Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos - An August Fasting Menu

I am a high school teacher (Speech, English, Drama, and Debate) and school is rapidly approaching. We were blessed to home school last year, so are a little nervous about the kids being back in public school, though they are in wonderful programs. This year we'll have my husband in grad school, my son in 2nd Grade, and my daughter at Montessori preschool, so we'll all four be in four different schools!

Anticipating the need to give more time to my family and my classroom, I plan on substantially decreasing my blog presence. I did a similar thing last August, but had not the grace to let you know first.

My goal is to post once a month, near the beginning of the month, so here is my post for August: Dormition Fast Menu

Sunday - Procession of the Cross
Supper: Caponata and Polenta (with olive oil instead of butter)

Monday
Breakfast: Vegan Banana Bread I can't count the endless number of times we've enjoyed this - thank you so much, Matushka Emily, for sharing it!
Lunch: Crock Pot Veggie Soup
Dinner: Tostados (crunchy corn rounds topped with seasoned refried beans, caramelized onions & kale, tomatoes, and guacamole)

Tuesday
Breakfast: English Muffins and Fruit
Lunch: Polenta Slices (leftover from Sunday)with Peanut Butter Sauce or with Caramelized Onions and Kale from yesterday
Supper: Purple-hull Pea Patties or Pasta and Marinara

Wednesday
Breakfast: Scrambled Tofu
Lunch: Boca Burgers
Supper: Pinto Beans and Rice

Thursday
Breakfast: Squash Bread (like Banana Bread recipe, but use mashed cooked Sugar-Pumpkin Squash in place of banana)
Lunch: Bean Quesadillas
Supper: Liturgy for the Transfiguration

Friday - Transfiguration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Breakfast: English Muffins and Fruit
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly
Supper: Grilled Fish marinaded in Dales

Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Bread, Earth Balance, and Sauteed Greens
Supper: Pizzas made with Mission Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Wraps and the crust, Basil Almond Pesto, mushrooms, tomatoes, and veggie mozerella.

Week 2 will be the same, except Monday will include Alaskan Salmon Patties in honor of St. Herman of Alaska

Snacks: grapes, banana chips, almonds, animal crackers, flour tortillas

And to feast, I highly recommend this Lasagna Casserole, which makes enough to serve one 8x8 pan and freeze the 2nd 8x8 pan for another week.

Pascha and Birth Visualization

I wonder if I will always associate Pascha with birth, or if those memories will fade as new ones form. It has been 2 years since my daughter's birth, but still I have vivid memories of praying, pouring my heart out, for a safe delivery every time the priest chanted the request to God during a Holy Week litany:

O Thou the Mighty Provider, Healer and Physician of souls and bodies...have mercy on Thy people and save them from all calamities, tribulations, and misfortunes, O Thou the upholder of those who trust in Thee. We ask Thee, O Lord, hearken and have mercy on us.


After a very difficult first labor, delivery, and recovery; I was begging God to help me through the second one. Glory be to God, He made it beautiful. With St. Elizabeth the New Martyr as my own private nurse, God gave me peace and strength, even in scary moments, and he delivered our little Ella from calamity.


from the archives...
I've been watching the lilies bloom and they remind me of preparing for my daughter's birth 2 years ago. She was due on Pascha, and during Holy Week I spent many minutes during services watching the lilies opening on the Epitaphios. I had read that this was good to practice and use during labor, to envision your cervix opening. Well, it worked for me, so I'm sharing some lilies with you, in case anyone is preggers out there--or plans to be.

Papas & Pintos

First - Papas
Without knowing it, my husband and I were thinking about this at the same time. As I was uploading the post about Orthodox Fathers, he was busy creating his own blog! He has been a constant source of navigation in my life for the last 10 years, pointing me towards God as we journey in our faith. We don't always agree, but I enjoy - and consider it a gift - being partners with him as we "work out our salvation", struggling to be transformed into the image of God.

Orthodox Papa's Digest is where he's recording his thoughts about how to develop his own faith and pass it on to our kids. If you'd like, hop on over to ponder his personal reflections on Good Guys and Bad Guys.

