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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 #464
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: I went back to “beast”, and I got two letters, both in the correct places. Woot! 🙂
Line 2: I didn’t like using the double “S” here, but I figured that there was a fair chance there would be a double “S”. I didn’t win on that bet, but I eliminated another vowel, which helps.
Line 3: The addition of the “R” is good, and I’m going to assume now that the middle letter is “I” because I can’t think of any 5-letter words that start “BRYS”.
Line 4: “Brisk”! Another quick (but fun) wordle!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #463
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: “Baste” gave me two letters, but in the wrong positions, “A” and “T”
Line 2: Moving the “A” and the “T”, eliminating more letters, that sort of thing.
Line 3: Aha! The “T” is in the correct place, and I know where the “A” must go now… Hmm… a word that begins with “A” and ends with “T” and doesn’t use any of the eliminated letters…
Line 4: …”Admit”. Truthfully, it was half a guess, but it was a pretty fun puzzle! 🙂
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Holoviak’s is Going Out of Business
As someone who once upon a time was interested in becoming Orthodox, after visiting an Orthodox Church for the first time, I made myself familiar with the Church’s bookstore. Back in the old days, at least at this OCA parish, it was impossible to spend much time there without seeing the name “Holoviak” over and over and over.
Holoviak’s Church Supply, Inc. is a church supply store that was once a big name in supplying Orthodox churches. Liturgical supplies? Check! Icons? Check! Books? Check! Especially for the Orthodox, whose numbers are so small in the US, having someplace that carried the things specific to Orthodoxy was almost unheard of, and so the few places that did had much more of a monopoly on the market.
Even when I worked at one of the large bookstore chains, which was around the time I was getting interested in Orthodoxy, there were some books that were available through the major channels, but a lot of specifically Orthodox books really were only available through the church bookstores, because places like Holoviak worked with the publisher, and churches bought from Holoviak. To find some of these books on one’s own would mean calling or writing some tiny press somewhere…
Amazon changed a lot of that. People looked, more and more, for books online. Amazon has the size to be able to hold small quantities of “niche” books in their warehouses, ready for quick shipment nonetheless, so it was important that even the smallest publisher issue their books proper ISBNs.
But more than that, as so many businesses are online now, a lot of the “middle men” are not as needed. Why order from Holoviak when you can just as easily order from the place that originally made the items? Sure, it’s not always easier, but a lot of times it is.
I really don’t know what the story is – I also know that it seems like there are a lot fewer of these church supply stores – or even Christian bookstores – around. Many family owned businesses are run by older members of the family who want to retire and have no one to hand the business off to. Back in the day, someone who had eight kids probably had at least one who would be interested in continuing on; these days, with small families, it seems like it’s less and less the case.
That being said, there are more and more places springing up that create and carry Orthodox wares in the US. It’s neat to see. However, a lot of these are small places, and even just have their niche within the Orthodox community. This is actually part of the reason that I created an Orthodox Shopping page on this blog, to serve as a resource for people hoping to find things, and connect Orthodox people who have something to sell with people who might be looking to buy.
I would love help in this project – please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for places I should include!
In the meantime, there is a sadness to seeing Holoviak go; according to the website, there’s still a number of things that are for sale.
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Wordle #462
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Wordle explanations are posted a day late to ensure that no one accidentally sees the solution before playing.
Line 1: I went back to “baste” today, and was pretty lucky here – “T” and “E” already correct, and “A” present, but in the wrong place.
Line 2: I guessed that the word may end “ATE” so I moved the “A” to the third position. Furthermore, I guessed that there may be a consonant blend to begin the word, and went for one with an “R”, which paid off!
Line 3: “Grate” Awesome! Truthfully, I think this is one of the quickest wordles I’ve ever solved; I don’t think it took more than 2 minutes!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #461
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: I’m getting feisty – “caste”. Unfortunately, nothing comes of it.
Line 2: “Fling” – more help. “L” in the correct place, and a “G” which is not.
Line 3: “GL” perhaps? And since I’ve used “A”, “E”, and “I” here, I figured I would go with “O”. I don’t really like the double “O”, but “gloom” is the first thing that comes to mind here.
Line 4: Good guesses for the last line, and even better that I managed to get a “Y” on this turn…
Line 5: …but why, oh why couldn’t I have picked “glory” first?
