Blogging for Lent

I spent a good amount of time thinking of things to give up or take on for Lent this year and due to certain circumstances giving up something such as a food isn't going to work this year.  And while I love reading, I haven't been able to do a ton of that lately, either, so outside of reading one book of St. Francis de Sales Sermons for Lent, I don't exactly have a ton of Lenten reading planned either.  I'm not even sure if I'll make it through the book.  I hope I do.

I tossed about the idea of giving up Facebook for Lent, but even that seemed like something I wasn't being called to do.  Then I thought about the neglected blog.  And that's when I got the idea to write each day.  So I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens.  It's going to be an exercise in letting go for me, since the primary reason I haven't been blogging, aside from having too many demands on my time, is I don't always feel like I can just come here and write if I don't have pictures for you to see as well.  I think it's pretty evident that I've read too many articles about how blog posts need pictures and a ton of other things if they want to be read.  So I'm not going to worry about it.  If you really want to read, you'll read.  If not, no worries.  In a way I think it has been pretty silly of me to worry about whether or not people will find the blog interesting if there are not a slew of gorgeous photos.  My photography skills, despite years of trying, are not exactly impressive.

Much has been going on around here as of late.  It seems like this is my year of medical misery.  Last year I spent seven months battling on again off again sinus and ear infections.  Since April I've had crackling sounds in my right ear anytime I swallow, and I find it a bit maddening.  I finally went and saw an ENT dr in January and basically there's no chronic or serious issue, no hearing loss, and not anything they can do for me other than tell me to keep taking my allergy medicines and use a saline nose spray.  The sinus and ear issues have led to me leading a mostly coffee free existence.  The baristas at my local Target Starbucks miss me.

My newest medical issue seems to be my gallbladder.  I've been having pain for the past few weeks and I'll be going for an ultrasound next week.  At the moment, I'm trying to figure out what I can eat without being in pain.  After talking to two doctors yesterday, it looks like dairy and a lot of other foods I like are off the menu.  It's frustrating to say the least.  I'm praying that's it's not anything serious and is hopefully something that can be resolved with some dietary changes, but I'm not sure if that's very realistic.

I told Bryan the other night that I sort of feel like Job.  I feel like I'm really being tested right now and I'm trying very hard to just trust Our Lord with this, but He's certainly not making this easy for me.  The past month in particular has just been very difficult for me.  So please don't be surprised if there comes a day when you find me whining on here.  I suspect it's bound to happen.

I don't feel as prepared or organized for Lent as I ordinarily do.  I still need to get our merciful tree up on the basement door, and I waited until today to decide that I should replace our felt Jesus Tree with something that doesn't need pins to hold the ornaments onto the felt tree.  I just don't have it in me to chase Anthony around the house trying to get the pins and ornaments back from him which I'm sure will be an all day, every day of Lent fiasco.  So I ordered a set of ornaments from Jesse Tree Treasures.  I'm looking forward to using them once they get here, but in the mean time I'll just use the felt ornaments we have until this set arrives.

So until tomorrow, I hope your Ash Wednesday is going well and I'll be back sometime tomorrow.