GIVING UP COFFEE

It's been 27 days since Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and 27 days of no coffee for me.  Yes, this year I decided to give up coffee!  Now mind you, I'm not an avid coffee drinker in the sense that I drink it morning, noon, or night, but I do like to get my mornings started with a good cup of brew.  I also like the occasional stop to Starbucks.

So, I'm more than half way through Lent and doing good, but today was really hard.  I am just now coming off spring break which meant I had a whole week to sleep in, right?  Well sleep in until the kids woke up, which thankfully was 3 hours more than I normally get since I usually get up a 5a.m. 

Today, I'm back at work teaching, and it was so hard to not have that cup of coffee.  Not only did I lose my 3 extra hours of sleep, but Nicholas didn't want to sleep at all which means mom didn't sleep.  You don't know how bad I wanted to just give in and make that pot of coffee.  I even thought of stopping at my favorite coffee place, Starbucks of course, where it was already made for me, but I didn't.  I pushed it out of my mind and went to work without it.  I somehow made it through the day.

So, this is kind of a long story to get to the point, but I'll do that now.  I came home and eventually got to sit down and talk to my husband briefly about our day.  I mentioned the coffee thing and then he told me something that just left me stunned.  Did you know that the six Sundays in Lent are not counted?  I had no idea!  Now granted I did not grow up Catholic.  I became a Catholic while dating my husband and before we were married 19 years ago.  My husband on the other hand has been Catholic since birth. 

Anyway, I looked at him skeptical and asked why, but he didn't know why.  That was just something his mother had always told him.  Today, after my long, exhausted day at school I came home and started thinking about what I gave up for Lent and about Sundays not counting during Lent.  I decided to search the Internet to see if my husband was right.  Lo and behold, I discovered that it's true!  I learned that the six Sundays during Lent are not counted because each one represents a "mini Easter."  There are other religions that observe Lent too, and the forty days of Lent may be counted different.

So I learned something new today.  The only thing I can say is that I wish it wasn't Monday!