Ready to celebrate

Worked hard today. House blessing tomorrow! Got some snow ❄ but not enough to cause problems. I am thankful. God keep you and help you!!

Good Conversation & homemaking progress

I had a good conversation with a dear friend this morning. I cleaned up my part of the office today. My Husband cut our new very thick clear vinyl table cloth/covering and I have lots of chairs with pillows and such up against it so the the cover is "trained" to properly fold down the table. It's really thick and without doing this we would have problems! Hopefully it is going to work as I think it is! (See first picture!)

The days before our house blessing are always so busy.  I did not get to mopping today but hope to do it tomorrow. 

Next week I hope I can work on my writing project. I had to accept that it's not going to happen this week.  Too much to do...

God be with us and save us!

I am going to need to sit down

I learned two hard grievous things today. One is a rare mentor is moving away and a friend one of my dearest friends may have a serious illness. 

Heavy friends very heavy. 

But DV our house is going to be blessed soon/in a few days and today I cleaned the bathrooms and I am mostly on top of dishes. And did laundry. And I read my second Molly Clavering book and loved it. 

However, I need more tea.

God be with you all. 

today

I made granola. 

I hope to do a better blog post soon!

God be with you!

hot tea on a cold day

Is such a comfort!

The meeting my sister and brother-in-law had went well. It will be at least another year of work to see if they are allowed to adopt their foster son. A long difficult journey with many rather shocking setbacks. 

Thanks God for hot tea soup and th he support of family and friends. 

Trying to Catch My Breath

 

It is so busy right now.  I made muffins with the new citron ginger honey tea mixture I was given... I realize I never showed you that, well here it is, all 2 Kilos of it! 

I have received some really kind gifts this year... I feel often like I don't know what I did to 'deserve' such kindness... 

the recipe I used is HERE.  I wrote about it on my public Instagram account HERE.  I am thinking of trying this again but with my cranberry recipe... 

Tomorrow I need to get some muffins out of the freezer and put together the last of my Christmas gifts... to be given this Sunday, God willing.  

The dishes are mainly washed, I am so tired but greatful too.  There is so much to do esp because we missed Christmas.  Everything was canceled/rescheduled. So I have three things to host plus one to go to.  Our houseblessing is next weekend and next week I need to get everything in order + make the meal.  I already ordered the groceries to come next Thursday (making a beef roast!)... 

Please do pray for my sister for the meeting they are supposed to have early tomorrow morning!

I pray you are well! I know these days are hard.  May the Lord have mercy on us and carry us through! 

I'm Going to Need More Tea...

 

...as you can see that won't be a problem! :)  A friend gave me this very pretty tin with two HUNDRED and forty teabags ! It's lovely Ceylon black tea! 

...why I need more tea however, not as fun....

the meeting I asked you all to pray for was rescheduled for Friday and was changed just an HOUR before it was to begin. 

It's a bit of a roller coaster to say the least. 

Today was the Feast of Theophany and it was beautiful. My pictures are not yet uploaded to google photos so I don't have any to share as of yet...

I got some special Christmas gifts today.  I keep thinking how is it that I am so blessed? All I know is that I AM blessed! 

May God bless and encourage you no matter what you are facing; you are not alone in it.  God is with you.  

prayer request

My sister and brother-in-law have an important meeting tomorrow regarding their foster son who they so greatly want to adopt.  I can't say more other than PLEASE PLEASE PRAY. 

Thanks so much.

I hope to write more soon.  Doing much better over all.  Just busy. God bless you all! 

Memory Eternal!

 

Jim Forest died last night I found out this morning.  I wrote this earlier:

My Husband came in while I was researching teas from Holland and blurted out "Jim Forest died" to which I immediately with shock said WHAT?😳😭 My Husband has known Jim for DECADES via the Orthodox Peace Fellowship and we had a lovely visit with him and his wife Nancy on our trip to Holland years ago. May Jim's memory be eternal!❤😥😭

... 

Pictures are from the church in Amsterdam where we worshiped with them in 2016... 

I was rather lost today after I learned Jim died.  Like I was walking around not knowing what to do.  

