Lent

Even though I wrote about my Lenten plans in 7 Quick Takes this past Friday, I got excited about the link up over at Kayla's so I thought I would expand. (Although I have a doctor's appointment bright and early at 8:30 am 45 minutes away from my house so it will probably be evening before I can link up!)

First, I have to profess my love for Lent. I have always enjoyed it so much. It's provided me with a time every year to do a little 'spring cleaning of the soul' and the aspect of giving up/adding something has always helped me focus in a way that I wasn't doing normally. I used to get a lot of flack for writing "Happy Lent!" as my facebook status, but for me, it really was a happy occasion because the prayer, sacrifice, fasting, and reflection really made me a better and happier person. I still love Lent.

Before we officially decided to give up sweets, but after I had begun considering it, one of our priests said something about that being done for vanity and people should pick something else. I'm glad he said it because it made me think, and made me analyze the reasons why I want to give sweets up.

But first, what are 'sweets'? For us it will be pretty much anything sweet tasting that isn't a fruit or a healthy breakfast item (jelly, healthy whole grain cereal, oatmeal with fruit, etc), with the exception of granola since my homemade kind is really healthy (though I'll leave out chocolate chips that I sometimes use). We won't have ice cream, cake, cupcakes, cookie, pie, doughnuts, candy, graham cracker (sweet cracker) type things When I first began contemplating it, my mind immediately went to "What can I eat that will make my brain/tastebuds THINK I just ate sweets to cure the craving?". And that's when I realized I was going about it all wrong. So I took that with what the priest said and here is why I will be giving up sweets:

• I can be very gluttonous. If you saw how much of a sweet snack or dessert I could put away in one sitting, you'd probably be shocked. And disgusted. I know all about portion control, but I don't exercise it well when sweets are involved- mostly 'free' sweets like things brought to the office.
• My body is a temple and when I go overboard with sweets I am certainly not treating it like one. I'm treating it like a garbage disposal or pantry.
• I want nothing more than to have babies and raise them in the church. This means giving my ovaries the love they deserve so that I can have babies. This means better food choices.

Now don't get me wrong. We don't sit around eating sweets all the time. But when things are offered to us when we are visiting family or friends, or there are sweets at work, we eat a lot of it. And even though we don't generally keep sweets in the house, we do stop by Chickfila for cones a bit too often- usually as a 'reward' for not eating badly, which is a terrible idea. Oh, and I have eaten so much candy since Valentine's day that I'm sure my body is in a rage at me.

So will this bring me closer to God? I believe it will. I think I need to remember that sacrificing something we like for a greater cause is something we will do often in life. I need to remind myself that God gave us such amazing foods and get deeper into the simplicity of those foods (fruits, veggies, legumes, grains). I need a reminder that I have control over myself and my choices, and I don't have to cure a craving. Self control obviously applies to many more areas of life.

I feel I need to add a disclaimer here. Steven and I originally were going to make our wedding favors for guests be little boxes with mini Reeses cups and Starbursts inside. The idea was, those are our favorite candies together in a box, because we are coming together in marriage. Then Steven mentioned that, while he was at the Lindor store getting my Valentine's yummies, they gave him a price for the truffles as favors. The price was surprisingly good for as much as the truffles generally cost, and it hit me that the majority of people wouldn't 'get' the candy together in the box thing, since many people don't even know what our favorite candies are. Soooo we went in Saturday night and ordered them. The smallest amount we could order is 550. We have 150 boxes that only fit 3 truffles per box. If you're a numbers person, you are realizing we will have 100 of my most favorite candies ever (yeah Reeses is a close second after all) left over. Steven requested that he pick them up Tuesday. Because we are giving up sweets as of Wednesday.... my inner fatty says "Score!!!!" but my inner Catholic realizes I need to have a talk with my budding Catholic about the inappropriateness of eating a ton of truffles the night before we give up sweets! :) Maybe I will talk with him about that after our 5th truffle...

Disclaimer 2: I may or may not be eating chocolate as I write this. But it's dark. Good for the heart.... right?