Lenten Ideas 2014 – Bringing Lent Home

By bobbi
March 4, 2014
2 Comments

FOR THE UPDATED VERSION OF THIS POST, PLEASE GO TO – Pinterest Party & Link-up (vol 35): Lenten Activities for the Home (2015)

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It’s hard to believe that Lent starts tomorrow! The only good thing is that I’ve actually prepared for it now instead of two or three weeks into it. I know, right? Shocker. We are doing many of the same traditions we did last year. Here are the main ones.

I love putting wreaths and welcome signs on our door. For Lent, I made a simple Lenten wreath to mark the season.

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We have our regular family altar in the entryway of the house and that stays pretty much the same all year. However, we have a shelf in the family room by the table where we eat that we decorate according to the season. Here is where we keep our Lenten things.

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We set up a candle centerpiece using a long rectangular tray filled with six votive candles for the six weeks of Lent.

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I purchased tiny wreaths from Michael’s that fit around the candle. We add a wreath to a candle on each Sunday of Lent.

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We printed off Catholic Icing’s Lenten Calendar and I placed it in an inexpensive frame from Ikea. I use a dry erase pen to mark a cross on each day as it passes. It is great for the kids, who have no sense of time, to see how many more days until Easter.

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One of the kids favorite activities for Lent is their Act of Love and Prayer jars. The Act of Love jar has different things they can do each day such as share a toy with your sibling or be extra nice to someone at school or do an extra chore. The Prayer Jar has a special intention for each day. With our evening schedules, we have found our best prayer time to be before dinner since we are already gathered together. Since the altar is right next to our table, we light our candle, Brian leads us in prayer and then we chose an act and prayer intention for the next day. (The morning of the following day I remind the kids what our act of love and prayer intention is for that day.)

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This year we also added Kendra’s idea of using Sacrifice Beans. Every time the kids complete one of their Acts of Love or makes a sacrifice they put a dried kidney bean in the bowl. On Easter Sunday the dry beans are changed to jelly beans or some other treat. (I’m thinking a visit to the Aquarium unless I can swing a trip to Disneyland. I’m trying to work some Disney magic…) 😉

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In case you think we are a holy family with heads bent in prayer, let me also give you a dose of reality. I also had to add a “prayer helper” of the day sign. When it comes to who gets to offer their prayer intention first or who gets to blow out the candle or who gets to choose the Act of Love that day, we have had the boys literally come to blows and screaming, which ends in me yelling at them and Brian sending them to their rooms for misbehaving. (Aw, peaceful prayer time.) Since they are used to having a “Student of the Day” in school so we took that same concept with the “prayer helper of the day.” The name rotates and we have greatly reduced the yelling and body blows. (Now if we can just get John-Paul to stop praying for things like “more Star Wars toys” as his prayer intention. 😉

Lastly we added our Stations of the Cross pictures to the altar. When we say the Stations of the Cross as a family, we follow this book The Way of the Cross from Magnificat/Ignatius.

Here are some other Lenten activities we will be doing as a family.

Turn off the TV and the computer/iphone more. I have a basket of religious type books that the kids can look at or we can read together. I am also using the Lenten Adventure Activity Books from Holy Heroes, which are great! There are activity pages and coloring pages for the young ones for each day of Lent up until Divine Mercy Sunday.

Fasting from Eating Out. Instead of eating out we will eat whatever left overs we have in the house. We will use the money we saved to buy food to put into the food boxes at church for St. Vincent de Paul’s ministry. The kids get to pick out food and take it to the church. (My sacrifice is letting them “help” me.) 😉

Visit Jesus – Make more visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Let the kids light a candle before they kneel and pray.

Donate – Spring clean the toy box and donate toys they don’t use anymore to our local St. Vincent de Paul thrift store.

Crafts – Make Lenten crafts such as one of these Resurrection Crafts.

We can add more as we go but this is what is planned so far. For ideas for your own family, check out these sites.

