Happy Lent!

How come I never crave chicken as much as I do on specific days during Lent? It sounded so good and Michael brought home a free half Hawaiian/ half Meat Lovers pizza from Salvatore's since a customer never came to pick up their order. I couldn't share any of it since it has meat, so I stared at the pantry for a few minutes before mixing up cheddar broccoli rice and lentil beans. I got excited last week when Lauren, a super fun girl from Massage Envy who is going on a mission trip to Africa in May, said she was Catholic too!! And since we work the closing shifts a lot at work, we try to come up with ideas for what to eat those days. Most of the time I don't take a break and just suck on mints during my shift. Tonight I told her about Jim Gaffigan's hilarious religion act. "God Pocket!"

Michael was able to get two days off from work with me, so two days ago, on Ash Wednesday, he drove us to Atlanta to spend a night with Jessica. I can't believe I hadn't seen her in about a year and a half. I suppose that's one good thing about time going by so quickly these past few years. We got to her house at 2 o'clock as she left to pick up James from school. Jordyn's bus arrived across the street shortly after that. Jonathan got home from work before dinner and Michael was able to talk with him while Jordyn showed me her princess Lego set. Then we played Chutes and Ladders and a Mickey memory game that Jessica made out of paint color samples.

For dinner Jessica made really yummy jumbo pasta shells stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach baked in marinara sauce. I'm pretty sure I made the same thing last year for Ash Wednesday or one of the first Fridays of Lent! But she also had this amazing sun dried tomato bread. Then we hurried off to church. There was a lot more traffic than usual and we got there about halfway through the service and still had to stand in the lobby. We filed through the line to get ashes on our foreheads then found a vacant spot since a bunch of people left after they got ashes. James rubbed his finger all over Jessica's head which is why hers is almost rubbed off. And Jordyn's was leftover from mine.
Happy Lent!