a room to dine

(how did I live our first year and a half of marriage without my Nikon friend?! I never realized how bad my old pictures were until they are next to the newer ones!!)

the life of our mariemont living room

Here is our clean blank living room on our first tour of the apartment:

It started to feel a little more like home as we slowly transported furniture and wedding gifts to the apartment.  Below shows the CRAZY MESS after we returned from our honeymoon and opened the gifts ;)  Definitely a fun night!

Our first Christmas in our apartment:

Above shows one of the many rearrangements I did to the living room.  Patrick is so patient...
Below is last year's Christmas complete with a train and snow village:

More room transitions to come... and some exciting updates which will explain my sentimental posts about our first apartment in Mariemont :)

Cordon Bleu Bakeware

I love this bright colored bakeware that goes from oven to table...
on sale {here}

Psalm 96

Psalm 96:11-13

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; 

let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. 

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth."

September First

Welcome September.
Tonight I will light my pumpkin pie candle in honor of you.
So glad you finally arrived.

"The breezes taste

Of apple peel.

The air is full

Of smells to feel-

Ripe fruit, old footballs,

Burning brush,

New books, erasers,

Chalk, and such.

The bee, his hive,

Well-honeyed hum,

And Mother cuts

Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean

With suds, the days

Are polished with

A morning haze."

-   John Updike, September

Room of the Last Supper

The Upper Room is called the Cenacle which is a derivative of the Latin word cena, meaning dinner.  The Cenacle was the site of the Last Supper and most likely where the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem starting the Church.

Mark 14:12-17

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?"  And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" 

"And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; prepare for us there." 

The disciples went out and came to the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.  When it was evening He came with the twelve.

Acts 1:12-14

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.  When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.  These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu

Just outside the city of Jerusalem, the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu is located on the eastern slope of Mount Zion.  This church commemorates Peter's denial of Christ, his repentance, and his reconciliation with Christ after the Resurrection. 

Beautiful gardens surround the church and a golden rooster sits atop a black cross on the roof.  Galli-cantu actually means "cockcrow" in Latin referring to Matthew 26:34:

"Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very night, 

before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times."

All four Gospels note Peter's denial and three of the Gospels also record his bitter tears of remorse in the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas.  The Church of St. Peter was built over the ruins of a Byzantine basilica, which is believed to be on the site of the Caiaphas' house.

Matthew 26:69-75

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came to him and said, "You too were with Jesus the Galilean."  But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about."  When he had gone out to the gateway, another servant-girl saw him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth."  And again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man."  A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Surely you too are one of them; for even the way you talk gives you away."  Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know the man!" And immediately a rooster crowed.  And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, "Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

There is a dungeon underneath the church where many believe Jesus was detained the night before he was crucified.  The prisoner's cell was shaped out of bedrock and the guardroom contains fixtures to attach prisoners' chains to the wall.  As you can see in the picture below, holes in the stone would have been used to hold a prisoner's hands and feet while he was flogged.  The prisoner would have been lowered/raised into the cell through a shaft above by using a rope harness.  There is a mosaic on the side of the church that depicts Jesus in this type of harness.