40 Days of Lent

Yes, things have been a bit quiet on the blog front, but not so on the home front. Life has been busy, but good.

Our family is participating in the 40 days of Lent. As the person overseeing "Children Discipleship Ministries" at our church (Gloucester Assembly of God), I put together an activity packet for the families of the church in order to participate in the 3 areas of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Giving to the Poor. If you would like to check it out, click here. I got the idea of the activity packet from the Ministry to Children website. To focus our prayer and giving, we are supporting the Daya Project. Click on their link for more information about this ministry in India.

Anyway, my girls (the oldest two) are really doing a great job with this. They love praying for the boys and girls (we have their pictures on the fridge) and Hannah often asks what our "activity" is going to be for the day. (Gracie's prayer is some part of the child's name, soft talking and then A ~ MEN!) Last week we made Mango Lassi... yummy! Everyone really enjoyed that dessert. Tomorrow we are going to try a recipe from a book we checked out of the library, A World of Food: India.We are going to make "kitchri," a lentil and rice dish. I'm curious to see how the girls will do with that. They often surprise me about food... things I think they will love, they don't and the opposite as well. I'm hoping that by helping me make the food, they will be more willing to try it. I'll let you know.

For me, I've been reading A Place at the Table by Chris Seay. It has been an eye-opening perspective on how much we have and consume in light of the world AND how our consumption is really bondage and idolatry.

Since I'm still nursing my daughter, I can't do a food fast, so I'm taking a facebook fast primarily, and quickly realizing how my addiction to FB is replaced by mindless wondering throughout the internet. I'm recognizing the internet is not "evil," yet the hold it has on me and my time isn't healthy. I've maintained my FB fast fairly well (only 1 view and several birthday postings from the blog), but I'm finding that there may be more that God needs to do in my media consumption. Obviously, I'm blogging now... still working on this!

So this is part of life at the Olsons. If you want to get in touch with me, I'm afraid you will need to use "old-fashioned" email or maybe even THE PHONE:-).