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Sunday, May 17, 2026

Menu Plan: May 17 - 23 (Ascension Octave and Novena to the Holy Spirit)

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

We are within the Octave of Ascension for most of this week, and are praying the Novena to the Holy Spirit through this Saturday. We are near the end of the entire Paschal season. There is a sadness that comes with that, but we get to celebrate the second highest feast of the Church year, as well. Pentecost is the commissioning of the Church; it is Her birthday, and without that authority and power, we could not live. Glory to God!

My observation about the local weather pattern around Ascension and Pentecost held true this year. Rich said that maybe Jesus needs a headwind to ascend (that is a joke!). We had hotter weather earlier last week, and it is cooling a bit with wind this week. This week is yet another busy week. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever have an easy going, slow week again. There is a lot going on this week, including an end of year potluck for some of the girls' classes. God bless our parish family who took over the meal for tonight so I could handle all the other things thrown at me this past week. Several of our meals this week are garbage management so we can use the bits and bobs that were left over from other meals this past week.

I scheduled some things wrong and thought we were getting our last load of asparagus this week, but it was last week, so I am having to rush our pickling this year. Nearly all of our fruit tree blossoms froze this year, though we are hoping the apple blossoms will make it (they come later in the season) and we might get apples this year. No apricots, peaches, plums, or cherries. Maybe we will see pears, though.

As we approach Pentecost, I am filled with gratitude to the Church. I always appreciate Apostolic authority, but I am especially glad for it now. Without it, after all, we couldn't eat bacon, or cheeseburgers, or crab! As we grow in faith, I see how important it is to have it. There is so much confusion in the modern world, and the clarity brought by the Church is so valuable. God has undone the confusion of Babel for us, and it is our vocation to follow Him. We will be hosting our traditional Pentecost Tongues of Flame Barbecue next week, and I am really looking forward to that.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:59 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Menu Plan: Week of the Ascension

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

The Paschal season is winding down. We have Rogation days this week, the Feast of the Ascension, then the novena to the Holy Spirit begins on Friday. We are going to try to fly a kite and find a higher spot to eat for the Ascension. Please pray with us. We begin the normal fast after Ascension Day, then we will have the celebration of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church.

Today is Mother's Day and all I wanted was rest and not to be responsible for everything. So, Rich and the kids are putting together a brunch for me, and cleaning it up, too. We have evening church and dinner after that. I meant to order myself a new knitting tool as a treat a couple weeks ago, but forgot, so we will do that tonight.

We are slowing back down to ordinary time. In just two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost (the second highest feast of the Church year), and have another fast free week. Then, it is back to the quotidian. I'm not sorry for that.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Sunday, June 01, 2025

Menu Plan: June 1 - 7 (Ascension Octave and Novena to the Holy Spirit)

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

We are within the Octave of Ascension for most of this week, and are praying the Novena to the Holy Spirit through this Saturday. We are near the end of the entire Paschal season. There is a sadness that comes with that, but we get to celebrate the second highest feast of the Church year, as well. Pentecost is the commissioning of the Church; it is her birthday, and without that authority and power, we could not live. Glory to God!

I was noticing that over the past few years, the local weather pattern around Ascension and Pentecost is actually quite similar, regardless of which part of the spring it falls. We had a hotter week last week, and it is cooling a bit with wind this week.

We had an event last week which I forgot about when I was menu planning (it didn't make it on the calendar) and so we have a meal this week from last week. Also, I moved another breakfast from last week to this week. Because of family church schedules (we have some kids who go to an Orthodox service on Sundays), I am now planning the glutenous breakfasts for Sunday mornings, as we have a shorter fasting time for our evening Eucharist. Saturdays will be big, fancier, egg dishes from here on out, I think.

As we approach Pentecost, I am filled with gratitude to the Church. I always appreciate Apostolic authority, but I am especially glad for it now. Without it, after all, we couldn't eat bacon, or cheeseburgers, or crab! As we grow in faith, I see how important it is to have it. There is so much confusion in the modern world, and the clarity brought by the Church is so valuable. God has undone the confusion of Babel for us, and it is our vocation to follow Him.

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 (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:24 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Menu Plan: Week of the Ascension

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

The Paschal season is winding down. We have Rogation days this week, the Feast of the Ascension, then the novena to the Holy Spirit begins on Friday. We are going to try to fly a kite and find a higher spot to eat for the Ascension. Please pray with us.

Our schedule was a little up and down last week, so we moved some of the meals to this week and did different meals last week. Friday, we had a chance to go to a free concert at the lake, and so we brought a picnic of falafel and khoubz and other fixings. We had so many leftovers that the meal I initially planned for Monday is moved later in June, and we are eating leftovers tomorrow.

