Lent and language funnies

Lent began yesterday with the celebration of Ash Wednesday. 40 days ( technically 46 if you count Sundays) to renew and prepare for the most important event in Christianity. From the perspective of a non Catholic/non Christian sharing a life with a Christan as well as mothering one, Lent is an interesting and even enjoyable season. There is more reflection, more conscious living , and a GREAT opportunity to expose my family to new vegetarian options ! We have come a long way. In the past I experimented with a vegan lifestyle but it failed us. In retrospect I see that the flaw was relying almost exclusively on grains, seeds, beans and nuts, and going way too light on the fruits and vegetables. Since then when I suggest vegetarian options, it is accepted, but much like paying a bill instead of being embraced. I am hoping to change that in this season.

A few weeks back I mentioned that I wanted to create some kind of table decoration to bring focus to the season, and after finding nothing to my liking in the stores I sat down to fashion a candle holder centerpeice out of Fimo dough. It is a crown of thorns over two crossed nails with spots to hold candles. Except the spots to hold candles cracked once I placed candles in them, so I was left to get creative. I asked myself what visual things mean lent, and created the following
I am jokingly calling it The Zen of Lent. The surviving sculpture , a table top Zen garden, a stone egg and 8 small Saint statues we have collected for various events. Seems fitting.

Somehow I totally forgot to take a picture of yesterday's breakfast , which was blueberry oatmeal, but I think you can get the idea.

Lunch was leftover Anti Cancer soup and Sunshine slaw to which I sprinkled on a few roast sunflower seeds.

Dinner was Sweet Potato stew and a salad of romaine, spinach, watercress, walnuts and crasins. About a week ago I made this stew for lunch with canned diced tomatoes and my son and I loved it. This time I made it with fresh tomatoes and stewed and it did not taste as good. The guys both decided they were full halfway through the meal and decided they had to leave right away for the services that evening, which tells me that this one was not a winner. So this one gets shelved from the rotation. There are so many options around that no one should be forced to eat something they dislike just because it is "healthy".

Bit of an amusing thing to share. Nick is beginning to really understand bigger concepts like Lent , and he was talking to me about the week ahead. He said "And on Ash Thursday we have choir rehearsal and on Ash Friday we will go shopping because we have the Transition on Saturday" ( we are calling Saturday a Retreat, but he still gets words mixed up in cute ways). I told him it is only Ash Wednesday because that is the day Lent begins and some Christians mark the beginning of the time by receiving ashes on their forehead to remind them that man was created from dust and ash- at least symbolically. The other days between now and Easter are not called Ash anything, but simply called Lent" He said "Ohhhhh......". And then Bob whispered to me that I may be dust and ash , but he likes the way that they are put together in me. He is such a sweetie !