Preparing for Lent

Last night I celebrated Shrove Tuesday by making crepes. This tradition goes way back, though typically it's pancakes, not crepes, that are made. The idea is to use up rich foods like eggs, milk and sugar before Lenten fasting. Crepes are made from the same ingredients as pancakes, just thinner, and I had been craving them since being served delicious crepes on my last morning in Toronto! I had a few ingredients that I figured would work nicely for savory crepes - tomatoes, parsley, mushrooms and cheese.

But you know, in the end, I preferred the delicious crepes with lemon and sugar. The crepes are lighter and zingy and taste so good!
And so Lenten fasting begins. Though this year I'm not actually giving up any tasty treats; I've decided to give up facebook instead. Facebook a huge time-sucker for me, and honestly I know I can be doing other things. So, I'm refocussing the time spent on Facebook on more quality things, like giving my time to my community (more on this later), getting involved in a church community, and other things.

Lent is supposed to be a time of sacrifice, remembrance, reflection and devotion. It's because of the significance behind the act of sacrifice (giving up something you enjoy, and giving up of yourself) that I choose to practice Lent, and not because of church tradition. This may be obvious to those who know that I grew up in the Baptist church, a denomination that doesn't practice Lent.

I'm not sure if I should admit this or not but so far giving up Facebook hasn't been that hard. It's really just been about breaking the habit, and not wasting my time being nosy ;).