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!!!

Yarn along: primary colours

I just finished Chapter 2 (and I ♥ it already) of We The Living by Ayn Rand.  So far, Kira and her parents and sister have returned to Russia, after being away for 5 years.  Her father's textile factory was "nationalized."  I see bits and pieces of Orthodoxy, Kira's sister Lydia wants to go to church and she and her mother cross themselves.  This is the first novel she had published (1936).  I've read several of her other books (Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged), which were published later.
I'm trying to use up the yarn I have by crocheting little critters.  To see more of what people are doing with their yarn, check out this week's "Yarn along."
We're still getting tomatoes from the backyard.  Beets and carrots, too, but as you can see, the chickens like to eat the greens!

Hannah and Olivia are wearing the aprons my parents got for them while in the Ukraine 7 years ago.  I'm so glad they go to go there and also to Russia, before my Dad's Parkinson's disease got worse!  And on Monday, Labor Day, we had a cookout...Aaron, the girl's cousin really liked the mini-vanilla cones from Trader Joe's. 

5th grade and 7th grade

Today is the first day of school for my girls.  Olivia is now 10 years old and in 5th grade.  She is reading Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.  It's a classic.  Have you read it?  There are many issues to talk about while reading this...slavery, for one. 

Hannah is 12 years old and starting 7th grade.  I have to say that looking back, that was one of the years of the most changes in my life.  It was a fun year, but not always easy.  For Hannah's literature, she starts off reading short stories.  Chura and Marwe is a folktale that originated in Africa. The Masai tribe, which will be mentioned in this story, is from the area that currently makes up the country of Kenya.  Later this year, she will read Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey.
We look forward to learning and having fun!  We are planning a cultural night, in which we plan to dress in Japanese, Russian, Indian, Greek and African, etc. clothing and cook ethnic food. 

Writing...

I am a person who never liked writing much, but has always kept a diary or journal.  Now, I find myself NEEDING to write.   It’s a wonderful release.  I write personal things, about my family,  spiritual life, our garden and how we are growing...

I ♥ to read my old journal entries.  I take my journals on trips, too...from a couple years ago (I also draw a lot, I do not like lined books, but one with completely blank pages, just so I can draw & write).  I'm first an artist, I love to draw, but find that art is truly visible in writing down beautiful words, too, and in baking, in photography & watching things grow. 

After last week's adventure to meet one of my favorite fictional authors, I've been thinking a lot about the difference of fictional writing and non-fictional writing (which is mostly what I do), I really enjoy writing and documenting my life.  And a friend of mine, Jenny, just blogged about a book she is writing, which inspired me to blog about writing!  One of my favorite books is The Diary of Anne Frank.  My intention as I write is that it is not only therapeutic for me, but also something to pass on to my daughters and grandchildren one day, that they may read of our life together, the happiness and sadness.
I've been helping my dad write his memoirs.  I need to sit down with him on a regular basis and do this, but with Parkinson's disease, there are often bad days, where you just don't want to do much of anything.  Or you can't do anything.  God help him.  That is a portrait I drew of my dad in 1996.
Dad's dad (my grandfather is now 90) has written a few short memoirs, of his time in the Navy and sketched a picture of the view of Mt. Fuji from the top of his ship.  My grandfather's dad (my great-grandfather, who passed away when he was 101 years old, I keenly remember his 100th birthday party, I had a broken arm from a skiing accident and there were LOTs of people there) also write his life and all of his children and grandchildren and even great-grand children, like me, have a copy of his book:

Larks

Larks (http://thescrumptiouslife.blogspot.com/2013/03/st-oliva-and-bread-larks.html):

6 cups flour (I am using half whole wheat and half unbleached white)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups warm water
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. vanilla extract
orange zest (optional)
cloves, raisins, or cranberries for eyes
sunflower seeds or whole almonds for beak

Mix the warm water, yeast, honey, oil, flour (a cup at a time, stirring well before adding the next), salt and the vanilla or orange zest (if using) together well. Knead about ten minutes. Place in a bowl and let rise until doubled in size.
Divide the dough into 40 pieces. Roll each piece into a long round shape. Tie each piece into a knot (we did not do this, but just formed it into a nice bird shape). Make one end into the shape of a head for the bird. The other end will be the tail feathers with a knife cut little lines. Put two cloves, raisins or cranberries (you can get creative) on each bird for the eye and a whole almond for the beak.
Bake until lightly browned atop, for maybe 20 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. We didn't got 20 out of this batch, so I made 2 batches, in honor of the 40 martyrs of Sebaste.

*****

I went to church 9 times in the past 9 days.  There were a total of 11 services in the past 9 days, though.  We are fortunate to live just 3 miles away.  Yesterday in church, we celebrated the restoration of icons.  I thought this would be a fun craft to do:   

Thank you to Presbytera Angela of The Orthodox Children's Press for sharing that!  Also, she is doing a feature on kids, and both Olivia and Hannah were featured last week.  I asked them if they wanted to join in after we saw David's article and they typed in the answers to the questions and chose the pictures themselves to send in.  

For Sunday school yesterday, the older kids had been working on presentations of their patron saints (for about a month) and shared the poster boards they'd been working on with the younger children.  I think their Sunday school teacher took pictures and if so, I'll see if I can get them and share them.

I ordered a copy of this book The Hidden Garden as a present for someone.  ♥

I plan to get some raw cashews from Trader Joe's to try this recipe this week.

Hiking and sap gathering...

Pathway lined with moss-covered rocks remind me of The Hobbit, which we are still reading together.  It was very cold, but the sun shone and the skies were blue...

Snowdrops.  I don't know the names of the little yellow flowers, nor the pinkish or white ones...do you?

 The woodstove is hot...and boiler with sap turning into maple syrup...and a pile of wood. 

We met up with my sister's family and a couple friends from church.

Rowe Woods is in Milford, OH.  We helped gather sap and watch as they boil it down to maple syrup....and the best part was tasting it after!

Here are our pictures from our sap gathering in 2010.  It always reminds me of one of my favorite books:

"Laura and Mary each had a pan, and Pa and Ma showed them how to pour the dark syrup in little streams onto the snow."
- Little House in the Big Woods

I guess they switched from using metal buckets to plastic at Rowe Woods.  I'm not keen on the use of plastics.  I know it is not as food-safe as many have thought...and I don't want to take chances.
Learning as we live...we all have to take some chances and make choices.  
It's sure been a cold winter here in Ohio.  I hope it snows one more time!

A new book and a little yarn...

I just bought the book, Yia Yia and the Prosphoron, and think it's wonderful.  "Yia Yia" means Grandma in Greek.  The Grandma in this story puts down her knitting on Saturday to make the holy bread (we call it "prosphora") that is used in church.  The illustrations are very well done...and to be honest, I'm very picky because I am an artist.  It's also very special because the main character reminds me of my own mom!  ♥  She has been baking prosphora for about 30 years.  I have helped her out a little when I was younger, but this a few months ago I started making it on my own.