Fat Tuesday Antics from the Susanka Seven

The boys are gearing up for Lent with their usual enthusiasm.

The Furious Five Eldest spent a lively breakfast hour engaged in “Give-Up One-Upmanship,” where each vies with the others in an attempt to come up with the most outlandish sacrifice. “I’m going to give up the iPad during the day!” Well, I’m going to give up all screens during the day, not just the iPad! And only watch one episode at night” “Hah! I’m going to give up watching anything during the week!” “Oh, yeah? I might never watching anything again, ever! Or have fun, maybe! Or breath!” (OK, I made that last one up. But it was going there, and quickly.)

Of course, this amusing little game of Sacrificial Chicken was followed almost immediately by “Give-Up Walk-Backmanship” — the stage where the younger ones realize that giving things up means actually…you know…giving things up. And who wants to do that? Still, Lent is definitely on their radar. Which puts them light-years ahead of my Adolescent Self. (Translation: “My Adult Self.”)

First, though, they’re going all in on Fat Tuesday. I expect to be an entirely sugar-free household by mid-afternoon at the very latest. In the meantime, I feel obliged to report that the cocoa powder and baking soda did not survive the morning. (No, I can’t think of scenario where combining those two things — those two things exclusively, I should add, since that’s apparently what happened — would be appropriate to the day. Or to any day, ever. But in possibly-related news, Nathan had a bath!)

Also, I might not go home for lunch. #DiscretionIsTheBetterPartOfValor

Attribution(s): “Samurai Image That Could Practically Be My Boys” via Perati Komson / Shutterstock.com; “Terrifying Chat Image Recreation” provided by me.