The bridge from the front door to the front street.





The bridge in the back yard, over the creek. This view is from the back deck, and really looks over the neighbor's back yard, as well. Apparantly, the bridge is on the border between the two properties.




This is the side yard, in front of the garage. If you walked to the back of the picture, you'd head down the bank towards the creek and bridge. The fence is visible in the back, as well.

Front view of the house. Note the pretty arched window, the little front porch, and the bridge walkway to the front door.



The side view of the house from the drive way.


The back view of the house, from the other side of the creek. You can see the fenced in yard and the deck. The window above the deck steps is the master bedroom. The roofline is the line of the vaulted ceilings in the master.

Mara's growing up!

Can you tell what's new? (Hint: The blue lips are from candy, but that's not it!)

Sunday of Forgiveness

Please forgive me for any offense I have caused you. Pray for me, a sinner!

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From goarch.org:

The Sunday of Forgiveness, the last of the preparatory Sundays before Great Lent, has two themes: it commemorates Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, and it accentuates our need for forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of Great Lent. One of the primary images in the Triodion is that of the return to Paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprived us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ’s death and rising, which has reopened Paradise to us once more (Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise.

The second theme, that of forgiveness, is emphasized in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 6:14-21) and in the special ceremony of mutual forgiveness at the end of the Vespers on Sunday evening. Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons. We do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. Our asceticism and fasting should not separate us from others, but should link us to them with ever-stronger bonds.

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Today, the Sunday School sermon was about St. Moses the Black, and included this story about his reputation for and example of forgiveness towards others:

In another incident related in the sources, one of the brothers committed a fault. A council met and Moses was invited, but refused to attend. Someone came to him to let him know the others were waiting, at which Moses went to the meeting. He took a leaking jug filled with water and carried it on his shoulder (another version has him carrying a basket of sand with a hole in it). When he arrived, the others came out to meet him asking, "What is this?" Moses replied, "My sins run out behind me and I do not see them, but today I am coming to judge the errors of another." Hearing that, they said no more to the erring brother, but forgave him.

Tamara Says:

From the Winston Salem Journal:

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Free literacy program gets few takers in first few weeks

It's not just for people who can't read at all, resource teacher says

By Danielle Deaver

JOURNAL REPORTER

Improving literacy among adults in the community could also help students, Kessler said.

"If parents, aunts and uncles are literate and reading to children, they will be better when they get to us," she said. "It will make a difference."

(Read full article by clicking link.)

Mara says:

Before Christmas, Mara was playing with Nana's nativity set. A friend was watching the play and reported the following to us.

Mara cries for Baby Jesus, "Wah! Wah!"

Friend asked why Jesus was crying. Mara said, "Oh, because he fell off a camel."

Then, Mara made Mary turn to Jesus and say, "Baby Jesus, quit your whining!"

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At lunch out the other day, Mara said, "I wish I was eighteen!"

I asked, "Oh, really? What are you going to do when you're eighteen? Move out? Get a job and pay rent?"

Mara answered, "No!!! I can call."

I asked, "Oh? At eighteen, you'll be able to use the telephone?"

Mara replied, "No, silly! I can call FLOAM when I'm eighteen!"

Mara's Dance Skills; At Lowrey Park Zoo in Tampa, FL:

This one's even better:

This is at Cypress Gardens, a father and daughter dance with flourish ending:

Baby Jake

This picture is from my mother's camera at Thanksgiving. It's one of the best pictures I've seen so far of Baby Jake: open eyes, face towards the camera, contented look. He's a sweetie!

 

Christmas Decorations, 2006

Here are our Christmas trees this year. The small one is in Mara's room. It's the tree we used as our only tree for three years while Mara was too young to be trusted to not pull a big one on top of herself. My friend Gina helped decorate the family tree with me this year. It was fun reminiscing with her about all the memories each ornament held. Of course, I was the only one with the memories, but Cade was off with her husband, John. Also, our new stockings, bought after Christmas last year, so I this will be our first year using them.

Merry Christmas!!
 

Links

I was told my links were broken, so I've restored them all. Please let me know if they get broken again.

Halloween 2006

Here's Mara with Emma, dressed as Little Mermaid.


Here are Mara's godsiblings, Mikey and Kassiani, Mara, and Emma at our church's costume party. Mara and Emma had fun, but they hardly played any of the games at all. We told them they had to play the games in order to get candy, but they just wanted to chase each other around, instead.

I'm not complaining. It's good for Mara to run out some of her energy rather than just eat more candy!

 

Halloween 2006

Mara dressed as a Pretty Kitty, and she was cuter than I could have imagined. Our original plan was for Cade and me to go as pirates, with Mara as the parrot, but it never came together. We bought this costume the day before the church's costume party.




