Over the past few months, I have been collaborating with Patristic Nectar Kids to create feast day videos for Orthodox Families. So far we have created 10 Episodes! You can see direct links to these episodes below!

Be sure to follow @PatristicNectarKids and text “PNP” to 53-555 to become a regular donor and get access to behind-the-scenes emails from the PNP team!

Here you’ll find 10 fun ways to celebrate Ascension as a family in hopes that one of these ideas will spark some ideas for you as you live out the Liturgical Calendar. Perhaps they will become your annual tradition for each Ascension! These are not just activities for activities sake, of course. My hope is that these will aid you in sharing more about our faith with your children in a way that is developmentally appropriate, allows for their exploration and participation in the feast, and hopefully cultivate a rich soil in their hearts that allows the seed of Truth that stays with them all the days of their life.

Here’s a simple and fun activity for you to do this weekend as a family as you live Liturgically. Make “mud” brownies! I am always a fan of incorporating food into any feast day, especially for children! In addition to it being obviously yummy, it’s also a great sensory experience to help kids connect the healing element (mud) that Jesus used to heal the blind man!

As Pascha draws near, I wanted to create a printable/planner to help you stay organized for Holy Week, prepare sufficiently for attending services, and have a smooth and grace-filled Holy Week and Pascha! A little foresight and planning before Holy Week begins goes a long way so we have a heart like Mary and we can focus on the one thing needful and not be a frazzled mess like Martha running around stressed!

Living the Orthodox Faith in our modern age takes intention. I’ve created a beautiful one page (per month) printable to help simplify liturgical living with fun and easy ways to incorporate into your home.

Who doesn’t like a fun symbolic recipe to help us remember a Special Feast Day? This Cloud Jello Parfait recipes is SUPER easy and fun, and will help children remember the details of Christ’s ascension into heaven!

Here’s a simple and fun activity for you to do this weekend as a family as you live Liturgically. Make “mud” brownies! I am always a fan of incorporating food into any feast day, especially for children! In addition to it being obviously yummy, it’s also a great sensory experience to help kids connect the healing element (mud) that Jesus used to heal the blind man!

Here you’ll find 10 fun ways to celebrate Ascension as a family in hopes that one of these ideas will spark some ideas for you as you live out the Liturgical Calendar. Perhaps they will become your annual tradition for each Ascension! These are not just activities for activities sake, of course. My hope is that these will aid you in sharing more about our faith with your children in a way that is developmentally appropriate, allows for their exploration and participation in the feast, and hopefully cultivate a rich soil in their hearts that allows the seed of Truth that stays with them all the days of their life.

Here you’ll find 10 fun ways to celebrate Ascension as a family in hopes that one of these ideas will spark some ideas for you as you live out the Liturgical Calendar. Perhaps they will become your annual tradition for each Ascension! These are not just activities for activities sake, of course. My hope is that these will aid you in sharing more about our faith with your children in a way that is developmentally appropriate, allows for their exploration and participation in the feast, and hopefully cultivate a rich soil in their hearts that allows the seed of Truth that stays with them all the days of their life.

Here’s a simple and fun activity for you to do this weekend as a family as you live Liturgically. Make “mud” brownies! I am always a fan of incorporating food into any feast day, especially for children! In addition to it being obviously yummy, it’s also a great sensory experience to help kids connect the healing element (mud) that Jesus used to heal the blind man!

The sixth Sunday after Holy Pascha, the Orthodox Church designates as the Sunday of the blind man. Here you will find more about the significance of this Sunday, who is the blind man was and some activities, reading suggestions, and other ways to engage with your children to help them learn more about this day!

Living the Orthodox Faith in our modern age takes intention. I’ve created a beautiful one page (per month) printable to help simplify liturgical living with fun and easy ways to incorporate into your home.

Here you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the Nativity of St John the baptist as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share his story and what this feast is all about!

Do you struggle with what fast-friendly meals to make for breakfast, lunch and snacks? I created a cheat sheet and meal planner to help lighten the mental load of thinking of easy and diverse fasting options. This freebie is a companion to the Apostles’ Fast Plan (available in the shop) but can also be used on its own. My hope is to lighten the load this Apostles’ fast, so you can spend less time thinking about what you are going to cook, and spend more time in prayer and participating in the divine services and fasting.

Orthodox All Saints Party Packet - Download

If you're looking for some fun ideas to celebrate Orthodox All Saints Days, check out this 11 page digital download to host an All Saints Day Party? In this packet you will find:

~ Saint game ideas and Charades/Pictionary Paper Slips

~ Blank food labels or name tags

~ All About my Saint Banner

~ Saint themed recipe ideas

~ EASY costumes ideas for common Orthodox saints and more!

