Give it up!

Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday and for Catholics it marks the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent is the 40 days of prayer and fasting leading up to Easter. It is a time of soul-searching and reflection. Often during Lent, Catholics give something up and/or do a generous or positive act.

Well, because I always try to be a good little Catholic girl, I observe Lent. For Lent, I will do the following:

• Give up shopping: I have decided to give up unnecessary spending (aka shopping for myself). I have been doing this for the past month or so since we have no money anyways. But I plan to continue this through Lent. I might allow myself one opportunity to shop for myself and that is for my Birthday.
• Give up candy and cookies: I have such a sweet tooth and every year I work hard to do this. This is very hard for me and this will be especially difficult since there are few kids parties that fall during this time and I always grab some of the pinata candy with the kids. That also means no birthday cake, not even on my own birthday!
• Make an effort to go green: I have just started to work toward this and I think this will be a good opportunity for me to follow through. I've already started using a natural recipe for fabric softener. I am also going to get some "green" bags when I go grocery shopping next.

One year I gave up soda and I no longer drink soda. So sometimes giving something up lead to more positive acts in the future.

My birthday often falls in the middle of Lent and it is hard because I love my birthday and it is a time that I like to treat myself. I am going to try extremely hard not to make any exceptions for my birthday at all this year (not shopping for a birthday gift for myself will be very hard!). Maybe since I now have this in writing I will have better willpower and be more accountable. Only time will tell.