Living Lent

For Lent this year, I'm giving up alcohol, which I've done before.  I'm giving up Facebook and all but a few blogs, which I've done before.  But I'm also going to try something new.  I'm going to give up myself.  I'm going to give up the part of me that says I need the approval of people on Facebook for how I live my life.  I'm going to give up the part of me that feels like this life is beneath me because I used to get paid a lot for the work I did.  Truthfully, if I approached my real job as halfheartedly as I've been approaching my work at home, I would have been fired.  

Jesus spent 40 days fasting and praying to prepare Himself for the Passion.  He was blameless and yet was persecuted and put to death for our sins, for my sins.  And yet, if I'm not careful, I will spend this time of fasting and preparation feeling persecuted because I am asked to deal with never ending piles of laundry, little boys who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, much less a toilet, and a baby who STILL won't take the bottle.

I'm going to try to document some of this, to remember a little joy and a little progress from each day.  For now, I will start here, with a load of laundry to fold, a baby trying to chew a tooth through, and a floor that is at last Lego-free and safe for her to squirm on.