Our New Home ~ Part One of Many ~ Thanks for your prayers

New kitchen.

Will be repainted this week, 

God willing.

Icons in every room.

We prayed in front of these icons our first night

that we owned this place,

last night and sang

Christ is Risen from the dead,

trampling down death by death

and upon those in the tombs

bestowing life! 

As Mr. Husband blessed our new home

with holy water in the shape of the Cross

and I asked our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

to bless and sanctify our home,

and have all the Holy Heavenly Angels be within.

*

Today dear friends of ours helped move things 

and we have new keys.

Thanks for your support this morning.

The slightly damaged sink 

we have determined by consulting with 

our friends that we must of just missed it;

the damage was not at all new.

So it is.

*

We move DV in a week and a half.

My parents should arrive tomorrow

to paint and prepare! 

*

We are tired but thankful.

Little by little ~ a meal and preparing a place

Dishes packed up for my parents arrival

DV this coming week.

My Mom has a terrible cold right now;

do say a prayer...  

Fried bok choi with red pepper, canola oil,

garlic and noodles.

Salmon burger.

Today is Mid-Pentecost and so a festive meal...

*

Two boxes of books packed,

and our water pitcher... 

little by little, bit by bit... 

*

I had a very calming thought given to me:

what if I think of preparing my house as one that

Christ will be in.

*

This thought has calmed and centered me right down...

oh, that I can remember it....

Packing, Mess, Cleo, Beauty and Love

Love.

My Aunt H. gave me this paper box when I was a kid.

I saved it and many of the papers.

They are all used now;

Mr. Husband wrote me many notes and cute poems.

They make me feel really loved.

I put them all back in the box today so they can be packed.

Mess.

We have boxes to be boxed,

boxes packed, 

boxes everywhere...

Cell phone shots of things at home depot.

 

Closet doors I wish to have.

Beauty.

New icons up at church on our iconostasis.

Cleo apparently wants to be packed too :)

She's currently happily ensconced in this box,

in the sunshine, 

bathing.

That's one way to not look at the mess of boxes... :)

Changes, always changes

I remember when my cousin, her son and my Aunt,

her mother, drove me down to NJ

and we were at some small town diner in 

countryside of New York 

and the sensible young son got 

chicken strips

while I ordered sweet potato fries. 

Now for chicken strips in Canada the dip of choice

is plum sauce. 

And for sweet potato fries, a cranberry mayo.

So we asked for both condiments and the woman

serving us was like,

you're all not from around here are you?

as she had never heard of such luxuries ( :) ).

*

Well, I have yet to find the mayo

but did find a fairly similar plum sauce:

for shoprite and it is made in Canada.

Need I saw more? :)

*

Well about the changes.

We were going to have packing help

and boxes delivered.

Our packer has since poor guy

dislocated his shoulder

so Mr. Husband and I are packing away today,

ordered not as healthy food as seen above

(Domino's with what we call mordor chicken

with mango habanero sauce (YAY!))

and we are planning on going out to Home Depot

to buy boxes...

*

Prayers Requested!

Worse but Better?

Whew, after much time on the telephone...

Here's what we know now:

~the close is one day worse than we thought 

(as in more time before we close, making it over half a month's

difference than our original close date).

~Our mover was able reschedule our move for after

Memorial Day instead of before Memorial Day.

All we know is what we are promised:

that God is good and that He will work it out.

Please pray for us as we try to 

make new plans...

Sunshine, Not being in control but trusting God, Cleo and our current home library

What a long title to a blog post! 

But that is what I have to write on this morning.

But first, it is St. George Day today! 

We must take heart! 

*

Well, we got an answer that we are 

looking to confirm is final last night.

It looks like we are not getting

 the close date we wanted.

It is still in May but much later than

what we had hoped for.

Today will have many phone calls to start planning

based on this new date.

*

Meanwhile, I thought I would show some things around the house 

so I can remember things before everything is packed up for the move.

I was mailed this lovely vintage dress as a wedding gift.

It is too small for me (the giver knew only my husband

so while I look thin, it's more illusionary, as

I am more on the thin-looking-solid size 10 or something

depending on the brand).

Anyway, I had the dress as a cheery decoration on this door

of our bedroom closet for over a year and after

taking some pictures of it,

put it in the discard clothes pile as Mr. Husband is right:

we must let go of what we can before we move.

*

So all the Fiesta ware dishes are pretty much packed,

so we are using our blue willow found at rummage sale dishes now.

Since the Fiesta ware dishes had boxes made for them that we kept

this was the easiest to box up.

I eat Cheerios some days for breakfast

and Cleo often loves the little bit of milk that is left! 

The two icons you can't see in this picture are

old ones of St. John the Baptist and the Mother of God.

They came with the gift of the dress and were 

most appreciated.

The Paschal Resurrection icon is one that was Mr. Husband's 

and I believe is also the one, in a large size, that is at

my first Orthodox church, 

in the Altar... 

