Where I've Been

After a two month absence from the blog, I thought I'd share a little about where I've been, why I haven't posted any new content, and the reason I've been terrible about answering your emails and inquiries.

In early March, my 57-year-old otherwise healthy mother developed a bad cough. After spiking a fever, she was diagnosed with bacteria pneumonia and sent home with antibiotics. Less than 48 hours later she was rushed to the ER and admitted to the ICU in full ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) due to H1N1 Influenza.

She fought hard for 24 days, and I and my family were with her every day. She celebrated her 58th birthday on March 29th, and welcomed her fourth grandchild on April 2nd. And the morning of April 6th, she peacefully passed away.

My family and I are coping, but are wrecked and still in shock from such a terrible loss. I've shared a little on Instagram if you follow me there, and was going to stay quiet here on the blog, but changed my mind. This blog isn't about me, it's about Religious Education for homes and classrooms, but along the way so many of you have become friends. I've met you in person, you've send the kindest emails, and we are united in this kinship of evangelization and catechesis.  I'd like to ask for your prayers for the repose of my mom's soul as well as your prayers for my family during this difficult time.  You can visit her Caring Bridge site here if you'd like to read more about our journey.

Thank you for your support.  I hope that you've been able to find activities for Easter and Divine Mercy in the archives, and I'll be back in May with some new ideas and reviews.  My Etsy Shop did reopen yesterday with some new products as well as some sales.  As always, I'm grateful for the community of believers united here.

~ ~ ~

Mom's Obituary:

Rebecca Sue Bogner, 58, of Sparland passed into eternal life on April 6, 2019 unexpectedly from a respiratory virus. Cherished wife, beloved mother, and adored Gigi to four grandchildren, she has left an indelible mark on the world that words would never do justice to.

Becky was blessed enough to always call the countryside her home. She was raised in Wyoming, IL, born to Harold and Betty Wilkinson on March 29, 1961, and was a 1979 graduate of Wyoming High. She attended Illinois Central College. She and her loving husband, Steve, were married in 1983 and resided on their family farm in Sparland for more than 35 wonderful years of marriage. Their love for each other and for their family is undoubtedly Becky’s most impactful legacy.

Becky devoted herself to raising her three daughters, instilling in them through her actions a love for radical hospitality, gracious generosity, and service to others above self.

As they grew, Becky was employed with the Midland School District as an administrative assistant. She worked for the district for 22 years, and greeted everyone with her kind smile and willingness to help without hesitation. She loved her daily interactions with her coworkers and the students. She was an involved parishioner at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where she and Steve attended their entire marriage and made many lifelong friends.

Becky was known to her friends, family, and community through countless ways. She was part of the Sparland Mothers Club when her girls were young, a 4-H leader and volunteer for many years, and a proud supporter of the Midland FFA. She baked cakes for every special occasion, from birthdays to weddings. She renovated and decorated their 140 year-old farm house, making it both beautiful and a place to call home for her girls and their friends. She was always elbow deep in craft projects and ankle deep in her garden. Her generosity could not be exceeded through her cooking and baking - there was always enough food for one (or five) more at her table. She would cook a several-course meal and still ask for requests for your favorite pie to whip up at the end of it.

She leaves behind the love of her life, husband Steve, her three daughters, Katie Bogner of Chillicothe, IL, Stephanie Zimmerman of Colchester, IL, and Emily Werner of Fort Riley, KS, beloved sons-in-law Steven Zimmerman and Luke Werner, and the little lights of her life - four grandchildren, Violet, Oliver, Evan, and Theodore. Out of the countless hats she wore throughout her life, Gigi was the one that brought her the most joy.

Services for Becky will take place at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lacon. The visitation will be held Thursday, April 11th from 5-7PM. The funeral Mass will be Friday, April 12th at 10:30AM with luncheon to follow. Memorials can be made to the Midland FFA or Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.

The joy and memories she leaves behind for those who loved her and were loved by her far surpass the great sorrow we feel. We rest in the hope that she is in Heaven in the presence of our Lord, and that she already knows what kind of pie to make for Him.

Eternal rest, grant unto her, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her.

~ ~ ~

And this is the letter we shared at the funeral:

Dear Family and Friends,

“...We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance; endurance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit...”~Romans5:2-5

Hope- the word that has forged our path and guided our steps on this journey.

