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! 

A Glorious Sunny Day in NYC ~ with a newly met but dear friend!

After emailing about meeting for Tea and visiting Purl Soho, 

the day finally arrived, last Thursday!

As we were getting ready to meet and texting,

I realized that Purl Soho did not open at 11 AM but at 12 PM!

We did an impromptu tea before our actual tea-lunch

in the meantime! It was fun to discuss teas! 

***

Afterwards we walked a little way to the hotel restaurant where

Heather and I had a lovely GF high tea!

Discussing it later, we agreed that it was a

perfectly balanced tea...

some high teas, being based on tea sandwiches, are very

'carb heavy' and with many sugar-laden treats.

I had one tea once which was only sugar-things, was a disaster to 

my system! I knew I would NEVER again want such a thing,

and actually had not wanted it in the first place,

as I always think of a high tea having more balance to it.

***

It was such a joy to talk to a fellow

sister-in-Christ about life, books (we both love much the same,

CS Lewis, Elizabeth Goudge), yarn and fabric crafts... and it is wonderfully uplifting 

to share with such a friend! 

***

I had known about flowering teas, and had my first one there,

a white tipped marigold tea.  

It went perfectly with the food that was served.

Heather and I both agree that the chicken curry with salty rice wrap

was the high light.  The quinoa bread with tart white dip was also 

really good.  The sweets were not too sweet and it was 

a real culinary delight, along with a good time to talk about

so many things. 

***

I find such encouragement from teas like this and am so thankful!