1. Plan ahead. Lent starts March 1, so there are a few days to get things together. Get started with Lenten Planning Pages from Lacey at Catholic Icing. Lacey has an entire section of her blog that focuses on Lent.
2. Add something. Instead of (or in addition to) taking something away from your life, add something to it.
   • Spend 5 minutes a day on a family devotional like Jesus Today for Kids. Each page is a short letter written from Jesus straight to your kids’ hearts, and it would be great for a breakfast reading.
   • Commit to praying for 5 solid minutes every morning after your alarm goes off.
   • Try Bible journalling and do it every Saturday during Lent.
   • Download the free Family Lent Devotional from my friend Jess at Gather & Grow. It contains a weekly devotional to do with the kids. I think dinner on Sundays would be a great time for these.
3. Go meatless. Traditional Lent observance includes abstaining from meat on Fridays, eating fish or entirely vegetarian meals instead. You could easily work this into your normal menu rotation by offering grilled cheese and tomato soup, mac and cheese, quesadillas, rice and beans, or some other meatless option.
4. Look for the good. Another gem from Lacey at Catholic Icing is the Sacrifice Beans family activity. It is super simple and not at all Catholic-specific. I’m going to get some big beans at Walmart this week so we can start March 1.
5. Read the Bible. Read the scripture in Matthew 4 where Jesus went into the wilderness and talk to your kids about fasting. Practice fasting by eating lunch one or two hours later that usual – or skip lunch all together if you think they can handle that.
6. Do an offering jar. As a family, place all your spare change in the jar for the entire season of Lent, and let your kids put it in the offering plate on Easter Sunday.
7. Light candles. I love the Advent wreath tradition at Christmas time, and I am loving Lacey’s Lenten cross candles, too. We are setting this up for Ash Wednesday at our house.
8. Celebrate the Passover. Jesus celebrated Passover in what we now call The Last Supper. You can pretty easily put together a very similar meal for your whole family for the week before Easter.
9. Hour of silence. If you can do nothing else, I promise you can handle this one. Jesus died at 3pm on Good Friday, so turn out all the lights and observe an hour of silence from 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Talk to your kids beforehand about the importance of respecting His death.
10. Screen fast. Pick one day out of each week that you’re going to fast from screens – TV, phones, computers, video games, all of it. It will be hard, but you might find yourself connecting with your family in a whole new way!

See you on Sunday!

Best,

Brittany V. Hudson