Lent with the littles

I feel like every Lent for the last 31 years has been a bust.  I always give something up.  And I try to add some extra prayers in.  But most of that is internal preparation.  And I always feel like I could have done more.

Christmas, on the other hand, is over the top preparation on the exterior AND the interior.  I think that having decorations and outward signs are a fantastic aid to keep us on the journey toward Easter.  And now that I am a homeschooling mom, and Leo is getting so much older, it is up to me to observe the large plank lodged square in the center of my eye before I start throwing out advice to my children for Lenten practices.  And I have lots of crafty things that I can do with the kids to help us all remember exactly what we are getting ready to celebrate!!

I am so excited to be waaaaay on top of the ball this lent.  It took a little bit of planning, but no more than I do in a day for homeschool anyway.  It was as easy as a quick google search "lent with kids".  We are shooting big by trying lots of different things this Lent and anything that ends up a winner will be reinstated next year, and the losers will just phase out.

I'm a realist.  I don't know if we'll get around to completing all of them this Lent.  

They are small and messy.  And exhausting.  

But, I found so many good ideas on the Catholic Icing Lent Pinterest board that we are going to go ahead and add these to the Gale Family roundup for Lent 2014:

Our Lenten Calendars up on the wall:

Up top is my 40 Bags in 40 Days calendar.  I know if I didn't print the checklist out, I wouldn't do it.  This way, it stares me in the face while we do school every morning.  Below is the Catholic Icing Printable Lenten Calendar.  I just drew it onto a huge posterboard so the kids could color in each day as we travel through Lent!

I am really excited about this one.  I have never taken the kids through the Stations of the Cross.  But now that they are older, I think this is a great year to start.  I found this fantastic idea for a Montessori Stations of the Cross box on Three Sided Wheel.  She offers a free printable, so I had Jason print them on cardstock and I wrapped them with contact paper.  Now I just have to find a box and the items to put inside!

Look at what a creative idea she came up with!!  One item to represent each station.  Hopefully this will be hands-on enough that the kids won't lose interest and get all wild and crazy in the middle of the church...????

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And I thought this was a cute idea to help us out if they need ideas for sacrifices they can make during Lent.  Our religion book through Kolbe Academy has a list of 20 sacrifices you can make during Lent.  I copied each one onto a popsicle stick, and if the kids want to, they can pick one out of the bag.

Lastly, I purchased a couple cheap supplies:

so that on Ash Wednesday, instead of our regular morning of school we will be making these:  A bunch of purple salt dough crosses to hang up in the classroom.  I think the kids will have blast making them and they will make the room a bit more Lent focused.

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and this:

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A playdough crown of thorns with toothpicks: each time a child does something great (a sacrifice, being obedient, sharing, etc.), they get to pull a toothpick out of the crown.  So simple and sweet!

The only other thing I did was make this webpage my homepage for Lent: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2012/02/recipes-for-lent-from-archives.html.  That way, I can prepare in advance our meat-free dishes rather than scrambling on Friday afternoon after I have already thawed a pound of ground meat!

Now I have to quickly finish the bag of chocolate bars I picked up yesterday so I don't have to stare at them for 40 days...

And now I leave you with photos of our iced over East Texas backyard today!!

One giant update!

It has been a while.  Things just got busy!!  But that is a good thing for us. We have places to go and friends to play with.  Possibly the best problem to have right?

So I'll just do a huge update:

This guy:

Is a complete maniac!!

I ran in their room today to see that Roman climbed to the top bunk and tried to get off by hurling himself over the side.  

There is never a dull moment.  I think Elena and Leo were like this too.  But I can't remember if they were this wild.

Leo and Elena were always timid and cautious.  But not Roman!!!  He is pretty fearless.  And instead of scaring me, I kind of dig it!  I like seeing him get into trouble.  *Famous last words right?*

  

Although all of the pictures depict him independent and free, these were the only photos I managed to take in between putting him down and doing chores.  This kid is "attached".  But it is only when other people are around.  So this is my proof that he does exist outside of my arms!!

In addition to running straight into oncoming traffic, he can usually be found scaling every surface in the house.

"Roman!  Eat your toes!!"

His favorite part is to look up at us and see if we are all cheering for him as loud as we can

Of course we are!!

He also knows how to wave 

how to hug

And always knows where to find the best seats in the house

You would think all of that activity would mean that he is sleeping through the night...nope!  And I just can't listen to him cry at night so I always go get him and console him.  But three days ago I started rubbing my homemade magnesium lotion on his belly at bedtime and two nights he slept completely through the night!

This little lady:

is SUCH a girl!!!

No matter how hard Leo tries to get her to play ninja or bad guy games with him, it just won't work.

Unless she is certain that he can't really get her.  Then she'll show him who's boss!

She is into making silly faces now

And being my best little helper

 

And her hair - of course - the most talked about attribute of any of my kids.  I can't bring myself to trim it but had to resort to cutting tangles out when they get too bad!!

This guy:

LOVES his little brother.

  

He loves Elena too.  Just doesn't remember it sometimes :)

And he is officially old enough to do stuff.  He went to a St. Joseph carpentry workshop with Jason and built this!

Leo is really into building stuff now.  He creates massive robots, contraptions, villages, etc. out of random toys.

He is also my most outgoing.  If you come to our house, he is going to annoy you to death with "Hey!  Wanna see my room?"...Sorry...

Leo also just started asking major life questions.  He recently learned that his Granny's name is not Granny.  It's Carla.  This news completely blew his mind.  

On to Jason! 

Jason finally got to make a real Texan brisket in a smoker for a Memorial Day bbq we hosted.

(See his garden behind the smoker?)

It was glorious!!

Jason has lots of projects he is working on.  Most of them are just the leftover chores that I don't want to do, but they all keep him busy enough.  He asked me recently if I was happy with our decision to move to Texas.  I told him, "Actually, yes!"  His response was "It's better than you thought it was going to be right?!"  He is a proud Texan. And wants to plaster my minivan with this:

And lastly - me!

This past month Jason and I finally bought a second vehicle.   I have been wanting a jeep forever!  I owned one when I was 19 and wanted it back ever since.  

It is a '95 and has lots of miles on it.  But we only need it to go a few miles each day.  I lovingly referred to it as my fourth baby and confused a couple people on facebook.  I'm NOT pregnant!  But the jeep is my favorite creation.

Look what popped up outside our house:

Does it make up for the hotter than hell days we have in Texas?  

Not a chance.

I have been super busy with the foodclub.  I usually spend about 20 hours a week working on it!!  But the absolute biggest part of my work with the foodclub has been addressing food questions the members have.  Most of us are in the beginning stages of bringing healthier foods home.  I am a little further into my journey, but everyone is quickly converting to local/clean eating!

That's it.  I make no promises about frequency of blogposts.  I feel a little "talked out" by the end of the day between the kids, the foodclub, and my friends.  So when I go to open up a new blogpost, I just stare at the screen and draw a blank on words to put down!  This is such a great problem to have and I wouldn't change it for the world :)