Christ is Risen!

The Resurrection of Christ, Easter, Pascha...we sing "Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and on those in the tombs bestowing life!"  This is the middle of Bright Week, instead of regular morning and evening prayers, we sing the beautiful Paschal Hours.  We sing "Lord have mercy" 40 times and like to sing it in 4 different languages, 10 times each, in English, 

Greek (which is Κύριε ελέησον and sounds like "Kírie eléison"), 

Arabic (which is يا ربّ ارحم and sounds like "Yā Rabbu rḥam") and 

Russian (which is Господи, помилуй and sounds like "Gospodi, pomiloi").

We make eggs red by using yellow onion skins, traditional Russian-style bread, kulich, and here, Olivia puts on raisins on the sweet cheese pascha.

After Liturgy on Bright Monday, we had a procession around the church outside.  It was beautiful weather. 

Two of my nieces with icons of their patron saints:

My little nephew Timothy wore a seersucker outfit....so handsome!

Elizabeth wearing my sunglasses this afternoon.

Today is my husband's birthday!  We had a wonderful meal together.  My parents brought over cheesecake and I made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for him.  ♥  My brother-in-law from Canada took some pictures which I hope to add here later.

(yes, they are expecting their 2nd baby, October 9th)

Sofia is 5

Our dear friends from church celebrating Sofia's 5th birthday together on Tuesday.  Please pray for her as she is having another surgery tomorrow, they will put healthy blood vessels from the top of her head into the part of her brain that was damaged from the stroke, so they can grow and repair.

Sofia and her grandma (or "babushka") who came from Ukraine to help out in January.  She leaves in a couple of weeks.

 Another dear family, little 1 year old Ksenia has an enlarged heart and is also in need of prayers.

Opening birthday gifts.  We gave her jeggings (you know soft jeans/leggings) and a teal blouse with stars on it:

I ♥ this picture...Sofia with her Ariel cupcakes and her mama and grandma with strawberries!

 The whole family:

It was truly a happy birthday.  The best thing was seeing little Sofia smile, as everyone sang happy birthday to her.  There is a lot of love here.  ♥

Wintry weather

Hot organic chamomile tea from Trader Joe's in the thermos we got from IKEA...very nice when you're sitting in cold snow!

We went across the street from our house and built snowforts!  A beautiful sunny (but very cold wintry) day.

 

 Down the street from us...I like how these people stacked up the ice.  It wasn't a normal snow, more like tiny bits of hail...and ice in the end!

My mom on her 69th birthday yesterday, a wonderful day...started it off with going to Liturgy for St. Xenia of St. Petersburg.  After, a potluck lunch and homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, my sister made lemon bars, and an apple cake that a woman from church made and chocolate chunks, but most of all being with those we ♥ love...

Wish

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday!  I made her a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. 

 

I added new items to my etsy shop and am offering 20% off if you use the code:  LOVE20 ♥

Olivia started guitar lessons with my friend Maria last month.  Her fingers are getting used to the strings.  Evening lessons while the weather got colder and some tea to warm us up.
We got a fresh batch of snow stuff....maybe it was tiny pieces of hail, because it pelted out windows last night.  And this morning, it was crunchy like ice.  

I'm 36 years old

Started off the day with a bowl of crispy rice cereal, sliced banana and milk. Then lit some incense and my sister called from Canada to say "happy birthday," then we said morning prayers.  I fed the chickens (Hannah and Olivia feed the cat, dog and fish).  I took Olivia to her tennis class, and I hit the ball against the backboard until I worked up a sweat, then took a nice walk, until Olivia's class was done.  When we got home, Hannah had vacuumed the house and made me a cute card, a cat blowing out candles on a cake.  Rob decorated the dining room with colourful paper lanterns. 

Dad and Mom brought over Dewey's pizza (it's the BEST...one with fresh tomatoes and basil atop, the other with pineapple and ham), salad (with cucumbers, feta, yellow peppers and red tomatoes), and a rotisserie chicken.  Dad is doing pretty well, right now.  He still has a hard time in the afternoon and evenings, but not having to use the wheel chair and sometimes not even using the walker (he used a cane to come in, had to use the walker with a little extra help going down the porch steps, though) is amazing progress.  Thanks be to God for all those who are praying for him!
Mom cleverly bent thin candles (tapers, that are like Wikki Stix) to make a 36.  Rob is brought me the cheesecake with strawberries...and then everyone sang "Happy birthday!"

I picked some yellow pear tomatoes from the backyard, 2 yellow squash, 3 beets and a handful of green beans.  Rob and Olivia checked on the corn...and Olivia got a plum. 

A bunch of kids at the swim meet waiting to swim, in our tent, as it rained.  Lower center moving clockwise is Ryan, Paige, Olivia, Mary Grace, Hannah, Brenna, Claire, Annika, Claire, Katie, Simone and Bri.  It was a long day.  We left the house at 8:30am and got home about 6pm on Saturday!

