Akathistos

This is the beginning of something that I have been thinking about for a while: focusing on saints who were mothers.

Since many of my readers are mothers, I think it would be nice to look at saints who walked a similar path to ours.  So often, I think of saints as people who were unmarried or widowed.  But I have found through my research, many more were mothers than I had imagined.

Please comment and share any other stories that you may know of saints who were mothers.  My own beloved patron saint was a mother, who lost both of her children when they were young.  I plan to post periodically about saints on their namesdays or other important days in the calendar year.  Enjoy!

O God, our heavenly Father, Who lovest mankind, and art most merciful and compassionate, have mercy upon our children, Thy servants, (their names), for whom I humbly pray Thee, and commend them to Thy gracious protection. Be Thou, O God, their guide and guardian in all their endeavors; lead them in the path of Thy truth, and draw them near to Thee, that they may lead a godly and righteous life in Thy love and fear; doing Thy will in all matters. Give them grace that they may be temperate, industrious, diligent, devout and charitable. Defend them against the assaults of the enemy, and grant them wisdom and strength to resist all temptation and corruption of this life; and direct them in the way of salvation, for the merits of Thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the intercessions of His Holy Mother, and Thy blessed saints. Amen.

I just love this new blog: Orthodox Christian Education!

Please take the time to check it out today.

Deb linked to this article on her blog today, and it is something to really think about.

My family has managed to accumulate A LOT of stuff.  When we were first married, we were able to almost fill a full-size moving truck.  And that is before we even started accumulating things; those were just the things we both had from our respective homes.

Christmases, birthdays and in-laws moving out of their home all contributed as well.  For the past couple of years, we have been cutting back on purchases.  Rather doing several small gifts throughout the year, we will buy each other one (or more) birthday-christmas-anniversary gift(s).  It has worked really nicely.  We haven’t really bought our children very many gifts at all, except for the occasional $0.50-1.00 toy from Goodwill or Target.  And, yet, our house is filled.  On top of that, our shed is also filled.

This spring, I went through part of the shed and boxed up things to take to Goodwill, which we still haven’t done.  But this article has prompted me to do it- tomorrow!  There is a Goodwill semi-close to church, so we can bring the boxes before vespers, which is on our land followed by a picnic.

Lord make me an Instrument of Your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Divine Master, grant that I may not seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

~ Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

I received my package from Geri for the Orthodox Mom Travel Swap this weekend. And I’m going to Hawaii!! Thanks, Geri!

I would have liked to take a photo of how nicely everything was wrapped, but my son starting unwrapping before I could get my camera.

Geri included all sorts of wonderful things for my “trip” (you can click on the photo to read about each item).  She even made a lovely travel journal, which I am going to be able to use this summer when we go away with my family to the beach.  It is perfect!

Thanks, Geri!

I decided to participate in Emma’s Commitment to Loveliness! “This is a fun way to increase femininity and beauty in our lives each week without even trying! All you have to do is choose five things that you would like to work on or do during the week that will increase the loveliness in your life!”

Here is my list for this week:

1. Follow my cleaning schedule for the week
2. Put away the laundry from last week that is sitting in a basket
3. Finish making my monthly plan for lunches and dinners
4. Create homemade invitations for my little lady’s 1st Birthday Party
5. Put lotion on my hands and feet each night before bed

Once you have chosen five simple things, post them on your blog and link to Emma’s post in your post, and then post the direct link to your Commitment to Loveliness post in the comments section. If you do not have a blog, but have a commitment to share, please post them in the comments section.

For my birthday this year (which, incidentally, fell on Palm Sunday), my wonderful husband commissioned a friend to write on icon of my patron saint,St. Melania the Younger.

I thought I had already posted a photo of my icon, but I had not.

What do you think? My husband is the best!

Monica at Orthodox Mother’s Digest is asking for us to email or send a link to photos of our prayer corners.

Here is our Prayer Corner:
Our home doesn’t have a very good set-up for a prayer corner, so ours is at the end of our hallway. We plan on looking for this feature in our next home, but for now, we really love this.

We move the icons around depending on the feast. My husband really wants to get a censer; so that may be added to this soon.

To celebrate this Fourth of July, Adventures of an Orthodox Mom is giving away some jewelry from a hot new company called String Beans Inc.  This a really nice Etsy store, where all of the jewelry is made from beans.  What a neat idea!

My favorite is GGGRRREEEENNNNNNNNNNNN. I love how eco-friendly these products are.  You should definitely check out the website.  I’m really looking forward to the Mustard Seed Line; that should be really nice.

I washed the floors today… and these are my daughter’s knees.

The problem: three dogs, the rain yesterday and not enough bleach to clean the floors with.

Any tips for cleaning floors OR how to keep them clean?

I’ll be back next week to share more from this interesting book.  A wonderful friend is visiting from out of town to help me out while both David and I are sick and my hubby is away.

See you then!