We are slowing back down to ordinary time. In just two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost (the second highest feast of the Church year), and have another fast free week. Then, it is back to the quotidian. I'm not sorry for that.

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 (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:33 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Menu Plan: May 12 - 18

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

Mother's Day was lovely. As we don't have liturgy until the evening on Sundays, we can sleep in a little, and Rich and Nejat made a beautiful brunch for me. It started with fancy chocolates and coffee that Rich bought and made, respectively, then on to fantastic omelettes with peppers, onions, tomatoes, meat and cheese on the inside that he made, and Nejat made blueberry muffins, which I had with more coffee. The kids brought me some gorgeous flowers so I could wake up to them, and a lovely handmade card, some cookies and candies and other treats. At church, we had a potluck meal and got to share the work and the time together that way.

Nejat's birthday is this week, and she has expressed an interest in doing more cooking, so she is actually making dinner (with help from others) on her birthday! She decided that would be one of the nights she cooked this week. I cannot believe that it has been 11 years since we were so anxious and trying to keep her safe inside while I was in a hospital for nearly a month.

We are almost to asparagus time, and I am looking forward to it. We will make more pickles and eat a ton of it. We may ask a friend to borrow her freeze dryer and preserve some that way. I have heard good things about that method, and we don't love frozen asparagus. What do you think?

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 (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:57 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Menu Plan: May 5 - 11

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

The only good part about East and West celebrating separately is that we can celebrate twice. We were able to join the the Orthodox Mission here and celebrate Pascha with them and it was glorious. As we still follow the Western calendar, we are celebrating the Ascension this week. We will try to fly a kite, and eat on a high spot on our property. There are also Rogation Days this week, and a return to the more normal abstinence in our diet. Friday is also the beginning of the Novena to the Holy Spirit whom we await, as the Apostles and disciples did in that upper room.

Nejat has been wanting to do more cooking, so I've let her take one or two night's a week to make dinner either on her own or with some help from us. She has been doing pretty well, too. She's excited to be making more meals and learning more about cooking and it has been a big help to me.

May is a super busy month for us this year, and we have a ton going on right now. I'm trying to plan in such a way that makes life simpler for us all each day. Sometimes this means that we have to rearrange our meal plans, though, and we move things over to accommodate our shifting schedules or needs. We have some of that this week, and probably next week, as well. Spring is finally really making an appearance, though, and next week should bring the first of the asparagus for the year.

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 (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:41 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Menu Plan: May 21 - 27 (Ascension Octave and Novena to the Holy Spirit)

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

We are within the Octave of Ascension for most of this week, and are praying the Novena to the Holy Spirit through this Saturday. We are near the end of the entire Paschal season. There is a sadness that comes with that, but we get to celebrate the second highest feast of the Church year, as well. Pentecost is the commissioning of the Church; it is her birthday, and without that authority and power, we could not live. Glory to God!

The weather is cooling down into the 70s and low 80s this week, which is great. We weren't quite ready for the 90s yet. It's easier when it is a slower build up to those temperatures. I didn't mind it so much, but it's hard on a lot of people. It's still warm enough for salads and lighter meals, but not so hot that cooking seems oppressive. The hottest day so far this year was yesterday, and it was such a busy day for us, with big errands, a memorial and reception for a neighbor, our monthly dance, and that was all after the homeschool formal and a birthday sleepover. We were kind of exhausted today.

We have nearly a month of school and extracurricular activities, plus an airshow right in the middle of it all and a ballet recital at the end. The homeschool formal dance went well, and it is another of our last of the school year events that we have checked off the list. We will be glad to have some more rest this summer.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:09 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Menu Plan: May 14 - 20

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

It is the slow down of the Paschal season this week. We have Rogation Days, Ascension Day is Thursday. The novena to the Holy Spirit begins on Friday, and we will wait and pray with the Apostles and disciples, for His coming on Pentecost. On top of that, there is Mother's Day today and Nejat's birthday this week. It's a full week. Tehnically there is some small abstinence this week, for the Rogation Days, and we begin the return to the normal abstinent schedule Friday.

The folks at church are generously making the meal tonight, which is a huge blessing to me. Since I won't have to cook, I think I will bring the poundcake that I didn't make last night to share with everyone there. It looks like we will have our Ascension Day picnic, though it is a challenge to find a high spot to have it and fly our kites.

