Orthodoxy. Children, and the Ladder of Divine Ascent

   We have been focusing our daily lessons on Lent, for as much as possible with my 5 year old - with outstanding results.  (Reeeeeally liked hearing her explain to a monk why we venerate the cross  :)
   Next Sunday is the Sunday of Saint  John Climacus or Saint John of the Ladder.  This is pretty heavy stuff for a little girl.  Honestly, she would probably handle it all ok - I'm just not sure how well I can convey it!!  But I am determined to do the best I can.
   The Plan So Far:
Monday:  Read the story of Jacob's Ladder (from the Old Testament)
Tues: Read the Life of St. John of the Ladder, talk about monks, hermits, etc.  Introduce that he wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.  Use his icon as visual aid.
Wed:  Explain what the book is about, using the icon of the ladder as a visual aid.

Thursday and Friday will work themselves out, depending on how well Mon-Wed sunk in (for either of us :).  Somewhere along the way, we'll throw in some ladder crafts, too.  Construction paper goodies!

I'm excited.

I Made It Hard (I Tend to Do That)

The very sweet abbot asked me very nicely if I could help him with a project.  It was a simple one (HA) and was really quite pretty (that usually makes it easier- sewing black, black, black cassocks can be hard on the eyes).


There is a large piece of reversible fabric, with some nice galloons (fancy gold trim) to be sewn along the edge.  Simple.  One side is gold with navy blue flowers, the other navy blue with gold flowers.  It can be flipped at different times during the liturgical year, so that the appropriate color can be face up.  Perfect.

The problem: only enough trim for one side.

Hey - that's not really a problem!  I'll just hem the fabric to one side, then sew the trim to the other side - still reversible!

EXCEPT- that now The trim must be sewn on by hand, because the machine stitching against the trim looks gaudy and unfetching against such beautiful fabric.


Whoops.  I made it hard.


UPDATE:  It's finished!  I made it easy again !  Turns out that it looked gaudy on the reverse whether I sewed it by hand or machine.  The abbot was really sweet about my disappointment of not making both sides equally pretty - he gracefully told me that I successfully applied the trim to the right side.  Hooray!  Something crossed off the old TO DO List!

The Garden Will Have to Wait

   I am COMPLETELY gung-ho about the garden this year.  I have stakes in the ground to show how much wider it will be than last year, I have a stack of seeds a mile high, and I've been exercising my garden muscles so as not to get overly sore this time around.

However.

It is going to rain ALL DAY tomorrow (says the local weather shaman) and I will have to exercise some patience.

In the mean time, a rainy day will provide the perfect opportunity to finish sewing on the galloons (sp?) to the icon stand cover. . . that I should have finished last week.  If I can finish it in time to utilize good lighting, I'll post a pic.  We'll see.