Pancake Day & Other Silliness!

Pancakes are a definite hit in our house, so if was a given that they were going to be our lunch today, but it occurred to me this morning that traditional pancake races had never really been a part of my children's experience. I'm not sure how it slipped my mind to educate them about this tradition, but to be fair I'm not sure I've been part of such an occasion since I left primary school. Somehow it had seemed to slip from my memory, and when something I saw on Facebook this morning jogged that memory I felt it was a tradition that should definitely be revived! 

SO, today we did out bit to bring back the old ways!! I did try to get the girls to don their aprons, but they declined, however I do think Minnie's washer-woman head-wear is quite fitting :D

We cheated a little bit (because pancakes are simply to delicious to waste!) and used tortillas for tossing - they are a bit firmer and easier to cut to the various sizes of our frying pans...

Aside from the races, it was just lovely to be able to be outside. We've not had ANY snow this year, but SO much rain and that has kept us pretty much boxed up in the house too much of the time. Today was all about being outside ~ playing footy, 

riding bikes (Stitch is concertedly trying to master his now, but I ddin't get any pictures of him),

 and even the climbing frame & the trampoline got a look in :D

And so, tomorrow is the beginning of Lent... are you 'giving up' anything?

In the past I have given up TV, & breakfast, and I have taken up better things in their place ~ namely using the time for prayer instead. Breakfast was no biggie to give up really, but using the time to pray was harder than it might sound.        
   Giving up TV at the time was huge ~ I was an avid follower of Home & Away & Neighbours (to name just two I can strongly remember being hooked on) and conversation at school became difficult when everyone was talking about what happened 'last night' ... BUT it did break the habit for me and I've never really become addicted to TV again. There are a couple of programmes I enjoy, and would be sorry to miss, but on the whole it's not a big part of my life any more.    
   When I was at college I used lent to give up a caffeine addiction - giving up chocolate and ALL caffeine was a tough one, but has been something I never really went back on. I can really take or leave chocolate now and have drunk decaf' coffee ever since. Coke is also a pretty much take-or-leave thing. 
    There is something to be said for 40 days of self-discipline. It is great for breaking habits and time enough to form better ones... however, all that said, I'm not giving anything up for Lent this year. Perhaps I should, but I'm not. There are things I think I could change, do better, use time more wisely with, but I'm just not ready to make those changes right now. However, I am keen to use these next 40 days to form a new habit ~ I want to read my Bible more & I want to reteach myself to play the flute ~ I was pretty good at both once upon a time :( !