picture perfect …

… every year it is the same thing. I never do Lent right. This year is no different, having neither given up vice or added virtue.

In fact, until today, I had not seen the inside of a confessional since last August. Hopefully that doesn’t shock you all seeing as how the only thing I am good at giving up is pretense of piety.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate catechism in the form of arts & crafts? I think I made have said something once or twice. Well, truth is I have a love and hate relationship with the whole crafty catechism crap. Like I do with Martha Stewart and those Southern Living magazines.

They’re so neat, full of fun ideas. Look, I can redecorate my kitchen with chicken wire and Native American pottery. It will be so chic. Then my friends can come over and be envious of my style while noshing on home made queso dip made with vine ripened tomatoes from my garden.

Next I envision creating those memorable cherished mother-son moments at my finely polished kitchen table making pipe cleaner Apostles and using a cactus and glitter puffy paint to symbolize some great point in the life of Christ. And my son looking up at me with doe eyed admiration at the wonderful pious mom sitting before him.

Basically I use glossy magazines and stay at home mom blogs to measure the interior of my family. And I always fall miserably short.

After a certain measure of guilt has built up in me I decide the best thing to do in both instances is to quit trying. That’s when I have cereal for dinner and I haven’t prayed the rosary in so long I wonder if they added a new Mystery. Or go eight months without making a proper confession.

Then before you know it Lent has arrived and is half over.

But the wonderful thing about the Church is no matter how long you stay away, be it eight months or thirty five years you can always make it right. And God always forgives… that and He doesn’t care whether I bake “Calvary Cookies” for my son’s faith formation class. So there.