Tuesday: NYC, +Patrick's 1 year anniversary, Wednesday:Valentines Day, A blessed Day

Yogurt with dried cherries, dried cranberries, pistachios, roasted shaved coconut, cinnamon and honey.

It was so incredibly good. With side of scrambled eggs and half of a cinnamon raisin bagel with PB.

Yesterday I had a breakfast date with Mr Husband! 

After going to Trader Joes I got a scoop of ice cream and tea... 

butterweek after all! 

Then, back home for lunch, I nearly had margarine instead of BUTTER on my 

English Muffin during Butter Week.

My Ortho-friends agreed that this would of been tragic... LOL... 

***

A year ago our dear warden +Patrick died.

I had forgotten so many details of this time and it was good 

to read of them again today.

Not a day goes by that I don't think of +Patrick... we see things from 

his home everywhere in our home, esp. in the kitchen-living room- dining room areas. 

Though really in every room of our home and the hallway going up to our home.

It is such a blessing.

I made a new sour cream cranberry and orange cake.

Orange extract in the batter... cranberries, vanilla sugar, raw sugar and brown sugar 

with cranberries for filling. 

I am probably going to play around with this recipe again after Lent...

I liked it but it needs

1. more cranberries throughout the cake (perhaps still first mixed with the sugars)

2. I think more orange extract

3. shortening instead of sour cream

maybe lemon juice or OJ like the other cranberry cake I have made... 

It was fun to make, regardless! 

Today was a really full and good day for me.

I had decided that I could not go to sewing group;

I also decided that I was not going to take the tree down until the Feast tomorrow.

So I ended up taking some time in the later morning to write the first

essay I have written in a while!

I have a working first draft now and am really happy about it.

Then I worked on bookstore orders and was inspired, after that, to look

again, for the book that I had not been able to find for months....

I wrote about this search earlier today:

So, because of my bedrest this summer due to the fractured fibula bone, and that I ordered a bunch of books to read while on said bedrest, my previous book piles got moved around and books stuck in various places. (We were all just trying to survive, proper book placement was not on our list of worries!)... in the process I could not find for MONTHS (I was walking by September and now it's February) a book of letters by Elder Sophrony published recently by the Essex Monastery. This book, to me, is pure GOLD. Today I decided to take the later afternoon to look again for this book (I had looked and looked and LOOKED). Then, as I was moving books onto the bed from the bookshelves in the bedroom (because of course we have them there too), I grabbed a book and suddenly looked down and saw that it was THE BOOK I had been looking for for MONTHS, the reason I decided to move 8 shelves of books (basically switching 4 shelves in bedroom for 4 shelves in library/chapel/guestroom). I was so excited, I must admit I did a little bit of a 'snoopy happy dance'! Elder Sophrony's letters are really great as his books are very deep and the letters help make a lot of his thought clearer + really encouraging reading + learning so much. Well, I guess you know what book I hope to be relishing this Lent!!! Thanks be to God that I found this book again, at last! (ps: I do have the dust jacket also, I read them without them unless I have covered them with mylar protective covering, which I think is the next thing I will do for this book, God willing!)

***

Needless to say, I was so very grateful and I can't tell you

how glad I was to find this book... I had been waiting, in a lot of ways, 

to find this book so I could start working on essays again, as this book

was one I was working through in order to write...

I feel that part of what I am doing in my essays is sharing what I am reading

and perhaps expanding on it, or pairing it with other authors to discuss a 

certain topic or idea.... 

***

I felt that this past year was a continual stripping of my life and what I was doing.

I had to stop writing, the summer I was not walking, the fall I had to 

let go of my Sunday School class (thank God it is still going on with great 

teachers as I can't do it at present), sewing for months ceased, my reading 

and studies for writing ceased....

Really all of last year was my Husband and I going 

through various trials and trying to survive.

Much of this I can't write of here and some of it is still unbloggable.

A year ago we were still so weak from the flu that we took a cab

to +Patrick's funeral both ways...

***

That I have found the Sophrony book of letters, that I have written a new

first draft, that I had the strength to move 8 shelves of books 

(plus carry over 60lbs of candles up Monday), that we don't 

need to depend on a dear friend for a ride to church, 

that we hope to go to church for the Feast day,

that I am finishing up 2 orders for the bookstore, 

and hoping to do a book sale...

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to just

do things that are/were my normal NJ life here with 

my Husband... I am really hoping that this year

will be a period of creativity for me and that I can get 

more writing done that will, I hope, be honouring to God and

encouraging to others. 

***

I had a lot of support through my blog and other forms of

online communication and I can't tell you how much

this has meant to me and what blessings I had

during the many difficult months of 2017...

***

I am really praying that this year can be a year that is more

peaceful and restorative...

***

A friend posted this on social media the other day...

It seems to be a painting and I find it very beautiful.

I hope that it comforts you as it has me! 

By the prayers of the Mother of God!

***

God bless and keep you all.

So many are going through really difficult times

and we must keep in prayer for all.

***

Lord have mercy!