A Few Holy Week and Pascha Links...

Tips for Surviving Evening Services with Little Ones

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Tips for Holy Week and Pascha

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How to Put Together a Traditional Pascha Basket

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Festal Learning Basket: Holy Week

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Festal Learning Basket: Pascha

Great and Holy Tuesday...

Great and Holy Monday...

Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight,
And blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching,
And again unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless.
Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep,
Lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom.
But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, are You, O our God!
Through the Theotokos have mercy on us!

Lenten Cleaning: Week Seven...

Give the House a Once Over
Paschal Grocery Shopping
Prepare Pascha Basket to be Blessed
Prepare Children's Paschal Gift Basket
Tidy the Yard
Egg Hunt Preparations
Lay Out Paschal Clothing

Palm Sunday...

By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your passion,
You did confirm the universal Resurrection, O Christ God!
Like the children with the palms of victory,
We cry out to You, O Vanquisher of death;
Hosanna in the Highest!
Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!

Palms and Incense...

Taken during Palm Sunday Vespers

The Full Paschal Moon...

Taken on the Eve of Lazarus Saturday

Living and Learning: April

Faith
Palm Sunday
Great and Holy Week
Pascha
Bright Week
Saint Thomas Sunday
Saint George
Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

Homemaking
Lenten Cleaning
Meal Planning & Weekly Shopping
Prepare for Pascha
Confession for Father John and Me
Paschal Food
Paschal Clothes
Paschal Baskets, Egg Hunt and Decorations
Begin Indoor Herb Garden
Care for Seedlings
Plant Flowers in Window Boxes, Pots, and Hanging Baskets
Organize, Clean, and Replenish Rain Gear
Start a Little Herb Garden Indoors
Begin Switching Out Cold Weather Clothing for Warm
Update Bike Helmets
Upgrade Button's Carseat

Themes
Rain
Farms
Knights and Dragons
Yellow

Rituals
Resume Sunday Night Family Dinners

Special Days
Father John's Baptism Anniversary - 1st
Full Paschal Moon - 6th
+Oksana - 28th
Kate and Pete's Baby's Duedate - 28th

Learning
Practice Being Still and Quiet during Prayers and Services
Learn the Prayer of Saint EphraimFestal Learning basket for Palm Sunday and Holy Week
Festal Learning Basket for Pascha
Festal Learning Basket for Saint George"April Showers Bring May Flowers"
Tidy bedrooms each morning
Learning How to Put Away Laundry
Nature Table Scene
Book Basket
Listen to Sparkle Stories
Learning How to Draw Books
Magnetic Lenten Calender
Puddle Walks
Children's Garden
Holding Candles in Church Carefully (with Adult Supervision)
Practice patience and love towards one another
Make a rainbow of playdough
Play with Modeling Beeswax
Butterfly Growing Kit
Earth Day (22nd)
Go Out for Ice Cream on the Boardwalk

Writing!

Sugar Plum has begun to write! She was able to sound out this little sentence by herself and then she illustrated it using a learn-how-to-draw book that we have!

Button...

Lenten Cleaning: Week Six...

Kitchen, Dining Room, and Car

Clean Appliances
Clean Out Refrigerator, Freezer, and Pantry
Wipe Down Cabinet Fronts
Clean Counters
Organize Cabinets and Drawers
Dust Table and Chairs
Scrub Down Highchair
Sweep Floors
Mop Floors
Take Car to the Car Wash (Yes, I take the lazy way out!)

Reading...

While Pa was driving nails to hold the strings for the curtains, Ma brought out two long strips of brown wrapping-paper that she had saved. She folded them, and she showed Mary and Laura how to cut tiny bits out of the folded paper with the scissors. When each unfolded her paper, there was a row of stars.

Ma spread the paper on the shelves behind the stove. The stars hung over the edges of the shelves, and the light shone through them.

When the curtains were up, Ma hung two snowy clean sheets across a corner of the bedroom. That made a nice place where Pa and Ma could hang their clothes. Up in the attic, Ma put up another sheet that Mary and Laura could hang their clothes behind.

The house was beautiful when Ma had finished. The pure-white curtains were looped back on each side of the clear glass windows. Between those pink-edged, snowy curtains the sunshine streamed in. The walls were all clean, piny-smelling boards with the skeleton of the house against them, and the ladder going up to the attic. The cookstove and its stovepipe were glossy black, and in that corner were the starry shelves.

Ma spread the between-meals red-checked cloth on the table, and on it she set the shining-clean lamp. She laid there the paper-covered Bible, the big green Wonders of the Animal World, and the novel named Millbank. The two benches stood neatly by the table.

The last think, Pa hung the bracket on the wall by the front window, and Ma stood the little china shepherdess on it."

On the Banks of Plum Creek
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Watching Little House...

For the past few months, the children and I have been enjoying an episode of Little House on the Prairie each evening (we've read through the first few books as well). I remember watching this show with my mother every afternoon before dinner. It's funny how the simple things are the ones that you have the fondest memories of. I am so glad that Little House is available on dvd so that we can enjoy it as a family. It's also fun to get Father John interested in it, too! The next challenge is to get him to watch Anne of Green Gables with me!

Feminine Friday: Take a Stroll...

Today's feminine tip is to get outdoors for a stroll. Maybe you'll spot something you've never noticed before!

New York City...

Some shots taken during our resent trip into Brooklyn to celebrate my grandmother's 75th birthday!

Lady Liberty

The Manhattan Bridge

Heading into Chinatown

Heading into Chinatown

The Brooklyn Bridge

Horses!

When we moved to this house a few months ago, I was feeling pretty happy that we would be closer to a local beach that has wild ponies running free there. I didn't realize that we would have a horse farm right behind our woods! We've gone for a few walks to visit with the horses (Sugar Plum has named them Pet and Patty after Laura's ponies in Little House on the Prairie) and plan to go frequently! We hope to meet their owners some day soon, too!

Heaven is Here...

Lenten Cleaning: Week Five...

Playroom, Laundry Room, and Porch

Clean Windows, Picture Frames, and Mirrors
Dust
Sweep Floors
Mop Wood and Tile Floors
Wash Curtains and Dust Blinds
Organize Cabinets and Drawers
Toss Garbage
Make Donation of Unwanted Items to Goodwill
Sweep and Hose Down Porch
Clean Porch Swing
Plant Flowers in Window Boxes and Planters (if appropriate weather-wise)

Reading...

At dusk Sarah cut Caleb's hair on the front steps, gathering his curls and scattering them on the fence and ground. Seal batted some hair around the porch as the dogs watched.

"Why?" asked Caleb.

"For the birds," said Sarah. "They will use it for their nests. Later we can look for nests of curls."

"Sarah said 'later,'" Caleb whispered to me as we spread his hair about. "Sarah will stay."

Sarah cut Papa's hair, too. No one else saw, but I found him behind the barn, tossing the pieces of hair into the wind for the birds.

Sarah brushed my hair and tied it up in back with a rose velvet ribbon she had brought from Maine. She brushed hers long and free and tied it back, too, and we stood side by side looking in the mirror. I looked taller, like Sarah, and fair and thin. And with my hair pulled back I looked a little like her daughter. Sarah's daughter."

Sarah, Plain and Tall
Patricia MacLachlan

Annunciation...

Today is the beginning of our salvation,
The revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
Rejoice, O Full of Grace,

The Lord is with Thee!

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The Annunciation Learning Basket can be found HERE.