Day 338

Tonight was the night of the annual Women's Christmas Dinner at my parent's church. We had great entertainment from The Three Wisemen. It was so fun to see them in concert again. It was also an awesome night of fellowship, laughter, and fun. I enjoy being able to catch up with everyone.

The photo today is of the little gift from our hostess, my mom. It was this cute little silver angel and you can see her packaging in the background.

Day 329

This afternoon was a lesson in sacrifice. I "slaved" over making this pie for the pie social this evening at church. Each family is supposed to bring a pie, and I wanted to make something that varied from the traditional pumpkin pie most families bring. I made this chocolate pie, and as I feared, I didn't have one bite.

I did buy a few extra ingredients to make it again, so maybe I'll get a piece soon.

Day 281

This evening our church was doing a fall celebration complete with costumes. The boys had a bunch of fun making treat bags and doing other crafts, playing fun games like pumpkin bowling, and participating in the costume parade.

I had Matt on my lap and was playing around with trying to take a picture of us and this was one of the results. I thought his little eye and lion costume head were cute.

Day 215

My oldest wasn't feeling well on Saturday night, so I decided to stay home from church with the kids yesterday. Rob went without us because he was playing that morning. When he came home, he brought me these lovely tulips for our anniversary. They were looking so pretty this afternoon that I had to capture a few of them.

Day 96

As a Lutheran, we follow the church calendar and observe the season of Lent, which is that period of time between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Most everyone knows that Lent is for 40 days, which is a common number in the Bible - 40 days and nights of the flood, 40 years the Israelites wandered before reaching the Promised Land, and Jesus' 40 days of fasting in the desert followed by the temptation by Satan - just to name a few.

Often, people will choose to observe Lent by giving up something for those 40 days. I've never observed Lent in that manner before, but had often considered it. This year, I decided to give up chips for Lent. To many this might not sound like a big deal, but I love chips. I very much like salty things, and chips are perfect! They're also very convenient and require no preparation, which is fantastic with little ones.

I started the 40 days without a whole lot of planning, so until I made it to the grocery store, I spent a lot of time contemplating the staleness of various crackers in the pantry. I did make it through the entire 40 days without breaking down.

Of course, you might be looking at your calendar and noting that Easter is a week away, but I assure you that it's 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday. Another way of observing Lent is to take Sunday's "off". I think I might try that method next year if I decide to do this again.

Now, to crack open a bag of chips.

Day 56

Today is Ash Wednesday, so we went to the services at our church. The theme for Lent is The Cross Shaped Life. As a reminder, we were all encouraged to pick up one of these little wooden cross necklaces. I'm mulling over what to do with mine to make it my own.