Recap of an usual week...

I knew this week I would need a lot of quiet.

I don't know how Moms do it, but I can see why this

article would apply.

After two months in Lent of buying our new home,

in which my husband refers to a few people involved as crazy...

(I still remember the night hours after the close when I realized

how very stressful it had all been)

and then the packing of our old home, 

at least 2/3 done by myself and then unpacking, again at least 2/3 by myself,

with the very real, true and stalworth help of my parents in the move

and preparing the house to be move-in ready,

then 3 weeks about of 24x7 kid-loving (and I did love it)

and then almost 2 weeks of again most needed, good and heartening help

from my parents-in-laws, a time that I treasure,

{esp. remembering my Dad in law's reading of the Book of Acts

that they were reading out loud after a somewhat late breakfast,

how alive it was and how well he understood the story and how to read it};

after all that socialization, plus dinner parties, house blessing

and all the whirl of blessings of the last months,

I would need at least two days of solitude, which thankfully 

Mr. Husband can be with me in without taking away deeply of the solitude.

*

Well, I got it.

The solitude.

Mr. Husband had a crazy 12 hour or so day on Monday,

a later but not as late day on Tuesday

and a quiet but intense work day Wednesday.

And by Monday night I was feeling ill

and by Wednesday feeling mostly better.

So my solitude was inwardly and outwardly imposed

and through it all I've had church hymns mainly playing in my mind

and the silence has been delightful.
And in the midst of it all,
I was able to go out with Mr. Husband on a daily walk or two... 

*

Kathleen Norris wrote of a child saying to effect of

silence is what allows one's soul to catch up with oneself.

*

I am still missing Kathleen Norris, as in a new book by her.

I do wonder if she will write another....

*

This link took me to two new blogs of artists

and I am feeling more and more the need for quiet

and some reading time.

*

Meanwhile our futon apparently is not hinged properly in assembly

and as of Wednesday does not want to stay upright.

My lovely peaceful quiet chapel. Sigh.
I blame myself, as I had wanted Mr. Husband to move it
according to my sense of space for the room...

*

That chapel I can say is the quiet centre of this home.

I am re-reading Gentian Hill as I mentioned earlier in this blog

and Elizabeth Goudge is good at naming homes
and what is in them.

The chapel-library, when it is not as a guestroom,
is my space of quiet,

the circle of quiet that so beautiful titles
Madeleine L'Engle's book.

*

We are working slowly on getting some new icons for the chapel;

will take most possibly a year or so as they 

are not yet made and are being made overseas.

*

I am endeavouring to start a new thing:

Sunday School at my church.

I love the children there.

We are a small parish and there is currently no Sunday School.

So I volunteered.

This means I need two things from any of you who want to offer them:

1. PRAYER. Please. You can't imagine. I do have a partial

personal awareness of my inward poverty and yet have

the idea of volunteering to teaching children in church.

It's a very serious thing and while on one hand I can be very well with children

and children tend to love me and know that I love them

but to teach.

Anyway, prayer please anyone and everyone.

2. Experiences in this nature.Please share. 
Comment, email, FB snail mail if you have it

whatever and what-have-you.

I hesitate to ask for ideas rather than experiences just as
my sense is that there is a lot of choice in how to do things
and I know I have to teach what I am able to
and in a way/manner/format that will work for me.
But your stories and what worked for you are very welcome.
I am going to a half day conference on this,
am reaching out to the people in my life who I know best
who have done Sunday School and am reading as I am able...

*

Sister Magdalen's book continues to be of help;

I hope to order her other book soon...

One of the helps of this book is also 

that she admits that she, to which I take to mean, 

all of us, do not do everything perfectly as we wish or mean to...

*

One thing I know:

I wish for a lot of time to prepare but August is looking like a lot of

family and friend visits and not as much time

as I would like.

Perhaps this is good as it is true of real life.
But I also trust that God will give me the time, information, people,
and things needed for this task.
And I must trust Him for mercy as I think
of the Bible verse about those who teach others
are more heavily judged.
*
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!

Yarn Along ~ with love to Ginny that we all share~and what we can do

As many others are noting,

Ginny had a tragic loss in her community this week.

We are praying for the newly departed Sarah and her child unborn in her womb

and for her family who are devastated by their loss. 

*

It is totally understandable that Ginny

will not be able to do the link up today;

but I thought it best to do one

if only to offer my support to Ginny's work and in 

memory and honour of her friend Sarah.

What a deep and difficult loss.

*

Ginny has a FB page for her blog and 

linked to a support page to give to Sarah's family.

(I don't feel right linking to this for some reason but you

can find it via a simple Google search).
*
UPDATED to add this new post by Ginny with a way to support.

