Memorial Day

Let us remember those who have died for our freedom!

A case of a bad blogger

I have been a terrible blogger this week. I hope you will please forgive me!

This week has just been crazy!! Our school year ended yesterday, so all week we were trying to get school done, and the house is/was (it could still use some work, but is improved) a wreak. I just did not have time to do much, if any, posting.



Any way I have been reading Little Dorrit. I actually started it *cough* last year, and could not get into the book (I was only about two chapters into it), it made absolutely no sense! this week I decided to give it another go and picked up where I left off. NOW it is actually interesting, and makes sense with what the back says. I am not very far, but I am very slow when it come to Dickens; he is really heavy read for me, but he has gotten easier over the years, and I have come to like him very much!

I really don't think Charles Dickens like his government.

that is all for now!

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Trampling Down Death by Death

"Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life."

I was thinking about this earlier this day. It all ways hits me that Christ died to defeat death. Christ conquered death, by dieing Himself. It always amazes me when ever I think about it! We no longer have to fear death because he destroyed death by dying and rising from the dead.

Death no longer has its sting. Christ has conquered death by death!

Blessings

~Elizabeth

What to Write about?

I have hit writers block. I have no idea what to post about. I am thinking I about posting a bunch of stuff about Plantagenets, I went through a phase where I read a whole bunch of historical fiction and did some research on Plantagenets. I learned a lot, so I am thinking of posting about it here. I love reading history of royal families in Europe, and the Plantagenets are a particular favorite of mine.

Any way I am just letting you know that I have not fallen of the face of the Earth, and that I do remember I have a blog. :)

Blessings

~Elizabeth

PS. The Bishop is coming to our Church!!!!!! :) :)

Loreena Mckennitt and Shakespeare!

Loreena Mckennitt and Shakespeare together!!!! This is too good to be true! :)

Loreena Mckennitt took Prospero's speech, from The Tempest, and set it to music. I have not read the Tempest, but I am know the basic story line. I love the words, and the music. How could you not love the words, it is Shakespeare!

I know I have some Shakespeare loving followers, so I hope you enjoy!
Pleas tell me what you think?

Love and Blessings
~Elizabeth

Piano Excitement!

I was not able to post this yesterday because blogger was having its hiccup(a very big hiccup!).

Any way.... I am very happy! I finished a song at piano lessons and got to start a new one!!! It is Mozart's Sonata in A minor, but the particular copy I have it has the whole big movement (I think that is what it is called..?) It has the Sonata, and a couple of other songs, and Alla Turca!!! All together they add up to about 16 pages!

I love Alla Turca it is my dream song. I have been wanting to play it since I was a little girl. But I am not at Alla Turca yet, I have a lot to get through before that, and my piano teacher wants to me to work up to Alla Turca. But I am in love with the whole thing!!! :) :) <3

Christ is Risen!

~Elizabeth

Love is Important

1 John 3:14-18

14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of god, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

(King James version)

We need to love others as Christ loved us. We cannot love God if we do not love our brothers and sisters. We need to show our love in actions not just words. As the saying goes 'actions speak louder than words'. How can we say we love someone and yet turn him away when he is in need? We should let the love we have for God, and the love God has, pour through our actions.

Christ is Risen

~Elizabeth

A bit of randomness

I am going to do a mix mash post here with a bunch of different things. So just hang in there with the randomness of it!

First a funny conversation with my younger (about 6) sisters.

So Mama and I were packaging up hamburger to put in th freezer, and this is how it went.

Sister(to me): "Is is boy meat or girl meat?"

Me: "I don't know is it is boy meat or girl meat."

Sister: "I think it is girl meat."

I found this very funny!

I have finally gotten to proof (Geometry) in math. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever do them. (I actually did them in another math program, I am doing 2, but I didn't understand it, and I have no idea how I passed!) I am now doing them in the other math program (Math U See) and I really really like them!!! I understand it and know what it wants me to do. MUS puts proofs near the end instead of the beginning because they think it makes it easier, and I have to say I agree!

I am stuck in Jane Eyre. I have already read the book, and I was rereading it. But I have reached the point where I got stuck last time when I read it. Around when she has left Mr. Rochester and is living with the nice girls and St. John Rivers. I all ways get stuck here. So now Jane Eyer is siting on my head board gathering dust. I will probably finish it again at some point, but for right not I am just letting it sit.

Okay that is all for know. I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Christ is Risen

~Elizabeth

An Encouraging Quote for Prayer

"Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God's gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own."

- Mother Teresa, A Simple Path

(Christ praying in the garden of Gesthemane)

Christ is Risen

~Elizabeth

hasta la vista weedy!!!!!

So the other day we were all outside doing yard work. My dad and two sisters were mowing the lawn, and I was working on the flower beds. I have now gained much ground in the once weed infested grounds of our flower bed. Hence the name of the post.

This is picture of all the weeds I pulled up. I am very proud of my weed pile!
Another pictures.
And this is where all the weeds came from. :)

Christ is Risen!

~Elizabeth

Pascha 2011

All right now for the Pascha pictures I promised you all! Some of them are blurry, but they give you an idea of what is going on. I will see if I can get better pictures next year.

