Lent Planning 2013

The holy season of Lent begins tomorrow!

I am hanging on by my fingernails now, just trying to take back my duties in the house and bring some order to the chaos that keeps trying to erupt. My Lenten planning this year has been minimal--more along the lines of "Oh, Lent starts in a few days?" compared to detailed planning for a few weeks. If you want to look for Lenten ideas--usually from smarter people than me--you can check out my past posts about Lent. Click here for my most comprehensive post on planning Lent for your family.

This year, my minimal planning has consisted of the below chart, which I think is simple but actually quite a helpful snapshot. For Daddy's row, the main thing I need to be informed of is if he is fasting from any food that would affect my meal-planning. I still chuckle thinking about a girlfriend of mine whose husband decided to give up for Lent something major (like sugar or meat, I forget) and forgot to tell her, which required major short-notice revision of how she did meal-planning!

Then I dash down what extra prayers I'm going to do--and also there I include any extra holy reading I am doing, which this year includes some audio listening, such as the 2013 Lenten mission that was held at my parish last week and which I was unable to attend: it should be soon available at Audio Sancto. I write down my goal for alms and for fasting--keeping in mind that a newly postpartum mother like me might choose not to fast from food but from something else (e.g., television, wasteful pursuits, extra Internet time). Or one could get creative and fast from food not in terms of calories but something pleasurable like salt.

Lastly, I plan for the children. This year we will do the Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure again, plus I bought the Adventure Books, which will provide us an activity per day if I cannot manage to put anything else together due to newborn chaos. My children have particularly enjoyed doing the crown of thorns, but I don't know if I can get it together this year, so we might do some simpler version of beans in a jar to count sacrifices.

For alms, the children will be doing extra chores to earn money to donate to the poor. For their fasting, they will be giving up desserts except on high feast days. John at age six is also choosing something (e.g., a toy, an activity) that he will be giving up for God.

	PRAYERS	ALMS	FASTING
DADDY
MAMA
KIDS