My Favorite Posts from 2012

I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight three of my favorite posts from last year, one for each of the main themes I cover in the blog: liturgical lessons, healthy eating, and my poetry.  These themes are highlighted in the blog button I created last summer:

Feel free to hang my button on your blog!  I would be happy to hang yours in exchange, so contact me if you want to do that.  I also have a square button highlighting the healthy eating theme (pictured below).  Someday, I’ll make square versions of the other two themes.

My favorite liturgical post of the year is “Tabletop Shrine for Mary” from April 29^th. 

 

Here I share my idea for a table dedicated to Mary.  As I stated in the post, we continue to update our shrine, changing out the items we display there as we move through the liturgical calendar.  Right now, our accordion books about the Magi are standing there keeping our Mary statuette company.

For my favorite healthy eating post of the year, I choose “Healthy Eating: How to Get Started” from June 18^th.

Sharing what I learn and the recipes I try during our healthy eating quest is one of my passions, so I believe this post is a good introduction to how I incorporate healthy whole foods into our family diet.  This post offers suggestions for easy and quick healthy breakfasts as well as information about the detriments of sugar.

My favorite post of the year about poetry is “National Poetry Month” from April 10^th.

Another of my passions is promoting poetry, particularly from the angle of changing its reputation for being “too difficult” to understand or “irrelevant” to contemporary life.  Of course, I believe neither of those things!  In this post, I shamelessly promote my own poetry, and unsuccessfully tried to start a conversation about the relevance of National Poetry Month.  Try, try again on both accounts.

I hope you enjoy (re)visiting my favorite posts!  Feel free to tell me about your favorite posts from last year, or to offer suggestions for upcoming post topics.  I am still spending my writing time revising my book manuscript, but hope to return to regular posting in a month or so.

Linked with: Catholic Bloggers Link up Blitz, Best of 2012, Top Posts of 2012

Tabletop Rosary

Back in April, we started a tabletop shrine to Our Lady in the living room.  In addition to serving as a constant reminder to pray, the shrine keeps clutter off the table, and my children enjoy changing the arrangement of the items (especially the flowers), including changing out the Mary statue (we have a handful of them).  We have even on occasion arranged the flowers in the shape of a rosary.

In the photo above, we used some plastic flowers, crocheted flowers (they help children to keep count of the Hail Mary prayers while saying the rosary), and a cross made from grass.  This particular version has more than a decade of flowers, but that could easily be adjusted; it serves more as a reminder to pray. 

You can also see my oldest likes to draw; the tabletop above includes her picture of The Assumption.  She draws rosaries sometimes; the one pictured below has hung on our refrigerator and laid on the table (tape keeps it from blowing away when we pass by).  

I have tried many different activities to grow my children’s interest in praying the rosary.  This is just one way I hope to remind them of the power of praying the rosary during the month of October, but especially when we celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary this Sunday.  

One of the activities I plan to do all month is to have them use different objects to represent a decade of the rosary on the table or on paper as a prelude to our prayer.  I’m thinking about giving them beads, small toys, pasta, dried beans, square letter tiles, even checkers!  You can read about a visual marker I made to help with this idea here.

I think we may also use magnets to create a rosary image on the refrigerator or dishwasher.  What ideas do you have for letting children “build” a rosary decade to display?

Linked with Rosary Fiesta, Extraordinary Ideas for Ordinary Time, Catholic Bloggers Network, Faith Formation in Young Children, For the Kids Friday, Weekly Kids Co-op, My Favorite Things and Catholic Autumn Decor.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

We made two crafts for this feast day, an Immaculate Heart from felt, and another from colored card stock.  Here are the supplies we bought.

For the cloth heart, I cut two hearts from a rectangle of red felt (one for each of my children).  I showed my seven year old how to sew on a button, and then she sewed white flower shaped buttons in a row on the heart.  This is her very first sewing project, and she is eager to do more.  I am also hoping to show her how to crochet this summer.  I don’t remember exactly, but I was about her age when I learned to sew, crochet, and embroider.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted on our progress.

