I confess that I have been deeply unmotivated to write anything for this blog lately. Our schedule has been booked solid since the beginning of February and shows no signs of easing up until mid April. This year we have taken on a myriad of new responsibilities at church. We continued our usual tradition of orchestrating the weekly Lenten soup dinners and Vespers services at our home parish. We also very recently took on the positions of the marriage prep coordinators for our church. I’ve continued my habit of playing my flute with a small ensemble group at mass as accompaniment to the hymns once a month. Additionally, my husband was just initiated into the Knights of Columbus as a third degree Knight and joined a casual hockey league with work friends this year. I’m proud to say his team won the championship game! 

Amid all of the meetings, dinners, retreats, rehearsals, practices and two full time jobs, we are also rearranging our home to welcome family member number three. Our friends and family blessed us with a beautiful and incredibly generous baby shower. Even my extended family from Colorado flew out for the celebration. Our little house is now stacked high with boxes of every shape and size containing anything a baby might need. My husband has been spending his days off assembling nursery furniture and there’s still so much to unpack.

All this is to say that the hubby and I are wonderfully blessed but also very tired. My usual 5:30 am writing hour a few times a week before work always gets a bit squished or forgotten these days. Waking up so early has definitely become more challenging with pregnancy. Though I’m still a morning person, the process of becoming a functional human being every day seems to just take a little longer than it used to. 

Though this Lent has certainly been a time of increased fasting, almsgiving and prayer for us, there have been days when I think we both lost the thread of the season simply due to our ambitious schedule. My mom mentioned over the phone the other day that this has been a hard Lent and I have to agree. This wasn’t precisely the Lent either of us had envisioned when my husband and I were discussing our plans for the season. 

However, I do think it was one of spiritual growth for us both.By virtue of the miraculous blessing of the baby girl in my belly and our new efforts in our parish marriage prep ministry, we were able to draw into a much deeper understanding of the sacramental bond between man, wife and God. We had countless discussions this year pertaining to the raising of our little girl and how we might set her on a holy path. I also found immense peace and joy in our Lenten Vespers services and was totally humbled by the charity of others at times as I was blessed with an army of dutiful church ladies to help supply food for the simple soup dinners. It has been a busy Lent and, often an exhausting one, but I feel blessed to have experienced it all.