Saints Perpetua and Felicity are two of my favorite saints. They were a married noblewoman and her servant who were brought to be executed for their faith. Felicity was pregnant and delivered while in prison. The image of her bleeding, recently delivered body being set against wild beasts in the arena was too much even for the Romans, who were so used to this kind of violence as entertainment, and seeing them martyred in this way was the beginning of the end for this kind of execution in Rome.

This has been a weird Lent for us. We are already kind of between the East and West because of Church affiliations in the family. It also just doesn't feel as much like Lent as it normally does for us. Also our re-entry week has been much less smooth than we expected. I was not able to spend as much time at home as is really necessary for things to go smoothly, so I am hoping this coming week will be easier.

We have feasts of some of our favorite saints this week, plus one whose intercession we need badly for our gardening this year. We are really between fruit seasons, it is the last of the winter fruit stores (citrus, mostly) and well before the summer fruit start coming, and last year we just didn't really have a chance to put up as much as I would have liked. We need to make sure we do more of that this year. It will need to be a priority for us. Between food prices, weird things going on in the supply chain, stores ordering only enough stock for the week, and frankly, the poor quality of the produce we have seen in stores over the past few years, we want to make sure we have enough of our own preserved so we know it is good and we have it for the family. We do have some canned fruit and a bit of dried fruit, but mostly it's frozen fruit now.

Rich has been planting things in our makeshift greenhouse and we are almost to the point that we can direct seed plants like peas and potatoes. We are really praying that we have the time and weather to produce quite a lot of our own vegetables this year. Our fruit trees look like they have survived winter fairly well, but where we live, we have had hard frosts as late as Memorial Day. We are praying for this to be a year without anything like that in it. If our garden and trees produce for us, I will be able to preserve a lot for us for the next year. My goal is not to have to buy any summer produce in the fall, winter and early spring, expect for perhaps eggplant, just because I haven't found a way to preserve it well. Perhaps if I preserve it as the foods that we eat and enjoy, that might be the better way. Anyway, Rich spends our miserable winter time planning the garden, and I plan the summer preserving. He is better at the garden part, and I just tell him the varieties we want to eat.

A few of the kids got to go to a teen retreat at a church a few cities away from us, and it was wonderful. We are so glad they got to go, and we are planning for them to go to the summer camp, too. They have made friends, and are really learning to know God in a better way. We are thankful. Please pray for them that the good words would embed themselves in them and that the darkness of our world would not overpower it.

Thank you for your prayers! We have had so many good answers to prayer this past week and are grateful. Glory to God in His Saints! Keep praying for us, and we continue to pray for you.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Potatoes Hash Burritos with Salsa, Fruit Plate, Tea and Coffee
  Dinner: Black Bean and Potato Enchiladas, Salsa Rice, Cabbage Slaw
• Monday
  Breakfast: Potato Pancakes with Salsa, Sliced Avocados, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Shorbat 'Addas, Tamis (all made with sunflower oil)
• Tuesday - Feast of Saint Conon the Gardener
  Breakfast: Lenten Plum Butter Muffins with Almond Butter, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Thai Cashew Coconut Rice with Peanut Sauce, Frozen Fruit Salad
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Raisins, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and Coconut Milk, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Mahjouba, Date and Orange Salad
• Thursday - Feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity
  Breakfast: Scrambled Chickpeas with Peppers and Onions, Sourdough Toast, Mint Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Stir Fried Vegetables, Szechuan Fried Rice, Mandarin Oranges
• Friday - Feast of Saint Gregory of Nyssa
  Breakfast: Almond Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Honduran Red Beans and Rice, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Ful with Olive Oil to break the fast after Liturgy
  Dinner: Ladenia, Red Potato Salad, Lenten Bougatsa me Crema

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Fasting as a Family, Homemaking, Homesteading, Lent, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen