Not Quite a Yarn Along Post...

 

I have been missing the Yarn Along updates for the past few weeks, mainly because I have been knitting the same thing for a million years and I feel like it is loosing it's appeal for my readers.  I am finally making headway now that Great Lent is over and am really hoping to be done with it soon.  There are so many things that I want to knit!  Unfortunately, all of them are with fingering weight yarn (very, very thin yarn) and so it will probably be a slow year for completed projects.

The children and I have been reading The Railway Children.  I was reminded of it by Auntie Leila this week and we have a really lovely copy that is illustrated by Shirley Hughes.  Sugar Plum knits and the boys play with their Legos while I read.  My dad read to us on the nights that he didn't have to work and I have fond memories of it of laying on the floor coloring while he read to us.

Speaking of reading to your kids, have you heard Sarah Mackenzie's new podcast, Read-Aloud Revival?  I have only listened to a little bit of it, and am hooked!

Lettuce and Firewood...

Every time I peek out our dining room windows and spot those brave little lettuce leaves swaying in their worn pot, I get a little thrill.  I get why people garden now!  I really can't wait for that first salad.  We went to a fancy garden center to wander around (it is still too cold to plant flowers), and we ended up buying a new little fern and some tiny fairy tools.  We washed the dust off of our little bell jar and are enjoying it on our table again.  I love ferns and this seems to be the only way that I can get them to love me and live.   It is so chilly and rainy that I kind of want to go buy a trunk's worth of wood so that we can feel cozy again. That would be a nice way to spend the last evening of April, don't you think?

Overheard...

"Thank you for protecting me, O Lord!"

-Button, blessing the beautiful plate of delicious food that I lovingly prepared for him.

Reading...

An open davenport stood in the window opposite the door;  in the other there was a stand, with a tall white china vase, from which drooped wreaths of English ivy, pale-green birch, and copper-colored beech leaves.  Pretty baskets of work stood about in different places:  and books, not cared for on account of their binding solely, lay on the table, as if recently put down.  Behind the door was another table, decked out for tea, with a white tablecloth, on which flourished the cocoa-nut cakes, and a basket piked with oranges, and ruddy American apples, heaped on leaves.

It appeared to Mr. Thornton that all these graceful cares were habitual to the family;  and especially of a piece with Margaret.  She stood by the tea-table in a light-colored muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it.  She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless, daintiness.  She had a bracelet on one taper arm, which would fall down over her round wrist.  Mr. Thornton watched the replacing of this troublesome ornament with far more attention than he listen to her father.  It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh;  and then to mark the loosening - the fall.  He could almost have exclaimed - 'There it goes, again!'  

There was so little left to be done after he arrived at the preparation for tea, that he was almost sorry the obligation of eating and drinking came so soon to prevent his watching Margaret.  She handed him his cup of tea with the proud air of an unwilling slave;  but her eye caught the moment when he was ready for another cup;  and he almost longed to ask her to do for him what he saw her compelled to so for her father, who took he little finger and thumb in his masculine hand, and made them serve as sugar-tongs.  Mr.  Thornton saw her beautiful eyes lifted to her father, full of light, half-laughter and half-love, as this little bit of pantomime went on between the two, unobserved, as they fancied, by any."

North and South

Elizabeth Gaskell

Copywork: Christ is Risen!

I spend a little time each week looking for interesting things for my children to write in their copybooks, usually based upon a theme.  I will post them here each week as a record for myself and as a help to any other family that wishes to use them. 

:::::

English

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

Russian
Khristos Voskrese! Voistinu Voskrese!

Greek
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!

Arabic
Al Maseeh Qam! Haqqan Qam!

French
Le Christ est ressuscité- il est vraiment ressuscité!

Spanish
Cristo ha resucitado! En verdad, esta resucitado!

Christ is Risen!!

I am so happy that Pascha is 40 days!  Soon after we had our dinner, all five of us hit the hay and slept for 12 hours.  Truth be told, I think that I could easily sleep for 12 more, but!  It's Pascha!  Sleep is overrated!

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  Our dinner was ham, loaded baked potatoes (they sounded better than scalloped!) and roasted asparagus.  I made our carrot cake, but it was never eaten...  we were too stuffed from dinner!  I also didn't make our Greek Pascha Bread yet, but there is plenty of time for that.  Last year, I made it once a week for all 40 days!

Today will be a lot of fun!  We have Liturgy this morning and then plan to take the children to the movie theater to see Bears.  We also never held our little family egg hunt yesterday, so we'll do that today as well!  

I hope that you had a lovely Pascha Sunday yesterday! 

The Feast of Feasts...

Great and Holy Saturday...

No matter how well I think I am prepared for Pascha, I am always working on last minute details in the final hours before the midnight Liturgy.  There is a peacefulness to the evening while everyone is sleeping (and I'm so glad when my husband gets in a little snooze between all of his hard work!).  I enjoy putting together our family Pascha basket, adding the final touches to the little surprises that we have for the children, filling the plastic eggs, and putting together a centerpiece for the table.  It was a lovely Holy Week.  All of our parishioners have worked so hard to make this a special Pascha and I am really looking forward to the next forty days of feasting and celebrating!!

Lamentations...

Great and Holy Friday Vespers...

The Twelve Gospels...

Great and Holy Thursday...