Lenten Calendar for Kids – Eyes on Heaven

Liturgical Living at a Glance: March – Carrots for Michaelmas

40 Simple Lenten Activities for Kids – CallHerHappy.com

Lenten Activities for Children – CatholicIcing.com

40 Ideas for Lent from Joe Paprocki

Today I focused on things we do as a family. Next I’ll share what I’ll be working on myself this Lent. 🙂 In the meantime, share you favorite Lenten traditions in the comments. 🙂 If you have a blog, leave your link!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

Theme Thursday: Secret (Coping with Stress)

By bobbi
October 3, 2013
6 Comments

I am linking up with Cari for this week’s photography challenge Theme Thursday: Secret. 🙂

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Okay, here’s a little secret. I don’t have it “all together.” The other day a friend was complimenting me about something and made the comment, “I want to be Bobbi when I grow up.” HA! That’s a hot one. I don’t have it all together and sometimes I feel like I am downright losing it. This week was one of those times. I haven’t made any posts because I could not get myself to type anything other than “life sucks.” It doesn’t really and most of the time I feel like this…

But this week I felt like this. Literally.

I needed a good long cry yesterday because I was just overwhelmed with everything. When I get like this I have three secret places I like to visit alone. It depends on how bad it is where I need to go.

Code Yellow – Elevated Stress

When I need to regroup I go to the beach and take a few moments to slow down and breathe deep. It allows me to see the situation differently and realize how blessed I am and I can thank God for it.

Code Orange – High Stress

Sometimes after a long day I just need to get out of the house. Brian knows how much I love the movies so after the kids are in bed he’ll send me off to two hours of cinematic bliss. This may not be such a secret since for my birthday my family gave me a Fandango gift card and bag of peanut M&M’s but they may not know I love to keep all my movie stubs in this little wooden box Bella gave me. 🙂

Code Red – Severe Stress

This kind of stress can only be elevated at the feet of Christ, particularly after receiving the grace of Reconciliation. That may not be such a secret to my fellow Catholic friends but what you may not know is that when I pray I love to think about the feet of Christ.

Where he walked. What he endured. How those feet were washed by the tears of Mary and dried with her hair. I picture myself crying at his feet and him stroking my hair and telling me not to worry, that this will pass and I will be strengthened once again. Thankfully, I am.

Thanks to Cari for hosting!

Daily Devotionals for Catholic Moms (& A Give-Away)

By bobbi
September 25, 2013
17 Comments

I’m linking this post up with Housewifespice’s What We’re Reading Wednesday. 🙂

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How are you at morning devotions and prayer time? Frankly, it is an area where I’ve always struggled. Brian has a contemplative nature. He loves moments of quiet when he can spend time alone with God. I am the opposite. I love noise. I cannot be in a quiet room. (Maybe it’s because I grew up with 10 other people in our home.) I usually always have the stereo playing or the TV on… although I could do with less of the rambunctious boys’ LOUDNESS. 😉 Needless to say, quiet time in prayer is not something that comes easily to me and probably many people. We have to work at it.

Lately, however, all this working on being more disciplined has meshed into my spiritual life as well. I finally tweaked my schedule so I have a 15 minute block of quiet time for prayer in the morning. That time is pretty constant, so it’s rare that I have to miss it. I begin with a short prayer, read out of my devotional book and then talk to God and journal my thoughts. (Writing things out always help me think things through.)

There are many lovely devotional books out there, but I need something very simple…short and sweet. I don’t like flowery words and deep theological discussions go over my head. I need something that speak to me right where I am…in the middle of dishes, diapers and dirty laundry. That’s why I love reading these two books.

Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray, and Act is a daily devotional. Each month is dedicated to a specific virtue. (For example, this month is Diligence.) Each day has three elements – A quote or Scripture, a brief prayer and and Act you can do to put your faith into practice. It is perfect for moms who are short on time but it is “meaty” enough that you can also spend more time meditating on the quote. The prayer in the book can be used as an opening line to God and you continue to converse with God for as long as you’d like. For moms who are well developed in their prayer life and want something a little longer, I’d recommend pairing it with a spiritual book that deals with that month’s virtue.

I have a copy of the original Small Steps and friends have wanted to buy a copy but it was out of print for awhile. Thankfully it back in print with a new cover and available for purchase.

My other favorite book is the newer book from Lisa Hendey (of CatholicMom.com.)

