Lent

Our family observes the season of Lent. In short, Lent is the forty day period that precedes Easter. [It's actually slightly more than 40 days if you sit down with the calendar and count. That's because Sundays aren't included.]

I've said before that denominationally speaking, our family has been all over the place. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but personally, I love how it has broadened and enriched my faith and understanding. One of the things I love the most about the liturgical churches we've been a part of is that Easter and Christmas each have a season of focus, preparation, and anticipation (Lent|Advent) leading up to the big day. That season allows me to think, reflect, pray, and take in the fullness of the holy day we're anticipating.

I want my kids to experience that fullness as well. And that means that we do lots of talking and teaching at home.

I collected a few Lenten ideas over the weekend, and you know what? My friends are my BEST resource! One friend, Julie, made a salt dough crown of thorns for her family last year and she shared the recipe with me. The kids and I made one this afternoon and it turned out beautifully. See?

Julie used this with her family last year as a centerpiece on her table and said it was a terrific discussion piece! Anytime she caught her kids doing something thoughtful or kind for someone, she had them pull out one of the toothpicks. You could also remove a toothpick for every day that you honored your Lenten fast (giving something up for Lent is a common practice). The goal is to remove all the toothpicks. The night before Easter, Julie and her family painted their crown and added jewels, transforming it from the crown of thorns to the crown of a triumphant King. The transformed crown became their Easter centerpiece! I L-O-V-E that.

Here's the recipe:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

Warm water

Toothpicks

Mix flour and salt. Add enough warm water to form a stiff dough. Knead until smooth. Divede dough into thirds, and roll into three long ropes. Loosely braid the ropes and form into a circle. Stick toothpicks into the dough throughout the entire crown. Be careful not to embed them too deeply or they can't be pulled out intact. Bake for one hour at 350 or until lightly browned.

[Notes: My "crown" never got quite brown enough on top, so I mixed a little soy sauce and water and brushed it all over it and stuck it back in the oven for a few minutes. I was going for aesthetics! Ha! Julie suggests using one toothpick per kid per day of Lent (you can do the math). She didn't embed enough last year and had to keep filling holes. You can always do that if you need to, and she also suggests wiggling the toothpicks around a bit before baking so that they aren't too difficult to remove once baked.]

I can't tell you how much I LOVE our centerpiece. I might even love it more than our Advent wreath.

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I'm not sure what else we'll do as a family during Lent. I'm still thinking through it all.

However, here are some links I want to pass on.

A friend from college is a contributor to this website: Modern Sacred Family. There's some good stuff there!

Janna also has some good thoughts/ideas/books. I love what she says from her "soapbox" because I completely agree with her! She did a MOPS talk about Lent and posted an audio link. I haven't listened to it (yet) but I hope to this week!

Wendy wrote some Lenten devotions for families (you may have to do a search) and has some creative ideas on her blog. I especially want to remember this idea for Good Friday.

Edie (a blogger that I stalk) explains Lent beautifully in this post. If you're curious or unsure about Lent, this post is a great place to start!

Today has been palmy but definitely not balmy...

(Sorry for the kitschy title.)

Many of you know today is Palm Sunday.

I was very happy when the greeter handed me a palm frond this morning as I walked into church.

My heart was a teensy bit sad to celebrate Palm Sunday differently today than we have for the last several years. Typically, we'd gather outside of church, read some scripture, then all walk into the sanctuary together singing hosanna! and waving our palm branches. 

Our pastors did something creative so my sadness was fleeting. And it was probably best we didn't gather outside because it FREEZING and still snowy from yesterday's winter storm. 

This was the view from my front door this morning.

See why we stayed inside all day yesterday??? (I think we ended up with 8 inches of snow and drifts up to 3 feet!) 

And here are some pics I took while driving to church. It look so pretty doesn't it?

Here, let me zoom in on that temperature sign for ya.

Brrrrrr....

I had planned to unplug this week. And then I realized that I started this 10 on the 10th thing and the tenth of April happens to fall on Good Friday, which falls during my week of being unplugged. A dilemna. Hmmmmmmm...

