Akathistos

My little man was in the mood to “annoint” himself with holy water the other.  He kept doing it over and over again, each time taking a little sip as well.  Finally, at dinnertime, I surprised myself by saying:

“You’ve had enough holy water for today!”

Only an Orthodox (or Catholic) mother might be caught discipling her child with a phrase like that.

It has been a week since I last posted.  Between being very busy and my computer dying, I didn’t get around to posting and I didn’t have any post-dated entries either.

First of all, I’d like to update on my mom.  She is regaining her strength slowly.   We do not know the results of her biopsy yet.  She has an appointment with her doctor a week from today.  Please continue praying for her.

On Friday night, I took my kiddos trick-or-treating.  My little man dressed up as Spiderman and my little lady was a bunny.  We went to our town’s annual Halloween festival on Main Street.  Spiderman did not like the crowds; so we decided to drive over to a nearby neighborhood.  Well, the little superhero fell asleep on the way there!  It was an early night for us.

Then my computer died the following day.  It is completely gone.  My husband hasn’t yet tried to retrieve the data on it (I hope he will be able to!), BUT he did surprise me with a new computer: an Acer Aspire One.  It is a mini-notebook computer.  I really like it so far.  There are some downsides to it, like the tiny screen, but overall, I am happy with it.  It is about $400 cheaper than a normal sized laptop with all of the same everything on it.  I can’t justify paying $400 for a larger screen and keyboard; so I am pretty sure that I am going to keep it.

I also dropped my fancy-schmany camera and broke the lens.  Now all we have it the distance lens, which really isn’t much good for the types of photos that I normally take.  SO, my hubby (what a great guy!!) brought me a little digital camera until we can save up some money to get another lens.  What a wonderful husband I have!!

We celebrated our little man’s THIRD birthday on Sunday.  He had all of his friends here for a racecar party.  It was great!  I made a race track cake in the shape of a three, the kids decorated race car cookies and they played a racing game.  I think everyone had a really nice time.

In sad news, I found out on Tuesday that one of my former students was killed in an automobile accident this past weekend.  He was just 20 years old.  My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

We are doing well.  On Saturday we are going to celebrate the patrona feast of St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Louisville.  I am really looking forward to that and to seeing our friends who just moved there last weekend.  My little man and I are off to the post office to mail some packages.  Have a nice day.

She made it home after the “worst experience of [her] life.”

My mom told me all the horrible details of her stay in the hospital:

nurses who couldn’t have cared less, a doctor who never did a follow-up and pain that the nurses were never able to manage.

Thankfully, she is home and happy to be there.  My dad and sister are taking good care of her.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Christina posted her notes from the Women’s Retreat she recently went on, and one item stuck out at me:

Meet everyone unconditionally as they are- our families first. Charity begins at home.

And I wanted to apologize to my dear husband.

Sorry that I am so hard on you sometimes.  I’ve always known that you have a difficult time waking up in the morning and are forgetful about everyday things, but that doesn’t mean that I need to throw those things in your face every day.  I’m sorry for not showing you the charity that you deserve. I love you very much.

Lord, have mercy on me, especially in my impatience and unkindness.

My mom’s epidural was taken out and now she is on percocet, but it isn’t helping with her pain. My mom is one tough lady, and she sounded terrible on the phone; so I know she is really suffering.

Please say a prayer for her this morning.

My mom’s surgery is over.  She is still in recovery, but her doctor/surgeon spoke to my dad and said that things “look good.”  He is very optimistic that this is not cancer, but we can’t be certain until we know the results of the biopsy, which won’t be for a week or so.

Thank you so much for your prayers.  plesae continue to pray as my mom recovers and awaits the results of the biospy.  Thanks!

Please be in prayer for my mom this morning.

She will be having her surgical biopsy at 9:00am.

I will update again when I know more.  The results from her biopsy will take about a week to ten days because they will be evaluating both bone and bone marrow.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

I started reading this book last night.  I am not that far into it yet, but I am really enjoying what I am reading.  I really like this quote:

“Christian life is zeal, and the strength to remain in communion with God by means of an active fulfilment of His holy will, according to our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the grace of God, to the glory of His most holy name.”

I like this definition for zeal that I found online: “Enthusiastic devotion to an ideal and tireless diligence in its furtherance.”

Isn’t that what the Christian life should be?

My mom’s tumor is in the acetabulum.  Because of it’s awkward location, her doctor decided to do an open biopsy (or surgical biopsy).  This is a procedure in which a surgical incision is made through the skin to expose and remove tissues.  In my mom’s case, he will have to go deep into the hip to retrieve the bone tissue and marrow.

My mom’s open biopsy will be done at the hospital and the doctor will be using general anesthesia.  She will be going in to the hospital on Wednesday, October 29th, and will return home the following afternoon/evening.

If you are interested, you can go to her doctor/surgeon’s website: BoneCancer.org

I first saw this meme on Mimi’s blog, but lots of other people have played along as well. The way to play along is by opening the fourth folder in your photo file and post the fourth picture in there.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found: 12 weeks pregnant with my little man-