Random Mardi Gras/Lenten Doings

I always seem to be figuring these things out (or remembering to do them!) at the last minute.

However, here are some things we are doing today:

•     We're finishing up reading this book:

   Instead of the often raunchy celebrations of Mardi Gras found in New Orleans, it focuses on

one Cajun family and their community in a small town in Louisiana. Sam was inspired to create

this "costume" for our mini-mardi gras celebration this evening.

He, Paul, and Patrick also made very fancy masks for the occasion.  We're still working on the hat.

I hope to find some Cajun music (also featured in the book) online that we can listen to tonight.

No, Gumbo isn't on the menu for tonight, just chicken fingers. We don't do the traditional pancakes for Fat Tuesday, because pancakes are semi-regular dinner fare around here, so it would be nothing special. Besides, Catholics no longer give up dairy products for Lent.

•     Hopefully, if I can get affordable wooden letters from Michael's, we'll be doing  this activity. Hiding the word "alleluia" is a good way to teach the absence of alleluia at Mass during Lent. 

• Tomorrow we'll make a dough "crown of thorns" by making a braided dough wreath, and sticking toothpicks in it to look like thorns. Each time a good deed is done, the good deed doer removes a "thorn". The goal is to be able to remove all the "thorns" by Easter, then beautify the wreath for use as a table decoration.

These are the plans. I'll let you know how it goes.

Getting Ready for Lent

Getting Ready for Lent

One thing we'll be doing is the Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure program. It's FREE, just like the Advent Adventure was! Here's the info from the Holy Heroes website:

We invite you and your friends to join us for Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure - and you could become a Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure Guide.

It's free (costs you nothing!) and easy for your Mom and Dad, because all they need to do is:

Open our emails three times a week, then
Click and watch... a short video of children teaching children,
Click and listen... to children leading and explaining prayers,
Click and print... fun activities for all ages,
Click and answer... questions to see how much you've learned.
New for 2009 Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure:
We have a special way for YOU to be part of this year’s Lenten Adventure:

Send us YOUR short videos about your family traditions for Lent and Easter, about your family prayer times, or about the Saint Days during Lent--and we may select YOU to be a guide in Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure!


It's educational, catechetical, and FUN to learn what other families do to make Lent and Easter memories that will last a lifetime on earth - and fruitful to last an ever-lasting lifetime in heaven.

And it's free - did we say that?

Plus you'll get a coupon code for 20% off all the products we sell at www.HolyHeroes.com.

And when you sign up, we'll send you instructions for sending us YOUR videos about your own family traditions. We'll select the best ones to be part of Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure! That's right: you could become a Lenten Adventure guide!

Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure will help you and the children you love learn more about our faith beginning with Ash Wednesday (Feb 25) through the 40 days of Lent, into Holy Week and Easter Week, and concluding with Divine Mercy Sunday.

Join your family with Holy Heroes to learn more about:

Family traditions from around the globe that you can make part of your family's Lent and Easter
The Stations of the Cross
The Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross
How to live a fruitful Lent of prayer, penance, an alms-giving
The Rosary and other prayers and devotions that bring the faith to life in our homes
Like to sing? Sing along while you learn the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Regina Caeli, and the Stabat Mater - in English and Latin
And much more!
Sign up now, and you'll receive your 20% off coupon code and instructions for sending us your videos about your own family traditions.

May God richly bless your Lent and Easter,
Your friends at Holy Heroes




I'm also hoping to do some heavy duty cleaning this Lent through Clearing Spaces 2009. This is from Sarah at Plainsong. She's organized a plan for decluttering a different hotspot of our choice each Monday of Lent. In case you're not up on Flylady terminology, a hotspot is
any part of your home where clutter regularly collects. I have lots of those. We'll take 30 minutes each Monday to bag up unwanted clutter to be thrown away, put away, or given away by Easter. The seven hotspots I chose are the living room shelves, linen closet, master bedroom, master bedroom closet, boys' bedroom closet, basement t.v. room, and the homeschooling supply cupboard.
Oops, I guess we were supposed to start today! Oh well, I've been sick all day (see, making excuses already), and it's never too
late to jump in, so my Monday Mission this week will be on Tuesday.

