Greetings and Prayers

Bluejay loves the Christ is risen greeting.  He also loves the Paschal troparion.  Last year, although he was barely talking yet, he insisted we sing it before every meal LONG after we had taken leave of the Paschal period and entered into Pentecost.  I suspect this year will be the same, now that he knows it in its entirety and is often found singing it while going down for a nap.  And he continually greets us with "Christ is risen!" throughout the day.  He is a natural at being in the spirit of the feast at all times.  

As I was sneaking a few moments to shower today, he popped his head into the bathroom to say "Christ is risen, Mom".  The other day, when he was in his room at my command after having hit his sister one too many times, he opened the door to tell me, 

      "I will not do it again, Mom."  

      "I know," I said, "but you said that last time. You still need to stay in your room."

      "Ok," he replied, and shut the door again.  A moment later the door popped open again and he said,

      "Christ is risen, Mom."  Thank goodness I was in the kitchen comforting Chickadee.

      "Indeed He is risen," I said, "but you still need to stay in your room."

This boy was thrilled to drive Uncle G's new riding mower, with his daddy.

As this Sunday is the leave taking of Pascha, one more time:

Christ is risen from the dead

Trampling down death by death

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life

INDEED HE IS RISEN

Pretty Happy Funny Real ~ the backyard edition

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with Like Mother Like Daughter

{Pretty}

I found swimsuits for the little ones at Marshalls, which have lots of skin coverage for the sun AND these two sure do look adorable in them!  I didn't get great pictures but babies in the backyard itty bitty kiddy pool are one of my favorite things.

Bluejay is not wearing his octopus swim trunks because they were missing come swim time.  He is very interested in selecting his own clothes right now, which means he has several wardrobe changes each day and often decides to wear his swim trunks or top to coordinate with other items of clothing (like winter mittens, for example).

{Happy}

Chickadee has developed a very serious interest in books!  There are a few she particularly likes, and always picks out when it's book reading time, and wants to hear them read over and over and over and over and over (and over and over a few more times) again.  My Animal Friend is one of her current favorites.  As soon as you finish it, you have to start again at the beginning.  All of these Gyo Fujikawa books are from the collection of children's books my mom saved.  Did anyone else grow up with his books?  We have so many, and they are wonderful.  But I don't think I've ever seen them anywhere else.

{Funny}

I found this in my camera when I was downloading pictures for this post.  It is one of husband's favorite jokes.  And yes, it is still funny.  Almost as funny as posting it here, mwaaa ha ha ha!!!

Isn't he cute, though??

And since he is funny, here are some more... he got in the pool to distract Chickadee from the terrible, horribleness of having a swimsuit inflicted upon her.

I told you it was an itty bitty pool!

More often, though, this is what we see when we look at Daddy:

And in this case, the picture was taken by his budding photographer son:

{Real}

Not long ago, we slept every evening to the sound of several romantic frogs, singing gaily to potential mates, all night long.  No closed doors or double-paned windows could muffle their romance.  And clearly, all that frog noise was successful, because now there are hundreds and hundreds of very large tadpoles in our pond.  And this is a good thing, because frogs are needed, I understand their numbers are dwindling at the moment and they do lots of good, like eating mosquitos, for example.  But that many in a very small pond, it's just a little bit creepy.  

Being a nice mama, I squelched my qualms and caught one in a jar for the children to see at close quarters.

They decided to get close anyway, and Chickadee in particular, is most intrepid.  Numerous times I've caught her throwing a leg over those rocks to try to climb in the pond.  Having toddlers and a pond in the back yard is not the best combination.  But we've looked at many options of how to get rid of it and they are all problematic.  So for now, I am adding lifeguard duties to my other responsibilities.

Check out all the other wonderful {phfr} entries over at Like Mother Like Daughter.

On Giving Things Up, Parentally Speaking

When you are getting ready to become a parent, you prepare yourself for giving things up, for sacrificing for the sake of this little child you are bringing into the world.  You will give up sleep, you will give up quiet, you will give up time alone with your dear spouse.  You will give up the tidiness of your house, you will give up having a full phone conversation, you will give up wearing a shirt that stays clean for more than half an hour, you will give up eating food while it is hot.  Heck, half the time you will give up even eating food, because that most delicious morsel of sausage left on the corner of your plate is coveted by someone else.  And you do it with joy and with gratitude, because you love these darlings so much and you wanted them with every fiber of your being.  

