Pinewood Castle

From the Archives

Some ideas for Lent that don't include giving up chocolate and coffee.

(Even though that's a huge sacrifice and I usually do it anyway!)

 

It's a Mouse & Cookie Kind of Day

It's Cleaning & Reorganizing Day.

When you put away St. Valentine's decorations you realize you have collected too many for them to share a storage tub with St. Patrick's too. So you add "storage tub" to the Target list.

You bring up the Purple Box (advent and lent) and pull everything out. You realize that you never did get an "N" or a "T" to change your advent PREPARE to the lent REPENT like one of your favorite bloggers does. You add two letters and a little bottle of purple paint to the Michael's list.

You find the card stock crosses you painted and decorated last year but never made into a garland. Where did you put the hole punch?

Then your dear, dear husband takes all the car seats out of the van so he can take it to the fancy car wash that cleans floor mats and interior windows just because he know the state of the van is driving you nuts. He figures out our two car seats have expired, finds a YouTube video on the possible consequence of this in case of an accident, decides to err on the side of safety and orders two new Britax car seats. Good thing there is 20% code at diapers.com!

Now it's time for you to clean the glass on the back door to make it ready for the Lenten path that is faded but still usable. You already cleaned the floor and moved the chairs to the family room. Your kids turn this into a train, just like you did when you were young. This is the excitement of the day. You even eat lunch picnic style on the floor because the kids beg you to leave "the train" up longer.

There is at least one oasis of calm and order you can set your eyes on. And good thing you cleaned out those votives last year. It's the one thing all day that did not lead to another!

Thank you, all you bloggers, who have shared so many wonderful ideas over the years that have become beloved family traditions. We are looking forward to a cleansing, yet joyful Lent.

Spring May Not be Coming, but Lent is

Lent is coming and everyone seems to be posting links to past posts detailing their past and present plans. I won't bog you down with more of the same - but can tell you that we also do the usual things in our family: the crown with toothpicks and a sacrifice bowl in the center, stations of the cross votive candles, some sort of calendar to mark the days, and mostly meatless meals. If you really want to see photos and more info click here.

Otherwise, we are trying a few new things including Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter (from the same author as Jotham's Journey) and a Catholic Faith Folder (lapbook) for Lent. We now have copies of the Alphonsus Ligouri Way of the Cross for each reading member of the family, and a little plastic pieta statue to place somewhere helpful for devotions.

I have to be honest and a little raw here - sometimes when it comes to making extra sacrifices my temptation is to whine, "Don't I sacrifice enough?" I mean, I stay home with my children instead of working as a musician or teacher, I homeschool them instead of using that time to go to the gym, run errands, cook, clean or volunteer. I sacrifice my sleep and my body and my health and sanity for my five children and don't always have enough left over to nurture my marriage. What more does God want of me? And don't I deserve a few indulgences in exchange for all this?

Of course the answer is He wants everything and He wants us to give it cheerfully and gratefully. We wants us to weed out our vices and to stretch and grow, even in painful ways and through trials and tears. And even though I personally (in spite of my prayer and spiritual efforts), feel like a number to Him most of the time, with only occasional evidence throughout the year that He thinks of me in particular, I am gathering that He is a much more personal God to others. The huge success of One Thousand Gifts is a testament to that. After resisting the urge to buy this book and hop on the bandwagon I am giving in and buying it today with my Amazon credit. This will be the spine of my Lenten journey of thankfulness praise and intentional effort to recognize God's touch in my little everyday life.

Where will blogging fit in? The past few weeks I have enjoyed more time away from the computer - it seems formidable challenge to sit here for an hour or more in this season of my life. Yet, without regular blogging I find that I do not take adequate time to reflect on our days, to post photos and to be deliberately thankful and appreciative for my life and my children and my husband and all the joys each day brings. One hard day of work blends into the next and pretty soon I feel like dried out clay resistant to being shaped and molded. I end up stiff and joyless.

I have a hunch that this is why blogging is so popular with homeschooling moms. When we are in the moment we can't or don't always think our circumstances are funny or feel the joy in our daily grind and constant interruptions and frustrations. We share with our husbands when they get home, but feel awkward that we have thousands of words to spill and he only has a hundred or so and our gushings are met with grunts, an occasional smile or a change of topic. Blogging helps us keep our passion alive - not selfish passions mind you, but our joy and gratitude and ability to experience the sacredness in the ordinary. This is what I what to keep revive in myself this Lent and what I intentionally want to make my focus, for my sake and my family's sake.

I will start by thanking you, whomever you are, for clicking my book links to Amazon. Because of you I am putting my most recent Amazon Associate credit to purchasing the Amon and Thousand Gifts books. Thank you so very much - every little bit counts and I will try to do better about sharing more good books and CDs in return.

May God bless you and your time online!

P.F.A.

Prayer

Fasting

Almsgiving

May your Lent be a spiritually fruitful journey to the glories of the Resurrection.

Circle Time - Lent

Here is a PDF of what I just typed up for ourselves to use the next six weeks:

Download Circle Time - Lent

I really don't know if anyone has been using these plans but the stats tell me that plenty of people look up my Circle Time posts. I sincerely apologize if I have kept you waiting for the next installment. You must understand how far a pregnant mom can get behind when she needs to nap and turn in early instead of working on the computer!

