I finally have photos!

My sister's the artistic type, so none of these are normal photos. But they give you the general idea.


First, here's an 'action shot' - my sister walked in while I was sitting at the computer. You can just see the toes of my boots poking out underneath my skirt - it's that long! The boots have 2" heels by the way.


Here's the top of the skirt. This photo makes me look really really skinny. Scary. I am not unhealthily thin, I just look it in photos like this!


Here's from the side with my jacket on, I hadn't realised that it doesn't make for good photos of the skirt with it on!


The side panels of the skirt


The front of the skirt


And the best photo - the back. There's pleats either side of the centre, and it's slightly longer in back to form a kind of train.


Finally, I promised you a picture of the underskirt/petticoat fabric - isn't it pretty? I love the flowers.

Sorry for those of you who are getting this twice - I clicked publish too soon. When my parents get back from elsewhere I'll get a normal photo or two, but for now these will have to do.

Five hours of Church

is always fun. I love vigils.

I haven't had the chance to blog since Thursday and I STILL don't have photos of my skirt despite having worn it twice - my sister hid the camera, and I'm still in my pjs, not having to go anywhere today. I'll try to get her to take a photo of me wearing it later, she's watching a movie at the moment.

Thursday night was fellowship/Bible study as usual, which was its own wonderful self - the second half of chapter 5 in St Mark's Gospel, and Pater pointed out some things I hadn't noticed before. And we finished early enough to do Compline at 9...on the dot. I love Compline, especially since we do it in English on Thursday nights. I came home, crashed, and then slept a lot of yesterday. I woke up feeling sicker than usual, and was in a bad mood about it, and that bad mood didn't really go away despite my trying. I picked my sister up from school (+40min to my driving log total) and had a long bath to try and soak out the aches before dressing in about a thousand layers (I know how to dress for vigils now) and catching the train to meet Jeremy in the city and go to Church.
We got to Church early as usual, which gave us time to settle ourselves down, light candles and pray, and then we got into the Vigil itself. Vigils are basically a series of the liturgical services - Compline (evening prayer), Vespers (sunset prayers), Matins/Orthros (morning prayers) and finally the Divine Liturgy (mass). In the middle of all of that, Pater read from St John Climacus but it was in Greek so I read my Bible, and I hadn't communed at a Greek parish before so that was different. It was nice though, and he said my name etc all in english which was cool too, sometimes I hear it in english sometimes in arabic.
A month after my baptism I'm still receiving gifts, too. Thursday night I was given a lovely little chest-like box with the Theotokos on it and some incense in it (which is now in my icon corner) and last night a lovely sky blue shawl. People are so lovely :)
After the vigil we went next door and sat down at a very crowded table to eat large quantities of fish and lemon soup, and talk and laugh...I think the meals after might be one of my favourite parts of vigils. It's not just about the liturgy, it's about fellowship too.

Finally I got home at about 3ish, and after checking a few things online I went to bed and sleep. I'm feeling sick again today, but that's not abnormal - and I've lost my voice! Much to the amusement of my family, as I'm famous for how much I talk.

Now I'm just resting, it's a nice day to do so.

Blue sky

My sky's blue, my hands ache (but in a satifying way) and I'm exhausted. Sounds like life these days. But it's okay.

I cut out and sewed my edwardian skirt yesterday. Dark, soft denim. It came out beautiful! I've just pinned the hem, not sewn it (and it's a deep hem - 5", for weight) but it already looks lovely. Providing the hem gets sewn before I leave tonight (4:25 unless my mum manages to pick me up to take me to the train station a bit later) I'm going to wear it when I go. I also grabbed some flannelette to make a petticoat while I was at the habadashery store (we still have a little, old fashioned one here, I love it and I love the lady who runs it who always helps me out). I looked at the rolls on the wall and thought - I could do boring and plain...but who's going to see it? So I picked this cute fabric, white with blue and purple flowers all over it. Really pretty. I had a petticoat pattern, not that you really need a pattern for petticoats, so I cut it and sewed it up and it took about fifteen minutes from start to finish. Just a bit more warmth under my skirts, and with tights I should stay quite warm. So now I have another good dressy casual skirt. It's cut with pleats at the back - so it trains behind a little. I love it! I cut it 'walking length' though, so it's above my shoes.

I'll take photos of the petticoat fabric (you're not seeing the actual thing - I don't know why it matters but it does!) and my skirt later, when the hem's done. If I can get someone to take a photo of me wearing it I will.

Nothing much interesting is happening, but that's okay. Live one day at a time and enjoy what I have. On the sewing WIP pile is my sister's medieval dress (which really needs finishing), another (much simpler) skirt for me, and the bias binding on my apron.

I'm in a stitching slump at the moment for those who haven't noticed - I put a stitch in occasionally, but I'm just not in the mood at the moment. And that's okay.

...and watch me walk, I can walk...

I'm exhausted due to yesterday, which isn't suprising but is frustrating.

