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Showing posts from February, 2015

Random 5 on Friday

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Random 5 on Friday Oh I just realized this is the LAST ONE for the month of February. 1. This past Sunday was Forgiveness Sunday . My church always has a special vespers service. This is the service that liturgically ushers in lent even though the fast doesn't start until the next day. About half way through the service the altar cloths , vestments and candle holders are changed from gold to purple. 2. Forgiveness Sunday is the liturgical anniversary of my reception into the Orthodox Church.  My whole family was chrismated together.  It’s been five years.  It’s been wonderful. 3. My first review of the 2015 Review Crew year posted earlier this week. Did you catch it? If you love history especially Scottish history you may want to check out my review of In Freedom's Cause by Heirloom Audio Productions . 4.  Did you see my post Introducing Catherine’s Pascha ? This is a lovely book written by my good friend (a REAL friend, not just an e-maginary friend who lives in

In Freedom’s Cause ~ An Audio Drama Review

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We are a literature loving family of all girls. Well, all girls except for Dad. So having only daughters I never really explored books by G.A. Henty. I know they come highly recommended in home school circles as great adventure books based on historical events. What I didn’t realize though was that my husband liked G.A. Henty. He spends close to two hours a day driving around, and I’ve been on the look out for things he can listen to in the van.  Tailorbear found her daddy’s copy of the Classic Illustrated version of In Freedom’s Cause and when she saw the cast list for this audio drama version she decided she also wanted to listen so I expressed strong interest in receiving In Freedom's Cause Single Package . In Freedom’s Cause: The Real Story of Wallace and Bruce from Heirloom Audio Productions uses audio theater to tell the story of William Wallace and the fight for Scottish freedom. Heirloom Audio Productions refers to their productions as active listening audio dramas .

Introducing Catherine’s Pascha

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Many years ago my friend Charlotte was searching for a book about Pascha (Easter) to read to her young children. Not finding what she was looking for she wrote her own book.  Today Phoenix Flair Press is releasing Catherine’s Pascha .  Written by Charlotte Riggle and illustrated by R.J. Hughes, Catherine’s Pascha tells the story of celebrating Pascha through the eyes of one little girl.  The story begins at Catherine’s normal bedtime on Holy Saturday and continues until Catherine and her family return home from the Pascha celebration. We experience the joyous celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through Catherine’s eyes. Her excitement is contagious. The story is simple enough for young children to follow and engaging enough to delight adult readers. The illustrations are detailed and add multiple layers to the story making it fun to read again and again just to notice the things you did not see the first several times. I’m not just excited about this book because it is

Random 5 on Friday ~ Food Related Theme

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This week’s Random Five is not so Random.  It’s my Five Thoughts on Eating Healthy or Five Thoughts about FOOD. Cause it just seems like I am obsessed with food.  Especially when you’re the chief cook (but not bottle washer). 1. Why am I thinking of food so much?  Why do I feel obsessed ?  One word.  One life altering word.  One turn your world upside down and smack you in the head word:  Diabetes. Yes, I have it but that didn’t smack me in the head. My husband has it. That has rocked my world. The positive thing ~ can there be a positive thing? ~ is that in trying to learn how to take care of him, I am taking better care of me and I am taking teaching my children about health more seriously. 2. Food can be healing. No, I’m not talking about the emotion driven urge to feel better by setting off endorphins in the brain. I’m talking about choosing to eat foods that nourish the body to promote the natural healing of cells. I still have far more to learn but I made bone broth.  Need to

My Current Obsession

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I’ve been very quiet on my blog lately. I’ve got several post ideas and lots of rough drafts started but I’ve found it difficult to make the the time and sit down and blog as frequently as I would like. It’s a simple reason:  I’m consumed with health and nutrition. My health has been slowly declining over time but I’ve ignored it. I thought if I pretend the symptoms aren’t there then I could pretend I wasn’t really facing major health issues. I’ve been lying to myself.  It was ok.  It was just me. It was just my health. Not the health of my husband or my children. Sure we’ve been dealing for 17 1/2 years with a family member with chronic illness and a life-threatening cardiac condition. She pretty much came that way so I think I just accepted that this what it is. Yes in some respects the journey to thinking about the connection between what we eat, nutrition and health began with understanding that this little bundle has an immune system that doesn’t quite work like the rest of us.

Lent is Coming ~ Eat all the Bacon!

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Somehow I have lost track of time. I just realized this morning that this Saturday is the 14th of February.  Say what?!!  Valentine’s Day.  Or Chrismation Anniversary as we think of it now. 5 years ago Valentine’s Day fell on Forgiveness Sunday, the day before Great Lent started. Pascha is a week later this year than that year so Forgiveness Sunday is next week. But but but but that means that this Sunday, the day after Valentine's Day is Meatfare Sunday. Meatfare Sunday is the last day that meat like beef, chicken, pork, and lamb, or really anything other than fish or shellfish, is eaten until Pascha.  I made Salisbury Steak the other night. I’m making something with hamburger tomorrow night, maybe stuffed cabbage rolls. We tried a roast recipe from Build a Menu a few weeks ago.  It calls for a beef chuck roast but I used a pork tenderloin roast.  We loved it so much that I am making that same roast again. It’s not the healthiest of roasts with a packet of au jus and a packet o

Tailorbear shares Catherine’s Pascha

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I rarely put up guest posts on my blog but when I found out that my daughter was the first person to read aloud Catherine’s Pascha to a young child I just had to get my daughter to talk about it.  The author, Charlotte Riggle, a dear friend, loved the idea of Tailorbear sharing her experience.  Here is Tailorbear’s blog post: Catherine's Pascha is a wonderful new children's book written by Charlotte Riggle and Illustrated R.J. Huges . I had the pleasure of reading it aloud to a child I was babysitting while her mother and brother baked cookies with Mrs. Riggle. The story was sweet and enjoyable. I love how Catherine seems so very eager to stay awake for the service and how she and her best friend Elizabeth are allowed to sit next to each other. I love how the service is very accurate! I loved how things were described and even though there were words I couldn't pronounce it was still really easy to understand! I think it showed a lot about culture as well. I also lov