Take today for example. I was craving brownies. Joel-Michael and I had already decided to get ice cream for this evening to celebrate. So I thought, ice cream AND brownies? Why the heck not! Hence I now have an entire pan of brownies that I have to exercise self-control over so I do not eat the entire pan ALONE. Poor Mickey. He may never even know I made the brownies...other than the lingering smell in the apartment. I suppose that might give it away.....
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| These are not actually the ones I made, but I'm too lazy to take a picture :P |
But continuing onto what comes after Fat Tuesday - LENT. As many of you know from reading my previous blogs or simply from talking to me, I have never liked Lent. I'm not really sure that anyone particularly loves it, but some people seem to hate it less than me. Okay okay, hating Lent is not ideal and it really has gotten better for me over the past several years, but that doesn't mean I'm at the point of totally appreciating it. But I'm working on it.
I still have no idea what I am actually doing for Lent. haha maybe this year I should figure out a plan for next year so I'll actually be ready on time! Needless to say, I am always a little behind on the whole "give something up" or "do something extra" thing. Like Ash Wednesday comes and I say to myself, "hmm, maybe I should pick something to do!" But don't worry; I should have a plan of some sort in place by Sunday....hopefully anyways :P
My sister-in-law, who coincidentally happens to have the same name as me - and I mean the EXACT same name - had a great suggestion for Lent. (side note, we had different last names until I got married but now they're legally the exact same....guess Marie was a popular middle name to go with Bernadette at the time ;) But we have lots of fun with it.)
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| Because I know you wanted to see a picture of us together :) |
Anyway, back to her suggestion. One year for Lent, she chose a different thing for each day of the week. For example, no coffee on Mondays, scripture reading on tuesdays, daily mass on Wednesdays, no dessert on Thursdays, etc. You get the idea. I thought it was a great idea because sometimes the idea of giving up dessert or coffee or facebook for ALL of Lent can be overwhelming; not to mention the fact that saying you'll read a chapter in the Bible every day along with journaling can be downright unrealistic. I'm not trying to be wimpy, just practical. I would rather strive for something realistic that I can achieve and feel proud of by the end of Lent rather than something that will leave me beating myself up and/or complaining constantly.
That being said, I am going to try to brainstorm some ideas of what I would like to do/how I will implement this for myself. She also shared a really great link with 100 ideas of what to do for Lent that was really helpful for trying to come up with ideas.
If you're like me, don't stress. Lent will start tomorrow whether you're ready or not, but it's really okay if you still need a few days to really figure out what you're supposed to do during it. Until then, Brownies and Ice Cream, here I come! (.....I may try exercising for Lent to redeem myself from this splurge lol)
~Bernadette