So, today has just been slow. My back aches, especially, and my wrists again. But this too will pass.

I discovered the joys of the iTunes store today and got Across the Universe's soundtrack, and the oldskool Godspell soundtrack too. Promptly burned copies for inside while I'm stitching/cooking/sewing, and for the car. Both are good singalong cds as evidenced by my family tonight!

I haven't really done anything today, but the fatigue is to blame for that. I really need my mondays, or I get sick. God willing I'll be a bit better tomorrow.

I drove up and back to get my sister tonight, after eating fish and chips and watching Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium (which is just as wonderful as its name - clean, sweet, fun), and when I got home I tallied my driving minutes and found I have 340min of night driving - I need 600, so that's more than half. Woohoo! I also have 2010 all up, and need 3000 all up. I'm doing alright there. I'll get my license soon enough.

I am trying to live day to day again. It doesn't always work, but I try.

Edit:
I forgot to add this photo I took during class (shh!) of my setup for maths by correspondence.


The open book with binder holes is my "study guide", aka the equivalent of my teacher's whiteboard :) Not having to take notes is kind of cool, though we note on the study guide itself, h ence hte pencil. My textbook is just peeking out from under that, though we don't use it much in class, mostly for homework exercises, the green and black book is the graph book I work in, and the red book is a study guide from the previous topic, which we refer to occasionally.
On the screen is the 'whiteboard' for my class - if the teacher wants to work out a different example or do it slowly for the class from what's in the study guide, he does it there. It's through the net and I don't quite get it, but it's fun. My teacher has really messy handwriting!
The view is out the back of our house - that garden bed behind the wall has a lemon and a mandarin tree in it that you can't see, and the blue thing is part of the trampoline. This room has lovely big windows, which is very nice in the sun (they face south, so they get the sun at an angle) but cold at night. The computer is an old, slow, powermac G4, but it does the job while I don't have a computer. It's actually got a better screen for whiteboarding than my laptop.
Weird setup, but it works. I only have one maths lesson a week though, and most of the time I do my homework in bed or at the kitchen table.

"I will call the pebble dare..."

By Your Side always makes me cry. Beautiful song.

I want to write, but I'm so tired I'm not sure what to write. I have to go and be supervised by someone not family sometimes for school summatives (tests, etc) and I did one yesterday at Jeremy's (as I said last night) and today, after studying madly for a couple hours, sat a maths test. Calculus, and much easier than I expected, which was nice. And I only had to draw one graph, much to my relief! The book tends to love making us draw graphs, and I tend to love NOT doing them. I know how, I just never manage to make the curves look right, and it annoys me. Mostly algebra, which was good.

When I wasn't doing that, I was burying my nose in two books - one about Sydney in 1900 (before Federation which is Australia's official 'birthday' when the colonies were unified), and one which was a collection of rememberances about the Australian Home Front during WWII, as well as the experiences of Australians in the forces. It was cold, and if I'd been doing what's best for my health I would have stayed home and slept, and rested, today. But Mum was not to be argued with (and admittedly I was really behind for doing this one) so I came, but now I'm somewhat zombified. Panadeine Forte is a wonderful thing.

It's raining a lot now too, which is nice. We're learning to treasure rain again.

Today was mostly an 'up' day - the last few days have been some up, some down, some changeable. Mostly due to the thing-that-will-not-be-named (well, not here). Speaking of which - again I am indebted to the wonderful community I belong to. People have taken time out from other things which are arguably more interesting to talk to me about this, recently, and I got a call from one friend (a guy, too, which makes it even more out of the ordinary) randomly from his work today to just check on me, make sure I was okay. Just when I might think about forgetting how wonderful my church is...I get reminded.

Let me skip the road with you
I can dare myself
I can dare myself
I'll put a pebble in my shoe
And watch me walk (watch me walk)
I can walk and walk!
(I can walk!)

I shall call the pebble Dare
I shall call the pebble Dare
We will talk, we will talk together
We will talk (chorus) about walking
Dare shall be carried
And when we both have had enough
I will take him from my shoe, singing:
"Meet your new road!"
Then I'll take your hand
Finally glad
Finally glad
That you are here
By my side

(from Godspell)

I've mentioned before that Sundays in my world are mental, right?

I love Sundays. Heh, my name day once a week. Kyriaki is the Greek word for Sunday, just for those who don't get that pun. It literally means 'belongs to the Lord'. Yup, that's me!

Sunday...hoo boy. I got woken up by my mum cleaning the bathroom noisily at about 9ish, but since I had to get up at 9:20 anyway that wasn't too bad. Got up, got dressed, fed the 'totally starving' cats who had just brought in a (alive) rat, and helped Mum make sandwiches for the people my parents were going to sail with - it was a race today and my Mum's cousin's daughter (whew!) has a yacht that a group of them sail on. Weird to be making food I can't eat, but hey Sundays are like that. At least I wasn't starving hungry today, which I usually am on Sundays despite the fact that I never eat breakfast normally.