My three year old made her heart using some white adhesive buttons I found in flower shapes and with flower outlines.  I didn’t know self adhesive craft buttons existed, but they worked great.  I sewed some pieces of orange yarn at the top of each heart to represent the flames (this was a little too difficult for my beginning sewer, but older children may be able to do it).

I’m surprised they turned out so well, and they were so easy to make.  I think it would also be easy to make the Sacred Heart by braiding brown yarn and sewing it on.  In fact, there are many possible ways to do this project, such as making an Immaculate Heart pillow, attaching cloth or sewn roses, embroidering the flowers or crown of thorns, etc.

While we were working, I told my children about Mary’s pure heart, full of love for God and Jesus, always focused on showing others how to love God by example.

We also created another version of this craft, using colored card stock, rose stencils, and paint to create a paper heart.  We cut the flames out of orange card stock.

After we finished, we placed our Immaculate Hearts on our tabletop shrine for Mary.  If you saw how we created this shrine last month, you’ll notice the pink flowers that we used then are now in a little basket.

In 2013 I am linking with: Tea with Saint Anne, For the Kids Friday, Kids Get Crafty, Weekly Kids Co-op

In 2012 I linked with: The Immaculate Heart of Mary, Extraordinary Ideas for Ordinary Time, Catholic Bloggers Network, First Friday, Faith Formation in Young Children, My Favorite Things, Tactile Tuesday

Dramatize the Visitation and Answer Where Babies Come from

This Thursday, May 31, the Church commemorates the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth.  Following the Annunciation, Mary discovers that Elizabeth is indeed expecting her first child after many years without a pregnancy.  Upon Mary’s arrival, Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist, leaps for joy in her womb, filling Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit.  She calls Mary “blessed among all women,” recognizing her as the Mother of God.  You can find this story in the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 39 - 45.

We will dramatize the Visitation using our Mary Spoon Puppets.  

They are very easy to make; you just need some wooden spoons, pieces of cloth, painter’s tape, and yarn.  Click on the link above or photo below to go to my post for directions.  

To convert one of our puppets into Elizabeth, we placed a toy ball under her dress and tied it in place with yarn.

For our dramatization, we will read the story from Luke and use our puppets to demonstrate.  The book Mary’s First Christmas by Walter Wangerin, Jr. also contains a version of this story; the book begins with The Annunciation and covers the events through the Holy Family’s return to Nazareth from Egypt.  You can learn more about this book by clicking on the image of Mary and the infant Jesus in the Children’s Book Carousel in the left sidebar.  FYI: when you click on the book image, you will open a window to the Amazon website.

Read about how we used our spoon puppets to dramatize the Annuciation here.

The story of Elizabeth and Zechariah is also a good way to teach children about the role of prayer in family life.  Luke 1:13 reveals that God answered the prayers of Elizabeth and Zechariah that they may have a child after many years without children.

This chapter of Luke also contains a very good answer to the question “where do babies come from?”  For very young children, the answer, “God,” is often the best because it is truthful and uncomplicated.  I am anticipating that my three year old will ask some version of this question and many others because we are expecting an addition to our extended family, a cousin for my two daughters.  My answer, when she asks, will be that her aunt and uncle prayed to God for a baby and He answered their prayers.

I’m linking this post with Equipping Catholic Families.  Monica hosts a Saints Cele-linky organized by month.

This post is also linked to the Catholic Bloggers Network Round up.  Remember to go visit the other links there and vote with your mouse for this month’s Big Clicks Award.

I have attached this post to the Tea with Saint Anne Link up hosted by Jennifer at Crafolic.  This link up is for posts that help to grow the Domestic Church and encourage a faith centered home.

Holly at A Life-Size Catholic Blog hosts a monthly Pay It Forward Link Up, so I am connecting there in June also.  Her link up is a great forum for sharing the ideas you have found on other blogs; click on my links above to find the original inspirations for the spoon puppets and the angel puppet.  I hope you will go see what others are paying forward this month at the link below.

And, I am connecting with the First Friday Link up for June hosted by Lacy at Catholic Icing.   

Martianne, whose own post inspired my Mary spoon puppets, has graciously invited me to join her weekly link up about Faith Formation in Young Children, so you will find me linked to her post about Mealtime Prayers.