We will get our first local asparagus next week, which will be fantastic. I'm looking forward to all sorts of asparagus dishes, and replenishing our asparagus pickles. We are still eating winter citrus and storage apples, but were able to get some good deals on berries and have our home canned fruit, so we can still have a little variety.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 6:50 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Menu Plan: May 29 - June 4

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

We are in the time beween Ascension and Pentecost during which we wait with the Apostles for the descent of the Spirit and the birth of the Church. Some people count this as after the Paschal season, some count it as part of it. I tend to be on the side of those who include it, and consider Pentecost the new season. It seems fitting, as it is the second highest feast of the Church year, and bookends the season beginning with the highest feast of the Church year.

This week is also our week of reprieve. We have relatively few engagements, and Rich has Monday off for Memorial Day, so we are going to go a little easier and rest a bit, if we can. There is still school work to do, and we have a ton to do around the property, but if we don't get some rest, it will end badly. Especially as we have the airshow coming up in three weeks.

The homeschool dance went really well, and though I made half the food I normally do, there was still a ton left, so we ate a lot of it for leftovers Saturday and moved our planned meal to Sunday. The folks at church augmented it with some lovely side dishes, and made my load much lighter. Jerome's re-introduction of foods is going well. He is on lentils now, and seems to have no trouble with it. I am starting to believe that his triggers are environmental rather than food, but we press on and try anyway. He says that his skin felt the best when he was eating no sugar and grain, and has been self limiting his own sugar quite a bit. For our health and our budget's health, we are back to eating loads of beans and legumes and soup at least once a week. We are treating the Church rules on diet much more strictly, though still not perfectly strict, and trying to live within them to the best of our ability. We are seeing health in the spirit, in the body, and hoping this will help us keep up with the economic realities we are all facing.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:46 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Menu Plan: Ascension Day Week

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

Ascension Day is Thursday, and we have the Rogation Days at the beginning of this week. We are praying for a special intention and would appreciate you joining in our prayers. This is also a super busy week for our family, we have the homeschool dance at the end of the week and all the preparations that go with that, not to mention the Ascension Day festivities. We will be heading to the closest approximation to a high hill we have here, and having our meal as a family picnic and bringing our kite, too.

If you missed it, take a look at my latest frugality post on the blog. I have restarted the series, now that the economy and inflation are so bad after the policies of the past two years. It seemed like it was time to take a look at those strategies again, and I will try to post something weekly about it, with some advice from what has worked for us. Your family needs and location and so on will determine how you use that advice, but I hope it will help you.

Rogation Days mean some extra abstinence this week, too. We get our first order of local asparagus this week and will be pickling this weekend. There will likely be a lot of asparagus on our menus for the week following, and we will have loads of pickled asparagus this summer and fall. Jerome's skin is doing a little better, and we thank you for your prayers. My skin is blowing up, but that is to be expected with all the hay and grass growing. Please keep us in your prayers still.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:41 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Menu Plan: May 24 - 30



Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

I'm kind of excited about this week, because Rich has Monday off. He was going to take Ascension Day off since we couldn't do anything with church, so we could have the time together to celebrate and study it as a family, but emergency work issues got in the way of that. At least he didn't use a vacation day, I guess. It's hard to have these major feasts and such a challenging time to mark them. The two highest feasts of the Church, and another major feast, have all been spent at home without the Body. We won't be able to do our Tongues of Flame Barbecue with the church, but we can prepare for it with our family, at least.

We were finally able to find some small green lentils, so I am trying to make mejeddarah again. Next, we need fava and garbanzo beans. We eat a largely Southwest Asian and North African diet, and those legumes make up quite a lot of what we eat.


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.


Linking to Menu Plan Monday

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:32 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Menu Plan: May 17 - 23



Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

This week is going to be hard. It is yet another major feast that we cannot share with others, and that we cannot go to church, and that we won't be able to go do our normal picnic and kite flying (which was already a little harder - trying to find a decent hill here). I'm tired. We are weary. Christ is still Risen and He will ascend nonetheless. The first words we said to Nejat were "I love you Nejat," and "Christ is Risen!" Those were the most important things we wanted her to hear the first time she saw us. I'm trying to remember that now.


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.


Linking to Menu Plan Monday

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:06 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 22, 2017

Menu Plan: May 21 - 27


We are nearing the end of the Paschal season. This is a little bittersweet. Since the girls are so tied up with ballet during the week, I'm not sure if we'll be able to do our Ascension Day picnic, but we are going to try. At least, we'll get some kite flying done.

Last week was our second annual homeschool teen dance, and we had a lot of work to do. It was so much fun, though, and the kids had a great time. I voluntold Rich to make a pineapple palm tree, since our theme was beach bash, and he did an amazing job - definitely a Pinterest win.




