Lenten Almsgiving Calendar

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the threefold commandments for Lent.  I don't know about you, but for me, the easiest one of these to over look is almsgiving.  Obviously, we're fasting, and there sure are a lot of services to remind me to pray.  I may even be fasting from certain forms of entertainment, hoping to use the ingrained pull to do these things to remind me instead to pray.  But giving alms?  Unless I plan a way to fit this into our Lenten journey, it tends to get overlooked.

From a recent visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago.

We Antiochians are provided with little boxes to collect money during this period.  One thing I did last year was to try to remember to get "cash back" at the grocery store when I was buying the week's groceries.  I'd estimate how much we were saving by not buying meat (or at least, not as much—I was pregnant last year!) and put that cash into our box on our table.  It seemed easier to do that than to write a check at the end of Lent.  The kids also got a kick out of searching the house for loose change to drop in the slot.

What do you think this plant with the strange long thing hanging off of it is called?

This year, I printed out a Lenten Giving Calendar from the Food for Hungry People site.  It has a different suggestion each day for collecting funds to give to the poor during this season (the dates seem to be from last year—I just crossed them out and replaced them with the correct ones).  I know my girls will get into this.  They already love using our Magnetic Lenten Calendar to mark the days of the Fast, and adding another little Lenten activity to our days is a simple way to make this time of preparation stand out to them as different from the rest of the year.

Laila over at Like Mother Like Daughter suggested recently, "Instead of setting out to teach your children about Lent, just try living Lent."  I think this fits the bill nicely.

Can you read that?  It says "Sausage Tree."  If sausage grows on trees, I think that makes it suitable for Lent, don't you?