Lenten Calendar

My St. Valentine's gift from Bob was time alone in the house today.  He and the kids left earlier this morning and will be back home sometime this afternoon.  This little break is even more special because he was originally scheduled to be out of town for work this weekend, but due to snow everywhere in the south his trip was cancelled.  Since he was not going to be home we didn't have anything else scheduled for the day. 


It was a great opportunity to work on our Lenten Calendar.   I got the idea from this blog.  It looked very neat and orderly and not too "out of the reach" crafty.  At least something in our house should be neat and orderly!  In between putting our calendar together I had the chance to catch up on some laundry, I made mushroom soup from this Russian cookbook and got these cookies started.  Amazing what can be accomplished when no one else is home.


But back to the calendar.  I followed the design exactly as the one I referenced, I really like the way it looked.  I modified some of the prayer intentions to fit our family, this is what I chose:

Sunday - thanksgiving for God’s Blessings

Monday - Pope Benedict and all priests

Tuesday - for birth families

Wednesday - all children who don’t have families

Thursday - all families in the process of adoption

Friday - all those who suffer & don’t know the love of Jesus

Saturday - for our deceased relatives

Also, on each day of the calendar I picked a story from the Bible to read at dinner time.  We are going to use this Bible.  Normally at dinner, Bob reads a story about a saint from this saint of the day book, but sometimes it goes over the little ones heads.  Plus, Anna and Levi haven't heard many Bible stories yet, and Lent is an excellent time to read the stories leading up to Holy Week and Easter.  I had some small cards from Catholic Heritage Curricula that fit perfectly in the squares, and added some images from the internet on Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's feast day, and Palm Sunday.  We also have two birthday's during Lent and Holy Week, plus I wrote in a reminder to start a novena to St. Joseph.

I hope this calendar really helps us keep our focus during the Lenten season.