The 40 Days of Lent

One of the best things about home schooling is that we are able to put such a focus on our faith and our religion.  Even when the kids were in public school we tried to teach them as much about our faith at home as we could, but now we are able to incorporate Bible lessons and faith into our school days as well as our off time which is doubly wonderful.

Lent is such a wonderful time in our Catholic Church and is a great time of reflection, prayer and change.  As the kids get older it becomes more and more of a joy to see them be excited to participate in Lent and to grow stronger in their own faith.  This year is especially meaningful for Landon as he is in religion class for his First Communion in June.  He has grown so much in his faith and his knowledge and understanding of the Church which is great.

The kids have been contemplating what they would like to give up for Lent this year.  While Daniel is too young still to understand, my hope is that he will give up diapers.......  He actually has been working on potty training and is doing remarkably well so fingers crossed!  I know that has nothing really to do with Lent but I still hope it happens.  : )

Epi went back and forth on what he wanted to give up.  It came down to him deciding between tacos and fried eggs.  Let me tell you, both are actually big sacrifices for him.  While he has come a long way in trying new foods the last few years, he is still a kid that gets in a food rut and has certain foods he will eat every time when given a choice.  I always cook a variety of meals for dinners but when it comes to lunch I allow them to eat leftovers or a variety of easy lunch foods typically.  He has always, always had a favorite food of cheese which is ironic given his slight intolerance of dairy.  For about two years his go to lunch was quesadillas.  I honestly didn't think we would ever grow out of that one!  While he still will have one every once in a while he has moved on.  Now his favorite thing for lunch is a taco.  He loves them with taco meat but when that isn't available he eats taco shells with shredded cheese and taco sauce in them and calls them a taco as well, haha.  He was really leaning toward giving up tacos for Lent but in the end he went with fried eggs.  He has never been a big breakfast lover and while he likes cereal or pancakes okay, his favorite thing for breakfast has become fried eggs.  He will eat two or three of them each morning.  I am proud of him for choosing something that he likes so much.

Landon was really lost on what he wanted to choose but Epi helped him decide.  While Epi does fried eggs every morning for breakfast, Landon will typically scramble eggs and do breakfast burritos.  So when he heard what Epi was going for, he decided to do the same and gave up breakfast burritos.  It is a good thing I stocked up on cereal at the store the other day!

While I am so excited to see them decide on those individual things, I am even more excited about what we are doing as a family.  A few years ago I was part of a Catholic forum on the internet.  It wasn't very active which I why I don't really visit it any more, but one of the wonderful things I got from it was the idea for 40 Bags in 40 Days.  This is a wonderful Lent project and one that I would highly recommend.  The idea is that the less clutter we all have in our lives, the less distraction we will have that may keep us from getting closer to the Lord.  So, for the 40 days of Lent you get rid of one bag of clutter for each day.  This can be a bag of things to donate to charity, bags of garbage(not your regular everyday household trash but extra trash), bags of things to be recycled, etc.  They bag size can vary depending on what you are getting rid of.  When I did this for Lent a few years back it was so nice to get rid of clutter and concentrate more on God.  This year I am even more excited because the kids are old enough to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Lent is such a holy time and as it starts today my prayer is that each of the kids, as well as Joe and I, grow closer to God during this time and grow closer as a family.  I have the same prayer for each of you as well who might be reading this.  If you aren't Catholic or do not know much about Lent I encourage you to ask questions and learn about it because even for those who are not Catholic it can be a wonderful time to learn more about God and grow closer to Him.  May God be with each and every one of you.