Our Home Has Been Blessed!

 Our House is Blessed! 

It is so very nice to have one's house blessed 

with prayer, holy water, oil and incense!  

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Our priest, his Matuska and son stayed for dinner;

Mr. Husband's parents have known them all for years

and it was a lovely time of fellowship and reminiscing!

Meal:

Home grown mashed potatoes & salad from parents-in-law's garden

fried chicken from this recipe

fruit salad of red grapes and blue berries with whipped cream on the side

red wine, water

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Flowers from guest's garden, vase Mr. Husband's.

Table Cloth and Candle holders were wedding gifts to me

from my Ottawa parish.

I also used rose tea towels and apron from IKEA

for the first time... 

I got these from the IKEA gift card

that my Ottawa church family also gave me.

So it was full of many memories and love, this meal...

Grandma's sauce boat.

Bowl from Halifax trip years ago.

Silver from rummage sale Mr. Husband and I went to;

other dishes from wedding, sales and bridal showers...

It was a lovely meal enjoyed by all!

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Dessert:

Apricot Torte from this recipe

Juniors cheese cake

Tea, milk, cream, sugar, agave.

My Mother-in-law helped greatly with the meal

and it was a really special time! 

We are so thankful to God for His great mercy to us!

Progress and Hope to be done... in a few months :)

This dimly lit picture is the office; still in boxes

and in clutter but we will get there.

I have lots of plans and hopes...

My one goal for today is to move a bunch of the library

to the living room bookshelves...

things that are not as valuable as there is more

possibility of sun exposure in the living room... 

Exciting to me right now is just to have a few places

of order and peace as we continue to unpack

and find places for things.

I am loving this little spot on the dresser.

The mug has our prosphera bread that 

we are given at our church...

we have it first thing in the morning

with a little holy water, 

before we eat or drink other things;

it's a real blessing... like being given

a blessing and strength for the day!

We don't have most of our icons unpacked and up yet...

so this lovely corner is our current prayer corner.

It works and is a lovely start.

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We hope to get some sort of icon shelf/rail 

in our chapel for various icons... 

this hopefully will happen in July when 

Mr. Husband's parents come;

they had to change dates with us

due to strawberry season and harvesting,

but this is fine for us too,

we are excited to have them come!

I got this icon diptych at an antique mall

in Grand Rapids years ago with my Grandma;

it was made in Rome.

The candle was a gift from a dear friend and is made

at the monastery in Brownsberg Quebec.  

The candles in the glass jar are also from Orthodox monasteries. 

I am determined to have much less clutter in our home.

This coat rack used to be just layered with things.

Now it has the essentials and our master bedroom closet,

which is about twice the size of our old one

has the excess. 

I am so pleased about this.

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My Dad used what was already around to anchor this 

bathroom shelf unit to the wall.

It is so sturdy now!

The double sink is just lovely.

The sink on the left has some cracks in it

but is structurally still sound,

as in no chance of leakage.

I still have to put our wedding crowns back up 

above the bed.

We have boxes to unpack yet in the closet

before boxes that are in the bedroom can be properly stored.

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I am finding that working on one chosen area

helps a lot in the unpacking progress.

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Oh, and thank God: I found my camera charger!!

I opened up the shades and sat Cleo down so she

can enjoy the window view.  

She is still learning about places in this new home.

I am still loving the paint colours.

And it is wonderful to have the two big windows 

and have shades for them.

It cuts down the heat from the sun and the light 

exposure on things.

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Little by little we will get things unpacked!

I am realizing, esp. with Mr. Husband parent's later 

arrival to help with some things,

that it will be sometime before everything is 

situated. But it is going well and 

I have my kitchen clutter free

which is a huge relief.

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Years ago when I just could not seem to keep things clean,

my spiritual father in Ottawa told me that just having 

one area clean and organized can help one's 

equilibrium and keep one from being totally discouraged 

and overwhelmed by it. 

I am finding this to be true...

and that one must choose a small area to work on 

and go from there.

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Little by little,

we will make our new condo a home! 

Woosh! ~ Towards the end of a busy two weeks

My Dad finished the top of the cupboards,

raising them up and securing the cupboard crown moulding... 

My Mother helped decide how my kitchen looks! 

It's super cute :)

I am hoping to get another arm chair somewhat 

similar to this one.

A lot of work on the library has been made

but a lot more has to be done.

Woosh! ~ Week 2 Day 1 ~ crowned beauty and our library

Yesterday my Dad cut all the crown moulding

for the kitchen and installed it.

Our neighbour let use his saw and nailer.

To cut in a corner you need to cut in a 45 degree angle,

my Dad told me.

It's not easy work.

We don't know why the kitchen was left unfinished without the moulding but

it looks so much better now!

You can see in the picture above and below where

there was no moulding.

And now here is my Dad's lastest work

on making our home beautiful!

Today I think he is going to sand the new moulding and caulk

and paint where needed.

That he got the moulding up in one day impressed me! 

Now the Great Room area {kitchen, dining, living}

looks like a complete and unified whole.

Today my Dad hopes to put

sheets of a smooth plywood above the cupboards,

putting firring strips down first that will 

make it raised first;

you can't see it but the cupboards above

had no unified smooth top and where the cupboard ended

there was openings so lots of dirt and dust could fall down in them.

Now it will be ready to clean easily, not have dust and dirt

continue to accumulate and if wanted you can put things on top of the

cupboards as decoration.

(the cupboards were too low and deep set to have this possibility before).

My Dad is also working on re-staining and varnishing our

front door as it was looking quite poor and weather-worn.

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My Mother super-cleaned our bathrooms and the office floor.

Together my parents cleaned the outside of the fridge;

my Dad did the coils, my Mom everything else,

apparently it was in dire need of cleaning!

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Mr. Husband and I packed steadily yesterday and made

great progress.

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At night we began our library while Dad finished up

the moulding.

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Here's our progress:

 All shelves are up.

 Our first chapel/library icon corner :)

Some of our best books are up on the wall next to the only window

in the room, so that no light damage will happen from the sun.

Lots to unpack yet!

I hope to do more this afternoon! 

We are thinking of getting a tall skinny shelf with a door

for the wall to the left of the window...

Can you see how this wall has an unusual corner?

This God willing will be for our prayer stand and icons,

along with the 'empty' wall to the right.

And that is yesterday's progress!

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We are really excited to be moved in tomorrow 

and continue to make our new place our beautiful home!