Now - Pintos
I hope you are working on your post about Bean Soup for our party! FYI: and kind of beans, peas, or lentils are fine. Any additional ingredients are fine and welcome. More than one recipe is fine, too.

Orthodox Fathers Too

Several of you have already discovered Don over at Ramblings of a Single Dad. I know, because I found him through your blogs!

If you hop over, you'll find interesting and heartfelt information about foster care and adoption, including a Liturgical Service for Adopting a Child.

He also has a huge list of links to dad blogs. And other interesting ramblings, like this one about the time his son was suspended from school - as a teacher I really appreciate how he home-educated him for the week.

Another subject: Please consider joining my Bean Soup Recipe Party.

Welcome New Moms

Welcome to the blogoshpere. If you haven't noticed, the list of Orthodox Mothers' blogsites is growing very large over there on the right margin of my blog. You might want to browse through and visit. Although I enjoy reading many of your sites, today I'd like to highlight Anastasia's site for - sort of paradoxically - good laughs and serious theology.

Also, if your site is not on there and would like to me add it, please email me at

orthodoxmother at g mail dot com


May God bless us, and keep us, and make His face to shine upon us, and give us peace.

We need it!

Looking forward to St. Nicholas

First, thank you for your Chicago prayers. We made it back safely and one student even made it to the "Top 12" in Prose/Poetry Interpretation.

Our parish is doing something lovely this year:

St. Nicholas Creative Arts Festival


All adults, teens, children, and friends are invited to participate. The theme is St. Nicholas' love for the poor and for children. We are encouraged to express our reflections in a creative form. Here's the schedule:

Friday, Dec. 5
6 pm: Great Vespers w/ Artoklasia

Saturday, Dec. 6
9am: Orthros
10:00 am: Divine Liturgy
11:30 am: Potluck brunch with Art Exhibit
Photography
Painting
Drawing
Sculpture
Collage

12:30 pm: Oratorical and Awards Presentation
Poetry
Creative Essay
Storytelling
Speech


Price of Admission for the Festival:
1 can or box of food for the needy

123 Meme: from Green, toward God

I'll show my Geeky Green side by participating in the Meme I read at Anastasia's.

1. Open the closest book near you.
2. Turn to page 25.
3. Skip the first 5 sentences and write the next three.

Book = Building Green by Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan


"There are a number of ways that loads can put stress on the structure of a building. Compression is a force that squeezes something together. Tension is a force pulling something apart."

You know, stress-- that has nothing to do with a parent's life. (smile)

I think it would be funny (or sad, or... gratitude-inducing , these ugly beautiful things) to consider the compression loads and tension loads in our lives.

Building Green goes on to consider ways to distribute those loads so the structure won't break.

I can think of another one.
With thanksgiving, make your requests known to God, and the peace that surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. St. Paul's epistle to the Philipians, I believe.

Nurtured to Knit

I told my husband, October rolls around and I want to start crocheting and knitting. I don't know why, so strange.

When my mom saw me knitting last week, she commented, Your Nana always used to pull out her crocheting in the fall. She said it was too hot to bother with in the summer, but October through April, she always had yarn by her side.

Mystery solved.

What things, I wonder, will I pass down subconsciously to my children?

Little Builder's Current Favorite Book

(Thank you, Godmother Mary & Godfather Jim for the stash of books!)

Making Orthodoxy Real

Today, after celebrating the Liturgy for St. Raphael of Brooklyn, we had the huge blessing of making a little pilgrimage to honor him.

 Let me give you some background. One hundred years ago, Father Raphael used to travel across the United States, seeking out "lost" Orthodox Christians who had no parish. He would arrive in a city, sometimes at midnight, only to drop his bags in a hotel and then head back out into the night. Armed with a phone book, he would find Syrian and Lebanese names, then go knock on their doors, offering to serve liturgies, baptisms, or other sacraments. 

