Whatchagivingup??

Yes, readers. It's Lent. And, no. I'm not Catholic.* I'm Anglican. It's ancient like Catholicism, but we aren't so much into that saintly stuff. And we like our church on Sunday mornings. But, we still follow that "give something up for Lent" tradition.

Over the years I have given up a crazy concoction of items and behaviors that have made me surly, healthy, hyper, and drained. Thankfully, I've survived all my decisions and the forty days I went all commando on them.

My biggest problem? Reverting back to previous behavior.

Take the multitude of years I've given up sweets. It always ends the same way: I bake the "traditional" bunny cake on Saturday, the night before Easter Sunday, covered with butter cream frosting, coconut, and jelly beans, and I eat most of it before the sun goes down on bunny day. I forage for my favorite candies from the kid's baskets, hoping that adding another quarter to the mix will cause them to THINK they have the same amount of "stuff".** Once I get sugar coursing through my veins again, all bets are off.

So, off my list of items to give up this year? Sweets. I'm done with the circular logic implicit in that decision.

My eldest told me, last night, that I'm addicted to blogging and email. YIKES. I really thought I kept a majority of my addiction to myself, during the day. Apparently not.

When I think about it I do have to admit that a great lot of the topics for my blog come from the kids and the kids aren't home during the day and my memory is that of a gnat from years of ???***. So I guess I do write a lot of stuff in the post-4pm hours, when they are home to provide material and I can remember it long enough to commit it to the hard drive.

Now that I've thought through it? I'm so nailed. Right to the kitchen wall. Kicking and screaming. 'Cause he's right.

So, there was the birth of what I am giving up for Lent: blogging and responding to email before the kid's bedtime. I am going to limit myself to one hour per night.

Just putting that on the computer screen caused me to tear up. And I'm already having withdrawal symptoms. I can't stop my fingers from ghost-typing funny thoughts or pithy comebacks or crazy comments people have made to me in the last 24 hours. This could get ugly.

But, hey. It should make for some funny junk over the next 40 days.

And you? In your cushy chair reading this? Please don't send me multiple emails in the pre-dark hours and laugh hysterically that I CAN'T RESPOND before the sun goes down. As if I'm one of those creatures from I AM LEGEND**** who can't come out in the daylight to kick Will Smith's butt.

Don't do me that way. Because I think there is a circle in Hell***** designated for rude behavior like that.......



*People always scrunch their nose and tilt their head to the side when I tell them I've given something up for Lent. Especially when we were Baptist. As if the only sect of people who can observe the Christian calendar attend mass.....

**Just admit it: the Halloween bag and Easter basket are parent's dreams. Unfettered access to CANDY!!! Yehaw. And stop trying to paint me as the bad guy. I know you do this too.....

***Was it the liquor? Three pregnancies? Ten years of Mommyhood?

****We now own this movie. And I'm still trying to tell Will to "RUN!!!!!" every time he is in trouble. And he still isn't hearing me. It's a bit frustrating.

*****When it is a destination, it doesn't cost me a quarter.