Lent Day 25 ~ The Feast of the Annunciation to the Mother of God

Feast of Annunciation!

Feast of Holy Cross still celebrated plus Annunciation ... wonderful!

Now both our churches' new Crucifixion and Resurrection Icons are finished

and up on the iconostasis, so beautiful! 

We went out to eat and I had finish,

as this is the one day in Lent where fish is allowed! 

Tonight we hope to go the diner for dinner, 

as we got home late (drove through driving rain!) in the afternoon.

But first, we will have a piece of cake and tea!

And Lent Day 25 is a good day...

Lent Day 24 ~ slow and steady

A quiet day,

spent mainly reading Elizabeth Goudge's 

The Dean's Watch.

Such wonderful reading.

Inspiring and really a map for living as a Christian,

while not at all 'preaching' about how one should live

but instead painting a picture of Christian life that is full of meaning 

and comforting us at the same moment.

So much there and so deeply comforting, 

as Gretchen Joanna so rightly commented;

I too find her works to be as near to a sacrament without 

actually being one!

I finished my veggie burger, even a bit too baked, it tasted good to me!

Plus my 2nd green smoothie!

At night I went to presanctifed liturgy,

very special and a woman (I don't know her well myself) was ill

and they thought unable to go to pilgrimage to the Holy Land

was better and plans on going, 

Mr Husband and I were so happy about this.

And that was Lent Day 24!

Lent day 23 ~ a quiet one

A quiet day today.

Mr Husband is back at work.

I made a green smoothie today.

Enjoyed more of my veggie burger (I find that they are huge

and take me a while to finish!).

I worked on sewing my one panel practice quilt sandwich

and am sewing the binding on now!

I am also reading more of Goudge's Dean's Watch and am

realizing how much her view of history matches my own.

And that is Lent day 23...

Lent Day 22 ~ final celebration of Mr Husband's birthday

We like to spread out birthday celebrations to last days 

here at our house....

today I finally was able to bake Mr. Husband's cake

and gave him his present...

an handmade one, the lovely Cross-Stitched Narnian quotation! 

Made by my love friend Nicole who has an Etsy account,

with the pattern for this lovely price here,

of which she can also custom make if you want! :) 

I was so excited to give this to Mr Husband,

as we love Narnia and he used a Narnian quotation for

his marriage proposal to me....very special!!! 

The cake I made was a cross between the normal birthday cake

I made for him and the St. Nicholas Cakes.

I was still tired today and it was easier to do the St. Nicolas Cake 

and the raspberry chocolate frosting...

Mr. Husband liked it! as did I!!!

The card with the 'book of romance' is a card I have had for years,

since 2005, when I went to the Osborne Museum of Children's Lit...

the book was edited by Andrew Lang...

I had, of course, not known Mr Husband back then but it was the 

perfect card for him! :)

For our dinner, we went again to our favourite diner,

in part because we are still recovering from being so ill with the flu

and we like it there too. 

I got a veggie burger and fries!

I am enjoying the book by Donald Sheehan and have found myself

lead right to the homilies of St. Issac the Syrian, who both

Scott Cairns and now Donald Sheehan seem to love.

so I went and found our copy...

I've just been reading the first homily but am surprised at how

lucid it is...though I should not of, still, it did, the clarity is just beautiful. 

I re-read some of Jane's poems from her last complication, Otherwise

and have been enjoying her finely crafted words...

It's funny what we tell and do not tell others, 

without even realizing it...

Somehow Mr Husband did not know that I took 

3 semesters of creative writing in my undergraduate years...,

yes, I too wanted to write. 

I have not forgotten this, but do not yet have the time or ability to 

prioritize this but I have not forgotten.

We also talked about making of bread and I may be trying to bake

bread again, but not quiet yet...

Well, that is Lent day 22, I am thankful...Mr. Husband was able to go 

back to the office, I got some things done around the house

and we had a nice end of his birthday celebration of 4 days :)

Lent Day 21 ~ many good things ~ church ~ meals ~ books

Today was the midpoint of Great Lent ... Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross.

I wrote a Sunday School lesson for the other teachers to teach...

as I was working on it, I think what hit me the deepest was how

in that Christ carried His Cross first and He goes before us and can 

help us and be with us as we struggle with our own personal Cross.

We were able to make it to our local church!

There had been really strong winds, up to 65 mph

and it was a mercy we could make it!

I was really tired due to insomnia but 

was relieved to make it there!

(I had a long nap in the afternoon...was really tired!)

Husband's birthday flowers! :)

You can see him there, writing cards :)

We had Thai takeout for lunch!

While the Trader Joe's Chocolate Almonds are my top Lenten favourite,

I am also really enjoying the dates from the Indian Grocery Store we went to 

and some Punjabi Indian Junk Food too! 

Halfway through Great Lent!

My husband was catching up on some

Touchstone Magazine reading and told me that there was a 

book review of this book and so I grabbed it off our shelves and 

began reading....this book is beautiful and so literate! I am loving it.

I skipped to the middle to read the essay that has to do with

Jane Kenyon's poetry. 

It's lovely and very literate, quiet and perfect Lenten reading! 

*

And that was day 21 of Lent...

Mr Husband hopes to cab to work tomorrow in NYC.

Pray for him please and that we can be restored to full health... 

it was Mr Husband's first time to be at liturgy in 3 weeks! 

Lent Day 20 ~ memorial service, meal and mercy

We had lunch of left over 

pea soup and french fries from our favourite diner, plus a delicious fruit salad.

(We reheat the fries in the toaster oven, works great!)

*

We made it to Mr Husband's godson's 1 year memorial service.

Munchkin said it felt like we were gone for 6 weeks (not 2 or 3) 

and I said I felt the same, which is true.

This illness feels like a long time already!

*

We are slowly gaining, but I still felt a good deal of upper chest area 

congestion and was tired.

*

We went to our favourite Thai place afterwards for dinner

and enjoyed a really good curry.

*

We also stopped by an Indian Store for Indian food, esp. some

'Indian Junk food' that we eat in small quantities but enjoy. 

*

It was good to be out and to see the beauty near and in our 

far away church.

*

It was a mercy of God that we were able to go.

And that was Lent day 20.

Lent Day 19 ~ impromptu events, beauty and flowers

Today, while I did sleep in,

I had more energy and was able to do things...

including an impromptu grocery run, 

in which birthday flowers for Mr. Husband were bought.

*

I have decided that I am going to celebrate his birthday all weekend and next week,

before, during and after! :)

*

So we ate on our blue and white dishes for dinner and I had

the candles and flowers on a *newly cleaned* table!

*

Slowly I am catching up on laundry, de-cluttering and the like.

*

Wanted to take note of this special article on

Rev Richard Wurmbrand and how 

Orthodox people from the

Saint Herman Brotherhood visited with him.

It has a audio file of Richard Wurmbrand singing 

in Hebrew to the Mother of God. 

*

Tomorrow we hope to go to the 1 year memorial service for

Mr Husband's adult godson.

*

I am getting things ready for Sunday School as we will not be able to be

there for Sunday also, as the drive is long and we are not 

fully back to our full strength. ... we are still congested.... 

*

I did begin re-reading Elizabeth Goudge's 

Deans Watch and am enjoying this.

*

Well, Lent day 19 is done!

I thank God for this day...