For much of these past weeks, the word hope has rung in our ears and pressed into our hearts. We rested in hope on the better days and clung to it on the hard ones. We lived in hope that mom would heal, be made well, and return home to us.

Instead, we walk this path, the one we would have never chosen but ultimately was God’s will. In such a time as this, it would be easy to question - what was the purpose of all that hope? What is the purpose of this suffering? And we have received this answer in Truth - our hope is not of this world, not of our own plans or desires, no matter how good. Our hope is in the Lord, ever gracious, ever merciful, ever loving. Our hope is in Heaven.

Our mom emulated this same hope and love in the way she lived each day of her life. She gave her time, her gifts, her kindness, and her smile to everyone she met and poured herself out in service to others. She loved as Christ loves us still - completely, selflessly, and unwavering.

Over the last few days, we have often spoken how people are grieving for us - losing a beloved wife, a cherished mom, and an adored Gigi too suddenly and much too soon has been the greatest tragedy we have ever faced. But also, there are so many who are grieving with us. Many of you feel your own loss of Becky so acutely. When you live the way she did, overflowing with love for others, it’s hard to not be touched by that love. We are all marked in some way by Becky’s life. We honor her by honoring you, her family and friends - thank you for sharing your stories, your memories, the places in your heart where she will live on forever.

In gratitude, we offer you the same thing that has been offered to us - hope through Christ. We do not despair. We rejoice in hope and persevere toward our ultimate goal - a life in Heaven with our Lord. We hope for happier days on earth, that the stories and memories we share will come with both laughter and tears, knowing they are made sweeter from the suffering. We hope for all of you who are hurting today to be comforted and for peace to wash over all of us, leaving only an ache for our true home, where there will be no more pain or sadness - only joy.

In mom’s kitchen, there is a sign that hangs on the wall stating, “Home is where your Mom is.” These words have never been truer. Our home is where our mom is. Our home is in Heaven. May we all one day be Home, together again once more.

With hope -
Steve, Katie, Steph, Steven, Violet, Oliver, Evan, Emily, Luke, & Teddy

Lent Looks Different: Classroom Decorations

Lent should look different.  Our prayer and practices, our routines and environments.  To represent that visually, I like to really change up my classroom for Lent.  After school Friday, (we have a teachers' institute Monday, so really the kids will see it just one day early) I took down some of our extra posters and decorations, packed up a few statues, etc. to help the room look a little more simple.  Then I went about filling the space will lots of reminders of the purpose of Lent.  This bulletin board is a big visual (somewhere around 5'x5') and is the first view when you walk in the room.  I pulled out this lovely San Damiano Crucifix and then lettered the tradition prayer before a Crucifix that is used in the Stations of the Cross. Fast and simple, but bold and eye catching. 

That bulletin board is right above the prayer space in the corner of our classroom, so I also added a crown of thorns, candle, and a letter board with "pull up weeds, plant good seeds," a shortened version of the Fulton Sheen quote, "We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative." All our sets of Stations of the Cross prayer books and other Lenten reflection books are gathered in this corner as well.

Kendra from Catholic All Year sent me a copy* of her Printable Lent DIY Bundle to try in my classroom, and it is awesome. She used her graphic design skills to update a few of the long standing Lenten traditions of their household, and the set includes a great collection of tools for kids to understand and grow through the Season of Lent.  The set is in the Catholic All Year shop, and I just saw it is on sale for $8 (marked down from $20!) so now is the time to grab it for this Lent.

I've got our set hung in the main hallway at school, right above a prayer table that can be used by any of the kids and staff.  Since it is hanging in a main hallway, we'll be using all the clip art medallions as a calendar for the Season of Lent.  Included are Sundays, Lenten Weekdays, and all the Saint Feast Days that could fall during Lent, no matter how late or how early the Season starts.  (I've got all those extras stashed away for the future!) You can see a close up of the medallions in the photos below, and included in the set is a short kid friendly bio for each of the Saints that could be read on those days.  There is also a great Pray, Fast, Give poster to use as a title and some powerful Lent Saint/Scripture/CCC quotes (pictured above) to round out the display.