Jeremy picked me up and we went to Church. No Troy, as he was at our other Church (not that I knew that), but lots of other people and the generally rowdy fun group :) Sunday of the Samaritan Woman today, which was good. Photini's not!name-day - Photini is the traditional name of the Samaritan Woman in the Orthodox Church. Baby Photini didn't care :) Jeremy's godfather and Jeremy were being sneaky about something that has to do with me in Arabic - talking about me behind my back...in front of me. Sneaky, sneaky. Stupid people who speak Arabic, lol. My spoken Arabic (okay pretty much everything except what I know from Church, and even that is suspect) is appalling, and I don't really mind. It was just funny. We grabbed kransky's from the bakery and I plonked myself down at Jeremy's kitchen table to do a summative for history that I'm way behind on (source analysis on the Whitlam gov't, easy) while he mowed the driveway, because normal people do that... (there's a strip of grass in the middle of their driveway). He went off and did his latin homework (third year Latin at Uni, some people are mental (and speak too many languages)) and I sat on the couch and read a book. Interesting book. I read it years ago (and shouldn't have, I was too young to 'get it' and it gave me weird ideas), then again more recently (and got annoyed by the people who espoused it because they tend to be on the lunatic fringe a bit with relation to this issue) and finally again today. I should give up having opinions - I'd commented on it to Jeremy a few weeks back, and ended up eating my words. Sigh. Again.

Finally, Jeremy dropped me at Jo's before dinner at Church while he went to get Troy and met us there. Jo and I chatted about the latest thing to happen explodey in my life, which she understands but I am not blogging about yet, and we went to dinner...which was in grand modern Greek style. Lots of people, music, food, and friends. And a yiayia sitting next to me determined to make me eat about twice what I would usually. I love yiayias. Lots of random stuff happened tonight, but I think most of it only works if you were there.

Had a really good chat with Jeremy in the car, too, tonight. That helped. I had a lot that needed to be talked out and Jeremy's good for that. More explodey-thing-ness.

And now I'm home. And it's cold. And I think I'm going to go to bed and read some book, and sleep.

best quotes from Jeremy in the car (well that come to mind, and don't specifically address explodey-ness) tonight:

k: most days i'm okay with [my illness, and kind of being in limbo], but sometimes I yell at walls
j: don't yell at walls. They don't talk back. Yell at God, maybe then you'd get an answer.
k: Job did that [Jeremy cuts her off]
j: yep
k: and got YELLED AT.
j: yes. And maybe you'd learn something. [Goes on to paraphrase God's response to Job, somewhat hilariously]
k:....ok, maybe you have a point.

The second one I can't remember exactly so here's the paraphrase:

"you have tomorrow, planned. you're going to get your work done, what you can. and you've got a goal for this year - finish year twelve. stop worrying about the future, and being annoyed that you're in 'limbo', you only feel that way because you're not where you want to be (and you don't even know where that IS) and you don't like it."
[kyriaki bites her lip]
"live tomorrow, live day to day, and trust God. Is that such a radical idea? don't worry about the future, you might die tomorrow. and then it'd all be a waste of time"

I've mentioned before that I love Jeremy, right? I have such a wonderful churchfamily.

Another weekly update, I suppose

Funny, I used to post every day, sometimes more than once a day. Not living life with a computer constantly next to me now, it's less of a common thing to do. I suppose.

What's happened this week? Mostly life has just pottered on. Tuesday I just about did nothing, aside from having my lesson, I was still feeling sick, and that hung around for most of the week. My sister came home from hospital Wednesday afternoon-ish, and then Mum and I went to Spotlight (think Michaels et al) to get fabric for an apron for me, and a denim skirt. Specifically, this apron:



and this skirt:


The apron is in a light creamy brown with a tiny white design on it, and the skirt is soft, dark denim. The apron is now 95% done with the exception of the bias binding for the back straps and the side belt, and hemming the back and bottom. It's really pretty, and very...well, not girly. Feminine, but no ruffles. I am not into ruffles, except on petticoats :) Skirt is in the process of being marked out on the fabric, haven't cut it out yet. It'll happen, and my hands are aching from sewing the apron up. Self-fabric bias binding is IRRITATING but looks really good.

Thursday...Thursday I spent cutting out patterns and doing schoolwork, and Thursday night was our usual study and fellowship. I got forbidden to be a nun anytime in the next six months by my priest...lol. I was planning on it? At least he was kidding, mostly! Everyone keeps joking (or more weirdly, actually THINKING) that I'm going to be a nun. Orthodox monasticism is mental. Wonderful, but mental. Why does everyone think I'm cut out for it??? I don't see myself, being myself, in the black robes of a nun. But I suppose they're allowed to say it...

Yesterday was quiet again, mostly just sewing and planning next week, and I read the last of the Emily books by LM Montgomery - I read them about once a year, and they're wonderful. I've also rediscovered the prayers of The Hours, and am loving them.