A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul is also a daily devotional. It is divided up into 52 weeks. Each week focuses on one saint. There is a brief biography, lessons we can learn from the saint, traditions of their patronage, two saint-inspired activities (one for mom and one for your children), a weekly prayer to say as a family and one or two questions to ponder. There is also a scripture verse for each day of the week to mediate on. This book rocks. It is rich with information and the prayers are beautiful.

When I first started reading it, I was torn about trading in one book for the other but I have found that both work well for me. I use the Saint Book at the beginning of the week. On Mon, Tues, Wed I read through the chapter and meditate on the lessons etc. By Thursday I only have the daily scripture/prayer left, which is short, so from Thurs to Sun I pair that with the daily devotion of the Small Steps book. I also ask the ‘saint of the week” to pray for me. Working with both books has worked fine for me.

A last note, although these are geared towards moms, a single person (or even a dad) could read them just as well, particularly the saint book. On days when you are given a task that has to do with your spouse or children you could apply it to a co-worker, a friend or family member instead.

Finally, because I love these books so much, I am giving a copy away on the blog! To enter just leave a comment and tell me which book you’d rather win – Small Steps for Catholic Moms or a Book of Saints for Catholic Moms. Want an extra entries? – Like RoL on Facebook. (Just leave a comment letting me know you did or have already) and/or tweet about this give-away. 😉 I’ll pick a winner in two weeks on October 8th. Good luck!

(For next week’s post, I’ll let you know which Catholic books for women my Mom’s Group will be reading for our book studies.)

Have a great day.

E-Book Discussion: 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life – Day 1

By bobbi
September 9, 2013
3 Comments

For the next 21 Days I will be participating in Suscipio’s E-book Discussion – 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine. The cynical side of me scoffs and says, “Yeah, you know you won’t make it beyond the first week. Another self-help bites the dust.” The hopeful side of me says, “There’s something different about this one because it is down to earth, broken into manageable steps each day and there is a community of awesome ladies joining in and ready to encourage.” I’m rooting for the hopeful side!

Okay, a quick run down about 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life. Excerpt taken from Crystal’s blog.

What Exactly is 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life?

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life is not going to fix all of your discipline problems in less than a month, and if I claimed I’d be able to do that, I’d be lying.

After you have finished reading this book and gone through your first 21 Days, you will have implemented one or two small changes and created a habit of discipline in one area of your life

You will also have one completed “Mega Project”. Completing your first Mega Project is so important to your continued success in creating discipline habits. It will propel you forward and motivate you like nothing else.

Who is This Book For?

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life is for you if:

You have trouble following through.

You get overwhelmed by huge projects.

You start strong, but your passion fizzles out.

You are super-disciplined in a few areas of your life, but you have one or two pet areas that you just can’t get under control.

You check out 10 different books on discipline and organization from the library, but return all of them late.

Read the rest here.

So I downloaded the ebook, which was an inexpensive $4.99, and started day one.

My thoughts so far…

One of the familiar songs I sing to Brian every night is the “I-have-so-much-to do-and-organize-and-change-in-my-life-that-I-am-overwhelmed-and-accomplish-so-little-it’s-depressing” Blues. Yeah, he’s getting a little tired of that. And I am tired of his response EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. He calmly replies, “Just do a little bit every day, love.” What?? Such cheekiness! I don’t want that! I want big dramatic changes. Jaw dropping Befores and Afters! Something blog-worthy! And then I read Day 1 and what does Crystal say? Basically the same thing. Work at it one small bit at a time. It’s not going to happen overnight. Sigh.

Favorite paragraph…

Do you see what the problem is here? Instead of addressing the root issue – my own, personal lack of self-discipline – I convince myself that a fancy new system or a change in circumstances [in my life] will fix the problem.

But here’s the reality: A bad system is not the problem. My circumstances are not the
problem.

I am the problem.

Ouch. That’s so true it hurts. How many times have I downloaded the “perfect” planning page or set up an elaborate system only to find it didn’t magically bring order to my life. Even now, I have been having fun working with my planner but that doesn’t change the fact that I have to keep at it and not just decorate my “To Do” lists but actually DO my list. And how many times have I tackled a big project and then got depressed because I had to keep stopping every 5 minutes to take care of something else (crazy things like feed the kids, change diapers, etc 😉 ) and then gave up on the project all together.

