11th Birthday

Re-post: 10 Ideas for Observing Lent with your Family

February 26th is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lent is meant to be a time of repentance and reflection in the 40 days leading up to Easter (not counting Sundays). The 40 days is symbolic of the time Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. 

Typically during Lent, a participant will "give up" or fast something. Those things range from meat, caffeine, chocolate, to various medias. Whatever is most important to you- that would be a sacrifice to do without- is usually a good place to start.  

Whether you decide to "give up something for Lent" or not...don't miss out on the times of "intentional" reflection. 

Over the years, we have observed the season of Lent in different ways, here are a few of our favorites: 

1.  Make your own prayer calendar for Lent
 




2.  Lenten Prayer Stations

3.  Make your own Easter garden.  




 









4.  Preschool Holy Week Calendar

5.  Have a Simplified Seder Supper to teach about the Passover.

6.  On Good Friday, make Hot Cross Buns!  

We like to make these and share them with our neighbors fresh out of the oven!




7.  Use Resurrection Eggs to tell the story of the Resurrection

We use Resurrection Eggs as our devotions for the 12 days leading up to Resurrection Sunday. Every Easter, we hide these along with all our other eggs for the kids to find. Then we open them one-by-one and have the kids tell the story. We purchased our set many years ago, but there are many DIY tutorials online. 

8.  Attend a Good Friday or Tenebrae service...or have your own at home.  

Tenebrae is a service of shadows in which you go through the various parts of the Crucifixion story and extinguish candles as you go to symbolize how dark the world became at the time of Christ's crucifixion. The cool thing is that the Christ candle is never extinguished because He is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD and that light will never go out. It's really neat. 

9.  Lenten Burnt Match Cross Craft

  

10.  Read a Lenten devotional

Michael and I enjoyed our Advent journey books so much that this year we will be reading Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter. 

She Reads Truth and He Reads Truth will begin a Lenten daily Scripture and devotional series on February 23rd. 

Additional resources:

Hospitality Ideas for Holy Week

Lenten Tree 

Family Activities for the Forty Days of Lent:  Ideas from CFM 

Scripture Lunch for Good Friday

Easter Story printable wreath

Journey to the Cross--daily activities

100+ Ideas for a Christ-Centered Easter

Lenten Yule Log 
Lenten Nail and String Art 
Make (or just buy prepared) pretzels 

Cool breeze

There is nothing more inviting than the cool breeze in my face
after a day of rest.
Early bedtime
just so tired.

The weight of the world
feeling like things must change soon.
So many decisions to make and follow through
not sure which direction to go.

Getting up is never as easy as putting one foot in front of the other
once you start.
The cool breeze lets you breathe easier and inhale deeply
the fresh air of a new start.

Happy 11th Birthday, Michael

Happy birthday to the sweetest, kindest, Lego-lovin' ninja artist boy we've ever known!  We love you so much, Michael!  

Happy 11th birthday, sweet boy!

Fun Fridays: The BEST Chocolate Cake and Friends EVER

Valentine's Day found us making the "BEST Chocolate Cake EVER" for our cooking lesson for Fun Fridays.  Akemi has so much patience with the cooking lessons.  She really shines as a cooking instructor!  I am so thankful that she is my partner in Fun Fridays!  

Cooling cakes...

Now, decorating our layers...

So yummy looking!

So, we walked in to find birthday decorations adorning the dining room.  Michael asked Sam when his birthday was and he quickly figured out that the decorations were for him!  We were both humbled and awe-struck with the kindness showed to him.  He felt so loved!  

"Harpy Bipthday!"

The cake was delicious, as well as the feast Akemi prepared for a birthday lunch!  Thank you, Lord for the blessing of such beautiful friends!