

Thinking Out Loud: The Bible is Tradition
Readers of this blog are aware by now that a significant doctrinal reason for my becoming Orthodox is the Bible and it's relationship to Tradition. I'm going to do some thinking out loud now. I hope you enjoy the ride! The longer I've thought about this and studied it, the more I've grown to be completely comfortable with referring to the Bible as Tradition. Remember though, when I refer to Tradition it is different than traditions, which are locals customs that have no impa


Frugal Food: Day One
Read the first post in our Frugal Food Series. Ok, ok I said weekly updates, but going through our food and my strategies for food today I realized there is a LOT going on. Way too much information to shove it all into one post! So I'm going to do daily blogs until we get further along and I've explained what I am doing thoroughly. Today actually started yesterday. I find it way easier to prep as much as possible the night before when the kids are in bed and I can think cl


Eating for $1.00 a Day
When you look up eating frugally, about the most austere you get is $1.50 per person per day. (At least in recent history.) A few years ago there was an "eat below the line" challenge on social media that asked people to try eating for $1.50 per day to raise awareness about people around the world that live on that amount. There were some flaws, I think, with the campaign. But luckily for us there are now quite a few blogs and online resources detailing exactly how you can

Believe in Something
The newest furor has hit the internet. The controversial Nike commercial featuring Colin Kaepernick is making the rounds. For those who don't know who that is, in short, he is a former Quarterback in the NFL who lost his career over a protest he started. During the National Anthem before games he took a knee rather than stand as a way of expressing his views about racial injustice in America. Here is the picture that has spurred memes all over the internet the last couple o


Baptism Twins
Four years ago today we baptized Zhanna and Jacob. It is possible that they were baptized in Ukraine at their orphanages, but unlikely since there was no documentation of the events. So, when we came home they were both baptized. Due to super unfortunate circumstances I have no pictures of their baptisms. Perhaps one day they will magically appear, until then it's just memories! They both have their patron saint icons, the Patriarch Jacob and Saint Hope with her mother and