On the other hand, that statement is energizing because she goes on to explain, that we are not only the problem, we are the solution. We don’t need to spend money or make these elaborate schemes or complain that our life circumstances hold us back from accomplishing anything… we just need to adjust the way we look at things and how we tackle the problem. Let’s face it, as moms/working women/students our lives are going to be crazy busy, unbearably so at times. There will be mornings we are dead tired because we were up all night with the baby or making a deadline. There are life situations that knock us over but we can learn how to deal with it.

Jen says it beautifully in her reflection of Day 1, “The key is adjustments instead of the excuses. And rearranging feels so much better than excusing.” So yeah, curve balls are a part of life but instead of using them as an excuse, we readjust how we deal with it.

The Mega Project…

With 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life I have to choose one Mega Project that I will work on over the next 21 Days. Good grief, it took me forever to narrow it down to one project! There are so many things I need to do. Finally, I decided to concentrating on my bedroom (which includes the closet and master bath.) Some sections of the room I’ve already organized but other sections look like a tornado hit it. I won’t even mention the closet of doom…. or the bathroom shelves overflowing with stuff…or the pictures and framed art sitting in the closet that has been waiting to be nailed to the wall for over two years! I had to break the task down to 21 smaller sized jobs. It’s funny but it seems a lot less daunting knowing I can do just a little bit every day. (Hmm, I guess Brian was right. I owe him an apology. :-))

Practical Application…

Each day there is also one small thing you have to complete. Today we had to do one thing that we have been putting off. On my dining room table I had two bundles that needed to be packaged up and mailed off. So I finally made copies of my receipt and packaged up a school uniform I needed to return (wrong size) and I put together a package to my niece. Added to the pile where a few bills that needed to be mailed out. They are ready to go to PO first thing in the morning.

Such a tiny thing really but I needed that extra kick in the arse to get it done. 😉

I’ll keep up with the book study and I won’t be able to post about it each day but I’ll post as often as I can. The accountability helps me out.

Want to join me and the others?? Download 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.

Then leave a comment here at RoL and make me a happy mama! After that go join the ladies at Suscipio for further discussion! 🙂

UPDATE: The next post is here.

Chaos to Calm Bible Study, Vol 2: Making Love of God Our Motivation

By bobbi
April 8, 2013
No Comments

I came across the Bible Study Chaos to Calm from A Virtuous Woman.org and was was intrigued by her study. Originally I was going to skip it because Melissa Ringstaff, a preacher’s wife, is not Catholic and she wouldn’t be able to offer advice from a Catholic perspective. However, while she does not discuss Jesus in the Eucharist or asking Our Lady for prayer, she does make some beautiful yet practical points about being a virtuous Christ-like woman and they were truly speaking to my heart. So I continued with the study and just added my own Catholic materials to supplement.

Past posts:

Chaos to Calm Bible Study, Vol 1: Morning Prayer & Finding Joy in the Craziness of Motherhood

Here are a few points that really hit home during Week 2 (Day 6)

Point 1: The Duty of Man (or Woman)

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13,14

Melissa explains:

It is our WHOLE duty to fear God (show Him due respect and reverence) and keep His commandments (God’s eternal moral law found in Exodus 20). Sounds pretty easy, right? Not really. In fact, the closer I come to Jesus the more wretched I realize I am! …

…The closer you come to Jesus the more you will desire to keep His commandments. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15). As followers of Christ we delight to do His will, we want to keep His law.

When I first read this I thought to myself, what about when doing God’s will is not a delight?

It reminded me a story a priest once told about a young man who was used to partying and dating a lot of women. Then he met an incredible girl who was not only beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well. They got to know each other and the young man wanted to date the girl. She said she would but only if he was willing to stop his partying ways and date her exclusively. She was not going to be one of many girls.

He was upset by these demands and did not want to give up his fun. However, his desire to be with this girl was so great that he reluctantly agreed. At first it was very difficult for him to leave behind his old ways but as the weeks passed and his friendship with the girl grew, his love for her began to grow as well.

One day he realized that it was no longer a burden to live by “the rules.” There was no one else he’d rather be united with in life.

The priest went on to explain that we are like that young man. Just as he began to be faithful to the girl out of duty it eventually was done out of love. So it is with God. Often we follow the commandments out of duty or fear of punishment but eventually we follow out of love for Christ. I heard that explanation years and years ago but it always stuck with me.