Mara and Julie on our stoop, beside the pumpkins they carved and decorated together. Julies a better substitute mom than I am a real one, I think!

Update to Mara's big girl room

I couldn't find any fairy bedding I really liked, so this is what we did instead. I found these fairy ornaments at Pier 1 Kids and suspended them by the same ribbon I used on the butterflies across the room (see post below). Behind them are two sheer pannels, the cheapest I could find, hung from a tension rod. Before now, the only privacy Mara has had was from the canopy over the bed and because she's shorter than the bed.


This is the new window with the canopy. After researching on the internet, trying three different bedding solutions, and taking pictures of several other options, this is what we came up with. This bed-in-a-bag, called Chloe Plaid, was on sale for $40 at Linens 'nThings. (Haha! Isn't that the way of things? It's cheaper online!) It's not a fairy theme, but neither does it clash with the stripes on the wall. With the fairies in the background, I feel okay about it. As it turns out, Cade and Mara don't necessarily prefer fairies to butterflies/dragonflies, anyway. I'm just glad we found something that wasn't solely butterflies.


Here's Mara showing off her new room. She's really taken to posing for pictures lately.


So, compare this with below and tell me what you think. Did we improve?

Mara's Big Girl Room

Hans came over and helped us by putting up Mara's new wall paper. The stripes are only on the wall behind Mara's bed, and the other three walls are pink on top, green on bottom.

We started out with a quilt from Cade's grandmother (possibly made by his great-grandmother), but I took it off the bed once I saw signs of wear in the fabrics. Now, she has an afghan made by his great-grandmother. It's pink and green, but the colors don't really go. We're still considering what to do for bedding, but I hate to not use the nice heirloom blanket, either.

We put three shelves back up to hold some of the nice toys and pictures. The big Raggedy Ann doll was a gift to me from my mother, handmade by a co-worker. The small Raggedy Ann doll is an antique from Cade's grandmother.

Here's Mara with her own mini Ikonostasi. We have a big family one down stairs. This one has our family's very first icon of the Theotokos, a gift from John and Tiffany; a gift to Mara from Father Dimitri of a guardian angel with a girl; an icon of St. Anna with the Theotokos, from Kh. Michelle; and an icon of the Nativity, which Mara received at her baptism. There are also four small icons I purchased for Mara when she began preschool: Archangels Gabriel and Michael, two of the Theotokos (in red and blue), and one of another saint I do not remember, but I think is St. Dimitri. There's also a plain old picture of a nativity and a cross Mara painted at my mother's church.
This is the wall opposite Mara's bed. We bought the two smaller flower pictures first, then got the blue butterfly and green dragonfly from Peir 1 Kids, later. I also bought the butterfly hooks from Peir 1 Kids. We put it all together and I'm very please with how it came together. On the first hook is an icon of the Theotokos mounted on a small stone, and on the last hook is Mara's baptismal cross, which I only allow her to wear on Sundays.

The room is supposed to be a pink and green fairy theme, but so far, it boasts more butterflys than fairies. When I finally find some fairy elements to bring in, I think I'll call it a fairy garden room.

Mara's Christmas Program #1

Mara sings with gusto

Heirloom Rocking Chair

Here are some before pictures, although I never thought to take one just before beginning the project. What you should be able to see in these pictures is that the chair was so uncomfortable, that it needed lots of blankets and pillows to make it bearable to sit in. Imagine sitting in this rocking chair just after giving birth. OUCH!




Here's the middle of the project, after a full day of demolition--taking off all the old leather (seat and front) and vinyl (back), pulling out the hay and hair stuffing, and ripping out the old burlap. It took a full trash bag to hold all the stuff we pulled from the chair.

This is the chair with the new burlap (jute) on it.
Tiffany got the new covering on the back started.


Here's the finished product of the back.
After I finally completed the chair, here are some of the details.

 

This is my favorite detail because I think the decorative ribbon and nails came out really good on this side. On the rest of the chair, there are all kinds of mistakes with the nails being uneven or not centered on the ribbon. But this side looks pretty good.


The finished project!

There are lots of marks in the wood from our efforts, but Tiffany thinks a wax pen will work to erase some of them. However, one thing Cade and I love on this chair is the natural aging. I have no idea how old this chair really is, but it's built well and is finally comfortable again.

I saved a bit of the materials from the original chair--the leather, straw, burlap, and a small note telling where it's from and who recovered it--in an envelope and wrapped it in the batting on the seat back. If it ever really needs to be dated, I hope that serves the purpose.