Bella and I baked a loaf of bread this morning. A nice big fluffy one. Nothing I love better than hot honey whole wheat fresh from the oven. Bella agrees. I have to set a timer to let her know when the bread is cool enough to cut. Otherwise she won’t let up.
Bella and her rosary beads.
We listened to the rosary on cd and set up our little prayer corner, laying out a small crucifix, her rosaries and prayer cards and prayer booklets on the prie dieu in the corner of the living room. She had fun kneeling down to pray and several times had me kneel down with her. I wandered around, cleaning up and folding laundry while reciting Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Sometimes I paid attention to the prayers, at other times I admit I got distracted. But all in all a very prayerful, contemplative morning. Quite the best way to accomplish housework, if you ask me.
Bella kept interrupting me as I tried to cook dinner. She wanted me to come kneel down and pray. At first I resisted. Then I gave in and knelt down with her. What a lovely little break from housework. It certainly made the evening more tranquil (though Sophie’s taking a rare third nap also helped.)
Bella’s collection of holy cards finds a home.
I love my new laundry room. It’s still a bit of a mess, all the boxes we haven’t sorted through yet still cluttering up the space. But even so it’s still a huge improvement over the dank, cobwebby basement. I threw in a load while the oatmeal was simmering this morning. Later, I put Phia in the bouncy swing and let her watch the clothes tumble round in the washer. And I adore my big picture window with a nice view of the backyard.
Nicely folded clothes.
The girls watch the clothes spinning.
A laundry room with a view.
I unpacked another box, put a few more things away, hung the crucifix in my bedroom and the small icon of the Theotokos that my sister brought me from Greece. I think we really do have enough crosses that we can have one in each room of the house. Would it be disrespectful to hang a small cross in the bathroom, do you think? To remind me to pray first thing in the morning.
I also think I have enough images of Mary to have a Madonna in every room of the house. I am so looking forward to giving myself all these reminders to pray and be mindful and to make our home an imitation of the home in Nazareth.
The dining room in the late afternoon. Flowers on the table from my brother-in-law, John, and an arrangement that Dom won at work.
poor little one! that could explain a lot!