Today and the rest of the week...

There are so many pictures of our DV new home

that I wish I could show you!

But I can't, since it is not our home yet or 

our belongings inside, etc.

*

But the picture above is the one of the front windows...

Cleo is going to just love them.

We have plans of two arm chairs and a small table going there

and Cleo will be in window-watching heaven.

*

So I have been craving cooking and baking lately.

It was so fun making Mr. Husband's cake...

Still have to write that one up for this year...

hopefully this week...

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So I saw this recipe last week for vegetarian chili

with butternut squash.

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I was so blessed by you all with ideas and recipes for 

using my last two butternut squashes...

I do hope to make more next year and incorporate ideas from you all!

*

This whole house hunting (we were looking since January,

which turned out to be providential since the landlord of our current place

suddenly told us he was selling the place) and then waiting to see

if we can get the condo we are now DV getting...

well, I wrote about the prayer for the fainthearted a while back for a reason...

some of the time we really did not know what was going to happen with it

or if we would have to house hunt again and with a deadline looming...

So I struggled to pray, doing my Lenten reading in the morning,

and read lots of Madeline L'Engle and just could not cook

much, though I did manage the cake for Mr. Husband and a few other

things... cooking not so much but the cookies and cake yes...

actually baking is something I do often when in transition and

it is quite helpful, at least for me.

*

And I saw this recipe this week ~ for cake with butternut squash and 

crystallized ginger...! 

So the Pascha baking possibilities continue to call out,

slowly to me.... and each recipe calls for only 1 butternut squash,

and I have two of them, so....

*

I remember years ago when I was in London Ontario

in my last semester in between my 8 months in Ottawa

and then moving back to live and work,

when I was moving back to Ottawa

I did not quite have a job lined up yet;

it was then that I lived with the family that became my

'Ottawa Ukrainian Family' and did land that first great job

and got my U shaped apartment that had great light and 

some wonderful and some not so wonderful times

but that God gave me for a season...

*

Anyway, it was so hard for me at the time when I was just moving back

from London Ontario to Ottawa;

I had Cleo by then, newly, and no one for various reasons

could help much with that packing I did then

and I remember buying cheap frozen pizza and being 

overwhelmed with moving into the unknown.

*

I remember Cleo playing with my hair, which is thick, often curly 

and generally fairly long and how comforting it was.

I remember the shelf with my icons and tea lights 

in that one summer sublet apartment;

I remember crying in front of them with all the overwhelment of that 

time in my life, moving, soon to be new grad...

I remember the closet in the bathroom there and how it reminded me

somehow of my Aunt H. and how that was a comfort.

*

In someways that must of been one of my hardest moves;

I remember I slept a lot that weekend just after moving 

and how it all worked out well then,

thanks to prayers of those who were much higher spiritually then I...

with so much faith...

*

I remember I made cake; 

I think a lemon one and possibly a chocolate one too; in an 

old big oven in a small kitchen in that summer sublet half-basement

apartment that ended up having mold issues and me scraping my bedpost to 

clean them... thankfully it was only a few month's sublet and 

God was so merciful...

*

This upcoming move of Mr. Husband and I is bringing

back lots of memories of past moves and the 

the relief that this move is one that should not be as hard or, rather,

to say it differently, is not into a fully unknown venture.

*

Moving here to marry was wonderful joyous exciting but yet

in it's own way it was also hard, 

with grief of leaving my church family and community of

seven years, my beloved city ~ Ottawa ~ and all that it stood for.

*

I am still reminded of all the many reasons I married 

Mr. Husband and how wonderful it all is, was and we hope it to be.

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I do not in anyway regret moving to NJ to marry my beloved husband!

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I was rereading an old blog post of Fr. Stephen Freeman's from years

back on grief, and how he wrote that every death is not only 

the grief of that instance, but of the ones that are before.

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In a way, I find moving to be like that.

It brings back memories of many other moves,

of times of joy and times of sorrow.

Times when I ate that cheap pizza and times

that I ordered really good pizza for my many

 Ottawa friends who helped me move...

I've moved 7 times since this blog was born in 2005...

so 7 in about 9+ years...

*

I have a lot of hope for this upcoming move.

Walking more, being closer to friends, church;

there's a small library close by, some grocery options;

I will miss my kitchen window here...

but at least this move has so many good things...

*

I have a lot to be thankful for,

including my Mr. Husband, my family, my Cleo Cat, the 

friendships I am making here, for a new home

that we hope will be one of happiness and peace

for many years.

*

And I hope to make many more birthday cakes

for my beloved during many more Great Lents

that I hope we have together...