My lunch in Lent?

 I try to fast between meals during Lent. This year, I decided to go a step further and make sure the meals were healthier and I wasn't filling up on 'fun' food in order to cope with the time span linking the food intake. That was harder.

After a couple weeks of sort of feeling a bit sorry for myself, I slowly realized that I was craving junk food less and actually looking forward to my lunch. I keep strict time schedules on this and noticed my hunger was in line with noon time exactly. I keep to basically the same items every day because I have noted that once I allow creativity to creep in, I start adding foods that aren't always that good for me.

As you can see, I put together my lunch in a nice way. My 'main' meal is a couple of string cheese sticks, three ounces of raw broccoli, and five ounces of bell peppers. The olives are a treat my husband bought for me. Dessert is an apple and two kiwis. It doesn't stuff me but it keeps me going until dinner at six or so.

After I took the picture, it came to mind that I was very blessed in my lunch routine and the fact that I had access to enough fruits and vegetables to satisfy health and hunger needs. Yes, there are times when a greasy donut or a bar of chocolate almost sounds good but I've gotten happily used to my fresh food lunch.

Perfect! My kind of 'religion'! :-)

MOTHER: "Did you know that God was present when you stole that cookie from the kitchen?"

CHILD: "Yes."

MOTHER: "And he was looking at you all the time?"

CHILD: "Yes."

MOTHER: "And what do you think he was saying to you?"

CHILD: "He was saying 'There is no one here but the two of us – take two.'" :)

From "Heart of the Enlightened" by Anthony de Mello.

Right in line with my previous post!

Television is the triumph of machine over people.

- Fred Allen

When the Internet is down, you gain . . .

We had an amazing day of lightening and thunder a few months. The house shook, the lightening flashed, our dog look reproachfully at us . . . and the Internet went down ALL DAY LONG! What to do?! How could we survive a long day without access to our blogs and e-mail. We forgot to be thankful we still has electric power.

Well, I discovered I could get a lot more sewing done when I didn't drop by the computer ever so often to see if my 'you have mail' flag was flying. In fact, I almost got two, large quilts to the finishing stages that day. Things like the laundry got done because sitting around soon got boring for my daughter. My son used the elliptical to even greater advantage than usual. The Monopoly Game came out and two of my children rediscovered the fun of a board game when they were bored!

Later, we found a DVD we hadn't viewed (the television was also not broadcasting) and settled down with sewing and snacks to enjoy the evening. Suddenly, my son yelled, "I see the power light! The Internet is back up!" Everyone scattered, Monopoly money flew, no longer hoarded, and the day lost some of it's fun in a way.

The last quote really makes you think . . .

"The only good ideas are the ones I can take credit for."
-- R. Stevens

"The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois."
-- Gustave Flaubert

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
-- Albert Einstein

"A good listener is usually thinking about something else."
-- Kin Hubbard