This is a free download

Here you’ll find some unique and fun ideas to celebrate All Saints Day as a family. Now you may have heard of All Saints Day celebrated in the West right after Halloween. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, this day is set apart in June, right after Pentecost. Seeing as this feast day falls on a Sunday, I was to be conscious of your time and energy. I have chosen some activities that I think are fun and simple and can easily be incorporated into your afternoon or evening on this feast day. I love any excuse or opportunity to learn more about the righteous Saints that have gone before us!

A simple one page guide to pair down this Liturgical season into “bite sized” portions. Let’s set our focus more on what the Church is offering us, and if you have extra capacity, here are a few ideas to help you engage in your home this month.

Here’s a simple and fun activity for you to do this weekend as a family as you live Liturgically. Make “mud” brownies! I am always a fan of incorporating food into any feast day, especially for children! In addition to it being obviously yummy, it’s also a great sensory experience to help kids connect the healing element (mud) that Jesus used to heal the blind man!

Here are 6 guidelines that may help to establish a “liturgy” in your home for celebrating this beautiful day. Honoring your patron saint on your Name’s Day is a rich practice that draws you closer to your patron. A Name Day as an Orthodox Christian is comparable the joy of a birthday celebration. At birthdays we celebrate ourselves, but a Name Day we honor, reflect, pray, and strive to emulate a saint. All saints are worthy of emulating, but your Patron Saint is unique.

St Elizabeth the New Martyr is a beloved saint celebrated throughout the world, and we would consider her to be a modern-day saint as she was canonized into the Orthodox Church in by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church in 1992. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St Elizabeth the New Martyr as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share his story and what this feast is all about!

Over the past few months, I have been collaborating with Patristic Nectar Kids to create feast day videos for Orthodox Families. So far we have created 10 Episodes! You can see direct links to these episodes below!

Be sure to follow @PatristicNectarKids and text “PNP” to 53-555 to become a regular donor and get access to behind-the-scenes emails from the PNP team!

St Irene is a wonderworker who had the gift of foresight. Many more miracles occur at her burial site, and many prayers for St. Irene's intercessions are continually answered. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St Irene - including the tradition of the blessing of apples! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, and additional information so you can share his story so together you can grow to love her even more!

St Marina is a great martyr who endured many trials and tortures and was killed for her faith under the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305). She is also known to have overcome the devil, and is often depicted beating a demon in her icons. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St Marina with your kids - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, and additional information so you can share his story so together you can grow to love her even more!

St Elizabeth the New Martyr is a beloved saint celebrated throughout the world, and we would consider her to be a modern-day saint as she was canonized into the Orthodox Church in by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church in 1992. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St Elizabeth the New Martyr as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share his story and what this feast is all about!

Check out this simple one page guide to pair down this month’s saints into “bite sized” portions. I know it can be overwhelming to keep up with all the Liturgical happenings. Let this put your mind at ease. We can set our focus more on what the Church is offering us by staying in line with the liturgical calendar, and if you have extra capacity, I’ve provided some simple ideas to help you engage in your home this month.

St John Maximovitch is a beloved saint celebrated throughout the world, and we would consider him to be a modern-day saint as he was canonized into the Orthodox Church in 1994 in San Fransisco, California, USA by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the the Feast of St John Maximovitch as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share his story and what this feast is all about!

The beheading of St John the Baptist is a strict fasting day. His feast day is always observed with strict fasting, and in addition, many pious Orthodox Christians will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat round food on this day. Why? It’s to help us remember the story of St John’s beheading, as his head was served on a platter and given to Herodias’ daughter, according to the Scriptures. By avoiding a knife, plate, and round things, we are avoiding serving anything that resembles a head on a platter. The challenge itself reminds us of the story, and since it’s a solemn feast, we fast on this day.

All of my favorite feast day traditions have some food-related theme to them. St Phanourios, or the baking of the phanouropita, is one of my absolute favotires and just so happens to feast day tradition that sparked my love for learning more about the cultural food traditions celebrated throughout the world! This year, we had the joy of serving phanouropita for coffee hour!

Have you ever heard of St. Phanourios, the patron saint of lost things? St Phanourios is known in the Orthodox Church as a saint who helps people find lost or stolen items. We can ask the Saints for help! We ask St. Phanourios to help us find whatever we lost, and when we find it, we bake a cake and share it with friends and loved ones as a way of giving thanks. This special tradition comes from Greece and the special olive oil citrus cake is called “Phanouropita!” In this blogpost, I am sharing the recipe for a simple baked phanouropita donut, which is ideal for sharing with others, an important element in the tradition!

St Phanourios is considered the patron saint of lost things. In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the feast of St Phanourios with your kids - including feast day traditions, activity suggestions, book recommendations, and additional information so you can share his story so together you can grow to love him even more!

