Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy...

Does this turtleneck make my neck look fat?

My Guys!

So this may only account for 50% of the men in my life, but ... Here there are, Asher and Elias. Asher has been asking lately about "his" glasses. Being that everything his big brother does, has, wants, likes, dislikes, must be the way things go for him as well, he was wanting some glasses too. I happened to find these and the fact that they have no lenses makes them harmless for his perfectly great eyesight. I think they fit his personality, don't you?

My website is up and running! Know any pregnant women in East Tennessee? Send them to LoveYourLabor.com

Love to all,

Jodi

Much Ado...

So, when you post as infrequently as I do there tends to be quite a pile-up of events and happenings.

My dear Papa has gone to heaven, only a couple weeks before his 85th birthday. He died on September 11th and I miss him. I know we live far away from "the farm", but knowing he's not there changes things. We all gathered for the funeral. It truly was the first time we had all been together like that since my wedding in January 1999. All, except Papa. Here are a few pictures of the family and one of Papa the week before he died. The kind folks at his dialysis center had a bit of a party for those celebrating their birthday's in September.

Blessings!

Jodi

The Boys!

Life is always interesting with three boys and two dogs. Yes, you read correctly, two dogs. We now have puppies, Kenai and Koda, brother and sister. I will post some pix soon. They are cute and have added quite a bit of work to Mom's day! Try having two more babies to take care of. They have been on a trial period and are slowly gaining my approval. Frankly, the more time I spend with them and work on their training, the better they get.

This is just a quick post to get some new pix up of the boys.

This is where Hayden slept on our trip to Ottawa, and YES, that IS a SUITCASE. WOW! What a great trip! It was so nice to be amongst friends and new acquaintances for the purpose of spiritual growth and edification! Justin gave a great concert and had some fabulous sessions with the youth. Hayden and I got to sit in on several of the adult sessions.



Asher and Elias sporting their new South Dakota T-shirts from Nanny and Poppy and playing T-Ball with the set Elias got for his birthday.


And here is Daddy doing dishes with a little stow-away! Isn't Justin quite the domestic male, carrying the baby around while doing chores. Shortly after I took this photo Hayden fell asleep! He regularly falls asleep in the backpack when I wear him. Yesterday I vaccuumed the entire house while wearing him on my back. He was sound asleep by the time I finished. It is an easy way to amuse him while I get things done, but not so easy on my back!

I pray you all are well! I will not promise to post more tomorrow, but it is always my goal to keep our blog fresh with news of the family and photos of the boys as they are changing so quickly these days!

Blessings!

Jodi

Ancient Faith Radio

Please Visit:

www.AncientFaithRadio.com

Blessings,

Fr. Justin

Asher does actually know how to use his chopsticks the "right" way. He makes a pretty cute bug too, though!

Here is "little" Hayden. He is getting chubby! He really is a happy baby and generally low-maintenance.

The boys are standing by their "digging hole." This is where Justin and I tore out ivy that was overtaking the side of the house and the back door into the kitchen. The boys didn't make it out of their PJs today, as you can see. They threw on socks and shoes to run outside to their hole. Nice fashion statement don't you think (especially on Asher's part ... very European!).

One not-so-great pic of the house. I will snap a few recent ones in the next couple of days! I finished priming the kitchen today! Whew! Next is painting the kitchen, then priming and painting Hayden's room ... If I have the energy!

Cheers to you all!

Jodi

This is how we left SVS, our HOME for three years--in the presence of some of our dear friends. This picture reminds me of the lovely. godly people we are blessed to know because of our time at seminary. These friendshps were worth the hard times spent at SVS. We love and miss you all!


Three "men" in a bed? Hayden likes to get in Elias' bed with the starry sky canopy. It is an even bigger treat when his two big brothers are enjoying the view with him.


Our first TN hike. We went to Frozen Head State Park and hiked in a mile to a waterfall. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you are only 3 and almost 5 it seemed like quite a feat. Justin found a crawdad in the pond below the waterfall and the boys got a kick out of touching and holding it. They are becoming quite the adventurers.

We are enjoying our new "home." Justin and I regularly end the day by sitting on the porch swing after the kids go to bed and watching the dear graze in the backyard! The birds are plentiful. So far we have seen Robins, cardinals, house finches, blue jays, goldfinches, house sparrows, crows, and black-capped chickadees in the yard and frequenting the bird feeders outside the kitchen window. The boys are having fun chasing the groundhogs, rabbits and squirrels. We have also discovered the small farmer's market in town and we can even walk to it from the house. This will be a treat since starting our own garden this summer has taken a backrow seat to actually unpacking the house! I will have to snap some photos of our progress soon.

Blessings to all!

Jodi

New Hayden photos

Click here for more Hayden photos from the last couple days!

There is a good picture of Fr. Steven Beloncik and the family after the 8th day Naming Prayers from this afternoon.

Blessings,
FJM

Hayden photos

For all of you who have been asking... Click here.

Hayden Innocent Mathews is born!

Hayden was born on April 21st, 2007 at 12:53am at home. He is 8 lbs 15 oz. and 21 inches long! We are thanking God for a perfect little baby boy and a healthy mommy! More to come...

With love,
FJM

The Velo SoleX in Action!

Restoring the Velo SoleX!

As some of you may know I am working on restoring a Velo Solex like the one pictured above (yes that is a french priest riding his velo solex in a cassock!). I have uploaded some photos of the restoration progress starting with a few pictures from today when, with the help of a Solex expert named Brian, I finally got it up and running. It was perfect!!

