Didja know?

Lent starts tomorrow.

my blog is so culturally relevant...

Well, if you're not aware, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. (Get your ash at Mass!...haha)
That means the start of Lent. And though every Catholic blogger and her Catholic friends and mom and husband and brother are talking about it, I thought I'd take the time to document what I'm doing for Lent 2015.

This is partially because I am a huge flake, and I'm pretty terrible at keeping Lenten resolutions. It's also partially so I can look back next year and decide whether or not my sacrifices were good and I should repeat them, or if I need to alter them somehow.

I've done a lot of different things for Lent in the past. After my reversion to the faith in college, I've gravitated toward the more intense or unique sacrifices. One year I gave up my pillow - which turned out to be not that much of a sacrifice after about 10 days, because I grew to like sleeping without a pillow. One year I completely fasted (minus water) every Friday, which was totally intense but didn't seem to help me grow in graces, and just instead made me really crabby and probably pretty annoying for 24 hours.

This year I'm attacking my weaknesses on a two-fold level.

First: 

I ordered the Blessed Is She Lenten reflection journal, so I am resolving to read the daily readings every day of Lent and to journal - at least a sentence or two, at the minimum - about them every. darn. day. The BIS emails definitely have improved my Scripture-reading-habit, but I usually read them quick while I'm nursing Kate, and don't spend any time in mental prayer meditating on them or anything like that. So this journal is a God-send. (Literally.)(My puns are so terrible today.) I'm perty stoked about this one. Hopefully I'll have the motivation to get up every morning before Kate does and sit and do them, but I'm not going to be too picky about the time it gets done, as long as it gets. done.

Second:

I'm attacking the biggest weakness in my everyday life - food. Guys, everybody says it, but I really love food. Like, I have an unhealthy obsession with it that probably borders on gluttony, if I'm being really self-aware and painfully honest with all of you. I count the hours between meals, and snack waayyyyy too much. I thought about doing a Lent40 (like Jenny), but since I'm still nursing, I'm not quite ready for that yet. So I'm cutting out a lot of other things: sweets, drinks besides water + tea, chips, potato "products" (fries, etc.), and snacking in between meals. It's a lot of things, but I am mentally legitimately prepared for it this year. I'm not pregnant (yikes, last year's Lent went terrible because of pregnancy), Kate's going to be just about weaned by the time Easter hits (give or take a month), and I have no excuse to not do it. I'm striving towards being more aware all the time of what I'm eating and why I'm eating it - hopefully this will lead towards a more permanent awareness in my life.

too many Ryan Gosling memes? maybe...

HAHA

So, here you go, future Hannah. This is what Lent looks like for me right now. How did I/you do?
Pray for me, y'all. I'm praying for you, too.
HG