As I was preparing for the feast of Holy Transfiguration (August 6), I had a brilliant idea to create a “Light of Christ” Night Light! This is a simple project just about anyone can do! Check out this blogpost for simple instructions and links to purchase anything you see here!

Holy Transfiguration is always celebrated on August 6th and is one of the 12 Great Feasts in the Orthodox Church. It is when we remember in Luke 9 & Matthew 19, when Jesus took Peter, John, and James and up on a mountain to pray, and as He prayed, He was transfigured before them. Feast Day Tradition: On this feast day, in many churches, the faithful will bring grapes or other fruit/vegetables to be blessed. It’s a beautiful reminder of the final transfiguration of all things in Christ where all of creation will be transformed by the Glory of the Lord.

These monthly guides simplify and streamline the Church Year into one-page, beautiful printable.

The Dormition Fast is the final fasting season in the Liturgical year. It is one of the four canonical fasting periods of the Orthodox Church year. The duration of the Dormition Fast is always August 1-14th, concluding on the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15th). As we recognize this significant shift in our liturgical calendar, I wanted to provide resources and ideas in this guide to help guide you and your families. May this be a fruitful season for us all!

In the Orthodox Christian church, we spend approximately 180 - 200 days fasting in a year. The Church has given us fasting as a tool for salvation and acquiring the mindset of Christ. St. John of Kronstadt states, “They [fasting and prayer] cleanse us from sin, they lead us to spiritual peace, to union with God, to sonship, to boldness before God.” Fasting is not something to dread, on the contrary, it’s something to help our spiritual life and help us draw closer to God.

But, what about fasting as a family with young children, a pregnant or nursing mother, and a father who all may need to fast differently? These circumstances add an element to fasting that is unique to some seasons of life. What do the Church fathers say concerning fasting and family life? Why are pregnant and nursing mothers often given a less strict fasting rule? 

Over the past few months, I have been collaborating with Patristic Nectar Kids to create feast day videos for Orthodox Families. So far we have created 10 Episodes! You can see direct links to these episodes below!

Be sure to follow @PatristicNectarKids and text “PNP” to 53-555 to become a regular donor and get access to behind-the-scenes emails from the PNP team!

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of feast days, saint days, fasting periods, etc. So my hope with these monthly printables is to pair it down for you. Let’s make a goal to learn about ONE saint this month, and do ONE activity this month related to a featured saint. Throughout the month, learn ONE hymn by singing it together every day, or as often as you can. And lastly, intentionally carve out time to create a strong family culture in your home (in the Family Corner section).

The beheading of St John the Baptist is a strict fasting day. His feast day is always observed with strict fasting, and in addition, many pious Orthodox Christians will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat round food on this day. Why? It’s to help us remember the story of St John’s beheading, as his head was served on a platter and given to Herodias’ daughter, according to the Scriptures. By avoiding a knife, plate, and round things, we are avoiding serving anything that resembles a head on a platter. The challenge itself reminds us of the story, and since it’s a solemn feast, we fast on this day.

In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the feast of St Phanourios with your kids - including feast day traditions, activity suggestions, book recommendations, and additional information so you can share his story so together you can grow to love him even more!

Here’s an idea for you to celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Theokotos. Consider hosting a Dormition tea in honor of the Theokotos! This can be done before or after the feast - so you’ll need to adjust the menu depending on if it’s fasting or not.

In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the Nativity of the Theotokos as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share her story and what this feast is all about!

The first day of the Church New Year in the Orthodox Church is September 1st. According to Holy Tradition, Christ entered the synagogue on September 1 to announce His mission to mankind (Luke 4:16-22). In this guide, I will share a little more about the significance of this day, some activities, reading suggestions, and other ways to engage with your family or community.

These monthly guides simplify and streamline the Church Year into one-page, beautiful printable.

Over the past few months, I have been collaborating with Patristic Nectar Kids to create feast day videos for Orthodox Families. So far we have created 10 Episodes! You can see direct links to these episodes below!

Be sure to follow @PatristicNectarKids and text “PNP” to 53-555 to become a regular donor and get access to behind-the-scenes emails from the PNP team!

In this guide you’ll find simple and easy ideas to celebrate the Nativity of the Theotokos as a family - emphasis on easy! Activity suggestions, book recommendations, song links, and additional information so you can share her story and what this feast is all about!

The first day of the Church New Year in the Orthodox Church is September 1st. According to Holy Tradition, Christ entered the synagogue on September 1 to announce His mission to mankind (Luke 4:16-22). In this guide, I will share a little more about the significance of this day, some activities, reading suggestions, and other ways to engage with your family or community.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of feast days, saint days, fasting periods, etc. So my hope with these monthly printables is to pair it down for you. Let’s make a goal to learn about ONE saint this month, and do ONE activity this month related to a featured saint. Throughout the month, learn ONE hymn by singing it together every day, or as often as you can. And lastly, intentionally carve out time to create a strong family culture in your home (in the Family Corner section).

