Ash Wednesday {Lent}

Welcome to the season of Lent! This is the season in which Christians prepare themselves for the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I found a great book that helps teach children about the importance of this season of the Liturgical calendar. Jen Steed on CatholicMom.com posted a review about this book last year. I loved that I could use this for my boys this year. It is hard to teach this season to such a young age, but it is possible!

 

  The link to purchase the book on amazon is in her review. But, if you need it now, find a Family Christian Bookstore near you - they carry it (and, if not, they can also order it)! 

 

Earlier this afternoon I cut out spring time shaped (I traced cookie cutters - there are patterns at the end of the book. But, they are very small, so you will need a scanner if you want to use those shapes. These shapes will be used for our Easter tree - this is sort of like a countdown to Easter, but it is not done every day. When Easter is here, the tree will be filled with these flowers, butterflies, bunnies, etc that have been colored/painted/written on and such. I know, not super boy-themed, but for now they still like the bunnies and want to color the flowers for me.

After nap/quiet time, we started making pretzels from the recipe in the book! YUM! There are lots of pretzel recipes on Pinterest if you do not have this book just yet. 

Quick story behind the pretzel: A monk came up with this special bread long ago since fasting was MUCH stricter in those days. He twisted them into a shape that resembled folded arm (in prayer). More about this monk here.  

Also, I remember when I was younger, my mom taught me about the Holy Trinity using pretzels. There are three spaces that make up the pretzel which is like the three parts that make up one God: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

 Andy thought that was a fun story. So while I was getting the rest dinner made and they were working on their pretzels, I overheard him telling Alex the story all over again. So cute!

All done! How fun. Andy got one pretzel twisted pretty well. Then he made wheels...LOL Alex just made a bunch of blobs. It was cute.

They were really yummy, too!

Dinner is served! Today is a no meat day, so tonight's feast - Shrimp and Corn Chowder! YUM!! And, it was even better since today was also a fasting day - meaning, no breakfast or lunch. But, we could have a "meal-ette" as Father W would say!

This is the book that I am working through this Lent. I found a review by Sarah Reinhard, a contributor of CatholicMom.com, on this book last year (here). Basically, this book gives you a task to complete each day that is complimented by a meditation and a how to keep this habit going with practice. For Lent, I am going to learn to simplify.

Today's task was to clean out a junk drawer. Why do we have a junk drawer? We are too busy to put whatever the item is away. We get sidetracked with another task and sweep it away into the junk drawer to take care of at a different time. It's time to slow down and take care of the things that need to be taken care of. It's time to stop hanging on to material items and figure out where our focus should be placed. Do I really need to go to Target tomorrow? Do I really need this or that? Do you? What about those 500 USB cords you have stashed away? How many do you really need? I found out that we had 10 (about 4 of those were different on the opposite ends). Why we had that many I have no idea...but I've taken it down to 5 (the 4 that were different plus and extra that went to out cell phone). The rest are in a box in the garage. I have a bit more space in that drawer now. 

So, what are you doing for Lent? Any good reads? Did you give anything up or are changing any habits?