*

I have candles lit for the newly departed Sarah&child in her womb

and for her husband and four living children... and for Ginny.

*

So I am still working on my surprise knitting.

All I can say is that I am almost done

with sewing it together.

*

More on it later. 

I am quite pleased with it,

another 'Elizabeth original' that will

never be repeated in exact form. :)

*

I am still reading the same two books

as last week

but added a newly purchased one

to my reading:

It's been a very well written

engrossing read.

*

Being Orthodox means being concerned with 

world events, esp. those of Orthodox countries;

 and my husband and I are praying

daily for Russia and Ukraine. 

My husband has a set of tapes of a class on Russian history 

and one of the things he remembers most is the American

teacher saying to a Russian, asking if he was hated as an American 

by the Russian and the Russian said to effect:

what people are responsible for their government?

and I find so far that Serge's Schmemann's book 

to have this sort of insight.

The book deals with many things that Russia suffered from

and it shows not only the horrors but the beauty of a people

who underwent them.

*

It helped me get me thinking about the following...

*

My husband and I were talking the other day

about the many families devastated by the many horrors of war

and how their homes were destroyed.

We are still making our home and have various

things to put up yet and a few more boxes to unpack.

We often talk of our culture being in utter decline and the many

worrisome things that are happening in our world.

Like organic local farmers and homesteaders in Michigan being shut down ~

I can't tell you how much this worries me.

Freedom is crumbling in ways that are deeply troubling.

It's like I now understand what a pious Catholic woman once told me

...we are powerless but we have God.

Not meaning we don't have responsibility or some control at least over 

our own reactions to things

but that there is so much that we can't do anything about.

But here is what I said to my beloved Subdeacon Husband:

if we had a son and raised him right, true, with beauty that comes 

from God, in harmony with all virtue,

and he went to fight in a war that was a good just war 

and he died,

would it still not of been worth raising him to be good, right and true?

YES! It would of been worth it all.

It is like that for our lives and our homes.

We need to make them as good, peaceful, beautiful and God-pleasing.

We need to seek to be Christians and grow in 

likeness of Christ.  

We need to keep asking God to have mercy and protect our lands

and our family lines.

Every night I pray with Mr. Husband to the Mother of God 

to protect and save our families,

including all those born to our family lines in the future.

*

What we are doing matters.

What Ginny does matters.

Her making the best for her family, her love of the outdoors,

her family's going to church and seeking to grow

in Christ;

my life as small as it is with Mr. Husband, matters;

our pursuit of beauty, how we both listen only to three things:

~silence, Orthodox music, classical music~

matters.

I hear horrible 'rap music' played in our neighbourhood in 

the cars and homes of others; 

if you listened to the words alone you would understand

how far our culture has declined.

*

Our lives matter and making a home

that is a place of rest, beauty and for the honour of God,

a home unworthy as it is, to be a place where God is invited

and icons grace the walls.

Creating harmony in life with God matters.

Farming and local choices matter.

*

Perhaps this is not my usual yarn along post

but my goal today was to support Ginny and all of us

in doing what we can do:

pray, grieve, making the best homes we can and 

just remember that we are loved by God,

our lives matter, our families, our prayer corners

any order and beauty we can bring

is something worth creating.

*

New Office Nook

Earlier I blogged about wishing

for a closet desk nook for myself. 

*

During my father and mother in law's visit 

my father in law made this dream reality! :)

*

I will have to put up all the pictures/icons that I wish to have

but I am loving the space already!

A lovely meal and dinner party

Last Thursday we have a lovely

dinner party with our good friends and

Mr. Husband's parents.

*

Tricks to serving included having warm food covered

until the last minute.

*

I love using the blue and white dishes

and mis-matching them!

Meal:

My friend's delicious leek soup.

I must get the recipe!!!

Also...

Drunken chicken recipe for the roast chicken ~ 

this was done in my large crock pot for 7 hours on low

and then in the oven at 425F for 30 minutes.

Carrots cooked in slow cooker under the chicken.

Gravy made with butter, flour and juice from crock pot.

Also raw carrots, basmati rice &

a green salad with goat cheese and cranraisens.

It was a lovely meal!

I just love the soup tureen for serving!

Apricot Torte for dessert with

french vanilla ice cream and vanilla bean gelato.

*

It was a lovely time of eating a great meal,

Yarn Along ~ surprise knitting, meals and many books

 I am finding that it is so easy

to ball up the skeins if I use my knees to keep the 

circle intact :)

I can't say much about this knit as it is a surprise! 

It's coming along well though :)

This was the last of the corn and potatoes from

my parents-in-law's garden.