Now, this next part probably does not apply to a lot of you, because you are probable not big babies like me.  But what I did not prepare myself for was the other things I would give up.  The little things. The ones that don't even matter, right?  My bookmarks that I got when I lived in Oxford for my final years in high school.  I just gave those up.  They were wrenched from the book I was reading and crumpled up and chewed on.  

My toy mechanical train that I played with as a toddler, that STILL WORKED.  They broke the wheel off of it and twisted the handle backwards so it bent the mechanism.  The already pretty decrepit paperback copies of Spike Milligan books, which would make me laugh out loud obnoxiously and annoy my poor, studious my college roommate. Those are now fully separated into thousands of individual pages distributed somewhere among all the other books in the bookshelves. 

The whisk that goes with the beaters, which I hardly use anyway but sometimes particularly need.  It is all bent up and twisted, even though I gave them everything else in the utensil drawer to play with, that being the sole exception.


THESE PEOPLE RUIN STUFF!!!


And then, they cry in wounded indignation when you take it away from them and explain in a very pitiful voice "Almost everything in this house is yours. I have hardly anything. This bookmark is mine, and I just want to keep it." Which is clearly pointless anyway since, as stated above, it's already crumpled up and ripped and soggy with saliva.  

When I got married, I had a lot of stuff that I just kept.  Papers I wrote in college.  The register from my first checking account.  My 4H records.  All the birthday cards I'd been given from ages 1 through 16.  The statements from my old student loan.  My husband has gently and lovingly, over the years, pried my fingers from one little item or another and helped me to eliminate boxes that I do not need. That were weighing me down. [Disclaimer here, I still have a looooong way to go.]   

And I have been very grateful for this, but also more than a little prideful.  See God?  I listen to you.  I know that I don't need material things to make me happy.  I am giving them to Goodwill!  I am throwing out old papers.  Look how good I am!  

I guess it takes a few children to really show you how attached you are to worldly things.  I know it is for my own good.  But come on!!  Can't I just have my bookmark?  Do I really have to give that up too?  

Christ is Risen!!!

Christos Voskrese!

Voistinu Voskrese!!

End of Lent Daybook

Outside my window...

It is dusk, gray, quiet.  

I am thankful for...

God's providence.  Every time we start to get anxious, and stop ourselves and remember to have faith, he takes care of just what we were going to worry about.

I am thinking about...

My ninety-three year old grandmother.  She was recently in the hospital.  I hope we can visit her one of these days, she met Bluejay when he was just a little thing, but she has not yet gotten to meet her great-granddaughter.

Learning all the time...

Bluejay is learning to use the potty.  It is big work.  I'm so proud of him, and thankful for my husband for leading the charge on this one.

From the kitchen... 

I think my new go-to Lenten meal is breakfast for dinner.  Tonight I made potatoes with onions, sauteed mushrooms, and I put a few halved tomatoes in the pan as well, English breakfast style.  I finished it off with homemade biscuits and jam.  Drop biscuits are really easy to make and everyone loves them, I don't know why I don't make them more often.

I am creating...

This blog.  This is my creative work for the most part right now.  Well, that and entertaining two toddlers, because, we really do have two, full-on toddlers now.  Chickadee started walking during our trip to New Hampshire, and she is going full-steam ahead now, to use one of Bluejay's favorite phrases. 

I am working on...
Converting our church directory to a new software program.  It's mostly busy-work at the moment, entering the data from the old program into the new and revising errors, but I'm really enjoying this project.

I am going...
To the optometrist tomorrow.  I've suddenly started having trouble with my contacts, after almost 25 years of wearing them. It turns out my eyes developed a sensitivity to the lenses, so I'm wearing various trial pairs right now trying to find a type that will work better for me. The best solution would be laser eye surgery, and they finally have equipment sensitive enough to repair my extreme nearsightedness [ bad genes and way too much reading :-) ], but, I cannot have surgery while nursing and I wouldn't even consider weaning Chickadee before she is at least two, and seems to be interested in weaning herself. So, for now, it's trial and error with the contacts.

I am hoping...

To do more activities with little Bluejay starting after Pascha.  He is such a curious little guy, and very committed to whatever project we take on, I know he is so ready to do more.  And his little sister is not far behind, that girl surprises me constantly with what she knows already and what she tries to imitate.