Also I took a couple of short videos of the service, so I will see if I can get those up for you to watch! :)

Another thing that I should tell you is that out Pascha service is at midnight. So here is the time line. Saturday 10:00 PM, leave to make sure we can get a decent parking spot. 11:00 PM at Church waiting for the service to start. 12:00 AM Sunday service starts. Some time between 3:00 Am and 3:30 AM Sunday the service ends. Some time between 3:30 AM and 4:30 AM Sunday we leave Church and go home to sleep. Then we get up and go to church and 1:00 PM Sunday, and are there until between 3:00 PM and 4:30 PM Sunday. Yup that is how our Pascha is. :) I love every minute of it!!

Now with out further ado!

Our Pascha basket!
Our Pascha basket with all the other Pascha baskets.
I don't have a full picture of all the Pascha baskets, so this is the best that I have.

The procession. On Pascha there are only 2 handmaidens. One carrying the icon, and one the artos(a holy pascha bread). I got to carry the icon, last year I carried the bread.

This is one of the blurry ones.
Father Getting ready to read the Gospel.
Father reading the Gospel.

I don't really know what they are doing here because my back was turned. As you can see.
Going back in for the rest of the service.


I made all th upper window things. :)
A better view of the decorations. Our Church gets all decked out for Pascha.
The garland on the cross.
The icon of the Resurrection. (I made the little garland thing above it. ;)

My friend made the garland on the chandelier, and she made the one on the iconostasis. you can see it just below the chandelier. :) She is amazing!
They put even decorated the Cross on the hill. I think it is haunting.

Someone at Church gave us this beautiful egg. It was so lovely we were afraid to eat it!
The other side.

I hope you enjoyed!!

Christ is Risen

~Elizabeth

Palm Sunday

All right finally I am able to get the pictures! These are the Palm Sunday procession pictures. I hope you enjoy! :)
My sisters and I are handmaidens (though I will be finishing this summer) so we were in the procession carrying icons.

The alter boyes
The handmaidens and clergy.
All together
This is a nice picture of the priest's vestments.
The girls.
More of the alters boys. I thought this one turned out very nice.
The sun was in our eyes so that is why we, or in particular me, are making funny faces.

The Priests.

Christ is Risen!
~Elizabeth

Till We Have Faces Book review

Title: Till We Have Faces

Author: C. S. Lewis

1st Published: 1956

My Rating: 20/5!!!!!! (I love this book!)

The famed author of The Chronicles of Narnia and a science-fiction trilogy tells his most compelling and eloquent narrative in this reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. - The back of the book

" 'Till We Have Faces' should prove to be the most widely read, as it is the most brilliant, of Mr. Lewis' four novels." -Catholic World (I got this from the back of the book too, and could not agree more with this quote!)

I really don't know where to start with this book, all the characters our wonderful and spectacular! I loved the main character as I could identify with her feelings as an older sister. The other characters were very real. I love this retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. The story comes alive in your mind and you can't put the book down! I was upset when ever I had to go do something that took me away from it.

This book put me through a lot emotionally. I know that sounds weird, but I was able to really feel how the main character felt, You would be really happy at one point and completely heart broken and crying the next, then you would get super mad at some characters, I had to get up and walk a little at one point to cool off. By the time I finished to book I was emotionally drained and exhausted. I have never had that with a book before!

I see how this book seems to question what people believe in. In particular the gods, such as the Greek and Roman kind of gods. It questions Greek philosophy.

This passage particularly struck me.....'I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words. Long did I hate you, long did I fear you. I might-' The passage cuts of here. I can see how this can relate to Christianity. This book over all is one big question of what is true. There is no mention of Christianity but I think we can see how it would fit in.

Over all this is one of the best book I have ever read and I would read it again, and again, and again! I would highly recommend it to all people!

"I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob." to quote Larry from Veggie Tales.

Christ is Risen!!!

~Elizabeth

Enchantress from the stars book review

Title: Enchantress from the Stars

Author: Sylvia Louise Engdahl

1st Published: 1970

My rating: 3/5

This book is a wonderful story about magic, science and a quest!

Characters: The characters were great I love how you had the characters who believed in magic and those who were purely scientific and those who were sort of in between. They were all different from each other, and gave different view points to the story. I love books that change perspectives, this book does that.

Themes: What I really really really loved about this book was the theme(s). The one that stands out to me the most it how it talks about how things are not always black and white. Some times you have to break the rules for the greater good, but you must have the wisdom to know when it is right. I really like that!

Story: I loved the story it gave a completely new spin to fairy tales and enchantments all that fun stuff. I like the little twist it has by making it not really magic but science.

What I didn't like: All right this is kind of a spoiler but you are probably wondering why if I like the book so much that I only gave it 3 out of 5. It is because of this, The main girl character drove me absolutely crazy. She did not think, and seemed very very silly at times. *Spoiler* She is suppose to marry this one guy, he is really sweet and nice, and what does she do she falls for this other guy!!!! It was horrible she would hurt the guy she was suppose to marry. It was just further proof that we need to be careful of our hearts! It really really really REALLY made me mad!!!!!!!!!! *End of Spoiler* Other than all that the main character was fine.

I really enjoyed this book if you like fairy tales and science fiction( I am not a big science fiction book fan) then you will like this book! It was very easy to get into and the story grabbed me from the beginning. It is well written and very consistent in what it talks about.

Christ is Risen

~Elizabeth