Lent.

I've finally got round to setting up the Lent focal point. I saved the things we made from last year but needed to get some new jars for the sweets. This is based on another idea I got from Catholic Mom.com.

Henry made this cross by sticking on coloured sequins.

Honor wrote out the 'Fruit gum prayer' and we framed it. The children earn suitably coloured sweets ie jelly tots or fruit gums according to this guide. So they earn a red one for hard work/sacrifice. A yellow for something like good manners or, in Honor's case yesterday, when she encouraged her brother by saying well done for something he did at school, which reflect God's bright light. An orange for appropriate behaviour during bedtime story and prayers.

Then the sweets go in the jar. Last year they waited until Easter before they were allowed to eat them. But as the priest told us on Sunday, you can have Sundays off from abstinence so they'll eat what they have earned during the week on Sundays. After all - there's far too much chocolate arriving at Easter time anyway. A few days ago I found 2 Easter eggs from last year still in the cupboard!

Ash Wednesday and today...

I didn't get a chance to sit down and post yesterday so I have some time this evening, now the kids are in bed and Hubby has popped to Tesco to get me some paper plates, to write about the last 2 days. Of course, being Catholic an' all, we got ourselves off to Mass at 9.30am. Honor did the Offertory Procession with her Grandma and I quietly prayed that she wouldn't drop anything. I've never seen anyone do that but it would be my kids to be the first. I should have more faith! She did a good job.

Here she is doing another good job, helping Brown Owl provide the Lenten Lunch at the Village Hall. The soup was great! I had 3 bowls! So much for fasting and abstinence.

Hope enjoyed it too!

And it was a beautiful sunny day. Later that afternoon we visited Supernana's grave at the cemetary as Mum had some peach coloured primulas to plant there. The kids brought their gardening aprons and tools that they got for Christmas and helped out.

To finish off, Honor and I practised some fractions (hee, hee) then snuggled up in bed together and watched Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers. She is very keen to have her own little area of garden to grow her vegetables on. We liked the look of rainbow chard, so we'll try and get some seeds for that.

Today Hubby had a day off. The weather, unfortunately, was miserable and we had trouble making up our minds about what to do. We all had a wander round a garden centre and
ended up buying a selection of vegetable seeds costing around £17. So we need to make sure we get a good return on that little investment!

This afternoon, I went out with my Mum, HM and Hope (the girls!) to Waterstones while the boys stayed at home and put together some flat packed furniture! Inspired by the Percy Jackson film that we saw on Tuesday, HM bought these 2 books from the series. I've just been up to see her ('cos she's in bed) and she has already read a few chapters of the first one and is loving it!

Hubby has just returned with the paper plates... and a chocolate sundae. Mmmmm. So, I'd better go. Bye!