Hello and welcome, belatedly, to 2021.
I realize I didn't do my annual resolutions blog. Well, oh well. I was going to resolve to lose weight, drink more water, exercise more, blog more, be nicer, be more patient, cook better... blah, blah, blah.
I think anyone who's read this blog more than a couple times knows ain't none of that is going to happen this year. Old dog, new tricks...not the way 2021 is starting. Nope.
Where I'm very bad at making New Year's Resolutions, I am VERY GOOD at giving stuff up for Lent. Seriously. I rock at giving up one thing for the six weeks of Lent. (I can hear you all saying, "What a weird thing to be good at!")
Full disclosure, I started giving up stuff for Lent years ago, mostly as a challenge. I had a Catholic friend who made a big deal about giving up meat during Lent...until we went out for dinner one Friday night. Then, she said, "If anyone asks, I'm Jewish." (I'm not sure who she thought would ask us that question at the Outback Steakhouse...)
So that's how it started off, I just wanted to try something my friend was doing. I sort of did it better than she did, which annoyed her.
Twenty years later, I've lost touch with that friend, (in big part because I annoyed her) but I still see Lent as a time to give up something, both as a reminder of sacrifice and as a challenge to myself.
In the past I've given up chocolate (brutal. I have a great story about not quite making it to Easter and eating some chocolate I'd been using as part of a candle display when I sold Partylite candles. That did not end well. But that's a story for another day.) I've given up chips, dip, candy, bread, and last year I believe I gave up everything (except tomatoes) that ended in TOS or TOES. (Giving up potatoes was rough.) So this year, what to do, what to do?
I'd like to give up something that's a real sacrifice, to get me into the true meaning of Lent (click here if you're unsure what that is).
Generally I give up a food thing because it's tangible. I tried giving up intangibles (impatience, procrastination, which, weirdly are both things I can't control in myself) but how do you know if you're really doing the work? So I'm back to giving up a food thing. And I have to go back to the thing that really, really, really is my weakness: breads. Bread, English muffins, buns, toast, bagels. I love them all far too much, or maybe I love what I spread on them too much. So it's kind of a two for one: Giving up breads and really cutting down on butter, jams, peanut butter, cream cheese...all that good stuff.
So there we go. Starting Wednesday of this week...no bread.
For the next 48 hours, if you want me, I'll be lying on my couch, working my way through a loaf of sourdough toast caked in butter topped off with a bag of Einstein bagels covered in veggie schmear.
