Ash Wednesday

We are holding ourselves more and more accountable for raising our kids in the faith. I know, it is a faith we have chosen for them. I am not a parent that would disown their child if they choose another faith when they are old enough to make that decision for themselves. For now, though, they will be raised Catholic. In years past, we have severly neglected our faith. It's time we step up to the plate. Lucas is past the screaming whenever we attempt to sit in church or a restaraunt, so that is how we decided to start exposing our children to church. At first, and even very recently, I was kind of upset that our church didn't have a nursery. I'm over it now. How are our children to learn anything if they aren't there for mass? I could see if they went to Children's Church or something, but it just doesn't exist at the base chapel.

So anyway, we fasted today (Gerald and I, the kids are exempt because of their ages). We did not do a complete fast, instead we went by the newer "rules" and ate considerably less than we do on a usual day, abstained from meat, and didn't snack at all during the day. We felt hungry. And I must say, it really does make you think about the Lord we serve and rely on for the food that we eat! I'm still hungry. My menu today was this, cup of coffee and toast for breakfast, a tunafish sandwich with a very small handful of chips and water for lunch, dinner was a bowl chicken noodle soup (It was homemade so Gerald and I did not eat the chicken, just the broth, noodles, and veggies) and water.

This also marks the begining of Lent. We chose to do this as a family this year in hopes of teaching our children. We chose to give up 1 thing and do 1 thing to better ourselves. We decided to give up fast food and that we would take at least 1 walk a week as a family. Gerald is also giving up all alcholic beverages! Go Gerald!

I'll leave you with a few kidisms from Church tonight:

They gave out little black prayer books for Lent, and Lily says, "I wish this book was about Halloween!" Of course she had to say it in her loud, I'm a five year old voice, as we were leaving.

Having not heard what Lily already said, Lucas is outside and looks around outside and says, "It's dark out mom. Is it Halloween?" To his defense, it did kind of feel like a fall day, it was dark, breezy, and mid-forties.

They gave out these little metal medals if you will, to remind us what Lent is all about. My sweet Sydney said, "Mom, we should keep these in our pockets and whenever we are feeling like having fast food, we can get them out." AWWW, but don't get too excited, it was quickly followed up by, "Is Dairy Queen fast food?" She didn't like my reply of, "Yes, dear. It is."

Wow! This got long!

I'm going to finish watching American Idol and hit the hay. I *THINK* this cold is finally working it's way out of me! Hopefully I can get more sleep tonight than I did last night. One more thing, I passed my FINAL inspection today! I should have my daycare license in a couple of weeks! YAY!
God Bless!