Today was equally quiet (I never have anything interesting to write), and apart from going shopping with my parents for practical things and helping to plant some trees this afternoon (a row of acacias (native ones) in our front yard as a hedge) nothing much happened during the day. Tonight though - Jeremy had to chant for a wedding, so couldn't take us to Vespers, but my parents are sailing tomorrow in a race, so they thought they might come to Vespers with me Saturday night (tonight) so that they got to church once in the weekend...as Jeremy said, "God finds a way". They hadn't been to Vespers with me, though Dad had experienced it once in Greek, in Oxford when he was in England a while back (and loved it). They liked it, a lot. I love Vespers, it's just...oh I can't explain. Just wonderful.

We came home, but somehow started singing the songs from Godspell in the car...so Mum dug out her tape from a 1975 performance and we were happily singing along while we made spaghetti for dinner, and watched the Eurovision semifinal.

Now I'm just waiting out tonight. It's too early to sleep, or I might go to bed. Time passes, it'll change. Tomorrow's Sunday, and I love Sundays - with a name like Kyriaki, how could I not? :)

I should post

I still don't have my laptop, but there's a computer in our study which I've been borrowing on occasion. I need to start rationing how much I get on here, too though.

I'm basically addicted to the internet, and waste an incredible amount of time on here. That's not a good thing, you might have noticed...so, my laptop's elsewhere until I try and get a handle on this and don't keep staying up until 4am on the net. *nods*

I really haven't had that interesting a week. Here's what *did* happen:

• It rained. A lot. This is not normal for my city recently, and a total novelty. Except that the total change in weather conditions made my fibro play up...sigh. It's pretty cool though.
  
• Tuesday night was a lecture at the (lone) russian Church in my city, which happens to be totally beautiful. I wish I could find the website, I know I've seen it, and it had pictures of the inside. Woooowwwww... The outside's gorgeous too, beautiful painted domes above the white church. The priest did a moleben (short prayer service) and then the lecture was on Scripture and Tradition. A lot of fun, and a chance for me to wear the scarf my godmother gave me for my baptism and I keep forgetting to wear!
• Thursday night was our usual study group night, and we had a lot of fun - as usual. Pater did Compline at 9 (one of the perks of having a monk-priest is that you get to do the Hours sometimes) and then we got sent home, except a few of us met for a minute or so to plan Sunday
• Saturday was boring, but then we had Vespers and I wore a zillion layers and still froze. Tights, leggings, jeans, an underskirt, an overskirt (both full length), an undershirt, long sleeved overshirt, cardigan, jacket, and a double thickness velvet cloak over it all. And I was STILL cold. Thankfully, Presbytera (the priest's wife) was too, so it wasn't just me being crazy. And Jo came, which was awesome. Jo's great.
• Sunday. Hoo boy. Early to Church to talk to Abouna before the service, then the service itself - I read the Epistle (eek, but cool!) which was from Acts and among other things detailed raising St Tabitha/Dorcas from the dead. She's the patron Saint of dressmakers and tailors, for those who didn't know, and I like her. We got KFC and manoushi (lebanese bread with zatar (herbs and lemon juice) and sesame seeds on it) for lunch which was an interesting combination, but fun. The afternoon was spent cutting vegies/octopus/squid, talking, cuddling the adorable Photini-baby and being generally mad. And eating far too much food. Jo's mum brought a bunch of homemade buttery, flakey pita bread...oh wow. There should be a law against that stuff, it's so good and I ate so much I felt sick. All that cut up food got cooked, and we served it in the form of baba ghanoush (eggplant dip), laksa, green curry, two other kinds of dip, a LOT of pita bread, rice, salad and goodness knows what else. Niko's wife made the best kataifi I've ever eaten, too, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable dinner when we all got to sit down and eat after feeding our guests. And then we cleaned up. I was so tired that in the car Dmitri (who took us home) commented that I sounded like I had had too much to drink, speaking slow and slurring my words a bit.
• My sister is just...not having a good run. She had an endoscopy on Tuesday to see how the coeliac disease is going, then on wednesday she ran into a fence on her horse, friday she had a doc's appt to get the results from tuesday (which were good, praise God), but then made toffee and spilled some on her thumb...third degree burns. She did all the right things with ice water, and we went down to school to get her then back and in the opposite direction to the doctor, who sent us back down the hill again and further to the hospital for the burns unit. Who told her to look after it this weekend and come back Monday morning. She's now in there for a week, having surgery to put a skin graft on it tomorrow. Poor thing! It's weird going to visit her as we have to gown up. We plan to take her some fake flowers to brighten things up, if we're allowed. No real flowers allowed.
  

And now it's almost midnight and I should go to bed. But I thought I'd let you guys know how I'm going, and update on my life.

Me as a teenager

There's this meme going around the art/comic/cartoony community where you draw yourself as a teenager. I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but my doodled people are usually reasonably recognisable. So I had a go :)

Here's me:


and 'cause I'm nice, here I am today:



The meme starter and list can be found here.

