Clean Monday

Today is Clean Monday - the first day of Great Lent for we Orthodox Christians. Today is the day we begin fasting strictly - generally avoiding meat, fish, dairy, eggs, oil, wine - to prepare for the Great Feast of Pascha. It's called "Clean Monday" because the tradition is to spend this day cleaning your home (and probably doing some spiritual cleaning as well) and getting rid of or freezing all the leftover non-fasting type foods you won't be eating for several weeks. Some people try not to eat anything at all on this day. I personally can't manage that much, but I am trying to eat less. My goal during this Lent is to eat less in general while drinking more water. And to waste less time on vain pursuits like television watching but more time on prayer and contemplation. Hopefully this will help me manage to be less cranky, because those hormones are really kicking into high gear.

I have been thinking about whether or not I should separate out the parts of my life into different blogs - maybe a scrapping blog, a kids blog, the blog where I analyze my childhood... but that seems silly (and too much work!). So, you all are stuck with all of this - all of me. I've reached a steadier state lately with regard to processing my abuse issues (thank God!) so it's been nice to take a break from blogging about it. Don't get too complacent with the scrapping layouts and cute kid stories, though. Lent is upon us. It's the time of year to find oneself and sometimes come under spiritual attack. Hopefully not, but it's good to be prepared.

While the Deac was at the marathon Parish Council meeting yesterday, I spent the afternoon with a friend of mine who has had many pregnancy losses. She just found out she is pregnant again after undergoing surgery to remedy her issues. I hope against hope this one sticks and that she will be granted a happy and healthy baby this fall. The weird thing is that she would've conceived this baby at (almost exactly to the day) the same time of year we conceived our St. Raphael miracle, Emmelia. And I know my friend has been asking St. Raphael for his prayers. I will not be at all shocked if her baby is safely delivered on the first Saturday of November - the Feast of St. Raphael. If it is, I've already told her she has to include Raphael or Raphaela in the name somewhere.