Circling Through This Life

Today is Wednesday. Wednesday is not normally a day of bacon eating here but it happens to be a Fast Free Week (specifically Trinity Week, which follows Pentecost) which means we can eat meat and dairy. So of course we had bacon and eggs for breakfast. (Orthodox Christians traditionally fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.) Bacon may be my favorite breakfast meat but I certainly don’t limit myself to eating it only for breakfast.  I don’t dislike sausage or ham.  I’ve even been known to eat the questionable Spam for breakfast. But bacon? Well, bacon is in a category all its own. I can eat bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  All on the same day, too!  But I usually refrain from eating that much bacon in day.  It’s too expensive and I think spreading it out helps me to savor it more. I want to share how we cook bacon here and then share some ideas for using bacon. Once upon a long time ago I would buy the ready cook bacon in the ginormous package from Costco. I...

Two weeks ago both East and West celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Eastern Orthodox Christians use the term Pascha which means Passover. But whatever it is called it is my favorite holiday of the year! 4 1/2 years ago someone said to me that Pascha was his children’s favorite holiday.  The children even liked it more than Christmas. Yes, I was skeptical. Children who like Easter more than Christmas?  Really?  I could not, at that time, even imagine that I would like Easter better than Christmas and I’m an adult. Ha! Guess what?  My whole family declares Pascha to be the best and most favorite holiday of the year. I think that part of the reason we love the Pascha celebration so much is directly related to the fact that we spend so much time during Great Lent and Holy Week preparing, remembering and focusing (at least in theory) on our spiritual walk.  Though we celebrate with an awesome Easter Treat Hunt and a huge Agape Fe...

Today is Palm Sunday.  Tonight, we’ll move liturgically into Holy Week.  Lent technically ended on Friday.  Yesterday was Lazarus Saturday. Both Palm Sunday and Lazarus Saturday fall outside of Lent and Holy Week.  This is also reflected in the color you see in the church. The liturgical color for Lazarus Saturday is Gold and the color for Palm Sunday is Green.  After the Festal Divine Liturgy for Palm Sunday all the cloths will change to black.  Holy Week is somber. When we  enter into Holy Week we do so through Matins. Usually served in the morning, this service will flip flop with Vespers which is usually served in the evenings. My parish will have Bridegroom Matins on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings. I could write whole post about how Bridegroom Matins is my favorite Orthodox service. Pre-Sanctified Liturgies will be served Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Wednesday will be the last time this liturgy is served until next year dur...

If you regularly read my blog you may be wondering how someone who doesn’t really like shrimp could have a favorite recipe for shrimp.  I am learning to eat shrimp.  It’s a good source of protein and Lent is the time when Shrimp becomes a vegetable . This recipe isn’t strictly Lenten though if you use butter.  You could try using coconut oil. Depending on which brand you use, the coconut oil may add a coconut flavor to the shrimp.  For some this would be a good thing. I found the idea for this recipe on Facebook.  The ingredients were vague and the directions were almost a by guess and by gosh but the idea actually made shrimp sound good. Butter and garlic can make almost anything edible and some things even better.  So start with butter (about 3 to 4 tablespoons) and garlic.  I used several cloves of fresh garlic peeled and chopped. Melt the butter in the pan.  I let the butter melt while the oven preheats to 350 degrees.  This bit also...

Today is the the last day of the fourth full week of Lent.  In the Orthodox church Great Lent is 40 days.  It begins on a Monday and ends on the Friday before Palm Sunday. This is slightly different  from the Western Calendar observance of Lent. I love Great Lent. This is a [supposedly] quiet time of reflection: an opportunity for reconnecting to our faith and growing spiritually. It’s the time of preparation. We remember creation and the fall.  We remember our great need for a Savior.  During Lent we fast from certain foods but even more importantly we fast from sin and strive to discipline our flesh. We spend more time in prayer, more time at church, and hopefully, more time loving God and loving others.   In practical terms, my family strives for less outside activities, more family prayer, and less screen time. We choose not to watch certain favorite videos and instead pick more educational, documentary style shows.  We don’t always keep to the...

This is my 5th Lent as an Orthodox Christian. Lent for the Orthodox is, well, it’s different .  It’s not about giving up something in order to experience the suffering of Christ.  It’s about preparing ourselves for the greatest feast of the liturgical year: Pascha.  Pascha is the foundation of the Christian faith.  “ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty ” (1 Cor 15: 14, Orthodox Study Bible). During Great Lent we seek to deepen our spiritual life.  We fast, not just from certain foods, but also from sin.  We are to increase our alms giving and our prayers. I love the season of Lent because I am reminded of how great is the love of God and how vast my need for Him. I am not a vegetarian by choice.  I would rather not eat a vegan diet if I have any alternatives, but . . . but . . . Lent!  So we fast. (The strictest of fasting rules are intended for monastics. Lay persons should fast following the adv...

I’m a coffee in the morning person but I’m not a coffee in the afternoon person. Nope. Maybe it’s because I did a study abroad in England while in college and feel in love with “real tea”.  (That Lipton tea is not not not not real tea in my opinion!)  One of my favorite memories of my time in England was the tea break during our 2 hour Tues/Thurs afternoon class. Class started at 2pm and promptly at 3pm we would have our tea break.  The tea lady pushed a small cart containing a tea pot, cups and biscuits.  For 10p (pence) you could get a nice cup of tea.  For 10p more you could get a biscuit or two to go with it. On Mondays and Wednesdays I would get a cup of tea in the afternoon at the commons. And on days off and week-ends I would enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon when studying. When the girls were young we had “tea time” in the afternoon.  I, of course, had real tea with milk and sugar and they usually had juice.  During this time I would read ...

