Saint Francis

According to the calendar, spring has sprung....but I am still surrounded by mountains, literally mountains of snow.  Well, maybe hills of snow, but 30 cm. fell a few days ago and if spring is here, it doesn't feel like it yet.

To help remind my family of the renewal of the natural world, of the Church and of the Papacy with our new Pope Francis I, I thought I would focus on the beauty of God's creation.  Planning to work on this craft with my kids is something that has me looking forward to a time when I can see other colors than white in my landscape (green, for example, would be great!), ties into St. Francis' love of creation and respect for it, and will open the discussion about why Pope Francis chose his name.

Here's the plan (I'll keep you 'posted' about the results and any changes that need to be made):

A little prep work is in order, but really it has to do with asking my daughter what her favorite animals are, then adding my son's favorite animals to the list--he's too little to articulate what they are, but a mother knows these things.  I'll ask her to draw the animals on square pieces of cardboard (3 ''x 3'') so that the images will be roughly the same size. Next, I'm going print out this clip art image of St. Francis and color it (that's going to be my job!! Yeah, I love coloring...don't laugh it's meditative for adults too).



I found it found at
http://onedeepdrawer.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/saint-francis-of-assisi-2.jpg

Finally, I'm going to assemble all of this into a mobile.  St. Francis in the center and all the animals around him.  I think I'll use a clothes hanger to hang everything from...it'll be faster and easier than trying to rig a proper x-style mobile.

Through this hands on work I'd like my kids, and myself as I help them, to focus on the things that we love in the world that surrounds us.  This should help us stay focused on why we need to be thankful and reverential as we wait for Easter, and for spring.