Here in central Ohio, the phrase "in like a lion, out like a lamb" is always at least halfway true for March. This year, it's the lion part.

It's cold and Daylight Savings is coming soon. We're all stir-crazy from February, but we're not quite inclined to go outside too much. Did I mention that we're tired too?

The experienced mom in me knows there's a bout of some sort of sickness hovering on the horizon: 'tis the season, after all. I also know that I won't be able to stop it or control it.

With that in mind, I bring you my list of five fun things to do with your family in March, whether you're stuck in bed, sick of laundry, starving for fresh air, or just plain bored.

Saintly Seek-n-Find

My oldest daughter is preparing for her First Communion this spring, and suddenly she has an interest in everything to do with the saints. Out of nowhere, she'll ask me if there's a patron of trucks, for example, or meatloaf.

Here are some ways I'll be getting mileage out of this idea of a saintly seek-n-find with my gang:

Find out fun facts about five different saints and task each member with figuring out who it is. Be sure to outline what resources are fair to use (i.e., the internet, saints apps, books around the house, calling Grandma, etc.). Hide holy cards around the house. Whoever finds the most gets to hide them for the next round. But before you move on to the next round, everyone has to pick one of the ones they found and share about the saint.

Act Out a Bible Story

You really don't need to look farther than the Gospels during Lent, because this year they're full of color and stories. But you can always rely on the active fights from the Maccabees, the heroic princess in Esther, and the fun of David and Goliath.

A few ways to consider this:

• Dress up and have a full-blown production.
• Dress up and have actors portray the event while someone else tells the story.
• Play a charades-like game where half the family acts out the story while the other half guesses what Bible story is being portrayed.

Living Stations of the Cross

This could be a way to make after-dinner devotions a bit more interactive or a way to make attending Stations of the Cross at your parish this Lent more interesting for your children. They'll learn what the stations are and hopefully be more invested in the Passion of Christ after participating in this at home with you.

• Option 1: Adults act, children narrate
• Option 2: Children act, adults narrate

An Outside Scavenger Hunt

We are bound to have a few good days (or more!) this month, and getting outside doesn't have to just include running around crazy (though it will, indeed, include a lot of that!). How about taking elements of faith and tying them in to the transformation happening in the world around you?

Some clues and themes I'll be using when I get the chance:

• Resurrection: What 3 new things do you see? Where is there something that wasn't there last time we were outside? What's the greenest/brownest/dirtiest thing you can find? 
• Liturgical Year: Find 4 green/purple/white/gold/red things. What's going to change colors as it grows and the seasons continue?

Cook a Meal

Though I'm not as much a fan of cooking as so many other wives and moms I know, I notice that my children love to help and be part of it. So often, sharing a meal is a way to reach out to the lonely in our lives, so I'll be considering engaging my family in cooking a meal and taking it a step farther:

Share it with someone who lives alone. Some would be more comfortable coming INTO my chaos (as opposed to me inserting my crazy crew into their silent cove), so I'll need to reach out and invite.

Deliver it to someone who will appreciate it. New moms and homebound come to mind, but I've found that, when I make certain casseroles that can be easily doubled, nearly anyone appreciates hearing that I'll be coming over with dinner on Thursday.

Garnish it with love. We eat a lot with my mother-in-law, and she loves it. What if, instead of just eating there or helping with the meal, we made it fancy and inserted some kid bling: pictures and placemats and homemade decorations? I'm sure she would love it, and my budding artists will be eager to participate!

Lent doesn't have to be hard.

Or that's what I like to think.

Why, then, do I feel so overwhelmed when I'm faced with all the ideas out there? Why do I catch myself hiding from the inevitability of sharing Lent with my family?

My oldest makes her First Communion this year, and her First Communion is the weekend right after Easter. This Lent, then, presents a great opportunity for all of us.

Here's how I plan to approach the three pillars of Lent with my family:

Fasting

From a Favorite Food:

Maybe it's shallow, but Lent, for me, means fasting from some favorite food. This year, I'm going to involve my children in this aspect of Lent, because I think at least two of them are old enough to experience this. There's something in the privation and in turning the desire for that favorite food into a desire for God that speaks to me every single year.

