Our Lenten Plans 2016

This year we are trying to keep our Lenten plans as simple as possible.  I tend to suffer from do-it-all-itis when it comes to liturgical living, often to the detriment of my poor family!

Lenten Board

Years ago, I made and Advent board to help us more easily incorporate various traditions in our day to day family life.  I decided to do the same thing this year.  I simply purchased a trifold display board from the dollar store and used some printables to make it.

Left
1. A list of pray, fast, give ideas and a chart of all the people to pray for each day.
2. Laminated pray, fast, give cards to write what we are doing each day.
3. Our daily countdown from Catholic Icing, laminated so that we can cross off days with a dry erase marker as we go.

Middle
Our Cross of Mercy.  Each time the kids perform a work of mercy, we will tape a seed to the tree.  On Easter morning, the seeds will have transformed to beautiful flowers.

Right
Jesus Tree.  During Advent, we use a Jesse Tree to read all of the Old Testament leading up to Jesus' birth.  Our Jesus Tree is the same idea, except that we read all of the New Testament leading up to Jesus' resurrection.  We use the plan from Shower of Roses.

Daily Reflections

We use Lent for Children and Welcome Risen Jesus each day.  We read the short reflection, and if I am really motivated, I will use the daily rhyme in Lent for Children as copywork.

Lent Activity Folder

I have printed out a ton of coloring pages, worksheets, copywork, etc. and placed them in a folder for each kid.  As we travel through lent, they can continue to learn and reflect on lent through the activities in the book.

Family Practices

Pray
We are returning to our practice of praying a decade of the rosary every night and stations of the cross on Fridays.

Fast
As a family, we are also reducing our TV consumption (other than the occasional religious movie), eating out (other than for the two birthdays we have during Lent), and putting a freeze on any frivolous spending.

Give
We will be trying to eat out of our pantry and freezer as much as possible, and donating the extra money saved at the end of Lent.  The kids will also choose a few non-perishable items every time we go shopping.  By the end of Lent we should have a nice big box to donate to our local food pantry.  The kids are also doing this cute almsgiving activity thanks to my dear friend who prepared them for us!

Personal

Pray
I joined 2 lenten bible studies, and have made a commitment to start each morning with prayer.

Fast
I am trying my hardest to leave my phone charging most of the day and limit my social media.  My goodness, we are one day in and it is already hard!  I'm also doing 40 bags in 40 days again to clear my house of all the junk that keeps me from a simpler, more intentionally lived day-to-day life.

Give
I am focusing on the Works of Mercy this year, both in and out of my family.  Bearing Wrongs Patiently looks like the one I'll struggle with the most with these kiddos of mine!

What do you do during lent?  Thanks for reading!

Christmas 2015

Despite my best intentions to make a peaceful, prayerful Advent, the month of December got away from us.  I'd blame it mostly on my new little side business of making peg dolls, but realistically, that was just one of too many things on my plate.  One of these years I'll get it right.

I loved making them but next time I'm starting in July!

On the plus side, even though it was busy, we had a great time celebrating many of our fun family traditions and enjoying some fun group parties.

Gingerbread houses, River of Lights, Making Cookies, Zoo Christmas Enrichment, Making Tamales

AHG Court of Awards, Little Flowers/Blue Knights Minute to Win It Christmas Party,
Co-op Geography/Science Fair, Gem and Mineral Club Christmas Party

Of course, we added some new traditions to celebrate our precious Joaquin on his first Christmas in heaven.

Christmas Eve and Day were wonderful.  We spent Christmas Day at my sister's house enjoying our time with family.

Every year we go to San Antonio for a week after Christmas to visit Phil's mom.  This year, we left earlier than expected to get away from being snowed in by an incoming blizzard.

In the photo on the right you can see the blizzard in the mirror.  We were literally outrunning it most of the day.
Of course, when we finally got to San Antonio, it was HOT.  Thankfully it cooled down, because I didn't pack any warm weather clothes!

We had a lovely time once we got there, spending time with Grandma and playing with cousins.  We even managed to squeeze in a date night!

Decorating Grandma's Christmas Tree, Date Night, Picking Fruit

We had fun with Wisemen Adventures again this year from Christmas leading up to Epiphany.

When we got home, the snow from Snowmaggedon still hadn't melted in our front yard so the kids still got to play in the snow!

 Thanks for reading!

Joaquin Que Lucero-Watje

On January 22nd, at exactly 33wks pregnant, I went in for a routine ultrasound due to my gestational diabetes and discovered that my son had died in the womb.  There was no heartbeat.  I can't begin to describe the emotional whirlwind I felt that day as I had to come to terms with losing my son.  How impossible it was to call my husband with the news.  How overwhelmed I felt at the thought of having to labor to deliver a child that I wouldn't get to bring home.

I was admitted immediately to labor and delivery after my husband arrived at the hospital.  I remember praying over and over again that the labor would be short.  Boy was it.  The drugs they used brought labor on so quickly and so PAINFULLY that I could feel contractions full force through the IV meds they gave me.  I was literally screaming for an epidural when my son was "born" less than an hour after I felt my first contraction in the early hours of Jan. 23rd.

He was perfect.  They had no idea what went wrong.  Just one of those things that we'll never know.

I was so thankful to have one of my best friends, who is a photographer, drop everything and come to take photos of our precious son Joaquin.  The hospital staff was so sweet and caring.  They allowed us to have as much time with him as we wanted and we spent a wonderful 8 hours saying goodbye.  We had a beautiful funeral the next week with our closest family and friends.  Joaquin is buried nearby in the baby section of a local cemetery where we can visit often.

I found this blog post a few days later and it describes so perfectly how I felt in the immediate aftermath.

"Infant loss is nature's cruelest practical joke. It's investing all of the required time and effort into pregnancy, only to be robbed of the result. It's cradling a body that grew within your own and trying to reconcile the cold, lifeless form in your arms with your memory of the baby who turned double flips in your womb.

 

It's worrying that you'll forget what your child looked like and snapping an album's worth of photos that no one will ever ask to see. It's sobbing so hard you can't breathe and wondering if it's possible to cry yourself to death.

Infant loss is handing off a Moses basket to the nurse who's drawn the unfortunate duty of delivering your pride and joy to the morgue and walking out of a hospital with empty arms.

 

It's boxing up brand new baby clothes and buying a 24-inch casket. It's sifting through sympathy cards, willing your foolish body to stop lactating, clutching your baby's blanket to your chest in hopes of soothing the piercing ache in your heart.

 

Infant loss is explaining to your 7-year-old that sometimes babies die and being stumped into silence when she asks you why. It's watching other families live out your happy ending and fighting a fresh round of grief with every milestone you miss." ~Laura Schubert

I have been absolutely showered with love and prayers the last couple of weeks, and for that I am eternally grateful.  If it weren't for the constant love being shared, and for my faith in God, I don't know how I would be able to get out of bed.

The saving grace in all of this is that I know Joaquin is in a better place.  And that's not a pithy saying.  I know that he died innocent of any sin, and without question, he is with Jesus now.  Selfishly, my mama heart aches for him and wants him to be here with me so that I can raise him and be with him throughout all of life's ups and downs.  I want to be the one that nurtures and comforts him, and the one who guides and shapes his life as he grows up.  But ultimately the goal for all of my children is to get them to heaven.  Joaquin is there.  And that is enough.  For whatever reason, he fulfilled his life's mission in the 8 short months that he was here on earth.  And now my family has a saint in heaven watching over us and ready to intercede for our intentions.  It blows me away to think how blessed we are in that regard.  St. Joaquin, pray for us!