Valentine's Day for me

My family after being baptized and taking communion for the first time. :) 

Valentine's Day is the anniversary of when my family and I were baptized and chrismated into the Orthodox Church. It was Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of lent as well. It was overwhelming and incredible.

This year is the 7th anniversary and I have grown in my faith and my understanding of the church. What I most love is how my participation on the liturgy and life of the church has grown.

The blessing of the waters for baptism

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's day and celebrate those you love. 

On the 12th Day of Christmas

I will share with you the Christmas crafts that I made/helped make for my sisters.

For one sister I decided to do Percy Jackson themed ornaments. 

 Here are all of them. 

 On one side a did a picture of the character. 

 On the other I did the characters name in a particular font. They all had different fonts.

 I was asigned the task of helping Samantha make her present for Emily. I did the cuting and Samantha did the glue part. I told her where to put them, or put them on myself. It is a Percy Jackson collage thing. 

Thie was my Christmas present from one of my sisters. :) I was pleased with is :) 

Blessings 

~Elizabeth 

On the 11th day of Christmas

I will tell you about GoodReads. Really the site is addictive. It is almost as good as going to the library. The only downside is that you can't grab the books of the computer screen. Especially when my library it turns out my library does not have it. :(

If you have not tried GoodReads you should. Especially if you are a major book lover! It is book lover heaven! :) I can't believe it took me this long to find out about it!

One the 10th Day of Christmas

I will tell you what I have been doing during the 12 days. :) 

So what have I been doing on this long Christmas break. Well my dad takes off a lot of time around Christmas and New Years. This provided a perfect opportunity for us to do a project that we had been talking about for a long time. The Great Bedroom Switch. Samantha's and my bedroom would become Emily and Abby's bedroom, and Emily and Abby's bedroom would become Samantha's and my bedroom. 

I don't think we quiet comprehended just what we were getting ourselves into. The bunk bed that was in E&A's bedroom had not been moved since it was put in. That was a mess. And my mom and very wisely in my opinion decide that this a perfect time to do a lot of decluttering. We are still working on it. Though the bedrooms are now mostly switched we still need to transfer cloths from one closet to the other. Which is one of the things to go through. 

This is what my bedroom now looks like. My bed is on the right and Samantha's is on the left. The dresser that is mine too. I also have a desk, but you can't see that, or S's dresser.

At this point I must say that having friends is really awesome as that is how S got her bed. I will also say it is an awesome bed. The daughter who moved away had decorated the headboard with Harry Potter Stickers. I almost wanted the bed! But mine had a book shelf for a headboard which is just as nice. :) 

Here is a blurry picture. 

I will admit that I find it funny that she had a Harry Potter headboard with Winnie the Pooh sheets and comforter. :) 

Christ is Born! 

~Elizabeth 

On the 9th Day of Christmas

I had a lovely time at the New Years party and was completely thrilled that I got to do Christmas Crackers. These are not cracks that you eat. If you have read Harry Potter, or perhaps any book that takes place in Great Britian you might know what I am talking about.

I knew these from Harry Potter and was so happy to get to do some. They are a little packet that had two end. You grab one end and someone else grabes the other. You then both pull it apart. It will make a little pop. It has a little powerder that causes it. and there is a paper crown and a riddle or joke. These made me so happy. It was just so cool!

Here I am with my sister at home. We are wearing our Christmas Crowns.

Blessings

~Elizabeth 

On the 8th Day of Christmas

I wish everyone a happy New Year!!! And I go to a friends house for the day! :)

Perhaps the biggest change at the moment, or at least the first one that comes to mind, is that my bedroom moved. I read Harry Potter. I decided I am probably a Geek. I also decided I like long hair better than short on me.

 It is hard for me to really pin point any particular change in my life as it seems like my life is always changing.

I am rubbish at coming up with New Years resolutions. I either come up with really impossible ones or completely forget them. Or in a different case they pretty much stay the same as they are something I have to work on constantly. Like getting along with my sisters more, or being more diligent in everything that I do. I have to work on those all the time.

Maybe I should work on gaining more confidence to be me this year? I don't know. I tend to come up with New Years resolutions in May. I KNOW what I should do! Not procrastinate so much! :)

Do you do New Years resolutions? What are some that you have come up with?

Do you have any New Years Traditions that you and your family do?
Blessings
~Elizabeth

On the 7th Day of Christmas

Isaiah 9:6

"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, They everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."


Have a wonderful New Years Eve!! :) 

On The 6th Day of Christmas

I will share pictures of what we wore for Christmas. My sisters and I all got dressed fancy and did our hair. It was alot of fun. 

We all look really weird in this picture. I don't know why. I think I was trying not to laugh at what someone had said.

You can't really see my whole outfit here maybe another day I will get a picture of the whole things. It was really really pretty. I think it is one of my favorite Christmas outfits. :)

Merry Christmas!!
~Elizabeth

On The 5th Day of Christmas

Love came down at Christmas, 

Love all lovely, love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Stars and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,

Love incarnate, love divine;

Worship we our Jesus:

But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,

Love be yours and love be mine,

Love to God and all men,

Love for plea and gift and sign.

By Christina G. Rossetti

On the 3rd Day of Christmas

Thy Nativity, O Christ, our God, 

Has shown to the world the light of wisdom. 

For by it those who worshiped the stars, 

Were taught by a star 

To adore Thee, the Sun of Righteousness; 

And to know Thee, the Orient from on high. 

O Lord, glory to Thee.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas

"And behold an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior; who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." 

And Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 

"Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

On the 1st Day of Christmas

Christ is Born!

