That Was Rough!

Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, was a difficult day.  I imagine lots of you had a rough day, too.

When I felt the headache coming on in the morning, I took 2 ibuprofen.  I know from past experience that if I just try to tough it out, it will get worse and ibuprofen won't help at all, and I'll be miserable all day.  Not eating is hard enough without adding a splitting headache to it!

One of the things I gave up for Lent is talking to/yelling at/griping about other drivers.  Wouldn't you know that every. single. time. I was out in the car yesterday (which was a lot) there was a person going 10 miles below the speed limit in front of me?  It gave me lots of opportunities to be reminded of what I gave up.

Mass was difficult yesterday.  It was so hard to pray.

Choir rehearsal was difficult last night---there's so little joy there anymore.  

I really need to pray during this Lent to find out what God's will is in this area.

On the happier side of Ash Wednesday:

I went to a playground with Meg and Pip after Mass, right next to the church, and we discovered that it's not a playground but fitness equipment.  We had fun working out and evangelizing the maintenance guys who wondered why we and others down the road all had smudges on our foreheads!

I got 2 new books in the mail for Lent:

(for the middle schooler and high schooler)

and

(for the kids and myself)

I heard/saw lots of good reviews for these books and thought they would be a nice addition this year.  Ablaze has lots of saints that I have never heard of, so we'll have to read that together!  And Welcome Risen Jesus is on a higher level than I expected based on judging this book by it's cover and $1.99 price tag!  I think it will be well worth the money---even more, in fact.

I did not give up blogging or reading blogs for Lent, but I'll try to keep my posts on a higher level when I'm here.  I did give up reading the many blogs that don't "feed" me.  I'm not unsubscribing, just daily going through my reader and marking as read posts/blogs that I read for fun not formation.  Decorating or organizing blogs, for instance.  I'm skipping those in favor of the bloggers that regularly touch my life in a more meaningful way.

Finally, I decided to renew my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary which we had done several years ago.  I was at the mechanics getting an oil change, and listening to an awesome podcast---Pat Gohn's Among Women---which was all about getting ready for Lent.  She and her guest, Mary Lou Rosien, were talking about Catholic Family Bootcamp, which sounds great for Lent or any other time of the year.  I don't think you have to purchase it, you can do the daily task on the website if you want.

Anyway...I was talking about the Total Consecration to Mary....because while I was sitting there with my preparation book in my purse, I thought, "There must be an app for that!"  And there is!  I can't find a link for it right now, but I found it easily on my phone by searching "total consecration".  It's only $.99 and it has a counter which starts the first time you open the app, but you can change it if you already started the prayers, or if you want to start later.  It gives you your daily prayers so you don't have to flip through the book to find them, and you can have it with you if you unexpectedly have free time where it would be good to do the prayers!  I love it.

Well, those are some of the highlights and lowlights of my Ash Wednesday.  How did yours go?

Have a blessed Lent!