I love the lime green colander.

My favorite ground beef recipe is stuffed green peppers. It's not a crock pot recipe, though. I cook ground beef saute onion. I add curry powder, celery seed, Worcestershire sauce, and cooked rice. I put all of this into steamed green peppers and bake for 30 mins at 350 degrees. If peppers are out of season, I will just steam, slice, and use fewer to line a casserole dish and then add beef mixture. I can lay a few slices on top before I bake for added flavor.

I can't help but wonder what happened to those graves in Hampton Park. Were they moved for the West Indian Exposition in 1902? And if so, to where were they moved?

I only just this week downloaded this to my kindle. I haven't read it yet, but it sounded intriguing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5KX78M/

Here in Northern VA things stayed blue. I had great hopes. Oh, well. Next time.....

The St. Philip's Prayer Manual for the Fellowship of St. John the Divine (of which i have been a member for years) states in the morning prayers (in a footnote)

'"Glory to Thee O God...." and "O heavenly King...." are not said during the time between Pascha and Pentecost.'
and
'"Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal...." is repaced with "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life," during the time between Pascha and Ascension.'
Ditto for Noonday prayers, Evening Prayers- Monday-Friday, Saturday evening prayers, and Sunday morning prayers,

It is a perfect image of what has just happened.

(as an aside - doesnt' it feel a bit odd to be at home on Sunday morning?)

Yes! Let us attend!

A little postscript. After the Great and Holy Saturday vespers and liturgy, we had baptism and chrismations. An older woman there talked about the midnight service. She told me that she would leave after the Nocturns service when we circle the church. She told me that she had been doing this for so many years it was now anticlimactic. It made me so sad to hear that. I pray that in someway it will always be new!

I'm with ya! And while I can't say this has been a particularly good Lent for me (I've had some trouble keeping a discipline I took on for the fast), boy, the end is great!

Last year Fr. told us that the Thursday service was 3 hours long because that is how long Jesus was on the cross. If Jesus could spend that much time on the cross, can't we go to a service that tires us? So off to Divine Liturgy on the morning of Great and Holy Thursday celebrating the Last Supper. Then to the dentist.

Now I don't usually mind having my teeth cleaned, but for some reason, I was really fearful yesterday. I sat in the chair saying the Jesus Prayer over and over again. And I thought how often I think I could be strong and not deny Christ and be a martyr and now here I was a quivering mass while sitting there - and nothing bad was happening! Oh, how very weak I am. Jesus could go through all that on the cross without a whimper and I'm a wreck for nothing.

At last night's service, my knees were killing me during the first Gospel reading. All I could think about was how Jesus suffered much more. And then, when he was nailed to the cross - the sound of the hammer - I broke into tears! And once again, I knew this was where I was supposed to be. How many times this year have I gone to a service somewhat reluctantly, but said to myself, "I need to go," only to be overwhelmed by the knowledge that that is EXACTLY where I was supposed to be.

It's not that I THINK I need to be emotional - in that case I am forcing it - but when it just hits you like that - WOW!

There is no doubt in my mind that we are. Subtly now, but it will be more overt as time goes on.

"...in Christ Jesus my good works matter. When we faithfully plod along, fulfilling God’s call on our lives ... our actions count for eternity."

You have no idea how much I needed that right now.