Randomly on a Tuesday

The first Sunday in Lent has come and gone. We had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, topped with mascarpone and berries. It was pretty indulgent. But there was just a bit of mascarpone left in the fridge from something else that needed to be used up ... so it kinda sorta fit into the tradition of Fat Tuesday existing in order to empty the house of all the things you can't eat during Lent ... right? ;)

minus the berries and mascarpone :)

On Ash Wednesday I made mujadara for dinner and it was amazing. We also had a few homemade prune perogies (from a perogie-making party at a friend's house) on the side.


One of the things I have been doing for Lent--and of course, Lent is still quite young, so that "have been doing" doesn't amount to much yet--is fast from the internet. Wednesdays and Fridays I will check my email once or twice, but that's it. So far it's been ... amazing. And really difficult. It is a good fast. I'm thinking I need to impose extra limitations throughout the week for Pinterest. Seriously ... I think that website is an occasion of a certain kind of gluttony, at least for me and the obsessive way I use it. (Maybe the use of "gluttony" in this context is a little weird ... I don't mean all the pictures of food, hehe, I just mean the unmoderated visual consumption ... does that make sense?)

Facebook I don't really have a problem with. Although occasionally it robs me of my peace. I know that since finishing school I live in a mostly-Catholic bubble, when it comes to the people I see and interact with on a weekly or semi-weekly basis. For the most part this extends to Facebook, too; so when Pope Benedict announced his resignation, for example, most of what showed up in my feed reflected my own feelings; surprise, sadness, encouragement. I knew in the back of my mind people were probably saying negative, hurtful, even hateful things about our dear Papa. But I didn't have to deal with it directly. Except then ... Facebook. What a mixed blessing that website is.

Anyway. Despite internet fasts, I'm hoping to blog a bit more this Lent. (I know, I know. Broken record.) My problem is I want to blog about everything--deep thinky-thoughts, knitting, babies and family adventures, etc etc--I have these huge blog plans and then I am so lazy/intimidated by my own ambition that I don't post ANYTHING. It's like I need to relax and get kicked in the butt simultaneously, hehe. For example I've had a lot of deep thinky-thoughts in response to this book, which has spoken to many things I've been thinking about, questioning, and struggling with. I highly recommend it to you stay-at-home mothers. It seems to be out of print, which stinks, but it looks like there are some cheap used copies on Amazon, and they are definitely worth it.