My Lenten Activity Brain Dump: How Liberals Do Lent

     Obviously, we started with chocolate chip pancakes for Maudy Tuesday, because will be a cold day in Hell the day I skip Fat Tuesday. Warren and I WENT TO town of Fat Tuesday, and Amani suddenly decided 9a) she hated happiness and (b) chocolate chip pancakes weren't her thing (aka: hating happiness). She opted to eliminate the middle man and go for straight chocolate chips. (That's my girl!)
     We skipped Ash Wednesday because I wanted to remind God that I am a terrible person, but that's over with, and now I am in it to win it.
     This is what I got on the docket for Lenten practises:

(1) I am trying to do some kind of God-related activity with Amani and Warren on Sundays. The first Sunday we sorted through the Seeds booklets that Amani gets at school. They are cute little pamphlets . They are from Pflaum Publishers, and each contain an activity that corresponds with each week of the Liturgical calendar, They literally take about 5 minutes, and Amani really likes them.
Huh. I also just noticed they have free online activities. I shall check those out and report back.

(2) Amani's preschool also sent home a Lenten Calendar from Creative Communications. We followed a similar one for Advent, and I am hoping to at least do one or two activities from here. One thing they suggest is a Jesus tree, which, from what I am reading, is a lot like a Jesse Tree. If we end up doing that I'll let you know how it goes. If you end up doing it, will you let me know?


(3) We are going to make pretzels. We did this last year, and they were awesome, so we are going to do it again. One of my friends asked me what pretzels have to do with Lent, and I was all, "Wow. You really don't know anything about our Church history, do you?" Naturally then had to turn around and I look it up on Google. The short answer is because it looks like arms folded in prayer. If you want the long answer you can read it at the page I read. Or you can read this page, which I am including mostly because it refers to "holy pretzels" which I find hilarious.

(4) Last Sunday Amani and I made a prayer hand, that we are now using to guide us through bedtime prayers. I got the idea from a few Pinterest pages I follow, but I think the things I chose to focus on for each finger are not really working for us. I chose to focus on "Those Closest to our heart", "Prayers for God's guidance", "Things we are Thankful For", "Confessing our sins", and "Prayers for ourselves". I think I was too focused on making it fit with the correct finger, rather than things that will spiritually feed Amani. It's going fine. Amani is kind of into it, although I think that's primarily because we lay in bed together and cuddle while we do it. She does not like prayer- or being made to do prayer- or doing prayer with me. I don't know. Anyway, it's going fine, but I think I need to tweak it a little. Right now I feel like it is a little overwhelming. I'm thinking our new prayers will include (1) People and animals we love and people and animals who need help (2) Something we are thankful (3) A place we saw God (4) A way we helped (5)Something we will do better tomorrow. It feels a little simpler.

So, that's what I got rolling around in my head for this season. We'll see how it goes, although I'll be damned if we don't do those pretzels. They were GOOD.
What are some things you are planning on doing for Lent?

Celebrating Lent with Children: A guide for the lazy and forgetful

     I'm taking the integration of Catholic customs a little bit slow around the house.  Now, I love holidays and traditions and little parties and stuff, and believe me, I have all kinds of celebrations all planned out to execute someday, but the kids are still little, and I barely have the brain space to remember what day of the week it is, let alone where we are in the ecumenical calendar.  So, while some of our "celebrations" essentially amounted to discussing what Amani did in preschool, we have plenty of time to get fancy later.

Lent, blah, blah..yay! Pancakes!

     Fat Tuesday was met with a lot of enthusiasm.  We were babysitting for a friend that day, so her two little ones got to celebrate with us. We did it full affect: chocolate-chip pancakes with syrup.  One year we did some ham and beans in honor of Mardi Gras, and maybe one year we'll do  a king cake, but I thought pancakes were enough this year.  I tried to explain that Lent was a time without of treats, so we were having lots of treats now, but I'm not sure how much that sank in; pancakes can be very distracting.

     We didn't do Ash Wednesday.  I know. I know.  Ash Wednesday is a big one Catholic-wise: official start of Lent: reflection, remembering death, sin; heavy heavy stuff.  We just didn't get to it this year.  Next year we'll do something.

We did do other things for Lent though.  I checked out "The Easter Collection" from the library and read a few stories.  It's a nice book with lovely illustrations.  Most of the stories were a little above Amani's level, but she enjoyed looking at the pictures and liked story about the children waiting for a man named Easter.  I pushed the words "sacrifice" big time around the house, reminding everybody that that Jesus scarified for us.  And we made pretzels, noting how they look like crossed praying arms.

See, Ash Wenesday: book and carbohydrates.  That's what it takes around here.

So now we are in Holy Week, and while we are not batting one hundred celebration-wise, (Can I spin watching Paw Patrol in pajamas as a traditional Palm Sunday celebration?) I've still got some stuff we can get to.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Give us sugar-loaded carbohydrates and a few books, and my family is pretty much down for anything.

Yay!  It's Lent!  I'm pretty excited to try to get Amani into all the Lent stuff this year.  She was really into all the Christmas traditions, and seemed to really understand so much of  the Christmas Story, so now I am very excited to teach her more about Catholic holidays.  Admittedly, she may not get as excited about 40 days of fasting, prayer and abstinence as I do, but we'll figure something out.

Pancakes: I'll hook her with pancakes, and books.

I mean, come on.

     This year I am thinking of using Make Room, but I have to give it a more careful investigation.  I have found I occasionally have to do a preview of the Christian children's books I read to my kids, just to double check they are the form of Christianity I want to teach.  Some people are far more eager to discuss the gory details of the Bible with their children than I am.

     I bought The Easter Story by Patricia Pingry and I thought it would be great. It had these sweet little illustrations of Jesus surrounded by children and seemed very simple and gentle. Then, we got to the part where they  mention the Romans nailing Jesus' hands and feet to The Cross, and then, naturally, Jesus dying.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, really.  It is not as though I was unaware of that plot point; I guess I just thought that detail would be sort of downplayed in a book for preschoolers.  I know; it is a little hard to talk about the resurrection of Christ without mentioning that Christ died, but Amani's four, and pretty sensitive: Jesus' death only made the story scary, and the lesson was completely missed.

     I tried another of Pingry's Books, The Story of Easter, and I feel like that did a really fantastic job of teaching the gist of the Easter story, while still being comforting and joyful for a preschooler.

     Generally, I highly suggest Patricia Pingry books.  We have two of them at home, and they are very sweet and clear, and have cute illustrations in which Jesus is a brown person.  (Side bar: As everybody knows, each portrayal of brown Jesus in your household earns you ten points on your Social-Liberal score card.)

Anyway, there are a ton of books out there to get me started, plus like 10 million craft ideas on Pinterest.  Somehow, I am going to get this child loving Lent as much as I do, no matter how much syrup it takes.