Ash Wednesday

As in my previous Advent posts, our family is trying to live more intentionally through the spiritual significance of the liturgical calendar.  So bring on the pretzels!    

They are actually a physical representation of hands/arms folded in prayer and we are trying to be more prayerful as a family through the Lenten season.  Here is the recipe that I used, except that I substituted sprouted spelt flour for the regular stuff.  What can I say?  I'm a whole grain girl.  And, yes, Luke still liked them.  A lot.  I had to cut him off after he had two of his own and asked both kids if they were going to finish their's.  

I served them with a beer cheese fondue and veggies and apples for dipping.  The pretzel recipe was not as easy as the blogger suggested (are they ever?), but I would definitely make them again.  It was actually fun to dunk them in the boiling water and watch them rise to the top.  And I'm convinced that the egg yolk and salt coating is what makes them taste like a true pretzel.  

Then Luke put ashes on our foreheads in the sign of a cross and we read Daniel 9:3-5 as a Biblical example of ashes used in prayer.  They are to be a reminder of Christ's death and a visual representation of repentance and confession of sins.  I'm not sure how much the kids actually get, but we had a sweet time of prayer where they both said sorry to God about something they had done that day that was not pleasing to Him and then thanked Him for his forgiveness.  I think this is going to be a special time for our family.  More to come!