(*You know I only share things I've used and loved.  All opinions my own.)

Included in the set are printables and instructions for making a Lenten Sacrifice Bean jar, but I already had this Sacrifice crown, so I went with that.  Add a little purple fabric and a burlap runner, and it makes for an eye catching reminder of the season.

The set also includes little sheets for personal Lenten disciplines and a full page to post the Lenten disciplines for your family or classroom.

I'm going to keep the calendar up for all of Lent and mark the day with this little paper crown of thorns as we move through the Season.  It also would work great as a count down where the kiddos each morning have to find and take down the medallion for the day.  The size of the medallions (a little over 2") would also be super perfect for a pocket chart and calendar time in a younger classroom.  I think it's a versatile set that could work in many levels of classrooms or grow with your family no matter the ages of your kids.

On my Notes from the Saints board (you can see more at #notesfromthesaints) I did one quick quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe and then asked my homeroom to look up and add some favorite quotes from other Saints about Lent.  There's a stack of purple index cards and thumb tacks, so I hope they keep adding to it throughout the Season.  I've added in my metal envelope some Lenten bookmarks for them (I keep prayer cards, Saint cards, little copies of Saint quotes, etc. here for them to grab as they walk out the door if they want.) These bookmarks are actually the Bible Margin Doodle "stickers" in my Etsy shop, just printed on cardstock.  All digital downloads in my Etsy shop are 50% right now, so if you've been waiting to get any of the sets, now's the time!

And finally, I purchased this Stations of the Cross Coloring Book from Catholic All Year (along with the extended license for use in my classroom).  I plan to actually use copies for all of the kids for a Lenten retreat later in the month, but for right now, I wanted to have a set of the Stations hung prominently during Lent.  I love the traditional art of these stations, so they were just what I was looking for.  I asked some early finishers to help color them, with the basic instructions to keep Jesus in white and Mary in blue and then to do whatever they wanted.  Well, next I saw, Jesus was wearing a different colored neon garment in each station.  But, alas, this is their classroom, and if they liked it, it's all fine. ;) I laminated and trimmed them and have them hanging on our windows, giving them a stained glass illusion.

That's how Lent looks different in my classroom! Do you have any great ideas to share about setting the tone for the Season in your home or classroom?

You might be interested in these posts on:
Lent Activities for Kids (Including songs & video playlists, printables, and more)

 Lent Books (2019)

Lent Books for Kids and Adults (2018)

Lent: Ideas to Help Kids Pray, Fast, and Give all 40 Days

Lent gives us 40 days of opportunities to grow closer to Christ. As you are planning for the upcoming season, here are some ideas for you to use in your home or classroom.  This round up post contains music, videos, art projects, or coloring pages, click on the images below to go to the original posts. If you are already thinking ahead to Easter, check out this post or the list under The Church Year tab.

The Sound of Lent: A Song Playlist (my personal go-to music during Lent, but great for a classroom as well)

Videos for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter 

Books for Lent for Kids and Adults here and here:

Sunset & Shadow Stations of the Cross Project (one of my students' annual favorites!)

Resurrection Eggs (Tell the story of Holy Week with items in each egg)

The Gospel in an Eggshell (Object lesson connecting Advent, Lent, & Easter)

Lent Notes Foldable (notetaking device for the Season of Lent)

Lent Word Cloud Notes (print mine or use as an example to have students make their own)

Give Up, Take Up (Lent goals printable and ideas for Youth Group lesson)

I don't have a link for this one, but we will have a sacrifice crown of thorns in my classroom.  It's a simple grapevine wreath with large brown toothpicks.  When the students make a sacrifice, they can pull a thorn from the crowns and place it in the bowl.

Student created Lenten Acts of Mercy organized by the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
(It's a great time of year to teach about the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.  Find printable coloring pages and mini books here and here.)

Using the Stations of the Cross as Inspiration for Lenten acts of charity

What Lent Looks Like Coloring Page (Also available in the Liturgical Year Coloring Book)

What The Triduum Looks Like Coloring Page

Lent- Pray, Fast, Give Activity

Lent- Pray, Fast, Give Coloring Pages

Passion & Resurrection Peg Doll Set

Connecting the Passover and the Passion (Youth Bible Study, can use movie Prince of Egypt)

New Life Seeds Printable

Fulton Sheen Good Friday & Easter Sunday Quote

I pray you have a blessed and fruitful Lent!

