Lenten plans

Here are our 2012 Lenten plans.
Since my little guy really enjoyed the Jesse Tree this Advent, I made us a Jesus Tree for Lent. The tree is from our local Dollar Tree, in the Easter section. I have a jewelry tree for our Jesse Tree, but I wanted something I could also take into Religious Education without concern about it getting damaged. For our Jesus Tree I used the ornaments found on http://stbrigidsacademy.blogspot.com/2011/03/jesus-tree.html. Thank you Melissa! I used the black and white images and watercolored them, hung with ribbon according to litergical colors of purple, red or white, and laminated them to last. I found it best to use a lot of clear scrapbooking tape to stick the two images together as the painting onto cardstock makes for a less than smooth sticking surface. That's also the reason for the larger than I'd like edging as the clear stickiness doesn't want to stay stuck together near the edge. Maybe Modge Podge would've been a better choice? Oh well, lent isn't about perfection right?!

Here's our lenten prayer table. Instead of a bean sacrifice jar, I found some purple plastic hearts (table scatter) at Target on clearance. The purple straw bucket and purple felt bin are from Target as well. I set out the plain cross from Michael's to represent the crosses we bear. My son last night picked up the cross and said "I could be a priest!" with a big smile on his face. We shall see, but his enthusiasm was a wonderful gift. He's equally excited to paint it with bright colors for Eastertide. (This idea also came from Melissa at http://stbrigidsacademy.blogspot.com/2010/03/crosses-we-bear.html.)

We are also participating in the Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure at www.holyheroes.com . This is our first year and so far it's a hit! We are using the Lenten calendar found at http://hfclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/2011/02/approaching-lent-and-preparing.html for the cover of his Lenten activity folder for all the printables from Holy Heroes and others we may find along the way.
Our Lenten wreath on the front door...

Happy Lent! For more wonderful ideas go to www.catholicicing.com for her Lenten Linkup!