I'll do a news report sometime, but really I just wanted to post them :) Fun!

I have no computer

Well, not of my own, for a week. I might be in to update, quickly. Not often. See you next Sunday :)

I got a lot more stitching done

but you'll have to wait for a photo. I really can't be bothered, it's late and I still haven't said the pre-communion prayers. Bad Kyriaki. Mm, Κυριακή. Much cooler in Greek. Still bad.

I'll make this quick but I wanted to get something down.
Friday was my 'something due' day - I went to school with Mum so I could get a supervisor, and wrote an 'in-class' (ie, unseen paper, write for an hour under supervised conditions, no books) essay for History, which was interesting. In the study for it, I learned that the main square of my city was originally intended to have a cathedral on it! That didn't eventuate though, we have a few cathedrals (including one pseudo-orthodox one) but none of them are there. Essay got written, there was no set word limit so I wrote three and a half pages handwritten. I hope it was enough :) It was on reasons why people came here and continue to come here to live. I had a lovely lady come up to me and inform me that God doesn't want anyone sick and if I just had enough faith... hoo boy. I grew up charismatic, lady, but nope, not buying that line! Been there, done that, God does NOT work like that. Daniel told me I should have just called her a heretic and been done with it, but I'd rather educate people than make them mad. So, very softly, slowly, calmly, I explained to her how soul and faith destroying it can be, and that it's not up to us to decide God's timing. I get very, very quiet when I get mad. I'd forgotten just how much...
Besides that, I got a lot of stitching done on Peaceful Paradise, mostly grass, and read a chunk more of my current theological book and wrote down a bunch of questions. Fun stuff.

Today (Saturday) was slow. We really didn't do anything all day, and then I went out, caught the train and went to meet Jeremy. He was late, but so was my train, and I'd left my phone home. Oops! Kyriaki being neurotic I waited, then rang Troy's mobile to find out Jeremy's mobile number, and called him...just as he turned up there. I felt stupid, but we're all used to Kyri being neurotic so that's nothing new!
We went to this yc meeting, which was as frustrating as usual, and then we had to leave early (also as usual) to run to Vespers. Hopefully what we said had some impact but we're not sure. Ten minutes (officially, only really five) late for Vespers we parked, and pelted along the path and up the steps, Kyri frantically yanking her shawl up from her shoulders to her head. Paused momentarily to genuflect and cross myself (the guys bow but I don't, I know if I did I wouldn't get up again some days), and dashed inside, kissing the icons in the narthex quickly before trying not to run to my pew. Daniel laughed at me. We didn't miss much though, thankfully. I love Vespers. "Now that we have come to the setting of the sun, and seen the evening light..."

We talked to Fr John after, which was fun, then grabbed noodles for dinner, and went to help Jo with something she didn't need our help with. She invited us to her place for coffee, which is never just coffee with the Greeks - we got fed again, and then finally after chatting for ages and watching the football (we lost...sigh...at least it was close) we came home. Jeremy is crazy, and knows the Lord's prayer and half the Creed in Greek, and was reciting it as he drove me home. Translating the copy of the Divine Liturgy that I have in Greek is fun, we pick out the words we know and figure out where we're up to.

Now though it's cold and I'm not feeling well. That's not a good thing. I do not want to get sick again. I really don't.

Oh! Before I go, the lovely RAK Faery gifted me something! Iris Keeper Storykeep (bookmark) from HAED. This particular faery was Sally, who is wonderful.
Here's my pretty:

From here.

It looks like fun. Someone is trying to enable me to start it, but I'm going to be good at least for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts...

Picture and other fun stuff

Hey look, Kyri has another photo. Maybe it's two in two days to make up for none for a month!


This time I took the photo on the q-snaps. I haven't worked on anything beyond the area of my qsnaps recently, and this saves me having to figure out my tension again, and also means you get closeups. The photos a bit washed out, but it's not bad. Mostly I've got grass done tonight, but I am proud of getting the box around the in-text sheep done and the stems of the flowers down on the grass.

I'm so tired...I need sleep. Before I go, here's a wonderful quote by St John of Kronstadt (lived only a few hundred years ago) on illness:

"Bear any illness bravely, and do not merely not become despondent, but on the contrary, rejoice, if you can, in your illness. You would ask me what there is for you to rejoice at when you are racked all over with pain? Rejoice that the Lord has sent you this temporary chastisement in order to cleanse your soul from sins. 'For whom the Lord loves He chastens' (Heb. 12:6). Rejoice in the fact that now you are not gratifying those passions which you would have gratified had you been in good health; rejoice that you are bearing the cross of sickness, and that therefore you are treading the narrow and sorrowful way leading to the kingdom of heaven. Maladies in our eyes only appear painful, unpleasant and terrible. It is seldom that any one of us during the time of sickness represents to himself the profit which his illness brings to his soul; but in God's all wise and most merciful Providence, not a single malady remains without some profit to our soul. Sicknesses in the hands of Providence are the same as bitter medicines for our soul, curing its passions, its bad habits and inclinations. Not a single malady sent to us shall return void. Therefore, we must keep in view the utility of sicknesses, in order that we may bear them more easily and more calmly."

