Angel Biscuts Continued

Isn't this amazing? I love reading about Martyrs

9 Kherkheulidze Brothers with their Mother and Sister and Nine Thousand Martyrs of Marabda

Commemorated on August 3

      On the Feast of the Annunciation in the year 1625, the Georgians annihilated the army of the Persian shah Abbas I in the Battle of Martqopi. The victory unified Georgia's eastern provinces of Kartli and Kakheti. It also instilled hope in other enslaved peoples of the Transcaucasus, and rebellions began to break out everywhere.
      Soon the enraged Shah Abbas marched his finest and largest army toward Georgia under the leadership of Isa-Khan Qurchibash. A Georgian army of some twenty thousand men encamped near Kojori-Tabakhmela in preparation for the attack, while the enemy's army, which numbered in excess of fifty thousand men, encamped at Marabda. According to tradition, the Georgian soldiers received Holy Communion at dawn before the battle.
      Bishop Domenti (Avalishvili) of Ruisi prepared to serve the Holy Gifts to the soldiers but they cried out with a single voice: "If you will join us and take up your sword and fight, then do so. We can receive Holy Communion from another!"

      Inspired by these words, the bishop joined in, proclaiming, "Today we will fight a battle for faith and for Christ; therefore my blood must be spilled before yours!" With his vestments as armor, the bishop blessed the soldiers and took his place in the front line.
      The banner of the Georgian army was entrusted to the nine Kherkheulidze brothers.
      The Persians panicked upon coming face-to-face with the courage and fortitude of the Georgian soldiers, but the experienced commander Isa-Khan Qurchibash would not yield in battle. Help arrived from Beglerbeg Shaybani-Khan, and with the extra forces the Persians soon gained the advantage over the Georgian army. The Georgian colonel Teimuraz Mukhranbatoni was fatally wounded, and rumors of his death threw the soldiers into a frenzy, since they erroneously believed that the dead man was King Teimuraz I of Kakheti, the commander of their army.
      Believing that their leader had fallen, the Georgian soldiers became anxious and their army was enfeebled. Before long they recognized their mistake, but it was too late—the fate of the battle had already been decided.
      The military leaders Davit Jandieri, Aghatang Kherkheulidze and Baadur Tsitsishvili and the bishops of Rustavi and Kharchasho all fell in the battle at Marabda. The nine banner-bearing Kherkheulidze brothers were also killed. When the banner that had led their army through the battles at Didgori and Basiani fell from the hands of the youngest brother, their sister grabbed hold of it immediately, and when she also fell, the banner and symbol of Georgian invincibility was raised up again by their mother.
      King Teimuraz fought until sunset, when every sword he had held in his hands had been broken. Even his rings were broken in the combat. The uniform of the brilliant military leader Giorgi Saakadze was stained with blood from top to bottom. Atabeg Manuchar of Samtskhe and his sons also fought bravely in this battle.
      Utterly exhausted and debilitated by the heat, the Georgians fought heroically to the last moment. But the battle that had begun at dawn finally ended late that night with the defeat of the Georgian army. Nine thousand Georgians gave their lives for Christ and their motherland on the battlefield at Marabda.

© 2006 St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood

See Ya in the Morning....

My Angel Biscuit dough is mixed and ready for morning. Can't wait. I haven't made them for so long and they are awesome!

Isn't this a beautiful image of the Dormition from over at St. Theophany Acedemy?

Too Cute

My husband just told me this conversation that he had with our nearly 6 year old son after my husband washed the dog whom I dont allow on the furniture-
"Daddy, do you think Smokey can come up on the chair and sit with me?"
"No Mason, mommy wouldn't like that."
"Yeah, she would kill me. Well, she wouldn't really kill me dad, that's just an impression."
Isn't that cute. Well that he said impression not that he said I would kill him. I really don't like that.

All Tuckered Out

He getting so big. He looks so long here

Hi I'm Enjoying the Weather

What a way to spend a beautiful day!

Look what we did while baby Manny slept in the car.

Manny at Sandcastle

Isnt he cute? The other 2 wouldn't let me take their pictures. Mason doesn't like picts at all. They all had so much fun. Manny loved the slide and Marlee loved the wave pool. I got very sunburned. After putting sunscreen on them I forgot about myself! Thanks again to Grammy Georgia for coming along. She does love the water so it's not hard to convince her.

A Few Simple Lines in a Song Can Mean So Much!

I LOVE this song.  I listen to it when I need a moment of peace and know that God is always with me.
I wish I knew about the awesome Christian bands when I was young. 
We are all made new in Christ!  And I know I desperatey need Him!
Please push pause on the playlist on the side so you can hear this awesome song.

What I'm Reading

Estate Sale Find

This is yesterday's great find at an estate sale. A huge 8 cup glass Pyrex measuring cup/bowl for $1!

I Love Trucks!

The Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God

      The Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God is among the most venerable sacred items of the Russian Church. It is reknown throughout all the Slavic world: they venerate it in Russia, in Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and other places. Christians also of other confessions come for veneration of the wonderworking image of the MostHoly Mother of God, alongside the Orthodox. At the Pochaev Lavra, an ancient rampart of Orthodoxy, the wonderworking icon has resided about 400 years. (The account about the transfer of the icon to the Pochaev monastery is located under 8 September). The miracles, which issued forth from the holy icon, are numerous and are testified to in the monastery books with the inscriptions of the faithful, who with prayer have met with deliverance from unclean spirits, liberation from captivity, and sinners brought to their senses. 