Over the years my favorite time of day has changed.  It changes to meet my current needs in the different seasons of raising children. 18 years ago my favorite time of day was naptime.  Her naptime.  I was a new mom with a new baby and I treasured those afternoon nap times. There were no other children.  Just her and I. A few years and 3 more children and naptimes were not my favorite times anymore. I had one who didn’t take naps anymore and 1 who was never (and still isn’t) a great sleeper. I remember a very short season when I loved 3:30 to 4 O’clock on most Thursday afternoons.  My two good sleepers would still be napping.  My 5 year old would be content to play quietly on the living room floor and I laid on the couch with my teeny tiny special needs 3 year old.  It was too short of a season. For many years my favorite time of the day was the early morning.  4 children asleep, a husband doing Army PT.  The house was still and quiet....

A few years ago I received a box of goodies from an anonymous friend. Inside was a touching letter and things for everyone from little toys and a dress to some kitchen things for me.  My favorite things from the box are my Pampered Chef Bamboo Spoons. I will wash a dirty bamboo spoon to use rather than reaching for a clean plastic wooden-spoon-shaped spoon. The set I have includes 3 different spoons. I do have a favorite among the three for different mixing jobs.  Two are the same length (long) but have different shaped bowl ends. The third is short with a similar but deeper bowl shape. My favorite is the shorter one with the deeper bowl.  It’s perfect for when I when I need to stir something constantly, like a cream sauce or a gravy. It also works very well for mixing the cereal and seasoned melted butter for home made Chex Mix. I also reach for it first when I am stirring my popcorn to evenly distribute the butter and salt. I like the shape of the handles and how th...

When trying to think of a topic for the letter q I seem to always want to gravitate towards quotes.  Last week I combined Ben and Me’s Blogging Through the Alphabet Meme with my Favorite Anything Series. I decided to combine my Favorite Anything Series with my alphabet blogging again this week.  I couldn’t narrow it down to just one quote so I’ve picked a few of my favorite quotes to share this week. When I was in high school I decorated my notebooks with doodles and hearts and names and quotes.  Usually the quotes were song lyrics. One of those quotes still frequently comes to mind: “ It’s from yourself that you have to hide .” It’s from a song: “Come up and See Me (Make Me Smile).”  I first heard the song as a live version recorded by Duran Duran.  “It’s from yourself that you have to hide.”  It just sounds so profound.  So deep. I found it thought provoking and sometimes true. I don’t think we hide just from others but sometimes from ourselves a...

I’m combining my Favorite Anything Series post with my Alphabet Blogging post this week.  P is for Planner: My favorite homeschool planner. It is possible you already know what my favorite planner is for home school but just in case in case you don’t know or you’ve forgotten: Homeschool Tracker Plus . It really is much more than a lesson planner as I can track time spent (or sessions), assign grades, keep a reading log, keep a resource log, journal, create report cards, and generate a transcript.  I’m still using the Plus version which I purchased in 2005. It doesn’t look the same now as it did then as the amazing husband and wife team of TgHomesoft did many upgrades and updates over the year (for  free!!!  I paid ONE price and every upgrade and update to the program was free!!).  They do still offer HST Basic (not my cup of tea) and they now offer subscription based program HST Online . I have not bothered to even look at HST Online because I am still so i...

I don’t remember exactly when I started reading Donna Andrews novels. I do know that it was after we moved here so sometime after spring of 2001.  I do remember that it was my husband who first found the books.  We didn’t start with the Meg Langslow Mysteries though.  We started with Ms. Andrews’ other series: Turing Hopper . With titles like You’ve Got Murder and Delete All Suspects we were hooked. While we waited for book 4 to published we started in on the Meg Langslow series.  These mystery novels are not my favorite just because I enjoyed them but rather because of how we discovered them and the memories created of my husband and I enjoying them together. When the girls were younger we spent many evenings doing family read alouds. These were mostly the read aloud selections for whatever level of Sonlight we were using at the time.  Once the children were in bed my husband and I would maybe watch something on DVD from Netflix (nowadays it is more stream...

Yes Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Well, I should say type that I strive to make Sunday the day I look forward to most every week.   Even when I have a long put-it-off-until-Sunday-because-Saturday-was-too-busy to do list, I still love Sundays. We attend services (called Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Christian Church), every Sunday (except not today.  We’re home sick today but that’s a different post topic!).  I feel a little lost and empty when I miss a Sunday. Sunday mornings can seem rushed and stressful as we’re racing around getting ready to go and double checking the ministry schedule to see if any family members are on the list but there is something “other worldly” about entering the chapel.  You do leave the cares of this world behind and the Kingdom of God beckons you to enter into worship.  The beauty of the icons and candles combine with the scent of the incense and the sounds of the choir bringing Heaven and earth together transcend...

My friend Da’Lynn, a fellow Crew team member and blogger, has tossed around an idea of a 52 week series.  52 weeks?  That’s a post a week?  What on earth could I write about and have enough material for 52 blog posts!  I stewed.  I pondered. I showered.  (Hey I do some of my best planning and thinking in the shower!) Inspired by discussions with my family about favorites (e.g. favorite Doctor, favorite episode) I realized I could come up with 52 different favorites. I could broaden the topic to include *anything* from books, to shampoos, songs, musicians, toilet paper, food (or favorite way to cook eggs, favorite breakfast meat, favorite pasta shape).  I think the list could be endless and I’ll have plenty of material for a 52 week series. Want to join me?  I’ve decided that I’d like bring my friends with me on this journey of discovery (who knows what favorites I’ll find along the way!) so I’m making this series my first ever hosted by me link...