Matushka Anna...

Please pray for Matushka Anna and her family. She has suffered a miscarriage and needs our prayers!

Christmas Inspiration...

Christmas catalogs have been coming in the post for weeks now. I love leafing through them with a hot cup of tea each afternoon during naptime. While nearly all of them end up in the recycling bin, occasionally I rip pages out for inspiration in decorating. Here are some of the ones I like best:

Pottery Barn

Garnet Hill

Plow and Hearth

Christmas Tapestry...

I have known what book I wanted to give the children for Saint Nicholas Day since I read Christmas Tapestry while sitting cross-legged on the floor of the library last year. What a beautiful book! If you have not had the chance to read it, run to borrow it! I am so excited about it arriving in the mail!

Do you get your children Christmas books each year? What are your favorites?

Preparing for Nativity...

I know that this list is so late and I am sorry about that! I have wanted to have a list that reflects the fact that Orthodox Christians begin preparing for Nativity on November 15 (40 Days), and it took awhile to get my ideas down. I anticipate that things will change from year to year for us. This year is a prime example of the need for flexibility! Our move is tentatively scheduled for December 5th and because of that, many of the things that we like doing each year are going to have to be adjusted to our current reality. Later, I will work on making a Twelve Days of Christmas List for our family which I will post here, too!

:::::

November 15: Clean out the Refrigerator and Grocery Shop for Lenten Foods
November 16: Plant Paperwhites
November 17: Start Writing Out Christmas Lists
November 18: Go Through Books to Give Away
November 19: Go Through Toys to Give Away
November 20: Donate Money and/or Canned Goods to the Food Pantry for Thanksgiving
November 21: Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God
November 22: Plan Christmas Card
November 23: Make Beeswax Ornaments
November 24: Thanksgiving Day!
November 25: Plan Christmas Menu
November 26: Plan Christmas Outfits
November 27: Participate in Gift Giving for those Less Fortunate
November 29: Research Different Christmas Activities in the Area
November 30: Begin Listening to the Messiah
December 1: Put out the Nativity Books
December 2: The Christmas Parade
December 3: Purchase This Year's Ornament Frame
December 4: Little Man's Namesday
December 5: Bake Saint Nicholas Cookies and get Golden Chocolate Coins ready for the Shoes
December 6: Saint Nicholas Day
December 7: Begin Listening to Christmas Music
December 8: Purchase a new Christmas book for our family collection
December 9: Gingerbread House Party at the local bookstore
December 10: Hang winter wreath on front door
December 11: Hang snowflake decorations from dining room chandelier
December 12: Little Man's Birthday
December 13: Saint Lucia and Saint Herman
December 14: Winter Wonderland of Lights Festival
December 15: Decorate the Mantle and Hang Stockings
December 16: Living Nativity
December 17: Watch The Christmas Miracle of Johnathon Toomey/Put Out Nativity Scene
December 18: Hang Garland Around Front Door
December 19: Nutcracker Performance
December 20: Cut Paper Snowflakes for Windows
December 21: Put out Christmas and Winter Decorations
December 22: Bring home the Christmas tree and decorate it
December 23: Christmas Wrapping
December 24: Prepare Food for Parish Feast After Midnight Liturgy

Reading...

No matter how just your words may be, you ruin everything when you speak with anger."

-Saint John Chrysostom

:::::

More Quotable Sunday HERE

The Parenting Vocation: Living the Life of Christ...

by Fr. George Morelli, Ph.D.

Consider Our Lord’s words on the importance of how children are influenced: “And he said to his disciples, … woe to him by whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung round his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Lk. 17:1-2). Parents and any caretakers of children have one of the most important vocations in the Church, namely to teach their children about Our Lord Jesus Christ and His message. Teaching may take many forms.

The place to start is with those who care for children themselves. Parents are the primary teachers of children by the blessed marriage they possess. One of the blessing prayers said by
the priest in the Holy Mystery of Matrimony is: “Unite them in one mind and one flesh, and
grant them fair children for education in thy faith and fear” (acknowledging the awesome, transcendent God).

If parents and others who teach or care for children are not keeping a “life in Christ,” how can children be expected to follow Christ and His teachings? Psychologists have long emphasized the powerful effects of modeling on children (Bandura, 1986). Recently, news media have even reported that a gene for imitation has been discovered. Children have a propensity to make a neural copy of a behavior modeled and to repeat it (Milner and Goodale, 1996).

I remember when I was first in clinical-pastoral practice. Parents would come to me and present a behavioral problem. For example, their ten-year-old was smoking. Inside the shirt pocket or hanging out of the pocketbook of the parent would be a pack of cigarettes. This was and still is hypocrisy. It is nearly impossible to change the child’s behavior. Parents, guardians, and others who have children in their care are supremely powerful models. I have never met one child in my pastoral or clinical career who bought into the usual “lame” explanations: “Well I can do it, and when you get to be my age then you can make up your own mind,” or “You are not old enough yet.” Children are bright enough to see right through such explanations.

