Phlox and peonies

Hannah picked some phlox growing by the stream near her great-grandpa's grave.  We picked up great-grandma from the nursing home and went to visit the cemetery, where her husband is buried.

It's peony season here!!!  Peonies in the kitchen, on the dining room table, brought some to church over the weekend, gave a few blossoms to my mom, and also brought some to the cemetery...

 Sunny days...at the park with friends from our homeschool group!

 My niece lost her 2 front teeth! 

And tomorrow is Olivia's 11th birthday!  She is trying to play the 

accordion we bought over the weekend for $100.

A gift

My husband commissioned an 8 x 10" hand-painted icon of St. Martha for me.  It wasn't ready by my namesday, like he'd hoped.  What a nice gift!

It was a complete surprise to me.  I have another icon of my patron saint, but it is smaller.  Now, everyone in our family has the same size hand-painted icon.  The girls' icons are hanging above their beds.  Above our bed, are our wedding icons, of Christ and the Theotokos.

I printed off copies of the girls' icons for our family icon-corner-shelf in our living room.

Friends from our Orthodox homeschooling group...

Yesterday, we planted more of our garden.  Our peas are coming up nicely (on the left) and Olivia planted onion sets.

At the park

Sunday afternoon we went to the park.  That's me under the tree on the bench.

My namesday

This past Sunday, was my namesday.  That's the day we celebrate the Myrrhbearers, my patron saint, St. Martha is one of them.  Two of my sisters celebrate then, also.  I got quite a few gifts.   My mom made bread pudding (with kulich), with bourbon sauce for us.
Bourbon sauce:
Melt 1 stick butter in pan. Add 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water, cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Beat an egg in a separate bowl. Remove butter mixture from heat and gradually add the egg while whisking the mixture rapidly. Add bourbon and serve hot.
It's great over a dish of vanilla ice cream or bread pudding!
AND yesterday, was our church feast day, St. George.  After Liturgy, we had a procession around the church:

Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev from Moscow was visiting and gave a talk (we didn't stay, as Hannah's had some neck problems, and we had a chiropractor's appt) later in the afternoon.  Fr. Eugene Antonov from Atlanta came, too, he is the priest who is blessing everyone with holy water!

The weather is wonderful, sunny and warm, today it is supposed to reach 83.  We are going to water our garden carefully, those tender young seedlings need extra care!

While she is sick...

While Hannah is still sick, Velvet sweetly curled up next to her, and they slept.  Rob was home.  Olivia and I went to the zoo.

 4 days ago a baby giraffe was born here.  There were SO many people waiting to see the giraffe baby.  Olivia bought herself a pink snake toy with some money she had right before we left!

Although I'm not into gambling, tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby...and I love the hats the ladies wear. Isn't this yellow one stunning?

Wow...such lovely long feathers....too fancy for my taste, but still beautiful, a work of art.

Sick this week...

Hello friends and family!  ♥  Christ is Risen!!!  We celebrate Pascha (the Lord's Resurrection) for 40 days, until Christ ascended into heaven.
We've been taking turns being sick in our house the past few days.  Lots of hot tea and honey.  Praying that we didn't unknowlingly pass this on to others and that we will be healthy soon!

Last week, my sister from Canada and her husband and their little daughter were here to visit.  My girls saved up some money and we went shopping.  Hannah bought herself this pretty aqua scarf, which she can wear around her neck, even in summer, it's lightweight and breezy, or as a head covering for church!  She also got herself some sunglasses and those jeans she's wearing.  Olivia bought a beautiful dress, which I'll have to take a picture of her in to share...

Look at little Liza in her jammies...she loved this little window.  It had kisses all over it.

We made this pretty cake, inspired by this recipe, only I couldn't find rosewater.  They were delicious buttery orange cardamom cakes!  My sister did a great job decorating them, adding violets (which are edible) to the top! 

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)