Because of all the necessary preparations and also a field trip that became much more complicated when Rich was called back to work for a meeting, there was a lot of meal shuffling. So there are repeats this week. Another thing we didn't realize until Thursday was that all of our babysitting kids were going to the dance. We had a quick confab and decided that Jerome and Yasmina were probably old enough and responsible enough to take care of their siblings and the house for six hours. Their older brothers and sister had done so at their ages, and there wasn't even a baby in the house now. Both Jerome and Yasmina told us they thought they could do it and wanted the chance to try. They did a fine job.

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:51 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Menu Plan: May 1 - 7


We have an incredibly busy week this week. There is a homeschool formal dance this weekend, and I am on the planning committee and, by the way, doing a bit of the food preparations, plus our normal schedule, plus ballet and baseball, plus a monthly neighborhood meeting Rich has, plus a field trip, plus I'm taking one of the days Rich usually drives the kids to activities, because he is studying for an exam for some further education for his work. Oh, and Ascension Day is Thursday. I'm already tired. There are going to be a lot of nights that the kids are making dinner, and a lot of easy and quick meals to prep. The day after the dance, we are going to crash, eat leftovers and have cocktails (those of us who worked on it and chaperoned it - Rich volunteered to chaperone on the condition that he would also get to eat the food). This week, I am thankful that our kids can take care of themselves, each other, and can cook!

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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 5:35 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 11, 2015

Menu Plan: May 10 - 16

So, baseball began. Only we didn't get the call and Jerome wasn't placed on a team. Even though we registered and paid and the check was cashed. I realized this when I started seeing pictures of the baseball/softball parade on my friends' Facebook feeds. So, I called, and found out that he had slipped through the cracks. They hastily put him on a team and he was slammed into real life last week. He's missed all the practices before the games began. He also missed almost half the games. We are going to be having a talk with the coordinators about this, but even though I was tempted to tell them to forget it and refund our money, Jerome really wanted to play, so we let him try. He's struggling a little, because this is his first year in actual baseball instead of t-ball and he missed all the practices. He's doing remarkably well for all of that, but is having trouble with catching and is discouraged about it, so if you think of him, please offer up a little prayer. Anyway, that made our schedule a lot more hectic last week and we get to continue with that theme for the next few weeks.

Nejat is turning two this week. I can't believe how quickly she has been growing and learning new things in the past four to six months. In December, she was still wearing size 12 month clothing, and now she wears 24 month clothes. She can run and jump, she can speak in pretty decent sentences, and her words are much more articulated than they used to be. She is finally catching up. She is a lot more rambunctious than Amira or Alexander or Dominic or Jerome were. We were kind of hoping for a mellow little girl, but she is active and curious and we love that. She's not a baby anymore. We're kind of out of babies here. Usually that's about when we have another. We're not sure that is what God has for us, though. It's a little daunting to think that Nejat may be our final baby, and we are still open to having more, but things are changing a lot, and barring a surprise, late in life pregnancy, we are wondering if she is our last baby blessing. That's a bittersweet thought for us.

We are excited to celebrate her second birthday, though. While looking through pictures with her of when she was first born and first at home with us, the contrast of how tiny she was and how big and strong she is now couldn't have been more stark. I am so blessed and relieved that she made it - that we do have the modern facilities and treatments that allowed us to keep her in longer and keep her blood sugar up and her temperatures more steady and enough nourishment in her. Even just 15 years earlier, it would have been a much larger challenge. We are blessed to have this memorable little one. Big one.

The Paschal season is coming to a close. We have only two more weeks. Fortunately, baseball and ballet schedules permit us to have our picnic for Ascension Day together as a family. We're going to try to find a small incline, which is what passes as a hill here, to eat it on, to try to get to a high point for the Ascension. We might even bring a kite to fly. I'm also excited because we have another dance this weekend. We're getting the word out there and people are coming, which is nice.

We're getting the asparagus this week, which thrills me, and we'll continue for as long as they offer it. I am hoping to make some pickled asparagus this year, and to blanch and freeze a lot of it for the summer, fall, and winter. At $0.50/lb, you can't really go wrong. We'll be eating it in egg dishes, roasted, steamed, grilled, and so on for quite some time. It's a good thing everyone likes it. We had so much to eat on Saturday that we ended up having snack tray for dinner, then we had our Mother's Day meals, so the ham and beans is on the docket for tonight. Fortunately, it is made already, so we only have to make cornbread and toss together a salad.

Remember that the Psalms are according to Eastern numbering in our daily Bible reading, also I Kings is the original designation, it is I Samuel in western Bibles (II Kings is II Samuel in the west, III Kings is I Kings, and IV Kings is II Kings).
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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:28 AM 2 comments

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