When I wake up in the morning I see this icon right away;

it is bracing, courage giving and heartening. 

Other icons,

Optina Fathers, the Mother of God, St. Stephan... 

candle from sister-friend from when we both lived in BC...

*

So this is our current library,

it's in our bedroom as we did not have other space for it.

Much of what you see here are all my books, icons, pictures.

Billy Bookcases, IKEA.

Mr. Husband's Dad put them together before we 

were married.

The corner icon shelves.

We have doors for this shelf too for when 

it will no longer be in a corner like that;

these we hope will all DV be in our future

library/guest room/chapel. 

St. Irene of Chrysovalantou, St. Boris and Gleb,

I still remember when I got that icon, 

my Ottawa spiritual father told me they are Passion-Bearers,

Bearers of Sorrow..., 

St. Ephraim Ephraim of Nea Makri

This icon of him (far left of picture) was at my church

in a time when icons that were at church, left for years 

from others in the past, were being distributed.

I noticed this one and asked my spiritual father about it.

He said the Saint's name and to look him up.

And so I did and found much,

including how this holy Saint helps young people,

rescuing them...

Picture of Mother Alexandra in a frame

on top left in the above picture.

I've written how she is an inspiration to me

and shows what it means to be a Mother...

I know people who view her as a Saint and 

I am so very glad I have this picture of her.

My family wedding picture corner in our bedroom...

How I love and will miss this morning view!

This was a wedding gift;

sadly got a bit wet but I am still glad I have it.

All in the end will be solved by love.

*

Please pray for us as we try to prepare for our move

and wait final confirmation of the close date. 

*

May God help and comfort us!

Moving...

A friend and I were emailing the other day

about the many times we have moved;

more and more of us have been in more than 10 places in ten years,

if one tallies them up.

School, new job, home, summer job, new school...

and before one knows it moving has been something done many times.

*

Yet I don't find moving easy.

*

Thank God we found packing help this time

and my Mom and I will pack DV also,

but still, it's never easy.

*

So:

Tell me, what are your best moving and packing tips?

And unpacking?

*

Would love to hear!

Waiting, Documenting and Seeking Thankfulness

A dark picture but shows the window... by our dining room

area...

Same wall has our beloved kitchen window... 

We already had brought in suitcases for the move

and boxes for our dishes...

The idea is that when my parents come

to help us with the painting and handyman work

we will bring half of our normal dishes to them to use,

as they will be in our new condo getting it ready

while we stay here and get things ready for the move.

*

That was all going to start this coming week

but the news we got yesterday

means that we have no idea when exactly we will move.

The place we are in now only has windows on one wall.

Our new place DV will have windows on three sides!

Sadly, not on the kitchen side...

I was so excited to have laundry in the place we are in now.

The new place is even better; a little laundry room

and a much better washer/dryer!

I love these icons that are in our hallway.

Not sure where they will go in the new place, 

but somewhere with honour and accessibility...

Our shared office; we never had a chance to make it

better but have plans and dreams for a much better office

in our new place... 

We also will have better windows and will not

need a make shift curtain over the window

to block out the sun's hot rays... 

We hope to have a good icon area in our bedroom again...

Many things we hope...

*

We don't have any idea on when we will move now.

Thankfully my parents can come later

if we need to, we can stay a bit later in this place.

Possibilities for our future home

Two nightstands.

Ikea, in white.

One, two.

I love this lamp and lampshade.

*

It is all moving quickly now...

Annunciation ~ 2014

Mr. Husband and I were at church 

Monday morning for the Feast of the Annunciation.

*

The night before I was with one of the church's young ones

and tell this child how the Annunciation had to come first...

how the Virgin Mary saying YES to God

is how CHRISTMAS came to us.... 

*

Our church, like many Orthodox churches,

has a basket of Christian kids books for 

kids to read and our basket includes many that are on

Christmas and Christ's birth...

*

The child I was talking to picked some of these

and it was quite something, how all of them

actually started with the Annunciation,

with the Archangel Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary

to tell her of how she can be overshadowed by God

and given birth to Christ...

*

I told many of the children that day that in 9 months,

Christmas will come,

just like it takes, normally, 9 months for a baby to be born...

*

Many woman and children were in church,

it was really beautiful.

The homily was in part about the Theotokos and how she 

made a peaceful loving home for her Holy Family...

*

The vision of this home, of always being a place of prayer,

of peace, harmony and love,

stayed with me and I really hope that with

Holy Theotokos' help,

that I can make a home that gives unity and harmony,

love, peace, centred on Christ... 

*

It was a beautiful and busy day...

*

Mr. Husband went from there back towards home and

had the inspection of our future home...

*

We went out for dinner for fish afterwards 

and then back to our soon-to-not-be-our home...

*

We are not going to do anything in 

terms of packing until 

after Pascha 

but then, it will all ensue very quickly...