Two things

Now is the crunch time for school. Much much homework.

Today, however, was spent getting ready for the little boy's birthday party, which will be tomorrow if the Lord tarries. We made a pound of butter to go on the scones. (The little boy's godmother helped churn it.) We made the cupcakes today, too. Tomorrow morning Athanasia will make the scones and frost the cupcakes. We have two gallons of orange juice and 6 bottles of champagne at the ready. I love scones. I don't know what all we are having, but I did see a great number of berries in the refrigerator. Athanasia is kind of doing this party.

Huw posted these words of the Venerable Seraphim of Platina on his blog:

"Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this "strange land" and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors - for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master - and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the rising sun of the New Jerusalem - the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. Exile loves and produces continual weeping. Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiles from this world if we hope to return. "

These words go with the Psalm below.