40 days // 40 nights (and one very long spell)

Well, hello well over three month blog hiatus. I have been off the blogging wagon. Big time. Clearly.

I do, at least, have a few good reasons (excuses). For one, the bell pepper sized human growing inside of me. This baby is kicking my butt. Maybe it's because this time around I'm chasing around a toddler. Maybe it's just been a harder pregnancy. Or maybe it was the coinciding of my first trimester with the holidays. Whatever it was, the margins were too small. Too many early nights and work not done and pinterest projects I only had the energy to pin but not to imagine ever doing. Alas, we made it through. Hello, honeymoon trimester. I love you!

Second, house project city. The impending summer arrival of the wee one number two has us kicking house projects into gear. This summer the plan is to just have a baby, not have a baby and a house per a few summers ago. Soooo we have just finished off the upstairs bathroom renovation (hooray!) and the unexpected replacement of our hot water heater (boo!). Picture series forthcoming (maybe even of the heater - it's pretty much the most beautiful appliance I've ever seen after a few months of never knowing if we'd have hot water or not!).

Third, busy busy talkative toddler in the house! For real! Miss A is growing like a weed (sort of - pooky is still in the bottom ten percent for height and in twelve month pants...) and talking up a storm. She is charming and funny and too smart - we can't stay on our toes with this one. She hears and understands everything. And she just started using her big girl potty - not regularly, but once in a while. Enough to make one hopeful. I could pretty much go on all day about the cute things she says, but I'll leave it at just starting to say "love you" (melt my heart) and also pointing to our bed and saying "cuddle" in the morning when she wakes up. Can't even handle it.

So anyhow. Here we are. Mid-February and dreaming of spring and doing well. And as of tonight, three days out from the beginning of Lent 2012...

Which brings me to my point. Finally. My dear Pops was a big time Lent observer. Yes, because I know some of you are thinking this, people who are not Catholic do observe Lent. And his love for the season of drawing in, reflecting and owning the darkness that is a part of us all, a part of this life, left an undeniable dent on me. I love Lent and all that it stands for. And I some years do a better job than others at making a conscious commitment to a Lenten discipline.

This years' promise will begin next Wednesday...and my plan is to give up Facebook. P and I have been having quite a lot of conversations about the old 'Book lately. About the parts of it that we love - most notably connecting easily with dear friends and family on a regular basis. But we've also talked about the parts that are a little difficult for us to grapple...the status updates from people I haven't seen in over ten years and wondering if it's just the littlest bit strange that I know the details of their daily lives when I can hardly remember what they look like otherwise. Facebook as a vehicle for self-promotion. The ultimate time waster of scrolling through status updates when I should be doing - could be doing - so many other things. And most importantly, catching myself crafting my own profile and updates and responses to fit into some image I have of who I am and how I present myself to the world of Facebook. Um, yuck. Yes, I'm being somewhat overdramatic. But I think the challenge will be a worthwhile one...a challenge to pick up the phone instead of sending a profile message, to pull away from the computer and into life, and to return to the blog where I can feel deeper and more free than in a "everyone I know will see this" status update. So meet me here from Ash Wednesday to Easter. We shall see what happens (and hint, somewhere in there, you just might by greeted by a gender announcement...wheeee!).