This Lent I will give up Liver and Onions and Chewing Tobacco

You need to give something up for Lent.  As Catholics, that’s what we're told all our lives.  But exactly why do we do this?  Sure, giving up chocolate, sweets, soft drinks and other guilty pleasures can teach us about sacrifice, but won’t most of us take these back up at the end of Lent?  I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve given up things.  As a wife and mother I’m always giving up my time and making sacrifices for my family.  During my pregnancies, which obviously were longer than Lent, I had to give up alcohol and certain types of foods. Currently I'm training for a marathon so I have to pay extra attention to the types of foods I’m eating and have to cut out activities that keep me from getting enough sleep.  Therefore, to me, giving things up for Lent seems to be the easy way out.   

Lent should be about conversion, about turning my life closer to Jesus. I think that I would be missing a great opportunity to grow in Christ if I gave something up for Lent just to be grumpy and miserable the entire time. Yes, I’ll be giving something up for Lent.  I’ll be giving up liver and onions, chewing tobacco and tortilla chips. Okay, I’m kidding about the liver and onions (I’ve never eaten that) and the chewing tobacco (I’ll be grumpy, just kidding, I don’t use tobacco in any form) but I am serious about the tortilla chips.  Anyone that knows me well knows that I can’t go one day without eating tortilla chips.  

“Yikes! We’re all out of food!”

Now, I will qualify that one by saying that if I find that this makes me uncommonly grumpy, I will abort this endeavor.  Of course, since Sundays are not officially considered part of Lent, I could always choose to eat my fill of tortillas every Sunday (Woo Hoo!).

In all seriousness, this Lent I will make a special effort to more fully focus on the three pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  But for me, fasting is the hardest of these three.  Pray for me!

Neal Boortz on the UN

I just have to say that I completely agree with what Neal Boortz had to say today about the UN. The UN is anti-American and the U.S. really needs to re-evaluate its involvement in the organization. The more I read about what the UN is doing, the more annoyed I get. So, yes, let's start a new international organization of nations and pull out of the the UN.

So Sad About Owen Wilson

I was soo bummed to see a news article claiming that Owen Wilson had attempted to commit suicide. He is such a fun actor and one of my favorites. I really hope that it either isn't true or that if it is, he gets the help he needs to get better.

On another note, I think that I ruined one of our nice cooking pots. I was outside in the backyard talking to my neighbor and forgot that I had put the green beans on the stove. After a while, I remembered that I had to check on them and when I went inside to check, the water in the bottom of the pot was completely gone and the beans on the steamer basket portion had begun to burn. Yuck! Now the bottom of the pot seems to be lumpy.