These plans use all the same books as before. The weekly themes for songs, poetry and picture books are:

• Week of Ash Wednesday
• Week 1 - Wind
• Week 2 - Sheep & Wool
• Week 3 - Maple Syrup
• Week 4 - St. Patrick, Pussy Willows, St. Joseph
• Week 5 - Bunnies, Seeds & Eggs (cheating a bit, but sometimes these things are anti-climactic after Easter Sunday)
• Week 6 - Holy Week

Lent in Minnesota is a long stretch for me. Our winter themes are exhausted and spring cannot really be counted on until late April. Though the existing snow may melt, a fresh snowfall may come even in May and most folks here hold off planting their gardens until Memorial Day.

Some weeks are a bit scanty in terms of material from A Child's Seasonal Treasury. These weeks we might just use some of the year-round material in the front of the book or pull out our Laurie Berkner CDs for fun songs with movement. I will take notes this year on what works for us and add it to next year's plan.

Here are a few ideas we use in & outside of Circle Time to mark the days of Lent:

A path on the back door leading to Calvary ~

A wreath (grapevine or bread) with toothpicks to remove for sacrifices offered ~

 

Station of the Cross on Fridays. With children I like to do two a week at home ~

This year we are (finally) trying out Dawn's idea of making "stained glass" projects for the feast days in Lent. I forgot to take a picture of the St. Valentine we did today. Now it is dark! Just click on her link to see photos.

Be sure to check out Catholic Cuisine for more recipe ideas.

For crafts I glean from Catholic Icing, Lord Make Me a Saint, and The Crafty Crow. Enchanting Learning always has something to use in a pinch!

Music for Lent

The liturgy of the Church in Lent appropriately focuses on silence and chant. At home, however, we have not unplugged the CD player yet, rather, hearing some gems written for Holy Week.

Carlo Gesualdo's motet for Tenebrae is wild and wonderful. As the Prince of Venosa, Gesualdo (1560-1613) possessed his own artistic license and was known for his "undisciplined counterpoint". Although his mother was the niece of Pope Pius IV and his uncle was St. Charles Borromeo he is not remembered for holiness or piety, but rather for murders of his adulterous wife, her lover, an infant son and his father-in-law. His music is both anguished and other-worldly.

A Season of Passion is a 5 CD set that contains a variety of works. Lots of music for the money.

• Disc One - a sampling of Bruckner, Schubert, Bach and Bizet
• Disc Two - Highlights from Handel's Messiah
• Disc Three - Highlight's from Bach's St. John's Passion
• Disc Four - Highlights from Verdi's Requiem with Pavarotti
• Disc Five - Pergolesi's Stabat Mater

Palestrina's Music for Good Friday represents the best of polyphonic Renaissance polyphony. Palestrina (1525-1594) held various positions in Rome beginning as a choirboy at St. Mary Major and moving on to the Sistine Chapel choir, choirmaster of St. John Lateran, choirmaster at St. Mary Major, full-time service to a Cardinal, master of the papal choir at St. Peter's Basilica and a role in the reforming music after the Council of Trent to include polyphony. His music is known to reflect the insights gained as a spiritual disciple of St. Philip Neri.

I Think I've Got it Covered

I think I am done with my last minute splurges too. I had a few things to get out of my system. Like a salon haircut after which my husband did say I looked ten times better (that means a lot coming from him). A nice wool coat 75% off. Some CDs. A nice meal of fettuccine Bolognese sauce (made with ground beef and tomatoes with white wine, whole milk and pancetta) with a glass of red wine. Time for a little more austerity.

Lenten Plans:

Bake a braided wreath with toothpicks this week (p. 94 of this month's Faith & Family).
Bake bread on Thursdays for Friday.
Rotating breakfast, lunch and simple desserts (like dates and oranges) lists posted on pantry door.
Assembled a Lenten songbook for circle time.
"Growing Good Fruit" from A Year With God ready to go.
Lenten path on window from last year.
Planning on two stations every Friday night at home.
Catholic Mosaic books at the ready.

Holy Week:

Decorate Easter candles
Make Easter cards
Color eggs
Lenten Tea
Take a spring break and go on some local field trips early in the week.
Don't forget to use the lamb cake mold! (I forgot last year!)

For Me:

I loved Father's sermon yesterday about giving things up for Lent. Basically, the message was this: do more than give up M&M's or TV or soda. Try giving up sin! Will God really care if we give up candy if we are unwilling to give up our attachments to sin? Giving up chocolate will sound like a lame defense on judgment day.

So this was all I needed to hear before deciding not to give up chocolate. Rather, it will be my incentive to treat the children with more kindness, patience and respect. Every time I lose my cool with one of them they have my permission to mark a check on the white board. If at the end of the day I have no checks a little square of organic dark chocolate will be my dessert. Maybe with a Brazil nut too for thyroid-supporting selenium.

I like to be calm and cool and collected. And I would be if kids didn't have the ability to find the end of even the longest fuse! Sometimes I feel like lightening really might start shooting from the ends of my fingertips. Honestly, I know I need to model better behavior when I see my children acting the same way I do with one another. Yuck. It's time for a change. One area at a time. Oh, there are ever so many more. Pride, gluttony, sloth, envy, old grudges. I will have to depend on God's grace and the Sacraments to transform much of that.

That and some spiritual reading. I am open to last minute suggestions here as I am really struggling with the selections already on my bookshelf. I feel the need for something very practical and current. The Domestic Church Room by Room? Some Alice von Hildebrand?

Having listed out all of these plans I can see that I might be approaching Lent with a to-do list to merely check off. I hope it will be much more personal and heartfelt than that for me and my whole family. Sometimes when planning for the family I focus too much on the externals, but the intent of course is for the external activities to affect an inner change. Growth. Metanioa. Daily!