I am reading...
I never ever ever used to have multiple books going at once, I was adamantly against it, but now, for some reason, I do.  I just picked up a Jeffrey Archer book (Only Time Will Tell) during my birthday alone-time I spent at a local bookstore (it was GLORIOUS!  The alone time, not the book, I'm only a few chapters in so far.) I'm also reading The Way of the Pilgrim, finally.  I've been meaning to read that one for years.  I'm still about halfway through both Man of God: Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco and the Elder Thaddeus book Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, which is absolutely wonderful.  And I picked up Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswick Journals (A Circle of Quiet) while visiting my sister-in-law, and want to get my own copy so I can finish them.  I love Madeleine L'Engle.

I am praying for...
My brother on deployment.  My sister-in-law and brother who are expecting their first baby.

  
I am hearing...
U2 in the garage, the babies are playing with playdough and hanging out with daddy.

One of my favorite things...
Being out in the air after a dip in the hottub.  At night.  After the children have gone to sleep.

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Lazarus Saturday (Aaron's baptism anniversary), Palm Sunday, then we have finally reached Holy Week.  Aaron's new job (new career!) starting on Monday.  Being with my children.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

That's right. Those are my feet. And they're up! For a full five minutes I put my feet up the other day, for no reason at all, unplanned, and without making sure everyone was "taken care of" first.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Pascha Baskets

Every year we plant baskets with wheat grass for Pascha.  Every year I forget to do this until about two weeks before, and then worry that the grass will not have enough time to grow, or that there won't be enough sun and I will have to use plastic grass in our baskets.  But I can't recall a year that the grass did not grow at least enough to look pretty.  So, in keeping with tradition, I started the process last night. Well, really the night before that when I put the wheatberries to soak in water.

Then I put soil into our Pascha baskets.  I lined the baskets with plastic bags first.  Usually I spend a lot of time cutting plastic bags and lining the baskets.  This year I got smart and just filled the bags with a little soil, stuck them in the baskets and then trimmed all the excess bag around the edges.  I also was very recycle-y and used soil from a hanging plant that we sadly did not manage to keep alive.  About now, my little brother would be saying "cool story, brah", so in the interest of not boring you, I'll move on with the process.  If you're bored already though, you might want to stop reading, it doesn't get that much more interesting.

Then we put copious amounts of wheatberries on top of the soil.  You really just cover the soil. 

I moved them outside, to a place that gets sunshine, and where they won't get TOO wet with rain, although a little is very good, of course.  The wheatberries need to stay damp as they germinate.  Bluejay is my prime waterer.  He's very diligent about it.  I have to put the baskets back on a table out of reach after our twice-daily spritzing, or they will get knocked over when he surreptitiously increases the watering frequency.

I'm glad he's so dedicated about it, though, because I tend to forget.  Last year he single-handedly watered those seeds to life.  More pictures to come as our grass (hopefully) grows!

Visit to New Hampshire ~ and ~ plans!

New Hampshire!


Two weeks in New Hampshire!  We are about half-way through. And yes, the babies have gotten to see some snow, although it's been mostly in the 50s and 60s since we got here.  Right now, we're up in lovely northern NH visiting my college roommate, who is a dear, and who I miss a ton.  But the primary part of our trip has been visiting Aaron's wonderful sister and her family (including Grampa).  It has been five lovely children, busy all day long every day, in one house (a nice big one) with some slightly under-rested grown-ups.  It's been great.  


At the moment I don't have many great snow pictures. 

Here's sweet little Chicadee with Daddy

And looking a bit perplexed, in her adorable jacket

I have no snow pictures of Bluejay!  He loved it and was off hiking in the woods behind the backyard with his intrepid five-year-old cousin, seen here.  I just love this guy.  I only managed to sneak in one good hug so far, but you know I'm going to swoop in for another one before we leave.

The girl-cousins, enjoying some literature together.

Auntie Hilaree knows how to create Toddler Heaven, and she has a marvelous studio set up.  Here are some of the lovely ladies elbow deep in bubbles.

My two attempts to get the entire crew in one picture :-)

The boys were studiously observing the effects of the projector on various objects from the room.

Talk about homeschooling in action.  I need to emulate some of this in our little home when we return.  Both of my little ones could use a few more activities in their days.  Which brings us to...


PLANS!
For now, I am working on home-making plans, the toddler activities will fit in amongst them as I get to them.  I am feeling a strong need to continue to embrace home-making in a very real way, as I'm still finding myself a bit in the binds of an unwanted "working" life, a full year after I last worked.  So I would like to start with just three goals for the week we return.


1. Tidy, organized closet in our bedroom.


2. Tidy, organized clothing hanger in the children's bedroom.


3. Clean bathrooms.


And I'm hoping to join Matushka Emily's Commitment to Loveliness when I return, as well.