We’re eager to share a 2^nd-week-of-Lent gamechanger, but before we do, it’s over to you—our weekly Heaven in Your Home Letters subscribers—on your own discoveries this Lent. 
 
While touching base the other day with some friends who have three kids ages six and under, we heard something that we can all probably relate to. 
 
“It hasn’t exactly gone to plan,” this dad said, sharing that he and his wife felt far from their family’s initial Lenten plan. Other followers of the Letters also opened up and shared the following ideas:   

• “Our older children (high school and middle school) are giving up sweets for Lent and the kids are helping keep us accountable in our Lenten sacrifices as well. Every day we read a page from Bringing Home Lent with Mother Teresa before school, which is a great way to give kids and families ideas of how to pray, fast and give on a daily basis!”
• “Each year, as our family’s primary focus, we choose an area where we need to grow in charitable communication. Last year it was having a more “respectful tone,” and this year we are attempting to support one another in genuinely seeking and extending forgiveness more quickly.”
• “We’re going for walks in our neighborhood while praying a decade of the Rosary with our kids.”
• “Our family made a crown of thorns out of toothpicks. You remove a toothpick each time you are successful in fulfilling your Lenten promise. It was well-received by our kids, because who doesn’t want to remove thorns from Jesus’ crown?”

Speaking of high aspirations and an altogether different reality…  In the third week of the month, we turn with you to Level 3—Household Economy—of your Trinity House. This is where we all spend a huge majority of our time, working, learning, cleaning, cooking, paying bills, helping our kids with homework, doing laundry…the list is endless. And like our friends with young kids, we’ve probably all proposed big things for our household economies in Lent, only to find that things aren’t going “exactly to plan.”
 
This brings us to the 2^nd-week-of-Lent gamechanger, courtesy of Father Michael (“Mick”) Kelly at our parish in Leesburg, Va. In his homily this past Sunday, he shared three insights about Lenten fasting that we suggest are directly applicable to your household economy:   

• “Do it for somebody else, not for yourself.” You can even think to yourself, “I don’t want to do this, but I’m doing it for you.”  
• “Lent is all about love. We’re not just white-knuckling it through. These are acts of love for Jesus.” 
• “Ask for the grace. Ask for help.”  

There it is in three words: Others. Love. Grace.

Or as Ever’s mom always says, “Offer it up!” (Here’s our post on her wisdom.) If we’re spending so much time on tasks in our household economy, shouldn’t we attempt to get something good out of it besides just a clean kitchen or nicely folded stack of laundry? Too often, we lose valuable opportunities to invest these jobs with love, prayer, and intentionality. Instead, we just white-knuckle through it, with little if any discernible growth in our lifelong calling of gift-of-self.
 
Taking this “other-love-grace” approach to a more practical level in our daily housework, can we offer up a new task for another? Can we seek to infuse the task with more love? And can we beg for the grace we so desperately need? Whenever we offer up a little task like cleaning the kitchen or doing the laundry, we can do so for a specific:  

• Person (e.g., spouse, child, sick parent, unemployed friend)
• Situation (e.g., peace in Ukraine)
• Intention (e.g., forgiveness in our home, our children’s growth in a specific virtue such as courage, piety, or modesty) 

Wherever you find yourself in this second week of Lent—whether you’re on track or things haven’t gone exactly to plan—be encouraged! It’s not too late to reinfuse our Lenten disciplines with a focus on others, love, and grace. It’s never too late to refocus, to ask the Lord for his grace and help, and offer up that next load of laundry for a loved one.

As St. Therese of Lisieux wrote: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest [sacrifice] right and doing it all for love.” Or as Mother Teresa put it, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

May God bless this sacred season of Lent, drawing us ever closer to himself through our small sacrifices, smiling looks, and kindly words!