Middle of Holy Week

I ♥ these 10 minute "Coffee with Sister Vassa" episodes.
Today is Holy and Great Wednesday, the middle of Holy Week.  In general, as Orthodox Christians, we fast from all animal products on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Wednesday, because of the betrayal of Judas, and Friday, for His crucifixion.

Tomorrow is Thursday, we celebrate the Last Supper with Christ and his disciples.  This icon is especially beautiful to me, as it is the icon my parents have in their dining room and have for almost 40 years.  We grew up saying a prayer before each meal we ate together, and looked towards this icon.

We are preparing to celebrate His Resurrection on Sunday!  I've made kulich, cheese Pascha (which I use this wooden form for) and red eggs, using onion skins, which we will take to church Saturday around 11:30pm.  We have a midnight service.  This year is going to be particularly special, because we are in our newly built church!  About 4 times the amount of space.  My girls have NEW pretty skirts to wear, they are maxi skirts, and go all the way down to their feet.

I want to share with you a cookbook called Feast, featuring real food recipes (by Daniel and Haley Stewart, who blogs here:  http://carrotsformichaelmas.com/), that I just read a review of here:  http://audreyeclectic.blogspot.com/2014/04/feast-book-review.html  I think it sounds great, many of the recipes are related to Christian holidays and also, as it is spring and we are beginning to think of our garden, for our health.  We've planted only lettuce, but plan to plant kale, tomatoes, squash, carrots, beets, etc. 

I hope all of you enjoy this week and make time to read the Bible, say a few more prayers and enjoy the feast of Pascha!!!

My nephew's baptism

Today my sister and her husband's baby boy, Timothy, was baptized. 

 This is one of his big sisters, Natalia:

Deacon Alexander, the Godfather, with Timothy and both of his grandparents.  My sister sewed the baptismal gown for him, which was white with blue ribbon it, very nicely done.

A group picture, of grandpas and grandmas and his 3 big sisters and some uncles, aunts and cousins.  I wish his mama and Godmother were also in this picture!

Our friends from Penn Yan, New York (did you know it's known as "the buckwheat capital of America"?) with my parents...

St. Oliva

Today is Olivia's namesday (following the Old Calendar), the day we celebrate the saint for whom she is named, St. Oliva of Brescia, Italy, who was martyred under the Emperor Hadrian in 138 AD. This icon was hand-painted by Fr. Paul Akmolin and given as a gift from my parents to Olivia:

Since it is Great Lent, we are making an effort to go to more services, and give alms by helping  others.  Unfortunately, we are not able to attend as many services as the new church is much further than the old church was...

Olivia is collecting money to donate to OCMC (Orthodox Christian Mission Center), in this little box with a slot on top, that we got while at the homeschool gathering at Christ the Savior church.  I also want to start this prison ministry with my Sunday school class:  http://theorthodoxprisonministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BBB_diy.pdf

We were able to attend Holy Unction (the anointing of oil, for the remission of sins) while the Kursk icon visited our parish last week:

Post by St. George Russian Orthodox Church.

One of the passages from the Bible that is read during that service is:
"A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." Luke 10:33-34

And another (although the healing is not merely for those sick of the body, but those who are sick of the soul...whose soul is pure?):
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
James 5:14-15

Little 5 year old Sofia is home!  The surgery went very well.  Tomorrow is her little brother's first birthday! 

Little Sofia

In two weeks, our friend, Sofia, will turn 5 years old.  She was diagnosed about 2 years ago with cancer in her brain in Ukraine.

They were treated in Israel next and finally, were able to come to the United States.  In Cincinnati, the Children's Hospital is one of the best when it comes to cancer treatments.

After so much radiation, proton therapy, chemotherapy, stem cell therapy (from her baby brother, Timothy's umbilica cord)...her brain had undergone so much stress and was weakened.  She had a stroke Dec. 17, 2013.  Then, a few days later, she had a much more serious stroke.  The left side of her body was affected and she is still trying to regain strength  by physical therapy.  She also lost her ability to see.
She has been in the hospital 3 months today, but was able to come to church yesterday for the first time in months!!!  All the children gathered around her wheelchair, holding her hands, kissing her cheeks and greeting her with love.  She went to Holy Communion.  I took her little brother to Holy Communion, as I am his Godmother.  

I took these two pictures of their whole family in October 2013 when our parish moved from the old building into the new large church!  Everyone carried an icon to the new church. 

I ♥ Sofia's smile in this photo.  She is supposed to be going home this Thursday Feb. 20th.  We are all praying she continues to heal little by little. 

I ♥ this...

I made this really delicious chicken and avocado salad with cilantro.  We will be making it again very soon. 

Olivia really likes to use the Rainbow Loom and make stuff.  She made 16 bracelets to give to the kids in our homeschooling group today. 

 Jenny read the life of St. Valentine, as the children wrote messages for each other. 

