http://www.aetv.com/longmire/ Very enjoyable western detective series that started this summer. They're based on a book series and are set in Wyoming. So far, all the main characters are well done and the writing is good. Mountains, Open range, Stetsons, and grizzled manly characters... what's not to love?? :)

Agreeing with others. we're currently keeping stuff frozen for others without power.

:D

There is a great group of Orthodox homeschoolers online that can probably answer that question better than I. When you say religious - do you mean history - or spirituality? For history: "Heroes of the Faith" by Sophie Koulomzin "The Orthodox Faith Volume 3 - Bible and Church History" by Fr. Thomas Hopko. For Spirituality - I really like "A Year of Grace of the Lord" by a monk of the Eastern Church. It's subtitle is: A Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church. I like this book a lot and I think if you read it with your ms it would be quite beneficial. Some of the sections tend to go on and on... but you can just skip the bits that are bogging you down. HTH!

LOL - I forgot to add that I chuckled at your last sentence... it is SO true. There is just so much that was left out of my religious and secular education... it's as if the whole Eastern half of the Christian world never existed! My 16 yr old was lamenting this about her history class (she goes to a Prot. Christian school) and I told her I had the same experience in public school. BTW, I love Frederica Matthewes-Green - she's a great writer.

Welcome! I am an Eastern Orthodox convert myself... and yes there's a group: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/group.php?groupid=112

wow....just wow. So glad it didn't turn out the way you thought. So glad you still have your little one with you! :grouphug:

First question: How do you like to toast your marshmallows? slowly - I like them toasty brown but not burnt. How was your weekend? Good. I'm thankful we had power. Is anything special happening in the month of July? Next weekend we will be with all our children in WV for 3 days. It's becoming a rare occasion so I'm looking forward to it.

I really like your questions...they are quite thought-provoking. I am an Eastern Orthodox convert, so I'm quite biased having been in your shoes and trying to unlearn 40yrs of Western thought/Christianity. I agree with others that you should do some heavy early church research. I would start with the originals. Find out what that church looked like. Remember- there were 300+ years of church before the canon of scriptures... and even then it wasn't set in solid stone right away. Read the Apostolic Fathers... read the Didachae, read Justin Martyr. Read Athanasius' "On the Incarnation" and some St. John of Damascus. None of these are hard reads - those guys wrote very accessible books for the non-theologian types like me. Slowly work your way up. Read some about the shape of early church belief. After that read some Henry Chadwick. He's very well respected by both East and Western Christians (I think he was Anglican). He wrote a book called "The Early Church"... it's a good book. Your questions: 1. I don't know the answer to this. 2. As far as I know within the EO faith the Epistles are not on equal footing with the Gospels. That is why we hold the Gospels in such great regard, we kiss it, we keep it on our altars, we are encouraged to read the Gospels above all others (not that we shouldn't read the whole Bible). In fact, within the EO faith we regard the Sermon on the Mount and especially the Beatitudes in high regard and use that as a measuring stick for our lives. We sing the Beatitudes every Sunday as part of the Liturgy. 3. I don't think so - but I'm not sure. 4. all I can say is that the EO church intreprets Roman's 5 very differently than Western and modern (16th century on) Christians. We reject double Predestination. You should ask the question: "What were men saved from?" In the old testament ...at Passover. What were the israelites saved from? They were saved from DEATH. Christ came and trampled down Death by death. This is the clear teaching of the early church. Yes, forgiveiness of sin is very important. We must live a life of repentance, love and humility. The Israelite's had access to repentance. What no man had access to was Life after death. This is what Christ came for. He came to bring us back to God after the ties had been severed by Adam. But, how is eternal life lived? What is that like for someone who completely rejects God and turns his back on Him? During your studies I would strongly encourage you to figure out what the early church meant by these words: Sin, repentance, church, overseer (i.e. Bishop), grace. Okay, I'm very tired...I'm not sure I'm making much sense right now, and I don't even know if I want to hit the "post" button because I don't know if I feel like defending myself right now.

I hope everyone is okay. I see the storms on the radar and will keep an eye on them.

There were many... but two that come immediately to mind are The Shack and Portrait of a Lady

it was a bizarre storm. I've lived here all my life and I don't recall seeing one that acted like this. The lightening was continuous - like someone was flicking a light switch on and off constantly. We were fairly protected from the wind, but I could tell there was a lot of it. But mostly I noticed how strangely the lightening acted compared with other storms. Most everyone I know lost their power for 24hrs or more (some are starting to come back). Some will not have it back for a few more days, we're told... so I feel very lucky that we got ours back in 3hrs. We had church w/out power this morning... it was oppressively hot, even by 9:30am, but I was glad to be there together with my church family.

:grouphug: I can't imagine how difficult & frustrating this must be for you.

:iagree: There's a difference between "looking up" and "contacting". I have no desire to contact.

This is me too. I don't want any contact with them but it would be nice to know they're doing well. I haven't had much success. I guess I dated guys who are too into the internet.

woo hoo! I'm glad you're back with AC.

Yes, this is so sad. It's the one time I wish I were on FB cuz I'd be complaining loud. Right now the cable guys are engaged in speculative journalism discussing what the Supreme Court MAY or MAY NOT do tomorrow... let's all do a bit more wonking on and on about that! Meanwhile the West burns.... thanks wapiti for the links again. They keep getting lost in the thread.

Am I the only person on the East Coast rather miffed at the cable news channels? To me this is a BIG deal .... 32K people being evacuated is HUGE. I've been trying to keep my eye on it during the day but they're barely covering it. I can't help but think if it were NYCity the cable people would be on it 24/7. So frustrating!

I think all the reasons I deleted my account have already been mentioned.

my favorite cod recipe: In fact, I'm making it for dinner tonight. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Portuguese-Cod-Fish-Casserole/Detail.aspx It says "salted" cod. I usually buy normal cod at the store and brine mine for at least 3-5 hrs. Then I don't do the soak. I guess if it's pre-salted then its real salty. Portuguese fish is VERY salty. Anyway, it's very yummy this way and even my very picky kids like it.

following this story... praying.

I'll second The Homeschool Library. Great group of ladies and we often go off-topic too. We also are able to discuss politics in a special moderated sub-forum, if you enjoy hot-topics. ;) It's always nice to know about other options out there for discussions, especially since I'm no longer hsing. ...thanks for starting this topic.

I am so sorry this has happened. Thanks for sharing such a lovely tribute.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Sounds like your bil married his mother. As to other advice. I have no experience with narcissistic personality and I would take the advice of those who have BTDT.

What are you doing this weekend? Swim Team, Vespers. Sunday morning church and hosting coffee hour, youngest son's family b-day party. It was nice to have all my babies under one roof along with one child's husband and another child's girlfriend. What is the temperature where you are? Hot and humid. in the 90's And today's random question - if you could have a super power, what would it be? I would want to be able to teleport.