Lent and Me

Today is Ash Wednesday, which for Catholics and many other Christians, marks the beginning of Lent-- the time of sacrifice and preparation heading to Easter Sunday. It is a tradition in the Catholic Church to give something up for Lent. We do this to help mirror the great Sacrifice that Jesus gave for all of us.

Because we are Catholics, we give things up for Lent.

As a family, we are giving up fast food. After not having it all of the month of January, with our no-spend month, we went way overboard with it in February. It was just too easy to do and to make excuses to get it. So we are giving up fast food as a family. The kids understand and are on board with it.

Something else that I will be doing for the family is not buying any more snack foods for Lent. We have plenty of snacks for the kids in our pantry, so I will let them eat those. This does not include snacks like fruit. This is snacks like goldfish crackers, cookies, etc. I want to use up what we have. I am hoping to have a low grocery month this month, as our freezer and pantry are full. Use up what we have.

As for myself..... I am giving things up and going to add things....

I am giving things up that are taking away from my health and well-being. Along with giving up fast food with my family, I am also personally giving up: chocolate in all forms and all pop. If you know anything about me, chocolate is my weakness. I love it in all forms and I eat way too much of it. So it will go away. I also find that I drink way too much pop, so I am going to go cold turkey on that as well. I don't anticipate having caffeine withdrawal as I typically only drink caffeine free pops.

I am going to add things that will better myself as a whole. I will be adding exercise at least 5 days a week. I have a plan in place that hopefully I can follow. I will also be adding in reading time daily as this is something that I enjoy and don't make time for. And I am going to be following along with Money Saving Mom's 4 weeks to a more organized home so that I can better my family's daily environment.

Some of these things are going to be really hard...like giving up chocolate!....but I know that it small compared to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us. I can do this and I hope to be a better person at the end of Lent and am hoping to use this as a springboard to bettering my life in the long run.

Do you give things up for Lent?