Near the end of his earthly life, as he was traveling across the southern states, some Syrian and Lebanese Christians in our city heard he was coming through on a train on the way to another location. They arranged to meet him at the train station, where he blessed them and their desire for a church in this city. He reposed before the parish could be realized, but we consider this blessing as the beginning of our little parish that exists today. 

No one knows where these original families are now. Maybe they chose to attend Episcopal or Catholic parishes. Wouldn't it be nice to reunite with the descendants of those faithful ones from 1912? 

Anyway, after liturgy we traipsed over to the land where the old train station used to be, sung hymns to St. Raphael, and processed around the area singing the apolytikion: Rejoice, O Father Raphael, adornment of the holy Church! Thou art champion of the True Faith, seeker of the lost, consolation of the oppressed, father to orphans and friend of the poor, peacemaker and good shepherd, joy of all the Orthodox, son of Antioch, boast of America. Intercede with Christ God for us and for all who honor thee. 

It felt like we were taking part in St. Raphael's ministry and like we were somehow "sanctifying" the city. Thank you, Lord, for a blessed day! O holy hierarch Raphael, in obedience to the will of God thou didst proclaim the Word to a scattered people, calling together the descendants of those first called Christians. Nurtured in three cultures, and having adopted a fourth, thou didst reach out to all who would hear thy voice. As the first bishop consecrated in the New World, thou art a symbol of unity in the Orthodox Faith. Now by thy prayers help lead us into the kingdom of heaven. all links and photos from http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/straphaelcanonized/

Hope for New Mothers of "Psycho" Babies

As I was telling Presvytera today, my babies seemed psycho before 3 months, and then un-psycho afterwards. Don't know if was the Dr. Brown bottles or the neurons connecting in the brain, but God knew I needed a break by 3 months and granted precious relief. Truly, a huge if untangible Gift!

What about you other mothers? Is 3 months the magic number?

God, grant all of us mothers to not go crazy ourselves, but to have the ability to raise these kids to see the Unseen, the Heavenly Kingdom and seek it. Yikes - grant us to model that journey!

Saints Alive: Orthodox Children's Website

Little Builder likes this site, and the "easy" games ("medium" and "hard" options beckon older kids) fit very well with the letters he's learning in Kindergarten.


from the home page:
Saints alive! is a project of the Department of Internet Ministries of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. For more information about this project click here.

What games will you find? Aunt Ellie will lead your little one through the following:

Nick's Word Finder
Icon Painting at Father Andrew's Studio
Jigsaw Puzzles at Rachel's Puzzle Place
Dean's Mystery Icon Studio
Pacman-Letter Eating at Tina's Wordman Game
Matching in Maria's Memory Game
Chris' Crossword Puzzles

Aunt Ellie, if you click on her with the cursor, says "ow, don't hurt me." I don't know about your kids, but this made my son giggle and want to click on her again. It's a funny thing the programers added. After making LB stop clicking on her, I must admit, I was tempted to click her too (later once he was in bed).

Overall, it is nice to have an Orthodox web site for games, a refreshing alternative to Bob-the-Builder and Barney.

Home Education via Public School: Math Fun

At first I was a little miffed that my kindergartner had homework every night. However, it is usually fun to do together, and like I said before, I am grateful for the structured opportunity to be a part of my child's education.

So, we start with his math book,


and find some leaves to sort


into a chart. Note: we named the groups according to Little Builder's imagination.


To complete the activity, Little Builder dictates some sentences for me to write in his math journal about what we did, then he draws a picture to go with them.

Lost, Yesterday

Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.

-Horace Mann


Lord, may I not lose golden moments with my family.

Oh, if only....

I have been lamenting over not being able to homeschool our kids or put them in an Orthodox school. A few nights ago, Little Builder was sitting in the bathtub, filling an old shampoo bottle with water and bubbles then dumping it out, singing to himself some song about robots. It was cute but made me sad.

Later, laying in bed next to my husband, I whispered:

If he were homeschooling or in an Orthodox school, he would be singing troparions instead of robot songs. His mind would be on "things above" instead of temporal earthly things. Right?

Over the weekend, I had plenty of time to spend with my kids, rubbing off on them.