Confirmation Saint Graphic Organizers

My students are just a little over a month away from receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.  I'm feeling the crunch of trying to teach-them-all-the-things, which we all know is impossible- thank goodness we have a lifetime to keep learning about the Mysteries of God!  In an effort to teach two concepts at once as well as help the students apply what they are learning, we are working through a series of tasks relating to their chosen Confirmation Saint.  Every Confirmation class requires the students to choose a Saint and using write a report or do a project about that Saint.  My students had to do the basics late last fall when they made their Saint choices, but I wanted to also help them create a keepsake which also getting to know their Saint a little better.

I had a stack of unused 8"x8" blank books (found mine in the Target dollar aisle, but they can be found on school supply websites too), and we have been creating artifacts to assemble into a Confirmation Saint book.  I'd like to share some of the pages with you today if they would be helpful in your own Confirmation prep and instruction.  My students will also add a cross curricular Math project they are making that results in a Stained Glass window of their Saint, and in Art they are working on creating an icon that will be displayed at their Confirmation Mass.  We'll print a small photo of it to include in their book, and I'll also set up a page where the students can add a photo of themselves and their sponsor, etc. 

The graphic organizers I'm sharing are intentionally blank so that you can use them any way that fits the needs of your students.  I'll also share a version that can easily be cut down to 8"x8" if you'd like to try the blank book (or nicer scrapbook) idea, or there are full page versions to use for individual tasks or in a notebook or folder.

First up, here is a basic Saint biography page.  This would be a great intro project once the students have chosen their Saint, but my students will be using this as a review and hopefully sharing genuine and detailed info after all these months of getting to know their Saints ;)  The full page version has an extra section for a quote by or about the Saint, or a Bible verse that describes them.

This project we worked on for St. Valentine's Day.  We discussed that Saints often come in pairs or groups- holiness begets holiness- and therefore they should look for friends and family members themselves who they can walk together in the faith with.  For this task, they had to connect their Saint to another Saint.  It could be (preferably) someone they knew in real life, or a Saint they looked up to and was known to ask for the intercession of.  Honestly, even I was surprised with how many connections we were able to find.  (Out of my 54 students, there was only one we really struggled with, and he has a particularly obscure Saint.)  It was really neat for the kids to see how many of the Saints had an immediate family member that also became a Saint, or for them to read about a group of friends that pursued holiness together. This has been my favorite Confirmation activity we have done so far!  The full page version has an extra box asking the student to connect their own life to the Saints.

This page was a great way to apply knowledge of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  After doing a typical lesson learning about the Gifts (I'll have a post soon with our notes from that), the students had to apply their new knowledge by writing one way that their Saint showed the manifestation of that Gift of the Holy Spirit in their life.  This one really made them think, but hopefully helped them see how the Holy Spirit worked in their Saint and can work in them.  The full page version includes a short definition of the Gifts in the seven boxes.

I don't have my example page done for this one yet but I wanted to include it with the group. ;) This one has the students show how the Fruits of the Holy Spirit could be seen in the life of their Saint.  After learning about the Fruits (again, printables will be in another post soon), they'll apply what they know by choosing four out of the twelve fruits that their Saint particularly exemplified.  In these four boxes they will create a simple comic strip with a caption about four stories from the Saint's life.  The full page version has a spot for a reflection at the bottom.

There are tons of ways to use these printables, whether individually or as a whole project.  There will probably be a few more added to the collection, so check back for more posts! If you are currently preparing a group of students for Confirmation, please know of my prayers both for you and the Confirmands!

Click on the images below for the printables:


Saint Bio 8X8:

Saint Bio Regular:

Saintly BFFs 8x8:

Saintly BFFs Regular:

Saint & Gifts of HS 8x8:

Saint & Gifts of HS Regular:

Saint & Fruits of HS 8x8:

Gifts of the Holy Spirit Cards:

Gifts of the Holy Spirit Mini Book:

Fruits of the Holy Spirit Foldable:

Saint & Fruits of the HS Regular:

Saint and the Corporal/Spiritual Works of Mercy: