Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Fat Tuesday ~ or ~ What Are You Giving Up For Lent This Year?

Well, it's Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Pancake Day. Today is the day on which we traditionally go to Confession (or are "shriven") in preparation for the upcoming penitential season, the day on which we say "vale" to our "carne" (goodby to our meat), the last day on which we can behave like fat pigs before Lent. And so tonight, for dinner,well make pancakes, and serve them with bacon. Tomorrow, actually, before Ash Wednesday Mass, we'll hit the confessionals.

We're taking the day off of school in honor of the day today to finish watching the movies we borrowed from the library and clean house in preparation for the Lenten season. We always clean house before embarking on anything important. We'll do a basic scrub down and tidy up today, then throughout Lent, we'll tackle our worst projects, organizing closets and pantries, cleaning out garages and cars. It's part of the whole idea of preparation for us. By Easter, we'll be disgustingly cleaned up around here (at least that's the general idea...)

Also today we're all supposed to be fine-tuning plans for Lenten sacrifices and offerings. As a family, we give up TV (That's why we're watching movies today) and desserts (We're also making brownies and finishing up the ice cream in the freezer). We do still get to enjoy these things on Sundays, though, the traditional day to give it a rest and prevent burn out. Those of us who are of age observe the traditional Lenten fast and abstinence rules, of course. And everyone gives up one or two other little things.
I'm giving up coffee... Pray for me.

The little ones' offerings will tend more toward things like: getting up before 7:30 in the morning on school days, taking all the dirty diapers out to the dumpster, giving up a favorite cereal, giving up the computer, etc.

All good for helping to get a small feeling of what Christ's sacrifice on Calvary meant, for learning that "loving means doing," and for working on our self discipline. We plan to make a Lenten Crown of Thorns for a visual reminder of how our acts of selflessness are pleasing to Our Lord, but we'll do that tomorrow using the instructions from Homeschool Living, except we'll probably use frozen bread dough instead of starting from scratch.
But, today we're going to finish up all the goodies, to, um, remove them from tempting us...

And in between all our cleaning and preparation, we're going to do these pancake mazes for fun.

And, if it isn't snowing too hard outside, we might do a little Shrove Hunting.

I'll list some of my Lenten reading later on in the week, as I get to it. Another of my resolves is to spend less time on the computer and more time with my nose in a book. We'll see how that goes...

9 comments:

Laura said...

Coffee? My students tell me I should challenge myself and give up coffee, but I tell them that they have no idea what they are saying...I say I have their best interests at heart when I DO NOT give up coffee. But I HAVE eaten 3 donuts today...and I WILL be giving up sugar and other bad-for-me foods.

Maryan said...

Ooo... coffee. I will pray. And the picture of the hot fudge sundae?? My mouth is watering just looking at it! Still thinking down to the wire here...

Michelle said...

I'll be praying for you during Lent. I've prayerfully considered abstaining from coffee during Lent but am just not there yet. I don't think my family would like me very much. :)

Shosannah said...

Coffee!!!
Lisa you are one brave woman lol!

A Bit of the Blarney said...

The brownie with the ice cream with hot fudge runnnning down the side is ohhhhhh so tempting...Coffee not so much a problem for me....but brownies....OOOOOO Cathy

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate said...

Good Luck! I've given up coffee (along with all caffine) on two different years, and let me tell you-I had a screaming caffine withdrawal headache (which in me triggered migraines because I am prone to them) for about 3 or 4 days each time. You may want to stock up on some excederine migraine or something. But you can get throught it! Again, good luck!

Oh, and I'm giving up seconds and baked sweets this year-(we don't do the whole fasting giving up meat thing personally-kudos to you and your family for your willpower)

Maria (also Bia) said...

giving up coffee...yikes! the closest i ever came to doing something similar was when I gave up diet coke while in college. that was soooooo hard.

i'll pray for you...i really will.

God bless.

Anonymous said...

Coffee??? Wow, I am very impressed!

I should probably do that too...sigh...but instead I am giving up chocolate (!) and candy bars and chips of any kind---our whole family decided to give these up together so we can be supportive!

Good luck and have a blessed Lent

Sincerely,
Donna

Anonymous said...

Well, you're doing pretty well so far ,&80)