Well, heading deep into week three of the Great No-TV-For-Lent, Gotta-Read-Five-Hours-A-Week-Or-No-Pizza-Party Experiment. While I've yet to get them to embrace fully my "five different types of books each week" idea, the basic plan itself does seem to be working.
Even for Craig and me. Which, the more I think of it, is really something because we have more control over our choices than our children have over theirs. But when Valentine's Day yesterday went to H-E-double hockey sticks in the proverbial handbasket yesterday ... we sat and talked. Till almost midnight. It's been a while since we'd done that. And at the end, just before he kissed me goodnight, Craig said to me, "You know, we hardly ever talk like this when the TV is on."
Hmmm... maybe my dad was on to something when he pitched our television set out the bedroom window when I was in first grade. (Not quite there yet. Sorry.)
Christopher is a "Stars Fanatic" now, though. Tonight on the way home from his piano lesson, he wanted to know if he could have a star sticker (which I've been giving for 30 minutes of reading) because he did well on his piano lesson. I about choked.
"Christopher," I said very seriously. "Those lessons are our gift to you, and you are very very blessed to be able to take lessons from someone as gifted as Mrs. Thoene. You should be giving ME a star for these lessons!"
That shut him up. Seriously, I was looking around the teacher's house tonight. In her living room she has a pipe organ, harpsicord, clavicord, and upright piano. Yes, that's right ... all in one room. And she charges the same as my parents paid thirty years ago for my lessons, which were done on a little Hammond electronic.
You know how you always want to give your kids what you didn't have? Jackpot.
It's not so bad, though. I still can sing every verse of nearly every hymn in my "Great Hymns of the Faith" by heart. And I was the only junior high (7th grade) student who had a regular organist/choir director gig at the local Lutheran church.
How is YOUR Lent going so far?
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Soccer Dad and I are fasting every Friday, which was tougher last week because we'd just fasted on Wednesday, too. But this week was easier (at least for me). And the girls are fine without TV for the most part. We watch the news when we need to catch up on election news (and we know it's on), and Sundays we watch one family movie together. (I'm writing about those briefly on Domestic Vocation.)
Instead of TV, though, we've had a renewed interest in the doll house, more reading than ever (Big Girl read Martin the Warrior from the Redwall series in two days flat), and more imagination playing. (They were Jedi one afternoon, colonial girls another, etc.)
Of course, last week (Thurs to Thurs) was when Neilson decided to see what we watched! LOL! Soccer Dad and I do watch some TV after the girls are in bed, but not much. So our books were nearly empty. ;)
It sounds wacked to say "my Lent is going GREAT!" but it is. Seriously. Not bragging. Just sayin.
Two heavy-duty reads (Sister Faustina and Mother Teresa, with some encyclical (Gospel of Life) for icing) and some heavy-duty prayer (Evening Prayer is really, seriously CHANGING MY LIFE!) and some fasting from (choke) McDonald's (money goes into Rice Bowl when I have a day when I would have otherwise gone to McD's). So, there you have it.
I wonder if Murphy's Law plays into things...so now that I've said it "out loud" that it's going great, will it turn south? :)
Hi Heidi,
Thanks for writing in the CE Digest. I love your articles. I would have to say my Lent is going great! I am a Catholic singer-songwriter and have many apearances and concerts during these 40 Days of Lent, which keep me focused on reflection. I have also given up wine and other types of 'spirits', which is a big challenge for me--since I love a glass of wine with dinner. It is working though--just the way it should. Everyime I miss the glass on my table, I am reminded of the sacrifices Our Lord endured for us. Enough said...
In peace,
Nancy Krebs <><
www.nancykrebs.com
i had attempted to give up *all* alcohol for Lent. then our studio roof leaked and rain fell all over everything in there, my mother's (who i care for at home) medications went off and she hallucinated a war on our front lawn and mistook me for a cigarette machine, police showed up at my door thinking i was running some kind of credit card scam because her incessant HSN and QVC purchases were mistakenly being delivered all over the neighborhood... and, finally, my beloved older sister passed away.
at her wake last week i downed martini after martini, God forgive me.
my Lent is pretty much sucking.
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