@LadyShadow - What a gorgeous picture! I'm religious but haven't been to church in a long time. The church we really liked going to had a financial planning class there and oh, boy, it was the Dave Ramsey deal, we went and H was not happy at all with the ethos of that plan and then said some things to some members of the group and now we're kind of embarrassed to go back. Also, the music, while nice, is very loud; modern Christian, and they've got a whole live band of church members playing the instruments and the amps to blow out your ears! H and I were okay with the music; it's just my daughter, she has so many sensory issues and hasn't really outgrown any of them. One of them is loud noises, she can't even stand when I vacuum or run the stand mixer both of which are much quieter than the church music; she goes in her room and shuts the door when I vacuum or mix things. We tried a couple other churches, but really didn't care for the services. Though my mom did take us to church every Sunday; I thought it was an incredible bore as it was a very traditional Presbyterian church, sermons were very boring if you were a kid...honestly, half the time, my dad would fall asleep and even start snoring until my mom poked him awake (this was before he became a born-again Christian Bible thumper and now a Bible Thumper Trumper, which is even WORSE!). Though now I do see there was a bit of beauty in the predicatability and carrying out of the certain cermonies, prayers, responses, candelighting, organ music, etc. which they totally didn't have at the church we were attending here, but on the other hand, the sermons were so much more interesting and engaging at the church we're too embarrassed to return to!

As a Protestant, I've never given up things for Lent, but I agree it sounds like a very good idea to give up online dating especially since the hard breakup you really only just had; you need to give yourself time to heal from that first! And I have given up social media except NextDoor which I'm complating maybe only using for severe weather situation updates (tropical storms, hurricanes or if I need a recommendation for a new dentist or something like that) and staying away from it the rest of the time because even on that, there are still people wanting to cause drama AND wanting to see the worst in every single person that house camera records when most of them honestly look like they are solicitors. I do NOT regret giving up Facebook, Twitter, instagram I never really even understood, so that was no big loss. FB especially made me feel SO inadequate as a wife and mother; pictures of look at my beautiful family doing X, here's my (super elaborate) Christams decorations, you can see how clean their homes are, they are doing things with their kids constantly, the husband is always buying the wife flowers, but we started talking about it; really,first we have a small house with not much place to display flower bouquets, and 2nd, they never last long anyway, the money could be put to better use. So I told H he didn't need to buy me flowers any more (though then I of course won't have a "Look what gorgeous bouquet my H bought me for no reason!) to post, but it was more than that; FB most of the time people just post the positive stuff, and it's really enough to make you feel like you're not good enough as a person.

@Nammu - Sounds like you had a fun day playing games.

I'm hoping now I'm spent some time venting on MSF, I'll be able to read again. The book I am reading is very good though it takes place in the summer in the Shetland islands where it never really gets dark in the night at summer and the winter days are all dark. I don't think I could live in an environment like that!