Lent Check - In

We are halfway through Lent and it is a great time to check in and see how we are doing on commitments to give things up or take things on during Lent and if they are drawing us closer to God.  A dear friend and fellow blogger wrote a great piece talking about the fact that Abandoning Your Lenten Resolutions Doesn't Make You a Failure!  So how are you doing this Lent?  What are you doing that is bringing you closer to God and what are things that have maybe not worked for you?  Have you made a change in your Lenten promises or have you fallen off your plan completely and need to use this time to re-examine and focus for the last few weeks of Lent? 

Remember my Lenten ideas to give up and take on this year?  You can find them HERE!  This is how I / we are doing:

1. Individually:
1. Whole 30:  This was the one area where I really had to re-examine and change.  I tried starting the Whole 30 and it just did NOT work for me right now.  It was too big of a change in my diet to go from eating fast food, pancakes, cereal, ice cream and other goodies to go straight into the Whole 30 diet!  I think if I would gradually change into this I would be more successful. 
1. I did not want to give up this goal of eating healthy up completely so I just needed to make a different plan, a more realistic life style plan.  I realized that I need to work on healthy eating for our whole family, branching out with cooking new healthy recipes and also truly committing to adding exercise to my daily life.  I made Orange Curry Chicken last week for the first time and made 12 chicken tenderloins so we would hopefully have some leftovers for lunch!  Instead my husband and I ate 4 total and our 3 children ages 5 and under polished off the other 8!  I think we are going through some growth spurts in our house.  I found an AMAZING accountability group on-line, I started using Beachbody's program T25 for my workouts and I am sticking to a 1500-1800 calorie daily diet.  I have been doing this for almost 2 weeks now and I am already feeling much better. 
   
2. Spiritual Reading/Journaling:  By starting off my day reading the daily Scripture readings, journaling with my Blessed is She journal and doing some spiritual reading with Scott Hahn I have truly been blessed!  It is allowing me time to put God and my prayer life first and it helps me to be more aware of my vocations and virtues throughout the day. 
   
2. Couple:
1. My husband and I got the Symbolon series that we are switching out to watch and complete together instead of just sitting down to watch careless television at the end of the day.  So far we have completed 5 of the episodes (usually about 2 per week) and are really liking it.  I have always enjoyed the Bible Studies that I have done with a wonderful group of women who I am friends with and it is completely different doing a study with my husband.  It is so good for me to hear how his struggles and applications about the faith are different than mine.  As a stay at home homeschooling mom I have really been able to immerse myself and our children with a Catholic homeschooling co-op, wonderful families from our parish, etc.  My husband works with many people with different opinions and being an Emergency Room physician has many different opportunities to be mindful about his faith throughout each day with his co-workers and patients.  I am blessed to be able to learn more and discuss our faith with him and I know it is benefitting our marriage and our level of intimacy.  I already have my eye on the Beloved Series for us to complete next!
3. Family:
1. We are gaining so much from taking Friday's off as quiet electronic free days and also praying the Stations of the Cross together.  We did have one Friday where we were all sick that we did end up turning on the television for a while, but other than that we have been doing great.  Since realizing how much better we all do when we move away from electronics I find that we all use them a lot less throughout the week now.  I truly think that this will be a lifestyle change for our family.

So how about you?  I would love to hear from you!  What are you doing that is working great and that you might want to continue throughout the rest of the liturgical year?  What is not working for you and your family to evaluate and adjust?  How can we encourage each other, pray for each other and bring our focus to God these last few weeks of Lent?