Just beautiful. Now...try try and live it...

Peaceful Paradise - pic again!

Here you are, about time I posted a photo. Here's what this beauty is stitching up like. This is the first photo in three or four weeks, which is kind of scary. But I only picked it up after the last photo the other day, so that might have something to do with it...

Here you are :)

(click!)

As you can see, 3/4 of the writing on Psalm 99 (100) is done, including the 'wrought in the year of our LORD 2008', and I've started the bottom scene. This is a joy to work on again, I'm loving it. The white and pale purple blob in the middle will be sheep on a purple background eventually, and that's NOT a dog next to the shepherd down the bottom even though my dad is convinced it is!

Good fun. I finished the first skein of 'raven' (the colour used for the lettering) today, which was an achievement, and started the second. There is a LOT of lettering in this piece! Maybe I should edit May's goals to include some definite page goals on this, I've got back into loving it again.

I don't think the weather is helping

It's cold and grey, and my mood is kind of reflecting that. I've eaten a lot of chocolate today.

I've got another week behind on my math, now, and I need to sort out this s.o.s. work tonight, especially clearing up what needs doing on an assignment i get to resubmit tomorrow with my mum. I haven't got anything better to be doing, yet I'm staying in bed wasting time. I gave myself a reprieve from the no-internet thing last week, but not tomorrow. I need something to kick me into doing something productive and not letting the internet eat my life.

I am also so tired. But Psalm 67 (68 nonorthodox) will be read tonight, and we'll see how we go. Psalms are good for making me feel better, most of the time! I need a proper rule that says you will go to bed by this time or else. It'll be midnight at the latest that I'll be on the net tonight anyway and that will probably help.

Maybe I should get up and do some stitching, I never have any motivation to do so but once I'm working I'm happier. Maybe :)

My hands ache

and it's a quarter past 11, so I should probably get to bed soon. My fingers, especially, ache. I'm not sure why - I haven't done much stitching compared to the usual, it's weird that they would be aching this quickly when I can often stitch for a whole day. Maybe it's the weather. It's supposed to rain a bit tomorrow, maybe that constitutes a change in the weather? I don't know.

Peaceful Paradise is coming together beautifully. I realised about half an hour ago that an awful lot of page 8 is done, which is the page that has text on it. So I'm alternating a length of thread on page 8 (or if a word/ornament/phrase goes over the page in the same colour I go over the page too) and then a length on the green of the grass. I am pretty sure that the grass is going to drive me crazy just as much as the sky did, but I'll cope. At least there's more than just two shades of yellow to break up the monotony! I've mostly been using up the bits and pieces I have left of different colours from ornaments further up as I come to parts of the scene at the bottom that use them - the red I used in the lettering and still had half a length of in my needle/knotted in the fabric near the edge (where I keep such things, it's ok when there are so few, uneasily confusable colours in a project) got used for the dress of a little angel, the mouth of the shepherd and the outline of big rose type flowers down on the 'grass'. Ditto the lettering yellow, which became the angel's halo and wings, and the brown from the ornaments got used for her hair. About then she was almost finished so I cheated, and filled in the pink for the face and gave her eyes. She's adorable! I cheated a bit actually, it was just such a nice change of page to stitch up bits and pieces of the picture. My focus is still finishing page 8 though. I have four pages overlapping on my chart holder at the moment and it's a bit nuts! I hope to finish page 8, then finish page 12 while working on page 7. Then I'll have reached the bottom edge, and I can move my frame over because everything on the far right will be done. That's the plan, anyway. I have a feeling a lot of green will be filled in during s.o.s. lessons though, we spend about half the lesson with the teacher trying to coax answers out of everyone else or explaining to a kid what the assignment actually was. There's something nice about the teacher not being able to see what your hands are doing while you're on the phone - I keep mine busy, stitching. Green does not involve thinking, which is why I've picked it for this. I did the same thing with the blue for the sky. Boring, but not as boring as my class! Well...maybe it's a tie...

Speaking of which, I have demographics homework for that class that needs doing tomorrow. It'll get done.

I would show you a picture of PP but my sister has the camera still from her formal and she's asleep so I can't steal it back. I think this piece will get scavenged for motifs though - the angels would make cute christmas ornaments, and there are some lovely floral motifs. Not to mention the alphabet...

Every now and then I look at the piece and realise just how big it is. And stop myself passing out. When I get my current two pages done I'll be half done, and that's something definitely worth celebrating.

