Preparing for Lent

Isabella and I decided to make our own rosaries for a fun craft.  First we made one for Isabella and she picked pink and purple.  Then we did one for her brother in blue and yellow and then we worked on one for her friend Nathan.  We found some fun football beads and then orange beads for his favorite team Auburn.  We debated doing blue and gold since those are ND colors and his dad is an ND fan, but Nathan has chosen Auburn as his favorite (where his mommy went) so Isabella decided we should do his favorite team.  We are still working on getting a crucifix for his rosary before we send it.  It was lots of fun and now we are using our rosary beads to say prayers after dinner each night.  We call it our Dinner Decade.  We choose a mystery from the gospels to meditate on with each one.  During Lent we are going to do only the Sorrowful mysteries.

Making Rosaries

Lenten Calendar

We have also made a Lenten calendar to count down the days.  We are going to use this Lamb calendar.  I thought it would be a lot of fun for Isabella and Jack to glue the cotton balls on each day and then when Easter gets here they will have a fluffy lamb.

Family Altar

We also made a Family Altar recently.  I need to find a purple table runner, but for now the piece of purple felt is working.  We keep our rosaries there and our prayer books and I found the little sticker to put over it that says "Through God all things are possible". It is a work in progress, but it feels good to have a special place in our house for God.

Alms giving

Also, for Lent we are doing an Alms basket for the poor.  After dinner every night during Lent we are going to go put a canned good or other non-perishable in the basket below our altar and then when it is full we will bring it to the church for distribution to the poor.  So far, this seems to be the best idea of them all, because the kids can really understand giving food to those who need it.  Also, each child has a Lent jar and they get beans in it when they do something nice or sacrifice for others.  On Easter the Easter Angels are going to turn the beans in to jelly beans for their hard work.  Then we are going to talk about how we do what we can but we can never do enough to "fill our jars" and that God's grace will make up where we are lacking.  I am going to try to fill it with colored jelly beans and then the rest of the way with white (for God's grace).  

We have also done some handprints that I need to hang up, where we wrote what each of us is giving up or doing for Lent and we took another idea I found on a blog and covered all of our religious statues and pictures with purple ribbons as a reminder of Lent and we put a simple grapevine wreath on the front door, with no decoration that we plan to decorate on Easter in celebration of the Risen Lord!

I am so thankful for all the great ideas that my family has shared and I have found from Catholic blogs.  It is really making the season of Lent come alive for our family (and not just the kids!)

A fun little story:  The kids and I went to mass on Tuesday morning for Mardi Gras and I knew it would be the last mass with the Alleluia until Easter.  The priest had called the kids up on Sunday to hold cards that spelled out Alleluia while we all sang it.  Isabella got to hold the "E."  She was very happy about that.  On Tuesday we were the only family with children at mass and so the priest asked Isabella to come up and take the Alleluia cards and help the deacon and him process out and put the Alleluia away until Easter.  She was so cute.  She bowed with the priest and deacon and stood in front of the altar while we all sand the Alleluia and then processed out.  After mass, she told me excitedly "They both said they are so proud of me."  It was fun to see her enjoying mass and getting involved. I love our church here and the priest is fabulous with the kids!

Also, yesterday Chris and Cristina and the boys came up to visit (hence the ashes on the forehead). It was so great to see them and spend some time together.