Just Tuesday

Just Tuesday.  Almost middle of the week.  Rainy, cold and icky.  Not quite Wednesday.

That about sums up my day today.  Just so exciting!

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.  I'm not sure about Lent yet, I'm still thinking about what I will be giving up.  A lot of people think that Lent is "only" for a certain religous group, the Catholic and Methodist churches both observe it as a group but not a lot of other groups do.  Which is a shame, really.  It's a Christian tradition, for all of us and not just for a select group.  Lent is meant to be a time of reflection, looking inside ourselves and searching our hearts as well as a time of waiting.  It's a somber, but not necessarily a sad time.  The Methodist and Catholic churches both have the Imposition of the Ashes as part of their rituals, we always participated when we belonged to the Methodist church.  It's a tradition that I really miss.  The ashes are an outward sign, to remind us and people that see us what it's about; it is to remind us that we were created out of the dust and that we will return to dust after death.  The physical parts of our bodies will, but the inner part also known as the soul is eternal.  Traditionally, the ashes are from the previous year's palm leaves that are part of the Palm Sunday observance.

Giving something up for Lent is part of learning self-denial.  That's why we are to give up something that we care about, be it food or an activity.  But it has to be something that really means something.  In other words, it would be supremely stupid for me to give up something like smoking because I don't smoke.  I have given up chocolate in the past, but I don't really eat a lot of it lately (by choice, too much fat!).  I've given up cokes before (Texas cokes so that means all sodas) but I'm not drinking too many of those lately either.  I'll figure it out, hopefully before tomorrow!

It's a time of reflection, we are to reflect on God's sacrifice of his Son for us.  It can be a dark, quiet time but that is part of the reflection.  It's a time of waiting, waiting for Easter and what it really Means.  It's a time to take things a little slower and learn patience.  A lot of people have problems wtih that one, I certainly do at times.

I posted pictures of Otter's quilt on the craft blog while ago.  I'm calling it the 13-year quilt because it took me at least that long to make it.  But I'm not sure of that, it might have taken me longer or maybe less because I can't remember when I started it.  I was thinking that it was when Otter was in kindergarten, but it might have been 1st or 2nd grade.  Either way, it was years ago!

We saw this next sight when we were on the way to the theater Sunday to get tickets for Monday's movie:

It's supposed to be a shampoo bottle.  We hope that the person inside the costume was paid well, because it does NOT look like a shampoo bottle to us!