"Out of the mouths of babes and children comes PERFECT praise!" Matthew 21:16

This past Pentecost, Philip and I had decided that imeditately following the Divine Liturgy, for the Vespers Service of Kneeling... I would head home, with our little Alexios... and either of our other boys who would want to leave.  Thanks be to God, our little Markos and Georgie wanted to stay at church... and KNEEL!!  and wait for.... what was to happen at this blessed service.  We had been talking about Pentecost all week, and especially since the Ascension.  So, a few days after Pentecost... another sweet mother in our community came and told me this story... she told me that Markos went up to her precious little 2 year old, who was kneeling so sweetly  

 and said to him,"Thomas!! Do you know what is happening right now??" Thomas looked up with precious faith and wonder in his eyes... and Markos said, "THE HOLY SPIRIT IS COMIN' DOWN AGAIN!!!!"  Even though I missed that service this year... after the RESURRECTION... after 40 days of Christ among us and PROCLAIMING DAILY, "Christ is RISEN!!!  TRULY He is Risen!!!...after 50 days of not kneeling... and not saying the prayer 'O Heavenly King Comforter... Spirit of Truth, who are present everywhere and fillest all things, treasury of blessings and Giver of LIFE, come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain and SAVE our souls... o... Good One.' ~ in the beginning of our morning prayers or Compline...  and anticipating the blessed event, once again, of the HOLY SPIRIT coming back down....  our precious son so beautifully brought that reminder to my heart and soul, and suddenly, I truly felt I had been at that service... and I knew... THE HOLY SPIRIT had COME DOWN AGAIN!!  Amen!+  May we remember each moment... that the Holy Spirit is truly Comforter... is present everywhere and fillest all things, and DAILY, HOURLY,  may we open our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain and SAVE our souls... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEXANDRA!!!

HELLO ALL!  Greetings on this beautiful June 10th, the INCREDIBLE, miraculous day that our SECOND daughter/angel/gift from God was BORN!!  We love you so much- precious Alexandra!!!  God grant you many years, filled with Joy, Love, Great Faith, Peace, Repentance, Forgivenss, Humility... and ALL the fruits of the Holy Spirit!!!!  We are celebrating Alexandra's Birthday week with a lot of wonderful cooking!!  On this day, we are making FAVA beans!   georgie helped to take the big peels off!!  alexandra and markos helped to take the skins off... AFTER I accidentally started simmering them for 5 minutes... and then remembered that i was supposed to take the skin off RIGHT after i boiled them...  hee-hee... silly me... and so we had to let them cool a bit... and then pick them out of the onions to peel and then put back in to simmer and get those wonderful flavors absorbed!!!   and now my sweety is home... just 2 full days back from Korea... and heading of to New York to speak at a conference at St. Vladimir's Seminary!!  AMAZING!!  He is truly a world renowned speaker, now.. Philip has just spoken at his 2nd conference out of the country this year!!  He is speaking on marriage and parenting and death and family and so many more blessings of our Holy Orthodox Christian Faith.  What blessings abound in all he is reading about, studying, learning, and sharing... all through the grace of the Holy Spirit... and we are so very blessed to have him LIVE IN OUR VERY OWN HOME!!!   Before he heads out on this next little trip to St. Vladimir's,  can now fill his palate with a little delicious bowl of fava beans- simmered with onions and dill and lemon and OLIVE OIL!!  YUMMMMMM!!!  ;)   you can see some of my gorgeous lettuce in the background FROM OUR OWN GARDEN... that is IN the process of being planted!!!  ;)  my lunch salad today will be from my own lettuce- SO exciting!   You can also see a planter filled with our own flowers , toward the back of the butcher block, near the olive oil!!! You can see fava beans in the front and peels in the back!!  ;)
      Thank you my sweet sister Demetra, for being my INSPIRATION!!!

  

 OH MY!!!  I just ran over to taste it before i post this!!  IT IS INCREDIBLE!!  This may go into the category of foods that taste so good... it is almost incomprehensible that God could create such a food... like- SWEET POTATOES/ EGGPLANTS... etc.  This almost should not be fasting- in this Blessed Period of the Holy Apostles Fast!  ;)       Blessings TO  you all as we being this Fast for our Most Holy Apostles/also the name of Fr. Tom and Pres. Pat's church!!  I have seen some wonderful writings on this fast, on line!  I will forward you some links shortly, that you may be interested in reading, as this fast is usually much shorter, and many of us know very little about it.  Since Pascha was so much earlier this year, that is why it is a longer fast this year... as it always starts on the Monday one week AFTER Pentecost!!  Did any of you see my latest posts on our blog... the icons which were decorated in our church are SO beautiful, and i NEVER thought a picture could do justice to the one of the Ascension, but it TRULY DID!!!  here is the link to that AMAZING PHOTO, which i hope to write more about!!!  :  http://thefruitsoftheholyspirit.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-we-all-prepare-place-worthy-for.html      take a look if you haven't seen the posts in the Leave Taking of Pascha and the Ascension!   

-Philip just tried it as well, and he had already had lunch, so he asked for just a taste... after he tasted it he gave his bowl back to me and said- "could you fill the bowl up, please?"  ;)

- i will try to take pictures of flowers and garden soon!!  ;)  Shelly, I think of YOU with every flower i plant... lobelia, verbena, phlox!!!  impatients... etc. etc!! THEY ARE GORGEOUS!  I miss you all so much... but i am SO thankful for the time we had together in Missoula where i learned so much about planting - from YOU!!!!  ;)

kassiani and nikolia are gone today...  ;(    two of my main cooks in the kitchen... house seems EMPTY without them... but everyone else really helped out to make this yummy meal happen!   The girls went to Canobie Lake Park - a water amusement park!!  Nikolia went with her Brownie Troop, and Kassiani asked if she could help on the field trip in any way...  the leader giggled and said, "no, we are covered!!" ( a few other parents were going as well... and bringing siblings.)  then... the leader thought a second time... and called back and said, "on second thought, if kassiani can come, she can help to take care of my 7 year old, and if he wants to go to other places the the Brownies, then kassiani could help with him! that would be wonderful, and then i will pay for her ticket to the water park, and her lunch!"  Needless to say, Kassiani was ECSTATIC!!  ;)  When that leader wanted one of my girls to baby sit last week... Noah told her he wanted Kassiani to babysit... "the one with the GOLDEN hair!!"  ;)   and now she is galavanting around the park with him today!!  ;)