Lent is coming

Having recent read Catherine Here and Emma's Here blog posts on Lent, I have decided I need to make one too. I still haven't finished my one on 2018 goals. :( I need to get to work on that.

Having thus far been rather lazy in Nineveh 90, I'm really going to step down hard in Lent. (Something I said in regard to Advent and Nineveh 90) 

I have several goals for Lent. Some are secular but hopefully most are Spiritual.

Spiritual Reading: I am just about done with The Glories of Mary and hope to finish it before Lent starts, then I start Lent on a fresh book. I haven't quite decided what yet. I'm kind tossing up between The Introduction to the Devout Life or Glories of the Martyrs or Purgatory. I want to get into the habit of doing more Spiritual reading. As it is, I'm mostly doing it on the Weekends or when I don't have work. I keep my Spiritual reading on my bed, and read it when I wake up. This doesn't work really well if I'm getting up early for work. Although maybe I should be less lazy and set my alarm for earlier. But whatever I plan on doing, I need to get into the habit of reading some every day.

Mass: One of the things suggested for Nineveh 90 was daily Mass. I told myself I would go every day. I usually go because that's my ride to work. Well, that didn't go as planned. I can't really control that part much, because I'm not driving. But I hope to go to Mass more often.

Spiritual Writing: I bet this doesn't come up all that often. :D But I love writing. That's my hobby. For a long time now I have been thinking of writing more “Catholic” stuff. I mostly write fantasy. I had this story idea for a long time for these Rosary stories. Called” “The Joyful Encounters,” “The Sorrowful Encounters,” and “The Glorious Encounters. Each story would have five short stories that are about the mystery, from a fictional character's point of view. (Annunciation and the Crowning of Mary might be a bit difficult, but I have ideas.) I actually wrote out some ideas. I might post those later. Maybe I'll do the Sorrowful ones for lent and post one each week. Another story idea I had was for one about the early Christians from a fictional martyr's point of view. I was also considering rewriting my “Life is Short” book. I originally had it take place in the future. (The easy way of not researching anything) but I think I will change it to 2016+ that way I can have Trump's election and the 2018 March for Life in it. I also need to do more research on some stuff, so I can actually make it more realistic. It's about social issues from a person who knows nothing about either side of the issues. He's supposed to have natural reactions to everything.

Sacrifices: Every year for Lent we give up sweets and movies. Well, I think I'm going to move it up a step this Lent. To me, sweets are (besides candy, cake and cookies) syrup, honey, jelly (peanut butter does not count) and anything that is supposed to unnecessary sweeten something. Well, I decided to get rid of condiments too. No ketch, mustard, pickle relish, mayo, miracle whip, salad dressing, and so on. I will allow peanut butter for sandwiches or I would just be eating two slices of bread, which I suppose wouldn't actually be so bad. I have often thought about doing no condiments, but I never did it. I'm a big condiment person. Although I will skip salad dressing from time to time.

In addition to the above I'm going to try to get into the habit of making one sacrifice at every meal. I used to do that. My mom used to say us kids should do that. Well, this Lent I'm going to get into the habit.

My extra sacrifice for lent is going to be no internet. This should be easy for the first weak or so, since we are low on internet again. I will allow myself to check email once a day. I still need to read my Nineveh 90 emails. But I don't need to do blogging or check more then once.

Secular

Reading: I need to read more. Surprise! What with my writing and using the computer for my writing stuff, blogging, email and doulingo I don't really read as much as I used too. I'm going to get back into that habit. I have a couple of titles that I want to get around too. The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Deliverance of Sister Cecelia, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and David Copperfield. To me that looks like a short list. But none of them are actually short.

Writing: First and foremost. I want to finish off any books I owe people. Edit Stranded on Horror Island. Finish Night Shadows, The Prisoner, and The Pirate's Chest. I need to stop piling up my work. :D Then I want to actually finish some of the original books I started writing. The King's Assassin, The Golden Birds III The Sword, The Silver Dragon, The Return of the Dragon-Killers, The Tower Prisoners or any number of those really old stories. Some of them seem awful boring. But I never liked having unfinished stories around. I want to get my count of finished books up to 100 this lent. But before finishing all these, I need to finish editing the Prince Charming Diaries so I can publish them. I'm planning on self publishing them in one volume along with some illustrations, which need some work yet. I hope to finish all that before the end of Lent.

Drawing: I want to get into the habit of drawing more. Practice makes almost perfect. I really need to work on my drawings. I want to make them more realistic looking. It takes a lot work, patience and practice. I want to get all my illustrations for the Prince Charming Diaries done during the first couple weeks of Lent. Hopefully the first week. I have all the princes' portraits done. I just need to do Kane and Elise. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything else besides the portraits.

Study: At the moment I'm not studying anything. I need to change that. I hope to find a course on creative writing. Hopefully I can do that. Also, I am going to try and work on my doulingo every day. At the moment I'm doing Greek, Polish and Italian.

Cleaning: I plan on attempting to keep my room clean/get it clean/make it stay that way all through Lent. I like my room clean, but I'm bad about keeping it that way. One of my roommates is messy. :D Actually we all are. I want to change that.

Spending more time with the family: I'm always home, but I'm always off doing my own thing. Last Sunday I went outside with a bunch of my siblings and played Orc hunting. We had such fun. I got out my cloak and Sting. It was just like old times. (I used to do that quite regularly when I was younger) I think I need to contribute more to the family to make it a happier home.

I ragazze scrivono. Don't ask me what it means. I wrote it down but forgot what it meant. Something about a girl writing I think. It's in Italian.

I'm still working on a daily schedule.

~E