I don’t know about you, but I always have these great ideas for Lent that rarely get followed through on. Will I do any better this year? Am I supposed to?
If you’ve ever been to my little home on the web (or my physical house) before, you probably know that when something needs to be done, books always are the first things to come out :). Reading, however, is not one of the pillars of Lent though.
Fasting
We will eat more simply as I continue to get my grocery spending under some semblance of control. I anticipate we will make the less desirable, cheaper pick more often, go without a little more frequently, buy fewer treats, and put more time between store runs.
Since I am rarely online or on social media these days, that’s not really a good sacrifice for me. Instead, I will show only love to my family. Pray that I notice when something (usually nutritional or hormonal) is off and must be addressed quickly!
Prayer
I will continue praying with my children each day from Children’s Daily Prayer each morning & I think we will memorize more of the Sabat Mater this year.
We will also do a station of the cross daily, during/after lunch. We use this Way of the Cross book and these stations of the cross posters/coloring pages for our little people. Privately, I like the traditional meditations by St. Alphonsus Liguori.
I also purchased the Walk With Jesus set from Jesse Tree Treasures for this year and will try to do the readings daily. Failing that, we will put out the pieces on our display shelf and hope for better next year.
Almsgiving
I never know what to do for this. I dislike the whole “don’t buy a latte and put it in the rice bowl” thing. I am a spender but work hard to talk myself out of things. Tracking whether I made a normal or sacrificial decision is too much work.
I think we will fill a box with food from the pantry — one for each day of lent. I would also like to make a donation to Mercy House for the girls & their babies. Eating more simply will help free up a little extra to do so :).
Additional Lent Traditions
The girls are loving the grown up coloring thing, probably because I am doing it. I think we will have more luck tracking the days of Lent by coloring in the Lent Countdown Calendar from Catholic Icing this year.
Our resurrection peg dolls will make their 2nd annual appearance. If I can find them :).
For school, we will finish the Lent lapbook we started last year. Because we got it after lent started last year, we missed some things.
For my extra spiritual reading during Lent, I am going to read Rediscover Jesus as my spiritual reading for Lent. I am aiming for “less is more.”
So that is what I tentatively see for our Lent this year. I would not be surprised to find that God has me growing in much more practical ways. Like a stomach flu or a family crisis or an ornery vitamin D deficient household. Ahem.
What do you try to do during Lent?