      The celebration in honour of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God on 23 July was established in memory of the deliverance Uspenie-Dormition Lavra monastery from a Turkish siege on 20-23 July 1675.

      In the Summer of 1675 during the time of the Zbarazhsk War with the Turks, during the reign of the Polish king Jan Sobesski (1674-1696), regiments composed of Tatars under the command of khan Nurredin via Vishnevets fell upon the Pochaev monastery, surrounding it on three sides. The weak monastery walls, just like some of the stone buildings of the monastery, did not offer much defense against a siege. The hegumen Iosif Dobromirsky urged the brethren and laypeople to turn themselves to Heavenly intercessors: to the MostHoly Mother of God and the Monk Job of Pochaev (Comm. 28 October). The monks and the laypeople prayed fervently, prostrating themselves before the wonderworking image of the Mother of God and the reliquary with the relics of the Monk Job. On the morning of 23 July with the rising of the sun, as the Tatars were holding a final meeting about an assault on the monastery, the hegumen ordered the singing of an akathist to the Mother of God. With the first words, "O Queen of the Heavenly Hosts", suddenly there appeared over the church the MostHoly Mother of God Herself, in "an unfurled gleaming-white omophor", with heavenly angels holding unsheathed swords. The Monk Job was beside the Mother of God, bowing to Her and beseeching the defense of the monastery. The Tatars took the heavenly army for an apparition, and in confusion they began to shoot arrows at the MostHoly Mother of God and the Monk Job, but the arrows fell backwards and wounded those who shot them. Terror seized the enemy. In a flight of panic and without looking, they trampled upon and killed each other. The defenders of the monastery attempted pursuit and took many prisoner. Some of the prisoners afterwards accepted the Christian faith and remained at the monastery thereafter.
      In the year 1721 Pochaev was occupied by Uniates. But even in this difficult time for the Lavra, the monastery chronicle notes 539 miracles from the glorified Orthodox sacred image. During the time of the Uniate rule in the 2nd half of the XVIII Century, for example, the Uniate nobleman count Nicholas Pototski became a benefactor of the Pochaev Lavra through the following miraculous circumstance. Having accused his coachman for overturning the carriage with frenzied horses, the count took out a pistol to shoot him. The coachman, turning towards Pochaev Hill, reached his hands upwards and cried out: "Mother of God, manifest in the Pochaev Icon, save me!" Pototski several times tried to shoot the pistol, which had never let him down, but the weapon misfired. The coachman remained alive. Pototski then immediately set off to the wonderworking icon and decided to devote himself and all his property to the building-up of the monastery. From his wealth was built the Uspenie-Dormition cathedral and buildings for the brethren.
      The return of Pochaev into the bosom of Orthodoxy in 1832 was marked by the miraculous healing of the blind maiden Anna Akimchukova, who had come on pilgrimage to the holy things together with her 70 year old grandmother, from Kremenets-Podol'sk 200 versts away. In memory of this event, the Volynia archbishop and Lavra archimandrite Innokentii (1832-1840) established weekly on Saturdays the reading of the cathedral akathist before the wonderworking icon. During the time of the rule of the Lavra by archimandrite Agathangel, archbishop of Volynia (1866-1876), there was constructed a separate chapel in the galleries of the Holy Trinity church in memory of the victory over the Tatars, which was dedicated on 23 July 1875.

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

Homemade Peach Handpies

These came out so good.
Yesterday I got a bunch of white flesh peaches from a local farm-Simmons Farm- and they were so good but you can only eat so many fresh peaches before they go bad so I decided to made little peach Handpies rather than a big pie. I'm a big fan of crust I like about equal crust to filling. So anyhow I used my favorite crust recipe, rolled it into 5 circles, added the filling, flipped and crimpted them, brushed them with egg white and sprinkled with raw sugar. Oh they are so wonderful all the children loved them, even those who wouldn't normally touch a peach and complained I didn't make apple filling.
For the filling I boiled water and dropped in 5 peaches for a few mins then dropped them in cold water. The skins pealed off nicely. Next I pitted them and cut up, more like diced them so that you never had to bite through a peach slice in the filling- the kids liked that. Then I added some raw sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and corn starch and gently stirred. When I put it in the dough/ little under a half cup- I added a few pieces of cut butter. Then just folded over, sealed and brushed as mentioned above. I baked at 400 for 10 mins then turned it down to 350 till slightly browned. I baked them on a stoneware cookie sheet with parchment paper. Easy clean up and no sticking.

Berry Muffins

I forgot to post these the other morning. You can make them with any fruit I'm sure. This morning I made them with wild raspberries and they were awesome. I usually make them with blueberries. I also added some unsweetened coconut on a few of them in the front row on top of the crumb mixture. I will try and post the recipe soon.

This is the Thingie- lol

This is the thing I was referring to in the previous post - melt in your mouth chicken. See how it keeps the chicken elevated so that it doesn't lay in the juices and get soggy it just hovers above and stays nice and moist but a little crispy.

Melt in Your Mouth Chicken

No kidding. This chicken is breaded, fried, then baked and is like butter! It's a variation on what my mom makes and we call "party chicken".
What you do is cut up your chicken- she uses tenders but I changed it up and used boneless, skinless thighs because my oldest daughter got spacers put in and her teeth are sore- anyhow you do the usual breadcrumb then milk/egg back to the breadcrumb again breading then I lightly fried them if Safflower oil and put them in my new Le Creuset pot raised on one of those thingies that keep your meat from laying on the bottom so that I can put some water in to keep the chicken moist and also let the excess oil drip down
I baked it for about an hour and 350 covered and they love it.