Bring on the COFFEE!

Easter afternoon.  I've had two (rather large) cups of coffee today and one bottled Starbux mocha frappucccino.  So far.  *Happy Sigh* 

 [[[jitterjitterjitter]]]

 I just may brew another pot for iced coffee and pull an all-nighter.  But that wouldn't be a good idea I guess.  I mean, it sounds good to me right now, but I'd regret it later.

[[[jitterjitterjitter]]] 

I really would.  Except that it'd mean I'd have all night to overdo Kindle reading, too...  Hmmm....

Coffee and Kindle are the main things I gave up this Lent, though I had a hard road deciding on either one. Before Ash Wednesday I'd threatened  to give up coffee, like I usually do.  But, I Wavered.  (Took a big sip of java.) Reconsidered.  Then, realizing how much I didn't want to give it up, knew it was exactly what I did have to do without.  So I did without. Forty days.  And I made it. Shew!

Me after a late night of
coffee and reading.

 The Kindle, though, was a different thing altogether.  I actually started up sacrificing Pintrest for Lent.  Which seemed like a good idea at the time...  But, then, with nothing left to unwind with (having given up TV as a family -- and accepting that there is only so much spiritual reading one can do without burning oneself out), I rediscovered my Kindle.  For less than $3.00 a book, a girl can just go hog wild with reading.  And I did. Hog. Wild.  But the intrinsic value of most of the books I read was less than $3.00 each. Figure that. So, practiced at giving the kids lectures about just such brain clutter, I had little choice but to pull myself up short at the midway point of Lent and switch out penances, taking back Pintrest (which does, at least, have some redeeming value: i.e.,  recipes, crafts, ubiquitous random inspiration), and sacrificing the Kindle instead.  It was the more noble road. But it turned out to be a harder one.

What a challenge dragging myself away from the addictive fluff novels I had devoured the first three weeks of Lent!  I'm even now suffering the DTs: depression (no silly dramas and amusing repartees to distract me from the oppression of America in the second year of the Obama administration); anxiety (what am I missing??? Will Destiny's sister, Charity, meet the Amish farmer of her dreams in the always-uplifting but meaningless sagas cranked out on Kindle?); craving (I NEED to read a silly novel; I MUST read a new silly novel; I may DIE without a silly novel to read at bedtime!)

Hard.  Hard.  Hard.  No coffee.  No fluff to distract me.  I'm so glad Lent's over.  It really, really stunk.

But that's the point, right? That Lent is supposed to be hard?  The road to Calvary couldn't have been more difficult. Jesus purposely chose the hardest route He could find, making the prize sweeter, and the lesson more perfect.  His sacrifice was a love offering for us. It's overwhelming to contemplate.  But really, isn't it true in the daily-daily, too?  The harder it is, the more we appreciate  the end result, the better we take the point.

If Dan gets up early to make coffee for the rest of us -- especially when he was also up late at Midnight Mass with us and has a long drive ahead of him in the afternoon -- that means something.  If Cathy spends the afternoon making bread sticks by hand to serve with dinner -- especially when we know she'd rather be outside playing volleyball -- that means something. If I let you use my camera after all the months it took to finally get it fixed, you know it means something.  And if William gives his sister the last purple peep instead of eating it himself... I will faint.


Happy Happy Easter, Anyone Who Happens By!  Many and Multitudinous Blessings during this Holy Season!  And Happy End of Lent!  I toast you with  my cinnamon Good Earth herbal tea -- because coffee at this hour really would be stupid!

But I am leaving now to go read a silly mystery novel about sleuthy cats.  TTFN!