Matushka

(pictured: a REAL Matushka, to my thinking)

Here a month and I've been thinking a lot about compartmentalization.

I'm a new Matushka. That sounds weird, but here is the deal: as a newly ordained priest, my husband is undergoing an identity criss or sorts, and I am with him. In the Orthodox church, priest-wives have names that indicate their place--in our tradition, it is Matushka. So with my husband's ordination, he gained the priesthood, I gained a nickname. Sort of. 


So, where I have always been called Amy, or Mimi, or Amykins--I am now Matushka. And sometimes Matushka Priscilla. And it is a little strange. Not unwelcome, but sort of surreal.

I think it is because this new name denotes a new aspect of who I am--and I didn't think too much about that new part of my person until we moved and people started renaming me on a permanent basis.

Hence my identity is changing, and how do I integrate that identity and NOT compartmentalize it? How do I remain authentically myself while taking on the roll of Matushka?

The other night, before bed, I turned to my husband and said, "Oh my, I am a preacher's wife." This was after witnessing him, some hours early, preach to a rather large number of people. I never thought I would be a preacher's wife--I saw what my mom went through in the Protestant church and I know what I went through as a preacher's kid. So this struck me as really "off" the other night that here I am--married to a "preacher" or sorts. And this thing happened slowly and over a long period of time, and I agreed to it! So now, it seems I have suddenly woken up to a new kind of reality and I look, on the exterior, very different to myself. Not in physicality but in persona? I am seeing a new person, one that other people are newly meeting, as I enter into this roll.

But I am still just me on the interior. With a new name. A name that hasn't changed me much yet.

Hm.

Slow Shawl Start

Ugh, I really am a mediocre knitter. 3 starts later and this is as far as I have gotten! Plus, it's 108 degrees outside today and I am making a shawl? Insanity.

Dratted Streaming Leaves!

Can't figure out lace and have no desire to try anymore. So now a search for a new pattern to utilize this blasted expensive yarn. (Don't you love antiquated substitute curses?)

Times *Does* Fly (Away)

And 5 years later...

My Muzzy passed away in 2011. Pops joined her almost exactly one year later. My beloved grandparents are gone, but a huge part of who they are and were is still here...in me! So, continuing forward...

Here I am again! On the crafting front, not much has changed. I am still avidly going at it, when I have pockets of time. Mostly knitting and crocheting, with some cooking thrown it. Add that to my life as a wife, a mom, a homeschooler, and a nurse--and the crafts have fallen by the wayside a bit.

Where am I today? I have moved back home. Well, sort of. Living in the midwest previously, my husband and I took a detour through New York. Ahem. A seminary detour that is. He was ordained to the priesthood in that time span, I was introduced to CITY LIFE and now...

We are in the Southwest. And I want to revamp things a bit--combine my blogs a bit.

My blog recipe--I'm going to craft and nurse and talk about it, with hard limits (oh, HIPAA!).

Throw in the mix:

*starting up a new Orthodox Mission Church (with hubby)
* the cultivation and raising of male teenagers
*a foray into gardening that seems unwise, much like everything else I am doing in my life
*eating/cooking Paleo, but ingesting way too much caffiene and spoiling it all
*the decorating of a new home and...
*trying to be a Christian (the hardest of all tasks)


Stir it all up, add the unknown ingredients and a dash of anxiety--and we shall see how this all comes out, okay?

Christmas Coconut & Date Balls

december 1970, 2 years before i was born, muzz wrote this recipe down. it uses oleo, which is an uncommon ingredient today but was used quite frequently 30 years ago. basically, it was pre-margarine. i had a friend make moon pies about 8 years ago and she actually found oleo in the market, but we were in the south, so that may have something to do with availability. i think it is more of a cross between crisco and parkay. (remember the old parkay commercials? miss them!)

c&d balls!

new favorite

found this sewing book that is just about perfect. (she also has a website that i added to my sidebar.) the ease of projects and the beautiful layout along with the included patterns makes this book a must have for a beginner like me. the problem is, which thing to make first?

got together some shower invitations--am determined to use scrapbooking supplies that are hidden in my craft/heap/closet/mess. want to sew today but have school commitments, so have to study instead! arg!

Frozen Fruit Salad

Basically you take the following ingredients and pour them into the juice cans (use some Pam). Garnish with additional maraschino cherries. Freeze fruit salad until firm. Then you slide it out of the cans (run warm water over them first) slice it up and presumably eat it or hit someone over the head with it. Reasearch found that this is a recipe from 1950 with some modifications made by Muzz. Sounds quite cool on a hot day, right?



"3 bananas 4 ways?"

I am really noticing a theme with processed foods as I go through the recipes...must have been the shortages during the war and the prices of fresh foods.