Wednesday, Feb. 22

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. These weeks before Easter are a time of prayer and self-denial. It's a good time to give something up. It should be something that would really be missed during that time. When I was around ten years old, that something was comic books.

Believe me, I thought the weeks would never end until I could grab a comic book again! I particularly liked the "Archie" comics, about a 17-year-old redheaded high school boy and his two main crushes, Betty and Veronica. I'm contemplating now what I could give up that would be as meaningful as that. Chocolate, maybe?

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. The pool was a bit cooler than it was Wednesday, but it still felt wonderful. Our usual leader wasn't available this morning, because her fibromyalgia is flaring up. So we had a substitute leader today. She's okay, but I don't prefer her style.

I don't usually stay until the very end of the sessions, because I want to get down to the dressing room ahead of others, so I can find a bathroom free, and there will be plenty of room for changing into my clothes. With the regular leader, there is a certain point in the session when I know it is best to leave. But with the substitute, who doesn't follow the usual routine, I have trouble knowing when to quit. I managed today okay, though.

Back home, Hubbie and I gathered the ingredients for making chili. Sis and Mother came over soon after, and while I was getting ready for the day, they got the chili ready to simmer. Mother diced the necessary veggies, and Sis did the rest.

After a lunch of leftover soups, we went on an outing to the home of one of the ladies in water aerobics. Lots of jonquils are blooming on her property, and she wanted me to go by and see them. I tried to call her before we went, but she wasn't home. I took lots of snapshots of the flowers, and as I was finishing, the lady's husband drove up. He said his wife was visiting her doctor, but he was delighted that we were enjoying the jonquils.

Back home, Mother and Sis finished the jigsaw puzzle they started yesterday, while Hubbie worked in the yard, and I went upstairs to my office to download the photos and upload some of them to my social network page.

Later, while I made a blackberry cobbler, Sis went through a stack of recipes that Mother and I discarded when we sorted our cookbooks recently. Sis found a bunch she is able to use, but there is still a mighty stack for other family to go through when they come for Mother's birthday party the first weekend in March.

Supper was very good. Thanks, Sis. Afterward, we played three rounds of Skip-bo. Mother, Hubbie, and I won them...so it's Sis's turn tomorrow night.

We ended the evening by enjoying helpings of the cobbler topped with ice cream. Hubbie had regular ice cream, Mother and I had low-fat, low-sugar, and Sis had the lactose-free kind.

Mother and Sis went to Mother's house after that, and Hubbie and I watched TV until bedtime.