It's LentAl time!

Do you remember LentAl from last year? I gave up dairy to see if it would affect my health. It did, but, alas, I still eat some dairy now and then. Anyway, it's LentAl time again.

This year, I decided to embrace the "adding something positive" part of LentAl. But, there is a story behind this LentAl what I have committed myself to.

I recently finished reading a book called 365 Nights by Charla Muller. The basic idea is that Charla, for her husband's 40th birthday, gives him The Gift, the Gift being one entire year of sex every day, for better or for worse. Of course, at this point, you're probably asking yourself, "Is Mara really going to tell us about her and Joel's sex life now?" Of course not! :)

The truth is, the book, while it's birth came from The Gift, is largely not about sex. Of course, it is about sex, but, it's a lot more about marriage, life, relationships, and much more.

What Muller comes back to time and again throughout the book, is that it's quite normal for married mothers these days to focus their energy on either being the best moms they can be, or on balancing work and motherhood and therefore trying to be the best employee they can be- but rarely do they spend lots of energy thinking about how to be a better wife. Now, I realize I am only getting close to either of these roles, but, well, I reckon the book was a good way to get myself thinking along the right lines.

So, the then, the LentAl goal for this year is about intimacy. Now, intimacy does not equal sex, but neither does it exclude sex. But, the goal is that for 15 minutes a day, we turn off the tv, shut down the computers, close the books and just be with each other. We talk about our days, our plans for the future, anything that is on our minds...

For now, it's working. It's not that Joel and I weren't intimate before; I think we had quite a normal relationship that includes a bit of the tug of war of the genders (she wants to talk all the time, he doesn't want to talk at all, etc). But, for me, this added bit of intimacy is indeed making me enjoy our relationship more. And I think that is great. I'm not entirely sure how Joel feels about the situation- but he agreed to it and he's going along with it, without resistance, so he must feel ok. :)

I mean, see how cute and happy we are?