Anyway. I should go, I've set up a reading schedule for myself at nights which I'm really enjoying but takes a while - at minimum, four chapters from completely different parts of the Bible. Reading the Old Testament from the Septuagint is fascinating, it's like reading it again for the first time, and some of it really is for the first time, like the books that the Protestants would call the Apocrypha - the story of Daniel and Susannah (though I read that story years ago and fell in love with it), the Wisdom of Sirach, the song of the Three Holy Children (the boys in the fiery furnace), 1,2,3 Maccabees, etc.

Hey...if you read this, would you do me a favour and leave a comment? Sometimes it feels like I'm writing to thin air :) I don't mean to comment-beg, it's just nice to know if anyone reads this.

I think the name for this is despondency

I've spent the day in bed so far. I just...can't get out of bed. Partly it's because my sleepy cycle is messed up, because I've been staying up late for no reason, and who knows what the other part is. I've been eating a lot of chocolate, too.

We had Church yesterday, our last day in white. That was fun...Jeremy got me to read the pre-communion prayers (the short ones that we read in Church) which I started to read softly and got told LOUDER! So praying I wouldn't mess it up I swapped into the voice I've learned through Lent reading psalms and prayers from the chanter's desk, but that was easier as there was noone in the Church when I was reading. I got to the end and just about fell over, my heart was beating so fast. One of these days I'll get over my fear of public speaking, but for now...Pater would say it keeps me humble :) People told me I read well though, which was nice.

Jeremy brought me home and we picked up lebanese pizza on the way, and then he was having dinner with his cousins (who live near me) that night so he hung around and did some latin homework. I helped with vocab, mispronouncing some things but not all, and sat stitching on Peaceful Paradise. I kept working on it through the Logies (tv awards), and have a lot more border done along with more text, most of a tiny flying angel in the scene at the bottom and some more grass, among other things. It's fun, and I'm enjoying working on it again.

Nothing interesting is on tv tonight, so insh'Allah I'll get an early night and see if that helps some. Maths is tomorrow so I might try and catch some up after dinner, and hopefully swing back into doing work properly again tomorrow.

Quiet

It's the seventh day of wearing white, seventh day after my baptism. And I'm still sitting here muttering Psalm 50. Maybe I thought baptism would change things - and it did, but it hasn't made me perfect by any stretch. It's not that I thought it would, but wishful thinking always comes.

I slept most of yesterday, and the last night set things up as my sister had pre- formal (the big dance of senior year, we only really have one dance a year) drinks at our house, which also served as a gathering point for those riding in the hired limousine. So while she and my mum were out sorting out her hair and makeup, I cut up vegies, tidied the bathroom, and did bits and pieces around the house until they got home, a few minutes before the first guests got there! The girls looked beautiful and the guys sharp, and everyone including their parents drunk champagne/fake champagne with or without orange juice and strawberries :) One of the bottles was Riccadonna which I happen to love and tastes wonderful with orange juice though my mum says that's sacrilege! Yummm...

People gone, we went to feed sister's pony and shared a bowl of pasta at a favourite cafe near our house, bought a tub of chocolate icecream (for me, i've been craving it since Lent began) and rented a Midsummer Night's Dream, which we gave a running commentary on as we watched it. At 11ish we went to rescue cinderella and her prince before they turned into pumpkins, and took them to their friend's house where they watched movies and stayed over. And came home, mum going to bed and me staying up. I seem to have an aversion to going to sleep at the moment which I need to fix because it exhausts me in the morning.

Today should be quiet. I need to get some schoolwork done, we'll see. It's cold, and slow, but I have Vespers tonight and that will be wonderful :)

Goals for May

Yep, 'bout that time. Speaking of the time, please noone look at the timestamp. I'm avoiding sleep for some reason.

First, here's last month's recap:

Stitchy/Craft:

• Finish page 4's sky, and page 8 of Peaceful Paradise. Nope. I got sidetracked when I left the chart in Abouna's office and haven't got back into it since
  
• Make a good start on pgs 7 and 12 See above, though I did start part 12
  
• Get at least 4 10x10 blocks done on A Restful Night Heh. No.
  
• Organise my stash, use the drawers I dug up from our hallway I actually did organise some, and the drawers are now in use. But falling apart. Maybe I'll get some new ones soon?
  
• 'kill' at least one clothing WIP Wishful thinking. Nope.
  

Church stuff:

• survive Holy Week ;) Oh yes, wonderfully so.
  
• get baptised! YES!
  
• buy a new prayer rope and use it Yes, and got given one, so there's a black one with a gold bead in my bible case and a black one with a purple bead on my wrist
  
• remember to take scarves with me Yes, most of the time.
  
• keep going to a zillion and one services Oh yes. This week has been 'downtime' a bit, partly because we haven't asked and partly because I don't think anyone would have let me go to anything beyond the normal services. Smart.
  
• eat healthily Trying. Failing. Trying more.
  

School:

• hand in all my assignments Getting there
  
• go to every class Yes
  
• actually do my math homework Catching up!
  
• learn to stop avoiding assignments Or not.
  

Other:

• clean my room! Working on it. Slowly I'm putting things away in boxes to move out of my room when we take the furniture out and rip out the carpet, and that's helping.
  

