Dancing King

Saturday was a special day for Tuba! It was the Honor Society's annual Spring Dance. They invite the kids in the special needs programs to join them as their special guests. It is an amazing night of dinner and dancing. This is Tuba's second year attending the event. So fun!

The girls all get a day of beauty. They get hair, nails and makeup done. The boys this year wore shirt and tie instead of tux. Tuba loves to dress up and was thrilled to show off his outfit to his teacher and fellow students.

Tuba rocked out! When we arrived to pick him up he was dancing and sweaty and wild! He could have gone another couple of hours.

Can you say Party Animal? Yep! He had a blast.

I was so touched last year by the kindness and tenderness of the kids who put on this event. This year I wanted others to know how special it is. I contacted our local newspaper and they covered the night. The photographer got so many great shots of the kids dancing. For anyone who thinks teenagers are rotten or selfish....let me tell you....these are the nicest kids! There is goodness and love in the world and it's in the form of teens in my town!

Kairos Moments:

Tuba's shy sweet face as a pretty girl was talking to him.

Watching Cam trying not to cry as he watched Tuba dance.

More Kairos from life:

Three yellow finches flying.

The white baby hairs on Baby George's head in the sunlight.

Sister putting her arm around my neck and telling the person behind us, "this is my Mama".

Eating Out

We like to eat out. Who doesn't? Okay, I know there are the rare few who don't like to eat in restaurants.

But us? We LOVE it. For obvious reasons. Yummy food. Everyone can have something different...that they get to choose. Service with a capital S! No clean up...no set up either....no prep, no planning, no shopping, chopping, and cooking. Yes! Of course eating out is expensive. And...I also love to cook. So we consider it a treat to eat out. We try to limit going out to once a week.

The biggest reason why I love to eat out? You see, when I cook at home it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to hours to prepare a meal. And....it takes less than 10 minutes for my family to sit down, eat it and leave. Phooey! I don't like that.

Now, in a restaurant it's a different story. We sit at a table for an hour...sometimes more. We talk and visit and laugh and snuggle. One of the best parts is that I am free to hold kids on my lap. Precious snuggle time. We color or play I Spy for entertainment. The kids cannot get up and run off. It's a captive audience until the food is ordered, served and eaten.

These pics were taken on our way home from vacation. We were in The Dalles, OR. We stopped to eat (and have a break from the car) at a pub brewery called The Clock Tower. The sun was out so we opted for patio dining. That's the best kind of dining with kids.

The service was REALLY slow. I think the place was short staffed....maybe the sun brought out more customers than usual. It took hours...yes, hours to order and get our food. But ya know what? It was fine. Remember, I said the sun was out. And...we had drinks and each other's company. Plus, patio dining gives kids wiggle room.

And...when the food eventually came. Oh.My.Goodness!! It was SO good. I had a blue cheese burger on a pretzel bun that was AMAZING! I wish we lived closer!

Carnival Fun

Woot! We made it to Sunday. After numerous hours in church and numerous hours in the car we were ready for some sunshine and good times. Let your hair down and have some fun day!! The children's carnival...although we adults have just as much fun as the kids.

Cam will be joining CCA...that's cotton candy anonymous. He ate about 4 huge bags of it himself. Yup!

Mr. P and his new glasses.

Tuba enjoying a snow cone.

I think this cute guy is following in his Papa's footsteps or shall I say CCA will be seeing him too!

The kids all love to bounce, and bounce and jump and bounce...for hours.

Face painting was so much fun. Sis and I got all painted up. I painted her face and my friend Cheryl did mine. I tried to figure out how to sleep with it on and preserve it. It didn't work. Darn.

It was a fun, fun day....and week. What a fun life we have! Thank you Jesus.

Kairos

Holy Week was full of Kairos moments. This is my favorite.

Holy Pascha

Pascha!! Christ Is Risen! Indeed! He Is Risen!

We arrived at church for the 10:00 pm service. Some of us got dressed up....and some of us go in pj's. Well, it is WAY past bedtime. This is Tuba's favorite service of the year.

Busy Guy was out before the service began.

Sis? Asleep? No! She did NOT want to wear pj's to church (why waste a perfectly good opportunity to show off a beautiful outfit!).... she was WIDE awake for most of the 3 hour service.

Baby brother? Yup, he was out too.

Mr. P was awesome! He served on the altar and was awake the whole service.

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

Baptisms

On Holy Saturday we had a very exciting day!! My mom's husband Bill (Patron Saint Apostle Paul) AND my nephew (Patron Saint Seraphim) both were Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox church. It was an amazing day!

The Baptismal gowns and candles laid out and ready.

The grandkids were all very excited!!

The proclamation of faith.

The family all lined up....from left, my sister, BIL, Bill's daughter and grandchildren, Bill's son, my mom, my aunt and uncle.

Bill being submersed.

Seraphim rising from the water after the third and final plunge.

The newly illumined.

The light of Christ.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Rom 6:3-11

What a Week!

