Ash Wednesday Activities

(Molly)

Today we skipped our "normal" school routine and spent the morning doing various activities to mark the beginning of Lent. Here's a photo of the kids coloring our "Alleluia" banner which has been buried in a snowdrift in our front yard. Throughout the Lenten season, we refrain from using the praise "Alleluia". Our banner will be dug out from the snow (which will likely still be around considering our early Easter) on Easter Sunday.

Pretzels are a traditional Lenten bread as they are twisted to look like praying hands (arms crossed over a chest with hands on shoulders). We read the story of two monks who made this traditional bread for the village people and then made our own pretzel dough and twisted them into their shapes. The recipe we used made a pretty dry dough, so the ropes were difficult to make and twist, but we did our best. After about five or six, we resorted to making "pretzel patties." The kids ate these pretzels and drank water for our light Ash Wednesday lunch. (I did offer cheese as well, but Clara declined as it was more fun that way.)

Here's Clara with her Lenten pretzel.

Aidan proudly displays his pretzel (while Max is annoyed in the background)

And Ella has already started taking bites (even before prayer-gasp!)

Max is relieved to finally have some pretzel for himself. Yummy!

We also brought out our "crown of thorns" and read the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. This Lenten season, when someone in the family makes a sacrifice or does a special good deed, he or she will take one of the thorns out of the crown. We considered requiring that the kids insert a thorn back in the crown every time they misbehave, but we thought that was a little much considering they haven't reached the age of reason :-)

We intended to take the entire family to Ash Wednesday Mass this evening, but Ella got a stomach bug right before we were about to leave. Brendan took Aidan to Mass and the little guy was very proud of his ashes. Clara stayed home with me and thank goodness she did. She earned several opportunities to remove thorns from the crown while I scrubbed floors, loaded laundry, and RE-bathed Max who decided that crawling through Eleanor's various "piles" would be a fun idea. Luckily, Ella is just as happy to hear a story from Clara as she is from me. I also had plenty of time to reflect during these evening moments as I remembered the story of St. Faustina's potatoes turning into roses for the Lord. And as Brendan was kind enough to point out when I once mentioned that cleaning vomit was not my favorite part of motherhood, "This is my Mother Teresa-hood."

God's blessings to you this holy season.