Time Fillers

So how is the no TV for Lent thing going you ask?

Oh, well, pretty swimmingly for the most part, thanks for asking.   Alisa knows a real live Catholic, and she happened to mention that in real Catholic homes, Lent is not observed on Sunday.  You get the day off to indulge on Sunday, I guess because you are so busy doing other religious things.  Seriously? How awesome is that?  My Mormon guilt complex tells me this is somehow flawed reasoning, but hey, who am I to argue with the Pope?  So, only because Alisa told me it was okay to cheat on Sundays, I did watch an episode of Hoarders last week.  But other than that, and maybe a couple of other minor, minor slip ups, I have been overwhelmingly good and faithful and true in sticking to my resolution.

This is not to say that the television is ever off at our house.  Somebody is always watching something, and it is the background noise of my life.  Fortunately, ESPN, politics, and Cartoon Network are not exactly attention grabbers for me.  And I  found out that the Internet and Facebook can be every bit as time zapping and mind numbing as TV, and some nights it's hard to not use them to tune everything out instead of TV.  I can't give up everything though- I'm already surviving without Dr. Phil and Chick-Fil-A--- give a girl break here!

Giving up TV has been a lot like giving up fast food: there are certain moments when a major craving hits, and you have to buckle down and ride it out, but for the most part, I can't figure out where it ever fit into my life.  We were spending a lot of money on fast food.  But now that we aren't spending ANY money on fast food, it's not like we have piles of extra cash laying around.   And I thought I was wasting a lot of time gawking at the TV, but now that I am not, I for sure do not have piles of extra time laying around either.  So what I really want to know is where is all my extra time and money?

Olivia is not much of a TV watcher either, because she is the littlest and never gets a chance to be in charge of the remote.  So she and I have been good buddies lately.  We have spent evenings laying around on my bed, reading and shooting the breeze and looking at the globe.  She knows the directions on the compass, where North and South America are,  that Italy is shaped like a boot, and that you have to cross the English channel to get from France to England.  We are a little bit preoccupied with all things France around here.  Oh, and I have been reading some great books.. Other than that, I can't think of much else I have added into my routine. I am ashamed to say I have not started exercising, or organizing or cleaning.  I still have days and days for all of that though.  I think.  When is Easter anyway?