On Monday morning I woke to a house that appeared to have been through a wind storm...inside the house. There were dishes covering the table and kitchen counters. Candy strewn everywhere. Piles of clothes humped in the hall, in the bathrooms, on bedroom floors...and in the entryway. Piles of shoes scattered. Empty toilet paper rolls left unchanged. In all three bathrooms! Crumbs and dust covering all surfaces in the house. Mail stacked up.

You see it was Holy Week. We celebrated Pascha this past Sunday.

Glory! Christ Is Risen! Indeed! He Is Risen. What is Pascha? Read HERE. How is it different than Easter? Read HERE. And if you want to see how much the kids have grown, look HERE. And if you'd like to be scared look HERE.

Okay. That was a lot of looking.

Now, back to the current year.

Let's start with Palm Sunday. It was a beautiful sunshiny day. We had a great time at church. Hosana!

Cam had to work this year during Holy Week. So we didn't make it to the services on Mon. or Tues. night. On Wed. night it is Holy Unction. It was a lovely service....that is until Baby George decided he didn't want to have the oil put on him. He hollered loudly and then blubbered for a good 20 minutes. Well, he hates lotion and hand gel so I guess to him it feels the same. The rest of us enjoyed the experience.

Holy Thurs. was an amazing service too. Christ is nailed to the cross. It is a somber night. I love to see my kids' faces as they listen to the scripture and watch the service. It was a late night and they were tired from the previous night's service. Holy Week is brutiful (brutal + beautiful...taken from Momastery blog. Love that term.)

Holy Friday. We waited for Cam to get home from work and then headed off to church....again. :) The service is a candle light service (in our family you have to be 5 years old to hold a lit candle). We process outside around the church with Christ in the tomb. The young ladies in the church dress as myrrh bearing women and throw rose pedals. The music is so beautiful. It's one of the best services of the year.

It's also the day I always get a new family photo. This year it was sunny and we have a new house with a deck. So outside photo this year! I think it turned out great!!

Sis looking so cute!

Busy Guy did a great job with his candle!

And...here's what each evening looks like....plus three way-bigger kids asleep in the back.

More to come tomorrow! Holy Saturday and Pascha!

Vacation Kairos

Kairos Moments from vacation....in photo form.

The scenery was beautiful. I had stopped with Mr. P to listen to the birds and take a picture. I could see Cam up ahead on the trail pulling Tuba.

We were sitting around in our pj's one morning watching Mr. Bean's vacation (hilariously funny) and I looked over to see Baby George hanging onto his Papa. So sweet. It made me get all teary to see his sweet hand on Cam's knee and shoulder.

I was standing bare footed in a swimsuit in the snow to get this photo of my favorite people. Love this family!

Sunriver

I told Cam no more staycations. I needed to get out of the house. So, we pondered where to go for Spring Break. We wanted sun. We needed it to be within driving distance. Hmmmmm. We opted for Sunriver, OR. We booked a house and made plans.

We bought Tuba a bike trailer. It is amazing. It holds an adult up to 150 lbs. It's by Wike and it's made in Canada. It was EXPENSIVE....like more than the 5 day rental for the vacation house. BUT, it's so worth it. We can now bike together as a whole family. Yipeeeee! The house had a bike trailer for me to borrow and I pulled the two youngest. And, yes Kali rode along too. She loved it!

We arrived (after a long 7 hours in the car) to sunshine. We quickly changed into our cycling clothes and headed out. I should note that Cam has tons of cycling clothes.....I have yoga pants with matching hoodies and running shoes.

Good thing we enjoyed that first day of sun. The rest of the week got progressively colder. MUCH colder. Think snow. Yep. But that didn't stop us. It was a cool 10 degrees in the morning. We'd lounge around in our pj's until about noon when the temp would get up to about 38. And we'd head out for more cycling. It was so much like skiing....but on wheels. The snow was very dry and would just fly off of us. At one point it was hailing pea sized snow.

After one day of cycling for about 10 miles (pulling two kids and a trailer. 100 lbs.) in the frigid air and snow Cam commented that he was so proud of me. He said I was tough!

Huh? Hello!!!

I asked him if it really took him 18 years to figure that out. Of course I'm tough! Just because I had to wear two shirts, a fleece and a coat plus two hats doesn't mean I'm not tough! I do like him saying I'm tough...so I've told him to keep it up. :)

In fact....we have some new Family Mantras:

This family is tough.
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.
Just Keep Pedaling. Sung to the Nemo tune of Just Keep Swimming.

The scenery was amazing. We cycled through a pine forest and then out into a marshy meadow area. I loved it out there. The bird watching was fantastic. We saw so many varieties of birds. Here's a question for you birders out there. My favorite bird we saw was all black with bright orange under his wing area. What kind of bird was it?

Beside cycling we enjoyed the house's hot tub and TV. Movies and tubing and magazine reading and dinner out. Very fun!

Home Sweet Home

After 5 nights away for Spring Break we are happy to be home. Vacation was wonderful. But, I did miss this view.

Kairos moment

This evening's sunset.