In positive news, I’ve been able to force half an apple down my throat and it didn’t come back up, so that’s good. After work, I’ll head over to the grocery store to get some of those applesauce pouches. They’ve got to be easier to get down.
I haven’t been able to eat since the bombing of the Freedom Square in Kharkiv. The only other times in my whole life when I had this problem was when I gave birth to Klara and when I had COVID. Even in the midst of a gallbladder attack I was hungry.
I’m fairly certain that I neither gave birth yesterday nor have COVID (weekly testing). So it’s on the Russians.
Clarissa's Blog 
You stand in solidarity with your countrymen. This is shock. I am praying for you, and for all Ukrainians. May the Lord help and protect them.
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The first of 2 laughs I had on the first day of the war was when my mom called me, said she cannot focus on anything else or work -same here – or be too far away from the bathroom.
It wasn’t a laugh at her, just the situation. I was lucky that I at least didn’t have that.
I wish that on the Russians that are responsible for this starting immediately and for the rest of their lives.
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So, Clarissa, a Canadian newsy tidbit that may, hopefully, help to perk up your digestive system??
Last night, proceedings at the Winnipeg Jets/Montreal Habs hockey game, were begun with the singing, in solidarity, of the Ukrainian national anthem.
And, the owner of the Ottawa Senators has determined that his club will play the Ukrainian anthem at the beginning of every home game for the rest of the season. Predictions are that other Canadian teams will soon follow in their own arenas the example set by the Jets and the Senators.
https://thehockeynews.com/news/senators-to-play-ukrainian-national-anthem-before-remaining-home-games
Not the hugest of deals, but still…
(BTW my guess is that hockey fans will embrace this with far, far more enthusiasm than the obligatory wokester land acknowledgements that they have to suffer through before the puck is dropped to begin the game.)
Take care!
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That’s great, thank you! It will be a sad day, indeed, when hockey fans embrace land acknowledgements.
Regarding food, is it still OK to eat cheese? And when is the last day? I know it’s sometime this week but I’m a little dazed. I won’t be able to speak to the priest until Saturday. And I don’t trust online sources because they already taught me it’s ok to drink coffee on the day of communion, and then I discovered it wasn’t true.
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Cheese is OK until this Sunday. Not OK after Forgiveness vespers.
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Thank you so much. I’ll tell you honestly, since my baptism in 2018, I haven’t managed a single Great Lent without messing it up in some way. But this time I’m determined. Maybe I can start a recipe sharing thread on the blog.
My mother has a million great recipes because the Great Lent follows the natural cycle in our part of the world. They observed even in Soviet times when nobody went to church simply out of habit and necessity.
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PLEASE share recipes
I have like 3 fasting meals I can cook that everybody in the family likes. And then everybody gets really tired of them, even though our fasting efforts are actually pretty pathetic. I almost got through lent in good form back in… 2008 when I was still single. Since then it is complete chaos with family, pregnancies, nursing, toddlers, allergies, etc. But I feel like we could do better this year!
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Great! I’ll post photos and then we can support each other in the process. We can do it!
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And all the recipes you know that don’t have a mandatory and easily recognizable chunk of meat/fish in them have versions of various degrees of fastingness, right? Romanian cuisine works like that, and sometimes the fasting version is tastier imo.
I’m suddenly reminded of the one time I told someone to stop appropriating my culture and meant it, by the way. Was talking to this British lady who mentioned that she had tried cooking an Eastern European meal, stuffed bell peppers, and really disliked it. I try to debug what went wrong, since it’s not really a recipe that can offend anyone unless they positively hate bell peppers but then why would you cook that, and find out that she had started from the regular recipe, veganized it by removing all the animal products entirely, and also removed whatever else she didn’t have in her fridge that day I presume since she ended up boiling rice in bell peppers, not even with some tomato juice in the water or anything. This obviously tasted like socks, I took offense at this classic of British cuisine being blamed on us, she took offense at me telling her she’s doing vegan cuisine wrong, and, well, heated words ended up being said.
Now I want some monastery-style stuffed bell peppers, with forest mushrooms and everything.
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“it’s ok to drink coffee on the day of communion, and then I discovered it wasn’t true”
“If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; He gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.”
Words to live by imho.
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OK, I do feel better about it now. Thank you!
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