Lent is here!

So I have been running a little behind lately and I just cannot seem to catch up!! But ready or not, Lent is here so we are jumping in. Here are some of the things we have going on in our house.

I really enjoy the Stations of the Cross. It is one of my favorite prayers. This book does an amazing job of giving some background for the Stations and then going through them. Plus the pictures are beautiful and it has great kid-friendly prayers. We are going to read this book many times this Lent, I am sure.

This is the Traveling Chalice from church. A different parishioner (or family) takes it home every week to pray for vocations. It is our week. We have been doing our best to further vocations through prayer.

This is our crown of thorns (pre-baking). Every time someone does a good deed or sacrifice, that person gets to remove one of the toothpicks. In this way, we unite our small works with Christ. The crown will find a home on a platter with a purple cloth beneath (if I can find one), a candle (because my kids LOVE candles), and a small bowl to hold the thorns. The platter will reside on a bookshelf during the day and come down to the table during dinner for daily thorn removal. For more on a crown of thorns like this (and tons of other Lent ideas) check out Catholic Icing.

This is our Lenten Cross. This idea came from the book Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church, which I highly recommend. Every day of Lent (not Sunday's - those are extra) we have a symbol we put on and a reading from Scripture to go with it. I am not so good in the crafty department. I enjoy doing crafts, but I'm no amazing artist in any sense. But fortunately, kids are forgiving and do not mind my giant cross here made from cardboard and purple sticky notes. We are going to glue each of our symbols to the appropriate sticky note (as the sticky notes are stuck with tape). I went ahead and put the day number and the bible verse at the bottom of each note so we just need to add the symbols. Maybe next year I will be able to start my Lent planning a little earlier and come up with something that may last, year after year (such as my friend Monica did - yes, Monica, I found this idea on your blog and thought it was so awesome I bought the book and we are doing it as well - thank you dear friend!).

This is a close-up of the empty sticky notes (with the day number and verse at the bottom), awaiting their fulfillment :)

Here is the cross I mentioned in a previous post. As we do good deeds and sacrifices, I will write them (and the date) on a flower (which I still need to cut - no good deeds or sacrifices allowed yet! :) and then we will tape or glue it to the cross. I'm thinking we will do this throughout the day and then at dinner we will look back over the cross and have everyone pull out the appropriate number of thorns from our crown.

Also, at the foot of this cross we have our hands with the sacrifices we are planning to make for lent. (I say "planning" as I think we need to be open to where the Holy Spirit is leading us - in directions we had not anticipated. I also say "planning" as sometimes things come up and we are not able to do what we meant to for whatever reason and I believe it is important we don't get so hung up on not being able to do that particular thing at that particular time -if that makes sense.)

So there you have it - May your Lent be meaningful and come to fruition as we celebrate together on Easter!

Blessings!

'Yet even now,' says the Lord, 'Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your clothing.' Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. -Joel 2:12-13

Rebekah put Jesus on the Cross

So, I put up this paper cross on the wall in preparation for Lent. I figured that every time we did a good deed or sacrifice, etc, we would take a paper heart (which I have yet to cut), write the deed or what-not on it and glue it on the cross. Sounds, great, yes? Well, I put up the cross yesterday morning after Rebekah went to school, so we had not had a chance to talk about it yet. When she got home, we had company and we were celebrating Nana's birthday and everything was a little crazy, so I figured I would wait and tell her about it on Tuesday. But she apparently did not want to wait that long. My first words upon glancing up to see her attacking the wall, marker in hand:

"Rebekah, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! YOU DON'T JUST DRAW ON STUFF WITHOUT ASKING. . . oh, you are putting Jesus on the cross. . . oh. . . well, ok, you can finish, but next time, ask ok?"

Oh the innocence of youth! On a humorous side note, I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture (the lighting was bad and the angle was not so great either, but I was parked with the baby when I took it so I did not have a lot of options) -Jesus has a smile on his face. But then again, maybe it is not so humorous, Jesus is happy to do anything for us - He loves us that much! It is not recorded that He died with a smile on his face (and judging from what He endured a smile would not be likely for a typical human) but maybe it is not so much of a stretch. He beat the devil - He won, for us - it is definitely something to smile about. Thank you, dear Rebekah, for reminding this mamma of that!

More Safety

This is really an extension of my previous post. Paul needed some "safety gear," as well. Obviously he does not ride a bike by himself yet or have roller skates, but he does ride on the back of my bike and they "recommend" a helmet for him in that carrier, so here he is - in all his cuteness :)

P.S. I have no idea what I found so entertaining, but obviously I am deliriously happy for these photos.

Safe Kids

Samuel and Rebekah have had bike helmets for a while now, but all three of them got roller skates for Christmas. The other day I FINALLY got around to completing their "safety gear." Jacob got a helmet and all the kiddos got knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves. They are all set now!

(Too bad it snowed today - it was up to 50 degrees yesterday and today it is snowing - go figure.)

Look at those choppers!!

So, I have been falling behind in the blog world. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed in general, but I don't really expect anything else with Paul not sleeping all that well. I'm exhausted before the day even starts and I cannot keep on top of anything without sleep so. . . the cycle goes on. Fortunately it should only be temporary as SOME DAY Paul will sleep all night and then maybe I can, too! In any case, he has got tons of teeth now. Here are some pics (four on top and two on the bottom) - plus some swollen spots where more will be coming soon.

Small Successes

1. Cooked with lots of veggies tonight that I normally avoid because no one likes them but me. In any case, I did not make anyone else eat them and I enjoyed them - immensely!

2. Wrangled the kiddos by myself this evening with no self-pity and everything went almost picture-book perfect (well, as close to perfect as it gets around here). Even the baby cooperated to let me read THREE bedtime books (which normally he would NEVER allow - not even one). I really enjoyed my time with the older kids as normally my hubby puts them to bed while I nurse the baby.

3. Took some time for myself this evening - doing fiction reading just for fun and a bit of yoga that I never seem to find time for because I don't count it as an actual work-out, but it is too in-depth to do with the kiddos running around.

Look here for more information on participating in Small Successes Thursdays.

Paul laughs

Check this out for a smiling, giggly, good time.