I was in the middle of researching a special order of tea (with my birthday money) from a place I visited in Holland during that 2016 trip, so my mind was already in Holland when I heard the news... 

May the Lord remember Jim in His Kingdom and comfort his newly made widow Nancy...

Jim was such a kind warm humble man; it meant a lot to meet him and to pray for him (he had a lot of health ups and downs in the last year, though I had no idea of his decline and passing last night until this morning).

Memory eternal! Memory Eternal! Memory Eternal! 

a little bit.....

More weary today. Made chicken lemon soup. Set the table nice for lunch. Researching things for our home. Bought online some baking sheets. Got dishes washed. Finished Molly Clavering book "Susan Settles Down" and enjoyed it! 

Prayed an Akathist to St Basil as it's his day tomorrow.  Love this Saint! 

Trying to take one day at a time. 

God bless you all ❤🙏🕯

A Little Further

 

Fast Free Wednesday! 

We took a normal nearly 2 mile walk today.  Yes, we are improving. Thank God. 

My Husband and I watched Home Alone as he had never seen it.  We laughed a lot over it.  Funny to watch it at age 45 instead of more like about 14 years old.  My goodness.  I can remember being 20 but 14 is a long time ago now.  The movie came out in 1990.  Hard to imagine. 

I made chicken broth today.  Between that and the chicken soup we are set I would think for at least a year.  

A busy day.  

God be with us and save us. 

Just a few...

...pictures from Christmas day and I think Saturday (?)... we are slowly recovering from The Virus which for us thankfully was only a bad cold. Still some congestion and fatigue.  

Earlier today I wrote...

"It's been a busy day! Grocery order received and put away, chicken soup being made....I was hoping to finish the soup for dinner but I am too tired, still recovering strength from being sick. Thankfully we have easy meals at the ready."

I got to start on a bit of my writing project again and that was a real exciting note to a busy day. 

Everything of course in life takes longer than one thinks and that's just the way of it. 

I used this recipe from this blog post to make the chicken broth itself (from a whole chicken) but to the soup we are eating now (and a bit I am freezing I added also: onion, carrot, garlic, ginger and did that all in a good few tbs of butter, simmered later with additional water and then the soup added to that and then a bunch of presliced fresh mushrooms to that.  It should be good.  I hope to add fresh lemon juice and zest also. 

I have a huge cleanup job in front of me from making this soup... 

I pray that God is merciful to us all and saves us!

Christmas Eve 2022 ~ Christmas At Home

Shared this with some friends:

Covid Christmas is still CHRISTMAS. We were so BLESSED to be able to watch services online today from our church here in NJ and hope that we are on the upward swing. (For me it's hard to know, I seem to be getting worse but I still live in hope...! Mainly lots of sinus pain/headaches that medicine helps with!) ... My Husband is improving too... we got rotisserie chicken and shepards pie from our grocery delivery service + premade meatballs for an easy pasta meal. I plan on using my Christmas tree Spode dishes and have two special Christmas teas lined up to try! (Both gifts from friends, one also being family!).

Pictures of mainly of our various Nativity icons

Many are sick right now and we are praying for everyone; it's not an easy time. But God is with us and the Lord is born on Christmas to dwell with us and save us. May we seek the Lord in our times of difficulty and sickness...

ps: the peanut clusters were made by my Mom for Dec 25 Christmas and she gave me some for our Christmas! Such a blessing! and the tin was a gift for my birthday with the oranment pictured on top of this post inside...

Improving

 

Well, we are still here. :).  My Husband is improving, his cough especially is getting better but he still has a bit to go.  I don't know about me.  I've had some sore/swollen throat and sinus headache but I can get either for other reasons and, since the doctor said not to test me when my Husband was tested (he had 2 positives) as I was not showing symptoms, we did not do that until today and it was.... negative.

But is it really? Sigh.  Or is it and I should still be careful in case my Husband can still give it to me (it's a miracle if I don't have it, we were in the rented SUV for HOURS over two days, one of those he was sick already).  

