Lent Love

I have always been a fan of Lent.  I still remember the first year that we observed it, I was probably six or seven and my parents encouraged Melissa and I to give up Nintendo, which we did.  I have given up sweets, fried foods, alcohol, carbs and even all of the above.  One year I gave up online shopping (my Amazon addiction would make that pretty difficult now, which I know is the point, but every minute I am not at the grocery store, is a minute more I get to spend with Hannah).  My sophomore year in high school, I gave up going out to lunch, and donated the money I normally spent to St. Jude's (I am such a softie when it comes to their radio campaigns).  Two years ago, I gave up dining out, except for when traveling (I couldn't starve on work trips).  I think Tanner was particularly anticipating the arrival of Easter that year. 

I like the idea of Lent.  I like that it is a time to refocus, to develop discipline and to be reminded of the magnificent sacrifice Jesus made.  In addition to giving up vices, I always find that Lent is a good time for me to commit to really focusing on and strengthening my faith, regardless of where I am in my walk.  When I lived in San Francisco, I never found (or particularly seeked out) a church home.  But both years during Lent, I made the commitment to attend church each Sunday.  Last year, although I publicly joked that I had given up alcohol, unpasteurized cheeses, anything that might contain listeria, sushi and sleeping comfortably through the night, I committed to prayer time each day and to remain focused for duration of that time, as I am incredibly guilty of letting my mind wander.

So that leads me to this year, and I will start with the superficial.  There is a little basket on the kitchen counter in our office that has all sorts of snacks with little nutritional value.  Between 2 and 4 pm every day, I convince myself that snackwells cookies or cheez its would be a good way for me to waste six weight watchers points.  For the next forty days, I am staying away from the basket. 

Tangent:  I have been doing weight watchers since September, and my weight loss has been slow and steady.  The program has been working well for me because:

a) Tanner started doing it with me in January, which has been awesome.  He has more discipline than I do, but I am sure not going to cheat if he is not cheating; and

b) I have a ton of points.  They really want breastfeeding moms to lose weight slowly, and I have definitely been losing weight slowly.  At some point, now that Hannah is eating some solid foods, I need to update my plan that I am breastfeeding and supplementing (rather than strictly breastfeeding), which means I will lose seven points a day (strikingly close to the number I consistently waste on cheez its or snackwells cookies).  I think it is a sign that it is time to make the change.

Onto the less superficial.  I am giving up facebook and a few other time-wasting websites I am guilty of perusing at the office.  Honestly, facebook will be hard and I am a bit torn about it.  Sometimes it is the easiest way to get in touch with someone or get contact info.  I also get a lot of other useful information, like births, deaths, engagements and birthdays from facebook.  Besides, how will my facebook friends survive without seeing pictures of Hannah for the next 40 days?  But at the end of the day, it is more of a timewaster/stalking tool than any of the above, and with work picking up it is simply not a good use of an extremely limited resource, time. 

I have also commited to a daily devotional that explores the book of Matthew and to reading a few John Piper books and a Beth Moore book that have been idling on my kindle.

And finally, I want to blog more consistently (in the time I am not wasting facebook-stalking acquaintances), and expand the scope of the blog a little bit, although like the rest of my life, it will certainly continue to revolve around Hannah most days.