Lent is upon us, so that means it’s the time of year when I start saying, “What am I going to do for Lent this year?” Many times, whatever I decide on seems good at the time, but I don’t stick with throughout Lent. I think that I was better with it when I was younger, which seems so silly, doesn’t it?
This year, we decided to do something different. I first discussed the ideas with Eric, and when he liked them, then we talked to the kids. We all came to an agreement on what we were doing, as a family.
First, I thought we would try something that will be giant for us, as a family of computer geeks and gamers. On one day per week, we will not use the TV, computers, or video games. We made an exception for work (whether that be actual work or school work). Of course, this is where it gets sticky for me. My online work is on the computer, obviously. I’m still torn on whether this means I should skip it altogether or if I should have an afternoon check in that is closely monitored by the children to make sure it stays under 5 – 10 minutes. Another exception to this will be that if there is bad weather, we can check on the TV and/or computer to see what the weather people say.
This means that if you see me online on Wednesdays during Lent, tell me that I’m making Jesus cry. Okay, so maybe it wouldn’t make Jesus cry, but that would make me feel pretty bad and would make me quickly get off the computer. (A couple of quick notes on that though: (1) I’m counting it from wake up on Wednesday to going to sleep on Wednesday. Because I’m a night owl, that means I will be on very early on Wednesdays, but not very early on Thursday mornings. (2) I’m going to have Helpful Homeschool Hints scheduled so that it publishes on Wednesday nights, but I will not actually be there to check it until Thursday morning.)
We figured that this sacrifice not only took away out techno stuff, but also would be adding in more family time. Double bonus!
This was just the first of two Lenten plans. Believe it or not, I thought it was the easier of the two.
Our second was inspired by this post at Catholic Mothers Online. I have decided that we are going to try to eat mostly from our pantry, fridge, and freezer during Lent and not frequently grocery shop. As part of this, it means that while I can grocery shop, I pretty much have to stay on the perimeter of the grocery store. Things allowed to be purchased during Lent are pretty much just perishables. We can buy: produce, bread items (bread, buns, and the like), meat, eggs, and dairy. We also decided that if we clear through our frozen vegetables, then those will be allowed too. And, shame on us, we decided that soda will be okay because we want to encourage ourselves to stick with this. Since I’m an all or nothing kind of girl, I’m afraid that if I broke this to buy more soda, then I would break the whole thing.
I will admit that I am going to be doing a big grocery trip the day before Lent starts, plus we have a Market Day order that needs to be picked up on Wednesday. However, I normally do one big grocery trip to coincide with Eric’s monthly paycheck. This means that although I have picked up too much at the store throughout the month, I haven’t really done a big grocery trip in about a month. That seemed like it would add extra stress to start off already out of many of the things that we’re used to having. Also, we have a separate line item in our budget for dining out. We will continue to use this, but since we always go over budget in this area, we are committing to sticking tightly to the budgeted amount.
As a second part of this sacrifice, we plan to use either half of the money we save in our grocery budget during those almost two months or $100 (whichever is m0re) at the end of Lent to shop for our parish’s food pantry. We plan to ask the church what items are most in need in the food pantry and then take the kids shopping for those things (and take the kids along when we deliver them as well).
I can’t promise that we’ll make it through Lent on either of these, but I definitely hope we do. I feel like they are worthwhile endeavors, and I hope that the family agrees, especially by the time we get part of the way through Lent.
I’ll keep you all updated on how things are going during Lent. You know, but not on Wednesdays.
Are you observing Lent by giving up or adding something? If so and you want to share, please do.
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I know that the Lenten fast doesn’t apply to Sundays, but you may want to consider dropping the techno stuff on Sundays. Ultimately, the Lent sacrifice is to help us develop long term healthy habits. We started keeping the computer and TV off on Sunday and it’s made our Sabbath even more peaceful and special. Plus, it gets us around the whole “computer for work” issue since we don’t work on Sundays. Just a thought.
I like your grocery shopping idea. I’m going to give up sugar – yikes — and am planning on putting aside money for each day that I successful stay away from sugar, and then using the money for our local food bank.
As for the kids, a friend shared a good idea. Because we have young kids and 40 days seems interminable, we’re asking them to sacrifice a different thing each week. Wii one week, desserts another week, movies the next, etc.
Sundays wouldn’t really work for us, but we’re happy with Wednesdays. A lot of discussion went into the particular day of the week we would pick. But, I’m glad that it sounds like it makes your Sunday an extra special day at your house.
Good luck on your sugar sacrifice! Are you completely cutting out anything with any type of sugar added at all or just particular types of food/sugars?
I’m going to cut out the obvious sugars; I’m not going to get to into things like sugar in ketchup and stuff (yet). I know it sounds dramatic, but this will really be a big sacrifice for me. But I think this healthy habit would benefit me and the family in lots of spiritual, emotional, and, obviously, physical ways.
I’d like to hear more about how the grocery thing goes as Lent progresses. Good luck!
I love this idea about using up the food from the pantry and the freezer for Lent…good on many levels!
Hey…would you consider linking up to my first linky…for Lent? at Equipping Catholic Families?
Thanks!
Monica @ Equipping Catholic Families´s last [type] ..Good Deed Beads Bracelet for LENT!
Wow – those are EXCELLENT Lenten sacrifices. Thank you for posting about it, I love hearing “alternate” ideas for what people are doing.
God Bless!
Shellie
Shellie´s last [type] ..We Have Hot Water!
we are doing similar things this year too. Except we have decided to give up TV all together, unless the weather is bad then we will check the TV, since we live in Tornado Alley. We may make exceptions for the occasional movie also depending on weather, too rainy etc. I have personally decided to go on spending fast and will not be spending money except on what is necessary – defined by food, shelter, water and needed clothing, for example- the puppy eats my son’s shoe. That has happened. Additionally, I plan to shop from our pantry as much as possible and save through doing this. At this point I do not have this money earmarked for something special but I am hoping that these sacrifices will allow us to understand at the least how those less fortunate than us are forced to live everyday.
I think these are great ideas!
Great ideas! I need to involve my kids more, especially now that two of them are at the age or reason. I plan to stay away from the computer when the kids are awake. So only online during naptime and after bedtime. I can check email from my phone and that is it. I really need this and Lent is the perfect time to start (I hope).
nicole´s last [type] ..Gratitude
This is the first year that we’ve really tried to actively involve the kids, and the boys are really old enough that they probably could have been joining in for a while now.
Maybe ask them what they think would be a good thing to add or take away.
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