We decided this year (apart from Chris and my personal Lenten intentions) we would give up TV and sweets--I know...it's very original. Chris and I don't watch much TV anymore, I was only tuning in for Downton Abbey (which luckily ended the week before Lent began!) and old recordings of the O'Reilly Factor--mostly when the kids would decide to wake up around 4 am and I would throw some Cheerios at them and tell them to amuse themselves while mommy tried to recover on the couch. Our problem with TV, well my problem, was that if I put one show for the boys it would quickly turn into two, then three then an entire morning of letting PBS stay on while I did other things without them interrupting or just lying on the couch all tired and pregnant. For me, television is just so easy I have a really hard time turning it off, even though I don't want them watching as much as they were and even though I know it makes them crazy afterward. That being said, knowing my weaknesses, we made the decision to take the TV down and move it into our closet. The crying fit David threw when he came downstairs on Ash Wednesday and realized it was gone is a testament to how overly attached he is to the machine. Sometimes I still hear Henry on the monitor while he's in bed saying "TV broken?" Sad.
The upside of giving up the TV is that we've had a lot of time freed up to pursue more worthy pastimes and refocus ourselves......
I put together a Lenten countdown calendar and every night the boys use a glue stick to glue a purple cross on. We've got a different prayer intention for each day of the week and we're working on David memorizing the morning offering prayer that I put on the bottom of the calendar. Chris is also helping him learn to do a more formal examination of conscience during his bedtime prayers. We decided it would be much more meaningful for the boys if daddy was totally in charge of teaching evening prayers even though it's hard for me to let go and not check to make sure he's doing it "right" :) We're all fasting from TV (which provides a lot more opportunities for prayer!), and sweets--David doesn't really understand fasting yet. He keeps asking to bake cookies, I tell him we can't because it's Lent, he responds by asking to bake Lent cookies. I'm not sure a Lent cookie would taste very good...maybe we should bake some pretzels instead? As for the kids almsgiving, they are putting quarters in our rice bowl which the Church gives to local charities which they think is really fun.
We are also working on a sort of Lenten purge in an attempt to be less attached to our material possessions. Every Saturday we are cleaning out and purging one room of the house, giving a lot away and setting aside some for another garage sale this spring. We've already attacked the playroom, which houses all the toys, books, computer equipment, important papers and art supplies. It was probably the hardest of all the rooms because it has the most storage space which means the most things hidden and stuffed away. The boys haven't even batted an eye at the missing toys and it is so much easier to clean up in there with less stuff. And I also decided to finally part with all of my grad school textbooks which I'm not sure why I didn't want to let go of before, but they are surprisingly still worth money and we've already sold three on Amazon!
We also brought back the sacrifice beans jar, which will turn into jelly beans on Easter. The boys really love this, although David is the only one who really understands it. He gets to put a bean in the jar for all of his kind deeds and right now we're especially working on the virtue of prompt obedience so he puts a bean in the jar whenever he does what I say on the first asking.
I also put together a morning book basket with our growing collection of Lent and Easter picture books (mostly chosen from the Catholic Mosaic book list) to read with the boys as well as my scriptural rosary book and my favorite book of meditations ever, In Conversation with God, Volume 2. It's part of a seven volume set which Chris agrees we should definitely invest in! It has daily meditations that correspond to the daily mass readings and you should probably order one right now :) For the most part, the boys play nicely in the other room while I drink my tea and read in the morning and then we all get together and read the picture books afterward.
Overall, Lent has been going really well so far and it has given us a much needed chance to refocus ourselves and slow down. Of course if you ask David what happened on Easter the first answer you'll get is--"I get my TV back" you have to ask him what else happens to get the more correct, "Jesus rose from the dead." Oh well....
The lack of television and the sporadic bursts of warm weather have also lead to a resurgence in our nature walks and consequently our nature treasures. I put together a little area for them to store their collection....it's a little sad right now, but I'm sure it will expand as our weather becomes more hospitable.
These treasures are from our last windy walk. Check out Henry's hair.....it was hard to get a picture since we were all holding hands........
