I’m very sleepy today. Maybe I should be napping right now. The baby is napping and the big boys are playing Lego Batman on the Xbox. I went to bed rather late, though I intended to go to bed early — one of those nights where I kept thinking of other things I should do before hitting the hay. Then I got up early to make it to the 7:30 service at church. I usually go to the noon service on Ash Wednesday, but since it falls during the kids’ vacation this year (and since it’s a difficult service to take kids to) I asked Brian to stay home a little later so I could go over there by myself. It was nice to have a little walk and a little church service without the rugrats, but I’m pooped now.
Our priest gave a lovely short sermon and one thing he talked about was how a good Lenten practice would be to look in the mirror every morning and think about the things you like about the person looking back at you, and also how to make the person in the mirror better. He said it more eloquently, but I like the idea. It was a message more about mercy and God’s love than about sin and penitence, which is what I usually think of Lent being about. Oddly, Lent is my favorite time of the church year. Maybe I’m a masochist.
Anyway, this year I’m giving up shopping as usual and…wait for it…chocolate. I know a lot of people give up chocolate but I’ve never done it. I do love my chocolate. But I’m also going to try to add some things—like the looking-in-the-mirror thing as Father Richard said. Also, I ordered some Anglican rosary beads on eBay, so when those get here I’m going to start praying the rosary—an Anglican/Episcopal version I found online. I’m also going to start a new workout program, but I’ll save discussion of that for my Fit Fig blog.
