Lenten Theme of the Week: Gratitude, and the 1st of our meatless Friday recipes!

Well, we're well into the first full week of Lent, and I'm feeling super energized. :-0 This is not unusual for me for the first week of Lent, and it is the topic of my upcoming Catholic Mom piece for March. ;-) My piece addresses 4 ideas for managing to persevere all the way through Lent without getting overwhelmed, and one of the ideas is to not take too many devotions on all at once; you'll see that this is very ironic given the sheer volume of devotionals and other prayers that I have shared/am about to share with you all as my Official Lenten Plan for 2020. 😂

This week, my thoughts immediately turned to Lenten gratitude, and the reason for that is COMMUNITY! I feel so grateful to be journeying along this Lent with all of you.

*virtual hugs and hearts*

In the mail last week, I had a little package from our dear community member Melanie. And look what she sent me!

Give up Worry for Lent

She knows I've been going through a struggle with anxiety lately, saw this book at a conference she was attending, and bought it for me as a gift. I mean, wasn't that so sweet and awesome of her?! Thank you so much, Melanie!

I've also been talking with my sister quite a bit about Lenten devotionals, and she recommended this one to me that she learned about from Twitter:

Remember Your Death and accompanying Memento Mori journal

In the spirit of community, I bought a copy. ;-) I've been keeping this one on my nightstand for use just before bed, and really liking it! I love sharing things like this with others in our group. *heart* I am feeling so very grateful this Lent to have such meangingful and long lasting relationships!

*group hug*

So as you can see, I've added to my Lenten arsenal. I'm just doing what I can, taking it all in, and enjoying everything! If I don't get to every devotional every single day during Lent, that's ok. I'm doing my best and learning a lot, and that's what is important!

We're also going to start weekly meal planning and recipe talk here on the blog during Lent, and so I snapped a picture of our family menu for Lent, Week 1:

Lots of leftovers on tap for this week, because I cooked a lot last week. We take the kids out to a restaurant once every other week as a little family tradition on the weeks Anne and I don't have Girl Scouts, and this week is one of those. For meatless options, this Friday we're having Ceasar Salmon Wraps:

If you're a vegetarian or do not enjoy fish, you could swap out the salmon for roasted or marinated vegetables! I think bell peppers, tomatoes and avocado would work particularly well.

Each Thursday, I'll feature a free meatless recipe that we'll also be trying! If it involves fish (and it often will, we like seafood), I will suggest vegetarian alternatives. :)

Check out Catholic Mom's Meatless Friday archives here!

What are you choosing for your Friday meal this week? How is gratitude playing a part in your Lent? I'd love to hear from you!

So I did a thing :0

Let's just say it's been a long week. A super, duper long week. Insert visual image here of me teaching my students how to upload their newly minted collages into their ePortolio headers. Then picture 40 of them individually calling me over to explain it to them one-on-one because they neglected to pay attention while I was doing so.

!!!

Trying. Very trying. But I got some excellent feedback from my post last week about finding a place we could all hang out, chat, and support each other besides just the blog comment area. A little bit more real-time, if you will. ;-)

So I created a Facebook group! I'm not thinking this is going to be a hotbed of activity, to be sure. But if you'd like to join, have at it! We'll have weekly Gratitude posts to uplift our spirits, and you can feel free to post prayer requests in there too. It will be a lovely, supportive place for us to seek each other out when we need a friendship boost!

You can search in Facebook for CatholicLibrarianHangout, or use this link, and request to join. I have it set so that you can add people to the group, too.

We'll try this out and see how we like it! I'd love to have you in there! *heart*

***edited to add: I just had a thought!

Eureka!

When we have book clubs, we can do FB Live chats to discuss the book!

*virtual high five!*

5 things I'm grateful for today...

Let's do a little exercise together, shall we? ;-) 5 things that we're grateful for right here and now. I'll start!

Fall Activities

Autumn is my favorite season of the entire year. All year I look forward to crunching in fallen leaves, putting mulling spices into warm cider, buying Pumpkin Spice Lattes out the wazoo, and going to things like corn mazes. We took the kids to one this past weekend, and we all reveled in the fall glory. And our foliage in WNY is pretty spectacular right now.

Cute Kids

My kids can sometimes make me dream about Calgon taking me away, but they are both such sweet and goodhearted children. They're also tremendously cute and oftentimes fun to be around. ;-)

Friends and Fellowship

This weekend I also attended a Partylite (candles and home decor) party, as a friend from my dance troupe sells it. I won the adorable pumpkin votive holders you see above, about which I am just tickled. It makes me happy to see them flickering alongside Mary up on our mantle. When I look at them, I think about getting together with friends (whether it be in person or online), and enjoying their company. I have that in abundance in my life, and for that I cannot fully ever express my gratitude. 

Beautiful Things

I take a picture of this same sugar maple tree near my house every single year. This is the third year running. It is currently at peak foliage. I love when it is bright orange on the top, but the bottom still has leaves that are transitioning from green into orange, and individual leaves display both colors. Stunning. 

My Marriage

Today I waxed poetic about fragrance in my Scentsy group on Facebook, asking them what fragrance meant to them, and why they love it. I posed it as a "philosophical question," and my philosopher husband reported in to say that the question we should be asking ourselves is whether the fragrance is a property of the wax itself, or whether it's something we create in our own minds.

*SNORT!*

Is it any wonder that I love him so much? He makes me laugh every single day.

All right dear readers. Have your own list of 5? Go for it! In the comments. :)