Today is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday - whatever you prefer. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday or the first day of Lent.

Many Christians choose to give up something for Lent, the forty days before Easter. I have chosen to give up chocolate or sugary treats some years. Another year I decided to write a card, note or letter to someone every day for 40 days. I managed to accomplish this too and rather enjoyed it.

This year there have been too many things going on around here and I completely forgot about Lent until Kathy mentioned it in her blog this morning.

There have been times this winter when I have considered just giving up PERIOD but that is not my style. The women in our family generally have not been quitters. My mother turns 96 tomorrow and although she hardly knows her own name these days, last week she told my sister the exact month and date of her birth.

If she's not ready to give up, I have no excuse!

I'll have to think about Lent. It is the most important period of the Christian calendar although Evangelical churches rarely mention it any more. Considering the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf, 40 days meditating on His death and resurrection and commemorating it in some way, seems a small thing.