Happy Name Day - to me!

Today is the feast day of my patron saint, St. Marina the Great Martyr (a.k.a. St. Margaret of Antioch). One of my favorite stories about her life was that the devil appeared to her in the form of a dragon and swallowed her whole. She then used the cross (in some stories, she was holding a cross, in others she made the sign of the cross) to cause the dragon's belly to burst and release her! For this reason she is considered the patron saint of childbirth. I also just noticed she's considered the patron saint for kidney patients. I don't know why. But, I'll have to mention that to my friend J. Here are the Troparian and Kontakian to St. Marina:

Troparion tone 5
O glorious Marina betrothed to God the Word,
thou didst abandon all things earthly
and contest victoriously as a virgin.
For thou didst trample
on the invisible foe when he appeared,
O holy trophy-bearer,
and thou dost now bestow gifts of healing on the world.

Kontakion tone 3
Adorned with the beauty of virginity,
thou hast been crowned with unfading wreaths, O Marina.
Having shed thy blood in holy martyrdom
and radiant with miracles of healing,
thou hast received the prize of victory from the hand of thy Creator.

I just finished this layout of a photo I took of the girls back in January. They both decided to use the potty together - since Maura was only one year old at the time, it was basically the beginning of her potty training. It's the sort of layout I know they'll hate me for when they are teenagers, but this time in our life still deserves to be documented. I used about 4 of my friend Christine's kits to make this layout, but I think all the pieces come together nicely.

This week Emmelia's class finishes up their two-week "Cooking Camp." Last week they toured Pizza Hut and got to make their own pizzas (a HUGE hit!) and on another day made their own ice cream sundaes. Today they visited a local buffet restaurant to see how the kitchens operate. I'm sure that was a lot of fun - I can't wait to hear about it. Emmelia loves to cook, so this unit was right up her alley.