ash wednesday

happy lent! hmm... merry lent? a good lent to you? is there a set form of address for this occasion? anyone? oh, well. however you slice it, today is the first day of lent...and i have settled upon my lenten discipline. for a minute there, i considered giving up doing the laundry, but... well, my better judgement prevailed. i am going to fast & pray over the lunch hour. that is going to be hard! fortunately, sunday's don't count in the 40 days, so i will get to have a family lunch (how traditional of me!) sundays. i will let you know how it goes! are any of you lenting anything?

it's not too late to find a way to participate in lent - God is not a cosmic score keeper...he just wants your heart. There are these stunning verses in isaiah 65 - "The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes." shocking - the picture of God, waving his arms around like a kid, 'here i am! here i am!', trying to get our attention. i love it when scripture shakes God out of my carefully crafted box. i am too quick to sanitize him...

in other news, it's finally warming up around here! i hear birds chirpping and see squirrels frolicking! hooray! i can finally air out my house and go for a walk without cursing with every step. (for my canadian readers out there, we are going on 20 C all week! hooray! and this is just the baby steps of spring!)

we also bought a laptop yesterday! my dream realized! curtis says it's "ours" and i say it's MINE!! HA HA HA! but dell was having a 25% off presidents sale, and when do you ever get 250$ off a brand new computer? never! so, we bit the bullet, and it should arrive soon! hooray! i am very excited.

also! we are doing this online marriage counselling through eharmony that my mom gave us to use (we are her guinea pigs before she uses the program at the college where she works with married students), and it is surprisingly helpful! we don't have vast marriage "issues", and i didn't know if we'd get anything out of it, but we have - much to our surprise and pleasure! if you are married and interested in having "more", i definitely recommend it.

hmmm. i think that's all. merry lent ... or whatever... to you!