So, this month.

Stitching:

• finish part 3 of JOB
• make a good start on part 4
• work some more on peaceful paradise
• finish Jeremy's gift, start another one for whoever's next in line

Church:

• enjoy the paschal season
• attend church whenever i can
• start reading the old testament again, cover to cover this time
• buy at least an icon of St Kyriaki, and as many others as I want/can afford that are on my list
• try and actually keep my Rule most of the time
• drag myself out of bed for morning prayers at least some of the time

Other:

• Make biscuits that aren't ANZACs
• Make biscuits that ARE ANZACs
• Make dinner at least four times in the month
• Nag Mum to get the magazines photocopied so i can put recipes in binders
• Finish boxing up the bookshelf, box up that side of my room/corner between that and the desk
• Put desk drawers contents into boxes after rationalising them
• Sleep more often!

That'll do, I think.

I've been wearing white since Saturday

...and I've yet to get really grubby :) I am thoroughly pleased with myself! I know that now I'll end up tipping spaghetti sauce in my lap for saying that tomorrow, but oh well.

It's kind of fun wearing the white. I got over being self conscious, and now it's just - fun! It's saying YES I am wearing white, for a reason! I wore my caramel winter coat over it all tonight because I needed it, but other than and my shoes I'm in white from head to toe - including the wide white bow at the top of my braid, because I felt like wearing one. My shoes are the ones Nona Niki gave me for my baptism and they match my coat.

I had a quiet day. I made butter cream frosting for the cupcakes I made for Jeremy's name day (which was today - Thursday) which means it was the feast of the Saint he was named for, in his case the Prophet Jeremiah. We celebrate them roughly the way other people celebrate birthdays, but often celebrate birthdays in a lower key way. Mine's not until July, but it'll be fun when we get there! I also did some cleaning, some homework (more about that later) and pottered about a bit. Troy came up in the afternoon and that distracted me somewhat, and we went out tonight to grab a few things for Jeremy as a gift, and caught a train to meet Jo.

Jeremy is one of those people who is impossible to buy gifts for, so we took a different tack. What do kids who don't know what to give their [god]father's buy? Socks and hankies and chocolate, right? So, we grabbed a pack of hankies, a pack of socks, a block of nice chocolate and I wrote him a note saying

'Dear Νονός [godfather], in the long honoured tradition of children who do not know what to buy their fathers for gifts, we bought you useful stuff. Χρόνια Πολλά Νονός! [many years godfather] -- Troyadios and Kyriaki. '

I then wrapped it up (badly) in green tissue paper and wrote his name on it in black texta, and we gave it to him at fellowship tonight. He laughed, and so did everyone else :) I'm going to finish his bible case and give it to him when I'm done, I just need to stop being such a perfectionist. I'm looking at it now and it looks fine, I need to calm down and stop worrying about it already! It took me ages of hunting through my DMC to find the shade of red I was looking for, but I did. It glows nicely on the black.

As far as schoolwork is concerned, it has been eating my life. The other day I realised that I had a backlog that looked something like this:

• four week's worth of math exercises
• two biographies for history
• a supervised essay for history
• a different essay for history that was due ...a couple months ago...
• a stupid amount of history noting from dvds and textbooks
  
• and a bunch of tv watching and noting for studies of societies.

Doesn't look like a big deal. Believe me, it is.

So far though I've got done:

• two weeks (ish) of math exercises
• the biographies
• the tv watching and noting in rough form

This week I need to:

• sort out the two history essays ASAP
• finish the maths and do this week's work as well
• write good copy of the s.o.s. notes
• write 500 words on whether they correlate with real world data (hint: they really really don't)
• do at least some of the noting for history

As well as that, I have a to do list of other things, like:

• finish the stitching on Jeremy's bible case, including his initials
  
• finally get around to finishing part 3 of JOB (I am SOO CLOSE but I didn't touch it today)
• make more ANZAC biscuits
• smile when they get demolished by the family (I smiled very widely when they got snaffled up by Jo and Jeremy tonight)
• start reading the Bible cover to cover now that I have a decent translation of the OT (with all the canonical books)
• give Pater my old protestant Bible as he wants the commentary for comparison purposes
• try desperately to clean my room!
• think about getting a kitten
• dress 'Manda up for winter (Felicity and Julie are already rugged up and warm, as well as they can be, Lissie looks so cute in her cloak holding a lantern)
  
• start plotting a new photostory for her either on Orthodox as an intro or more to do with Australia
• box up more books to clear them out of my room
• get ruthless and get rid of a lot of the junk in my room
• get rid of the candles that are in a drawer and make me sick whenever I open the drawer, I don't care how sentimentally attached I am to them
• try to sort out ordering my new icons
• try to get some work done on Bindi's dress again so it's DONE and out of the way

Hoo boy.

It's the beginning of the month, which is the time I often make goals. I'll do them in another post though. Stay tuned...

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