On Saturday afternoon, after a whole day of my influence, as LB was building train tracks, he was humming to himself, not a troparion, not Hagios O Theos, not a psalm. No, he was singing...




"Dancing Queen" by ABBA, from my Mamma Mia soundtrack.


So my husband leans over to whisper, tounge-in-cheek, in my ear as we're doing dishes:

Too bad he's not homeschooling, so he could be singing troparia.


We laugh. I decide I better be thankful for what I have instead of wishing for something else. It is hard.


For Little Builder's Kindergarten, Thank You

* that his teacher loves teaching

* that his teacher has been teaching for 30 years and has great ideas

* that his school provides intense opportunities for me to be involved in his education, even if I can't homeschool. It actually forces me to sit down and do it, provides me with a schedule and accountability, lest I forget in the midst of my own students.

* for the laughter in LB's eyes as he hunches over, arm dramatically sweeping across the living room, telling me about "Going on a Bearhunt."

* for "being forced" to make 2 dozen cookies tonight for Grandparents Day tomorrow; LB and I love to cook together, but haven't done it so much recently.

As I force myself to be thankful, I feel my shoulders relaxing and the peace inching it's way in.

Blisfully Domestic Give-away

I'm putting my name in the drawing to win some of Sylvia's prizes. She's giving them away in honor of her new writing position and the reopening of Blissfully Domestic.

Back to School

It has been a hectic week! The high school where I teach is renovating, so I started school by moving every folder, chair, script, computer, filing cabinet, etc. out to a portable building in the parking lot. I should rephrase: my very helpful students did all that moving.

My afternoons intentionally slow down, offering relaxation such as rolling the ball around on the floor with the kids or saying "ahhh" 100 times in response to either of the kids peaking around the couch with a "boo!"

Crock pot and hubby have enabled this nice downtime before supper!

Commitment to Loveliness

I've always read Emma's lovely ideas and wanted to join, but never thought I'd actually be able to do 5 things. So here's my 1 thing: Take cup of tea, sit down and browse through Little Builder's pre-school drawings, looking for one or two to mat and frame. My mom recently did this with some of the grandchildren's drawings with lovely results:

A Great New Blog!

I found this one through Susan Sophia and Sylvia, so you may have already stopped by, but here goes.

Elenie, a Seminary graduate, has incredible ideas about Children's Ministry. Visit her at OrthodoxEducation.

We all have lots in common, but I've never read a profile so like my dear sister:

Elenie likes Pride and Prejudice, Alias, and the Gilmore Girls.

I lurve (that's cool high school kids speak... gotta get back in the high school teacher mode soon.... smile), just luuuuurve me the activity she has posted about becoming living icons. It involves developing kid's self esteem and their appreciation of each other.

I'm a Mom not a Monk...so What Now?

(from St. Herman Press)

I've been reading Fr. Seraphim Rose, and really appreciating the story of this intellectual Berkley professor struggling with the world and gripping towards Orthodoxy.

However, I struggle as a mom knowing how to live my life, fully given to the Lord and live in this world.

Anne Voskamp, who strives to live a liturgical life, though not Orthodox, had a beautiful post about serving God from within the world. I know that Orthodox teaching differs from this (thus, all the desert asethetics), but don't know where I fit in.

From one of Fr. Seraphim's mentors:

The movement of my mind quieted down, died out in concentration interspersed with prayer. A sense of being responsible for each word, thought, and feeling suddenly rose in me: a warning that these can pollute, disfigure, or erase that flowing presence of Divinity

This sounds great to me, but how to replicate it as a mother?

How to quiet my mind?

How to discern which things in the world are okay to enjoy and which can pollute or erase the flow of the Holy Spirit?

How to help my children hone in on God and not get caught up in the world?

Some things are obvious: I'm not going to play vulgar videos for them.

Other things seem fine, spiritually good even, but I wonder at what point they might become distractions: cello lessons, boy scouts, etc.

Well readers - it's time for your input.

How do I live in the heart of Christ as a mom, not a monk?