The Holy Spirit imparts grace in the sacraments. The parents have to bring their children to their parish church where the Holy Spirit is sacramentally imparted. If a child is not brought in to be baptized, the child is not an Orthodox Christian. If the parents do not bring their children to attend Divine Liturgy, they do not receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If the parents bring the child to church but do not go themselves, children see right through such hypocrisy, just as in the cigarette example above. The message is: “Grown ups do not have to go to church.” So the child is no longer getting the grace of Christ. Often the greatest teaching, or, in this case, scandal, is teaching by what is not done

A child may hear a family conversation about a nasty neighbor or relative in which a parent says, “That no good for nothing @#$%^&,” yet in church the child hears preached from the altar our Lord’s words of love, forgiveness, and not holding anger against a brother. If they then see and hear their mothers or fathers doing just the opposite, does this add to the child’s faith and commitment to Christ? It destroys it! And we wonder why morality and values are breaking down in modern times?

On the other hand, no one is perfect — parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, bishops, priests, teachers. We all sin and fall short. What a beautiful lesson could be taught to a child we care for, when we do fall short, if we go to the child and say, for example: “You know, I lost my temper today. It was not right, I am sorry and I will try to do better. This is what Jesus would want me to do.” No one may speak exactly like this, using such words. However, using their own words parents will get across the substance of the message: I did wrong, I will try to do better and I want us all as a family to follow our Lord’s teachings. Thus, the first and most important lesson in Orthodox Christian parenting is to live the life in Christ as thoroughly as can be done. Despite our failings, we must remember the words of Jesus: “He said to them: The things that are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

What I Wore: Friday...

White Tee Shirt
Walnut Colored Corduroy Trousers
Tall Black Boots
Gray Chickadee Scarf draped round my neck

What I Wore: Thursday...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

White Tank Top
Black Draped Open Front Sweater
Black Jersey Knit Knee Length Skirt
Black Patterned Tights
Tall Black Boots

Gray Chickadee Scarf

What I Wore: Monday...

White Tank Top
Black Draped Open Front Sweater
Blueish-Gray Jersey Knit Knee Length Skirt
Black Stretch Pants
Tall Black Boots
Violet Sequin Scarf (on my head for church but knotted simply round my neck afterward)

Reading..

It is all a question of weeding out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can live most agreeably in a world full of an increasing number of disagreeable surprises."

How to Cook a Wolf
MFK Fisher

:::::

More Quotable Sunday HERE

What I Wore: Sunday...

Gray Long-Sleeve Tee Shirt
Black Jersey Knit Knee Length Skirt
Black Patterned Tights
Tall Black Boots
Oblong Chickadee Scarf (on my head for church but knotted simply round my neck afterward)

:::::

In the past week or two, several blog writers I admire have documented their clothing choices for a time... I was inspired to do it this week!

House Tour: Bedrooms...

Master Bedroom

Sugar Plum and Little Man's Room

Guest Bedroom

House Tour: Learning Room and Bathrooms...

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Upstairs Bathroom

House Tour: Kitchen and Screened-In Porch...

House Tour: Living Room, Dining Room, and Reading Room...

House Tour: Office, Mud Room, and Laundry Room...

House Tour: The Front and Entrance...

With our move about two weeks away, I thought that I would take photos of how our home looks a little over two years after we moved in.

One Misty, Moisty, Morning...

One misty, moisty, morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
There I met an old man
All clothed in leather

All clothed in leather,
With a cap under his chin.
How do you do?
And how do you do?

And how do you do again?

Happy Martinmas to You!

Today didn't go as I had planned it, but somehow it was better. The little ones received new slippers and we had a friend from church come over with her two children. We served peanut butter and jam, chips, and apple crisp... perfect for the cold weather that blew in overnight. We were car-less today (it is in the shop), so we all snuggled down for a long nap this afternoon rather than getting out to Goodwill for the clothing donation. Is there anything cozier than sleeping with three little ones in the big bed? We are waiting for Papa to return with the car before I take the older two out for a quick lantern walk in the neighborhood. Then it is baths, a story, and bed. The perfect day.

Festal Learning Basket: Saint Martin...

Commemorated November 11th

Books
The Life of Saint Martin

Activities
Give your little ones a gift of a warm item (mittens, slippers, sweater, etc.)

Offer your children a candy bar after reading or telling the story of Saint Martin...
if needed, help guide them into sharing it

Make muffins. Serve everyone one and break them in half, sharing one of
your halves with the person on your right

Gather clothing to donate to a charity in honor of Saint Martin's gift of
half of his cloak to a beggar

Create a lantern garland

Make lanterns and take a lantern walk once it gets dark
(watercolor lanterns, tin can lanterns, glass jar lanterns covered with tissue paper)