The photos can be found on www.flickr.com/photos/jmorthodox/sets

Last week I ordered and replaced the unique 1.75 X 19" Solex tires and tubes. After trying for 2 hours to get the new tires on the rims I decided to make a trip to the bike shop in Yonkers for some other tools and a special tire wrench to help pry the new tires onto the rims - very hard!

Today we cleaned out the old corroded carbon and oil from the gas tank and the fuel lines (this required carberator cleaner and rubbing alcohol with a lot of time and a long paperclip), replaced the fuel filter in the bottom of the gas tank and at the air intake before the gas return line, and replced a gasket and diaphram from the guts of the fuel pump. Next we tightened some brake lines, fixed some springs (on the light switch and on the choke/frontbrake mechanism). Once all of this was done it ran beautifully and I got to ride it around for the first time! It was much quiter than I expected.

Anyone interested in more info on the velo SoleX start here:
http://solexin.free.fr/us/index.html
or here:
http://solexin.free.fr/us/history/histo/index.html

The solex is not only a more ecomomical way to travel to and from my parish and around town but since it gets over 100 miles per gallon I can do my small part to reduce our family's environmental impact. (not much but its a start...)

A friend at the seminary gave me a wonderful wicker 2 bottle wine basket with a wicker hinged top for the rear rack and I plan to get some other accessories as I can afford them over the years (leather vintage Solex saddle bags, Solexine spare gas can for longer rides, a Solex tool kit and bike pump that mount under the rear carrier rack, original 3800 Solex rear light lens, etc.)

Its not 500 lbs Triumph like Jodi's brother's got but hey a priest in a cassock just wouldn't look very cool on that.

Enjoy!
FJM

Jodi tries to induce labor

Hey folks,

Hayden's due date was yetserday. Jodi has been... well waiting... I think she's done waiting. We're off to the natural history museum with the kids for a distraction but this morning I caught thie gem of a video as we were getting ready!

click here or copy and paste this in your browser:
www.justinmathews.com/Blog/Jodi.mov

Blessings,
FJM

O Life Immortal!

Troparion - Tone 2

When Thou didst descend to death, O Life Immortal,
Thou didst slay hell with the splendor of Thy Godhead,
and when from the depths Thou didst raise the dead,
all the Powers of Heaven cried out,
O Giver of Life, Christ our God, glory to Thee!

Feast of the Annunciation celebrates a Proud Mary

My friend Fr. Alixis Vinogradov sent me this link to a great NPR commentator speaking on the feast of the Annunciation and Mary.

Click here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9145469

Happy Birthday ASHER!!

Well, our little Asher John is now 3!! It is hard for me to believe that he is moving from being our baby to being our little boy. The big day was actually on the 9th, but I am just now getting around to posting some pix. We were headed out of town the weekend of his birthday so we decided to keep the partying simple. It actually ended up being a blast to have our little family celebration. We got up that Friday morning and Justin ran out to Dunkin Donuts and got some yummy chocolate frosted donuts. He occupied the boys while I arranged them into a lovely donut pyramid with THREE very tall candles atop. We sang "Happy Birthday" and he was delighted to blow out the candles on his tower of donuts. We ate our fill of donuts and milk (and D&D coffee for Mom and Dad) and then we opened presents. It was stress-free and we got to stay in our pajamas. Could this be a new tradition in kids' birthdays? I sure hope so. Here are a couple snapshots of Asher on his big day.


SAY CHEESE!


Here you can see the remnants of his chocolate donut feast!


AARRRGH! A pirate's life for me!

Love to all,

Jodi

TENNESSEE!!

Well, the good news is we have a contract on a house ... The bad news is that we can't move tomorrow. Honestly, I will be doing my best to make the most of what little time we have left here at St. Vlads. Our friendships and deep spiritual and familial growth have been worth these past three years. Our house is great, or at least Justin keeps telling me. No really, it looks fabulous from the photos I have seen. You see, he spent most of last week visiting in person many of the places we had been viewing in cyberspace. And with the help of our delightful "Southern" real estate agent, he accomplished the great feat of scouting out and buying a house for his family without his wife ever stepping foot on the property. My greatest assurance in all this is first, that God is in control of this move. It also helps to know that Justin is actually probably more picky about his environment than I am. However, the nesting bug has a death grip on me right now and I am looking forward to my own space!

Speaking of nesting, I am five weeks out from my due date and am getting anxious to meet this next little guy! We are still praying about a name for him. We honestly are having a hard time coming up with it. Perhaps we will just have to see him to know what to call him!

Also, this week my "baby" Asher is turning three!! He keeps reminding me that he isn't a "little guy" anymore. Here are my little men with the Tennessee shirts Justin brought them and here is their Mom with a very large belly!

Love to you all!

Jodi

SNOW, SNOW, GO AWAY!!

Just when I had decided I hated winter and wanted nothing to do with it anymore, it SNOWED. Yes, a few days ago we got our first real snow that you can actually play in and I hope it is our last. We did make a snow Mom and her baby with the help of some of the neighbor kiddos! Here's a pick of her and my guys with fresh haircuts!

Today, on the other hand, was beautiful! it was in the mid 40s and sunny! We even rode bkes on the patio. Bring on the SUN and the SPRING!!

Big Rig!

Well thank God that Phil didn't see his shadow today. We are sick of what I call "ugly winter." You know what I'm talking about--freezing temperatures, grey skies, high winds, but no SNOW. Nothing white and fluffy to soften the landscape of leafless trees and brown foliage, nothing to play in or build with, nothing to make it worth your while to venture out into the cold. We have yet to see snow that doesn't rise above the dead blades of grass. So, bring on the Spring! Snow has had its chance with us and we have given up on seeing it this winter.

Here are the boys taking turns driving Aidan's remote-controlled semi truck. They had a blast managing this "big rig."

Blessings to all!

Jodi