My heart is heavy and I couldn’t get past it to write any blog posts. Just now I decided to face up to it and just post and get it over with.

Friday we lost Smokey. He was hit by a car. I found out through a neighborhood post about a grey and white cat and had a terrible feeling, even though there are cats everywhere. Father and I went out to look after we couldn’t find him anywhere in the house and found him. Some kind person had moved him to the grass in a shady spot away from the road. I won’t go into details but I was sobbing when we saw him. The children never saw him, which was deliberate. I’ve been praying that God will eventually erase or at least mercifully blur that memory. Today was the first day I didn’t accidentally get out two plates for the cats’ – cat’s – breakfast. It hurts terribly. I know time will smooth it over. After all, I buried four unborn babies and can think about them now without falling apart. In the meantime, it hurts, and I’ve been saying the Jesus Prayer pretty near constantly to stay in the moment and not fall into flashbacks.

In other news (and I do not intend to write about Smokey again anytime soon), the Ancient Faith Artisans’ Corner week went off without a hitch, at least on my end. I think most everyone had a lot of traffic and some sales. I only sold one censer during the event but if I’m honest that’s probably not a bad thing since I still have the dolls to do for St. Tikhon’s. I FINALLY got started on them yesterday and have all of the head bases done. Here are four of the nine:

There will be three each of nuns, monks, and priests. These are the little 8-9 inch dolls.

On the way back from the post office the other day I saw some azaleas blooming! It’s too early! Probably that excessively mild weather we had the preceding week.

It’s unfortunate that things bloom so early around here because most everything is gone by the time we get to Pascha.

Well, we’ll see what weather this spring brings. If it cools off and stays there it might delay some of the blooming anyway.

It’s cloudy and damp. It rained overnight (0.16”) and it will rain again today and, in fact, for the next few days. I like this weather if I can stay in. Sadly, I’ll be out and about in it. I’ll try to enjoy the indoor time!

The following pictures are from last Sunday, February 2nd, Candlemas.

[This is turning into a whopping big post, so I might as well get it all in and feel caught up.]

February 6th was Flopsy’s 18th birthday. She requested a cake we had made a few years ago for her: cheesecake between two layers of chocolate gateau, with fudge and caramel sauce between those layers, all topped off with chocolate ganache. It was Cheesecake Factory-worthy. It was also messy. This year I wised up and constructed it on a cut glass tray with a large lip around it to contain the escaped sauce.

So, I’ll wrap things up here. Hopefully I’m back to regular posting. The house is mostly done except for a few boxes and the garage (oof). I’m still going through my list of “places/entities that need change-of-address.” These things take time.