Ways to Celebrate Lent

Yep, I’m one of those Crazy Roman Catholics (we call ourselves “RCs” in house; my aunt lovingly calls us “fish eaters”). I became Catholic in 1999, AFTER getting married. I went through the conversion process (9 months) and then decided I wasn’t ready; didn’t want to convert JUST because I was marrying a Catholic. I went through the process again and decided I was ready.

I get asked about how we celebrate Lent a lot, so here’s just one example.

I got an e-mail from Scooter’s Coffeehouse (there’s one right up the street where, like at Cheers, everybody knows my name). During March they have an offer where you get a Coffee Passport and sample 7 different coffees within a month from 7 different countries. Then you get a $10 gift card. Basically I’d need to spend about $35 (including tip) to get $10. Normally I’d jump at this, but during Lent I’m rethinking some things.

I decided to instead take that $35 I almost blew and put it into our Rice Bowl (a little cardboard bowl you pick up at church before Lent starts).

From the bottom of the Rice Bowl: “75% of your gifts to Operation Rice Bowl come to Catholic Relief Services to fund development projects overseas and Lenten education efforts in the U.S. 25% remains in dioceses in the U.S. to support local hunger and poverty alleviation.”

Not a major sacrifice, I know, but big for me. In keeping with the idea of helping the hungry, I could also go down to Harvester’s and help pack up food (would they let me in with a nursing sling baby?).

I welcome more ideas of how to help the hungry in more hands-on ways while keeping at least a couple of the kids with me so they can also help and learn. Leave me some info in the Comments section, please!

Messy Homeschool Bookshelf AFTER Picture

Okay, fine. Here’s the AFTER picture of my messy bookshelf. And no, smarty pants, I didn’t just move everything out of view of the camera! Here’s what I did, because I bet you have a messy bookshelf, too, especially if you homeschool:

1. I got rid of some workbooks or stored them in a homeschool tub in the basement.

2. I put the dictionary, thesaurus and writing books on my desk shelf instead.

3. I put the scrapbooking projects in my bedroom closet until I can devote a chunk of time to them.

4. I called my mother-in-law to see if she has any coloring books at her house for grandkids who come over. She actually needed some!

5. I put the tin of games in our hall closet with other games.

6. I could only part with 2 books, but moved a few to another bookshelf that had some room on it.

7. I realized some of the stuff belonged solely to the boys (Pokemon books, Zoobooks magazines) and put them on a shelf in the boys’ closet.

8. I put the worksheets I’d been storing in file folders on the bookshelf into the file cabinet (had to clear space out of that first, of course).

9. I put things I want to work on with the kids into their respective homeschool baskets and set a goal to teach those things before the end of the school year.

10. The magazines now live in my overflowing writing drawer (a project for another day).

11. The Christmas folder got moved to my computer desk since I do need it from time to time to jot down ideas for people.

I was even able to add their art kits and a box of Legos. Ah, my bookshelf can BREATHE now! And I don’t feel so overwhelmed. Now, on to the project of getting new pictures printed for those frames on the top shelf …

Sexual Compulsion as DISEASE???

Okay, so we’ve established that alcoholism is possibly a disease. So how about sexual compulsion? Is it some chemical problem in the brain or just bad behavior? Or a bad habit? Or what? I mean, overeating is a big problem, too. But I have to have food. If I stop food altogether, I will die. But if I never have sex again I will be fine. If a guy never has sex again (even with himself), he will not blow up.

Can’t wait for the opinions on this one.

By the way, there is a great program called Covenant Eyes that you can load onto your computers for accountability for someone who may have a problem with Internet porn. They have an accountability partner who sees their Internet report for the week (the sites they've gone to, what time of day, etc.). For the family members who don't have a porn problem, they just have a different login and no accountability partner.

Life Skills Versus Cursive/State Capitals

If you’re a teacher reading this, take your laptop to the toilet or put on a diaper because you’re going to crap your pants.

I think life skills are more useful to teach than cursive or state capitals.

When I went to Richie Rich Elementary School (aka Westwood View) in 6th grade there was this ONE day where we got to do some cool elective. Somehow I got into this class where they were making crepes. It was awesome to get out of the normal doldrums of class AND to make something I live for: food.

So on the Homeschool Grid for my boys, I’m crossing off Handwriting and changing that set of boxes to Life Skills. They have handwriting down pat and practice it daily in their workbooks. They play around with cursive when they feel like it. State capitals will come, but won’t be drilled into their heads so they forget as soon as summer comes.

Joel already knows how to make a microwave egg, omelets and toast, how to clean a bathroom and vacuum, how to work the VCR and DVD players. In the future we’ll do budgeting, checkbook balancing, oil changing in the van, gardening and staying out of debt.

And I’m not being judgmental of parents of kids in school here … we all know they (and the kids) are too wiped out by the end of the day (and THEN have to struggle with stupid homework … don’t get me started) to even contemplate teaching life skills.

God bless ‘em, somehow my parents taught me how to balance a checkbook, pay my own car insurance and tickets and buy 2 cars of my own before I was 18. Of course, I was an Only Child, which is a whole ‘nother story.

Can you think of some Life Skills kids that are not being taught before kids graduate into the real world?

Messy Homeschool Bookshelves

Does this bookshelf look messy to you? If so, does the excuse count that I have 5 kids? How about the excuse that I homeschool?

Yeah, you’re probably right … I need to get rid of some stuff. I mean, how many of those workbooks do we really even use? Real-life experience is so much better at teaching sometimes anyway. And how many of those books do we read over and over again? How many of them could we just get at the library if we were dying to read them? And how many coloring books does a kid need (I’ve already given away a bunch)?

What are those baskets on the middle shelf, you ask? They are Michael and Joel’s homeschooling baskets. They hold their workbooks, projects, books they’re reading, stuff they don’t want their sister to get into. Yeah, I don’t know how I’m going to someday fit FIVE baskets on those shelves, but I think it’s a good problem to have.

That tub is full of rubber stamps and markers … more stuff we don’t want The Littles to get into.

On top is my fault … my attempts to catch up on baby books and scrapbooking. Oh, and a container of magazines.

That blue folder laying down under the tub is my Christmas stuff: catalogs, ideas for the kids, Christmas letters, budgets, etc.

It’s dangerous. The other day I reached for something and a bunch of stuff fell and almost bonked Sam on the head.