Our dog had surgery...

Sunday afternoon, we were surprised to find that our dog, Lusy, was very ill.  She was have spasms in her abdominal area and couldn't walk.  Rob carried her in his arms and we brought her to MedVet's emergency room.  They took an x-ray and found that her intestines were looped tightly, and although they couldn't tell exactly what was going on, it didn't look good.  We opted for immediate surgery, the doctor there called us after, it was 11pm on Sunday...and told us that they'd found she had peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal cavity wall, due to a rupture in her uterus, which they had to take out.  They took a swab (and sent it to the lab, we will find the results in a few more days) and lavaged her insides, put in a drain, and stapled her up.

She was on IV antibiotics and pain medication, too.  She was there for almost 48 hours, spent 2 nights away, and they said she wouldn't eat ANYTHING.  Yesterday (Tuesday) we were able to take her home.  To get her to eat, I cooked a pound of ground beef and a cup of brown rice, I put 1/4 of it atop her dry dog food, and she ate it, with pleasure.  She is getting special treatment.  I had just cut off her arm bandage where the IV was and then snapped this picture below...looks like she is smiling!

She is now on oral antibiotics, pain medication and anti-nausea meds.  Lusy is doing well, I'm struggling to get the pills down her.  She is wearing an Elizabethan collar, so that she won't be able to lick her wound and open it up.

 P.S.  Yesterday was also my dear husband's 40th birthday!!!

the sweet place ♥

 

Yesterday was Dad's 62nd birthday.  Dad ♥s sweets.  I do, too.  My girls used to ask me which tooth was my "sweet tooth."  Like Dad, I am also a morning person, rising when the sun is up, sometimes before.

One of my sisters gave him a beautiful painted ceramic bowl that her girls made. 
She also got him a t-shirt which 7 of the grandchildren have put a painted hand-print on...and she will take it to Canada this week for Elizabeth's hand-print (who is a month old now and will be baptized next week), then, Dad can wear it. 

Another sister gave Dad a box of sweet pastries from Bon Bonerie, a Cincinnati shop.  I remember having their scrumptious scones with clotted cream at the Celtic festival about 15 years ago.  It reminded me of when my grandma (my dad's mom) took my sister and I to Scotland when we were kids, for a month in the summer. 

We got Brooklyn style pizzas to eat for dinner with Dad and Mom.  Then the my girls wanted to play "Cincinnati" the local version of Monopoly, they have Aglamesis ice cream as one of the properties you can buy, Kroger's grocery or the Cincinnati Red's baseball team, for example.  I sat in Dad's walker as a chair. 

I went with Dad and Mom to an awesome Parkinson's Symposium on Saturday, we listened to Dad's doctor, Alberto Espay, talk about the myths of Parkinson's (one was "stem cell research will help those with Parkinson's"...and I am pro-life, do not think it is morally right for anyone to use a fetus to do research).  There was one doctor who talked about caffeine and how it makes the levadopa (medication used to maintain the Parkinson's disease) more effective!  Dad had 2 cups of coffee right then at the Oasis. 

Linda Armstrong is a woman who has Parkinson's disease and makes jewelry.  She spoke about my dad's first doctor, Fred Revilla, who is down in Bolivia climbing to the summit of a mountain in honor of his patients.  She said "We are all on a climb, looking for a cure."  I love her frosted glass pieces with little beads around them.

Cammy Dierking biked (although she doesn't have Parkinson's) the 40k, I ended up not doing it, but next year, I WILL.  She is the local evening news anchor for channel 12 (CBS) and what a wonderful, warm and inspiring person!  She called up a young boy, Benji who is perhaps 10 years old, who also biked, he has had numerous back surgeries and his father has Parkinson's disease.  We applauded him.  It brought a tear to my eye, seeing this young boy. 

Davis Phinney is a professional cyclist.  He was diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease at age 40.  He is now 53.  He wrote a book, The Happiness of Pursuit,  about how he is reaching back to what made him so successful on the bike and adjusting his perspective on what counts as a win.  He said a smile brightens his day and that is a victory!

Not 34 anymore....

Yesterday I turned 35....my husband will be 40 on his next birthday.  

My dad and Natalia...

 Look who fell asleep on Grammie.

 There's something for Juliana here.

 Hugs for her great grandpa.

 Emma climbed the mimosa tree and put her bird on a branch up high.

 Natalia running with her bird.

Juliana with her bird from her great grandpa.

Cutting the birthday cake...my mom also made homemade vanilla ice cream....scrumptiousness!

My grandpa is here in Ohio, right now, he and his wife live in New Jersey and it's been about 4 years since they've come here, as it's harder to travel when you get older.  We went to visit them last year and the year before, though.  He is going to be 90 very soon.  He bought presents for all the kids, picked them out and wrapped them himself, his wife, Josie, told us.  So sweet.  We had a cookout together followed by birthday cake.  ♥  My mom made my favorite, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!