The question went round recently, What are you giving up for Lent? Turned out a lot of Hammockfolk do make sacrifices for the 40 day period (not including Sundays, which may be why it seems longer) that comprise Lent. Here’s their list:

Bill: I was responsible for posting this, and as you can see by the date of this post, I haven’t decided to give up procrastination. Lent wasn’t a major part of my family tradition, so I’ve never given anything up. I’ve sometimes tried to add things, though – figuring if Lent is a time to get right spiritually, maybe I should do something that I wasn’t doing, like regularly going to church or eating dark-green leafy vegetables. Kind of like a New Year’s Resolution do-over. Rarely successful, too. My wife has decided to give up TV – she did this on another Lent and made it about 6 months longer before the tube got her again. I wonder if the fact she bought a TiVo right before Lent takes away some of the spiritual purity of her decision?

Jamie: I’m giving up chocolate, as well as a little bit of sleep. I’ve promised to get up a half-hour earlier in the morning. I failed miserably at last year’s pledge to get up an hour earlier, so this year I made the crucial adjustment. The toughest fast I’ve ever had was the year I gave up bread. I never would have made it on Atkins.

Barbara Mathieson: Sometimes I give things up; sometimes, not. Last year I tried to give us cursing, but didn’t leave the house before the first word flew out of my mouth. My big push this year is to stay calm and not freak out about stuff. I’ll try to keep that in mind for Lent. I stayed pretty tense and high strung throughout most of February.

Megan: I was raised Catholic, so every year my mom would make me give up stuff for Lent. I always tried to give up homework, but since she wouldn’t let me get away with that I ended up going without video games or television-the things a kid really needs. But now that I’m not Catholic anymore, I guess you could say I’ve given up Lent for Lent?

Laura: I’m giving up butter. Trust me, it’s going to be really, really hard. Nothing makes a dish taste better than real butter. I will probably use this time to also explore my Chinese cookbook, which does not seem to focus on butter in quite the same way that Southern cooking does.

Lynne: I announced to Dave this morning that I’m giving up Cokes/Dr. Peppers for Lent, so I guess I’ll go ahead and commit to this.

Lisa: I would like to give up cokes…more specifically cokes with artificial sweetners.

Emily: I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give up coffee, but I am trying to give up putting sugar and cream in my coffee.

Rex: I am going to give up putting sugar and cream in Emily’s coffee also.