With God's guidance, Father Steven picked the patron saint of our homeschooling group today.  A couple weeks ago, each family had done some research and picked out a saint they liked.  The children stood up and made presentations on each saint.  Many of the saints had beautiful lives or struggled with learning and through prayers were able to overcome any difficulties.  There was:

• the 3 hierarchs (St. Basil, St. Gregory and St. John)
• St. Catherine the Great
• St. John of Kronstadt
• St. Sergius of Radonezh
• St. Emmelia
• St. Artemis

And now, it is....  the St. John of Kronstadt Orthodox homeschooling group of Cincinnati area!  From this website, http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/johnkr_e.htm:

"his intellectual development was delayed, for he had great difficulty in learning to read" and "he prayed earnestly for divine enlightenment, and one morning, after he had risen during the night and prayed while his companions slept, he found himself able to read easily, and to understand what he had read."

Blessing of the Water

Yesterday we celebrated Theophany, the manifestation of the Trinity, when Jesus Christ was baptised by John. 

 Hannah and Anna put out candles.

The church is splashed with Holy Water.

 My dad and mom...and Father Daniel.

 People get splashed with Holy Water on Theophany.  Afterwards, people
take Holy Water home and then their houses will be blessed!

Today

I spotted these pretty glitter heart earrings today and am thinking I will try to make some like them!
It snowed a few inches today.  It's cold and beautiful in this part of Ohio.  I went on a nice walk with Lusy the dog, she just loves the snow!

Olivia just finished reading Eleanor Estes's The Hundred Dresses.   It won a Newbery Honor in 1945 and has never been out of print since.  Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl in Connecticut is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day.  One of Olivia's final assignments was to write an imaginary letter that Maddie (one of the girls who wasn't very kind to her, but also felt sorry for her) could have written to Wanda.

Hannah had to write an essay comparing how Ebenezer Scrooge felt when meeting the 3 ghosts and how it changed his life, since she just finished reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  A good wrap up to this week of homeschooling...and as it is the 12th day of Christmas for us Orthodox Christians who follow the old calendar!

Rob is at work right now.  He has a terrible cold.  Runny nose and cough.  Olivia has a bad cough, too...she was up many times last night.  I convinced her to take 10mL of elderberry syrup, along with some apple juice, because other wise it's too tart and sweet (very concentrated).  I hope everyone will be healthy soon.

I got a letter in the mail this week from Joscelyn and was just amazed at her lovely calligraphy.   I found my old box of nibs and got to work with various colours of ink...pretty soon Hannah and Olivia joined me and we sampled writing out words and alphabets in various different ways:

This weekend, we celebrate Christ's baptism!  Water will be 

blessed at church, and then sprinkled around our home.

When Thou was baptized in the Jordan, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity wast made manifest; for the voice of the Father bear witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son. And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of His word. O Christ our God, Who hath appeared and enlightened the world, glory be to Thee.

Yesterday...

After church yesterday, we had a Christmas party for the children...
First, Hannah sang "What Child is This?" as she played guitar with Maria, who is 25 years old and teaching Hannah:

Olivia with Liza, my sister's little girl, who is 1.  She got this new pink dress, for a Christmas gift...with a snowman on the front and a hat with a white puffy ball on it.

Then, a few children recited poetry...and then they moved plywood out for the girls to do Irish dancing: 

Russian dancing!

The audience.

I'm holding my Godson, Timothy...isn't his little comfy tuxedo so cute???

He did not want to sit on Grandfather Frost's lap!

His mother was at the hospital, yesterday in the afternoon...they have been taking turns.  Today marks 4 weeks of Timothy's big sister, Sofia's hospitalization after a stroke.
They were told on Friday at a meeting with the doctor that 75% of her brain is unrepairable and damaged.  Lord have mercy.  ♥  Please keep all of their family in your prayers, Sergiy and little Timothy, who you see here...and Maryna, the mother, and especially 4 year old Sofia.

Here is little Sofia and her mother, Maryna.  You can read more about them here:  http://savesofiakharchyk.org.ua/en/

Today, Maryna's mother, Nataliya, arrived from Ukraine to help out...I look forward to meeting her very soon!

Preparing for the feast...

Tonight we will go to church and again tomorrow morning to celebrate Christ's Nativity, the incarnation of God, out of His love for mankind!  ♥

We have been preparing by reading spiritually uplifting literature, fasting, confessing our sins and will partake of Holy Communion on the feast.  Our girls have requested homemade macaroni and cheese (they've missed that MORE than meats) and so I will bring that to church and will share that with everyone in a potluck celebration after the church service:

Homemade macaroni and cheese (from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, with a few of my own changes, like adding nutmeg & using cheddar cheese, I doubled this recipe)

• 8  ounces  dried elbow macaroni or desired-shape pasta (2 cups)
• 2  tablespoons  butter 
• 1/4 cup chopped onion 
• 2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground black pepper
• a dash of nutmeg 
• 1 1/2 whole cups  milk
• 12  ounce package cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

 

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. Meanwhile, for cheese sauce, in a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and add onions. Stir in flour and pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Add cheese, stirring until melted. Stir macaroni into cheese sauce in saucepan, stirring to coat. Cook over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently.  Makes 4 servings.

*I've done the above and will bake it at church:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.

Some wine, ingredients for a delicious salad with feta and macaroni...

My sister and her husband and 1 year old daughter (and his younger brother and their mother) in their beautiful church in Ottawa, Canada on Nativity.

My dad with almost all of his granddaughters. 

Juliana got a china doll for Christmas!  And new socks.  Olivia picked those out for her.

 And Olivia dancing with Natasha in my parents home after the Nativity Liturgy...