Husband and I went to Jordanville for a beautiful baptism!

Here's photos from our drive there and back (about 4+hours

from where we live in NJ)... it is so beautiful up there,

and living in the city that we do, I crave beauty like this

and feast my eyes on it like a woman living in a desert

with a dry thirsty ground under her feet!

Breakfast the day of the baptism!

I loved how they did not butter my English muffin because I asked

for peanut butter, just the way I wanted it, without my even asking!

Jordanville is a beautiful Monastery and they also have a wonderful

Orthodox bookstore! 

We got back Monday late... 

Tuesday we had the AC guy, a great one from Poland,

come and give us more Freon (about 3 lbs this time!)

and now our AC is working again!

Roof top access, why I had to take everything out of the pantry!

We had a great lunch afterwards!

Mr Husband got the rest of the things out of the Pantry that I had not and

put them on the dining room table and he swept and vacuumed

(then we figured out our vacuum needed a new bag etc so that took time!)

and I washed all of the pantry shelf liners before they went back in...

I was determined to reorganize the pantry so I could better use it,

so I while I worked at a steady state, I put thought into it

and redid a lot of it, keeping what I loved and worked and redoing the rest....

Meanwhile, we went early to our favourite diner, as there was to be a storm

coming in.... I had been talking about rootbeer floats and how I had not had one in at 

least 1 decade that I could remember...so we ordered one... 

Then, as I wrote on social media yesterday:

"We knew that there was to be a thunderstorm at 6 but a good 30+ minutes before the winds whipped up, the huge construction orange barrel the size of a garbage can flew into traffic ad hit a car!!! And we heard the servers talk of a mini-hurricane (!!!) and we downed the have-not-had-in-a-decade root beer float, had the food packed up quickly, asked for the bill, Husband ran to car while I paid and I ran out, we got home just as it was starting to pour rain .... hash tag if I used them would have been "now that was intense! "

So here's our burgers after the fact on our card table,

since the dining room table was full of pantry items!

We watched the storm from our big windows

and saw lots of lights on the bridge...

there is a lot of construction happening and eventually 

we will not be able to see that bridge, from what we can tell...

yesterday I zoomed in with my camera phone so I could see 

what the lights were, as the rain and distance made it hard to see

and it was a fire truck, ambulance, cop cars....I hope whatever happened

that the people survived :( ... Lord have mercy!

This pretty much is how it is now, after the reorganization. 

As my sister commented, rightly, it's very "American" of us to have 

so much food on hand... (like a mini-version of the huge grocery stores

we have here)... but there are many reasons why each family does as they do

and we have a lot of reasons for this, including the times of sickness we had

and that it is great to have on hand what I want to use to bake, cook or even to share.

Most of my readers (unless they are very new) know that I do a lot of baking for

St. Nicholas Day, Christmas and Pascha (Easter) and all of this is because we have our pantry.

I also make tea blends (2 new ones to do this year DV!)

 and have been given a lot of tea, treats, jam and honey, all of which is a real blessing!

I was actually told "Bravo" for having such food on hand to offer hospitality 

at any time by a pretty strict (to me anyway!) monastic priest, so it does have a place

and I can't wait to do more hospitality! I am dreaming of making a 

ginger cake next week!  And cherry tarts!! 

So I finished the pantry today and have been resting this afternoon...

the trip + doing the pantry restocking all by myself was a lot of work

and I am weary.  Best thing to do then is rest so I can do the next thing...

which is vespers and DV tomorrow the Feast of the Ascension of Christ!

Friday is laundry day (I am learning not to tackle more than I should

when I am already having a big cleaning / housework / pantry restocking day...)

Saturday I am going to NYC and Sunday is liturgy + baby shower for a friend in 

the afternoon, so if I don't blog again until next week, you know why! 

Meanwhile, for the last times of this Paschal Season:

Christ is Risen! 

Indeed He is Risen! 

Almost New Year Eve

So... while I had my birthday,

we were also in Ohio with my Husband's family

for our Christmas gathering!  We rented some cabins + gym of 

a camp in Ohio and had a really nice time!  

We were there from Dec 26th to today!

And my beloved Husband was finally able to take me to the

Ohio Bookstore, where he used to go when he lived in Cincinnati and 

bought comic books at when he was a kid and young teen!

It was a wonderful time and I hope to do a blog post on this bookstore

later on this coming week, DV.

We are back home now and got in record time... the plane left early and got in early!

We were home by 2:30! 

So pictures above... last one is the books I found at the Ohio Bookstore 

(I found 3 at the Cincinnati library bookstore also in this stack) :) 

A friend gave us some NYC bakery Christmas cookies!

(I immediately froze them for later!)

The relics of St Tikhon are visiting our local church tonight 

and tomorrow, so that is a real blessing!

The top picture is what you first see when you go into

the Ohio Bookstore :) 

We went to the diner after vespers for dinner, it was good!

It is cold here and snow is on the ground!

I don't remember it being so cold in NJ for this long since

I have lived here! I like the cold but am praying for the

homeless and those who don't have a lot of resources to deal with the cold....

We have vacation through January 8th this year! 

(Our Christmas is January 7th) and I am so very glad!

We are doing a stay-cation for the rest of our time and are DV going to stay 

home, rest up, be cozy, read books, watch the Waltons, I have a baking

day that is needed and I am just so happy to be home with my

sweet Husband and to have this time.

I am really hoping that next year will not have so much sickness and 

that a new year will have really dawned for us.

May God have mercy on us!

And I thank and praise God for the many many mercies show to us already 

in this past year, getting us through so many hard times!

God bless and keep you all dear readers!

And thank you so much for your comments this week - I am 

truly blessed and touched by them!!!