wow! I'm speechless. I've been in cliquish churches before... but *that* is horrible. I wouldn't want to go to a church like that either. :grouphug: I'm also Orthodox, so I can't really add to what was already stated about the importance of the Eucharist and the church being a place of refuge. I also realize that those who do not hold to a sacramental belief about Church/Christianity will have completely different needs for their church.

queue Twilight Zone music......

My daughter did them finding a recipe online. Try "handprint recipe" or "home made handprint ornament" and see what you come up with. Good luck!

I don't know the answer but I hear you... it's pretty aggravating. I've done with kiana suggested, but it does burn me that companies do this...what a waste.

yes... I know of a couple of cases. There's meds that help with the severity of shingles if you catch it early enough. It might be worth a trip to the drs. just to be sure if she's not better in a few hours. My understanding is that shingles is painful more than itchy.

So sorry you're having to go through this. :grouphug: :grouphug:

Inquiring minds want to know.....You'll have to educate us Orthodox about what exactly this "service" is :lol:

First, is it really called a wake? I've never heard that term in EO circles. Since it's at the funeral home and not at the church it makes me wonder exactly what it is. I suspect there will be a short memorial service - probably the 20ish min. one. The casket may not be open (although the tradition in EO funerals is to have open caskets - so just be aware it's a possibility.). If it is open, there is usually a line after the service to go pay your respects to the reposed (we believe that since we were made in the image of God that the body is holy) and then pay your respect to the family (they will be next to the casket). You do not need to do this... you can wait until after the service is completely over and go speak with the family and pay your respects that way.

??

I was thinking the same things as Mama Geek. Have him over for dinner. Maybe have a standing dinner night with him. Agreeing with you that it *is* hard to know what to do.

I'm listening in because I've struggled with a move we made 3yrs ago that has left me feeling rudderless... for some similar reasons the OP mentioned.

Hard-boiled eggs last longer in the fridge. I don't know if frozen/defrosted whole eggs can be hard-boiled, but it's worth an experiment! :)

You can freeze eggs and then use them. I don't know about re-freezing them. Are they unfrozen now? If not, take off the shells and plop them into a ziploc bag to be used in recipes as needed. Quiche is another good one - and it freezes well. Sweet breads - like Zucchini or Banana bread also freeze well after baking Frittata - i don't know if it freezes well, but it's just like a quiche without the crust.

I usually take a hot bath or two as well when my core gets too cold and I can't warm up.

I'm not cut out for extreme cold either... it's been below 30 most days for a couple of days and I can't seem to get warm... even sitting next to my pellet stove. The thing is... I'm not cut out for extreme heat either. I get sick when it gets super hot here (95* plus)... and especially when the humidity is high too.

I got a packaged delivered via the USPS from Amazon yesterday. The thing is I'm pretty sure I didn't order it via Prime (I really dislike overusing it since I know it means people working at strange hours). But, I must have ordered it that way by mistake and now I'm a bit annoyed that Prime means that someone at the USPS had to work on a Fed. holiday. That just doesn't seem right to me.

I think I saw a post from her in the last week or so.... she may have changed her screen name slightly though.

This gave me a chuckle because I thought the same thing. LOL

I didn't know they had their own channel. We've watched their videos and I used to get their catalog. Neat!

So very sad. May their memory be eternal!! here is a list of their names (except one) for those who do not wish to go to the other links: 1. Milad Makeen Zaky 2. Abanub Ayad Atiya 3. Maged Solaiman Shehata 4. Yusuf Shukry Yunan 5. Kirollos Shokry Fawzy 6. Bishoy Astafanus Kamel 7. Somaily Astafanus Kamel 8. Malak Ibrahim Sinweet 9.Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros 10. Girgis Milad Sinweet 11. Mina Fayez Aziz 12. Hany Abdelmesih Salib 13. Bishoy Adel Khalaf 14. Samuel Alham Wilson 15. Worker from Awr village 16. Ezat Bishri Naseef 17. Loqa Nagaty 18. Gaber Munir Adly 19. Esam Badir Samir 20. Malak Farag Abram 21. Sameh Salah Faruq

I can see how leaving a faith community so intrenched with your family life would be incredibly hard. It's probably very good your dh is seeing a therapist. May you find many fruitful blessings throughout your journey.

Yes, I agree.. it's not always the size of the congregation either...some traditions seem to be more understanding than others about it.

I haven't watched SNL in many, many years, so I feel a bit out of touch with it. But, thanks to Youtube and other media outlets I've always kind of known what was going on. (knew about Tina Fey and her Sarah Palin impersonations even though I never watched them via SNL). It was easy enough to find out which skit had been the hit the night before. Anyway, we taped the special and have watched about 1/2. It's okay... I wish they'd show more old sketches rather than doing updated ones. Why didn't they show the famous Gilda Radner sketch??? I didn't know who the woman was who was impersonating Gilda being Rosanne-Rosanna-dana and it wasn't funny. I enjoyed all the President impersonations they showed...that was very fun, as was the Jeopardy sketch. But, we have been ff through a lot too. Paul McCartney was painful to watch. Like I said, we've only watched 1/2, so maybe there will be more retrospectives in the last 1/2

This is going to be a bit of a convoluted story, so please bare with me: When I started to break away from our former Christian tradition I went someplace else and my dh continued at the original church with the kids. We didn't want them to be flung from place to place when we didn't really know how it would all end up. When we as a couple realized that we couldn't agree on our faith tradition we found a reasonable compromise and when we made our move we all went together. However, we allowed our oldest to continue with the youth group at the previous church. She was not happy about the change and that was a compromise so she could still be connected to her friends. Within 4yrs of that first change I realized I couldn't live with the compromise and the kids were a bit older (although I had 2 at your kids' age)... I made the change and we let our oldest 5 choose (youngest automatically came with me). My dh tried but wasn't ready. It took him about 9yrs before he converted. One of the constants for my dh and I was that church was non-negotiable for our family. Even though we were challenging what we had always believed and practiced before, our core belief in Christ & the importance of gathering together as believers was not something we were questioning. We were questioning what the gathering really looked like and how they believed and practiced their faith. I think you should decide what are the non-negotiable for your family. What is the core things that you want your kids to know is important to you as a couple and as parents? You are welcome to PM me if you want a longer, more detailed history. The path was not always easy (hence the original compromise) but the journey was SO worth it.

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder that myself. Her story seems to be a distraction from the whole message. How ironic that she didn't even want to be interview again because she didn't want the spotlight back on her again.