now!

Those are my favorites of the week! What have you been enjoying?

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify. 😉

Are you ready to link up?? Here are the rules.

1. Create a post with your Friday Favorites.

2. Add a link back here so others can play along.

3. If you want to add the logo to your post, here is the html.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-10649″ src=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/fri_fave_logo_640.jpg” alt=”” width=”500″ height=”500″ /></p>

4. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. The link-up will be open for two weeks. Have fun!

Happy Friday Saturday, friends! Yes, I’m a day late so it is Friday Favorites on a Saturday. 🙂 I’m glad you could join me! Here are this week’s favorites.

Since I have seven faves, I’m also linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes.

(Note: Revolution of Love is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

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This Week’s Fave Fall Preview

Fall Colored Flowers

Yesterday, I went to our local farmers market and I couldn’t resist bringing home some fall colored flowers. I love they way they brighten the room and make it feel like my favorite season.

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This Week’s Fave Activity

Morning Beach Walks

I haven’t been on my morning beach walks for almost a month, but the other day I was just feeling overwhelmed with stress and tough things happening in life and I needed to get away. This is my favorite spot to take a deep breath and center myself back on God. You can’t help but take one look at the mighty power and vastness of the ocean and think – the God who made that it certainly able to get me though whatever problems I have right now. Balance restored. Plus, living near the coast, our summers are usually gray and foggy. Once September arrives the fog is lifted and we have sunny days again.

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This Week’s Fave Listen

Rosary Army’s Audio Rosary

One of my goals this month was to more often turn off the TV or music playlist and pray the rosary instead. Sometimes, I pray in our local chapel and sometimes I pray while I’m doing laundry and dishes. When I can’t keep track of the rosary, I like to listen to an audio rosary. The old one I used to listen to no longer works so I was looking for a new version. I was excited to find the Rosary Army App. I’ve long been fans of Greg and Jennifer Willits and their work with the Rosary Army. I tried their rosary app and love it. All the mysteries are available. There is a page with the prayers in writing – I use this during our school rosary group for those parents who are unfamiliar with all the prayers. There’s even a page with pictures of the mystery for visual inspiration. It’s great and I use quite often.

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This Week’s Fave Accessory

Marian Bandana from Be A Heart

Anyone familiar with Blessed Is She, most likely is also familiar of the beautiful artwork of Erica Tighe. She designed the amazing planners, journals, prints and more. She has a company called Be A Heart and she is selling these adorable Marian Bandanas. It is made of 100% cotton and is 22in x 22in.

And if you know me, you also know that I wear bandanas as scarves in my hair all the time. I got one for my bday and I love it! It can be used as a scarf, kerchief or handbag tie, to name a few ideas.Get one before they sell out. 🙂

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This Week’s Fave Bracelets

RosaryCreation.com Bracelet

Speaking of my birthday, when Brian asked me what I wanted, I told him that I’d love a “gift card” to purchase something at the SCRC Conference we were attending the following week.

One of my favorite vendors table was from RosaryCreation.com who sold beautiful items such as rosaries and jewelry.

I love beaded bracelets and bought these three – a navy, a multicolored and a double wrap pink one.  I’m thinking of special ordering the multicolored beads in a double wrap bracelet. They’re so pretty!

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This Week’s Fave Netflix Binge

Kim’s Convenience

The other day I was looking for a new comedy that I could binge watch as I did housework (after my rosary 😉 ). I found Kim’s Convenience and thought it not only hilarious but heartfelt. Netflix describes it as such: “While running a convenience store in Toronto, members of a Korean-Canadian family deal with customers, each other and the evolving world around them.” There is some TV-14 humor, but nothing explicit. It’s a lot of fun.

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This Week’s Fave Weekend Activity

Movie Date with My Son

With four kids, we often enjoying doing things as a family but just as I need time alone with Brian, I think it’s good for the kids to have time alone with me. It can be as simple as going to the market together or taking a walk. It’s easier to do that with my younger boys, but as my oldest boy enters the pre-teen years, it’s a little more challenging. When I saw the preview for Alpha, I knew this would be a movie Andrew would enjoy and being rated PG-13, it was something we could do without his brothers. So this afternoon, we’ll be having some mom and son bonding over popcorn, peanut M&M’s and movie viewing.

Okay, that’s it for now!

Those are my favorites of the week! What have you been enjoying?

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify. 😉

Are you ready to link up?? Here are the rules.

