Lenten Initiatives

Ash Wednesday is coming, and I don’t know if I’ve ever looked forward to Lent so much. In fact, I feel almost guilty about it, like perhaps I should be feeling a bit more morose or I should be heading into it with more trepidation. But I’m not.

I think part of it is coming as a relief. A sigh that one releases upon really getting one’s hands dirty and labouring well. Tilling the soil. Working hard and knowing that in 6 weeks there will be joy; there will be new life; there will be some fruits of the labour.

I mentioned in my 7 Quick Takes that we are taking on a cool couple of challenges this Lent: 1) Going meat-free 2) Giving up TV. The second one isn’t as much of a challenge as the first – we were without cable (and most DVDs or anything – we were just too busy) for a number of years, so we’ve lived this way before and know we can do it. It’s more as a ‘getting back to basics,’ especially now that Spencer has come to rely on having his ‘shows’ regularly during the week. I’m not happy with where it’s leading, and all the wasted hours of him pleading me ‘I wanna watch a show’ over and over and over again rather than doing something else with his time. We will stick to having one show a week for him on Sundays.

The first challenge I’m looking forward to. We will be having a 2 week menu which rotates each week. I believe it was two years ago that we did something similar, but it was only a 1 week menu, every week. We got pretty sick of some of the items on that menu (even though they were delicious), so 2 weeks seems a little more reasonable. This is what our meal schedule looks like:

Week 1

Monday               Penne with Chickpeas
Tuesday               Spiced Lentil Soup
Wednesday:        Mediterranean Stewed Chickpeas on brown rice
Thursday             Dal with brown rice
Friday                  Chickpea Tacos

Week 2

Monday         Tortilla Bake
Tuesday           Veggie Patties (Andy refuses to call them ‘burgers’) on a bun
Wednesday     Fried Egg Sandwiches
Thursday         Bean Burritos
Friday              Fish & Chips

Saturdays are always leftovers. Sundays we will have meat. Based on this schedule, I’m going to have to re-evaluate when I make my bread and when I make the tortillas.

I’m looking forward to sharing with you our reactions to our meal plan 🙂 I am also in the process of making our Lenten calendar…I won’t quite be able to finish it currently, as I’m now waiting for my new shiny sewing machine to show up in the mailbox to finish it. Unfortunately the sewing machine I have isn’t working properly anymore :(. I’m sad, as it was my grandmother’s sewing machine. Too bad the repair guy said that it’s working as best as it can given its age. Skipping stitches just doesn’t help to sew things together, though. So it looks like within a week and a half I’ll have a new one to get used to and finish the project!

What are you doing for Lent this year?