5 Ways to Embrace Christ this Nativity Fast, following the Church as our guide!

Did you know that Chrysostom means "golden mouth"? Check out this super easy feast day tradition of making the "golden mouth milk" for the feast of St John Chrysostom! Easy and healthy and one that you can pull together with items you probably already have on hand!

Over the past several years, I have been on the hunt for an Orthodox Nativity set for my family. One of my biggest hold ups when searching for sets is majority of the sets on the market have the common “barn” manger scene, which isn’t entirely accurate. I’ve been on the search for the traditional “Cave” scene. This year, we found it! We added this BRAND NEW Wooden Icon Nativity Set by Orthodox Design Company to our collection and when I opened the packaged, I squealed and did a happy dance! It’s a dream to have this heirloom Nativity set that is not only beautiful, but durable and interactive for my children!

St Peter the Aleut is an Alaskan martyr who was killed in California during the establishment of the Spanish missions in 1815. We have learned more about St Peter over the years, but this year we wanted to do something to honor his feast day! Check out this simple feast day tradition to honor to Peter the Aleut!

Living the Orthodox Faith in our modern age takes intention. I’ve created a beautiful one page (per month) printable to help simplify liturgical living with fun and easy ways to incorporate into your home. Bundle and Save!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May the remembrance of our Lord’s incarnation life your spirits and cause your hearts to rejoice! Christ is born, glorify Him!

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of feast days, saint days, fasting periods, etc. So my hope with these monthly printables is to pair it down for you. Let’s make a goal to learn about ONE saint this month, and do ONE activity this month related to a featured saint. Throughout the month, learn ONE hymn by singing it together every day, or as often as you can. And lastly, intentionally carve out time to create a strong family culture in your home (in the Family Corner section).

5 Ways to Embrace Christ this Nativity Fast, following the Church as our guide!

Over the past several years, I have been on the hunt for an Orthodox Nativity set for my family. One of my biggest hold ups when searching for sets is majority of the sets on the market have the common “barn” manger scene, which isn’t entirely accurate. I’ve been on the search for the traditional “Cave” scene. This year, we found it! We added this BRAND NEW Wooden Icon Nativity Set by Orthodox Design Company to our collection and when I opened the packaged, I squealed and did a happy dance! It’s a dream to have this heirloom Nativity set that is not only beautiful, but durable and interactive for my children!

Living the Orthodox Faith in our modern age takes intention. I’ve created a beautiful one page (per month) printable to help simplify liturgical living with fun and easy ways to incorporate into your home. Bundle and Save!

Do you know that Jan 1 is the feast day for St Basil? If you're looking for a way to ring in the civil new year, look no further than the Vasilopita tradition! Vasilopita, is a sweet bread or cake with a coin baked inside. DOWNLOAD FREE RECIPE HERE.

The 12 days of Christmas is the period that marks the span between the birth of Christ (Nativity) December 25 and runs up to January 6 Theophany (Epiphany) which is when we celebrate Christ's baptism in the Jordan! These 12 days in between offers the faithful a festal period of great joy!

As Orthodox Christians, we mark the 40 days Advent leading up to the Nativity as a period of fasting, increased prayer, and giving alms and services in order to preparing ourselves spiritually to receive the coming Lord.

After any fast, we feast! Christmas is not a one day event! In fact, we spend this period of time FEASTING in all senses of the word ... celebrating with loved ones, enjoying the all the foods we have abstained from, and joyously celebrating the Lord who is with us 🎉

The 12 days of Christmas is the period that marks the span between the birth of Christ (Nativity) December 25 and runs up to January 6 Theophany (Epiphany) which is when we celebrate Christ's baptism in the Jordan! These 12 days in between offers the faithful a festal period of great joy!

For this challenge, I encourage you to find one thing per day that helps cultivate family culture in your home, create family bonds and glorify God in your family. Carve out time intentionally and find things you all enjoy together! As a visual aid, I created a printable to help you enjoy these days in a sustainable way.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! May the remembrance of our Lord’s incarnation life your spirits and cause your hearts to rejoice! Christ is born, glorify Him!

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of feast days, saint days, fasting periods, etc. So my hope with these monthly printables is to pair it down for you. Let’s make a goal to learn about ONE saint this month, and do ONE activity this month related to a featured saint. Throughout the month, learn ONE hymn by singing it together every day, or as often as you can. And lastly, intentionally carve out time to create a strong family culture in your home (in the Family Corner section).