1. Create a post with your Friday Favorites.

2. Add a link back here so others can play along.

3. If you want to add the logo to your post, here is the html.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-10649″ src=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/fri_fave_logo_640.jpg” alt=”” width=”500″ height=”500″ /></p>

4. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. The link-up will be open for two weeks. Have fun!

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to Friday Favorites & Link-up. (Note: Friday Favorites has been moved to the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month.) I’m glad you could join me! Here are this week’s favorites. 🙂

Since I have seven faves, I’m also linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes.

(Note: Revolution of Love is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

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This Week’s Fave Gift for a Sports Fan

Photo credit: Fanchest

Fanchest Curated Gift Boxes

Brian is a big Green Bay Packers fan so for his birthday I got him a Fanchest curated gift box. It was a big hit with Brian, and actually all the boys. To add to the fun, the box had a golden ticket and Brian won $150 worth of free Packer merchandise! Score!

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This Week’s Fave Recipe

Greek Marinated Chicken

Last week I went to the farmer’s market and picked up some of our favorite homemade pita chips and hummus from the Hummus Heaven guys. I searched Pinterest for a Greek marinade for the chicken we were having for dinner and tried a marinade from Aunt Bee’s Recipes. I didn’t have time to marinate the chicken overnight but managed 5 hours. That evening I dusted off our indoor grill and cooked the chicken and it tasted as good as it smelled! It was a hit! This recipe is going on our regular meal rotation.

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This Week’s Fave Movie

Crazy Rich Asians

I’m a big fan of a rom com movie but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen one that I really loved. That changed on Wednesday night when I went to go see Crazy, Rich Asians. It was sweet and cute but also had depth, dealing with issues of race, class and self worth. Visually the movie was stunning, the actors (male and female) were gorgeous, the music fun and some of the comedy was  literally LOL. The level of “crazy rich” was almost unbelievable (especially when you consider the rest of the population in Singapore) but it also served as a “character” in the movie. I really enjoyed it!

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This Week’s Fave Book

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Normally, when there is a movie based on a book, I read the book first. I broke that rule with Crazy, Rich Asians and am reading the book now. So far I am also loving it and the added insight into the movie.

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This Week’s Fave Activity

Girls’ Night Out

It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life, and although I often crave the company of other females, I admit it is usually at the bottom of my priority list. Add that to the fact that by 9:00 PM, I am ready to hit the couch with my pj’s and Netflix. As a result, I don’t have many girls’ nights out. However, with the start of our local Blessed Is She group, I now have a group of ladies (granted, I’m the mom figure of the group) to spend quality time with. It is a blessing to find friends that are both fun and women of God who freely share about their faith, joys and struggles. This particular night, one of the Blessed Is She Team Writers was in town so I was especially excited to see Samantha and her cute baby bump again. Cheers to the power of sisterhood.

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This Week’s Fave Catholic Item

 Talavera Holy Water Fonts

A friend of mine is moving away to another state. I wanted to get her something for her new home that would remind her of our city and the Mission. So I picked up this pretty Talavera holy water font. I loved it so much, I bought two so I could replace our old water font. I love the colors and hung it on the wall by our front door. We use it to bless ourselves before leaving the house each morning. I love it. I tried to find a link to buy them and they are available at Amazon, but the shipping is pricey.

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This Week’s Fave New Food

Photo credit: Dreamworks

Dumplings

Summer is winding down and the boys and I have been enjoying our movie nights while they last. We had a Kung Fu Panda marathon and over the week finished the three movies. They were curious about what dumplings tasted like since they’ve never tried them. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s the difference between dumplings, won tons and pot stickers, which I use in my won ton soup. However, they wanted to try the round dumplings seen in the movies. We happened to be in Costco yesterday and we found Bibigo Steamed Dumplings on sale. Two of my three little guys are picky eaters (the youngest loves almost anything!) so I wasn’t sure how they’d like them but they were a big hit. However, we didn’t care for the sauce that came in the package. I still have enough dumplings for another meal but would like to make my own dipping sauce. Any suggestions for favorite recipes? Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to make my own dumplings but for now, let’s start with the sauce. 😉

Okay, that’s it for now!

Those are my favorites of the week! What have you been enjoying?

Have a great weekend!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify. 😉

Are you ready to link up?? Here are the rules.

1. Create a post with your Friday Favorites.

2. Add a link back here so others can play along.

3. If you want to add the logo to your post, here is the html.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-10649″ src=”http://revolutionoflove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/fri_fave_logo_640.jpg” alt=”” width=”500″ height=”500″ /></p>

4. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. The link-up will be open for three weeks. Have fun!