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #460
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: Yes. Baste again. Nice to have 3 letters, & even one in the correct spot!
Line 2: Hmm… How about a word that is quite rare. I think the last book I read that mentioned satyrs was very possibly The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe.
Line 3: Words that start “SA” and end in “T”. Based on the letters used, “saint” was the first word that came to mind & I’m still almost shocked it is correct!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Photo post: Mourning dove chicks
This summer, we had a pair of mourning doves set up house in a small tree right outside our front window. They had one “hatch” of two, then came back a couple of weeks later for round two. This time, I attempted to get photos of the chicks every day while they were still in the nest. The following is the result.
August 1
Mom and Dad mourning dove are back! 
And an egg! Mama dove stayed in the nest pretty much continuously from this time forward until a couple of days before the chicks were ready to leave the nest.
August 12
This is the day the chicks were born. Middle daughter saw one of them come out of the egg; I didn’t understand how this was possible until I saw how the nest was visible from our living room a few days later.
Family portrait! 
A little more perspective on the tree, which is probably only about 8ft tall.
August 13
Still hiding most of the time under mama
August 14
Two days old and it’s already getting harder to hide!
August 15
So big so fast!
August 16
All puffed up since the chicks are being frisky. I finally realized here that the nest was clearly visible from the living room of our house. More than that, the birds were much more lively when they didn’t know that they were being watched. Unfortunately, the windows cause for a lot of loss of sharpness in the photos since they have a fair amount of dust (and some glare and haziness as well) – some of this could be corrected afterward, but it’s also not an ideal solution. It did solve the mystery of how Middle Daughter saw the chicks being born though.
August 17
Yeah, they don’t exactly fit under mama anymore! 
We’re getting so big, mama left us home alone! (Time to party!) 
So… What do you want to do today?
August 18
So grown up!
August 19
Focus: front chick 
Focus: back chick 
Focus: between the doves I used a 50mm lens for most of these pictures. I’m really impressed by what it can do, but I’m still learning. The pictures here which focus one one bird each are amazing, but the one where I try to split the difference puts both of the chick heads not *quite* in focus. Things like this are harder to tell, though, on a 3-inch screen!
August 20
Mama dove encouraging the chicks to move out
August 21
The chicks high-tailing it out of there! 
Starting to fly
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Wordle #459
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: Yes. Baste again. Because yesterday was waaay too close!
Line 2: Nice. “A” and “P” in the correct places
Line 3: At least I figured out where the “L” goes.
Line 4: So it looks like not only would it have been better for me to have started with “baste”, but I can’t remember not to play the “A” in a spot where I already know it doesn’t belong!
Line 5: By now, I know the “A” has to start the word… so now “A”, “L”, and “E” are all correct, but nothing else – how frustrating!
Line 6: I figured that the other vowel was most likely “I” – Both “alike” and “alive” were legitimate choices here; I’m just lucky that I guessed “alike” and that it was correct! “Whew!”, indeed!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #458
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: I went back to “beast” today. “E” and “A” but neither is in the right place.
Line 2: Got the “L” here, but all the letters are in the wrong places still.
Line 3: At least I figured out where the “L” goes.
Line 4: So it looks like not only would it have been better for me to have started with “baste”, but I can’t remember not to play the “A” in a spot where I already know it doesn’t belong!
Line 5: By now, I know the “A” has to start the word… so now “A”, “L”, and “E” are all correct, but nothing else – how frustrating!
Line 6: I figured that the other vowel was most likely “I” – Both “alike” and “alive” were legitimate choices here; I’m just lucky that I guessed “alike” and that it was correct! “Whew!”, indeed!
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Wordle #457
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: “Baste” it is again today. “E” is correct and “T” is in the word. Hmmm….
Line 2: “T” can be pretty much anywhere, but since it’s not second-to-last or last, let’s see if this word starts with “T”. Yes! Getting the “I” is nice too, and I’m going to guess here that the word starts with a consonant blend, “I”, consonant, then “E”
Line 3: This worked out really well, though many times that “one letter left” situation can be annoying.
Line 4: Remember what I said about the “one letter left” situations?
Line 5: “Trice” – certainly not a common word, and somewhat antiquated, in my opinion. I think I heard the word much more as a kid but through old fairy tales and such rather than anything modern.
Did you get this Wordle? Tell me about it in the comments!
Happy Gaming!
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Breath of Hallelujah 