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about that. Maybe work on it tonight so it will auto-post? Or maybe just skip this month? Or maybe do a late edition? An Easter edition? Any ideas?

Honestly, I can't completely unplug because of my ongoing project, but I am definitely taking a break from blogging/reading blogs/Facebook/Twitter. I know it will be hard, but I also know it will be good.

So...

I guess this is good-bye until next week. *sniff sniff*

(Oh, and it just started snowing again and Sarah's been singing, "I'm dreaming of a white Easter." I wouldn't be surprised. It's sorta the norm where we live.)

Mumble Jumble

It's Thursday night and I'm writing this to auto-post on Friday morning because I've been trying to unplug on Fridays during Lent. I also sorta remember telling Kellie that I would "go dark" with her during Holy Week, which is next week. Yikes!

I just finished up my massive two-week grocery shopping list. I don't mind the menu planning part of it, but the list-making is intense and the shopping even more brutal. I was watching the news last night (because we had a massive blizzard blow through and my kids got all excited about a possible snow day) and there was a local blogger being interviewed about her couponing blog. I spent some time there tonight and was delighted that she took about 95% of the work out of my list making. She's already figured out the weekly grocery deals and basically all I had to do was make a list for each store and pull the coupons she mentioned. If you live in the Colorado Springs area check out this fantastic blog! 

Like my earrings? I've been wearing them this week because it has been snowy. 

(Pretty soon ya'll are going to be as sick of me and my whining about the snow as I am of seeing it.)

I love snow. I just don't love it in March and April and May. We haven't had much snow this year and we really, really need the moisture but I'd much prefer rain over the frozen precipitation. Another blizzard is heading our way Saturday and the meteorologist said our area could see 8-18 inches. Loverly. The one thing that I do like about spring snow is that once the storm passes it usually melts pretty quickly.

I really don't intend for this to become a weather blog but I like to document stuff like spring blizzards because this is after all a web log, and one day we might not live in Colorado and might think that April snow is amusing.

Moving on.

Have I mentioned that I'm the coordinator for a very big volunteer project at my kids' school? Yep, I am. I was almost finished with this same project by this time last year, but sadly, I'm just getting going this time around. Not so fun. This project is the source of my stress and busy-ness these days. I know it will all get done, but I'm not convinced it will be a stress-free month. 

It does, however, make my decision to unplug next week a little easier. I may schedule some posts but if I do I will probably disable comments like I did last time I took a break so I can keep my email box empty when I return. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.

The blog world has been abuzz lately about this conference, A Woman Inspired. My friend, Trish, is giving away a conference ticket. The conference starts next Monday and you don't even have to leave your house to attend--it's an online conference! If you're interested in winning a ticket, go here to enter Trish's giveaway! (Hurry...giveaway ends on Sunday!) Two of my favorite bloggers, Lisa and Natalie, are scheduled to speak! 

Well, this wasn't as wordy as I thought it would be. Or was it?

Happy Weekend to you all!

My Monday Morning Laugh

Laughter is always a good way to start Monday mornings, don't ya think?

My middle child came into the kitchen a little while ago and said this to me:

"Mom, I was going to give up sloth this week (for Lent) but since it took me 10 minutes to get out of bed, I think I'll give up unhealthy snacks instead."

She's a riot! (What 10-year-old do you know that uses words like "sloth"?)

There's never a dull moment around here. Never.

PS--She was totally serious about giving up sloth, and she came up with that one entirely on her own.

PPS--This same girl just responded to my "are you dressed" question by saying "No!" then bursting into the song from Annie, You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile. I love her so much.

I don't know why...

...I feel compelled to tell you that I'm unplugging today.

I think Friday is going to be my day to do this for awhile. Why Fridays? Because Kellie is unplugging on Fridays during Lent and asked if anyone wanted to join her. 

So...I guess I'll see ya tomorrow. 

Lent

I've put this post off because there is so much I want to say and I start feeling overwhelmed when I think about trying to say it all and I'm not even sure where I want to begin.

