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Sunday Gratitude – 5.IV.2026
To those celebrating today – Christ is Risen! – Happy Easter!
And then there are the “weird” ones here who are still waiting another week, among which I count myself. There have been a lot of services already – yesterday, I think I was in church for nearly four hours. I’ve really struggled this Lent; from the beginning, I felt less ready for it than most years and this year… wow. For the greater part of Lent, I believed that the Orthodox were also going to be celebrating Pascha today, and it was only looking at the calendar more carefully a couple of weeks ago when I realized that no, there’s a one-week difference. I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting to spend so much time in church this weekend, but I was at vigil last night, and I certainly had the feeling of moving from the darkness into the light, and by the time the service was over, there was an air of hopefulness and joy there. For that I am grateful. (My brain did fight against this on the way home, though. *sigh*)
I am grateful for the more spring-like weather, and the opportunity to be outside. I’m also grateful for my neighbor who invites me to come walking with her.
I am grateful for friends who take the time to talk even in the rain.
I am grateful for making it home in a storm the other day; I wasn’t expecting it, then all of a sudden, I was driving down this country highway with lightning flashes all around. I don’t think that they were very close, as there was only a tiny bit of thunder, but what a show! The next day, driving down those same roads, I could actually see how high the water is, and I’m grateful that there were no issues with low-lying stretches of road or the bridges.
Time to take the Christmas wreath down! I am thankful to have had a little bit of time to be outside with my kids, and I’m thankful that they have places around that they can enjoy riding their bikes through, and that they’ve been fine with this “exploring”.
I am thankful for the joy of singing.
I am thankful for the things that are showing signs of life (and even blooming) even after a very cold winter and long periods of neglect.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have been in contact with a number of people on this day, in the joy of Easter.
I am grateful for yet another sign that I’m not alone through the hard stuff.
Thank you so much for being here! Christ is Risen!
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Sunday Gratitude – 29.III.2026
I really hate it when it seems like I blink and yet another week has passed. Somehow so much of this time ends up feeling like a blur, and it seems like all that is left is a growing list of things that should have been done long ago, but haven’t been done yet.
In the meantime, though, I’ve been trying not to lose a sense of gratitude, and to also try to make the most of the days at hand. We’ve had a couple of days that have hit 70F, which has been amazing, and especially as the days are getting longer, it would be terrible if we didn’t do something to take advantage of the warmer weather. My younger son had a day off of school a couple of weeks back, and the two of us went out on our bikes and rode ten miles together, and it was amazing. He also started taking pictures with my camera that afternoon, so I’ll be sharing a few of those in this post.
A couple of weeks after the real birthday, my youngest, in kindergarten, had her first real birthday party. It was a bowling alley affair, and, per the terms of the contract, was less than two hours long, but for a group of 5 and 6 year olds, it was fine. I was completely stressed out over this for at least a week for a number of reasons, but it turned out really, really good. Even the weather held out, kind of… It started raining about the time that the party started, and it was still raining as people left. Had we started a couple of hours later, everybody would have been going home in sleet, because we had a blizzard come through the next day. The kids were thrilled to get the day off of school, and despite the crazy wind, we never lost power. The next day, our dear neighbor made a path for our car using a snowblower.
I’m grateful that even though I managed to break a spoke on the one bike (a different one than before), this happened in a place where I could ride to a place where I could leave the bike for a couple of days, and which was very close to the bike shop. On the night that this happened, I was also able to get a ride back home with one of the ladies from church. I’d never talked to her before, and she’s incredibly sweet, and lives just a couple of streets over from where I live.
I’m grateful for the amazing time I had at St. Haralambos in Niles a couple of weeks back. Not only were some very dear “real life” friends there, I finally got to meet Fr. Andrew Damick in person. We have been online acquaintances (friends) for over 20 years, and it seemed like high time to meet him in person. He actually recognized me by sight as well, which is crazy because it’s been a looong time since I posted any photos of myself that he might come across. 🙂 That was a lot of fun, though.
Breezy days and kites! I am grateful, as well, for the opportunity to visit an old friend and just enjoy sitting on the front step, having a conversation in the sunshine.
In many ways, I feel pulled very, very, very thin. There have been a lot of good things, to be sure, but there have been a number of very, very frustrating things as well. I don’t know; at this point, I’m not sure that I’ll ever have things “figured out”, but there’s a path to go forward on, and that’s the way through this all. Forgive me again for the blog silence – I truly am grateful for you.
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Wordle #558
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: “Impel” gets me nothing
Line 2: Let’s work on getting a couple more vowels – and “O” and “A” both make an appearance!
Line 3: Now to shift “O” and “A” over… Hmm… still in the wrong places. Maybe they aren’t together.
Line 4: Fun words are fun! I can’t think of any words ending in “OA” except for “cocoa”, but it can’t be that. However, if that’s the case, the “A” has to be in the 2nd spot, which means this word is going to be very unique.
