We’ve moved!    We are finally merging this blog with the store for one website.

Visit us at www.vscardbox.com and you can shop or read with just one click!

Or look for us on Facebook...
well, after they allow me to change my page name from Presvassi In Service and Love to V’s Cardbox Blog and Store.

Looking for this new rebranding and growing the business.

-Vassi

We've moved

We've moved. 


Stay here for old recipes, or look for new and updated posts at vscardbox.com

Passive Aggression is Aggression

I am so confused!

We had a weed and a daisy growing in a crack in the cement in front of our home. We were amazed at the tenacity of the plants to grow in such a difficult place. I was going to blog about it...

The plants represented endurance, temptations vs virtues, things we value, things that are invasive... Beauty and the Beast depending on what you nurture. And, believe it or not, if you don't weed regularly, meaning, if you aren't careful of protecting your soul, anything will grow.

Just days from blooming (I was hoping to take a picture of it for the post,) someone came and pulled both the weed and the daisy, and left them there on the concrete to whither away.

These plants were in front of our property. They were our business to tend to.

I am disappointed in my neighbor's lack of respect for my property.  

So it looks like my new post will be about personal space, jumping to conclusions and it might even lead to the evils of passive aggression and lost opportunities.

I'll let you choose. Which would you rather read about?

All of Orthodoxy Celebrates

New on the OCN website!

United Yet Not of This World

We are called to live holy lives, in the world but not worldly.  This Lenten season has been a strong reminder.   There were several times we have had to decline invitations or rearrange our schedules to allow the lenten activities to make a mark in our lives.   Extra services, changes in eating habits, and opportunities to show charity by sharing our cash, time, and talents have been our focus.

I am not accustomed to living on the Old Calendar and this year, with a very late Easter, this sense of separateness really struck home.  It almost seemed as if the world went on without us, and we were left behind.  We were picking up seasonal leftovers off the grocery shelves.  Ads that used to feature bunnies and pastels are now covered with Mother’s Day sales and summer grilling promotions.

Which explains why I was so thrilled to see a friend’s Facebook post showing a local grocery ad wishing everyone a “Happy Orthodox Easter!”   We haven’t been forgotten!

All of Orthodoxy is celebrating this weekend!  It’s not just the Greeks, the Russians, the Africans, nor the Romanians…  Everyone throughout the world who is a member of the body of Christ in the Holy Orthodox faith will be celebrating that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!... for full article click here...

Replace, Repair, Restore

I have a new post on OCN, The Cobbler’s Repairs and Lent.   It's about repairing a great pair of boots.  And it's about Lent. Actually, it's about restoration.   Here's a snippet:

"I received a pair of gray and black patent leather cowboy boots for my fortieth birthday. They were a gift from my mother-in-law. She thought cowboy boots would serve as a reminder of what American grit can accomplish and that I once lived in Colorado. I loved wearing them—that is until the heel broke. For the past few months they waited, slouched over with a detached heel, near the door to my garage waiting to catch a ride to the cobbler to be repaired."

"We need more cobblers and fewer retailers. We need more seamstresses and fewer catalogs. We need more repairing and less replacing. I imagine fewer people are experiencing Lent with prayer, fasting and almsgiving because they don’t know what it means to repair anything. Everything broken is replaced with new. We’ve lost the art of restoration, and this spills into our spiritual life."

"... if we aren’t used to repairing what is broken, if we just replace things when they are no longer a use for us, how will we make that association when we are spiritually broken? Most of us, when we are spiritually broken, just live with it. We forgive ourselves. We cry out 'No regrets!' or 'God must have had a plan.' But we are not repaired.  We are not restored."

Click here to read the full article.