Mardi Gras

I'm making King Cakes for Mardi Gras today.  Have you ever had a King Cake?  Have you ever made your own King Cake?  They are easy to make.  One of my favorite recipes is from King Arthur Flour.  King Cake Recipe  Play around with the fillings and find one you like.  My husband's favorite is traditional King Cake, while my kids love lemon and regular.  

Lent starts tomorrow and we've been discussing what we will be doing.  We will pray together as a family and each one will try to make some sort of Lenten sacrifice.  The boys already have our rice bowls on the table, ready for the season. I promised a friend that I would diet with her over Lent.  Here's hoping that doing it for Jesus gives me more will power.  I enjoy cooking and I like food! 

I also try to be better about my daily spiritual reading during Lent, too.  I try to read every day, but sometimes, I forget or don't make the time. Lent is always a good time to get back into better habits. At a retreat many years ago, a priest told me that he never gave anything up for Lent, instead he worked on a virtue that he wanted to have by the end of the Lenten Season.  He said this way, you are sacrificing by working on a good habit and gain a virtue for Jesus at the end!

I'd love to hear what other families do during Lent. In fact, I'm setting up my first ever blog giveaway because of this!  (That will be my next post!) The prize is a set of stamps called Teacher's Aid. Perfect for the classroom and a set that I used when my boys were growing up!  I'm going to give you a chance to tell me what Lenten traditions you have in your family & each person who comments gets a chance to win the stamp set!