Point 2: Making love of God our motivation.

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3

Melissa goes on to explain how to reach (or maintain) love of God as our motivation.

A. Daily Prayer

(Melissa reviews lessons 1-5 of the Bible study)

This has been part of our homework each day. By now you should be feeling better about getting up early in the morning for prayer and devotion. A daily gathering of manna for the soul. Having an early morning prayer sets the tone for the day and gives you the strength you need to get through the day as a virtuous woman. Through daily prayer you will begin to see peace take over your heart where turmoil used to reside. You will begin to feel contentment where dissatisfaction used to creep up. You will begin to understand God’s purpose for your life. God has a plan in mind for your life – the perfect plan! It is up to you to seek out His plan for you. And while you begin to live a life of prayer, you will begin to see sin in its natural state.

I had been doing fairly well with my waking up early in the morning and I have to admit that it makes a big difference in my attitude. However, with Easter vacation I seemed to have also taken a vacation from my prayer time. I slept in every day of the last week. Today was the kids first day back at school so I set my alarm to wake me early this morning determined to return to my morning prayer time. As things turned out, I was up at 2am taking care of a sick child. It seems God wanted me to spend time in prayer in the wee hours of the morning instead.

Melissa also talked about the importance of repenting and asking for forgiveness during our prayer. This is an area I really need improvement. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing my nightly examine as I am in bed. I am usually exhausted and almost always fall asleep before I am done. I need to turn off the TV or close my book or get off the computer a little earlier so I can do my examine before I knock out on my pillow. That is my prayer goal for this week.

We all have our own weaknesses, our own temptations, our own struggles. We all have a purpose set before us to follow His will for our own lives. Through daily prayer, our character will develop into something beautiful – something like the woman of Proverbs 31.

“We have a purpose set before us to follow His will for our own lives.” I needed that reminder. THIS is my vocation first and foremost. The waking up at 2 am, the cooking meals and doing laundry and taking care of the kids. It is not glamorous and to the outside world it may seem a waste of time but this is my path, my road to sanctification. This is how God will mold me and with his grace it will be the means He uses to help me conquer my selfishness, impatience, laziness and all the other areas I need to work on. As St Therese showed us, it is the little things done with great love that bring us closer to the Heart of Christ. Keeping prayer in the morning and evening helps me to better unite all the little things I do each day to Our Lord, transforming my duties into a prayer to God.

B. Daily Study

Learning to follow God’s commands is a life long journey. Having a meek and quiet spirit that is filled with His likeness comes through prayer and the studying of His Word. If you are not in God’s Word on a daily basis you are missing a tremendous blessing! There is so very much to learn through God’s Word. There are so many lessons, so many revelations that can only fully be understood if you are really reading and studying the Word of God for yourself.

Maybe it’s a stereotypical Catholic thing but I seriously don’t read Scripture as often as I should. I am getting better now that I am doing my morning devotions but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

If you have the same problem, you may try using the Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible New Testament. Brian bought this last year and he really enjoys listening to it in the car.

Another option is to download a Bible app to your smart phone. There are a number of free ones but I was checking out the iMissal’s Catholic Bible that Brian just downloaded to his iphone. It is a little pricey for an app at $10 but Brian said it is was clean, easier to navigate and bookmark and it was the version he preferred.

C. Daily Living

Melissa says:

You know, it is not enough to pray and study if we don’t take those lessons we have read and those lessons God has spoken in our hearts with us throughout the day. We need to practice what we have learned! We need to make ourselves – however difficult at times – to follow through. Whether we have been convicted to speak with love or convicted not to watch soap operas or to have patience with our children (just as Christ is with us) we need to take those convictions – those lessons – and put them into play.

By putting into practice those lessons we have learned, we will begin to live a sanctified life, a life of obedience. We will begin to understand what it means when the Bible says that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments.

This does not mean we will never have a set back or mess things up royally. When we do, we should go to our loving Father, yet again, and ask for forgiveness and strength to do better in the future. It IS possible to live according to His law and His will for your life. It may not always be easy or fun but it will always be worth it in the end.

There is really nothing more to say to that but, “Amen!”

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: motherhood