Planting Time

I'm blessed to have grown up with a mom who was always planting things, either in plastic trays in the house (or greenhouse, since she has one on the side of her home), or in outdoor gardens. Mom and Dad, who became Master Gardeners at some point in my childhood, also "dragged" me to various gardens throughout the country, such as Longwood Gardens, in Pennsylvania. So I'm happy to pass the love of growing things on to my
kids. Also, I have a great source of help and information available in my mom. Yesterday, the boys and Mary could wait no longer, and
"talked me into" cleaning out the yogurt cups we've been saving, finding the seed starter I had stashed away, and planting seeds.
They've been talking about it for a few weeks, but I have to admit I've been putting it off. They chose a mix of vegetables (peas, beets, and gourds) and flowers (four o'clocks, larkspur, sweet peas, and moonflower). For some reason, someone arranged the little pots around the rooster lamp in the kitchen.
Today, I moved our little seeds to a special light box my Dad had made many years ago:

It's great, because the light can be moved up as the seedlings emerge and grow taller.

I love the way doing one activity with my kids leads to all kinds of discussions. The kids wondered why I was putting plastic
on top of the cups, so we talked about how it keeps the soil moist through evaporation and condensation. How cool is that?
Science was covered for the day!

Red Envelope Project

Please consider sending a message to President Obama with this simple red envelope:



All it entails is getting a red envelope (who doesn't have extra Christmas card or Valentines envelopes lying around? Write
the message on the back of the envelope, stamp it, address it to the president, and mail it empty.
You can get complete instructions and more information at
www.redenvelopeproject.org.

My Corner of the Blogosphere

Jenn tagged me, so here is the spot where we blog, do schoolwork, surf the internet, pay bills, and

once in a while, play Monopoly or Uno Attack. I have to admit, I did tidy up the clutter a bit, but 

there is still a lot lurking behind the monitor. I also swept off the eraser crumbs, rocks (the boys

are avid collectors), and other debris. 

Sometimes I get discouraged in the ongoing work of teaching reading to my dyslexic son. The unsure outcome and seemingly slow progress can be upsetting. I was thinking today of a young woman I've read of. A teacher who struggled mightily with her young pupil. She must have had horrible days of self-doubt and unsureness of the outcome of her efforts. I've heard that her work was often undermined by her student's parents, who didn't understand her methods at all. The way this teacher doggedly worked at helping her student learn has always inspired me.  The teacher's name was Annie Sullivan, and her famous pupil was, of course, Helen Keller. I guess, at that, I'm in pretty good company. 

Presentation Day and other items

I really like this picture for the Presentation. I found it on Blessed Among Men, a blog which was linked to Elizabeth Foss's blog, In the Heart of My Home. 

I wish I could say we're doing lots of Candlemas activities, but, well, we're not. Jim and I took turns this weekend being sick, and Jim's home sick today.

Consequently, I wasn't able to make preparations that

would've made said activities more likely.

We did read about the Presentation this morning,

and talked about Candlemas. Sam suggested getting out all the candles we can find this evening, and lighting them. Maybe we'll actually brave a candlelit procession, too.

We also read Groundhog Day! by Gail Gibbons, and the book  touched on a connection between Groundhog Day and Candlemas, which I didn't know existed. The boys surprised me by deciding to draw pictures of a groundhog burrow and put them

in their nature notebooks. I'm always amazed when they spontaneously come up with an idea like that. Not that it happens that often, mind you, but I know if I said "Now, I want you to draw a picture of a groundhog burrow", there might have been groans and complaining, and they probably wouldn't have done their best. The magic of Real Learning! (Also of Gail Gibbons

books which have wonderful pictures.)