Our family observes the season of Lent. People have asked me if we're Catholic. No, we're not (though I was growing up). Denominationally speaking, we've been all over the place. Several years ago, we became a part of an Anglican church and fell in love with liturgy. Basically, liturgy is a pattern for worship that follows the Christian calendar year.

Do you know that (very old) country song--I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool? Well, John was liturgical even back in his Southern Baptist pastor days. He'd break out the Advent wreath and preach thru the lectionary readings and even incorporate some Lenten stuff into worship. These days, we're at home in a Lutheran church (which we LOVE) and I'm telling you all of this so you'll know that Catholics aren't the only ones who observe Lent.

Lent begins today (Ash Wednesday) and continues for forty days (weekdays, not Sundays) until Easter. I thought this site did a pretty good job explaining the facts about Lent.

I sat down a week or so ago and made a list of things I want our family to do during Lent. I've always found it easy to focus on Holy Week (the week preceding Easter) but I feel like this season deserves more than just a week. Traditionally, Lent focuses on three areas: prayer/penitence, fasting, and alms (giving). With those themes in mind, I decided on some activities for us to do together.

I hope that we can have some focused scripture reading as a family after our evening meal. Maybe not every night, but a few times each week. I talked over this plan with John and he offered to come up with all the scripture readings and to handle this part of things. I readily agreed. I have no idea what stories/verses he is planning to use, but we both feel that it's important for our children to really know the gospel events leading up to Christ's death...and resurrection.

Prayer/Penitence: The Sin Box. I have an empty box (cereal box--reduce, re-use, recycle!) that I want the kids to help me cover with some sort of red scrapbook paper. I plan to keep it on the kitchen table/kitchen cabinet and if the kids have something they want to confess, they write it on a slip of paper and put it in the sin box while explaining that Jesus' death on the cross bought forgiveness for our sin. It's private stuff...between them and God, and I will NOT force them to write something/anything down on the paper. It's completely voluntary

Fasting: Giving something up. Isn't that what most people think of when they hear the word Lent? Maybe it's just me but giving something up for 40 days seems a bit extreme for kids. I don't doubt my kids can do it, I just don't want them to see themselves as failures if they don't (and a couple of my kids have a tendency to be really hard on themselves). 

So, we're asking them to give up something for a week at a time. This week it might be dessert, next week it might be television. John explained to them that sacrifice is involved and that when we're reminded of what we're giving up, it's an invitation to spend time thinking about the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

My son told me today he was giving up his time on the Wii. The girls have chosen to forego listening to their ipods for a week. (They all suggested at dinner the other night that I give up the computer which I thought was hysterical...and highly unlikely). As a family, we're going to give up eating out. John shared this article with me this morning and I thought it had some great ideas for me. I'm still undecided as to what my "thing" will be.

SO, at the end of each week I want to reward the kids for their sacrifice. I look at it as positive reinforcement. If Will didn't play Wii all week, then he'll get a yet-to-be-decided, small monetary reward. Same with the girls. BUT...the money isn't for them to keep. It will go into our Blessing Bank.

Alms (Giving): I have a can that we're going to decorate as a Blessing Bank. I think we've decided to give whatever money we collect to a missions group through our church. 

Any money we would spend on a family meal out will go into the Blessing Bank also. Should I decided to give up Starbucks, I'll chunk that change into the bank as well.

Our church is having some Lenten services on Wednesday nights which we'll be going to as a family. Our theme for Lent is The Road First Traveled and all of that kicks off tonight with the Ash Wednesday service. Our church also has an Easter drama production during Holy Week and rumor has it that my long-haired husband might be playing Jesus. *wink*

Oh...a couple more things before I forget. I read this article about pretzels, and how they have been traditional Lenten fare. I think one night we're going to try our hand at making some...just need to find a recipe. Or even easier, I could just open the box of frozen, soft pretzels in the freezer!

I thought this site had some very simple and easy devotional thoughts to use with kids.

And my friend, Wendy, is posting her Lenten devotions on her blog each week! She's also good at coming up with crafty ideas for kids.

I feel like I'm leaving tons of stuff out, but I really want to get this posted before my crazy afternoon/evening begin! If I think of something earth-shattering, I'll add it later.