Our At Home Stations of the Cross

There have been many lovely blog posts this lent about homemade Stations of the Cross, as well as many other crafts for the season. I am truly inspired. I have been a mom for 26 1/2 years and I have to say that the whole concept of sharing faith building ideas on the Internet is incredible to me- I still remember being in awe when I discovered my first Catholic bookstore years ago with its one puny shelf of children's resources. That shelf is a drop in a bucket compared to the wealth of ideas to be found from Catholic moms who blog! I am so thankful to all those who freely share their wonderful talents!!

I am going to give a slight disclaimer here-

I worry that others, like myself, may feel a bit inadequate when comparing their own efforts to those captured in blog land. So, I am going to share our "Stations", hastily put together a few years ago after being inspired by a dear friend who had the stations, drawn by her children, hung around her home.

We did not do anything so wonderful as drawing our stations. At the time, I was so excited at the thought of praying the stations at home (perfect for my boys, who were little at the time) that I promptly came home and "created" these.
 Yes, I tore a part a children's Stations of the Cross book and slid the pictures in page protectors. :) I have thought, over the years, that we should upgrade. But, they do the job. The boys can tape them up around the yard and I don't worry about them being damaged.

So, there you have it. It's not pretty, but it works!! :)

This is not to take away from gratitude toward all the wonderful moms who share their creative ideas- I love them! I use many of them. I just hope we all keep in mind that the purpose is to live our faith. Sometimes that means just "doing it" even if it is more of a "fly by the seat of our pants" effort.

Stations Game

Just to show you that the boys enjoyed the game. The cards worked fine, but I had to take out quite a few of the "lose a turn" cards. They were just showing up too often. Now if I can just get my dear hubby to quit throwing away our egg cartons so that we can do our Last Supper craft! Every time I set one aside, when I am not looking, he dumps it! The upside is that I have a very helpful husband who cleans the kitchen. I had better hide it next time. ;)

Stations of the Cross Game

I have been blog browsing to get some new ideas for these last few weeks of Lent. I am always amazed at that wonderful ideas that so many moms share!

 

I printed this Stations of the Cross game from The Catholic Toolbox (very aptly named!). I made direction cards instead of making a spinner as originally shown- no particular reason why. We have not played yet, so I'll see how that works. My only thought is that because I printed them on different colors, the boys will know what card is coming next- they may not be too thrilled to see "lose a turn" card coming their way. I'll let you know how it goes when we play tomorrow.

I put the Stations of the Cross questions that go with the game in a pocket in the back of the folder. I love the little cd envelopes for game cards and pieces.

I have also printed these papers to make a super cool Last Supper craft. Catholic Icing blog has this craft and many more for the season.