From Something Negative:

Sometimes this is more difficult. We'll talk about whether we should fast from arguing or loud voices or maybe even TV during the evenings.

Prayer

With the Saints:

My oldest daughter, age 8, has a fascination with the saints. I'd like to tap into that, using some of my favorite resources. We'll watch Saints for Kids (probably many times) and look through some of the books we have. Maybe she'll be interested in reading the book on Elizabeth Ann Seton, her patron, or one of the other chapter books we have on our shelves.

Before Bedtime:

Just recently, my girls have had in interest in praying for others. I'd like to up the ante slightly and perhaps turn our bedtime prayers into an entire decade of the rosary. (And if I can do it, rest assured that you can, too!) 

Almsgiving

Rice Bowl:

CRS Rice Bowl has been a staple in my Lenten journeys since my first Catholic Lent in 2001. I've always found a way to channel my "extra money" (which I never seem to have any other time of the year) into the nifty little cardboard box. We'll work together as a family to fill ours with change and bills so that we can support the important work Catholic Relief Services is doing.

Sharing from Our Hearts:

What can my family do to give to those in need? I'm going to focus specifically on the works of mercy and tailoring them to the ages of my older two children (5 and 8). I want to do one thing each week of Lent, and some of the ideas I'll be proposing to my children are: cards for the homebound or sick, visits to nursing homes, baking treats for new moms, and donating favorite foods from our cupboards for the food pantry.

As I write this, we're still in the midst of Christmas fun, but I know what's going to happen.

We'll clean up the decorations on or slightly before Epiphany. We'll put the new stuff away and maybe (if I'm lucky) sort through some of the old stuff.

And then the snow on the ground outside (almost a foot!) will lose its luster. We'll go back to our routines, sludging through the cold and muddling through our days.

It will be like nothing ever happened.

Except it did. It DID!

A King came to us, and he stays with us. As we linger in this little bit of Ordinary Time, getting our liturgical bearings in place before Lent swoops in, I think we'll lay low and snuggle together. Here are three ideas I'm going to implement in my own family this month:

Family movie night

We tried this over Christmas break, and though my husband and I were underwhelmed with the movie choice, the kids were thrilled. Not only were we all watching the same thing (no reading for Mom, no playing for the kids), we were also snuggled together during the movie.

I'll admit that I will be trying to pick a movie with a theme that helps us grow in our faith, but shhh! Don't tell them that!

Suggestions my family enjoys:

• The Greatest Miracle 
• The Mighty Macs 
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 

Works of Mercy in action

Our parish's religious education program has been focusing on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Since I'm both a catechist and a parent of a student, I get to see this from a few different angles. I think January will be a prime time to put a few of these in action (we'll pick two, I think) in an intentional and conscious way.

Ideas for ways we'll do this:

Visiting - We have a number of lonely and elderly in our family and our community, and my crew loves to bring love in the form of baked goods and/or homemade cards.

Clothe the Naked - I'm not sure when the cycle of outgrowing clothes will end, but involving at least my oldest in sorting through the piles of clothes that don't fit and then delivering them to the appropriate collection points seems almost too easy to count for much. But it does.

Feed the Hungry - Whether it's going through our cupboards and picking what we'll share or allocating extra funds while we're shopping for groceries (or, even better, some combination of the two), the need is greater than ever this year in our area.

Dinner on fancy dishes

Sounds almost too simple, doesn't it? Insert what we call "kid wine" (sparkling grape juice) in glasses and it really doesn't matter if it's just microwaved chicken nuggets.

Even if you're only sitting in the same place for a few minutes (given the chaos that comes with both schedules and the younger, demanding crowd), incorporate conversation. Your fancy dishes may not be better for the wear of use, but your family will.

A few conversation starters:

• What would make winter perfect? How would you spend that perfect winter? 
• Best part / worst part - take turns going around the table sharing the best part and worst part of your days.  
• Read the day's Gospel. What does it mean for us? If you were going to draw something about it, what would you draw?