Anyway, I am definetely drinking lots of tea, resting a lot (I have been a bit tired), taking extra vitimins and lots of blessed monastic honey! 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  At least 5 familes from our church have at least one person with C-viD so there will be a lot of us praying together from our homes, watching the service online etc.  Even our Christmas church party was postponed! Such strange times we are in.

Thanking God that so far we are not that sick.  

I am thanking God for every good thing.... 

It feel so good to be back

 ...blogging again... it's been so long... (written Jan 2nd)

(a house I took a picture of as I liked the Christmas lights)

...well... I can assure you my beloved Sweetie indeed has a cold.  We will see about a c-vid test later.  lots of rest today.  We got Chinese (it was in part for my birthday)... a nice red broth with slices of bamboo and cabbage with sliced boiled talapia and a Sichuan glass noodle soup and scallian pancakes.  It was wonderful, spicy hot.  We both love it (and take acid pills LOL) but I also thought it would be great for clearing out the sinuses, as we always experince that with this food :).  I am so far fine and did get some rest today (I am doing my best not to get more run down and thus sick).  I bought kombucha, a upscale flu/cold organic med, vapo rub, cough drops... zinc, Vit-C, clementines are all being consumed, and pots and pots of ginger/ginger lemon tea, throat coat tea, ginger lemon echinacea jucie... we are hitting this with whatever we can; steam treatment, hot baths, naps and quiet. 

I am feeling a bit more hopeful, ...

January 3, 2022 

today I was a bit worried but my Husband rested and rested and rested and is more perky now.  

well... my husband has more energy, still coughing BUT 😭 he has the what-we-will-not-name having a postive result 2x 😭 so no Christmas (Jan 7) in person liturgy or Holy Supper ... but... we are making the best of it... with ordering food to heat up that is easy to do and such... I am just starting to feeling unwell, a headache, mainly.  So will see how I do. 

well. I better sign off for now.  Am tired and need to drink some ginger lemon tea! Bless you all, no matter what, may God comfort and save us!

It just began to rain as I sat down to type

 ...and I did not get to type these words after the title until I was interrupted to go finish putting things away...

(from my parent's Christmas tree)

and away we have been, we rented a SUV and drove to Michigan and then Ohio to see both of our families.  My Husband woke in the hotel this morning feeling like he got a cold from swimming in the hotel the night before, the water, he told me, was a bit chilly.  So I drew him a hot bath tonight, and am praying that this is short lived (we can always do checks for the dreaded virus we already have at home tests and other options nearby).  And I made him many cups of tea both this morning and tonight, once we got home... 

Our Christmas is this Friday we were hoping to go for Thursday Christmas Eve and Friday.  Meanwhile, I will sleep on couch to try to avoid contagion.  

I am feeling quite weary tonight and perhaps not the best company, other than it can be nice to share in one's troubles when one's friend is weary too. 

It was strange returning to New Jersey where the o-variant is blooming exponentially and to return to where things are suddenly much worse than else where is a bit surreal.  

It is no wonder we are weary. 

A dear friend is losing her job, everyone on her level is going. There is just so much struggle. 

There is much good of course, we had a good drive today, we listened to Lewis' Dawn Treader and on the way there we finished listening to the Lord of the Rings which was so striking in it's theme of hope and depair, I had not realized this so much as now. It bears remembering. 

Well, we are staying home from church tomorrow, new family rule really: if one is not well, with the pandemic going on, we simply stay home and make sure we don't spread whatever it is. 

I ordered a beautiful teapot, sugar, creamer and teacup: vintage English...will show you once I get it, it is not shipped yet and we sent it to a friend's place that is safer than our areas in term of package theft... The teapot coming is like me hoping for Spring again, for, metaphorically, when we can visit one another again, when I can have tea.  

I do hope that all will be well with us and that my Husband only has a cold.  Don't worry, I assure you we will be VERY careful and we have a very good doctor and medical things quick at hand. 

The good news is that my Husband already has Monday off and so with staying home tomorrow, we can have two very solid days of rest which is part of what is sorely needed right now. 

I am still having some back pain issues so I can't always sit to type, as I don't have an ergonomic writing station as of yet. Something I hope to work on in later January if possible. 

Bless you all.  It's good to be able to write here again. May God save us and have mercy on us!