Merry Christmas to everyone!! I hope you have a wonderful day!!! :)

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing, 

And Heaven, and Heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ; 

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy, 

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sin an sorrow grow,

Nor thorn infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, Far as, the curse is found. 

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders of His love. 

Christmas Eve

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel 

That mourns in lonely exile here 

Until the Son of God appeared

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee o Israel. 

O come, O come, thou rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan's tyranny

From depths of Hell they people save 

And give the victory o'er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 

Shall come to thee o Israel.

A Happy November 22nd!

To day is Thanksgiving another year has passed. When ever a major holiday rolls around I find that I always look back to see how things are different from the year before. Overall it is hard to say. I know I have grown up more. I have read more books. Does that count as something different? I am a Senior in highschool.

Anyway. Like everyone else I will share a few things I am thankful for. Someone should come up with some different kind of thing. Maybe I will do that next year at the moment I am to lazy to try and use brain power to think of anything else. :)

• I am thankful for peanut butter hot coco.(really not that hard to make just heat it on the stove with a blob of peanut butter. My friend introduced me to it when I went over to her house to watch North & South :) 
• I am thankful for books. Lots and lots of books. I will just say books instead of particular books as that would be way to long of a list. 
• I am thankful for my family and friends. My family loves me and puts up with me. My friends listen to me when I talk. 
• I am thankful for music. It is pretty much one of my addictions along with books. 
• I am thankful for kind people. They are just nice and we need more people like them in the world. 
• I am thankful for refrigerators, because without them our food would spoil and then we would have to use a lot of seasoning like the middle ages. 
• I am thankful for the internet. It gives me access to information that would otherwise be inaccessible for me, and allows me to connect with other people that I would otherwise never know existed. 
• I am thankful for being alive. It is really great to be alive and living if you thank about it. 

What are you thankful for?
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, or if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving (I know I have followers who are not from the US) I hope you have a wonderful November 22nd! :)
Blessings
~Elizabeth

To day is also the saints day for Saint Cecilia. She is a saint in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Orthodox Church. :) Here is her icon.

Happy Fourth of July

Just wanting to wish you all a happy Fourth of July!! :) 

Blessings 

~Elizabeth 

Happy Mother's Day

I think many times we take for granted how much our mothers do for us. It is easy to not think that much about how much our mothers do. I am so grateful for all that my mother does for me. Some of the things I am grateful for are with my mother are..

• Being my chauffeur 
• Being my teacher
• My friend
• Listening to me
• Being patient with me
• Cooking food
• Reading aloud to me when I was little
• Helping me to love books

Happy Mother's Day to all mother's! I hope you all have a lovely mothers day!
Blessings
~Elizabeth

Christ is Risen!!

Christ is risen from the dead

Trampling down death by death

And upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

Here is the song in Greek, it is one of my favorite versions! It was a wonderful day with sunshine. :) 

Christ is risen!!!!
~Elizabeth

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!! I hope you all are having a lovely day! We have had a very strange March I will say that much. I woke up this morning to find it snowing. It didn't stay though thankfully!

Anyway to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day on my blog I am going to put up a bunch of Irish songs, as I have a great fondness for Celtic Music. :)




First in line is Loreena Mckennitt's version of Star of the County Down. I like to up beat happy sound of the song, it is fun to listen too.



Here is another happy song. I really love this songs up beat feel, it is a fun sort of party song as well. :)



I love Meav's voice, and this song is simply lovely. It does not have a lot of excess instruments, mostly her beautiful voice.



This is a song on Orla Fallon's latest album. I love her voice it is sweet and gentle. This song always makes we wish I could dance! :)

Well that is all for now I hope you all have a lovely day and enjoy pretending you Irish! :)
Blessings
~Elizabeth

Thoughts from Valentine's Day

So I realized that I didn't do a post for Valentine's Day. Well I could not think of anything more to post other than a "Happy Valentine's Day", and I kind of like to do a little more for blog post, and at the time I could not think of anything else to say, or something about the holiday that struck me. But now I have something to say.

Valentine's Day is a celebration of love. Most people when they think of love think of the romance novel like love. But this is not the only love out there. There is the love that we have for our family; parents, siblings, children, and extended family. There are all kinds of love out there. Unfortunately we only have one word for the many kinds of love out there. On February 14th we seem to only remember the romantic love, so that those who don't have a special someone feel left out. Not that romantic love is not wonderful or anything, I can't really say from experience, since I have not experienced it. 

So on the day that we remember those we love and those who love us we should not forget the one who loves us more than anyone else in the whole world. Jesus. He died on the Cross for us, he made himself man for us. He suffered terribly for us. How many people would do that for me? There is a lot that we can learn about love from the life of Christ. I pray that I may be able to strive to love as he loves us! 

Blessings
~Elizabeth

I would like you to meet Edward

When the snow came we went outside to play, and when there is snow, and it is good snow, you have to build a snow man. Well…. that was the original plan.

I had decided that I was going to make the biggest snowman that I possibly could, and my sisters joined in. We knew his name was going to be Edward that never changed. But after a we had the base of the snow man I said he looked kind of like a dinosaur, so then he was a dinosaur. A few minutes latter I said it looked like sphinx. We all got very very excited about making a snow sphinx. So he was a snow sphinx. This was the most fun thing I have ever made in the snow! : )

Here are some pictures!     

  

   This is not the best, but you can get the I idea.

      

     Here is a really good one of his front. We tried to get the best head dress that we could, and my sister did a pretty good job on the chin.

    

Here is a side view!

Sadly Edward is all gone now. But we have pictures!

~Elizabeth