March So Far

It's March! May we all continue to March forward. I'm not Catholic but I've always been interested so this year I am participating in Lent. I think it is a neat thing. Now, I've never actually read about Lent or how it is suppose to go so I'm just going on what I've heard through friends and TV and Movies which I think puts me at a good fair start. Ha ha. I know that if you really participate you should go to an Ash Wednesday Mass where you get an ash mark on your forehead. And then, one of Dan's coworkers says that you are actually not suppose to share what you give up for Lent, but to keep it close to your heart. I heard about that only after I proclaimed my intentions to Facebook, so missed that one! For some reason I am thinking that you are suppose to give up something that has to do with one of the seven deadly sins as well. I should really just go and read Wikipedia about it all. After this I'll do that so I can continue to blog to you about my version of it all. So I've blown a few of the requisite requirements for Lent, but I didn't know about them all at once. This is my "I feel mostly culturally Mormon these days kind of twist on Catholic Lent" thing and so far I like it. Also, I totally respect the practice of Lent and mean no disrespect.

For Lent 2014 I'm giving up refined sugar. I have a total addiction and I think the only way to get rid of it is to go cold turkey for at least forty days. Working on day 3 here and I'm doing really well. I just think of old JC starvin' marvin' for forty days and it helps me get through. Even though it's not a "if He can do it so can I" kind of thing because lets be real, he was super human, I still gain strength thinking about him every time I want some brownie. I'm taking my spirituality into my own hands these days and this is part of my quest. I'm pretty sure that the desserts in 2014 are way better than the desserts He had to choose from though. He could basically eat dates for dessert. Dates. If the devil came and tempted Him with a warm homemade brownie with some premium vanilla bean ice cream, a touch of whipped cream and toasted almond slivers would he have said no? Hmmm. Answer me that internet.

About Jude. He is super old these days. 2 at the end of the month in fact. He will no longer ham it up when I want to take a picture of him which saddens me as it makes him less cute. My old trick of asking him if he wants a cookie only upsets him as the cookie never comes. Humph. He may as well be a teenager if you want to know the truth. Teenagers are cute too though so I will survive. Jude is talking up a storm, learning a new word almost every day. Just today he was talking about puppies and of course our hearts melted. He also finally made it up the play structure at Chick Fil A with lots of grunting and straining, but he climbed that big boy structure like a boss... well, like a struggling boss and came down that slide exclaiming "I did it! I did it!" It is so neat to see him work so hard and be so proud.

Oh Judie bootie, I take it back you are still slightly cute. He for sure has his dad's OCD which makes us laugh on a daily basis. He can't eat a meal if something in the kitchen, front room, or restaurant is out of place, he says "oh no! oh no!" until that something is fixed. He hates spilling on himself and will carefully pick up whatever spilt and place it where it belongs. You can see how spilling yogurt is quite an ordeal because that junk is hard to get back in place with only fingers or a toddler spoon to work with. He closes all doors and closest that are open before passing them by and gets really upset about his messy runny noses. My FIL's mother tells a story of him (my FIL) very carefully wiping off his own face as a one year old that always makes me laugh and think of Jude. I know he gets it from Dan and we know where Dan gets it from! Jude will even take care to turn his sippy cups so that the spout faces a certain direction when he places them in the fridge. Once he gets the counting thing down I'm going to drop a box of toothpicks and ask him how many.

So that's that. Lent and a little bit about our sweet boy. xo, pp