Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season, a Holy Day of Obligation for us Catholics, a time of self sacrifice in preparation for Easter - the highest of Christian holidays!

Ash Wednesday is most known for the crosses we bear on our foreheads for the day, made from the palms of the previous year's Palm Sunday. Part of what many practicing Christians do during Lent is to give up something - not something that is easy to give up, but something that is a sacrifice, that will be noticed during their daily routine. The point is to somehow, on some minuscule level, align ourselves with Christ's sufferings, with the ultimate sacrifice that he made for us. With that in mind, our Lenten sacrifices seem rather trivial, but when done in the right spirit, they meet their objective of sacrifice for Christ. With that spirit in mind, I have decided to give up diet coke (and yes, also the far inferior substitute diet pepsi) for Lent. Once your gasps have died down and you are no longer numb from the shock, I think you will agree that although this seems trivial, it will indeed be a sacrifice for me - and one that the rest of my family may suffer through with me for 40 days, you see I am .....

Sadly, it is true, I am a diet coke addict. There, I said it. Step one, admitted we were powerless over diet coke... I truly love it, crave it, look forward to the first cold, refreshing sip of the day. It's great stuff!!! It doesn't matter the form, although I prefer the can, then the bottle, the fountain - I know, lots of people prefer the fountain version of their favorite poison, but I am not among them

Farewell my beloved diet coke, I hope that the next 40+ days will fade my memory of you and separate us for good.

really it's more like 6:45!!

I love this group that I found, once again through Sarah Mae at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee!  Sarah Mae is so inspiring in so many ways and this 5:16 group is a real challenge for me - I was relieved that she made sure to let us all know that we didn't actually have to be up then, just that we needed to to cut out some time to just spend with God at the beginning of our day.  I have know several women throughout the years that are able to get up before everyone else in their household and dedicate some time to reading and prayer - I am NOT a morning person, as I have stated multiple times - so I prefer to do this after everyone is out of the house and I have a better chance of not being interrupted.  On tuesday mornings I am often either at my rosary group or at a moms' group at church, so I always get a little extra on those days, but I know that my day is better if I give some time to God before I really get to my running around!  Sometimes I say my rosary in the shower or the car to squeeze in a little extra time during the day, but I know I am at my best when I am alone and even better when I make it to the perpetual adoration chapel at church!  As lent begins to wind to a close over the next week or so, I am more and more grateful for my faith and the strength that it gives me through Him!!

so, how's Lent going folks?

So, how is it going?  I must say that over the years, I have tried a variety of things for my Lenten sacrifice.  Yes, one year I even gave up chocolate - WHAT was I thinking?  That's like giving up oxygen!  40 days without chocolate?  Surely God doesn't really want me to make those kind of sacrifices, does he?  For the second year, our family has chosen to do TOM and GUS jars (did I mention this in my Ash Wednesday post?  if so, I apologize).  Take On More and Give Up Something, thus TOM and GUS!  Each jar has 40 slips of paper with a variety of appropriate options in them and we draw a new one out of each jar at night for the next day, for example, yesterday we gave up tv and we are to read a story (not a passage, a story that the kids can follow) out of the Bible.  Other TOM things have included "tell each person in the family one reason why you love them", "do an extra chore", "do a decade of the rosary", "call your Godmother/Godfather"... you get the idea!  

The GUS jar includes things like: "bedtime music" (my kids all fall asleep to music or a book on cd, so it's a true sacrifice), "pleasure reading" (the kids freaked out with this one, they all love to read, but they also all have free reading time at school and were afraid of getting in trouble - there is now a caveat the these things don't interfere with school or work!!), "computer" (again, hubby can use his computer at work and I can do my photography stuff, but no fun time on the computer!).  Anyway, you can imagine that none of us are excited about the GUS jar, but it's part of it, and it's just one day at a time - even though most things are in the jar more than once, we do have a rule that we don't do anything two days in a row - gotta mix things up!!

Anyway, the whole point of this tangent was that one day last week we had to give up chocolate (just for ONE day) and everyone but hubby was in a tizzy!!  Men just don't get it!  Chocolate is a food group for us women - all females of all ages actually!  Little G is as bad as me when it comes to chocolate - maybe even worse!  It is not beyond her to ask for chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, or a candy bar - she can't help herself really!  Anyway, that morning she is beside herself!  Big S, being the smarty pants in the house, wants to know if "chocolate flavored" counts!  I admire her tenacity and creativity!  Way to think outside the box honey!  Hubby immediately says "of course chocolate flavored stuff is ok!"  She of course didn't take his word for it - he's a man and she innately knows he doesn't have the same relationship with chocolate!  So, she calls upstairs to me and says "mom, if this has cocoa in it can I have it?" to which I reply that chocolate is made from cocoa and so, no.  Hubby later explained to me that he thought chocolate meant just chocolate candy bars, silly man!  I had to explain that a woman's need for chocolate can me met in many other ways than just a chocolate bar - ice cream, milk, cookies to name a few.  He got it intellectually, but he didn't REALLY get it - he probably won't poor thing.  Perhaps men are lucky that they aren't under the thumb of chocolate.  That of course means that they don't derive the same joy from it that we do, so I guess I'll take the agony in order to be able to experience the joy - isn't it often that way in life??

Ash Wednesday

Go Get your ashes everyone!!!  Hope you had a fabulous Fat Tuesday yesterday cuz the season of Lent is upon us now!!

 

Have you thought about what you are going to do for Lent this year?  We talked to our  PRE class about the GUS and TOM method. Give Up Something and Take On More.  My family has decided to pick a different GUS and TOM for each of the 40 days during Lent.  We have 40 slips of paper in the GUS jar and 40 in the TOM jar and ever night at dinner we will draw a GUS and TOM for the next day.  All 5 of us will do those 2 things for the entire next day - give up tv, give up computer (say it isn't so!), pray a decade of the rosary, tell everyone else in the family one reason shy you love them...  The lists are endless, just give up something that is a sacrifice, an effort for you and take on something good that will help you keep your focus on God and the reason for the season of Lent!!  Share with me some of the things that you and your family do during Lent - it's a long season and there is a lot to share I am certain!!!