Showing posts with label hospitality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospitality. Show all posts

Thursday, December 18, 2014

{Hospitality at Home} ~ A Ladies Nativity Fast Tea


Chocolate glazed and chocolate raspberry cupcakes,
chocolate and chocolate chip with raspberry cookies.


Lemon, two coconut creamers, sugar.


Teas: Prince Vladimir, Camomile Lavender, Christmas Chai, Orange Pekoe, Coffee.


Grandma's dishes, various tea pots, my Oma's tea cozies,
plus the one I was given as a wedding gift...


The tea tray is from IKEA.


Koek and wonderful chocolate cake!


Cake was a lovely addition!!! 


We gathered together, all 8 of us, 
with our local Matushka and talked about
what it means to be an Orthodox woman, married, 
working Mothers with
children, how things have changed, raising children,
homemaking traditions. 
*
It was so lovely and I do hope we can have another
in the new year...
building community is so important and needed in our lives.
And to come together as Christians,
and of course to have tea....

Friday, November 28, 2014

{Hospitality at Home} ~ Thanksgiving Dinner

We had dear friends of ours over for dinner!


Since it was a small dinner party,
we roasted a Chicken instead of a turkey! 


Yummy salad from our guest,
homemade cranberry sauce, organic apple sauce, 
hot apple cider.


Raw and cooked broccoli, feta cheese, green salad.


Water, Sweet Potatoes...


Raw carrots, stuffing, goat cheese, cran-raisins, 


Sweet potato with cranberries.


The Chicken! 


Mashed potatoes...


A lovely meal...


OJ and honey glazed carrots...
*
We have a lot to be thankful for! 
It was a beautiful Thanksgiving Day!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Setting Sun

God is so merciful to us.

I continue to pray that things will improve. I am asking God to provide for me; I love living here in Ottawa, in my apartment, in my small church-going life here.

It is night now, the city lights are out, I am inside. I slept very little last night - typical when something traumatic happens to me - to have insomnia. It is the old calendar feast of the Annunciation and when I read the Gospel for this, I was heartened.

I am preparing my resume, found career counseling place, I have a whole list of things to do. I need wisdom to know when to do what.

As I woke up this morning (or noticed it was light, I do not know how much I slept) I realized I was still in a state of shock. I was not going to work today to serve my clients. I realized how much I cared about them and that I was sad. Of course the termination was traumatic and wounded me; I have been aware of this too. My little library is not mine anymore to serve in. Just when I thought I was beginning to really understand my work, it was taken away.

When I knew, in February, that things were not going well for me, I went through a large sense of shock, fear and dismay - questioning if I did the right thing to move into my beloved new apartment and buying furniture. But now that the second shock, of losing my job, is wearing off I know the answer. Everyone has different priorities on this one, and I am not saying my decision to buy something is right or better. Not in the least! However, my last apartment had very little storage and this apartment has such a good sense of space. I can actually keep things clean. And the beauty of the apartment, and the cleanness of it, is very restorative. (Also I had saved money for furniture for sometime, so I did not have credit card debt, which can be so dangerous).

And I am able to be hospitable here which can help in the path towards salvation - to learn to practice hospitality, like Abraham.

The encouragement and prayers of all of you, and of other friends and family, is helping me through. I have a possibly long road ahead of me and know that I need God's mercy and many prayers. ... Right now I feel peaceful but in my weakness I have often lost this sense of peace.

Yet God is merciful and is here.

May the Lord have mercy on us all as we journey towards Pasca!