Lent

 This Lent the kids are enjoying an old favorite, the crown of thorns.

We always give up desserts since it seems wrong to be eating candy or cake during a time of sacrifice and prayer.  As a family, we are trying to say the Morning Offering in the mornings and go to daily Mass at least once a week.  These have been harder than I thought since Judah has had a tough month for sleeping which is just now starting to improve.

The girls also packed up about half of their toys in their rooms to put away for Lent.  Hannah is trying to replace her "mean" or "mad" faces with smiles.  Genevieve is trying not to cry about schoolwork.  I gave up yelling, to which Genna said, "But Mom, you don't really yell."  Then she followed that up by, "Well, except when you are trying to talk over all the noise."  Bingo!  I am so not a natural yeller.  I don't like loud noises, so why would I make them, right?  Well, when it gets overwhelmingly loud, I totally yell over the noise to make it stop immediately.  This makes me feel more frustrated inside, so it is not a good plan.  I would rather learn to cope with the noise that 5 kids make sometimes in a different quieter way.   After having a baby, I am much less likely to tolerate loud noise.  So this has been a good practice in self-control for me.