*

Learned a new trick when frying up lots of chicken:

for our meal on Sunday we browned up two whole

organic chickens in coconut oil (with flour, salt and pepper

covering the chicken pieces) and some of it

we put in the fridge after browning and did not cook

until the next day.

It cooked up very nicely and we did not have

to worry about dried out chicken because of

baking them and then reheating.

So good!

I am re-reading Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge;

it's such a special, vivid and beautiful book!

Conversations with Children continues to be a 

very engrossing and enlightening read!

*

It's been a busy summer with many guests in the last weeks

and I am very grateful for it all!

August is turning up to be a busy one as well...

summer is a special time of year where

schedules are changed and the sun shines

and the pool is lovely in the early morning.

*

I hope everyone reading this is doing well

and do tell us what you are reading and creating!

Yarn Along with us!

Our Home Has Been Blessed!

 Our House is Blessed! 

It is so very nice to have one's house blessed 

with prayer, holy water, oil and incense!  

*

Our priest, his Matuska and son stayed for dinner;

Mr. Husband's parents have known them all for years

and it was a lovely time of fellowship and reminiscing!

Meal:

Home grown mashed potatoes & salad from parents-in-law's garden

fried chicken from this recipe

fruit salad of red grapes and blue berries with whipped cream on the side

red wine, water

*

Flowers from guest's garden, vase Mr. Husband's.

Table Cloth and Candle holders were wedding gifts to me

from my Ottawa parish.

I also used rose tea towels and apron from IKEA

for the first time... 

I got these from the IKEA gift card

that my Ottawa church family also gave me.

So it was full of many memories and love, this meal...

Grandma's sauce boat.

Bowl from Halifax trip years ago.

Silver from rummage sale Mr. Husband and I went to;

other dishes from wedding, sales and bridal showers...

It was a lovely meal enjoyed by all!

*

Dessert:

Apricot Torte from this recipe

Juniors cheese cake

Tea, milk, cream, sugar, agave.

My Mother-in-law helped greatly with the meal

and it was a really special time! 

We are so thankful to God for His great mercy to us!

Many beautiful and happy things ~ Feast day, Mr. Husband's ordination and Time with Family

We got word this week that

Mr. Husband would be ordained as a 

subdeacon on Friday,

our Churches' Feast day!

*

St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

Mr. Husband was ordained from being a 

Reader to a Subdeacon! 

It was so deeply beautiful!

Three years ago I found out that 

the then unknown Reader who I married 

a year-plus-1.5 months later,

was willing to email me and our new 

life had it's beginning through emailed letters...

now we are married and he became a subdeacon 

on this wonderful feast day to St. Elizabeth!

It was so wonderful that it happened that Mr. Husband's 

parents were already planning on coming!

After the Feast Day we all went to Princeton to enjoy

a nice afternoon and early evening together.

Mr. Husband and I's first real date day in New Jersey was

at Princeton and it was really special to go back

with Mr. Husband's parents.

The above picture Mr. Husband when we were dating

said would be perfect for knights jousting

and I said would be prefect for a formal beautiful ball. :)

*

We then went to the chapel...

We saw the beautiful large chapel at Princeton again;

this chapel was one of the last beautiful things my

Oma ever saw in pictures as we were visiting her

and I told her about the future Mr. Husband and I's

time in New Jersey and showed her the pictures of Princeton

and esp. the chapel. She just loved all that stain glass.

She fell that night, breaking her hip and passed away 

Sunday morning, on the Feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God

into the temple.

*

It was so very special to be in this chapel those years later,

with Mr. Husband made a subdeacon that morning

and showing the chapel to his parents, the chapel that Mr. Husband and I looked at together when we were dating and loved so much.

The chapel that my Oma loved and she told me that

everyone wants a little happiness and that she was so glad 

that I was dating the not-yet-Mr. Husband.

We knew that my Oma knew we would marry and it was 

a comfort that I got to see her and show her pictures of 

my then beloved boyfriend.

That Mr. Husband as Mr. boyfriend/Orthoman as I called him 

on my blog went to her funeral with me and my family

was a deeply meaningful act of love 

that he showed to me and 

my family.

*

And so here we are, with family... :)... 

I am now, as a woman who is now a Deacon's wife,

which in the Russian tradition makes her a Matuska,

when her husband became a subdeacon, (the level before Deacon) 

she called herself a subtuska, 

and so I am now (this is a joke of course)

Subtuska Elizabeth ;)

*

So tomorrow DV is church and our house is being

blessed while my parents-in-law are still here.

My father-in law is making us a beautiful pantry.

More on that DV next week.

We are preparing the house and the food

for the dinner we will make after

the house blessing.

*

It's a special time for us and one 

that we are most grateful for!