Line 5: “Havoc” Yes, a unique word indeed, and a fun to puzzle out!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #557
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: Nothing from “condo”
Line 2: “Beast” – it’s been awhile since I’ve played any of the base words! And… the pesky “E” is back.
Line 3: “Plume” did really well… now to figure out how these letters can be rearranged to spell something else.
Line 4: “Impel” seemed to be about the only thing that made sense, but at first, I was questioning whether it was a word at all, but then I remembered its definition before it pulled up on a web search.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Songs of the Season – Clamavi De Profundis – The Coventry Carol
I think I learned less than a week ago that the Coventry Carol not a Christmas Carol, per so, but is about the slaughter of the Jewish boys after Herod realized that the Wise Men were not going to return to him. I know the tune from Mannheim Steamroller’s beautiful version, but I share today a version with the lyrics since today is the day that the Orthodox Church commemorates the “Holy Innocents“. (They were commemorated yesterday by the Catholic Church.)
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
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Wordless Wednesday #13 – US95 in ID, CDA to SPT, Christmas Day
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Beyond the Season Free on Amazon this week or the blog always — Boondock Ramblings
Beyond the Season, the Christmas novella I shared here on the blog for 12 days in December was free this week on Amazon and I meant to share that news here on the blog but got completely distracted. Thursday is the last day for the sale. A copy of the book can also be downloaded for […]
Beyond the Season Free on Amazon this week or the blog always — Boondock Ramblings
I “met” Lisa doing the “‘Tis the Season Cinema” posts, which were really fun. She’s a writer who has multiple books to her name and she’s got an offer on a Christmas novella available now for anyone who might be interested.
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Wordle #556
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: “Judge” gives me something, at least, with the “D”
Line 2: Still looking for where the “D” should be – and any other letter, for that matter.
Line 3: Yay! an “O”, but still working on the place for the “D”
Line 4: “O” and “D”, but I could really use a bit more!
Line 5: Considering what’s left – what if it’s an odd word… Something that might end in “DO”. Condo? Yes!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Songs of the Season – Anastasia OST – Once Upon a December
I saw Anastasia in the (cheap) theater when I was in college and I got the VHS (widescreen) cassette as soon as it came out. (It was the first movie I knew of that also had a website! http://www.anya.com) A little Russia obsessed? Yes. I remember lending the cassette to one of my professors who also was a little Russia-obsessed and he ended up watching it with his grandchildren. His comment, “Bad history, but a good Disney film”. (Ha ha, it’s not Disney!)
Of course, it is “bad” history, and there were things that they changed a bit with the timeline to make it fit, but it was fairly well researched, all in all, and the music is top-level. I’ve always liked this in particular:
This is a gorgeous piano solo version of it by Emile Pandolfi as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU85bfT1EUE
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
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Wordle #555
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: “Extra”… a misplaced “E”. Deja vu all over again!
Line 2: The “E” is in the correct space, at least.
Line 3: I could use some more letters, misplaced or not.
Line 4: I went for this because it is a very unusual word, and one I probably wouldn’t get other than playing it. It kind of seemed a waste, in one sense, because it wasn’t the word, but it was helpful in getting the “U” and letting me know that there was no second “E”, which is no small thing, considering how many words have multiple “E”s.
Line 5: I thought long and hard about what letters could be played next to each other at this point, since we’d pretty much gotten down to the fact that there’s a “U” and an “E” and consonants for the rest. “D” and “G” came to mind, so I played “pudge”, thinking that this had to be the solution.
Line 6: As soon as I saw that “pudge” wasn’t the word, I knew I was in trouble because I didn’t know if the answer was “budge” or “nudge” or “fudge”. Wouldn’t you know, it wasn’t any of these, but rather “judge”? Oh well. I was doing this in part in the waiting room of urgent care, and… I think I would have been more annoyed with myself breaking a long streak because of losing as opposed to just forgetting to play. As it stood, I only had a tiny streak after forgetting to play the other day. However, my longest streak of 106 seems more and more impressive!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Songs of the Season – Gordon Lightfoot – Song for a Winter’s Night
I’d love to find a cover that slows this down a little but not nearly to the extent of Sarah McLachlin’s, though, oddly enough, it was Sarah McLachlin’s version that got me to pay attention to the lyrics for the first time.
I got to spend time in little rural cabins back in the day, and hope maybe it’s something I can do again in the future.
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider:
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Wordle #554
Never played Wordle? Check out my Wordle strategy page!
Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: “Poise”… a misplaced “E”. Where have I seen this before?
Line 2: Progress now with three misplaced letters!
Line 3: Three misplaced letters again, just not the same three, as I “forgot” the “T” in this play.
Line 4: So we know now where the “R” goes and where the “E” goes through the process of elimination. I’m not seeing any good candidates starting “EA”, since the “A” has to go into spot 2 or 5.
Line 5: It’s certainly an odd bird, but considering “TRA” as an ending made “extra” come to mind! Phew!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
If you enjoy my posts, please consider:
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Breath of Hallelujah 